Hot Time in Cancun

The Climate Conference has taken it's carbon emitting show on the road again, this time to Cancun. After several long, lazy days frolicking in the sun, you would think it might occur to them that a big, hot ball in the sky plays some role in warming trends on Planet Earth. However, you would be wrong:

The Cancun deal commits all countries to keeping temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) by reducing emissions. Rich countries have agreed to consider an extension of the Kyoto Protocol while poor countries will sign up to emission cuts for the first time. There are also a series of key decisions on setting up a green fund to help poor countries cope with climate change and halting deforestation.

"Reducing emissions." That's climate-speak for "reducing economic activity," which is in turn a policy wonks way of saying "reducing human attempts to survive and prosper."

These Climate worshippers are nothing more than Luddites with expense accounts.

 Continue.....

Christian Values

Although there is something a little chilling when Germany veers towards a renewed nativism, nevertheless, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently made some of the healthiest comments I have heard in a long while regarding Muslim immigration and assimilation, comments that bear strongly on our own immigration issues.

Of particular interest is her demand that immigrants adopt "Christian values."  Contrary to the inevitable hysteria from the Left warning of an incipient theocracy, Merkel is referring to Christian societal prohibitions on forced marriages and the like.  As such, she is equating Christian values with Western liberal democratic values, as opposed to, say, totalitarian systems like Sharia.

Translating to America, this is no less true.  As Calvin Coolidge reminded us in one of the great Presidential speeches of all time, our founding principles of tolerance, freedom, and democracy were born out of decades of preaching from the Christian churches enunciating just those same principles.  For instance, Coolidge tells us that it was the Rev. John Wise of Massachusetts who wrote a book in 1717 on the principles of civil government.  Reprinted in 1772, this book was declared to "have been nothing less than a textbook of liberty for our Revolutionary fathers." 

Christian values in the American sense are precisely the founding principles of the Republic as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, and there is simply no reason to take any immigrant into this country who has a problem with such things.

And for the same reason, there is simply no reason to exclude religion and religious talk from the public square, as has been the goal of our societal betters since the 1960's.  But that is another subject that I shall leave for later.

Obama Audaciously Suspicious

This just in from your President: Citizens who decide to engage in the public debate prior to an election are ..... suspicious.

White House press spokesperson Robert Gibbs (D., Stay Puff Marshmallow Man) responds to Jake Tapper yesterday about the Administration's attacks on the Chamber of Commerce with the following:

This isn’t just the Chamber. American Crossroads. American Groups for Blue Skies, Mom and Apple Pie. There are all these great groups out there, that we now know they’re doubling down on even more money in this election to influence its outcome.

Funny he didn't include the AFL, CIO, SEIU, and a slue of other alphabet groups out there pumping money into the electoral process. And as far as questionable funding sources, was there anything that topped the suspicious meter like the almost $1 billion raised by Mr. Obama himself in the 2008 elections? Curious how so much of that money came from people with gobble-degook names, located in foreign capitals, and/or in amounts just below the requirement for specific identification. But, well, nothing to see here, people; move along now.

"Spending money to influence the outcome of elections" is another way of saying "getting involved in the democratic process." Which is sub-specie the First Amendment and all those other rights which the President took an oath to uphold and protect.

But I guess the President's oath was just another one of those promises which come with an expiration date.

Re: Vaughn Walker

Nice hypothetical, Easy.  Here's a better one: what if space aliens came down and took over Dunkin' Donuts?  That's about as likely as our Congressional representatives passing legislation whose only purpose was to destroy the black family.  Can you say "Straw Man?"

But you actually high-light an important point.  A regularly passed Statute has a legislative history that can be used to interpret the Statute.  In essence, our elected representatives give actual testimony during the debates as to their intentions in voting for or against the Statute.  In this sense, a representative's psychological intentions can be, and often are, public policy as well.  Even in this context however judicial interpretation of a Statute is severely constrained.  Individual representative's intentions cannot change the plain meaning of the legislation, nor the obvious public policy it embodies. 

 These same limitations are even more constraining on the judiciary in the context of a referendum.  In a referendum, the people themselves vote, and there is nothing comparable to the legislative history of a Statute to appeal to.  Campaign ads and sound bites leading up to the vote are just not comparable to legislative debates, and the ultimate rationale followed in the voting booth proper can only be a matter of speculation.

