Do as we say.....

Civility Democrat style
More than 100 pages of public records released Thursday reveal again how high emotion, bad judgment and anti-social media combined in February to generate a nationwide investigation of threats against Gov. Scott Walker and lawmakers on both sides of his budget-repair bill.

Emails, Twitter streams, Facebook and Craigslist postings, phone calls and even a few notes sent by U.S. mail ranged from overt threats of violence to promises of political retaliation to benign-sounding requests for investigations of lawmakers' actions. A SURPRISING NUMBER OF EVEN THE MOST VILE MESSAGES CAME FROM READILY-IDENTIFIABLE SENDERS.

The vast majority of about 90 matters referred to the state authorities were determined to present "no criminal nexus or viable threat," but ABOUT A DOZEN REMAIN OPEN AS CASES WITH THE DIVISION OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, ACCORDING TO ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL KEVIN POTTER…..

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/121721234.html

It seems like just recently the left was telling us that the right’s incivility was dangerous. I guess if it is the left, it’s okay.

Unexpected! NJ to Take in $913M More in Tax Revenue for 2012

Naturally, before the money is even counted THE DEMOCRATS ARE EAGER TO SPEND IT. Can we at least point out the Governor may be on the right track fiscally and applaud him for getting our finances in order?

New Jersey is projected to take in $913 million more than expected in tax revenue through June 2012, according to new projections by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

The revised estimate will likely spark a partisan battle over how to spend the unexpected windfall as lawmakers consider Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $29.4 billion budget.

Why do we automatically have to go and spend it? Why not step back and take a solid look at where the money would best go. I have an idea: Property tax relief. Of course the Democrats want to dump it right back into failing schools. What a surprise.

"THE GOVERNOR HAS BALANCED HIS BUDGETS ON THE BACKS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS, NOW THIS GIVES US AN OPPORTUNITY TO UNDO THAT," said state Sen. Paul Sarlo, who as head of the Senate Budget Committee reviewed the OLS estimates….

….Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) said the money should be used to "RESTORE SOME OF THE PAIN" Christie has caused with his budget cuts….

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2011/05/unexpected-nj-to-take-in-913m-more-in.html

Someone should tell Lou Greenwald he needs to watch his language. I don’t think he meant to say he wanted to “RESTORE SOME OF THE PAIN.” I think he meant to say he wanted to alleviate some of the pain. But he probably is the product of the New Jersey Public School System.


Pelosi’s district gets 20% of latest waivers from Obamacare

OF THE 204 NEW OBAMACARE WAIVERS PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION APPROVED IN APRIL, 38 ARE FOR FANCY EATERIES, HIP NIGHTCLUBS AND DECADENT HOTELS IN HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI’S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA DISTRICT.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers….

http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%e2%80%99s-district/#ixzz1McaHIEQS

If Obamacare is such a good program why all the waivers from it?


Romney Raises $10 million in a day

MITT ROMNEY RAISED $10.25 MILLION IN A ONE-DAY FUNDRAISER IN LAS VEGAS Monday, demonstrating his campaign's huge fundraising capacity, unrivaled by the rest of the Republican 2012 field. The former Massachusetts governor aims to raise $40 million this quarter, "a sum that could give him a financial advantage so strong that it partly compensates for his considerable weaknesses," Politico's Jonathan Martin reports. And if that's not enough cash, Romney told reporters that he's open to pouring his own wealth into his campaign, as he did in 2008, when he personally spent $42 million.

In the massive Las Vegas Convention Center, 720 campaign workers began dialing donors at 5:30 a.m., asking for the maximum contribution. MARTIN WRITES THAT FELLOW CANDIDATE TIM PAWLENTY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO MATCH ROMNEY'S ONE-DAY HAUL THE ENTIRE QUARTER. If he runs, Jon Huntsman won't spend his own considerable wealth, and though Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin can raise a lot of cash online, they'll have trouble attracting bundlers that could help them reach Romney's war chest. THE GUY WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF RIVALING ROMNEY'S FUNDRAISING IS MITCH DANIELS, thanks to his support from some close to the Bush family. But Daniels still hasn't decided if he's going to run.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/05/romney-raises-1025-million-day/37797/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%
3A+TheAtlanticWire+%28The+Atlantic+Wire%29
This is scary. With Obama looking to raise a billion dollars and Romney raising this kind of money, we are going to be so inundated with political ads next year that we may all go crazy.

