Eric Cantor Doesn’t Want You. He Wants Democrats.

This is more offensive than Cantor throwing his weight behind Adam Kinzinger’s re-election bid against Don Manzullo. He was successful there, but we need to shut him down in Indiana.

The Republican Leader in the House of Representatives is not backing down from trying to drive up Democrat turnout in the Indiana Republican Primary.

First, you have to wonder why a House guy is getting involved in a Senate race.

Second, you have to wonder why a Republican Leader is using Republican donors’ money to drive up Democrat turnout in a Republican race.

I wonder if the Republican donors to the Young Guns Network know their campaign donations to a Republican group are going to aid and abet Democrat turnout in a Republican race. And I hope House conservatives know their own supposedly leader is not just using their own money to pick and choose between them in the House, but to also help Barack Obama’s favorite Senator.

View the original article here

And So The Campaign Begins

I don’t think any accomplishment Obama can tout will save him from the backlash he’ll reap from having forced Obamacare down our throats.

Even if SCOTUS strikes it down in its entirety (thereby presumably taking it off the table as a campaign issue), everyone will still know what Obama is capable of, and what he and his Democrat colleagues are willing to do to achieve it. That genie is out of the bottle, and I’m betting most voters will want no more of it, Bin Laden or no Bin Laden.

In any event, killing Bin Laden does not appear to have been very successful in fostering a general perception that Democrats are turning over a new leaf to become hawks. I doubt he’ll get very much mileage out of this.

View the original article here

EPA and the White House Wash Their Hands of the ‘Crucifixion’ Mess

Earlier this week, a two-year old YouTube video surfaced that floated some raw sewage in the Obama Administration’s energy punchbowl. In it, EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Almendariz, speaking to a group of Texas citizens, chuckles while comparing his agency’s environmental enforcement strategy vis-à-vis oil and gas operators to conquering Roman legionnaires’ strategy of random crucifixion. How quaint.

So the Washington politicians did what politicians have done since Roman times: go into damage-control mode and attempt to distance themselves from the offending act. From the Washington Post:

“Frankly, [the comments] were inflammatory but also wrong,” [EPA Administrator Lisa] Jackson said Friday when asked about a YouTube video discovered this week by Oklahoma Republican Sen. James M. Inhofe’s staff. “They don’t comport with either this administration’s policy on energy, our policy at EPA on environmental enforcement, nor do they comport with our record as well.”

The offending comments were uttered, not by low-level functionary deep in the bowels of EPA, but by a Presidential appointee, the Administrator of EPA Region 6. Region 6 covers “Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and 66 Tribal Nations” and as such is home to 56% of domestic crude oil production and 59% of natural gas production. Needless to say, statements of the Region Administrator on enforcement policy carry some weight. The tough-guy policies certainly seemed consistent with the treatment of Range Resources. Range was the subject of a Region 6 “endangerment order”, an EPA accusation of groundwater contamination that was contradicted by the scientific evidence and ultimately dropped.

Plus, these weren’t the words of a leaked internal email.

In the private sector, it can be a problem when the public statements of a senior executive “don’t comport” with official policy. A recent example:

BP CEO Tony Hayward uttered the ill-advised “I’d like my life back” in the process of a public apology for the BP spill. Those five words resulted in a PR firestorm that led to Heyward’s dismissal by BP’s Board.

Twenty-nine congressmen, including all of Texas’ Republican representatives, have signed a letter calling for Almendariz’s ouster (excerpted below the fold). They have been joined in the call by Reps. Scalise, Alexander, Boustany, Fleming and Landry in Louisiana.

It is clear that [Almendariz's] deep seated biases are hindering his competent management of the office he holds. …

The men and women who work for oil and gas companies are our constituents, our friends and our neighbors. They are not criminals in need of deterrence. They are Americans who care deeply about the communities they live and work in. …

Where violations of the law take place and punishment is appropriate, there should be punishment. But no American should be subject to the spiteful whims of an Administrator who is so blinded by his ideology that he cannot discern the difference between enforcement and crucifixion.

The White House is also backing away from Almendariz’s comment. In fact, the White House totally <>hearts<> oil and gas:

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday: “The truth is better illustrated by .?.?. the impact that the administration’s policies have had, which is that oil and gas production has increased every single year that President Obama has been in office.”

This is so easily refuted as to be laughable.

First there’s this study from the Institute for Energy Research: Fossil fuel production on federal lands at 9 year low

The growth in oil and gas production has mostly been on private lands under state jurisdiction and regulation. If the Federal government deserves any credit for the increase, it is because EPA has not regulated hydraulic fracturing — but they’re thinking about it.

It is true that production of domestic oil and gas have increased each year during the Obama Administration. Officials’ ham-handed attempts to glom credit for oil production increases are ironic because the Left usually emphasizes the long lead times of oil and gas projects as a key reason to oppose them. In 2002, they opposed development of ANWR because it would take so long to bring oil to market — 10 years! — that it would hardly be worth the trouble.

No oil and gas exploration or development happens overnight. Even small onshore projects near existing infrastructure typically require six to eighteen months to satisfy all the permitting requirements and bring a well on production.

A major field would take much longer. Multiple wells are required to define the accumulation, then that estimate is used to plan the facility and pipelines required. There are usually multiple layers of permits and Environmental Impact Studies required. Ten years might be a typical delay for a really world-class field in a challenging environment like the deepwater or the Arctic.

One place where oil production has increased on Federal lands is in the Gulf of Mexico (although production remains well below levels forecast before the BP spill moratorium). A portion of the recent production increase is attributable to a handful of deepwater Gulf of Mexico fields that began producing during the Obama Administration. Of course, the plans to develop these fields were all approved under the George W. Bush Administration; some of the leases even date back to the Clinton era.

President Obama is fond of reminding people of the problems he inherited from President Bush. In oil and gas, he inherited a solution: today’s politics drive him to take credit for it, while his ideology demands he suppress it.

Crossposted at stevemaley.com.

Follow @VladimirRS
//

View the original article here

Conservatives Are Gaining, But Need Help Making Mitch McConnell’s Life Truly Miserable

We’re about a week out from the Indiana Primary. Richard Mourdock now leads Barack Obama’s favorite Republican, Dick Lugar. But it is close. Surprisingly for so many conservative activists who backed Eric Cantor for his leadership position, the House Republican Leader has decided to engage in this and other races for the more moderate and liberal candidates.

Whodathunk Eric Cantor would become like Mitch McConnell, but he is. And not only that, Eric Cantor has decided to engage in the Indiana Senate race — a Senate race, not a House race. So the cool thing is if you open your checkbook and help Richard Mourdock, you aren’t just dealing a blow to Mitch McConnell, but to Eric Cantor and Barack Obama too. All three of them want Dick Lugar to stick around Washington.

Seriously, Eric Cantor’s PAC is asking Democrats to go vote to save Dick Lugar. The House Republican Leader wants Democrats to save Dick Lugar. That’s messed up.

Do what you can to make sure Indiana sends Dick Lugar home. Oh wait . . . Dick doesn’t live in Indiana anymore. That’s why his Board of Elections says he can’t vote in Indiana. Still, get him out of the Senate.

But that’s not all.

In Texas, Ted Cruz is going up in the polls, but David DewCrist is a millionaire. Ted Cruz needs volunteers, prayers, and money. If he can get into a runoff with DewCrist, he should be able to close the gap and be Texas’s next Senator.

In Nebraska, Don Stenberg is closing in on Jon Bruning. Bruning, by the way, still won’t walk away from his love of Eric Holder. We need to help Don. He’s going up in the polls and is now coming under whitening assault from Bruning and Bruning’s friends in Washington.

And then there is Utah. After 36 years in the Senate, Orrin Hatch just might be retired by the voters. He did not make it out of the Utah Republican Convention with enough votes. He’ll face my friend Dan Liljenquist. Dan’s a good guy. Thirty-six years in the Senate should be long enough. Senator Hatch has been a commendable Senator on judges and other issues. But he’s also been on the wrong side of many votes and Dan Liljenquist would be one more headache for Mitch McConnell that Senator Hatch is not.

View the original article here

Obama’s NLRB Unleashes Ambush Elections on America’s Job Creators

On Monday, April 30th, Barack Obama’s union-controlled National Labor Relations Board will be imposing its new union election rules, designed to ambush unsuspecting employers. Since unions won over 71% of the 1595 NLRB-conducted elections in 2011, the NLRB’s radical departure from past precedent is neither necessary, nor warranted. Moreover, given unions’ legal ability to deceive workers into unionizing, it is believed the NLRB’s doing union’s bidding will result in smaller companies and their employees falling prey to unionization.

While the NLRB’s purported ‘streamlining’ of its election procedures seems simple, to those who have experienced the tumultuous time when a union has targeted a company, the ability of the union-controlled NLRB to now eviscerate employers’ ability to challenge the validity of a union’s attack through a fair hearing opens the door to a drastic reduction of time an employer has to respond.

The Associated Builders & Contractors, an association of predominantly union-free contractors, sums it up this way:

Under the rule, commonly known as the “ambush” elections rule, the amount of time between when a union files a representation petition and an election takes place is reduced from the current average of around 40 days to as few as 17 to 20 days.