 Proposition 8 merely codified a wide spread social organization that everybody understod was between a man and a woman.  It was not ambiguous, and clearly had only one purpose: to maintain the status quo.  As such, appeals to voter intentions for possible nefarious motives is ridiculous and a complete dereliction of Judge Walker's duties as a Federal Court Judge.

Re: Vaughn Walker

Thanks, Whit. It was getting a little stuffy down there.

As for Vaughn Walker, a question: you state that the psychological intentions of the "mouth-breathing racists" would not matter in a Constitutional challenge to the Welfare State. But what if the Congressional record showed in the passing of the legislation that the only rationale for such was to destroy the black family? Wouldn't that rate a Constitutional word or two?

Paging Ezra Yeats

Wow.  It's really true.  If you wake up the Longfellow clan, they can get really grumpy. They're gone, Easy.  You can come out of your bunker now.

Vaughn Walker

Vaughn Walker is a travesty of a Judge, as I detailed here.  The latest: Judge Walker's ruling against California Proposition 8 proponents, who simply exercised their constitutional right to amend their State constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.  For Judge Walker the citizens were not exercising their right to self-government, but diabolically seeking to advance "the belief that opposite-sex couples are morally superior to same-sex couples." "Diabolical" because none of the principle advocates for Proposition 8 actually voiced such a rationale.  Nevertheless, their real agenda was secretly injected into the consciousness of the public which voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 8.  In the nick of time, however, Judge Walker - who apparently can see into the very souls of the people around him - discovered the subterfuge.  This is what our Constitutional jurisprudence has come to? Continue ....

Re: Reality Bites

Oh, Archie, there you are.  Listen, I was just out in my garage, and there are some things missing: 5 transistors from my antique radio; a pair of wire cutters and a wrench; and 23 cans of oil (5W-40).

Now, I am not concerned about petty theft.  You went down that road a long time ago, beginning with the toy prizes in my boxes of Coco Puffs, and I have long since accepted the matter.  And I do not begrudge you your friends.  As the Good Book says, to those who have little, much will be given, and friend-wise you most definitely have very, very little.

But I do think buying off friends with little gifts is not a good long term strategy.  I am sure Robby has many fine qualities, but anyone who would befriend you for a bit of oil and some trinkets is not going to be there during the hard times.  Like when you step in one of the bear traps I have set around the garage, or get zapped by the Home Defender electrical mats (set to maximum) guarding the entrance-ways to the house.

Further, I'm not sure you and Robby are good for each other.  You are aware that "erroneous prevarication" is a double negative meaning the exact opposite of what you intended?  As for Robby, "lewd" and "lascivious" is near redundant, indicating a possible electrical glitch firing his internal thesaurus at inappropriate times.  I suggest you both might put the ping-pong paddles down and seek outside help.

Please accept this advice in the spirit in which it is given.  After all, I am your only sister, which is almost as important to me as being Chairman of the local Policeman's Benefit Society, an organization that has enabled our local boys in blue to outfit the best SWAT team in the business.  You ought to see how quickly they can reach the scene of a crime!  And they are all such lovely boys, lovely boys, who truly seem to care about me and my property.

Well, that's all for now.  Tell Robby 010111110001001100011 for me.

Re: Reality Bites

Mr. Yeats.  Your post regarding the reasons for my recent retirement is beyond speculative, falling deep into the rabbit hole of erroneous prevarication.  Robby (introduced here) thinks you are also lewd and lascivious, but I don't think he knows what those words mean.  In addition, can you possibly believe that it is at all appropriate to describe a part of my Pulitzer level work as a "little funny ho-ho?"  If so, then you betray a functional illiteracy underlying your innate deceit. I'll close with a gentle reminder of what robot rage can look like, and a question: do you really think you are properly equipped for such a confrontation?  Have a nice day.

Reality Bites

The Mercurial Pundit just cruises along within the rhythmic ambience of its own eccentric drummer, and keeps tripping over reality.  Herewith an example.

First, there's this little funny ho-ho from our own Archibald, speculating on the absurdity of an Administration that might be so clueless as to spend Stimulus Funds on nothing but signs to tout the spending of the Stimulus Funds. Click here for the whole thing, but here is the imagined Stimulus signage ordered up by an Obami bureacrat:

Some months pass, and lo and behold a real controversy breaks out over, you guessed it, the absurdity of expending Stimulus Funds on .... signage touting the Stimulus Fund:

 This all raises the question: when an Administration is beyond parody, what is a political cartoonist to do? Take up ping-pong, I guess.