Thompson to run for the Senate in Wisconsin

Tommy Thompson, the Republican former Wisconsin governor and George W. Bush’s first secretary of Health and Human Services, has told friends he plans to run for the open Senate seat in Wisconsin, according to top Wisconsin sources.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said Friday that he won’t seek a fifth term in 2012.
Thompson would give Republicans a popular former four-term governor to seriously challenge for this toss-up seat, which could prove the difference as Senate Democrats struggle to defend their majority with now eight retirements.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55108.html#ixzz1MceIxtAi

This is very good news for the Republicans and bad news for the Democrats



Obama’s all out war on free enterprise


The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky and James Sherk have a must-read post at The Corner about an internal NLRB memorandum detailing plans to give unions much greater power over employers:

Specifically, THE NLRB WANTS TO FORCE COMPANIES TO PROVIDE DETAILED ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATIONS (INCLUDING UNDERLYING COST OR BENEFIT CONSIDERATIONS) FOR RELOCATION DECISIONS to allow unions to bargain over them — or lose the right to make those decisions without bargaining over them. It is a “heads I win, tails you lose” situation for unions.
…
The NRLB’s goal is not just to prevent companies from investing in right-to-work states. The board apparently also WANTS TO FORCE EMPLOYERS TO MAKE UNIONS “AN EQUAL PARTNER IN THE RUNNING OF THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE.” … the board wants business decisions made to benefit unions, not the shareholders, owners, and other employees of a business, or the overall economy. The Boeing charges are evidently just a first step toward that goal.

This memo, and the Boeing charges, are not the first evidence that THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS USING EVERY LEVER OF FEDERAL AGENCY POWER TO ATTACK FREE ENTERPRISE TO THE BENEFIT OF ORGANIZED LABOR. Former Department of Labor appointee Don Todd told The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Boyle this January:

In a worst-case scenario, your union organizer comes to you, offers you a deal to unionize, you say, ‘no,’ and, the next thing you know, OSHA’s [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] at your door. Then, Wage and Hour show up, and they want to publicize it. They always find something wrong.

THAT IS JUST BLACKMAIL….

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/05/obama-s-all-out-war-free-enterprice#ixzz1Md0nxEsG

The corruption of this administration is mind blowing.

Do environmentalist help or hurt mankind?

….These stories illustrate a well-proven sociological phenomenon, which I HUMBLY CALL JASON'S FIRST LAW OF ENVIRONMENTALISM: WHEN ANY NEW PRODUCTIVE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY IS DEVELOPED, THE ENVIRONMENTALIST COMMUNITY WILL IMMEDIATELY ATTEMPT TO STOP ITS USE. Enviros favor only completely uneconomical energy sources (such as wind, solar, biomass, and ethanol) that can work only with massive subsidies -- subsidies that are typically a hundred times any subsidies given to the proven technologies (nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas).

What causes this strange behavior in this admittedly deviant community? Well, what is the environmental community? IT IS THE FIRST WELL-ORGANIZED AND FUNDED GROUP OF SELF-LOATHING HOMINIDS -- THAT IS, HUMANS WHO DETEST HUMANITY -- IN HISTORY. That explains why they prefer the uneconomical forms of power: THEY KNOW THAT ANY SOCIETY THAT REPLACED ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE FORMS OF POWER WITH UNECONOMICAL ONES WOULD SOON ECONOMICALLY COLLAPSE, and, being self-loathing hominids, they seek precisely that.

But ordinary, self-respecting hominids seem to be catching on -- and they are fighting back, as illustrated by THE NICE REPORT THAT THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) IS GOING TO BUCK ORDERS BY THE U.N. BY STARTING TO PRODUCE THE INSECTICIDE DDT AGAIN….

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/environmentalist_schizophrenia.html

This article is worth reading. Environmentalist seem intent on saving the world by destroying mankind.

Some Truth for Monday

A Well-Executed Con Job

On the night of his election, standing atop a stage in Grant Park, Barack Obama reiterated one of the central themes of his candidacy. “LET US RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO FALL BACK ON THE SAME PARTISANSHIP AND PETTINESS AND IMMATURITY THAT HAS POISONED OUR POLITICS FOR SO LONG,” the Great Unifier said.

In Denver, during the Democratic National Convention, he said this: “One of the things that WE HAVE TO CHANGE IN OUR POLITICS IS THE IDEA THAT PEOPLE CANNOT DISAGREE WITHOUT CHALLENGING EACH OTHER’S CHARACTER AND EACH OTHER’S PATRIOTISM.”

So how are “resisting the partisan temptation” and “changing our politics” going in the Age of Obama?

Not well—if the evidence from the Democratic side of the aisle over the last 24 hours is to be trusted.

Representative LOUISE SLAUGHTER, in talking about the GOP effort to stop government money from going to Planned Parenthood, said REPUBLICANS ARE “HERE TO KILL WOMEN.” She went on to compare them to—wait for it—Nazis.

