I’m Shocked!

From a strategic standpoint, delaying bad news until after the people it affects have to re-elect you is sort of a no-brainer. But this story in the Washington Post about the Obama Administration deliberately pushing back the effective date of hundreds of new environmental, work safety and health care regulations to avoid contention over the massive governmental oversight expansion during the 2012 campaign is less of a “wow, I’m outraged they did that!” sort of story and more of a “well, you probably knew this but the Washington Post is just getting down to reporting it a little over a year later now that it will have little impact on your opinion.”

The delays meant that rules were postponed or never issued. The stalled regulations included crucial elements of the Affordable Care Act, what bodies of water deserved federal protection, pollution controls for industrial boilers and limits on dangerous silica exposure in the workplace.

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the election were coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. (WP)

IS ANYONE REALLY STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT? (of course there is…)

After all, you’re probably still figuring out why you got double-charged for health insurance this month.

The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials.

Some agency officials were instructed to hold off submitting proposals to the White House for up to a year to ensure that they would not be issued before voters went to the polls, the current and former officials said…

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the election were coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. But seven current and former administration officials told The Washington Post that the motives behind many of the delays were clearly political, as Obama’s top aides focused on avoiding controversy before his reelection.

The Post is flabbergasted and, upon discovering such a dramatic betrayal of their trust, was forced to send not one but two unpaid interns out to purchase smelling salts and a fainting couch. And while other, less disarmingly handsome Presidents have also made a point of delaying new regulations until after they were officially re-elected, the report indicates that the Obama Administration went above and beyond the call of duty.

Not that you’re surprised by any of this, of course. But it’s worth noting that at least someone else discovered it for a change, right? (Naked DC)

I guess we had to re-elect him to find out what was in it…

 

Supremacy

In the old days, you could say “Don’t Mess with Texas”.

Now they’ll just wimp out.

An astounding Department of Justice threat to cancel airline flights to and from Texas, in addition to underhanded lobbying by TSA representatives, has killed efforts in the state to pass HB 1937, a bill that would have made invasive pat downs by TSA agents a felony.

HB 1937, a bill that would have made it “A criminal act for security personnel to touch a person’s private areas without probable cause as a condition of travel or as a condition of entry into a public place,” was headed for an imminent Senate vote in Texas having already passed the House unanimously 138-0, before the federal government stepped in to nix the legislation.

In a letter sent to Texas lawmakers, including to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Speaker Joe Straus, the House Clerk, and the Senate Secretary, U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy threatened to cripple the airline industry in the state if legislators did not back down.

“If HR [sic] 1937 were enacted, the federal government would likely seek an emergency stay of the statute,” Murphy wrote. “Unless or until such a stay were granted, TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.”

“We urge that you consider the ramifications of this bill before casting your vote,” Murphy added.

The fact that Murphy can’t even get the name of the bill correct is almost as disconcerting as the rampant mafia-like attitude of the DOJ in using de facto economic terrorism to shoot down the legislation.

Following a fiery debate in the Texas House last night, Senate sponsor Dan Patrick (R-Houston) pulled the bill, remarking that TSA representatives had been “lobbying” the Texas Senate in an effort to mothball the legislation.

“I will pull HB 1937 down, but I will stand for Liberty in the state of Texas,” Patrick said.

Patrick added that TSA officials had warned him passing the bill “could close down all the airports in Texas,” which he regarded as a ‘heavy handed threat’ by the federal government.

The staff of Rep. David Simpson said the DOJ had “thrown down the gauntlet” in using such stark language to oppose the bill.

“Either Texas backs off and continues to let government employees fondle innocent women, children and men as a condition of travel,” the staff wrote, “or the TSA [Transportation Safety Administration] has the authority to cancel flights or series of flights.”

“… 97 percent of people who go though the nation’s airports do not go through these offensive searches. And yet, a United States Attorney warns that flights to Texas could be shut down because TSA would not be able to ensure the safety of passengers and crew if agents could not touch genitals. Someone must make a stand against the atrocities of our government agents …”

So Texas is safe for legalize sexual harrassment. Hurray!

But it also shows how authoritarian governments operate.

The fact that the Department of Justice and the TSA have resorted to threats of economic terrorism in addition to underhanded lobbying techniques again illustrates the fact that the federal government is increasingly behaving like a criminal enterprise with total disregard for the Constitution.

The TSA’s initial response to HB 1937 was to claim that it could not become law because it violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article. VI. Clause 2), a law that the TSA claimed “prevents states from regulating the federal government.” (infowars)

Supremacy Clause?

Where have I heard that one before? 🙂

“Texas has no authority to regulate federal agents and employees in the performance of their federal duties or to pass a statute that conflicts with federal law,” Murphy said in the letter, saying the federal government would seek a court order to prevent enforcement of the law if passed.

Until that occurred, “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.”

Funny, I’ve heard those words before….SB1070 and Illegal immigration anyone… 😦

A boisterous group of protesters angry over the Texas Senate’s failure to vote on the airport groping bill tried to enter the public gallery this afternoon and were blocked by state troopers.

Shouting “treason” and “cowards” and carrying signs and placards, and led by radio talk show host Alex Jones, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber.

There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which would have made it a crime for security checkpoint screeners to handle the private parts of anyone they screened. (so the House members through the Senate under the bus…)

The group then marched to the Senate side of the Capitol and tried to enter the third-floor public gallery. Troopers with arms folded blocked them from entry.

They stood outside for several minutes, chanting: “Co-wards, co-wards,” Trea-son, trea-son,” and shouted slogans accusing senators and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst of being “federal pimps” and “scallawag trash.”

They vowed to vote out of office Dewhurst and the senators who opposed passage of the bill.

After shouting chants for about 30 minutes, the group left and troopers reopened the gallery doors. The activists then went to other parts of the Capitol to continue their protest.

Dewhurst has said the bill did not have the votes to pass, a fact he learned after the debate began. Patrick pulled down the bill from consideration after the debate began, and a vote never took place. The bill had lost support after senators had learned that federal officials had warned that such ban would violate federal law and could bring court challenges and airport shutdowns.

“Someone who will not stand up to the federal government, you have to ask yourself, is that the kind of person we need in the U.S. Senate?” Patrick said this afternoon, saying the bill is dead. (statesman.com)

The culprit apparently, the Lt. Governor who is running for the US Senate. I guess he didn’t want to tick off his hoped-to-be-future dictators in arms. And this idiot is a Republican?

I’m sure the rights of the people in Texas were foremost on his mind. 😦

In other words, “Don’t mess with Texas…as long as it’s not a challenge to the supremacy of  Washington then we’ll cave like a rotten jalapeno”

The Bully pulpit wins again.

“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”- George Orwell

Compromise & Ice Ages

Sources tell me that  budget negotiators on Capitol Hill have tentatively agreed on a deal that would involve at least $33 billion in spending cuts from this year’s budget.  That’s $23 billion dollars more than Democrats have previously agreed to in short-term continuing resolutions, and $28 billion less than Republicans previously passed in the House. (ABC)

WUSS!!!

April 23rd: Easter Sunday.

Time for the “The Spring Egg Hunt.” 🙂

The Spring Bunny lays eggs.

Nice stinky Liberal ones.

Comment on Brooklyn Heights blog on their hunt:

David on Middagh : I think it’s because “Easter” derives from the name of a pagan goddess. I’m sure that not all who might wish to participate are pagans.

<<Barf bag on standby>>

Another Comment: I find PC Euphemisms far more offensive than “Easter” or “Christmas” In fact I find the whole “PC” mindset thoroughly nauseating.

AMEN!!

