Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Posted by Richard on March 15, 2014
In a recent Cato Policy Report, Brian Domitrovic contrasted the growth of government in the past 15 years with the comparable period before that, and suggested that what this country needs is another tax revolt:
For about 15 years now, the federal government, in all its myriad activities, has been in major expansion mode. The Federal Reserve, the regulatory apparatus, the tax code, the police and surveillance machinery of the state — all of these extensions of the government have broadened their reach, power, and ambition in significant fashion since the late 1990s.
The basic metric that reflects all this is the level of federal spending. In 2013 the government of the United States spent 55 percent more money — in real, inflation-adjusted terms — than it did in 1999. Economic growth in that 14-year span has been 30 percent. …
…
The moment is apt, then, to reclaim a tradition of our recent history, a tradition that the big-government 21st century is striving to suppress. This is the great successful effort to slow Leviathan of a generation and a half ago — the effort that gave us the Ronald Reagan revolution of the 1980s.
By all means, read the whole thing. But this graph clearly illustrates one of the key points:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: big government, economics, economy, reagan, tax cuts | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 13, 2014
A natural gas explosion destroyed two apartment buildings in East Harlem yesterday, killing at least seven people. Rep. Charles Rangel, who represents the neighborhood, described it as “our community’s 9/11.” That offensively separatist bit of hyperbole drew lots of negative reactions on Twitter, and Twitchy collected some of them.
At Breitbart’s Big Government, Frances Martel pointed out that 9/11 was Harlem’s 9/11:
Harlem was among the communities most impacted by the September 11 attacks by virtue of location alone. Harlem artists have contributed significantly to September 11 memorial events and artistic works. Rep. Rangel himself worked on a bill to extend unemployment benefits as a way to stimulate the economy after September 11. The neighborhood is home to its own September 11 memorial in Inwood, which fell prey to vandalism in an incident last December.
Rangel never passes up an opportunity to get in front of the microphones, and it doesn’t matter how stupid or offensive he is. His constituents love him because he brings home the bacon, and the Socialist Democrat Party loves him because he delivers lots of black votes. So it doesn’t matter that he’s a serial tax evader and violator of Congressional ethics. If he were a Republican, he’d have been kicked out of the House and probably gone to jail.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: new york, rangel | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 12, 2014
Pat Caddell, for one, has been arguing for some time (most recently at CPAC) that the GOP leadership is part of the beltway ruling class and would rather see an establishment Democrat elected than a Tea Party upstart who threatens the current culture of cronyism and corruption. Rick Manning cites a Georgia congressional race that proves the point.
In Georgia’s 12th Congressional District, John Stone faced only a single primary opponent (assuring no debilitating runoff) and seemed poised to take the seat from Democratic incumbent John Barrow. Stone recently pledged to support changing the House GOP leadership, and a subsequent poll showed him leading Barrow by 74% to 15%. The GOP establishment’s reaction:
Suddenly, alternative candidate recruitment by the NRCC in this otherwise extremely winnable district became a priority. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that state Representative Delvis Dutton’s entrance into the race was orchestrated by NRCC operatives who have gone so far as to set up his consulting team and even managed his campaign announcement. In addition, a fourth candidate, Eugene Yu, has left behind his longshot bid to become a United States Senator from Georgia to jump into the race at the last minute.
The impact is simple.
Democrat Congressman John Barrow is licking his chops expecting that he will, due to NRCC meddling, be facing a general election opponent who won’t even be chosen until a July 21st run-off election. In Georgia if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote in a primary, the top two candidates face off, delaying the selection of a nominee for two additional months. That opponent is likely to have a depleted campaign treasury, and will have endured two more months of rigorous negative intra-party campaigning. Meanwhile Barrow will be sitting on a $2 million bankroll ready to unleash a torrent of attack ads against the defenseless Republican who emerges from the nomination process.