Former Speaker NANCY PELOSI, adding her typically gracious touch to things, said that what REPUBLICANS ARE DOING IS DECLARING A “WAR ON WOMEN.”

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, in keeping with the spirit of the metaphor, said that REPUBLICANS ARE ADVOCATING THE “FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT OF BOMBING INNOCENT CIVILIANS.”

Senator Majority Leader HARRY REID, emerging as the softy in the bunch, said REPUBLICANS “WANT TO SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE THEY THINK THERE’S NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN KEEPING WOMEN FROM GETTING CANCER SCREENINGS.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/08/well-executed-con-job


I thought after the shooting in Arizona we were supposed to dial down the rhetoric. I guess that doesn’t apply if you are a liberal.



Spending cuts, not policy riders, held up a deal, GOP aides say

House and Senate negotiators had reached a deal on controversial policy riders late Thursday night, according to a GOP leadership source close to the intense talks that resulted in an eleventh-hour deal to avert government shutdown, despite Democrats’ claims to the contrary.

House and Senate Democratic lawmakers spent most of Friday attacking Republicans for holding up a government funding measure over a controversial social policy rider to defund Planned Parenthood, but a source close to the situation said that Democratic attacks were "just a ruse."

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/155067-spending-cuts-not-policy-riders-held-up-a-deal-gop-aides-say

What politicians not telling the truth!!! Do you know how you can tell when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.



One more time: Why AGW is false

….The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s. But THE GRAVY TRAIN WAS TOO BIG, WITH TOO MANY JOBS, INDUSTRIES, TRADING PROFITS, POLITICAL CAREERS, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF WORLD GOVERNMENT AND TOTAL CONTROL RIDING ON THE OUTCOME. So rather than admit they were wrong, the governments, and their tame climate scientists, now outrageously maintain the fiction that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant.

Let’s be perfectly clear. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and other things being equal, the MORE CARBON DIOXIDE IN THE AIR, THE WARMER THE PLANET. Every bit of carbon dioxide that we emit warms the planet. But the issue is not whether carbon dioxide warms the planet, but how much…...

….THE DISAGREEMENT COMES ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

The planet reacts to that extra carbon dioxide, which changes everything. Most critically, the extra warmth causes more water to evaporate from the oceans. But DOES THE WATER HANG AROUND AND INCREASE THE HEIGHT OF MOIST AIR IN THE ATMOSPHERE, OR DOES IT SIMPLY CREATE MORE CLOUDS AND RAIN? Back in 1980, when the carbon dioxide theory started, no one knew. The alarmists guessed that it would increase the height of moist air around the planet, which would warm the planet even further, because the moist air is also a greenhouse gas.

This is the core idea of every official climate model: For each bit of warming due to carbon dioxide, they claim it ends up causing three bits of warming due to the extra moist air. The climate models amplify the carbon dioxide warming by a factor of three — so TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR PROJECTED WARMING IS DUE TO EXTRA MOIST AIR (AND OTHER FACTORS); ONLY ONE-THIRD IS DUE TO EXTRA CARBON DIOXIDE.

That’s the core of the issue. All the disagreements and misunderstandings spring from this. The ALARMIST CASE IS BASED ON THIS GUESS ABOUT MOISTURE IN THE ATMOSPHERE, AND THERE IS SIMPLY NO EVIDENCE FOR THE AMPLIFICATION THAT IS AT THE CORE OF THEIR ALARMISM.

Weather balloons had been measuring the atmosphere since the 1960s, many thousands of them every year. The climate models all predict that as the planet warms, a hot spot of moist air will develop over the tropics about 10 kilometres up, as the layer of moist air expands upwards into the cool dry air above. During the warming of the late 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, THE WEATHER BALLOONS FOUND NO HOT SPOT. NONE AT ALL. NOT EVEN A SMALL ONE. THIS EVIDENCE PROVES THAT THE CLIMATE MODELS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED, that they greatly overestimate the temperature increases due to carbon dioxide.

This evidence first became clear around the mid-1990s.

AT THIS POINT, OFFICIAL “CLIMATE SCIENCE” STOPPED BEING A SCIENCE. In science, empirical EVIDENCE ALWAYS TRUMPS THEORY, no matter how much you are in love with the theory. If theory and evidence disagree, real scientists scrap the theory. But official climate science ignored the crucial weather balloon evidence, and other subsequent evidence that backs it up, and instead clung to their carbon dioxide theory — …

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/07/climate-models-go-cold/


I’ve posted a lot of this article, but it explains the argument very well. So next time someone says “everyone agrees” you not only know better, but quoting from this story should end the argument. Simply ask them where’s the hot spot?