************

NEW ICE AGE

On the heels of the pronouncement by one of the gurus of global warming that any decrease in the earth’s temperature could be a thousand years away, another scientist has stepped forward with the warning that a new Ice Age could be right around the corner. Professor Tim Flannery, the head of Australia’s Climate Change Commission, sparked the latest scandal in the global warming community when he recently declared, “If the world as a whole cut all emissions tomorrow, the average temperature of the planet’s not going to drop for several hundred years, perhaps over 1000 years.” As reported previously for The New American, Prof. Flannery has endeavored to ameliorate the effects of his comment by claiming that temperatures would begin to drop by the end of the century, but his millenarian prognostications served to highlight the ineffectiveness — even insignificance — of the proposed draconian reductions in the world’s industrial activity.However, if George Kukla is correct, the cooling which Flannery and his cohorts desire may be coming in spades. Kukla, a retired professor of paleoclimatology at Columbia University, believes the Earth is no overdue for an Ice Age. An article by Terrence Aym (“Prepare for new Ice Age now says top paleoclimatologist”) at Helium.com sets forth some of Kukla’s argument:

The “Earth has experienced an ongoing cycle of ice ages dating back millions of years. Cold, glacial periods affecting the polar to mid-latitudes persist for about 100,000 years, punctuated by briefer, warmer periods called interglacials,” Kukla says.
Co-author of an important section of the book “Natural Climate Variability on Decade to Century Time Scales,” Kukla asserts all Ice Ages strat [sic] with a period of global warming. They are the the harbingers of new Ice Ages. Actually, he explains, warming is good. Ice Ages are deadly and may even kill millions.
Can Mankind stop it? No. Just as humanity cannot affect the long term climate of the planet, neither can it stop an Ice Age from happening. The climate is primarly [sic] driven by the sun.

Kukla has been warning of the possibility of new Ice Age for some time, and the cycle which he and other scientists believe may drive the process of climate change has been observed since at least the 1920s. Eleven years ago, Kukla gave a brief summary of his view on the cause of climate change for an article published by the Columbia University News:

In fact, the geologic record reveals that Earth has experienced an ongoing cycle of ice ages dating back millions of years. Cold, glacial periods affecting the polar to mid-latitudes persist for about 100,000 years, punctuated by briefer, warmer periods called interglacials. The Holocene is just another interglacial that is more than half over, Kukla said.
It turns out that this ongoing cycle of glaciation closely matches cyclic variations in Earth’s orbit around the sun, leading many researchers to conclude that orbit drives glaciation. This correspondence between orbit and climate is called the Milankovich cycle, after the scientist who analyzed and popularized it in the 1920s.
“I feel we’re on pretty solid ground in interpreting orbit around the sun as the primary driving force behind ice-age glaciation. The relationship is just too clear and consistent to allow reasonable doubt,” Kukla said. “It’s either that, or climate drives orbit, and that just doesn’t make sense.”

Kukla claims that 116,000 years have passed since the last Ice Age; therefore, if the theory is correct, Earth would be overdue for global cooling.

Of course, Kukla is not the only advocate of a theory of a new Ice Age; the difference between him and some very prominent promoters of the theory is that his model does not recognize any connection between such an event and human activity. Obama’s science ‘czar,’ John Holdren, coauthored a book with Paul Ehrlich in 1971 predicting that “global over-population was heading the Earth to a new ice age unless the government mandated urgent measures to control population, including the possibility of involuntary birth control measures such as forced sterilization.” Now, the doom and gloom crowd have completely reversed their assessment of the disaster which they claim will soon befall the human race, but the “solution” remains the same: Devastate the human species.

As the global warming theory has withered under public scrutiny in the aftermath of the Climategate and Glaciergate scandals, the theory’s proponents have been dashing around looking for a way to push their agenda. Last year, Holdren tried to adjust the language of the climate change debate by promoting a new terminology of “global climate disruption.” The cultivated ambiguity of Holdren’s new phraseology permits virtually any anomalous weather activity to constitute “proof” of their theory—rendering the theory incapable of being falsified, which is usually a fine indicator of pseudoscience.

Thus, Kukla’s theory of a new Ice Age is utterly different from the Holdren/Ehrlich’s “new Ice Age” of the 1970s, or the “global warming” scare which has predominated in the circles of scientific apocalypticism in recent decades. If Kukla is right, the Ice Age will come according to its own schedule, and there’s nothing that the human race can do about it—except, of course, for enjoying the brief warming that precedes the big chill. (New American)

Remember, in 1975 the whackos who are screaming about Global Warming were talking about a coming Ice Age, until they decided it wasn’t working so they switched tacts.

But at least we have Spring Egg Hunts and Winter Festival Trees and Republican who can stick to their convictions… 😦

WaiverMania Continues

The WWE has Wrestlemania.

The Obama Administration has Waiver Mania. And it’s time to feed the beast!

The greatest thing invented by man since the wheel, Obamacare, has had a spike in waivers fro 222 to over 700!!

It’s so great they just can’t stop exempting his political friends.

And they were posted AFTER Obama’s attempt at an inspiring speech, The State of The Union. Where he tried to sound like Reagan or Kennedy, but just ended up sounding like an unconvincing Socialist who loves government but not his country.

“Win The Future” WTF! 🙂

And the Democrats love ObamaCare so much they keep exempting themselves from it!

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has announced that there will be Congressional investigations into the organizations that have been granted these waivers, which in his words represent “a perfect example of special interests having an ‘in’ in [the Obama] administration when they get those waivers.”

The nation’s capital is freaking out over a winter snowstorm.

But everyone else should be up in arms over the real snow job in Washington this week.

While the Democrats continued to extol Obamacare and the president defended the behemoth law during the Date of the Union, HHS was quietly presiding over a massive Obamacare Waiver-mania explosion.

When last we examined the growing list, privileged escapees topped 222.

Now: The list now at 729 — plus 4 states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee).

Among the many new union refugees are 4 new SEIU locals :

-SEIU Health and Welfare fund, 2000 with 161 enrollees

-Service Employees 32BJ North Health Benefit Fund* representing 7,020 enrollees

-SEIU Local 300, Civil Service Forum Employees Welfare Fund representing 2,000 enrollees

-SEIU Health & Welfare Fund representing 1,620

This is in addition to the three other previous SEIU waiver winners: Local 25 SEIU in Chicago with 31,000 enrollees; Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund with 4,544 enrollees; and SEIU Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund with 520 enrollees.

Which brings the total number of Obamacare-promoting SEIU Obamacare escapees to an estimated 45,000 workers represented by seven SEIU locals.

Collectively-Bargained Employer-Based Plan Applicants: Most of the other health plans receiving waivers are multi-employer health funds created by a collective bargaining agreement between a union and two or more employers, pursuant to the Taft-Hartley Act. These “union plans” are employment based group health plans and operate for the sole benefit of workers. They tend to be larger than other typical group health plans because they cover multiple employers. There are also single-employer union plans that have received a waiver. In total, 182 collectively-bargained plans have received waivers.

The rest:

Of all the waivers granted to date:

* Employment-Based Coverage: The vast majority – 712 plans representing 97 percent of all waivers – were granted to health plans that are employment-related.

o Self-Insured Employer Plans Applicants: Employer-based health plans received most of the waivers – 359.

o Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs): HRAs are employer-funded group health plans where employees are reimbursed tax-free for qualified medical expenses up to a maximum dollar amount for a coverage period. In total, HHS has approved 171 applications for waivers for HRAs.

* Health Insurers: Sixteen waivers were granted to health insurers, which can apply for a waiver for multiple mini-med products sold to employers or individuals.

* State Governments: Four waivers have gone to State governments. States may apply for a waiver of the restricted annual limits on behalf of issuers of state-mandated policies if state law required the policies to be offered by the issuers prior to September 23, 2010.

Most noteworthy: One-fourth of all the waivers (182) have gone to Big Labor groups across the country so far.

The Teamsters Union, which hailed Obama last March for “enacting historic health care reform, providing health insurance to millions of Americans who don’t have it and controlling costs for millions more who do,” obtained waivers for 17 different locals.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which celebrated the passage of Obamacare as “an achievement that will
rank among the highest in our national experience,” secured waivers for 28 different affiliates.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — which exulted after the health care law’s passage that “finally, affordable and comprehensive health care coverage will be available for millions of working Americans” — saw 8 of its affiliates win shelter from the Obamacare wrecking ball.