There are only two possible conclusions that can be drawn by the NRCC’s blundering into the 12th Congressional District of Georgia race at the last minute and doing grievous harm to their nominee. Either they are incompetent boobs who have made it exponentially harder for a Republican to win in this Republican district by accident, or they would rather have Democrat John Barrow in the seat than a reformer who understands how politics is played in D.C. like John Stone.
Although I generally subscribe to Hanlon’s razor, I’m pretty certain that this is not just incompetence. The Boehners and McConnells of the GOP, along with their staffs, consultants, and favored lobbyists, have only one goal: to maintain a grip on the levers of power. They’d rather share that power with the Democrats than risk having it reduced or taken away by a bunch of Tea Party troublemakers who actually take the party’s limited-government rhetoric seriously.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: corruption, gop, politics, republicans | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 9, 2014
Want to know why the left has tried so hard to diminish, disparage, and destroy Sarah Palin? Because she can deliver a speech like this. Wow. Just wow.
[YouTube link]
Best take-off on “Green Eggs and Ham” ever. And like Rand Paul, she goes after the GOP establishment as well as the Dems.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: conservatives, freedom, palin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 9, 2014
On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul reminded the Conservative Political Action Congress that the 4th Amendment is just as important as the 2nd Amendment. And he took on the GOP establishment as well as the Dems. Well worth 19 minutes of your time.
[YouTube link]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bill of rights, civil liberties, conservatives, rand paul | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 6, 2014
On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled his Fiscal Year 2015 budget proposal, for what it’s worth (not much, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which describes it as “[i]ncomplete, inconclusive, and indecipherable”). He proposes to spend $3.901 trillion (that’s $3,901,000,000,000), almost $1 trillion (33%) more than in 2008. The Obama administration describes this budget as ending the “era of austerity.” The “era of austerity” is apparently FY2012 and FY2013, when actual outlays declined by a whopping 4% from the stimulus-swollen FY2011 level.
Me, I’d rather look back at a different “era.” Remember Bill “the era of big government is over” Clinton? He’s revered by the Socialist Democrats, and his eight years in office are viewed as some kind of golden age. Let’s set the Wayback Machine to FY1999, the last full fiscal year of the Clinton presidency.
Actual FY1999 outlays were $1.702 trillion. According to this price deflator calculator, that’s $2.266 trillion in 2013 dollars. About 42% lower than Obama’s proposed FY2015 budget. Now that’s what I call austerity — or at least a good start.
My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I don’t recall children starving, bridges collapsing, and old people dying in the streets during the Clinton years.
If we had a decent opposition party in this country, it would demand a return to Clinton-era spending levels, adjusted for inflation. Heck, I wouldn’t even mind too much if they threw in an adjustment for the 14% population growth since 1999 (even though there’s no logical reason why all federal spending should rise with population). That would still leave the budget 28% lower than Obama’s proposal.
Actually, it’s pointless spending a lot of time on the Obama budget proposal since it’s going nowhere. The Senate’s Socialist Democrats have already made it clear that they won’t be considering a budget resolution this year. Doing so would force all those vulnerable senators up for reelection to choose between rebuffing their president or going on record supporting higher taxes, more spending, and an ever-growing debt burden. This budget proposal is purely PR and talking points.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: big government, budget, clinton, obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 6, 2014
Nick Gillespie:
Tim Moen is a Canadian who is apparently the first federal Libertarian Party candidate to run for Parliament from the Fort McMurray-Athabasca area in Alberta.
I’m nominating this as the best political campaign poster of the year.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: canada, libertarian party, politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 5, 2014
Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus is going before the Supreme Court. It’s a free speech case in which the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List challenges an Ohio campaign law criminalizing false statements about politicians. During the 2010 campaign, SBA List claimed that Rep. Steven Driehaus’ vote for Obamacare amounted to a vote for taxpayer-funded abortions. This was an illegal false statement according to Driehaus.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Some folks associated with the Cato Institute, including P.J. O’Rourke, have filed an amici curiae brief in the case (PDF). It provides by far the most entertaining reading the Supremes will encounter all year. Here’s a sample:
In modern times, “truthiness” — a “truth” asserted “from the gut” or because “it feels right,” without regard to evidence or logic — is also a key part of political discourse. It is difficult to imagine life without it, and our political discourse is weakened by Orwellian laws that try to prohibit it.
