Good Morning,

Let’s start with a good laugh this morning: Obama wants Europeans to use his bankruptcy plan to hold Europe together until after the election. The world leader of debt financed spending is trying to get the rest of the world to bankrupt themselves to save his reelection chances.

A few months back we reported on new regulation for commercial and municipal swimming pool owners to install costly equipment that would allow disabled swimmers into our nation’s swimming pools. RS wrote: The Obama Administration has recently construed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Standards for Accessible Design to apply to the act of swimming. The regulation was to go into effect yesterday and failure to comply would have resulted in $100,000 fines. Low and behold though, the Justice Department moved the compliance date to January 2013. “Newly constructed or altered places of public accommodation, commercial facilities and state and local government facilities” operating swimming pools will now be required to install permanent structures that lower physically disabled patrons into the pool. These establishments may also be forced to remove “accessibility barriers.” The fact that the Justice Department and the Obama Administration are allowing a regulation like this to go into effect demonstrates two important points — first, democrats are the party of over-regulation and second, democrats are not friends to poor people.
Regulations.
Democrats have spent the better part of the past six years demonizing republicans for seeking less regulations. To be sure, many regulations are necessary. But there is two sides to the regulatory coin and the dark side is a government that is so large and intrusive that it tells us how our toilets will flush, what light bulbs to put in our kitchen and what our community swimming pools will look like. It is academic arrogance by both parties that allow people living in Washington DC to know better than people in their own communities.
This is the type of regulatory nightmare that hurts small businesses like hotel chains. It is the exact opposite of what a government should be implementing during a recession. In fact, many pools throughout the U.S. may now have to shut down.
The poor.
More importantly, this type of act showcases how out-of-step the Administration is with the American people. Growing up in a lower-middle class family, summer time was a time where my mother took my brothers and I to public pools for recreation and to save money by not running the air conditioning at home. In fact, for many poor people throughout every city south of Chicago, a community or municipal pool is the only social recreation that the poorest among Americans can afford.
Many hotels will be shutting down their pools until they can afford to install the robotic limb. Not only does this kind of regulatory overreach hurt small businesses, it hurts the poorest amongst us going into a very hot summer.
For all of the demagoguery we here about republicans being the party of millionaires and billionaires and democrats caring for the poor, no millionaires or billionaires will be required to alter their pools. It will mainly be poor minorities in the south that will feel this kind of heat from the administration.
Liberals (both Rs and Ds) want more regulations, but there is a line that goes too far and the Administration is stomping all over it. It won’t be rich-white-Republicans that will feel the Administration’s pressure on this one, it will be lower class minorities that are hurt the most. And that, is something to be ashamed of.

You know the saying ‘follow the money not the rhetoric’ … well, turns out Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D) attacked the Obama campaign for making an issue of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital during an appearance on Meet the Press. The progressive leader later backed off the criticisms (pressure perhaps).

A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.
Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector — including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million — again making this a sizable chunk.

In all — just in his first Mayoral run — Booker’s committees received more than $565,000 from the people he was defending. At least $36,000 of that came from folks at Romney’s old firm.

Meanwhile, Obama defended his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s record as a private-equity executive at Bain Capital, telling reporters Monday that Romney’s history is fair game. “My view of private equity is that it is set up to maximize profits, and that’s a healthy part of the free market,” Obama said. But, he added, “that’s not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers.”
I know, I’m still laughing too – this whole do as I say not as I do is getting really r e a l l y old!