The Communications Workers of America, which sent its workers to lobby for Obamacare on Capitol Hill as part of the left-wing billionaire George Soros-funded Health Care for America Now front group, snagged a waiver that will spare a hefty 19,000 of its members from the onerous federal mandate.

Without the HHS-approved exemptions, these health providers would have been forced to drop low-cost coverage for seasonal, part-time, and low-wage workers due to skyrocketing premiums. The only way they are keeping their health care is by successfully begging the feds to spare them from Obamacare. The Democrats’ law seeks to eliminate the low-cost plans (known as “mini-med” plans) under the guise of controlling insurer spending on executive salaries and marketing. The ultimate goal, as I’ve reported before: forcing a massive shift from private to public insurance designed by government-knows-best bureaucrats. (Michelle Malkin)

In his most vigorous defense of the healthcare law since Republicans took control of the House, Obama fired back Friday at GOP claims that the law deprives essential care for seniors and balloons the deficit.

“You may have heard once or twice this is a job-crushing, granny-threatening, budget-busting monstrosity,” Obama said to pro-reform advocates at the Families USA annual conference in Washington. “That just doesn’t match up to the reality.” (The Hill)

So that’s why we have handed out over 700 waivers to my political allies!! 🙂

“Obviously, a part of our strategy will have to be to react and respond to what the aggressors will be doing,” Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.).

That would be the bi-partisan “civil” and “transparent” Democrats!

Let’s all sing Kumbuya together…

Charlie Sheen Economics

Hollywood Actor Charlie Sheen was rushed to the hospital yet again after yet another drugs,sex, and booze binge.

Kinda sounds like the folks in Washington D.C. to me.

And to an extent the American people, who have been trained by Washington D.C. to live the high life and expect dependency.

So you have wild, crazed spending binges likes the last 10 years really. Both Obama and Bush 41. Both Republicans and Democrats. It’s just that the Democrats have partied heartier and faster than the Republicans did.

Much higher debt in a much shorter time frame.

The “suitcase full of drugs” was spending. Spending to advance one’s ideology, but most spending to pay off dependents, make more dependents and to buy votes for their re-election so they can do it all over again.

That’s where the Prostitutes come in.

Unions, Lobbyists, and the “advocates”.

But the Congress Men and Women are also Prostitutes for the money

The Money leads to the power and the power is the real drug of choice in Washington.

Just look at Deposed but still defiant Queen Pelosi and Prince Harry Reid.

Harry Reid’s defiant thumb in the eye about earmarks, another drug of choice for buying off the American people, where he will continue doing them because that’s how he got elected in the first place.

Dance with the Whore that got you to the party and then “Party on Dude”.

The Porn: That it has no consequences  so you can just watch it continue and view it from a far and that we can’t change it now and any who dares is just a “racist” “extremist” “teabagger”.

Then there are the American people, who are the co-dependents (and in the case of ObamaCare the forced dependents) in this equation. (of which now Over 700 waivers have been granted, more on this in another blog)

41% of people in a recent Rasmussen poll said it was Ok to spend even more on Education and Infrastructure even after all this. Denial is strong with these folks.

We have spend enough. The good times have rolled by. Get over it.

They have come to expect over the last couple of generations that the government will in fact take care of them when they get old and retire so no need to plan ahead, let’s just party like it’s the Summer of ’69.

And every time some tries to inject some sanity into the proceedings they are crucified by the addicts in Washington and the dependents in the heartlands.

But the party is going to end, whether anyone likes it or not.

There will be an intervention and pain now, or there will be massive and prolonged pain later.

As the old Fram air filter commercials of my youth would say, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later”.

It’s time to pay for the Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll.

And whether you like it or not is IRRELEVANT.

Thing of it this way. You got a credit card. You maxed it out so you got another credit card and you maxed it out and another and another.

Now all you can do is pay the minimums because you have so much debt that you can’t see anything else.

That’s where the US is right now.

To put $14 trillion in perspective, our national debt is larger than the total economies of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined.

If our Debt was rank as “an economy” it would be #30 in the world of nearly 300 nations!!

Just how far in debt are we? Find out below.

Current debt: 14,059,409,159,678.42

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np

So do you think politically safe nibbles around the edges (Republicans) or Politically slick slogans (Democrats and their “freezes”) will staunch this bleeding?

Or are HARD, politically unpopular choices needed. By both the Political Class, their Drug Dealers, Pimps, Whores, and Prostitutes and the the American people.

Denial is not an option anymore. The Credit cards are maxed out.

The Party is over.

The Hangover and DT’s are going to be pain like you never knew.

But the alternative is that Charlie Sheen and the Charlie Sheen economics becomes Anna Nicole Smith or River Phoenix.

Personally, I want to live!

How about you?

Woo Hoo! Doughnuts…

Woo-Hoo! The Democrats blinked. This time.

Half darn.

We get the pork laden Stimulus II, known as the “Tax Deal”. But we don’t get the 6,488 earmark pork laden Omnibus Bill.

So we get $1 trillion in spending instead of 2. Yipeee….

But I guess it’s a start.

But what is fun is the President went to mat for TAX “CUTS” for “The Rich”. How Bush of him. 🙂

And watching the Democrats rail against Deficit spending is a cynics wet dream of hilarity. Nothing on earth is this funny for a cynic like me.

And their sanctimony about the earmarks was just hilarious.

Obama is telling members of Congress that failure to pass the tax-cut legislation could result in the end of his presidency, Rep. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) said. (remember that from the health care cram down)

“The White House is putting on tremendous pressure, making phone calls, the president is making phone calls saying this is the end of his presidency if he doesn’t get this bad deal,” he told CNN’s Eliot Spitzer.

But the White House shot back late on Wednesday.

“The president hasn’t said anything remotely like that and has never spoken with Mr. DeFazio about the issue,” said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Obama’s push shows that the president is going to the mat in order to push through Congress the compromise brokered with Republicans. (The Hill)

And the 111th Congress has the lowest approval rating since most of them were 60’s hippie radicals. Gallup reports it at 13%.

Even the super liberals over at CBS and The New York Times has it at 17%.

But it’s not like this Congress actually gave a crap about what anyone thought because the Agenda was The Agenda.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, DREAM Act, and START are much more important to Liberals. They are on The Agenda!

They just didn’t have the votes for the Omnibus Pork bill. Otherwise, Harry Reid was threatening to keep everyone through Christmas hostage until they passed their agenda (and still is because this was only 1 of the items).

“We have a constitutional duty to do congressionally directed spending and I don’t want to give up that responsibility,” Reid told reporters. “I can’t understand why some of our more conservative members here want to give up their power. I don’t understand that.”

So Harry believes that he has a Constitutional duty to pass Pork after Pork after Pork.

To bring home the Bacon.

It’s the Drug Dealer and Drug Addict in him rationalizing his Drug Use.

“But it was only a small amount”… “It’s no big deal”…

These guys needs a 1-step program: Just Say No!

They’ll have delirium tremens that will shake the earth out of orbit. But it would be worth it if we could pull it off.

But We the People who have been hooked on thi money by the Pusher Addicts in Washington also have to stop.

DT Symptoms may get worse rapidly, and can include:

* Body tremors
* Mental status changes
o Agitation, irritability
o Confusion, disorientation
o Decreased attention span
o Decreased mental status
+ Deep sleep that persists for a day or longer
+ Stupor, sleepiness, lethargy
+ Usually occurs after acute symptoms
o Delirium (severe, acute loss of mental functions)
o Excitement
o Fear
o Hallucinations (such as seeing or feeling things that are not present are most common)
o Highly sensitive to light, sound, touch
o Increased activity
o Mood changes rapidly
o Restlessness, excitement

Sounds like the Democrats. Anyone for  rehab? 🙂

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, agreed, though with a far less triumphant tone.