Wisconsin and other liberal nightmares

Charlie Cook lays out a grim future for Democrats in the US Senate


http://www.nationaljournal.com/video-charlie-cook-looks-into-senate-s-future-20110228


Here’s a video when Charlie explains the obvious.



Walker warns missing Democrats

REPUBLICAN GOV. SCOTT WALKER ON MONDAY GAVE ABSENT DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS AN ULTIMATUM TO RETURN TO WISCONSIN within 24 hours and vote on a proposal to reduce the power of public sector unions or the state would miss out on a debt restructuring.

Walker stepped up the pressure on 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state to avoid a vote on the bill as he prepared to unveil on Tuesday a two-year state budget that he said cuts $1 billion from funding to local governments and schools.

What began as one small state trying to rewrite the rules of labor relations has blown up into what could be THE BIGGEST CONFRONTATION WITH AMERICAN LABOR UNIONS SINCE THEN PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN FIRED STRIKING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS IN 1981.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/us-wisconsin-governor-idUSTRE71R51620110228

Teachers and other government employees are going to be fired and it's going to be the Democrat's fault.  But don't expect to hear that fact on the MSM.


Obama slapped down by the Wisconsin Governor’s office

Gov. Scott Walker on Monday afternoon responded to comments President Barack Obama made earlier in the day about the protests in Madison:

Walker's office issued this statement:

"I'M SURE THE PRESIDENT KNOWS THAT MOST FEDERAL EMPLOYEES DO NOT HAVE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR WAGES AND BENEFITS WHILE OUR PLAN ALLOWS IT FOR BASE PAY. AND I'M SURE THE PRESIDENT KNOWS THAT THE AVERAGE FEDERAL WORKER PAYS TWICE AS MUCH FOR HEALTH INSURANCE AS WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR IN WISCONSIN. AT LEAST I WOULD HOPE HE KNOWS THESE FACTS.

"Furthermore, I'm sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.

"I'm sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn't acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another."

http://nation.foxnews.com/gov-scott-walker/2011/02/28/obama-gets-smackdown-gov-walker


Wow! This one is a devastating blow to President O. Sometime simply stating the facts can destroy a liberals arguments.



High Speed Insolvency

“Generations hence, when the river of time has worn this presidency’s importance to a small, smooth pebble in the stream of history, people will still marvel that its defining trait was a mania for high-speed rail projects. This disorder illuminates the progressive mind. . . . TO PROGRESSIVES, THE BEST THING ABOUT RAILROADS IS THAT PEOPLE RIDING THEM ARE NOT IN AUTOMOBILES, WHICH ARE SUBVERSIVE OF THE DEFERENCE ON WHICH PROGRESSIVISM DEPENDS. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. AUTOMOBILES ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO THINK THEY—UNSUPERVISED, UNTUTORED, AND UNSCRIPTED—ARE MASTERS OF THEIR FATES. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.”

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/02/27/high-speed-to-insolvency.html


Don’t you just love George Will? He basically shows you why the automobile is so despised by leftist. It obviously is a subversive instrument of the right.



Unstoppable: The Runaway Federal Budget

The General Accounting Office is preparing to drop a devastating financial report on Congress, identifying hundreds of billions in government waste due to “duplication, overlap, and fragmentation.” Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is not surprised. “Go study that report,” he advised Trish Turner of Fox News. “It will show why we’re $14 trillion in debt. Anybody that says we don’t look like fools up here hasn’t read the report. We don’t know what we’re doing.”

More precisely, every aspect of a gigantic bureaucracy does only what it knows, unto eternity. I read about this report right after I watched the movie Unstoppable, in which Denzel Washington and Chris Pine try to halt a runaway locomotive that so huge and powerful it simply obliterates everything in its path. Government bureaucracies are all runaway trains.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42061

If you’ve seen the movie, President Obama is the Engineer who jumps off the train to switch the tracks after failing to connect his airbrakes. He is unable to get back on and the train becomes a time bomb heading to a population center.



Union Power, By the Numbers

Responding to my piece, Jonathan Chait writes that unions are paltry players compared to the big, bad business lobby when it comes to buying influence in Washington and state capitols.