After all, where would we be without the knowledge that Democrats are pinko-communist flag-burners who want to tax churches and use the money to fund abortions so they can use the fetal stem cells to create pot-smoking lesbian ATF agents who will steal all the guns and invite the UN to take over America? Voters have to decide whether we’d be better off electing Republicans, those hateful, assault-weapon-wielding maniacs who believe that George Washington and Jesus Christ incorporated the nation after a Gettysburg reenactment and that the only thing wrong with the death penalty is that it isn’t administered quickly enough to secular-humanist professors of Chicano studies.
HT: Steven Hayward
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: free speech, humor, politics, supreme court | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 4, 2014
The Chavinista who occupies the White House is about to change the law by executive decree yet again. Ed Morrissey:
How blatant is this latest unilateral change from the Obama administration on the law they claim is working well? The Hill can’t avoid connecting the dots in its lead sentence:
The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats.
As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements.
Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall.
The cancellations would have created a firestorm for Democratic candidates in the last, crucial weeks before Election Day.
Actually, HHS thought they had already avoided that outcome with its previous extension. That pushed off the deadline for plans to meet the requirements of ObamaCare until January 1, 2015, which is after the midterms. However, none of the geniuses at HHS seemed to know that insurers have to send out cancellation notices 90 days in advance, which would mean that letters would go out no later than October 1 … five weeks or so before the vote.
D’oh!
There seems to be wide agreement among legal scholars — even staunch liberals such as Jonathan Turley — that the President’s executive decrees are unconstitutional and undermine the separation of powers. Yet everyone seems to agree that nothing can be done about it because no one has “legal standing” to challenge these edicts — they don’t “create a sufficiently concrete injury for standing.”
Personally, I think that destroying my right to live under a government of laws, not of men, and to have those laws made by my elected representatives as mandated by the Constitution is a pretty significant injury. But I’m not a legal expert with an Ivy League degree.
Dr. Larry Kawa is arguing, with the help of Judicial Watch, that he does have standing, having spent significant time and money to ensure that his orthodontics practice is in compliance with the law as written. He has appealed the district court’s dismissal of his lawsuit to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. More power to him.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: obama, obamacare, politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 3, 2014
At The Blaze, Jason Howerton calls attention to a video that deserves to go viral:
As we’ve noted in previous reports, sometimes things can spin out of control when open carry activists and police officers meet. That was certainly not the case in Austin, Texas, when an officer responded to a call about “suspicious” men openly carrying rifles.
In a video posted on YouTube in January by the activist group Come and Take It Texas, an officer is seen approaching the armed men in a non-aggressive fashion.
“Just checking you guys out,” he says in the video. “I already know the law.”
The officer, which the group identifies as Mark Dale with the Austin Police Department, even jokes with one of the men about his holstered squash. The man said he was openly carrying the squash as a joke because he’s unable to openly carry a pistol in Texas.
“I saw that, I was laughing did you hear me?” the friendly cop says.
Dale then shakes the men’s hands and lets them go about their business. The officer also lets them know he doesn’t mind if they video record him and assures them he will talk to the person who made the 911 call to make sure there’s no problem.
…
The exchange certainly isn’t very exciting or eventful, but it is always good to remember how many good cops there are out there who know the law and are entirely respectful to the people they serve.
Amen to that. Check it out; it’s unexciting, uneventful, and a real pleasure to watch.
[YouTube link]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 1, 2014
This news is causing a lot of reaction across the interwebs:
WASHINGTON — President Obama had no public events on his schedule today, yet skipped a meeting of his national security team at the White House today as they huddled over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Seen leaving the meeting at the White House were Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, and CIA Director John Brennan.