“Today’s maneuvers demonstrate that the House and Senate Republican leadership from here on out should be considered a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tea Party,” Manley said.

What’s wrong with that? The People are the Tea Party.

It’s better than the Democrats who are a wholly owned subsidiary of The Marxist Left.

Michelle Malkin: No matter how soothing the White House overtures to business leaders sounded this week, an inconvenient fact remains: Washington is gripped by crab-in-the-bucket syndrome. And there’s no cure in sight.

Put a single crab in an uncovered bucket, and it will find a way to climb up and out on its own. Put a dozen crabs in a bucket, and 11 will fight with all their might to pull down the striver who attempts escape. President Obama sought to reassure 20 CEOs that he wasn’t the king crab holding them down: “I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success,” he cooed. “We want to be boosters because when you do well, America does well.”

Take it all with a huge grain of sea salt.

This is, after all, the same “booster” who in April mused openly about limits on profits, government determinations for what constitutes a “good” product or service, and the expectation that private businesses serve a collective need to goose Washington’s jobs numbers. “I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money,” the president said. “But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.”

Our Founding Fathers had quite a different view of “the American way,” of course. In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

But like a success inhibitor injected into the body politic, Obama’s policies have only served to suppress growth, punish ambition and discourage profit-maximizers. He has railed against “fat cats” on Wall Street while protecting his favored financial industry benefactors. He threatened to “kick” the “a**es” of oil industry executives while refusing to punish the scientific lies and distortions of his own job-killing environmental czars and bureaucrats. He inveighed against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for collecting dues from international affiliates while ignoring the same practices among deep-pocketed unions. And he bemoaned tax relief for “millionaires and billionaires” that would actually benefit wealth-producing couples who annually earn more than $250,000 and individuals who earn $200,000 or more.

Most small-business owners will tell you they don’t want Obama “boosting” them. They just want him to get out of the way. But none of them was represented at his CEO shindig. Instead, among the business “leaders” the White House invited was billionaire Penny Pritzker — a Chicago crony, Democratic fundraiser/bundler and heiress whose family co-owned a failed subprime specialty bank.

While Obama, the olive-branch poseur, has called for a restoration of “civility” in Washington and liberal elites whine and whinny about the need for “no labels,” class-warfare demagoguery has metastasized unchecked.

Socialist Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor to filibuster tax relief for all Americans last week in a ponderous, eight-and-a-half-hour harangue against “greed,” the “rich,” “richer” and “richest,” and “millionaires and billionaires” he had the audacity to liken to “bandits.” On the House side, N.Y. Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley attacked the GOP as the party of the wealthy and compared all people who earn more than $250,000 a year to the late convicted tax evader Leona Helmsley and her Maltese doggie heir.

The left wastes no opportunity to blame tea party and talk radio rhetoric for violent acts by lone nuts. But when a suspected serial arsonist (still on the loose) burns down expensive homes in an upscale Cape Cod neighborhood and spray-paints “f**k the rich” graffiti at the crime scenes, the “words-have-consequences” crowd is nowhere to be found. Such is the silence of the crabs.

The Silence of The Crabs… 🙂

 

Reality Check

WSJ: What a president should ideally have, and what I think we all agree Mr. Obama badly needs, is an assistant whose sole job it is to explain and interpret the American people to him. Presidents already have special assistants for domestic policy, for congressional relations and national security. Why not a special assistant for reality? Someone to translate the views of the people, and explain how they think. An advocate for the average, a representative for the normal, to the extent America does normal.

If Mr. Obama had a special assistant for reality this week, this is how their dialogue might have gone over the anti-TSA uprising.

President: This thing is all ginned up, isn’t it? Right-wing websites fanned it. Then the mainstream media jumped in to display their phony populist street cred. Right?

Special Assistant for Reality: No, Mr. President, it was more spontaneous. Websites can’t fan fires that aren’t there. This is like the town hall uprisings of summer 2009. In the past month, citizens took videos at airports the same way town hall protesters made videos there, and put them on YouTube. The more pictures of pat-downs people saw, the more they opposed them.

President: What’s the essence of the opposition?

SAR: Sir, Americans don’t like it when strangers touch their private parts. Especially when the strangers are in government uniforms and say they’re here to help.

President: Is it that we didn’t roll it out right? We made a mistake in not telling people in advance we were changing the procedure.

SAR: Um, no, Mr. President. If you’d told them in advance, they would have rebelled sooner.

President: We should have pointed out not everyone goes through the new machines, and only a minority get patted down.

SAR: Mr. President, if you’d told people, “Hello, there’s only 1 chance in 3 you’ll be molested at the airport today” most people wouldn’t think, “Oh good, I like those odds.”

President: But the polls are with me. People support the screenings.

SAR: At the moment, according to some. But most Americans don’t fly frequently, and the protocols are new. As time passes, support will go steadily down.

President: I’ve noted with sensitivity that I’m aware all this is a real inconvenience.

SAR: It’s not an inconvenience, it’s a humiliation. In the new machine, and in the pat-downs, citizens are told to spread their feet and put their hands in the air. It’s an attitude of submission—the same one the cops make the perps assume on “America’s Most Wanted.” Then, while you stand there in public in the attitude of submission, strangers touch intimate areas of your body. It’s a violation of privacy. It leaves people feeling reduced. It’s like society has decided you’re a meat sack and not a soul. Humans have a natural, untaught understanding of the apartness of their bodies, and they don’t like it when their space is violated. They recoil, and protest.

President: But you can have the pat-downs done in private.

SAR: Mr. President, you don’t know this, but when you ask for that, a lot of TSA people get pretty passive-aggressive. They get Bureaucratic Dead Face and start barking, “I need a supervisor! Private pat-down!” And everyone looks, and the line slows down, and you start to feel like you’re putting everyone out. You wait and wait, and finally they get another TSA person, and they take you into the little room and it’s embarrassing, and you start to realize you’re going to miss your plane. It’s then that you realize: all this is how they discourage private pat-downs.

President: I’ve wondered if this general feeling of discomfort might be related to a certain Puritan strain within American thinking—a kind of horror at the body that, melded with, say, old Catholic teaching, not to be pejorative, might make for a pretty combustible cultural cocktail. This heightened consciousness of the body might suggest an element of physical shame we hadn’t taken into account.

SAR: Mr. President, the rebellion isn’t shame-based, it’s John Wayne-based.

President: I don’t follow.

SAR: John Wayne removes his boots and hat and puts his six-shooter on the belt, he gets through the scanner, and now he’s standing there and sees what’s being done to other people. A TSA guy is walking toward him, snapping his rubber gloves. Guy gets up close to Wayne, starts feeling his waist and hips. Wayne says, “Touch the jewels, Pilgrim, and I’ll knock you into tomorrow.”

President: John Wayne is dead.

SAR: No, he’s not. You’ve got to understand that. Everyone’s got an Inner Duke, even grandma.

President: What should I do?

SAR: Back off. Say you spent a day watching YouTube. You’re not giving in to pressure, you’re conceding to common sense. “Free men and women have a right not to be trifled with. We’ll find a better way.”

President: If I don’t?

SAR: Well, every businessman in America already thinks you’ve been grabbing his gonads. You’ll continue that general symbolism.

President: Janet Napolitano won’t like it. Drudge is always after her. He’ll get all “Big Sis Bows Now.” She might quit.

SAR: Oh God, yes. A twofer!

President: I’d look like I got rolled.

SAR: Then look strong. Fire her. She’s been a disaster from day one. Now she’s the face of the debacle.

President: Won’t they think I’m weak?

SAR: No. They’ll think you returned to Planet Earth. They’ll think ground control broke through to Major Tom. They’ll think you took a step outside the bubble.

BUT reality is not the strong suit of progressive liberals, especially ones as enamored of their own Godhood as Obama and as power mad as Pelosi and Napolitano.