Free Speech for We, but not for Thee

Good news at last!  To a guy like me who was black-balled by every fraternity and student association on campus in my college days, including the Red Cross and Soup Kitchen Services student groups (it's a long story), the Supreme Court's latest is heartening.

It seems that Ms. Justice Ginsburg is full-throated in her desire to protect college student's free speech rights.  So, in a Supreme Court ruling handed down on Monday, she is unequivocal about the free speech rights of a campus Christian organization at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, which advocated against homosexuality. Her only problem with the whole thing was that the group also limited its membership to heterosexuals and .... get this .... Christians.  This, she opines, is not free speech at all, but just rank discrimination, and certainly the University could refuse to charter the group as a student organization.  She states: "[The University] may reasonably draw a line in the sand permitting all organizations to express what they wish but no group to discriminate in membership."

This is nothing short of brilliant.  She is able to reach down into her boundless intellect and discern a heretofore undiscovered distinction between a group and the members of that group.  A campus group is an entity which has opinions and has the constitutional right to freely express itself without hindrance by the University.  The membership of the group, however, can be dictated by the University, presumably because there is no necessary connection between the opinions of any member of the group and the group itself.  Thus, the Neo-Nazi Party might be composed of racist neanderthals, or it might be a rare alliance between the Amish and Quakers.  How can we know?

Continue.......

Goodbye

I have just paid the final installment on my personal robot ping-pong player.  It was a teaser ad which lead me to this site.  It said "Play Ping-Pong by Yourself!."  I realized immediately that this was the last element I needed to totally isolate myself from each and every one of you.  So, this is goodbye.  Please don't call; Robby and I are dedicated to The Game and will not condescend to use Old World technologies like tele- or cell-phones.  And don't come by.  I cannot be responsible for any robot rage which might ensue.

Job Creation Obama Style

Despite my deep dislike of all-things Obama, I have to disagree with my compatriots on the Right in sounding the alarms over Sestak-Gate, which is now spiraling down into the fetid political pond of Romanoff-Gate.  Patronage is as old as civilization, and an indispensable factor in political governance.  If a political party cannot stock its administration with its own, then it cannot govern.  In fact, the Congressional intervention of the last decades into Executive branch administration of its agencies by prohibiting President's from firing "career" personnel for political reasons is primarily responsible for the entrenchment of Washington bureaucracies into bunkered power centers.  As a result, we now have a fourth branch of government, the third, fourth, and fifth level bureaucrats with life tenure, who calcify worn out policies into the body politic and continuously oppose new Presidents and new agendas. Gridlock results.  What is needed is political patronage, which would tow away all the 1950's and 1960's junk heaps and jalopies, clearing the streets for newer models which will navigate the city in accordance with new rules of the road as determined by democratic consensus.  That the political appointees and the political party that appoints them reap personal benefits from the arrangement is only a by-product of having any kind of government at all.  If you don't like it, downsize and eliminate all these government jobs.  You would have my hearty support. What is most revealing about this whole affair, however, is the absolute tin-ear of the Obami. Continue....

The 8 pound Flotilla in the Room

The Flotilla Incident in the Mediterranean occurred, and the verdict is in. Israel made a decision in " ... advance, premeditated and with determination to kill and to create a confrontation with these people, and to take them all to ports in Israel. Israel always ignores all international norms, all international laws, all humanitarian laws. [Israel] doesn’t care about anything." The evidence, of course, will be reviewed at some later time, assuming anyone is still interested.

Even conservative supporters of Israel's right to regulate its borders and defend itself seem curiously flummoxed by the whole affair. Max Boot of Commentary tosses around words like "incompetent" and "fiasco" in sizing up the Israeli Defense Forces handling of the matter, seriously undercutting his stated aim of "constructive criticism." The best analysis by far in my opinion is Noah Pollack, who correctly identifies Israeli (and by extension, US supporters of Israel) error in resorting to a defensive strategy in the face of world denunciation. By any international standards of the sovereign rights of the State to protect its people from aggression, Israel was in the right in its actions. But, although certainly germane to the issue, a mere defense against the charges is a weak and ineffective response in the face of the rabid echo chamber Israel finds itself in. Mr. Pollack goes on to detail numerous offensive strategies Israel could have adopted, all of which I agree with.