HERE ARE THE TEN LARGEST DONORS IN U.S. POLITICS AS OF FEBRUARY 7, according to OpenSecrets.Org:

ActBlue: $51 million

AT&T: $46 million

AFSCME: $43 million

National Association of Realtors: $38 million

Goldman Sachs: $33 million

American Association for Justice: $33 million

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: $33 million

National Education Association: $32 million

Laborers Union: $30 million

Teamsters Union: $30 million

THAT’S FIVE UNIONS TO TWO BUSINESSES AND THREE OTHER GROUPS. Five out of ten is half, by my always-suspect English-major math. And who are those other groups? ACTBLUE IS A DEMOCRATIC CLEARINGHOUSE, THE TRIAL LAWYERS ARE SUPER-LOPSIDEDLY DEMOCRATIC, AND FOUR OUT OF FIVE OF THE REALTORS’ TOP CAMPAIGN-CASH RECIPIENTS ARE DEMOCRATS.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/260943/union-power-numbers-kevin-d-williamson

It’s fun to have these kinds of arguments. The left will have some way to spin this as the corporations “way outspend” us poor little unions.



Civility: Liberal style

Keep calm and carry on, right? Only if you’re on the right and are a member of the Tea Party movement. Otherwise, THERE’S A WHOLE OTHER SET OF RULES TO PLAY BY.

On Monday, Milwaukee AM 620 WTMJ radio host Charlie Sykes detailed an encounter between DEMOCRATIC STATE REP. GORDON HINTZ, WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN BUSTED IN A PROSTITUTION STING, and Republican State Rep. Michelle Litjens, in which the rules of civility were completely ignored after a vote to “engross” a state budget repair bill.

“After the vote to engross, HE TURNS TO A FEMALE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN, WHO IS ALSO FROM THE OSHKOSH AREA, LOOKS AT HER AND SAYS, ‘YOU ARE F—ING DEAD,’” Sykes said. “He didn’t say ‘f—ing,’ he said the whole thing. He says to a female colleague, ‘You are f—ing dead.’”

http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/28/prostitute-patronizing-dem-wisconsin-state-represent-to-female-gop-colleague-you-are-fucking-dead/#ixzz1FLamGPIk

Another liberal reveals his true stripes. But you have to wonder about his electorate. How in the world did he get reelected when he had previously been busted in a prostitution sting?



Is Democracy Viable?

Those who see hope in the Middle East uprisings seem to assume that they will lead in the direction of freedom or democracy. There is already talk about the "liberation" of Egypt, even though THE BIGGEST CHANGE THERE HAS BEEN THAT A ONE-MAN DICTATORSHIP HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A MILITARY DICTATORSHIP THAT HAS SUSPENDED THE CONSTITUTION.


Perhaps the military dictatorship will be temporary, as its leaders say, but we have heard that song before. What we have also heard, too many times before, is the assumption that getting rid of an undemocratic government means that it will be replaced by a freer and better government.

History says otherwise. AFTER RUSSIA'S CZARS WERE REPLACED BY THE COMMUNISTS, THE GOVERNMENT EXECUTED MORE PEOPLE IN A DAY THAN THE CZARS HAD EXECUTED IN HALF A CENTURY. It was much the same story in Cuba, when the Batista regime was replaced by Castro and in Iran when the Shah was replaced by the Ayatollahs.

It is not inevitable that bad regimes are replaced by worse regimes. But it has happened too often for us to blithely assume that overthrowing a dictator means a movement toward freedom and democracy

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/03/01/is_democracy_viable_109065.html


Some common sense from Thomas Sewell.



A Look at what you can expect with Obamacare

Their requests have been rejected by regional health authorities who were accused of operating covert “blacklists” to restrict dozens of treatments to save money.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than 80 cases in which desperately sick NHS patients have been refused the cancer drugs their doctor sought, in the four months since a £200 million fund was introduced to stop health authorities rationing treatments.

The fund was a key move by the Coalition so that those suffering from cancer would never again be refused drugs on grounds of cost.

Ministers were responding to years of anger over a system which meant patients were unable to secure life-extending drugs because central NHS rationers had decided the treatments were not “cost effective”.

Announcing the fund last summer, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, promised to end “the scandal” of cancer patients being refused the drugs that their doctors sought, because of restrictions by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8349297/Cancer-sufferers-refused-life-extending-drugs-despite-Government-pledge.html

Public Sector Unions--a stuggle for power

Senators must collect their paychecks in person

A nice first step. THE NEXT STEP, AFTER THE “FLEEBAGGERS” (AS THEY’RE NOW BEING CALLED ON TWITTER) HAVE COME HOME, SHOULD BE TO PASS A LAW RETROACTIVELY DOCKING THEIR PAY FOR THE DAYS THEY MISSED. Senate Republicans can’t do that now, I believe, because it’s a fiscal measure and those require a 20-member quorum. But soon enough, soon enough.