Good example is the looming largest tax increase on everyone. EVERYONE.

The Democrats who control this lame duck are still puffing themselves up with Amnesty and Taking over the Internet and more Stimulus for god’s sake!

The Agenda is still the Agenda, even now!

And let’s not even talk about the North Koreans. They laugh at Obama.

Iran eats him for lunch, then laughs.

And the Russians are salivating to get the new START treaty signed, knowing we’ll hold up our end and they won’t.

The only people scared of what Obama will do are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

And they have a right to be scared.

So Where are We Now- A Year Later

This is the First Anniversary of my Blog.

Yikes what a year.

These were the first real words I wrote a year ago:

We The People, we need to take back the responsibility for our choices and to hold those politicians accountable for theirs. They serve us, it’s not the other way around.

But it does seem that in the last 20+ years that has been turned on it’s head.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. ”

–President John F. Kennedy Jan 20th, 1961

We are long way from there now aren’t we!

These days it seems people are more interested in what government can do for them. The initiative and the drive to succeed is superseded by the want to have someone else do it for you or at the very least get someone else to pay for it (even though that in and of itself is an illusion).

The old joke of “Hi, we’re from the government and we are here to help you…” which would have sticken fear in a bygone era now seems to be what people want.

This sad state of narcissism is very troubling.

And a year later, that hasn’t changed. The Tea Party movement has gotten stronger. Congress even less popular. The Economy isn’t any better and likely is going towards a double-dip recession because the policies of Keynesian economics has failed miserably. But the Democrats fail to notice and the Media covers it up.

Government Health Care “surprises” from the now Law continue to pop up like evil gophers because the people passing the bills never read them.

Just this weekend, According to Sen. Baucus, the idea of him reading a bill allocating nearly $1 trillion of federal funds is “a waste of time:”

And he’s the one who “wrote” the Senate version!

“I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language,” Baucus said. “We hire experts.”

Aka staffers, and LOBBYISTS!

Baucus said. “Mark my words, several years from now you’re going to look back and say, ‘eh, maybe it isn’t so bad.’”(Washington Examiner)

So they pass bills that crush our freedoms, and they don’t even read them! And when you object they are condescending and tone deaf!

In the last year that has not changed.

But don’t tell that to the Media or Obama or   Congress. They are tone deaf too.

There are calls for a second stimulus again!

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again the exact same way expecting the result to be different.

The Democrats are campaigning like its 2008.

It’s all George Bush’s Fault. The Party of No. Stimulus. and more Spending.

Not much has changed.

Except the people are angrier than a year ago.

And we spent another 1.3 Trillion more than we had.

The national debt is now a couple of Trillion dollars farther down the toilet than last year.

Government has no money unless it prints more or taxes more. It must get it from thin air or from you. Period. QED.

The Democrats still want to pass the Global warming farce, called Cap & Trade, but may do it by stealth means through the EPA.

They can’t get real amnesty, so they get quasi-Amnesty by ignoring as many illegals as they can and dismissing as many cases of illegals caught as they can.

They said that Arizona is a Human Rights Abuser and should be put down, by the likes of Cuba.

Unemployment is higher and more persistent.

Higher taxes loom even larger.

Debt is even more expansive.

Uncertainty is the #1 fear. Uncertainty as to what the Democrats will do next.

I ended that blog with:

The Declaration of Dependence

We the Congress of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Dicatorship, establish Injustice, insecure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense of The Congress, promote the general Welfare of The Congress, and secure the Blessings of Total Power to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Dictatorship for the United Socialist States of North America.
Yes, admitting to bad choices is tough. Yes, it can be messy. But the adage of what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is still true and WE THE PEOPLE need to stand up and assert our rights and not abdicate them for the simpler, less stressful,less time consuming,  less embarrassing and ultimately narcissistic way we have today.

And that is even more true now, a year later.

And November 2nd is the turning point.

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.”
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.”
John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

“If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave.”

Now, it’s your turn to speak. Don’t expect the Liberal Ministry of Truth Media to speak for you. They won’t.

You can see November from here. And it has to be for We The People.

Or else, WE will just fade away…..

Reality is a Dish Best Served Cold

Optimists think that if we manage to turn a few things around, their kids may have it . . . almost as good. The country they inherit may be . . . almost as good. And it’s kind of a shock to think like this; pessimism isn’t in our DNA. But it isn’t pessimism, really, it’s a kind of tough knowingness, combined, in most cases, with a daily, personal commitment to keep plugging.

But do our political leaders have any sense of what people are feeling deep down? They don’t act as if they do. I think their detachment from how normal people think is more dangerous and disturbing than it has been in the past. I started noticing in the 1980s the growing gulf between the country’s thought leaders, as they’re called—the political and media class, the universities—and those living what for lack of a better word we’ll call normal lives on the ground in America. The two groups were agitated by different things, concerned about different things, had different focuses, different world views.

But I’ve never seen the gap wider than it is now. I think it is a chasm. In Washington they don’t seem to be looking around and thinking, Hmmm, this nation is in trouble, it needs help. They’re thinking something else. I’m not sure they understand the American Dream itself needs a boost, needs encouragement and protection. They don’t seem to know or have a sense of the mood of the country.

And so they make their moves, manipulate this issue and that, and keep things at a high boil. And this at a time when people are already in about as much hot water as they can take.

To take just one example from the past 10 days, the federal government continues its standoff with the state of Arizona over how to handle illegal immigration. The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation’s future, however, is different, more like: “We live in a welfare state and we’ve just expanded health care. Unemployment’s up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we’ve got?” No is, in essence, the answer.

An irony here is that if we stopped the illegal flow and removed the sense of emergency it generates, comprehensive reform would, in time, follow. Because we’re not going to send the estimated 10 million to 15 million illegals already here back. We’re not going to put sobbing children on a million buses. That would not be in our nature. (Do our leaders even know what’s in our nature?) As years passed, those here would be absorbed, and everyone in the country would come to see the benefit of integrating them fully into the tax system. So it’s ironic that our leaders don’t do what in the end would get them what they say they want, which is comprehensive reform.

When the adults of a great nation feel long-term pessimism, it only makes matters worse when those in authority take actions that reveal their detachment from the concerns—even from the essential nature—of their fellow citizens. And it makes those citizens feel powerless.

Inner pessimism and powerlessness: That is a dangerous combination. (Peggy Noonan)

And as one who was not abundant, and still isn’t, when I see what I see and the complete disconnect from reality that is the Twilight Zone at the Beltway around D.C. I do wonder about this.

I have no kids, I probably never will.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t look at the kids I see on the street and wonder what life is going to be like for them when they are my age.

And I don’t think it will be that good, certainly not like their childhood.

And that is a sad legacy.

But to pick up on Mrs. Noonan’s point about Arizona. (as an aside, where is the lawsuit against Missouri for slapping the government in the face? Are there not enough Latinos in the state to warrant it?).

IBD: In federal lawsuits, defendants may answer litigation filed against them with a counterclaim against the plaintiff for damages or other relief.

The Constitution of the United States mandates at Article 4: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government … that the United States shall protect each of them (the states) against invasion and … against domestic violence.”

“Republican form of government” is defined as a republic that is a system of government in which the people hold sovereign power and elect representatives to exercise that power.

To “guarantee” means to warrant or undertake that something has happened or will happen. The term “invasion” is (regarding a country or territory ) a hostile incursion.

The term “shall” used in the third person singular denotes an imperative, without discretion or choice. Thus, the phrase “shall guarantee” leaves no wiggle room.

Remedies for breach of guarantee are damages (expenses incurred in repairing guaranteed product) or rescission (return of product for refund of purchase price — i.e., “money back” guarantee).

Recently, the federal government — the present regime in particular — has not only violated the guarantee of republican form of government and the pledge to protect Arizona from invasion and domestic violence, but has actively worked to achieve the exact opposite result.