The NLRB achieved this drastic reduction in time primarily by:

combining pre- and post-election appeals;truncating pre- and post-hearing procedures; andlimiting the types of issues an employer can raise at a pre-election hearing. (Determining which employees are considered supervisors, and which employees constitute a potential bargaining “unit” are no longer permitted before the election takes place.)

While many larger employers have the resources to preemptively insulate their organizations from union attack, many smaller employers and their employees have suddenly become hugely vulnerable.

Over the next several weeks, a multi-part series will be posted on LaborUnionReport.com and RedState.com for both employers and employees to learn how to effectively keep unions out of their companies.

For now, however, thanks to Barack Obama’s union-controlled National Labor Relations Board, the misleadingly still waters have suddenly become even more dangerous.

_____________

“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com

Photo credit: Creative Commons

View the original article here

Morning Briefing for April 30, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 30, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

We’re about a week out from the Indiana Primary. Richard Mourdock now leads Barack Obama’s favorite Republican, Dick Lugar. But it is close. Surprisingly for so many conservative activists who backed Eric Cantor for his leadership position, the House Republican Leader has decided to engage in this and other races for the more moderate and liberal candidates.

Whodathunk Eric Cantor would become like Mitch McConnell, but he is. And not only that, Eric Cantor has decided to engage in the Indiana Senate race — a Senate race, not a House race. So the cool thing is if you open your checkbook and help Richard Mourdock, you aren’t just dealing a blow to Mitch McConnell, but to Eric Cantor and Barack Obama too. All three of them want Dick Lugar to stick around Washington.

Do what you can to make sure Indiana sends Dick Lugar home. Oh wait . . . Dick doesn’t live in Indiana anymore. That’s why his Board of Elections says he can’t vote in Indiana. Still, get him out of the Senate.

But that’s not all.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

As President of the United States, Barack Obama wants us to know he killed Osama Bin Laden. The SEALs? Pfffffftttt . . . nope. Barack Obama did it. If you don’t believe him, wait till the campaign commercials tell you. Don’t believe them? Well, just in time for the election, Hollywood will provide us with an in-kind contribution of a propaganda film.

True, the President did give the order and he should be commended, as should the SEALs. And it is fair game for him to want to campaign on killing Osama Bin Laden in the same way George H. W. Bush campaigned as a war hero in 1992.

In 1992, Bill Clinton would commend George H. W. Bush on the campaign trail and lament that he just wished President Bush was as successful getting Americans back to work as he had been getting Iraq out of Kuwait.

This morning, my dad called and pointed out that Barack Obama may just be the most successful killer to ever take up residence in the White House — more successful even than the 19th Century vampire slayer who first led the Republican Party into the White House. In fact, consider the serial killing spree Barack Obama has been on.

On Twitter: use has tag #ThingsObamaKilled to play along at home.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Earlier this week, a two-year old YouTube video surfaced that floated some raw sewage in the Obama Administration’s energy punchbowl. In it, EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Almendariz, speaking to a group of Texas citizens, chuckles while comparing his agency’s environmental enforcement strategy vis-à-vis oil and gas operators to conquering Roman legionnaires’ strategy of random crucifixion. How quaint.

So the Washington politicians did what politicians have done since Roman times: go into damage-control mode and attempt to distance themselves from the offending act. From the Washington Post . . .

Please click here for the rest of the post.

This has been a tough week for conservatives in Washington. Republicans in both houses are caving on the postal bailout, highway bill, appropriations, Ex-Im Bank, Violence Against Women Act, and the student loan bailout. It’s not going to get easier when they come back from recess in May. This is why we need game-changers like Scott Keadle in Congress. Keadle is running in NC-8, the seat currently held by born-again blue dog Larry Kissell.

As I search out conservative candidates throughout the country on behalf of the Madison Project PAC, I’m struck by how few candidates truly grasp the problems at hand within the Republican conference. Sure – they all talk about repealing Obamacare, a balanced budget, and out-of- control spending. But it is some of the aforementioned issues that separate the real supporters of free-markets from those who merely offer a pale-pastel contrast from the Democrats.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

View the original article here

The Ultimate Treachery

I’m at a loss for words; I’m really not sure what to think of this.

What word would you use to describe someone from party A asking members of party B to vote down a member of party A for supporting a fundamental view of party A?

Politico’s Maggie Haberman is reporting that the leadership-affiliated Young Guns Network has sent out mailers asking Democrats to vote for Dick Lugar (not exactly a young gun) in the Indiana Republican primary against Richard Mourdock on May 8.  But that’s not all.  They are stirring up Democrats by referring to Mourdock as extreme.  In what way is he extreme?  He wants to eliminate the Department of Education!

Do you want to know what is really extreme?  The creation of the Department of Education, after surviving almost 200 years without it.  Since the DOE was created, the cost of college tuition has increased over 439% adjusted for inflation!  The rate of increase is almost exactly commensurate with the rate of growth of DOE subsidization.  As you can see from this chart, the government-induced housing bubble pales in comparison to the government-induced Big Education bubble.

US News and World Report

Remember that the Department of Education began operating on May 16, 1980.  Imagine how extreme the inflation in education costs would have been had the extremists thwarted the creation of the DOE back in 1980?  Come to think of it, what would we have done had Dick Lugar failed to vote to create the Department of Green Energy in 1977?  I guess that part was left off the mailer.

This is all economics 101 for Republicans, but I guess they feel they can say anything to an audience of Democrats, as long as they serve the purpose of reelecting an 80-year old liberal.  The real irony here, as Bill Kristol points out, is that Young Guns was created to “chart a new course for the center-right movement and the House majority.”  Lugar is neither new, center-right, or in the House!

Heaven forbid me to label this as Republican-In-Name-Only behavior, but let’s just call it plain old treachery.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project

View the original article here

Daily Links – April 27, 2012

Today is April 27th. On this date in 4977 B.C., the universe was created. At least, that’s what 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler calculated. So Happy Birthday, Universe! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have anywhere to exist, which is the bulk of what I do. Also on this date, in 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. The protest was vastly more successful than subsequent counter-protest, Occupy Crumpets. On this date in 1791, Samuel B. Morse was born. Morse once famously said “…. .-! / — .- -.. . / -.– — ..- /
.-.. — — -.-!” Truly a touching sentiment. And finally, today is National Hairball Awareness Day which may sound gross, but is a lot less so than National Hairball Self-Awareness Day, which was predicted by the Mayans. Consider this an Open Thread.

Republicans prepare contempt citation against Eric Holder | CBS News
“House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal have gotten the go-ahead by their party leaders to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.”

Jon Stewart Mocks N.C. Democrats | Free Beacon
“Daily Show host Jon Stewart mocked the state of the Democratic Party in North Carolina Thursday, between the trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards and the ongoing sexual harassment scandal in the North Carolina state Democratic Party:”

First Signs of a Real Obama Backlash? | PJ Tatler
“Barack Obama, meanwhile, is oblivious to all this. He keeps on pushing government as the be all end all solution to everything. A new poll out suggests that this attitude is going to catch up with him.”

Top Ten Rejected NPR Headlines | Ace of Spades HQ
NPR asks, “Is Slow Growth Actually Good For The Economy?” Ace serves up a list of ten rejected NPR headlines of equal absurdity.

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Merriam-Webster.
patagium (puh-TAY-jee-um): noun 1. the fold of skin connecting the forelimbs and hind limbs of some tetrapods (as flying squirrels) 2. the fold of skin in front of the main segments of a bird’s wing

View the original article here

Morning Briefing for April 27, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

for April 27, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the 

Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Yes, yes, we have a new look today.  It’s because I want your undivided attention and figured shaking things up would give it to me after you finished mumbling, “There he goes again.”  

We’ll return to normalcy conservatives, I promise.  Why shake things up today?  To highlight our sister publication.

As I mentioned last week, this month marks an exciting new chapter for our sister publication, Human Events. The nation’s first conservative weekly and Ronald Reagan’s favorite newspaper has a dynamic new look and additional firepower to provide more news and analysis than ever before.

Human Events has expanded its team of reporters and will now feature deeper coverage of the issues most important to you, ranging from the economy to energy and healthcare to national security.

We’re proud to be part of the Human Events family. Be on the lookout this weekend for more exciting details in an email, including powerful video coverage of the new Human Events being commemorated on the floor of the House of Representatives.

And now, the Morning Briefing.

1.  Death of the Moderate . . . Democrat

It is worth noting that on Tuesday several moderate Democrats went down in flames in Pennsylvania, continuing a trend that has escalated since 2008. Liberals do not want moderate Democrats in their caucus.

What is most interesting about it from a conservative perspective, however, is how there has not been a ton of coverage about the death of the blue dogs — more dogs dead in Barack Obama and the left’s war on dogs. Had moderate Republicans been defeated, we would have major stories on pretty much every news network and on the front page of every paper in America.

Routinely we hear that Republicans cannot win in New England, despite Republican successes in New England in 2010. Routinely we hear about the GOP driving moderates out of the party. Big tent cliches surround the stories. Rarely does the ongoing purging of the Democratic Party make such news.  Read the rest of the story . . .