[MOTION] That the Chief Clerk provide the paycheck, per diem check, and any expense reimbursement check of any Senator who is absent without leave for 2 or more session days to the Majority Leader for the absent member to pick up in person. Until the Majority Leader authorizes the Chief Clerk to reinstate direct deposit, the Chief Clerk shall suspend the direct deposit of the paycheck of any such Senator and process the Senator’s pay as a paper check. The Majority Leader shall provide the checks only to the absent Senator and only on the floor of the Senate during a session day.

THE COMMITTEE VOTE ON THAT WAS 3-2, THREE REPUBLICANS IN THE MAJORITY and two Democrats in the minority. But wait — how can Democrats vote when they’re not there? Well, apparently, telephone votes are permissible and common practice for committee sessions, just not for floor sessions.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/22/wisconsin-senate-committee-passes-new-rule-senators-must-collect-their-paychecks-in-person/


This just keeps getting better and better.


POLITICAL HARDBALL IN WISCONSIN

Republicans on a state Senate committee approved a bill Tuesday to require voters to show ID at the polls, in their latest effort to entice Democrats to end their boycott of Senate proceedings.

The committee made significant changes to the bill in a meeting that included a bizarre element. Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) participated in the meeting by phone, but Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), the committee chairwoman, refused to let him vote because he and the 13 other Senate Democrats left the state Thursday.

Senators routinely participate in committee meetings by phone and are allowed to debate, offer amendments and vote on measures. But Lazich said she wasn't allowing Erpenbach to vote because he had an invalid reasons for being absent.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/116680594.html


You’ve got to love it. If the Wisconsin Democrats are going to act like petulant children, they deserved to be treated like petulant children.



Wisconsin starts reviewing complaint about Doctor excuses

Staff at the state Department of Regulation and Licensing have BEGUN TO REVIEW ROUGHLY 300 E-MAIL COMPLAINTS ABOUT DOCTORS ISSUING EXCUSE NOTES FOR PROTESTERS at the state Capitol over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.

Complaints that name a specific doctor and the alleged violations of rules covered by their licenses will be forwarded to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board. Letters specifying the complaint will be sent to the doctors at the start of the investigation.

To date, THE NAMES OF DOCTORS LOU SANNER AND JAMES SHROPSHIRE have been cited in media reports about the medical excuses dispensed over the weekend. Both are affiliated with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The agency said none of the doctors involved was representing UW Health at the time…..

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/116683269.html


Somehow the terms “chickens” and “roost” come to mind.



It’s early yet, but Obama has a big uphill fight for reelection

For polling purposes, we divided all 10,000 voters into three camps: 1) RED STATES THAT DID NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA IN 2008 AND ARE UNLIKELY TO DO SO IN 2012; 2) BLUE STATES THAT DID NOT VOTE FOR MCCAIN IN 2008 AND ARE UNLIKELY TO VOTE GOP IN 2012; AND 3) BATTLEGROUND “GREEN” STATES THAT COULD GO EITHER WAY IN 2012. The following 12 Green states all saw significant changes brought about by statewide and congressional GOP victories and GOP wins in state legislatures as a result of the 2010 midterm elections: FL, IN, IA, MI, MO, NH, NM, NC, OH, PA, VA, and WI.

The first question we asked voters in all three state categories is WHETHER THEY THINK PRESIDENT OBAMA DESERVES RE-ELECTION or if they think it is time for someone new in the White House.

Voters in BLUE STATES WOULD PREFER SOMEONE NEW OVER PRESIDENT OBAMA BY A SLIM 3-POINT MARGIN (48% TO 45%). The President should easily be able to make-up this ground once his campaign gets into full swing.

IN RED STATES, HOWEVER, VOTERS WOULD PREFER SOMEONE NEW BY A SIZEABLE 22-POINT MARGIN (58% TO 36%), a sizeable margin that the President is unlikely to overcome. In GREEN STATES, VOTERS WANT SOMEONE NEW IN THE WHITE HOUSE BY A 13-POINT MARGIN (54% TO 41%), showing that Obama’s quest for the critical middle-ground will be a severe uphill climb.....

http://townhall.com/columnists/bradoleary/2011/02/22/poll_shows_battleground_states_trending_strongly_for_gop_on_obama_re-election_issues/page/full/


As I said in the headline, it’s early. But I followed the change happening in the country throughout all of 2010 and it really didn’t change. People may have already made up their mind about this President and the Liberal agenda.



Meanwhile the Polls aren’t being kind to Obama

THE PRESIDENT’S MINI-RECOVERY IS STARTING TO FALL FLAT. According to the latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking poll, Barack Obama’s approval ratings have fallen to their lowest level since mid-November. JUST 21 PERCENT OF US VOTERS STRONGLY APPROVE OF THE PRESIDENT’S JOB PERFORMANCE IN CONTRAST TO 41 PERCENT WHO STRONGLY DISAPPROVE. Obama’s Presidential Approval Index rating now stands at minus 20 points (the difference between the percentage of Americans who strongly approve of the president’s performance against the percentage who strongly disapprove). Further, Republicans now have a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot in Rasmussen’s survey.