By the federal government’s determined resistance to enforcing existing federal law against illegal immigration and attempting to penalize Arizona for attempting to cope with illegal immigration on its own, the federal government has crassly flouted its obligation to guarantee a republican form of government for the state of Arizona.

One of the most effective means for destroying a republic is to bankrupt it and beggar its people.

It’s the only thing Obama & Co ARE good at.

This is what befell Rome, which went from a republic to what would now be called a dictatorship as a result of the financial drain on the country resulting from the empire.

In the case of Arizona, recent figures disclose that illegal immigration costs the state $2.5 billion annually. This amounts to approximately $400 for every man, woman and child in the state, which has a population of less than 7 million.

The federal government has not only filed litigation against Arizona, but informed an association of Arizona sheriffs that it intends to prosecute as an example at least one deputy for enforcing Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration legislation (SB 1070).

There are reports the administration is seeking ways to cease doing business with Arizona and is encouraging other states to do the same, to exercise economic coercion on the state.
The administration has praised the efforts of states such as California for economically boycotting Arizona. The sanctions the administration has imposed on Arizona are hardly less draconian than those that the same administration has imposed on Iran to prevent Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. All this for Arizona’s daring to exercise its republican form of government and passing widely popular legislation in a manner completely consistent with Arizona’s Constitution.

The Obama administration has thus tried to take control of Arizona and abridge/suppress its republican government in substance and in process.

Also violated by the federal government is the pledge to protect Arizona from invasion. The enormous influx of illegal immigrants into Arizona—uninvited, demanding and belligerent—clearly constitutes a hostile incursion.

The surge in illegal immigration has brought with it crime and violence. Phoenix is now the kidnap capital of America as a result of the Mexican gangs that have invaded Arizona using kidnapping as a form of turf acquisition and protection.

Notably, on the Independence Day weekend this year a Mexican drug gang announced that the border with Mexico and Arizona was “moved” several miles into Arizona whereby Interstate Highway 8 would now be the border. There was no response to this by the Obama administration.

I feel I should point out that Insterstate 8 is not “several miles from the border. It is a LOT of miles from the border!!

Interstate 8 starts/ends at  Interstate 10 just south of  Casa Grande, AZ. THAT IS 40 Miles from My house in South Phoenix!!!!

That is 134 miles from the Nogales, AZ on the border!!!

What we do have at the border are signs warning Americans to stay away from the gangs and cartels!!

It is undeniable that the federal government has shamelessly and willfully violated its guarantee and pledges under Article 4, constituting suitable grounds for counterclaims by Arizona against the federal government.

The question is whether the remedy for such violation should be rescission or damages. If the latter, a figure of $2.5 billion annually could be employed per the latest studies projected backward as well as forward. As to the rescission alternative (the “money back” guarantee, whereby the contract is undone or rescinded), this would constitute rescission of the breached agreement whereby Arizona entered the union in 1912.

Gaspers in disbelief regarding rescission/secession should know that there is nothing sacrosanct about the federal government; only the Constitution is inviolable. When the federal government willfully refuses to comply with a constitutional mandate, the Constitution can be upheld only by implementing its provisions, in this case the “money back” guarantee.

An independent Arizona can contract with the federal government for defense, as do small cities with the counties in which they are located, for police/fire protection. The outsourcing of defense by an independent Arizona might be expensive, but with the money saved from illegal immigration, Arizona could afford it.

The federal government might even make money on the deal and, for the first time, turn a profit on something.

To those who would label this “draconian,” the answer is this is a race to a precipice with a sheer drop greater than that of Arizona’s crown jewel, the Grand Canyon.

Personally, we’d go for damages. What’s 10 or 20 billion nowadays anyway? If the verdict came down in the early-ish morning, the Obama administration could have the money printed up by lunchtime.

After all, after the $4 Trillion Dollars in 19 Months with nothing to so for it,so what if they’d spend what another few billion…

It’s not like it’s real money to them anyhow…

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery. —Pope John Paul II

Carry me back to old Virginny

The Commonwealth of Virginia is obvious the next target for the Chicago Mob in the White House.

But will they go there? That is the question.

The Commonwealth has enacted an Illegal Immigration strategy that is very similar to Arizona, but with some key differences.

But they have also won Round 1 in the “Up Yours!” Obamacare fight. And they are just the first out of the gate.

The state of Virginia can continue its lawsuit to stop the nation’s new health care law from taking effect, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said he is allowing the suit against the U.S. government to proceed, saying no court has ever ruled on whether it’s constitutional to require Americans to purchase a product.

“While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate — and tax — a citizen’s decision not to participate in interstate commerce,” Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision.

“The congressional enactment under review — the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision — literally forges new ground and extends (the U.S. Constitution’s) Commerce Clause powers beyond its current high watermark,” Hudson said.

“Given the presence of some authority arguably supporting the theory underlying each side’s position, this court cannot conclude at this stage that the complaint fails to state a cause of action,” he wrote.

The decision is a small step, but in no way a minor matter to opponents of the health care bill rejected by all congressional Republicans but signed into law by President Obama earlier this year.
“This lawsuit is not about health care, it’s about our freedom and about standing up and calling on the federal government to follow the ultimate law of the land — the Constitution,” said Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who brought the suit. “The government cannot draft an unwilling citizen into commerce just so it can regulate him under the Commerce Clause.”

“Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has brought forward a specific and narrowly tailored objection to the Act. It warrants a full and thorough hearing in our courts. It is meritorious and constitutionally correct. … I look forward to the full hearing this fall,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Cuccinelli filed the suit almost immediately after the law was signed, arguing that it conflicts with Virginia’s legislation — also passed this year — exempting state residents from the requirement that all Americans be forced into health care coverage. Cuccinelli argued that the law violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

The Commerce Clause allows the U.S. government to regulate economic activity. But Virginia argued that it’s not economic activity when someone chooses to refrain from participating in commerce.

The U.S. government, which was defending itself through the Health and Human Services Department run by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued that everyone will need medical services at some point in their life and therefore is either a “current or future participation in the health care market,” and therefore subject to taxation.

“We do not leave people to die at the emergency room door — whether they have insurance or not. Those costs — an estimated $43 billion annually — are absorbed by everyone else paying into the health care market including doctors, hospitals and insured patients. Congress has the authority under the Commerce Clause to address that cost-shifting burdening the interstate market for health care,” argues the brief filed by the Justice Department on behalf of HHS.

“Today’s ruling is merely a procedural decision by the court to allow this case to move forward. We believe there is clear and well-established legal precedent that Congress acted within its constitutional authority in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. We are confident that the health care reform statute is constitutional and that we will ultimately prevail,” the department said in a statement.

Supporters of the law say the decision Monday is merely procedural, but the law will be proven constitutional when it gets to a hearing on the content.

“This case is really a politically motivated ploy aimed at diverting attention from the many benefits of the new law,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, which lobbied in favor of the bill. “The decision today should not distract states and the federal government from focusing on implementing the new law in the most effective way possible. The benefits of the new law are just becoming apparent, and substantially more help is on the way.”

More than a dozen state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit in Florida challenging the federal law, but Virginia’s is the first to reach a courtroom. (FOX)

Missouri voters are expected to pass a measure on Tuesday to forbid the federal government from penalizing individuals for refusing to buy health insurance. But it could be symbolic because federal law typically supersedes state laws.

The federal penalty provision does not take effect until 2014 and the Obama administration has pointed to tax credits, subsidies and other mechanisms to help those who cannot afford to buy insurance. Some 46 million people in the United States lack healthcare coverage.

The Obama administration has countered that the government always has the ability to levy taxes and that the Constitution places the federal government’s powers over the states.