2.  Yet Another Reason Why Today’s Unions Suck: Dues Devour Wage Increases

On the eve of Obama’s NLRB unleashing its new rules giving unions the ability to hold ambush elections—that is, the evisceration of employers’ ability to question or challenge unions in their quest to cherry-pick voting units—more data was just released by the Bureau of National Affairs that calls into question why anyone in their right mind would pay dues to a union today.

In addition to the $369 billion in underfunded union (private-sector) pension plans, the abundant evidence that unions kill companies and destroy jobs, today’s unions are doing such a miserable job at the one thing they’re supposed to do—negotiate contracts—that union members should demand refunds from their union bosses.

According to the April 9th issue of the Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required), unions negotiated contracts in 2011 that, in 41% of the contracts, employees received no increase in the contract’s first year.  Read the rest of the story . . . 

3.  The Way Things Are Going, They’re Gonna Crucify Me.

Apologies to John Lennon. Concept by Al Armendariz, Administrator of EPA Region VI. Repair Man Jack posted the video with analysis here.

No apology is necessary, Mr. Armendariz. In a perverse way, your comments reveal the tactics of your agency, and more importantly, the philosophy which motivates Mr. Obama’s entire Administration.

It also speaks of the arrogance of a government that thinks its citizens are its subjects, and whose middle managers find amusement in crushing people’s lives and livelihoods.

One more thing about the Roman analogy — mmm, as I recall, that strategy didn’t work out too well for the Romans. Does Mr. Obama play the fiddle?  Read the rest of the story . . .

4.  Sign Letter for Open Appropriations Process in the House

Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget.  Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action.

In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry Reid only has a tenuous hold on the Senate at just 53 seats.  Unfortunately, as we chronicled extensively here at Red State, House and Senate GOP leaders agreed to jettison the Ryan budget halfway through the process in favor of Harry Reid’s minibus and omnibus bills, which vitiated every worthy goal of that budget.  Read the rest of the story . . .

View the original article here

Death of the Moderate . . . Democrat

It is worth noting that on Tuesday several moderate Democrats went down in flames in Pennsylvania, continuing a trend that has escalated since 2008. Liberals do not want moderate Democrats in their caucus.

What is most interesting about it from a conservative perspective, however, is how there has not been a ton of coverage about the death of the blue dogs — more dogs dead in Barack Obama and the left’s war on dogs. Had moderate Republicans been defeated, we would have major stories on pretty much every news network and on the front page of every paper in America.

Routinely we hear that Republicans cannot win in New England, despite Republican successes in New England in 2010. Routinely we hear about the GOP driving moderates out of the party. Big tent cliches surround the stories. Rarely does the ongoing purging of the Democratic Party make such news.

In fact, the Democratic Party has become increasingly hostile to moderates, though the media rarely cares to focus on this because the reporters who’d pay attention often are to the left of the moderate Democrats and proclaim their position the center. Those moderate Democrats are, therefore, well outside the mainstream.

I do not lament the decline and fall of the Blue Dog Coalition. The United States remains a center-right nation and Democrats must continue to run as “centrist” to appeal in swing states. Their true colors ruin their chances. The fewer “centrists” they have, the more difficult it becomes for them to appeal to voters, including Hispanic voters who continue to be some of the most socially conservative voters in America.

The lesson, here, though is that partisans in both parties prefer their candidates to stand for something and fight for something. The media’s predominant bias is a good government bias and reporters hail those Republicans and Democrats who work across party lines to get things done in Washington. And what have they done?

We’re at $15 trillion and counting to what they’ve done. But it was done in the name of good government — a concept that is always framed as our salvation and will ultimately be our damnation as we go bankrupt with repeated good government compromises.

View the original article here

Eric Cantor Tries to Stop Stalwart Scott Keadle in NC-8

This has been a tough week for conservatives in Washington.  Republicans in both houses are caving on the postal bailout, highway bill, appropriations, Ex-Im Bank, Violence Against Women Act, and the student loan bailout.  It’s not going to get easier when they come back from recess in May.  This is why we need game-changers like Scott Keadle in Congress.  Keadle is running in NC-8, the seat currently held by born-again blue dog Larry Kissell.

As I search out conservative candidates throughout the country on behalf of the Madison Project PAC, I’m struck by how few candidates truly grasp the problems at hand within the Republican conference.  Sure – they all talk about repealing Obamacare, a balanced budget, and out-of- control spending.  But it is some of the aforementioned issues that separate the real supporters of free-markets from those who merely offer a pale-pastel contrast from the Democrats.

I’ve spent a lot of time with Scott Keadle, and have come to realize that he is one of the biggest super stars of this election cycle.  This is a guy who will get it right on every issue.  And he truly understands the problems inherent with our current leadership.  Perforce, it comes as no surprise that Eric Cantor and his “Young Guns” are taking their show on the road to NC-8.  This, from Hotline:

The super PAC affiliated with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has made its first independent expenditure in support of a Republican challenger, according to FEC filings. And it comes in a race where another powerful conservative outside group has lined up on the other side.

The YG Action Fund, which is run by ex-Cantor aides, has spent $22,750 on a mailer supporting Richard Hudson for the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 8th District, currently held by Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell. The GOP race also includes Scott Keadle, a dentist and former county official who is one of six House candidates who received endorsements from the Club for Growth this cycle.

Hudson is a longtime Hill aide who served as chief of staff to Texas GOP Reps. Mike Conaway and John Carter and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.

There is a reason why this is Cantor’s first independent expenditure on behalf of a Republican challenger.  Keadle will never beat to the drum of leadership.  Richard Hudson is a creature of Washington with his robust ties to GOP establishment leaders.

People often ask me where they could get the best value for their political contributions.  There are a few good stars this cycle, but if I were forced to pick the best individual to support, it would be Dr. Scott Keadle.  If you don’t believe me, just ask leadership.

The primary will be held on May 8, but there will be a runoff if no candidate receives 40% of the vote.  Let’s help end it on May 8.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project

View the original article here

Mitt Romney is Batman. And knows kung fu.

This is an old story – one that Jim Geraghty (via the Morning Jolt) reminisced about while noting the time that Mitt Romney saved a bunch of people* from drowning – that relates the time that Mitt Romney had somebody take a swing at him on a flight. Supposedly, Romney had asked the guy in front of him to put his seat up before takeoff (Romney and his wife flew economy class, by the way**), the guy swung on him, situation resolved by local security forces. Nothing unusual, right? …No, that’s just what THEY want you to think. There’s a conflicting report.

[Alleged rapper] Sky Blu says Romney drew first blood. Well, he said Romney grabbed him after angrily telling him to move his seat up.

“He grabs my shoulder .. and I just react BOOM get off me!” Blu told the video camera. “He put a condor grip on me. What am I supposed to do?”

“That’s like a Vulcan grip,” offered his bandmate Redfoo.

“Like a Vulcan grip,” Blu concurred. “I’m not your prey. I’m not a salmon going upstream. You’re not going to grip me up.”

Well… I am forced to note, sir, that in fact Mitt Romney was indeed going to grip you up for violating both the laws of decorum and our shared sense of American civics. And that if you do not like it then you should keep your seat upright until the flight attendant informs you that you can recline it. Because if you don’t, then you may receive a condor grip from… hold on. Millionaire businessman. Carefully maintained public persona. Strong positions on law and order. Goes around saving people using high-tech vehicles. Engages in principled low level vigilantism designed to make the world a better place on a street level.

Dear GOD.

MITT ROMNEY IS BATMAN. And knows kung fu.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*And, as I am forced to point out by the current zeitgeist, their dog. I am likewise forced to point out that Romney did not save the dog for dinner later.

**When’s the last time Barack Obama flew coach, anyway? …And if the answer is “more than two years before he ran for President,” well, I can’t help it if people might think that that reflects badly on him.

View the original article here

Obama Administration Hails Its Own “Gutsy Call.”

The newest Obama campaign video highlights the killing of Osama bin Ladin.

This video is hardly surprising. http://www.gutsycall.com takes you to https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/o2012-donate-main. So it isn’t like this move hasn’t been telegraphed for a year. It is notable for a few things.

First, it is narrated, in part by Bill Clinton. If there is anyone to blame for the rise of al Qaeda it is Bill Clinton. It was on Bill Clinton’s watch that all the events happened that resulted, ultimately, in the tragedy of September 11. It was his withdrawal from Somalia that showed al Qaeda that a handful of deaths could evict us from a theater of operations. It was under Clinton than the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993. His non response to the bombing of US military facilities in Saudi Arabia, the demolition of two of our African embassies, and the attack on the USS Cole gave al Qaeda good reason to believe that we would do nothing if attacked. I guess this is an appeal to bring moderate Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents back to Obama. As such, it reeks of flopsweat rather than a confident candidate.

Second, it calls into question whether Romney would have ordered the attack that killed bin Laden based on a 2007 Romney quote:

It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.

This is patently nonsense because the quote neither says nor implies that Romney would be reluctant to make the call to kill bin Laden.