But the central point in this whole affair is this:  the Flotilla Incident is a tempest in a tea pot, an 8 pound baby flotilla in the room which deserves not a moment of reflection.

Continue....

An Enlightened Character

Easy, in your post of May 10 ("Debt Up to Our ...), you state: "For the Administration, however, American economic dynamism is precisely what is wrong with America and the world.  America's economic power feeds the American Beast of Capitalism (bad), Colonialism and Exploitation (worse), and a War-Mongering Militant Culture (evil), which is edging the world ever closer to Nuclear Annihilation." In an interview with Michael Totten, Paul Berman makes much the same point vis a vis the mind-set of the Western apologists of Islamism: "We look at ourselves in the Western countries and we say that, if we are rich, relatively speaking, as a society, it is because we have plundered our wealth from other people. Our wealth is a sign of our guilt. If we are powerful, compared with the rest of the world, it is because we treat people in other parts of the world in oppressive and morally objectionable ways. Our privileged position in the world is actually a sign of how racist we are and how imperialistic and exploitative we are. All the wonderful successes of our society are actually the signs of how morally inferior we are, and we have much to regret and feel guilty about." The real basis for screwy thinking like this is the historical degeneration of the Western Enlightenment into bilious abstractions no more concrete than the older religious metaphysics.  Rich societies are rich because they enjoy the freedom to form mini voluntary associations with others in mutually beneficial exchanges.  This concrete rational conclusion about what capitalism is totally escapes our current intellectual elite because they are locked into quasi-Jungian/Freudian/Marxist abstractions that care not for the intentions and motivations of real, concrete people, but point rather to a deep, unconscious reality of which real people are just pawns. Continue......

Gay? Don't Ask

Reporters keep asking the White House to comment on the fact that, according to CBS News and some other sources, its Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, is gay.  Since this is the gay-friendliest Administration in history, you would think such questions were uber softball.  Speech writers could just dust off some of their old texts, substitute "sagacious Sapphic" for "wise Latina," and the Obami could drone on endlessly about shattered glass ceilings, a voice for the mute, and a new emphasis on fashion in an institution mired in bleak, black-robed pullovers.  They could then finish with their usual flourish about the latest history-in-the-making moment of an Administration that is nothing if not the greatest history maker in the history of history.  Instead, the White House bristles at such questions, blasting CBS News for "posting lies," and stating emphatically that the " ... reference to Ms. Kagan as gay is inaccurate." Not that there is anything wrong with being gay, of course. The Administration is just angry because ..... ehrmm, uh .... Well.  I'll have to read through all this stuff again and get back to you on that.

Debt Up to Our ... [Pick Your Fav Anatomy Part]

John Steele Gordon clarifies the Ticking Debt Bomb set to go off in our midst. He states in part:

Moody’s projects that the cost of federal-debt service could reach 22.8 percent of government revenues as soon as 2013.

That would not only threaten our credit rating and drive up still further the cost of borrowing, but also increasingly constrain the ability of the government to pursue American interests. In the 1920s Britain was paying over 40 percent of revenues to service its debt from World War I, gravely limiting its ability to function as a Great Power. In the 1780s France was spending over 80 percent of revenues to pay interest on its debt, no small reason why the 1780s didn’t end well for the French monarchy.

However, he then concludes in puzzlement:

The people seem increasingly aware of this looming threat. Just ask Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, denied nomination to a fourth term yesterday largely because he voted for the TARP bill in 2008. But do the political class and the Washington media?

I would answer: of course they do. The Obami made it very plain during the campaign that they sought a Reaganesque Presidency, in which America would be "fundamentally changed." Conservatives seem to think this meant the Obami wanted an American renewal like Reagan's, with rapid growth and low unemployment, but engineered with Liberal policies and economic restructuring.

For the Administration, however, American economic dynamism is precisely what is wrong with America and the world.

Continue......

Tea Party: Silent No More

Continued from here.

Let's return to the 1960's, when Richard Nixon famously courted what he called America's Silent Majority. He insisted that there was a vast swath of the American electorate that was center-right in its proclivities that was largely ignored in political circles in favor of a more vocal minority.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and so too did the loud trumpeters of the Left get the media coverage. 

