July 23, 2012

TOWNHALL
Entrepreneurs Like Steve Jobs Build Prosperity – Not Politicians
by Star Parker
July 23, 2012

I think it’s a sport for President Obama to make outrageous statements like “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” – which he said in a recent campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia - and then watch Republicans go predictably bananas.
Certainly the multimillionaire business supporters of the president on Wall Street and in Hollywood know this is absurd. Anyone with the mildest understanding of business and capitalism knows this is absurd.

Yet the president struck at the heart of what makes capitalism tick – individual freedom and personal responsibility – without his polling numbers in the week that followed budging and his re-election probability on Intrade.com actually ticked up two and half points.

We are reaching dangerous critical mass of those in our country who have enough stake in big government – whether they are employed by it, collecting benefits from it, or businesses getting favors from it – that political protection is commanding a higher premium than freedom.

If Americans want prosperity, we need a grand reawakening to the incontrovertible fact that its source is entrepreneurs unfettered by meddling politicians.

Apple, Inc is now the most valuable company in the world. Its recent stock price puts its valuation at around $560 billion, more than $150 billion more than America’s biggest oil company – Exxon Mobil.

Fifteen years ago, in 1997, when Steve Jobs returned as CEO of Apple, the company was worth less than $3 billion dollars, about a half a percent of what it is worth today. Estimates then were that Apple was several months away from bankruptcy.

John Lilly, a former Apple employee, now a silicon valley venture capitalist, blogged memories, after Jobs’ death, about a talk that Jobs gave to employees shortly after his return. Apple was losing money, its stock was languishing, there were rumors about the company being acquired, and Jobs was asked about a suggestion that the company should just shut down.

He concluded his response with “If you want to make Apple great again, let’s get going. If not, get the hell out.” The blogger continues, “I think it’s not an overstatement to say that just about everyone in the room loved him at that point, would have followed him off a cliff if that’s where he led.”

In the following year, according to the account in Walter Isaacson’s recent book about Jobs, 3000 employees were laid off and Jobs reviewed Apple’s entire product line, pruning it from fifteen products to four.

Now Apple is the most valuable company in the world with innovative products no one would have dreamed of in 1997.

Read more: http://bit.ly/Qetzfg

AMERICAN THINKER
Obama Administration Draws Closer to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
by C. Hart
July 23, 2012

The cozy relationship between the United States government and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood should be cause for concern both to Americans and to Israelis. U.S. lawmakers are calling for an investigation into President Barack Obama's administration to determine whether some associations with Islamists could be detrimental to the security of the United States.


U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann and several other lawmakers are asking federal officials to conclude whether there are potential Islamist infiltrators interacting with American agencies, including front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood.  (See also: "'Gentlemen's Club' Gangs Up on Bachmann.")

The Obama administration has displayed considerable favor towards the Muslim Brotherhood, beginning with the rejection of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the peak of the Egyptian revolution last year.  Bachmann, along with U.S. Representatives Trent Franks, Lynn Westmoreland, Louie Gohmert, and Thomas Rooney, wants to know why this favor has increased since Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi took office.

They are questioning how Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, received a security clearance to work for the State Department.  Some Middle East analysts conclude that Abedin, who has close family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (see also "Saleha Abedin and the Muslim Sisterhood"), could be influencing U.S. foreign policy, especially if she is privy to classified information.  It has also been reported that Hani Nour Eldin, an Egyptian lawmaker with close ties to a U.S.-designated terrorist group, met with Obama administration officials in June 2012.

Just how much influence do sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood have in the formation of American foreign policy in the Middle East?

Read more: http://bit.ly/OhZ4h4