Third, this may be the first campaign video in history, and perhaps the first time in the history of political campaigns in general, that a candidate has touted merely doing his job as a reason he deserves reelection. Not that he did it well or efficiently or better but just that he showed up for work and did what we paid him to do.

For some reason, presumably because there have been focus groups that agreed with the concept, the Obama campaign seems to think that foreign policy will be the theme with which it can beat Mitt Romney though it is hard to see how this argument, if it is anything more substantial than carrying bin Laden’s head around on a pike until November, will have the strength to last.

Don’t get me wrong on this. I’m glad bin Laden is dead because justice has finally been partially extracted for the attacks of September 11, 2001. But let’s not kid ourselves. Bin Laden has been a non-entity in the direction of al Qaeda and as an al Qaeda fundraiser since 2005 at the latest. I also don’t see the immense courage and steel backbone needed to conduct a raid deep inside a friendly (mostly) country. While Obama has been busy dancing the Electric Slide to celebrate bin Laden’s death, he has studiously ignored that Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has actually commanded al Qaeda since Tora Bora was evacuated, is very much alive, well, and in control.

Besides, do we really think any (added to address some valid point in comments) post-9/11 president could, in the possession of the same information as Obama, could have refused to carry out the raid? Hardly. Word would have leaked within days and that would have been the effective end of any administration.

The foreign policy accomplishments of Obama are tissue thin. In fact, it is difficult to find a single place in the world where America is better situated today than it was four years ago. By and large we have attained a Carteresque perfect storm where our friends don’t trust us, our enemies don’t respect us and there is no will or interest in the White House to change the situation.

View the original article here

Morning Briefing for April 26, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing
April 26, 2012Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

Yesterday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience.

That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate the cookie, replying that he had not and besides it did not taste good. If he’d never heard of me, how can he comment on my audience? If he states plainly I have no audience, how can he claim to not have heard of me? His remarks also came less than a day after I came out publicly against bronies, the adult male fans of My Little Pony. I hope that’s just a coincidence.

Mitch McConnell’s remark is just another example of him being vastly overrated as both a strategist and tactician. He claims to have advanced the conservative cause, but told Laura he has to be mindful that to govern Republicans must reach out to all Americans. Perhaps that is why in 2010, with the rise of the tea party, Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio (McConnell staffers went to Florida to help Crist), Robert Bennett against Mike Lee, and Trey Grayson against Rand Paul.

I grew up thinking Mitch McConnell was a right wing warrior. It turns out he’s just a typical Washingtonian appropriator who has presided over a massive expansion of the welfare state doing not much more than issuing bold platitudes as he cuts deals to expand government spending and along the way made some major tactical and strategic blunders that groups like ACORN were able to thrive.

Let’s review the record.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

An untold story today following Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.

In Pennsylvania’s 134th House district, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan Mackenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature.

As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial-balloon of sorts.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Never mind the fact that Obama got yoghurt splashed on him last night – that’s just an ongoing hazard of being a politician running for re-election in this country. The real story here is this: the President went to Colorado to, essentially, lie to a bunch of kids about how they can get themselves out of this mess that they’re in. And it is a mess. 50% of college graduates are unemployed/underemployed; couple that with student loan debt levels that should really be frightening more people and we end up with a situation where millions of kids are getting out of college and staring DOOM right in the face. And while they are adults – and thus, responsible for their own fates – guess what? The people that connived to put them in this mess are adults, too. We expect twenty-somethings in this culture to make poor life choices, sometimes; what we don’t expect is for the generations above them to so ruthlessly take advantage of that.

Anyway: Obama’s answer in Colorado, last night? …Entrepreneurship. That’s what he was telling the kids. Start that restaurant! Develop that smartphone app! Make your own destiny! Get slammed with a tax hike on small businesses in the form of tighter restrictions on payroll tax exemptions!

…Yeah. One of these things is not like the others.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

View the original article here

Why Doesn’t Marcy Kaptur Respect Veterans?

From the diaries.

Not long ago, my opponent, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur used her Congressional website to take Republicans to task for not being “sensitive” about “the plight of unemployed returning veterans.” She was angry that the House of Representatives had rejected her proposed amendment to the 2013 budget.

The amendment would have established a Veterans Job Corps, which she claims “would employ at least 20,000 veterans over 5 years in projects to preserve and restore America’s national parks, state parks, and other public lands.”

This idea may sound good on paper. But it ignores several important questions that involve sensitivity, common sense and responsible government.

Number One: Who was being more sensitive, thoughtful and responsible here? House Republicans who want to reduce out-of-control federal spending, borrowing and deficits – and reduce the size and intrusiveness of a federal bureaucracy that has become a massive legal and regulatory drag on our economy and job creation?

Or an out of touch Democrat politician who is determined to keep borrowing, spending and growing our government – and who rejects our veterans’ military backgrounds and wants to turn them into federally employed landscapers and groundskeepers?

Is Kaptur suggesting that the military training and hands-on experience our veterans acquired during their time in service isn’t good enough? Or that these jobs are the best they should expect? Or does she just not respect their service and training?

Kaptur and her campaign staff certainly don’t respect my own military training. That’s obvious from the way they call me a “faux” plumber. Are all our other veterans “fake” in their jobs too? Marcy’s campaign has denied my military experience several times before, each time proving that she and her staff don’t respect veterans and our military experience.

This lack of respect goes a long way toward explaining why Kaptur is so willing to turn this nation’s soldiers into landscapers and groundskeepers, when instead they could be transitioning to productive civilian lives in trades for which they have already received training. Heck, a few might even make pretty good plumbers.

Number Two: What this nation needs – and what our veterans need, so that they can find good jobs – is an economy that is growing. Last year, growth didn’t even reach a lousy 2 percent. Our economic growth needs to get back to 4 or 5 percent a year, every year.

For that to happen, government needs to stop borrowing and spending the money the private sector needs – the money private businesses would invest in new equipment, new hires and new ideas far better than government ever can. Government also needs to stop taxing and regulating everything in sight, dragging our economy down, far too often for no health or environmental benefit.

Congress and the federal bureaucracy also need to stop wasting taxpayer money on worthless fake-energy wind, solar and algae schemes – and start letting companies drill again for oil and gas that power our economy and create real jobs and revenues.

Just over the past few years, oil and gas “fracking” on state and federal lands created 600,000 jobs! It generated real energy that we can use, and billions of dollars in revenue! And here Kaptur is upset that the House rejected her proposal to borrow more money to create a lousy 20,000 menial jobs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “young male veterans” between the ages of 18 and 24 had an unemployment rate of 29.1 percent last year. Non-veteran males in the same age group had “only” a 17.6 percent unemployment rate – which is also intolerable, insensitive and unnecessary.

It’s clear that America is in a crisis – which almost everyone outside of Washington, DC realizes. Ms. Kaptur, along with most other Washington politicians and bureaucrats, however, is isolated and insulated from this crisis. Both they and we should all be asking: Why are veterans, with all their training and experience, so much worse off than non-veterans, after having served and sacrificed so much for their country? And how much longer can we tolerate this destructive situation?

Yes, Congress has tried repeatedly (and failed repeatedly), to “fix” the unemployment problem. But little has been accomplished beyond partisan bickering and political grandstanding. While our political “heroes” keep talking about unemployment, America’s real heroes continue returning home to live it.

We need to focus on getting excessive government out of the way, so that the private sector can create jobs for our veterans and the millions of other Americans who so desperately want to work again.

A soldier understands one thing above all others: results. Congress, as history continues to prove, doesn’t understand this concept. Worse, too many politicians keep coming up with crazy ideas that they think will get them votes – when what they will really do is make sure the problems remain unsolved. They obviously have no clue what they’re doing.

Veterans deserve better than a 29% unemployment rate. Veterans deserve better than politicians who don’t respect what they went through and what they learned from military life. Veterans deserve respect, and an appreciation for what they’ve done for their country.

Most of all, veterans deserve to be represented in Washington by people who understand and respect what they did, what they do, what they know, and what they have to offer their country when their military service is over.
_______________
Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is a Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio’s ninth congressional district. Samuel Wurzelbacher rose to national fame as “Joe the Plumber” when he challenged then-candidate Barack Obama on his plans to increase taxes for the middle class. Since 2008, Wurzelbacher has spoken nationally in support of blue collar workers, encouraging voters to get engaged in the political process. Learn more at http://www.JoeForCongress2012.com/

View the original article here

A Nobody With No Audience Gets Noticed by Mitch McConnell

Yesterday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, she asked Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell about a recent Roll Call article that framed me as one of the loud leaders of conservatives opposed to Mitch McConnell. The Senator from Kentucky responded that he had never heard of me and I did not have an audience.

That sounds a bit like the child, when asked if he ate the cookie, replying that he had not and besides it did not taste good. If he’d never heard of me, how can he comment on my audience? If he states plainly I have no audience, how can he claim to not have heard of me? His remarks also came less than a day after I came out publicly against bronies, the adult male fans of My Little Pony. I hope that’s just a coincidence.