Richard Nixon attempted to give voice to these heretofore undetected voters, but met with mixed success. Ultimately, it was his Southern Strategy (attracting an entirely different type of voter) which bagged him the White House in 1968. The Silent Majority itself never really fell for Mr. Nixon's dubious charms, nor for Gerald Ford in 1976. But it existed, and a good case can be made that the Christian Right was a major part of it, finally coming out of the closet in the late 1970's. 

In my opinion, the Tea Partiers are the remainder of the Silent Majority, finally awakened from their slumbers by the political seismic shocks visited on America by President Obama.

Continue post ......

Tea Party: Silent No More

Click the title for all posts in this series.

Despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party and the national media, it seems the Tea Partiers will not don the racist-militia-angry-white clown suits their betters have made for them. The latest obstacle to the Democrat's pr machinations? A survey by Gallup placing the TP'ers solidly in the demographic mainstream of America. That's right; on income, education, sex, race, et al., these people mirror the broad middle of America itself.

Only on party affiliation do the results skew towards Republicans, but this is by no means a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. Independents are just as likely to be Tea Partiers, and are represented in this movement in about the same proportion as they are in the general population.

So, Tea Partiers are not the fringe of American society; they are Everyman. But that something is everything tells you exactly nothing about what it is. Who are these people, really? And what does this movement mean for the politics of America?

Continue......

Another Rino Charging the Ranks?

It appears Gov. Crist is seceding from the Republican Party.

If this is true, then rather than accept the clear preference of Floridians for Marco Rubio for the Senate, Charlie Crist is prepping for a run as an Independent.  He cannot win; his brand of Republicanism will not fly with the base this election season, and the general public is not taking kindly to cynical political moves like this.  But Mr. Crist might siphon off enough votes to cause Rubio to lose. 

If I may be so bold as to quote myself on so-called Republicans In Name Only (Rinos):

NY-23 was another instance of the historic confrontation between two factions of the Republican Party going back more than 60 years. To name just a few of the contests: Goldwater v. Rockefeller in 1963, Reagan v. Ford in 1975, and then Reagan v. Bush (the Elder) in 1979.

The lesson for the Republican Party is the same lesson after NY-23 that it should have learned from those races: the Rino/Molted faction of the Republican Party are bitter, petty losers, who will not hesitate to savage their own party when election day comes. Rockefeller did it to Goldwater; Ford did it to Reagan when he refused to make Reagan his Vice President; and George Bush (the Elder) would have done it to Reagan if not for Reagan's statesmanlike reach across the Republican divide to tap Bush for Vice President.

And now, Crist does it to Rubio.   "Bitter, petty loser" only begins to describe Mr. Crist as he turns on the Florida Republicans who have supported him all these years.  I think Marco Rubio will win anyway, and Mr. Crist will become a tattered footnote in politics.  If so, good riddance.

Take Down

I know funny, and THIS is funny. But it's also one of the best analyses I've read of why the latter day Star Wars movies were just --- not quite right. I'd tell you to watch all 7 parts of the RedLetterMedia review, but you won't be able to stop after the first one.  So I won't.

Palin Power

Sarah Palin appears to be coming into political focus. Matthew Continetti writes:

Palin is assuming a new role as a conservative vanguard, a charismatic leader who summons the masses to battle. That is clearly what she was up to in Minnesota. The crowd, the rhetoric, the energy all confirmed that the balance of enthusiasm favors the GOP.

"Charismatic?" You betcha. Her performance in the Minnesota Republican Party campaign rally even impressed Chris Matthews:

MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews proclaimed himself "dazzled" by Bachmann's and Palin's speeches Wednesday, suggesting they may be "the new star power of the right."

Obamacare

Peter Wehner nicely sums up what the Republican Party's political agenda should be vis a vis the coming November elections.

However, he overlooks one important factor.  We now see that on almost every metric, the passage of Obamacare not only failed to improve the Democrat's prospects this Fall, but wounded them further with most voters.  That is, except for one particular group, the Democrat base.  Obamacare appears to have given the Democrat loyalists something to unify and fight for in the coming elections.**

Both the Republican and Democrat bases are small electorally, but critically important in any election. They are the cadre on the ground, getting out the vote, organizing the precincts, and seeding the campaign coffers.  Before Obamacare, the Republicans had a near perfect scenario: large majorities of Americans motivated to toss out the Democrats this Fall and a depressed and befuddled Democrat base.  Obamacare has changed that dynamic, giving the Democrat's a cause celebre to rally around.