Vice President Joe Biden reportedly joined the meeting via videoconference, while Obama was briefed later by National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
No biggie. Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett will tell him what to do and say. As usual.
Besides, they were just talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not any of the really important national security concerns — like obesity, climate change, and an obstructionist Congress.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: national security, obama, ukraine | 3 Comments »
Posted by Richard on March 1, 2014
Illinois has issued the first 5,000 concealed carry permits under its new “shall issue” law. Another 45,000+ applications are in the pipeline. The Second Amendment Foundation celebrated the occasion yesterday (emphasis added):
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today offered congratulations to the first 5,000 recipients of Illinois concealed carry licenses, which were mailed out by the State Police.
It was a SAF case – Moore v. Madigan – that forced the Illinois Legislature to adopt a concealed carry law last year over the objections of anti-gun Gov. Pat Quinn and others including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
“While politicians had to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance with the Second Amendment,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “the good citizens are rushing to enjoy their newly-restored firearms freedom. State officials said today they have received more than 50,000 permit applications. Last month, Fox News reported that concealed carry applications had outpaced the number of applications for Obamacare.
“We’re proud that our case brought about this opportunity for Illinois citizens to join millions of other Americans in the exercise of their fundamental right to keep and especially bear arms,” he continued. “If the Illinois experience has taught us anything, it is that the die-hard anti-gun politicians who opposed this new law are horribly out of touch with their constituents.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: civil liberties, concealed carry, firearms, illinois, second amendment | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on March 1, 2014
During the 2008 campaign, Sarah Palin predicted that if the weak and feckless Sen. Obama were elected President, Vladimir Putin might invade Ukraine. She was laughed at by foreign policy experts.
Palin said then:
After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.
For those comments, she was mocked by the high-brow Foreign Policy magazine and its editor Blake Hounshell, who now is one of the editors of Politico magazine.
…
Hounshell wrote then that Palin’s comments were “strange” and “this is an extremely far-fetched scenario.”
“And given how Russia has been able to unsettle Ukraine’s pro-Western government without firing a shot, I don’t see why violence would be necessary to bring Kiev to heel,” Hounshell dismissively wrote.
Oops. Palin is now having the last laugh. Hounshell has acknowledged her prescience:
I didn’t see anything resembling an apology, however, although Moe Lane for one suggested it was due:
I’m reminded of how the left mocked Palin for telling Tea Party groups to “party like it’s 1773” — blissfully unaware that that was the year of the Boston Tea Party. When you repeatedly make fun of someone for being a stupid yahoo, and they’re repeatedly proven wiser and more knowledgeable than you, shouldn’t you feel some embarrassment and shame?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: foreign policy, hubris, media bias, obama, palin, predictions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Richard on February 28, 2014
It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish real news stories from stories you might see in The Onion. Global warming has already been blamed for droughts, floods, record heat, record cold, more hurricanes, fewer hurricanes, and earthquakes. Now an environmental economist has released a study, with support from Harvard, purporting to prove that global warming will lead to more murders and rapes between now and 2099:
Should global warming (or climate change, or whatever they decide to call it by then) continue, crime will increase — specifically, violent crime. By how much?
“[A]n additional 22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny, and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft in the U.S.,” the study said.
The mind boggles.
HT: Steven Hayward (who noted “I love the precision of this forecast, which matches the faux-precision of temperature forecasts 100 years out”)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: climate change, crime, global warming | 1 Comment »
Posted by Richard on February 28, 2014
The New York Times extols the benefits of increasing employee wages. Tom Maguire wonders why they don’t eat their own dog food. It’s brief and doesn’t lend itself to excerpting. Hit the link; you’ll get a good chuckle out of it.
HT: Thomas Lifson
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: journalism, msm | Leave a Comment »