Mitch McConnell’s remark is just another example of him being vastly overrated as both a strategist and tactician. He claims to have advanced the conservative cause, but told Laura he has to be mindful that to govern Republicans must reach out to all Americans. Perhaps that is why in 2010, with the rise of the tea party, Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio (McConnell staffers went to Florida to help Crist), Robert Bennett against Mike Lee, and Trey Grayson against Rand Paul.

I grew up thinking Mitch McConnell was a right wing warrior. It turns out he’s just a typical Washingtonian appropriator who has presided over a massive expansion of the welfare state doing not much more than issuing bold platitudes as he cuts deals to expand government spending and along the way made some major tactical and strategic blunders that groups like ACORN were able to thrive.

Let’s review the record.

In the 1990's Mitch McConnell, then the Republican manager against the Motor Voter bill, made the brilliant tactical decision to not filibuster the motion to take up the bill. Consequently it passed. ACORN and other left-wing groups were emboldened to do what they’ve done over the past two decades. Yes, people forget that it was Mitch McConnell’s tactical decision to let Motor Voter get to the floor of the Senate despite the warnings of what would happen. Passage of that law made it ever easier to engage in voter registration fraud. McConnell had the votes to stop it from being considered, but once it got to the floor of the Senate everyone knew there were enough wobbly Republicans who would not dare go on record actually opposing it on passage.

In the early 2000's when McCain-Feingold went through the Senate, McConnell yet again cut out the legs of its opponents telling them not to worry because he’d let the Supreme Court do their dirty work for them and kill it. McConnell lost in the Supreme Court.

Mitch McConnell’s more recent record makes clear he is more interested in being Majority Leader than advancing any sort of conservative principles. It’s all about McConnell.

He is an appropriations cardinal in the Senate who has routinely stymied fiscal conservative efforts to rein in spending by Senators Coburn, DeMint, and even John McCain.

Recall, if you will, Senator McConnell didn’t just vote for the Wall Street bailouts, he rescued it from near defeat by adding earmarks to TARP after it failed in the House.

As I mentioned, in 2010 Mitch McConnell backed Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey, Charlie Crist against Marco Rubio, Robert Bennett against Mike Lee, and Trey Grayson against Rand Paul.

After House GOP made a stand on payroll tax this past winter, McConnell pulled the rug out and cut a deal with Harry Reid that paid for a payroll tax cut with increases to home mortgages. Allen West said he felt betrayed over this.

McConnell personally recruited Senator Roy Blunt to stop conservative Ron Johnson from winning a key leadership spot.

McConnell vowed to block conservatives from forcing votes on full repeal of Obamacare this year, then flipped and said he’d force votes in March when RepealIt.org threatened to run ads for him to resign, He has yet to keep his promise to force votes. McConnell’s loyal lieutenants in the Senate, at the time, explained that forcing full repeal votes on the Democrats would undermine their ability to cut deals with Harry Reid.

Senator McConnell just last week voted with Senate Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee against Paul Ryan’s budget spending levels. Last year McConnell refused to whip support for Ryan’s budget when it came up for a vote in the Senate.

Senator McConnell and his allies frequently say he has to do what he does because they must keep the moderates to be in the majority. Except 2010 gives the lie away. In races conservatives absolutely could win, McConnell sided with the moderates. Behind the scenes, on issues like Obamacare that remain hugely unpopular with the American people, McConnell cuts deals with the Democrats instead of forcing votes.

McConnell is emblematic of all that is wrong with Washington, D.C. He covets power relentlessly and only acts when it is threatened, then only doing so much as to stop the threat without actually leading. Along the way, he has been deeply complicit in putting our Republican in a position of bankruptcy.

I may be a nobody with no audience, but Mitch McConnell is a leader with no spine to lead.

View the original article here

Job Creation and EPA Enforcement Philosophy – Coincidence With Roots

“…the soldiers out of rage and hatred, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest.”

– Flavius Josephus (HT:Wikipedia)

In the video above, Al Armendariz discusses how his agency should enforce regulations on Oil and Gas extraction firms. The term crucifixion enters into the discussion. I’m sure it was just a rhetorical flourish in the proud tradition of Huey “The Kingfish” Biden, however, our choice of wording does offer a nice, handy window into our souls.

The EPA’s crucifixion agenda was on leafy, green display when they ruled that power generation facilities could not emit more than 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt of electricity produced. The people getting nailed to the cross predictably come from locations that rely on coal-fired power for their electricity. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin describes why this poses a difficulty for coal-fired generation facilities.

“The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.”

This would be fine and dandy to anyone who doesn’t dig or ship or burn coal except for two wee problems. The US currently derives 45% of its electricity from coal-fired plants. These plants would have to install carbon sequestering technology which does not exist at a level yet where it can be commercially mass-produced.

In and of itself, we wouldn’t be dead just from enhanced regulatory costs levied against coal-fired electrical production. The problem occurs when the EPA uses other regulatory actions to also squeeze the viable alternatives to coal-fired plants. Natural Gas extraction firms have rapidly increased supply availability via the use of frakking methods to force previously unavailable natural gas out of the ground. Senator Jim Inhofe describes EPA actions towards natural gas producers following Armendariz’s infamous crucifixion edict.

“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.
“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best – and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”

(HT:Cnsnews.com)

And meanwhile at The Bureau of Labor Statistics, we learn that the Glorious Obama Recovery seems to have hit a rough patch. Employers added only 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls last March after several months of averaging twice as many. Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of new unemployment claims hit 381,750. This is as poorly as this indicator has fared since early January.

This stalling economic activity occurs in synonymy with rising energy prices. It occurs at the same time our Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, claims that the US Government has no control over the price of gasoline. He says this while the EPA does everything in its power to increase two possible substitute goods for crude oil in power generation. His disingenuous response bears no relation to what the explicit goal of President Obama’s energy policies have been since 2008. Here is how President Obama described the economic outcome of his environmental policy goals.

Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money.

(HT:Hot Air.com)

So does the EPA have a deleterious effect on the current economy? A reflexive thought would be that firms undergoing regulatory crucifixion tend not to have excess funds to hire new staff. They also tend to stay away from anything that would require them to take regulatory risk. Regulatory crucifixion leads firms to stop asking where they should explore and start asking what they need to shut down if they don’t want nail holes in their hands. Logically, this should lead to a necessary level of damage to American economic vitality.

Logic also suggests that higher electricity prices, as President Obama indicated he believed would occur, should create negative externalities in consumer spending and on hiring in mechanization-intense industries. This quite possibly shows up in the perniciously stubborn U3 rate of unemployment that only seems to decline when hoards of perpetually idled workers get officially classified as “discouraged.” Or maybe this is all just a result of American velleity.

I tend to think the crucifixion philosophy at the EPA, the high prices of energy and the slowing rates of economic vitality are all components of a system. The EPA regulatory posture has a steady-state effect that increases the prices of energy inputs to production. The things firms produce have a higher manufacturing overhead, so that they are harder to make. The firms hire fewer workers and charge consumers more for their goods and services. This is how The Government-Centered Society kills economic vitality.

View the original article here

Daily Links – April 26, 2012

Today is April 26th. On this date in 1514, Copernicus recorded his first observations of Saturn. He concluded that God must have liked it, because “he puteth a ring upon it.” Also on this date, in 1711, David Hume was born in Scotland. His “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth” essay was a big influence on the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. Also, he could out-consume both Schopenhauer and Hegel. On this date in 1865 Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth was killed by Union soldiers at a Virginia farm. His final words, apparently directed at his hands, were “useless, useless.” To this day, historians are unsure why both of Booth’s hands had the same name. And finally, today is National Richter Scale Day, in honor of the birth of seismologist Charles Richter in 1900. Says David Caruso: I guess you could say he really … [puts on sunglasses] shook things up. YEEAAAAAHHHH! Consider this an Open Thread.

Exclusive: Red State Founder Erickson Fires Back At Sen. Mcconnell | Big Journalism
“This was essentially an attack not just on Erickson, but on the new media as a whole. It suggests that those on the internet have no credibility, and that they can be talked down to by their betters in the political bigwig world.”

EPA: Hey, sorry about that whole “crucify” thing | Hot Air
“The EPA has scrambled to contain the damage from the clip highlighted by Morgen Richmond this morning, which went viral yesterday, showing an EPA administrator bragging about crucifixion as a means to impose the EPA’s will on American subjects, er, citizens.”

Meet The Left-Wing ALECs | Free Beacon
“The progressive groups leveling charges that the American Legislative Exchange Conference (ALEC) is ‘shadowy’ and ‘nefarious’ rely on hidden donors and overheated rhetoric to attack ALEC and ignore similar activities by liberal organizations.”

The Assault on Food | John Stossel
“But the scientific question should not overshadow the more fundamental issue. Who should decide what you can eat: you? Or the state?”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Dictionary.com.
macaronic (mak-uh-ron-ik): adjective 1. composed of or characterized by Latin words mixed with vernacular words or non-Latin words given Latin endings. 2. composed of a mixture of languages. 3. mixed; jumbled.

View the original article here

Planned Parenthood’s Bad, Bad Night

An untold story today following yesterday’s Pennsylvania primaries is what a bad, bad night it was for Planned Parenthood.