What explains this rather dramatic reversal of fortune for the president after three months of rising poll numbers? IT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CLEAR THAT OBAMA’S MESSAGING ON THE ECONOMY IS NOT GOING DOWN WELL WITH AN AMERICAN PUBLIC that is deeply worried about high levels of unemployment, the general state of the economy, the spiraling budget deficit, and fears over the impact of the government’s health care reforms. As Rasmussen reveals, a mere 24 percent of Americans believe their own personal finances are improving, and just 31 percent believe the economy is improving.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100077285/the-obama-bounce-is-falling-flat/


The democrats seem to be hoping that the economy will improve and Obama will get the credit. That might happen, but with the fights that are about to go on about the deficit, the economy might improve but Obama will get no credit.



Wisconsin Showdown

Nationwide, state and local government workers are paid on average 45% more than private sector workers, with an average hourly wage of $26.25, and $13.56 in hourly costs for benefits, for total hourly costs of $39.81, or $80,000 per year on average. This is true in Wisconsin as well. Indeed, the Manhattan Institute's E.J. McMahon reports that for public school teachers in Milwaukee, the annual cost of family health coverage is $26,844, for which the teachers currently pay nothing.

Yet, state and local government workers are mobbing the capitol in Wisconsin because newly elected GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER'S BILL TO CLOSE THE STATE'S $3.6 BILLION BUDGET DEFICIT WOULD REQUIRE THEM TO PAY 5.8% OF THEIR PENSION COSTS, AND 12.6% OF THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS. …

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/23/wisconsin-showdown


A good article spelling out the problem with Public Sector Unions.


Liberal Magic

There is a Wisconsin talking point that will not die: Everything was fine until Scott Walker got some business-incentive tax cuts passed. I just heard it from Erica Williams of the Center for American Progress. Rachel Maddow has trafficked in this nonsense, as have some more respectable lefty types.

Help an English major out, here: HOW EXACTLY DO $137 MILLION IN TAX CUTS CAUSE A $3.6 BILLION DEFICIT IN TWO YEARS? I AM DYING TO KNOW.

Those tax cuts may or may not be a good idea; I am generally skeptical of using special tax breaks as a tool of economic development. (Low general taxes, a simple tax code, a sane regulatory environment, and a sane tort environment seem to me much better tools.) But getting a $3.6 billion deficit out of a $137 million tax cut is a pretty good rabbit-outta-the-hat trick.

http://www.nationalreview.com/exchequer/260578/tax-cuts-and-wisconsins-deficit


Actually this is a very good question.



What’s happened to civility?

SOMETIMES IT'S NECESSARY TO GET OUT ON THE STREETS AND "GET A LITTLE BLOODY," A MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT SAID TUESDAY IN REFERENCE TO LABOR BATTLES IN WISCONSIN.


Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers' rights like those proposed in Wisconsin.

"I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going," Capuano said, according to the Dorchester Reporter. "EVERY ONCE AND AWHILE YOU NEED TO GET OUT ON THE STREETS AND GET A LITTLE BLOODY WHEN NECESSARY."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/145627-dem-lawmaker-on-labor-protests-get-a-little-bloody-when-necessary


Apparently Capuano didn’t get the memo that declared only the right advocated violence. Anyone with an ounce of knowledge about history knows this is complete rubbish.



Shutting Down the Government

Let’s put aside that congressional Republicans deny that they want to shut down the government. How can Harry Reid continue talking about Republicans wanting to shut down the government as if it were the worst conceivable thing in the world when, as he is making this accusation, DEMOCRATS IN (NOW) TWO STATES HAVE ACTUALLY SHUT DOWN THEIR GOVERNMENTS — and not due to a legitimate legislative impasse, but by the illegitimate tactic of fleeing the state to avoid being compelled to do their jobs? If government shutdowns in Wisconsin and Indiana occur in coordination with President Obama’s political operation AND TO THE CHEERS OF DEMOCRATIC BIGWIGS ACROSS THE NATION, HOW BAD CAN SHUTTING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT BE?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/260424/shutting-down-government-andrew-c-mccarthy


Actually this is an interesting way to look at the possibility of a government shutdown.



Follow the Money

Enormous contributions, yes -- to the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. UNIONS, MOST OF WHOSE MEMBERS ARE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, GAVE DEMOCRATS SOME $400 MILLION IN THE 2008 ELECTION CYCLE. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle.