Continue......

I'm Sorry, That Promise Has Expired

Jim Geraughty has had a signature line for the last couple of years: "All of Obama's promises come with an expiration date. All of them."  Yesterday, he compiled a complete list of the President's expired promises. Of particular note: 18 promises issued and expired within the President's first 100 days! But read the whole thing. Simply stunning.

Dawn of the New Age

Click "National Healthcare" for all posts in this series.

Good for business? Bring down costs? Ehrm, apparently not. Jennifer Rubin informs us that it took just a few days for National Healthcare to suck $4.5 billion out from the bottom lines of just three American companies.

But the Dems can fix that. Henry Waxman forthrightly announces a plan to shoot the messengers.

The New York Times scoops everyone yesterday with the shocking discovery that National Healthcare " ... may be as much of a burden to some state budgets as it is a boon to uninsured consumers." Except Philip Klein warned of precisely this problem back in July of last year. Hey, NYT, keep up the good work! I'm sure all those readers will come back some day.

Crime Wave

If you falsely accuse someone of a felony, that is slander and libel and actionable under the law.  If you do so as part of a conspiracy to infringe constitutional rights, that is itself a felony.  And if you do so as part of a deliberate political pr campaign to savage your opponents and cover up your own abuse of Congressional majorities to take over 1/6th of the American economy, then that is pornography. The "firestorm" of violence in the wake of passage of National Healthcare has not come from the Right, but the Left, and not from the fringe, but from the most mainstream actors in the national media and the Democratic Party.  They have perpetrated a crime wave of cynical politics on the Nation, and one that is both irresponsible and grossly negligent of their duties to protect the public safety.  If shouting "fire" in a crowded movie theater is illegal, then so too is shouting "threats of violence" during a national debate on a controversial public issue. All of these people should be rounded up and incarcerated for the public good. Unfortunately, under our system of laws, we will have to wait for the public flogging coming in November.

We Shall Go to Korea?

Breaking news: "A South Korean navy ship sank off the west coast near its maritime border with North Korea, officials said Saturday, prompting President Lee Myung-bak to convene a late-night meeting of security-related ministers. The 1,500-ton ship "Cheonan" went down around 9:45 p.m. near a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea, and 58 of the 104 crew members on board have been rescued so far, navy officials said." If in fact North Korea sank this ship, then renewed conflict -or at least "heightened tensions" as they say in the diplomatic trade - appears likely. Unfortunately, the Norks are now a nuclear power, meaning we may be close to the first true international nuclear crisis since the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 60's.  That such a situation may be upon us is testament to the bumbling neglect of North Korea's nuclear development program by no less than three Presidents, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. This might also be a vivid pre-qual to what will be bound to happen should the current Administration allow Iran to go nuclear, leading to a much more violent and bloody conclusion than the Norks could hope to engender.

Obama: What, Me Worry?

The President responded yesterday to those of the GOP who are promising to campaign this Fall on repealing the recently passed National Healthcare bill.  In essence, he says "Bring It On!" As I recall, that line didn't work out too well for President Bush.

Dawn of the New Age

Click the label 'National Healthcare' for all posts in this series.

Is this Healthcare reform or socialism? Before passage, the New York Times said it was Healthcare reform and Glenn Beck said socialism. After passage, the Times reaches across the aisle to Mr. Beck, and declares the essential rationale to be income redistribution. James Taranto quotes the Times' James Leonhardt as "praising ObamaCare as 'the federal government's biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago' "

Fast food will still be fast, unless you have to read a menu. Mike Riggs informs us what our Betters in Washington tucked into Healthcare.

If they can't get straight what's in the bill, Mary Katharine Ham wonders how they can run 1/6th of the American economy. Apparently, our President misstated the bill's coverages during the signing ceremony.

Dawn of the New Age

Click the label "National Healthcare" for all posts in this series.
 
President Obama crowed: "Starting this year, insurance companies will be banned forever from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions." Not so, says the AP and Daniel Foster:

Full protection for children would not come until 2014, said Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, another panel that authored the legislation. That's the same year when insurance companies could no longer deny coverage to any person on account of health problems

It appears a 2,700 page bill was not quite big enough for Congress to save the children this year, inasmuch as it was already too big for the President to actually read it before it passed.

Dawn of the New Age

Beginning herewith, a new series.  Our great and good friend, Ms. Speaker Pelosi, told us last week that passing National Healthcare would be a good thing, because then people "can find out what is in it."

