American Companies to Thank for China's Olympic Performance

Not only are American companies proud that they've put millions of Americans out of work, but their huge collective investment in China is paying off in another way.  Chinese athletes are dominating the gold medal count at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, something that wouldn't have been possible were it not for the dollars that American companies have poured into Beijing.


Folks at Walmart, Bain Capital (Mitt Romney's company) and others are cheering in front of their television sets as the Chinese continue to perform well.

United States Experienced Warmest 12-Month Period in History

It's not a myth, although the same people that continue to deny it also still believe that the Earth is flat.


The United States has experienced the warmest 12-month period since record-keeping began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.


The high temperatures during June also made the first half of the year the longest on record.  There were 170 all-time high temperature records in June.


The average temperature in the U.S., which is what scientists look at to gauge the effects of global warming, was 71.2 degrees in June, the 14th-warmest June on record.  Nationally, there have been more than 4,500 daily record highs in the last 30 days.

Obama Leads By 5 in New FOX Poll

In the most recent poll by FOX News, President Barack Obama leads expected GOP challenger Mitt Romney 45-40% in the race for president.

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Obama

President Barack Obama has won one of the major victories in the history of the Supreme Court.  By a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Court upheld the Affordable Health Care Act, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion.


There was wide speculation that the high court would strike down the law, or at least the individual mandate.  What those people didn't know was that not only was the individual mandate the part that paid for the bill but that it was the key component that will transform the health care system in the United States from one of socialism to a more democratic system.  If the mandate were struck down, it would add a huge chuck the already high budget deficit, which had been balanced when President Clinton was in office but ballooned out of control during the George W. Bush years.  This was largely because for the first time in history, Bush began a war with Iraq without paying for it.  The conflict, in the Persian Gulf arena, caused an historic spike in oil prices, which in turn put American families so far in debt that it led to mass home foreclosures.  These events also led to one of the biggest free falls of the stock market in history.


The system before Obama's landmark legislation was one in which people without health insurance could go to the emergency room and get free healthcare, then have the rest of the country pay for it.  This, of course, is classic socialism, where all pay for the needs of the few.  Every president in modern times has tried to change the system but failed.  President Theodore Roosevelt first suggested it.  But President Obama was the one who finally got it to pass.


The Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance is valid as a tax, confirming what anyone who went to college already knew.  So it appears we have one party which understands the constitution and then we have the Tea Party who does not.  It was that group which hurled insults, racial slurs and swear words in support of their belief that the health care bill was unconstitutional.  They were wrong, of course, and their own Chief Justice John Roberts was the one who ruled in favor of Obama.


While the ruling will likely anger those tea partiers, it will also likely cause some to question their leaders who told them the law was unconstitutional, as well as challenge their own fundamental thinking.

In his majority opinion, Roberts wrote "In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."

The decision allows the government to continue implementing the health care law, which doesn't take full effect until 2014.  The past practice of insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions is now no more and parents can continue to keep their children on family polices until the age of 26.  Both those laws would have been scrapped if the law would have been overturn.

Besides Chief Justice Roberts, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen voted to uphold the law.  

"The framers created a federal government of limited powers and assigned to this court the duty of enforcing those limits," Roberts wrote. "The court does so today."

Democrats Favored to Take House

The latest Reuters poll of U.S. voters indicates that right now, Democrats have a shot at taking back the House of Representatives.  


The basic question has to be "Are you better off than you were two years ago?", for that was when the Republicans took control of the lower branch.  47% of respondents are saying "No!" and supporting Democrats while 44% said that they are better off than two years ago and supporting Republicans.  

Obama vs. Romney 2012 Presidential Polls

There have been seven recent presidential polls--all but one show President Obama knocking off Mitt Romney.  


IBD/CSM/TIPP did a poll over a week and found that 46% of respondents favored Obama compared to 42% for Romney.  The largest sample, Gallup's at 3,050, shows a one-point edge for Obama, 46 to 45%.  The only one of the seven that shows Romney pulling the upset is Rasmussen Tracking, which shows a 48-44 lead for Mitt, although Fox News has it a 43-43 tie.


Reuters/Ipsos has it 45-44 for Obama while CNN/Opinion Research shows a 49-46 edge for Obama at Monmouth/Survey USA/Braun has it 47-46 for Obama.

Obama Opens Up 12-Point Lead in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, a state that CNN said was barely "Leaning Obama", supports President Barack Obama by 48-36% over Mitt Romney, the Obama-like candidate that the Republicans are poised to nominate.  Independents support Obama by a whopping 49 to 27% in the poll conducted by Franklin and Marshall College.