Shut up and sit down, we have supreme executive power and can do anything we want! 🙂

Never before has Congress sought to use its powers under the Commerce Clause to force a private citizen to buy a good or service from another private person or entity.  If Congress can do that in the name of ensuring that everyone has health insurance, what is to stop it from ordering citizens to buy a particular brand of car to ensure that everyone has a car to drive?  The possibilities, and hence the power claimed, are virtually limitless.– Virgina AG Cucchinelli

Naturally, the Ministry of Truth and the Liberals are playing it down as no big deal. Just a “procedural” victory they all say in unison. It’s no big deal.

But the “procedural” partial victory they got in the Arizona case was a full-on party-hardy yippee! victory against the evil racists!

Fascinating… 🙂

The media’s bias and ideology shines through again!

Meanwhile, It’s Mayberry to the Rescue!

The latest ObamaCare ad, curiously out at the same time as this decision, 🙂 has Andy Griffith touting the greatness of Medicare and now ObamaCare and how it’s going to take care of Seniors.

I saw they ad, it thought it was very self-centered, arrogant, and greedy. Which means it’s perfect for Obama.

Factcheck.org:

Would the sheriff of Mayberry mislead you about Medicare? Alas, yes.

In a new TV spot from the Obama administration, actor Andy Griffith, famous for his 1960s portrayal of the top law enforcement official in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C., touts benefits of the new health care law. Griffith tells his fellow senior citizens, “like always, we’ll have our guaranteed [Medicare] benefits.” But the truth is that the new law is guaranteed to result in benefit cuts for one class of Medicare beneficiaries — those in private Medicare Advantage plans.

The White House released the ad on the 45th anniversary of the Medicare program, and said it would run nationally on cable TV networks. Griffith, whose “Andy Griffith Show” was a TV comedy hit at the time Medicare was first enacted in 1965, explains the “good things” that the new health care law will mean for Medicare beneficiaries.

“This year, like always, we’ll have our guaranteed benefits,” he says. An announcement of the ad on the White House website reinforces that claim, saying: “Under the Affordable Care Act … Seniors guaranteed Medicare benefits will remain the same.” But the truth is, for millions of seniors, benefits won’t remain the same.

As we wrote most recently last December, about 10 million Medicare Advantage recipients could see their extra benefits reduced by an average of $43 per month, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And more recently, a detailed analysis by the Medicare program’s own chief actuary, Richard Foster, stated in April:

Medicare Actuary Richard Foster: The new provisions will generally reduce MA rebates to plans and thereby result in less generous benefit packages. We estimate that in 2017, when the MA provisions will be fully phased in, enrollment in MA plans will be lower by about 50 percent (from its projected level of 14.8 million under the prior law to 7.4 million under the new law).

Even the head of the White House Office of Health Reform, Nancy-Ann DeParle, acknowledges that Medicare Advantage benefits are going to be reduced. “I’m sure that some of those additional benefits have been nice,” the Wall Street Journal quoted her as saying in a July 25 report. “But I think what we have to look at here is what’s fair and what’s important for the strength of the Medicare program long term.”

A Weasel Word

So how can the Obama administration claim that “guaranteed Medicare benefits will remain the same”? The answer is that the term “guaranteed” is a weasel word — a qualifier that sucks the meaning out of a phrase in the way that weasels supposedly suck the contents out of an egg. It may sound to the casual listener as though this ad is saying that the benefits of all Medicare recipients are guaranteed to stay the same — and that may well be the way the ad’s sponsors wish listeners to hear it. But what the administration is really saying is that only those benefits that are guaranteed in law will remain the same.

There’s even a section in the new law (section 3601) that says: “Nothing in the provisions of, or amendments made by, this Act shall result in a reduction of guaranteed benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act” (the title that establishes the Medicare program). Section 3602 says even Medicare Advantage recipients won’t suffer any reduction of “any benefits guaranteed by law.”

But here’s the catch: The extra benefits generally offered by Medicare Advantage plans aren’t guaranteed by law. They are offered by private insurance companies as inducements. The companies have been able to offer somewhat more generous packages than traditional, fee-for-service Medicare because the system pays them as much as 40 percent more per patient than it pays for traditional Medicare, according to the chief actuary. The average in 2009 was about 14 percent more, according to the most recent analysis by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, issued in February. But the new law generally eliminates the extra payments in the coming years. Foster, the chief actuary, estimates that federal spending for Medicare Advantage will be reduced by $145 billion over the law’s first decade.

Currently, about 1 in every 4 Medicare beneficiary is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. For many of them, the words in this ad ring hollow, and the promise that “benefits will remain the same” is just as fictional as the town of Mayberry was when Griffith played the local sheriff.

But Barney Fife wrote the Law and now expects you believe them when they say, it’s for your own good. 🙂

The The American Spectator and American’s For Tax Reform:

The Spectator blog reports on a conference call held this morning by HHS Secretary Sebelius to promote a new report regarding the health law’s impact on Medicare.  Questioned about claims by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ chief actuary that the Medicare reductions in the law “cannot be simultaneously used to finance other federal outlays and to extend the [Medicare] trust fund” solvency, Secretary Sebelius replied that

There are two different operating methods of looking at this, and the CMS actuary in the report that you cite differs in his strategic opinion from every accounting methodology that’s used for every other program in the federal budget, that has traditionally used for Medicare.  And he has a different interpretation that is not agreed upon by either the Congressional Budget Office or the OMB or traditionally in Congress.

Unfortunately for the Secretary, however, the Congressional Budget Office has on numerous occasions confirmed that any claims the law will improve Medicare’s solvency revolve around notional double-counting under federal budgetary conventions.  A January CBO letter found that “the majority of the [Medicare] trust fund savings…would be used to pay for other spending and therefore would not enhance the ability of the government to pay for future Medicare benefits.”  And in a March letter, CBO quantified the amount of that double-counting, estimating that, if the law’s Medicare savings were actually set aside to improve the solvency of the Medicare trust fund (as opposed to being used for other spending), the bill would increase the deficit by $260 billion over its first ten years alone.

In other words, the CBO agrees with the CMS actuary that the same money the same money can’t be used twice – once to expand coverage, and a second time to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund.  The Secretary’s statement that “there are two different operating methods of looking at this,” and that CBO disagrees with the Administration’s own actuaries on the impact of this budgetary double-counting, is demonstrably FALSE.

But don’t worry, the Ministry of Truth is right on top of it. 🙂

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/03/pkg.tuchman.sanctuary.city.cnn?hpt=C2

President Obama described officials who “demagogue” immigration or take sudden “anti-immigrant” stances as people who want to make a name for themselves and not help solve what he called “a national problem.” (CBS)

But his demagoguery is not worth mentioning. 🙂

“I understand the frustration of people in Arizona,” Mr. Obama said. “But what we can’t do is demagogue the issue, and what we can’t do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, ‘I’m going to be anti-immigrant, and I’m going try to see if I can solve the problem ourself.’ This is a national problem.”– on CBS “Early Show”

But I end on a Vote of No Confidence  on ICE Director John Morton, from his own people.

http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/view_online.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkfyi.com%2Fcc-common%2Fmlib%2F622%2F08%2F622_1280843100.pdf

or http://kfyi.com/pages/jimsharpe.html

But don’t it’s all for your own good. We are the Washington Elites, we are just better than you unwashed peasant masses.

And now the New York City government elites says it’s ok for there to be a 13-story Islamic Mosque 600 yards from Ground Zero built by a guy who believes in Shiria Law in America.

Doesn’t that just make you feel safer about the government. 🙂

It’s a Tough Life

Reportedly, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano spends lots of time at the Opera, in The President’s box. (WW)

It’s much better than reading The AZ immigration Law.

Or Securing the border AGAINST Illegal Aliens.

You just put out alerts that known islamic radical recruiters may try and cross the border.

Even when you can’t call them “radical islamists”, and barely utter the word “terrorist”.

And you aren’t planning on doing anything about it anyhow.

You give Obama the idea to make the same show piece “look ma, I’m doing something” move by sending 1,200 troops to sit around and do paperwork but make it look like your “securing” the border.