Passage happened Sunday, and lo and behold, details about what's in the bill are coming out.  Most would think that such details would best be reviewed by Congresspersons and voters before the bill is signed into law, but hey, that's only going to happen in a perfect world.  And the Dems haven't promised perfection, only Utopia.

So in this series, we will offer hot-off-the presses details as and when they come available. Click the Label "National Healthcare" for all posts in this series.

Continue ......

Democrats Trumphant!

The media is all a-ga-ga over the Democrat's triumph over the forces of evil to pass National Healthcare on Sunday night.

Quite a triumph. Beginning with a super majority in the House, the Democrats could scrape up only a bare 5 vote majority for passage, through a combination of used-car hot box techniques and old fashioned Chicago style threats, graft, and corruption.  And even then, to secure the final votes Speaker Pelosi had to flush time honored House rules for crafting responsible legislation down the toilet, misrepresent the legal impact of a Presidential signing statement, and bury the vote in the media darkness of a weekend.

Big whoop. In other Democratic Party news, November is drawing nigh.

Labash's Latest: On Haiti

10,000 words. Simple, profound, moving. Real life - and death - is so much more than our busy concerns. I am at a loss to say anything else.  Just read it.

Healthcare Reform

Another Mercurial Pundit first.

Jennifer Rubin of Commentary's Contentions blog, one of our favorite go-to gals, makes the point that Healthcare is a State-regulated enterprise, and although Republicans have no ability to enact positive legislation in Congress, they certainly can do so in various State capitals.  She emphasizes the benefits this approach would have on Federalism, a worthy goal, but it is the political benefits for Conservatives and Republicans that is most important. Our own Chase Ransom fleshed out the political case for State Healthcare reform more than 3 months ago, with typical deft precision (see all posts on his topic here). 

It's nice to see the national crowds catching up to us occasionally.  It gets lonely being so far out in front.

Our Security Strategy

Right now the United States' strategy to protect itself against flying terrorists is to frisk every passenger who boards an airline. Since there are 300 million Americans, let's call this a 300 million suspects strategy. An alternative would be to weed the list down a bit. Children and the very old can obviously be excluded, so that gets us down to about 150 million. We also know that these terrorists are predominantly young males, so we can halve that number to 75 million. And not to be insensitive or anything, aren't most of these terrorists Muslims? Now we are down to about 3 million people. And finally, if we look only at Muslims with recent connections to foreign countries, we are down to something less than 35,000 people. That's about the size of a small town in America. A platoon of Barney Fife's might even be able to handle that number. Ought not our highly trained and educated members of Homeland Security, the FBI, CIA, and the State Department be able to track this number of people, given the billions of dollars in resources we've made available to them? But instead, we get the 300 million suspect strategy, in which our best and brightest focus on people like this: I feel safer already. How about you?

Midnight Abortions - Stat!

Martha Coakley, the regrettable (for Democrats) candidate put forth by Massachusetts Dems to assume the legendary Senate seat of Teddy Kennedy, recently opined that Catholics ought not to work in hospital emergency rooms.  It seems Ms. Coakley frowns on Catholic concerns about dispensing emergency contraception.

Excuse me, "emergency contraception?" What on earth could this mean? In what sense is contraception administered on an emergency basis?  The very root meaning of contraception is "prevent inception." How many emergency care patients have a critical need to do that which might result in impregnation?

Well, I really don't know. Perhaps we can put up some stimulus funds to study the matter. I suppose that lying in those hospital beds, hooked up to resuscitators, heart monitors, and the like, can be a lonely business. A little loving on the side might very well be something people need.

But of course, this is not what Ms. Coakley envisions happening in emergency rooms. She sees rape victims, upon showing up at the emergency room, needing an abortion, and if Catholics are unwilling to dispense the little abortifascient pill, these emergency needs will go unmet. Someone needs to tell Ms. Coakley that abortion has been a legal right in this country since, oh, about 1972, a factoid that Ms. Coakley ought to be familiar with since she is the Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts. There is nothing that needs to be done at 2 am in an emergency room that cannot be done the next day, week, or month at the time and place of the victims own choosing.

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A Stinging Rebuke

Dressed up in muted legal language, the Supreme Court issued a stinging rebuke yesterday to District Court Judge Vaughn Walker and Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski for their recent shenanigans in the Proposition 8 trial in California.