In Pennsylvania’s 134th House district, they spent an eye-popping $100,000 on a TV ad campaign trying to sink the candidacy of Republican Ryan Mackenzie by linking him to ultrasound legislation that was before the legislature.

As Politico noted, this was seen as a trial-balloon of sorts:

Most state legislative races and ad campaigns don’t necessarily have any larger resonance, but Democrats have been working to make the ultrasound bill the kind of liability for Republicans in Pennsylvania that a related proposal became for Republicans in Virginia.

That trial balloon popped when MacKenzie cruised to victory by an 18-point margin, 59 percent to 41 percent.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania’s 31st district, former Planned Parenthood CEO and board member, Republican Helen Bosley, lost in the primary to a pro-life Republican woman, Anne Chapman. Thanks to the help of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, abortion played a central role in the race and again, it was no contest. Despite Bosley’s endorsement from the Bucks County Republican Committee, pro-life Chapman won with 63 percent to 37 percent – a commanding 26-point margin.

And on the Democratic side, they didn’t fare much better. In the tightly contested primary between Reps. Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, Altmire relentlessly attacked Critz – in TV commercials, in the mail, and in debates — for voting to defund Planned Parenthood. Altmire went down by four points, despite leading in most polls leading up to last night.

View the original article here

The Plusses, Minuses and Pleasant Surprises From Mitt Romney

Romney Has Looked Better Under The Spotlight Than I Initially Feared....

Did you know that the GOP held five Presidential primaries yesterday? Maybe; maybe not. However, given that data point, you all can tell me exactly who won all five of them. Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee.

My five or so constant readers know well that I’m not turning handsprings over this final outcome. After deciding Mitt wouldn’t fit, I had to commit. Hence I endorsed the unsuccessful candidacy of Rick Santorum. Needless to say, I was vaguely resigned to four more years of Obamocracy after Santorum failed to break through in Michigan and Ohio.

Yet somewhere out on the trail Romney’s sensory perception broke through the smug cloud of his obnoxious coterie of condescending online strap-hangers. It’s like he actually listened as he shook hands and kissed babies. He’s pleasantly surprised me by learning a thing or two from being challenged in the 2012 primary. He gets partial credit for the speech he gave last night to celebrate his five cake-walk victories.

“Is it easier to make ends meet? Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one?” he said, as the crowd cheered “NO!” “Have you saved what you needed for retirement? Are you making more AT your job? Do you have a better chance to get a better job? Are you paying less at the pump?” “It’s still about the economy,” Romney added, bluntly. “And we’re not stupid.”

The positive here is the recognition that a lot of us are just no longer included in anything good that happens in America. People get priced out of credit, home ownership, college and even the basic necessities of life such as food and gasoline. This provokes the Obama to describe how “unlike some people” he and Michelle were not to the manor born. They were just regular folks who both had to work outside the home and scrimp and save to get by on $450,000 per year.

This brings us to an argument that Mitt Romney has unfortunately not yet made. The United States truly is becoming a 1% society. (Even #OWS occasionally has a point). He gets close to this reality when he excoriates Barack Obama’s Government-Centered Society. The “moderate” right which apparently objects only moderately to injustice, was quick to criticize Romney for being such a Big, Red Meany.

I hereby criticize Mitt for not jamming this concept further down Barack Obama’s throat. A government-centered society could actually manage to be decent and fair in its bureaucratic ineptitude. What we have today is a Post-Modern Feudalism. Senator Scott Brown, in his reelection campaign against Elizabeth Warren – to the Hahvad Manor born, properly calls the baronial arrogance of the 1% Left. Here he decries Elizabeth Warren’s interest free loans from Harvard

“Let me get this straight: struggling students and families pay more, so multi-millionaire Warren can pay nothing? This sweetheart deal adds insult to injury for the students whose high tuition costs have already made Warren a wealthy one-percenter, and reveals yet again Professor Warren’s hypocritical idea of fairness,” wrote Brown’s campaign manager Jim Barnett

(HT: Boston Herald)

Every time we hear about Bain Capital, we need to hear back about Barack Obama’s Swiss Bank financial backing. All us plain-Jane, Roll-up-the-sleeves working class Americans have the head of UBS out beating the bushes to send us piles of money. It’s as easy as having a relative give us an eight year free ride through The Punahou Academy.

In conclusion, Mitt Romney has shown a pleasantly surprising willingness to go after Barack Obama on the over expansion of central government. I went into this season thinking Romney would welcome just such an activist government. What Romney has missed on has been the proper approbation of the hypocrisy that our elite Leftist Ruling Class has shown in taking liberties that stop just short of Prima Noctem in every area of their lives. Emperor Barack I has not only expanded government, but he has also used it to fuel a Visigoth Holiday for his friends and pet interests. Mitt Romney will have to drive that point home if he wants to unseat our corrupt and dishonest incumbent President.

View the original article here

The Way Things Are Going, They’re Gonna Crucify Me.

Apologies to John Lennon. Concept by Al Armendariz, Administrator of EPA Region VI. Repair Man Jack posted the video with analysis here.

No apology is necessary, Mr. Armendariz. In a perverse way, your comments reveal the tactics of your agency, and more importantly, the philosophy which motivates Mr. Obama’s entire Administration.

It also speaks of the arrogance of a government that thinks its citizens are its subjects, and whose middle managers find amusement in crushing people’s lives and livelihoods.

One more thing about the Roman analogy — mmm, as I recall, that strategy didn’t work out too well for the Romans. Does Mr. Obama play the fiddle?

If it sounds like I take this issue personally, I plead guilty.

My employer is a small oil and gas company. All of our operations are in EPA Region VI which Mr. Armendiaz oversees. I’m the operations manager, so the threat of crucifixion falls squarely upon me.

Rush Limbaugh characterized the crucifixion comment as a vendetta against Big Oil.

Wrong-o. EPA is after smaller oil and gas companies, like Range Resources (800 employees) and my company (24 employees). Big Oil has unlimited resources and staff attorneys to fight back. EPA can much more effectively achieve their goals by singling out the little guy who they can crush like a bug.

Or crucify, as it were.

I am a citizen. I am a taxpayer.

You work for me.

Don’t threaten me with crucifixion.

This guy Armendariz needs to go. His boss need to go – Armendariz’s comments were recorded in 2010.

We’ll take care of the Big Guy in November.

Cross-posted.

Follow @VladimirRS
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

View the original article here

Does Obama Have a Big Stick? #EERS

Joe Biden thinks so.

We’ll discuss it tonight on the radio. You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

The show starts at 6pm.

At 8pm, Monica Perez is going to rescue me from my root canal and take over.

Consider this an open thread.

View the original article here

Tech at Night: Barack Obama covering for Lieberman-Collins power grab via CISPA opposition, Darrell Issa does good on Transparency

In an example of lucky timing, the GSA scandal proved why Darrell Issa’s DATA act was needed. Transparency in government allows for oversight. So the bill passed the House by voice vote.

I first floated a while back the idea that this sudden, strident CISPA opposition was roote d in a desire to distract the public from the much stronger and more dangerous Lieberman-Collins bill in the Senate. It’ll work with the libertarian left because hey, they’ll believe whatever the left says about eeevil Bushitlerian Rethuglicans. But it disappoints me when the right, including FreedomWorks, is tricked and puts effort into CISPA instead of Lieberman-Collins. Did we learn nothing from Net Neutrality?

But yeah, when the usual whiny groups along with Barack Obama and the administration are joining together to talk exclusively about CISPA but not at all about Lieberman-Collins, I’m right.

House Republicans may in fact limit the bill in response to the veto threat, but the fact is we need a flexible legal framework to empower the good guys to have information which is critical when countering bad guys who share information all the time.

International attacks are real though. In fact, everyone may want to check into this account by the FBI about a thwarted attack that may still infect your computer.

Let’s do some FCC: They’re already expanding Internet subsidies. Also, while they like to drag their feet on some spectrum sales, one in particular they man aged to approve rather quickly. How coincidental that it’s one that is only happening because FCC rejected an earlier T-Mobile/AT&T deal, eh? Meanwhile, Republicans are on the case of FCC trying to expand its authority again, this time into political speech regulation, even as Chuck Grassley milks all he can to get FCC transparency.

PATENT WARS PAUSED: Hey all. When I started out writing about PATENT WARS, it was fresh and interesting. But, as all this stuff has gotten more and more expansive, with everyone suing or allying with everyone else, it’s becoming too much to cover, and very repetitive. I hope the point is made though, that real patent reform was needed, not the first-to-file mess we passed. So, no more PATENT WARS coverage unless something really big happens.

There’s some more good stuff to cover, but it’s 2am, so… quick hits:

Here we go: Calls to end the light-touch regime of the Telecommunications Act 1996 and replace it with a state-centered model of controlled Internet. Funny how Barry Diller says we need a total rewrite of Internet laws… except when it comes to copyright. Funny, that. Unless it’s all about a power grab, which we know it is, then it makes perfect sense.

Can we please retire Jay Rockefeller? He’s whining about paying too much for the latest in Internet technology even as he pushes for regulation that would only make Internet competition harder. It’s crazy.