It worked, so you thought, when you were Governor. So why not do it again, but on a grander scale.

Kind of like the Opera.

After all, last year you said the terrorists you were worried about were “right wingers” and military people, OUR military people.

Who cares about actual terrorists.

Certainly not our Big Sis.

Then, the latest spin from the White House on the Joe Sestek case, that they took nearly 2 weeks after the primary (and 3 months after Sestak first said it) where he defeated Obama-backed Arlen Specter, to say that the offer they made to him which would have been a crime if it was quid pro quo goes like this, according to the White House…

Rahm “Never let a crisis go to waste” Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, asked Bill Clinton to ask Joe Sestek if he’d be interested in an “non-compensated” Government promotion (of sorts).

And so, the report this morning that former President Bill Clinton was tasked by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to make such an approach to Rep. Joe Sestak — allegedly offering him an unpaid advisory role on an intelligence board in exchange for getting him to drop his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) — would not normally raise much of a stir in official Washington.

That the story has become a major controversy, a regular fixture on cable news chat shows and a momentum-killer for Sestak following his come-from behind victory against Specter in last week’s Pennsylvania primary is evidence of how the White House mishandled the controversy, according to conversations with several high-level Democratic strategists.

“How do you make something out of nothing?,” asked one such operative who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the matter. “By acting guilty when you’re innocent.”

Another senior party official said that the White House “has a lot of egg on their face” and described the events as a “PR nightmare”.

So they couldn’t even handle this without screwing it up. And you want to trust The Supreme Court, Health Care, Congress, and the nations future to these nuckleheads?!

But you have to admire Obama for choosing Bill Clinton as the patsy. You have a President that was impeached (just not removed from office) for PERJURY as your star player!!

And, his biggest rival, Hillary, has another, “Oh, Bill…” moment to deal with.

Very savvy.

So I wonder what Bill Clinton got out of it?

So, no gentle readers, I don’t buy this lipstick on this pig.

If it was this <bleep>ing simple and you could off-load it onto Bill Clinton why the hell did you wait so long?

Why all the stonewalling?

Repeatedly.

Because they were working on this “explanation”. They had to manufacture it.

It had to sound plausible so that even the Liberal Media that was hounding them would buy it.

That’s why.

Kind of like the Administration protestation that they were on the Oil Spill from “Day One” but never mentioned it until Day 8.

And Never, to this day, have even acknowledged the 500-year flood in Tennessee.

Other than knowing it’s where Al Gore was from, do they even know where it is?

And why was that not a crisis?

Nothing to exploit, apparently.

So will Bill Clinton be behind the Oil spill and the Birth Certifcate also?

Ah, shucks… 😦

Allies of the White House argue that the Sestak situation was less PR blunder than conscious choice to accept some short term pain for long term gain (or at least less long term pain).

Their argument is that the White House could have pushed out an answer to the Sestak job controversy quickly but, in so doing, would have run the risk of not having all the facts of a relatively complex situation straight — making it a real possibility that they would be bludgeoned by the press if there was a mistake or inconsistency in the original statement.(Washington Post).

They had to get their story straight first, and hide the bodies and the evidence….:(

Kind like that fishy story of Obama going to see his “grandmother” very unexpectedly during the campaign when the Birth Certificate was a hot issue and then the Officials in Hawaii comes out says “there’s not thing see here!”

It’s smells rotten.

At Least Obama has one Clinton willing to throw down his “honor” for the cause though.

Hey Bill, Can I get you to…. <fill in the blank>

Aw, Shucks, Barack… 😦

Congressman Darell Issa (who has been pushing for a Special Investigator):

“The White House has offered a version of events that has important differences from what Congressman Sestak has been saying for months – that he was offered a ‘job’ by ’someone in the White House’ in exchange for leaving the Pennsylvania Senate race.

“I’m very concerned that…the White House has…worked to craft a story behind closed doors and coordinate with those involved.”

“The White House has admitted today to coordinating an arrangement that would represent an illegal quid-pro-quo as federal law prohibits directly or indirectly offering any position or appointment, paid or unpaid, in exchange for favors connected with an election.

“..Regardless of what President Clinton or Congressman Sestak now say, it is abundantly clear that this kind of conduct is contrary to President Obama’s pledge to change ‘business as usual’ and that his Administration has engaged in the kind of political shenanigans he once campaigned to end.”

Now, if only he could get BP, Illegal Aliens, and that “laser like focus on Jobs” to go away so he could enjoy his “vacation” in Chicago and then get back to taking over more industries and destroying more “greedy” capitalist!

Damn, he needs to play more Golf while Rome burns! 🙂

Unobtainium

I finally saw “Avatar” last night.

While it has a very slow build, when it goes it really goes.

And I am also aware of the very Liberal leanings of the film.

The Environment. Destruction. Colonization. Raping the planet etc.

After all, the mineral they are after was “unobtainium”.

That is a real word.

Engineers have long (since at least the 1950s) used the term unobtainium when referring to unusual or costly materials, or when theoretically considering a material perfect for their needs in all respects save that it doesn’t exist.

The Miracle cure.

I am also aware now of the “depression” factor being described.

And I think that’s more spiritual than material.

After all, what is one of the things Liberals hate most, Christians.

Who found this country, Christians (Puritan sect to be specific).

If you’re a Christian you’ve got to be some kind of right-wing extremist who wants to cram their religion down everyone’s throat! 🙂

I am not a Christian, per se. That is a topic for another day. But I am spiritual.

Which is usually enough to get branded as a right-wing hatemonger anyhow. 😦

So the Liberal answer is to ban religion as much as they possible can from everything. That way “no one” is “offended”. No one, meaning them.

Their god is government. Their god is power.

And they want to everyone to worship them for it or else.

But like a good piece of art, you can see other things in it.

“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.” One online form leader wrote.

Some other have seen it as the Ugly American vs. The Noble Savage.

I saw it as The Tea Party Americans Vs. The Washington Machine (both Republican and Democrat)

The biggest differences are that the Machine has the home field advantage, the technology, and the power.

We are the dumb hick savages who want Less Government Control, Spending Restraint, National Security and Pride in America.

For that we are mocked. Degraded. spit upon.

By them.

By their 90% control of the media.

By their minions, the Liberal Left.

And they aren’t even interested in our concerns.

They may play at it, but their not.

So we are out gunned.

We have won battles in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts.

But the final battle is 9 months away.

That’s a long time.

The Liberal Media spent the better part of a decade, and the Politically Correct the better part of a generation working towards their ultimate goal in 2008.

They aren’t going to give up without a major fight.

We can try and persuade the Republicans to come on board with us, as Sarah Palin said at the Tea Party Convention.

There’s no hope for the Liberal Left. They are definitely the occupying force.

They are the Empire and we are the Ewoks.

And they will not go quietly.

And we both speak the same language and have the same cultural background. So we are aliens on our own soil.

That just makes it even harder.

Eywa, the god of the Nav’i.

The Constitution, the most sacred document in the American experience.

And we the noble savages of the Independents, we The tea Party Nation, want it back.

The Washington Machine is there to self-perpetuate. That’s is all.

Bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake.

And we need to hunker down with our Ancestors:

George Washington.

Thomas Jefferson.

James Madison.

Ben Franklin.

Abraham Lincoln.

We need to honor our ancestors. Not spit on them.

That is the harmony we need back.

And it’s going to be a very nasty fight.

And no guarantee of a good Hollywood ending here.

This is reality.

And reality is unfair.

Reality is a bitch.

But we have to fight. For no other reason that the memories we have of when The American Dream meant something. When work hard and you will succeed meant something.

When leaving the next generation the fruits of our labors and freedoms did not mean generational theft on a grand scale for the sake of the here and now.

To once again, let our vision and reach exceed our grasp.

It’s what made us great.

But we have lost our way.

But if we don’t stop this now we will be lost.

And The American Dream, will be just that a dream, with no chance of Reality.

Then we really should be depressed.