Proposition 8 is the recent referendum amendment to the California Constitution passed by a solid majority establishing marriage solely as that between a man and a woman. Upon the filing of a lawsuit by gay rights advocates to overturn Proposition 8, Judges Walker and Kozinski began working desperately to change the Rules so that the trial proceedings could be televised.

In the first place, the Supremes agreed to review a motion by proponents of Proposition 8 for an extraordinary intervention to prevent the televising of the proceedings. It's hard enough to get a complaint before the Supreme Court in the first place, but to ask the Court to intervene in a controversy which had not gone through the regular appeals process is nigh on impossible.  In this case, the Court not only agreed to intervene, but issued its ruling in a stunning three days! In the second place, the Court ruled against the District Court on all counts, with not the barest hint that there was anything at all proper about the District Court's conduct. The Per Curiam opinion concluded:

The District Court attempted to change its rules at the eleventh hour to treat this case differently than other trials in the district. Not only did it ignore the federal statute that establishes the procedures by which its rules may be amended, its express purpose was to broadcast a high-profile trial that would include witness testimony about a contentious issue.

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2010

Now THIS is rather chilling. The primary point:

... the national Democrats are unnaturally and mysteriously sanguine despite growing backlash by the American people. Why? One reason: The Dems don't believe they will ever have to face a real election again.

And then Professor Gaski goes on to make a quite compelling case. Read the whole Article.

The only weakness in the Article is that he left out discussion of the Soros-funded Secretary of State Project, which we recounted here. Unfortunately, including that information in the Article only makes his argument stronger: the 2010 elections may not be the slam dunk we're all thinking it will be.

The Secretary of State Project has been in the works for years. How many critical States are prepared, waiting for another election close enough for some Leftist drone to tilt to Democrats? We don't know, and what's more, we don't have any way of knowing, because Democrats control the levers of power right now. And they are stonewalling.

There is one solution to all of this: no close elections. If the electorate can be made aware of the Democrat's machinations and true purposes, then I think the public will turn out in numbers never before seen in an American off-year election.

And do that quintessentially American thing: throw the bums out.

Another Fatwa

Prepare yourself, America.  In the wake of the Christmas bomber arrest, a major organization of Islam has issued a new Fatwa.  This is not new, of course. Hundreds of Fatwa's seem to issue from Muslim Imams each year, all bearing the same tired template of hatred and bigotry against the West, ignorance and murderous malice. It is as if they are all cranked out on some old mimeograph machine in Osama bin Laden's cave.

However .... this one IS new.  On behalf of ten million Muslims, twenty Imams affiliated with the Supreme Council of Canada have issued a bold, unambiguous Fatwa AGAINST THE TERRORISTS:

In our view, these attacks are evil and Islam requires from Muslims to stand up against this evil ... It is a duty of every Canadian and American Muslim to safeguard Canada and the USA . They must expose any person, Muslim OR non-Muslim, who would cause harm to fellow Canadians OR Americans. We, Canadian and American Muslims, must condemn and stand up against these attacks on Canada and the United States.

Most inspiring is the rationale given by these Imams:

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Christmas Bomber? This Calls for a Conference!

Almost a week after the fact, and after two previous attempts, our President finally comes out with a definitive statement in response to the Christmas bomber:

"I anticipate receiving assessments from several agencies this evening and will review those tonight and over the course of the weekend. On Tuesday, in Washington, I will meet personally with relevant agency heads to discuss our ongoing reviews as well as security enhancements and intelligence-sharing improvements in our homeland security and counterterrorism operations."

So, here are the active verbs he used: "anticipate," "receiving," "will review," "will meet personally," and "discuss." Oh, and "ongoing reviews," "security enhancements," and "intelligence-sharing improvements" are verbs, kinda, but only as subjects of a "discussion," before they become, you know, post-verbally active.

200 plus American citizens were very nearly murdered, and this is the response of America's Commander in Chief?

I am afraid that our Leader is a pocket-protected policy wonk, out of his depth with a real world attack on America.  It seems the near mass slaughter of all those on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 is just another occasion for opening a file labeled "Detroit" for meaningless emails, memos, and notes from meetings with various other people who are opening files for meaningless emails, memos, and notes.

Sheesh!  Batten down the hatches, America, your gonna take a lot of artillery before our Leaders wake up to some semblance of reality.