Speaking of Internet competition: The desire for a free lunch lives on in the form of Net Neutrality whiners whose goal all along was to get their high-end bandwidth use subsidized by the masses and the taxpayers.

As I’ve been saying all along, state Amazon taxes are unconstitutional, as a Cook County judge ruled this week with respect to the Illinois attempt. If you want interstate sales taxation, you need Congressional involvement in the form of a legal interstate compact. The Marketplace Fairness Act could be a good start to such a deal, assuming it got amended to ensure no national sales tax could ever be imposed through it.

Oh look, The Washington Post is carrying water for Jim DeMint’s opponents as DeMint tries to level the playing field of cable television. Remember Jay Rockefeller’s whining? Regulations biased against cable companies and for broadcast television stations, they’re part of the problem.

North Carolina censoring Internet content. Do you have your blog license?

View the original article here

Where was the push-back on the Paul Ryan Georgetown speech?

I mean, I see the news van. The protesters that would justify it? Not so much.

(H/T Instapundit) Let me show you this picture: it’s from House Ways/Means [Budget**] chair Paul Ryan’s speech this morning (04/26/2012) at Georgetown.  Specifically, it’s the protest at Georgetown:

Picture via John McCormack (via Twitchy): John is also noting that there weren’t many protesters inside, either, and that things went off without a hitch.  Which is, of course, the way that these things should go; and I have no serious quibbles with the people who showed up with their signs and their long, hysterically demented, giant typewriter ribbon of protest and their pet news media van.  They’re entitled to do it; and, hey, they showed up.

So where’s the rest of them?

Twitchy went into this point a bit, but let’s unpack it a bit more. The Democrats supposedly think (warning: FDL link) that Paul Ryan’s budget plan is a hideous liability for the Republicans – that is, those Democrats that actually know what the word ‘budget’ even means, which apparently excludes the entire Senate Democratic caucus* – so you would think that this speech by Ryan would and should have been a media circus.  Watch the speech: in it Ryan went into how his own Catholic faith informs his fiscal conservatism (Georgetown, remember?), and how his current proposals are not in fact contrary to the Church’s principles when it comes to helping the poor.  Given that this is genuinely subversive of the remaining links between American progressives and the Roman Catholic church hierarchy, it seems amazing that progressives weren’t trying their best to, well, at least show up.

Or did they?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: This is not 2007.  We now know what a populist movement looks like; in late April 2010 the Tea Party was putting thousands in the streets in protests on a regular basis.  I count… twelve?… in that above picture.

PS: Admittedly, the more people that showed up for a counter-protest, the more likely it would have been that said counter-protesters would have ended up acting badly.    Heck, twelve was probably pushing it, at that.  So there’s that.

*But don’t bring that up, or Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be mad at you.  Note: not ‘get mad;’ there are days where DWS seems… frayed.

[**Arrgh!  I was deep in Ways & Means stuff this morning, and it carried over.  Thanks to @Jake_W for catching that.]

View the original article here

Yet Another Reason Why Today’s Unions Suck: Dues Devour Wage Increases

On the eve of Obama’s NLRB unleashing its new rules giving unions the ability to hold ambush elections—that is, the evisceration of employers’ ability to question or challenge unions in their quest to cherry-pick voting units—more data was just released by the Bureau of National Affairs that calls into question why anyone in their right mind would pay dues to a union today.

In addition to the $369 billion in underfunded union (private-sector) pension plans, the abundant evidence that unions kill companies and destroy jobs, today’s unions are doing such a miserable job at the one thing they’re supposed to do—negotiate contracts—that union members should demand refunds from their union bosses.

According to the April 9th issue of the Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required), unions negotiated contracts in 2011 that, in 41% of the contracts, employees received no increase in the contract’s first year.

While 41% of the contracts negotiated by unions in 2011 contained wage freezes, according to BNA’s survey, of the contracts where increases were negotiated, the average wage increase that was obtained for the first year was a pathetic 1.4%.

According to BNA:

A Bloomberg BNA analysis of collective bargaining agreements negotiated in 2011 found that the average first-year wage increase under contracts negotiated last year was 1.4 percent, compared with 1.6 percent reported in 2010. The average second-year increase in 2011 was 1.7 percent, compared with 2 percent in 2010, and the average third-year increase was 2.1 percent, compared with 2.3 percent a year earlier….

Given that union dues for most union members range from around 1.3% to 5% of pay, once union dues are deducted from members’ wages, the negotiated increases unions “achieved” for their members in 2011 are eaten up (and then some) by union dues.

Of course, union bosses continue to blame “the 1%” for their failure to garner anything better for their union members.

However, the reality is, today’s unions have become nothing more than an albatross riding on the backs of job creators and their employees.

_____________

Originally posted on LaborUnionReport.com.

Follow LUR on Twitter.

“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

View the original article here

Daily Links – April 25, 2012

Today is April 25th. On this date in 1953, Senator Wayne Morse wrapped up the third longest filibuster in Senate history, at 22 hours, 26 minutes. The second longest was Sen. Alfonse D’Amato in 1986 at 23 hours, 30 minutes, and the longest was Sen. Strom Thurmond, at 24 hours, 18 minutes, in 1957. Morse died in 1974. His last words were … transcribed in the form of a three thousand page book. Also on this date, in 1964, Hank Azaria was born in New York. His first words were “Worst. Delivery. Ever.” On this date in 2003, Sinead O’Connor announced she was retiring from music. Her fan was devastated. And finally, today is World Penguin Day. Tuxedo. That’s my joke. Hey, they can’t all be winners. Consider this an Open Thread.

Kimmel Insists: ‘It’s Hard to Make Fun’ of ‘Cool Character’ Obama | Newsbusters
“‘It’s hard to make fun of Obama in general because he’s a cool character,’ ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, the ‘headliner’ for this Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, told Reuters, insisting that ‘outside of his ears, there’s not a whole lot’ to joke about.”

[NSFW Language] SNL alum Lovitz delivers rant on Obama, taxes | Daily Caller
“In an interview with “Clerks” director Kevin Smith, Lovitz, a registered Democrat who voted for Obama in 2008, bashed the president for his class warfare rhetoric and the notion that the wealthy don’t pay their fair share in taxes.”

Charlotte Hotel Owner: Dnc Business Practices ‘Ruthless, Bullying’ | Free Beacon
“The DNC has filed suit against a Charlotte-area hotel owner, who calls the convention’s business practices ‘ruthless’ and ‘bullying,’ WBTV in Charlotte reports:”

New York Times experiment in self-awareness lasts all of two days | Hot Air
“An understatement to be sure, but any acknowledgement of bias from the Times is a rare event, and so this understandably received a lot of coverage by the conservative media. Well fast forward two days later, and observe Times’ editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal pretty much give Brisbane, and conservatives, the (metaphorical) finger.”

New Moonbat Line of Attack: Rubio Campaigning With Romney is ‘Homoerotic’ | Newsbusters
“Randi Rhodes does what she can to make her presence known in that barren wasteland known as liberal radio. Unfortunately, it usually consists of little more than bloviating inanities.”

Today’s Word of the Day comes via Wordsmith.org.
elan (ay-LAHN): noun A combination of energy, enthusiasm, and style.

View the original article here

Hope and Change Revisited

But I say it ISN’T backwards, it’s right on…

In 2008, America fell in love with a false bill of goods (Hope).

In 2012, America sees the truth after the Hope has faded, and now we want change.

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” -Adam Smith

View the original article here

Romney Must Coalesce Around Conservatives, Not Vice Versa

There is an interesting factoid that was overlooked from last night’s largely pro-forma presidential primaries.  According to University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier, Romney was the first GOP frontrunner who failed to reach 60% in contests “conducted after his last major challenger dropped out of the race.”  Romney won just 56% of the vote in Delaware and 58% in Pennsylvania.

Over the past few months, we’ve been implored by the GOP establishment to coalesce around Romney in the all important battle to defeat Obama.  Undoubtedly, despite my serious concerns about the presumptive nominee, I plan to fully support Mitt Romney in the race for the White House.  The alternative is just too perilous. I suspect that there are millions of Republicans who feel the same way.  However, we must remember that ultimately it’s not conservatives who must coalesce around Romney; it’s Romney who must coalesce around conservatives.

During the Bush years Republicans in Congress (and many outside of Congress) abrogated their conservative principles to conform to the policies of the Republican president.  We must not make the same mistake this time around.  Again, it is vital that we replace Obama with Mitt Romney, but we must not corrupt our cherished principles in order to accommodate him.  Quite the contrary, it is he who must accommodate our principles.  After all, he is running as the Republican nominee.

It is in this vein that I call attention to this article from Alexander Bolton at the Hill about Republicans caving on the issues of Violence Against Women Act  (VAWA) and student loans:

Senate Republicans, seeking to avoid a public policy dispute with Mitt Romney, will let legislation on domestic violence pass the upper chamber despite having concerns about its constitutionality. […]

Senate Republicans lost political leverage last week when Romney’s campaign said the candidate supported the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. He stopped short of endorsing the bill Democrats crafted, however. […]

Senate Republicans have also closed ranks with Romney on Obama’s proposal to extend for one year low-interest loans for low- and middle-income college students, despite misgivings about the program.