Newsmax reports New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Kentucky Republicans that President Barack Obama was “posing and preening” instead of working to resolve pressing issues facing the country.
“He is the most ill-prepared person to assume the presidency in my lifetime,” Christie told some 600 Kentucky Republicans at a Lexington hotel. “This is a guy who literally is walking around in a dark room trying to find the light switch of leadership.”
Christie was in Kentucky to deliver a pep talk to state GOP leaders. The state’s presidential primary is Tuesday, though it will have no significant impact. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
In his remarks, Christie focused entirely on the general election, drawing a standing ovation for his biting remarks about Obama.
“He has sat in the Oval Office and cared more about posing and preening and making partisan politics the rule of the day in Washington D.C. than he’s cared about progress,” the New Jersey Republican, now in his third year in office, said of Obama.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who invited Christie to Kentucky, called him “the perfect conservative messenger to inspire and energize Kentuckians” to help defeat Obama this fall.
Although Romney is the only GOP hopeful still standing, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul will be on state ballots when Blue Grass State voters go to the polls.
Paul effectively ended his presidential campaign several days ago when he announced he’d no longer be spending money on the race. Gingrich and Santorum withdrew, but not in time to have their names taken off the ballot.
Christie was touted last year as a potential presidential candidate, but he opted not to enter the race. He still is being mentioned as a potential running mate for Romney, as are others including Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Christie endorsed Romney last October. He didn’t address the running mate issue during Saturday’s speech in Lexington. He was ushered in and out of the Marriott hotel ballroom without speaking to reporters.
Although Christie has said repeatedly that he loves his current job and does not have designs on being second-in-command, he has also said he would listen if Romney reached out to him.
Christie urged Kentucky voters to work hard to defeat Obama.
“Now listen,” he said, “this country’s problems are too serious, too serious, to spend another day with a bystander in the oval office.”
Seems Bill Clinton agrees calling Obama an amateur. Telling revelations in Ed Klein’s new book about Obama’s inner circle and insights the mainstream media won’t talk about. Pajamas Media interviews Ed Klein about details revealed in the book.

He doesn’t call. He doesn’t write. He doesn’t drop by for a visit.
That’s what some of the most senior Democrats in Congress are experiencing from President Obama these days.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is trying to cut a deal on the nation’s fiscal crisis, but he can’t recall the last time he talked to the president. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is in charge of one of Obama’s top priorities — preventing a rate increase on student loans — but he hasn’t talked to the president in months. And Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is the go-to guy on high gas prices, but the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hasn’t spoken to the president much since the previous Congress. “I think the reality is the current Congress is not constituted in a way that makes it likely that we can do very much,” Bingaman said, “and that’s reflected in what we wind up doing on the floor and understandably the president is not as engaged — at least with me.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76601.html#ixzz1vb7dQfRF

FYI: New York State pays the HIGHEST gasoline tax. How does your State rate?

A bill pending in the state Senate would weaken a key underpinning of welfare reform — the Work Experience Program, or WEP. This is a one-house measure for now, and it’s sponsored by a member of the democratic minority, to boot. But many of Albany’s worst ideas have been born as one-house minority bills, so this one bears watching.
Some background is in order: Able-bodied welfare recipients who don’t find a job can be assigned to government-subsidized WEP employment, which helps teach the importance of basic work skills such as showing up on time, dressing appropriately, respecting supervisors and other workers, receiving training and building the beginnings of a labor market history or resume. New York City, for example, uses WEP assignees to clean and take care of parks and recreational facilities among other placements.
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Campaign Announcement: Briarcliff’s Izzarelli to Challenge Galef for Assembly
Kim Izzarelli will formerly announce her bid to challenge incumbent Assemblywoman Sandy Galef for the (new) 95th New York State Assembly District, on Wednesday.
Izzarelli, 51, who is a pension and employee benefits consultant, will seek the Republican and Conservative endorsements. Primary challenges are not expected. Izzarelli also interviewed with the Independence Party for its endorsement.
A true fiscal conservative, Izzarelli is in favor of repealing New York’s Triborough Amendment and plans to campaign heavily on Galef’s continued sponsorship and support of legislation that creates unfunded mandates on the state’s school districts and municipalities. Claiming Galef is ineffective as chair of New York’s Real Property Tax Committee, Izzarelli noted that both in live in Ossining where taxpayers suffer from high property taxes.
“Galef prides herself and her colleagues for bringing the 2% Tax (levy) Cap legislation, but she lacks the discipline needed to bring true mandate relief to New York’s taxpayers. ” states Izzarelli. “People are tired of hearing her litany of excuses. After 20 years in the Assembly, she’s lost her pull. She no longer serves her taxpayer constituents and should retire.”
A resident of the village of Briarcliff Manor, Izzarelli was narrowly defeated in her 2011 run for town of Ossining Council member, and twice before in 2007 and 2010 for village trustee.
Noting Galef’s role on LATFOR, the New York State Legislative Task Force for Redistricting, Izzarelli added “Sandy may have drawn out every prospective challenger except me, but I intend to give her a good fight. She’s done a great job raising our property taxes. I’m confident voters will send me to Albany on November 6th.” http://www.kimforossining.com/