Romney endorsed Obama’s proposal on Monday. On Tuesday, McConnell told reporters that Republicans would likely support it.

As we noted earlier this week, VAWA is unconstitutional and socially corrupt.  The student loan boondoggle will merely continue the inflationary pressure on the costs of higher education, engendering a further need for government assistance in a circuitous cycle of government/Big Education collusion.  Nonetheless, congressional Republicans are ready to go along to get along in order to accommodate Romney’s election strategy.

Yes – we know that this is all a grand strategy to take Obama’s demagoguery of “popular” issues off the table until the elections.  After Romney wins the election, we’ll really stand by our principles.  But will we?

At some point we have to be willing to draw a line in the sand and tell Romney not to cross it – before we endure 5 or so years of compassionate conservatism.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project

View the original article here

President Obama: ‘encouraging’/planning to tax into oblivion start-up businesses.

Never mind the fact that Obama got yoghurt splashed on him last night – that’s just an ongoing hazard of being a politician running for re-election in this country. The real story here is this: the President went to Colorado to, essentially, lie to a bunch of kids about how they can get themselves out of this mess that they’re in. And it is a mess. 50% of college graduates are unemployed/underemployed; couple that with student loan debt levels that should really be frightening more people and we end up with a situation where millions of kids are getting out of college and staring DOOM right in the face. And while they are adults – and thus, responsible for their own fates – guess what? The people that connived to put them in this mess are adults, too. We expect twenty-somethings in this culture to make poor life choices, sometimes; what we don’t expect is for the generations above them to so ruthlessly take advantage of that.

Anyway: Obama’s answer in Colorado, last night? …Entrepreneurship. That’s what he was telling the kids. Start that restaurant! Develop that smartphone app! Make your own destiny! Get slammed with a tax hike on small businesses in the form of tighter restrictions on payroll tax exemptions!

…Yeah. One of these things is not like the others.

For the morbidly curious, here’s the situation: there’s a bill in Congress that would freeze student loan rates. It’s stalling because, well, that’s going to cost us $5.9 billion and the money’s got to come from somewhere. So the N-dimensional geniuses over at the White House went to Congressional Democrats and found six billion worth of pork to cut… Oh, I am quite the comedian! They’re Democrats: they never cut spending. No, what Obama and the rest of his merry crew did instead was come up with a plan to generate the revenue via increased restrictions for S Corporations re: eligibility for payroll tax exemptions.

If you’re wondering “So what?” …well, you’re probably not a small business owner: S-Corps are a common method by which small companies – mom-and-pop stores, individual professional workers, START-UP BUSINESSES – file their taxes. Essentially, S-Corps file as individuals – which is, by the way, why Obama’s proposed tax hike on $250K earners is actually a tax on many small business owners, despite the best efforts of his apologists to downplay that minor little detail. But never mind that right now; the point is, by making it harder for S-Corps to be exempt from payroll taxes President Obama is proposing an effective profits tax on them. You can argue whether that’s a good idea or not – it’s not – but if you are planning to hike tax rates on small businesses just starting out then basic etiquette suggests that you not also encourage people to start small businesses.

Because that’s a lie: you don’t want to encourage them. You just want to get some of their money to keep things going until after the election’s over.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: This issue is related to the re-authorization of the student loan rates that my RS colleague David Horowitz is criticizing: but just because we may lose the battle on the loan rates themselves doesn’t mean that we have to lose the battle on how the government plans to pay for them.

[UPDATE] I have just had it pointed out to me via private email that the Obama administration has been gunning for S-Corps for years.  And with very little concern over the legal niceties, either.

View the original article here

“It’s pretty clear Governor Romney is going to be the nominee.”

Yesterday, Governor Romney swept all five primaries, including Delaware, which was Newt Gingrich’s last best hope for continuing his campaign – and in Delaware, he got stomped.  Today, Gingrich announced that he is ending his campaign for the Presidential nomination.

In his announcement, Newt had some pretty interesting things to say – things that we all should be paying close attention to.  From the CBS News report:

“I think you have to at some point be honest with what’s happening in the real world, as opposed to what you’d like to have happened,” Gingrich said. “Governor Romney had a very good day yesterday. He got 67 [percent] in one state, and he got 63 in other, 62 in another. Now you have to give him some credit. I mean this guy’s worked six years, put together a big machine, and has put together a serious campaign.

“I think obviously that I would be a better candidate, but the objective fact is the voters didn’t think that,” Gingrich said. “And I also think it’s very, very important that we be unified.”

(bold is mine)  As has been written here on these pages several times, the voters are the ones who chose Governor Romney.  He is going to be our nominee.  And as Newt says, it IS very important (now that the primaries have indicated our choice) that we are – or become – unified.

This has been a pretty nasty GOP primary season.  There are a lot of us (myself included) who don’t particularly like Mitt Romney as a candidate.  But our candidate he is.  We can lament what might have been and we can fret a bit about what kind of president Mitt might be.  But in the end the mission is now to focus all of our efforts on defeating Barack Obama by supporting Mitt Romney as our nominee.  And it’s not just the “us” here at Redstate and in the trenches of the electorate…it’s also the other former candidates:  Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Santorum, Huntsman -  and Gingrich.  The GOP must now line up behind Romney.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t push Romney to adhere as closely as possible to conservative principles.  He doesn’t just get a pass.  Daniel made a good point earlier in his diary “Romney Must Coalesce Around Conservatives…”  He’s making the case to us, not the other way around.  Let’s keep the pressure on…but remember who the real target is, now that the primaries are pretty much over.

From here on out, I support Mitt Romney for President.

View the original article here

Sign Letter for Open Appropriations Process in the House

Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget.  Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action.

In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry Reid only has a tenuous hold on the Senate at just 53 seats.  Unfortunately, as we chronicled extensively here at Red State, House and Senate GOP leaders agreed to jettison the Ryan budget halfway through the process in favor of Harry Reid’s minibus and omnibus bills, which vitiated every worthy goal of that budget.

There were two consequences of that betrayal.  First, House Republicans were denied the opportunity to vote on all 12 appropriations bills individually.  Second, because the bills were shunted off to conference straight from the Senate, House conservatives were denied an open floor process to offer conservative amendments cutting more spending or eliminating harmful and wasteful programs.  It is these bills that offer us the opportunity to truly cut spending, at least on the discretionary side, yet that opportunity was completed surrendered to Harry Reid.  The net effect was that not a single penny of discretionary spending was cut from the previous year’s budget and not a single program was eliminated.

As we noted earlier this week, Republicans are on track for more of the same this year.  Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans already disregarded the House budget in favor of Obama’s spending levels, while statist House appropriators are signaling they wish to do the same.  In order to preempt a repeat of last year’s insanity, Tom McClintock has drafted a letter to House leadership requesting adherence to their promise of an open amendment process on all 12 bills individually:

 Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor:

We write to express our support for a fully open appropriations process in which all twelve appropriations bills are brought individually to the House floor and every member has an opportunity to offer amendments.

We agree wholeheartedly with Speaker Boehner who said, “Let’s do away with the concept of ‘comprehensive’ spending bills. Let’s break them up, to encourage scrutiny, and make spending cuts easier.” To make this possible, House Republicans promised in the Pledge to America to “advance major legislation one issue at a time” and “let any lawmaker – Democrat or Republican – offer amendments to reduce spending.”

This vision for an open, transparent spending process is not new – it is a return to the regular order which was discarded during four years of Democrat control of the House. The new Republican House majority came to Washington with a mandate from the American people to address this historic breakdown in spending controls and to stem the tide of spending and debt. We began that work by passing a responsible budget, bringing spending bills to the House floor individually and under open rules, and letting the House work its will.

There is still much to be done to keep runaway spending and debt from destroying our economy and diminishing the prosperity of future generations. We encourage you to build on last year’s progress as we work together to put America back on a path to fiscal sanity.

Sincerely,

Tom McClintock

It’s not surprising that some Republicans would rather Harry Reid control the spending bills and send them straight to conference committee, where Republicans will be blocked from filing amendments on the committee report.  They don’t want to be forced to vote on conservative amendments to cut more spending on the floor.  It’s enough that the appropriators have to deal with a few pesky conservatives who offer spending cut amendments on a committee level.  Yesterday, Congressman Jeff Flake offered an amendment to cut another $95 billion in spending, and let’s just say that the results were not pretty [via CQ]:

Flake, R-Ariz. – Amendment that would change the fiscal 2013 discretionary budget authority allocations for 10 subcommittees in the following manner:

Rejected 4-44: R 4-25; D 0-19; I 0-0; April 25, 2012.

Vote Key

YEAS (4)

NAYS (44)

NOT VOTING (2)

Let’s bring this discussion out of the committee and have a full and open debate on the House floor regarding spending cuts and the legitimate role of the federal government.

Find out if your Republican representative plans to sign this letter.  Talk is cheap in Washington.  Anyone who purports to support a balanced budget but refuses to keep control of the appropriations process within the Republican-controlled House isn’t worth a dime to us.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project

View the original article here