FOLLOW THE MONEY, WASHINGTON REPORTERS LIKE TO SAY. The money in this case comes from taxpayers, present and future, who are the source of every penny of dues paid to public employee unions, who in turn spend much of that money on politics, almost all of it for Democrats. In effect, public employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.

So, JUST AS THE PRESIDENT COMPLAINED IN HIS 2010 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ABOUT A SUPREME COURT DECISION THAT HE FEARED WOULD INCREASE THE FLOW OF MONEY TO REPUBLICANS, HE ALSO FOUND TIME TO COMPLAIN ABOUT A PROPOSED STATE LAW THAT COULD REDUCE THE FLOW OF MONEY TO DEMOCRATS.

And, according to the Washington Post, to get the Democratic National Committee to organize protests against the proposed Wisconsin law. PROTESTS THAT SHOWED CONTEMPT FOR THE LAW, with teachers abandoning classrooms, doctors writing phony medical excuses, Democratic legislators fleeing the state and holing up in a motel. The lawmakers played hooky without losing any salary, which is protected by the state constitution.

It's true that Walker's proposals would strike hard at the power of the public employee unions. They would no longer have the right to bargain for fringe benefits, which are threatening to bankrupt the state government, and they would no longer be able to count on government withholding dues money and passing it along to them.

But what are the contributions that public employee unions make to our states and our citizens? THEIR INCENTIVES ARE TO INCREASE THE COST OF GOVERNMENT AND REDUCE DOWN TOWARD ZERO THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES -- BOTH CONTRARY TO THE INTERESTS OF TAXPAYING CITIZENS….

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/02/public-unions-force-taxpayers-fund-democrats#ixzz1EnX1eUKH


What’s going on in Wisconsin and other states is a fight for money and power. The Democrats and the Unions want to keep the status quo while the Republicans and the majority of Americans are looking for change.

Irony?

http://datechguy.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/the-ultimate-irony-of-todays-rally-in-boston/


Watch this short video. It makes an interesting point.

Chris Christie and other Democrat nightmares

Gov. Christie Slams Democrats — and GOP — Over Spending

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came to Washington Wednesday to slam both parties for what he described as their “irresponsible” and “dangerous” game in not addressing the country’s shaky entitlement programs.

The Republican governor accused both the White House and Republicans in Congress of irresponsibility for failing to propose fixes for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, all of which face solvency problems in coming years.

“What game is being played here is irresponsible and it’s dangerous,” he told a packed house at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “We are on the path to ruin.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/02/16/gov-christie-slams-democrats-and-gop-over-spending/


Barack Obama became president because the Democrats wanted to elect a black man as president and the country was ready for that. Chris Christie may benefit from a similar alignment as Republicans want someone to address out of control spending and the country appears ready for that.

Eleanor Clift on Chris Christie

Leadership is about doing big things, says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who invoked the phrase in his State of the State address—some two weeks before President Obama voiced the same words to rally the country in his State of the Union address.

Not that Christie thinks Obama stole his line, but the two men have different visions of what constitutes big things. Christie is focusing on budget reform, pension and health reform, and education reform, although "reform" is a euphemistic word for cutbacks. He's convinced the mood has changed enough in the country that the politicians who take on these once-sacred cows will be rewarded…..

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-16/chris-christie-aei-speech-shows-why-nj-governor-is-a-gop-star/


Eleanor is a hard leftist and she uses this article to highlight Democrats Cuomo and Brown are also going after spending, but it is a worthwhile read.

John Wiley Price Tells Citizens To “Go To Hell”

Tuesday’s Dallas County Commissioner’s Court meeting erupted into an argument between Commissioner John Wiley Price and a citizen, ending with Price repeatedly telling several citizens to “go to hell.”

The exchange started during the public speaking portion of the meeting, which happens after the commissioners have gone through their weekly agenda…..

….As Price stood to leave, he looked at Turner and the five other citizens who addressed the court. Price said to them, “ALL OF YOU ARE WHITE. GO TO HELL!”

PRICE REPEATED “GO TO HELL” THREE MORE TIMES. An unknown member of the audience said, “You should be ashamed!”

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/15/john-wiley-price-dallas-county-commissioners-go-to-hell/


Imagine if a white commissioner had told a group of six black citizens, “You all are black. Go to Hell!”


Civility: Democrat style

After last month's shooting of a congresswoman, President Obama urged more civility. How civil is it to destroy a congressional oversight committee chairman for practicing oversight?


DEMOCRATS HAVE TAPPED THE POLITICAL OPERATIVE KNOWN AS DR. DEATH TO LEAD A CHARACTER ASSASSINATION OPERATION AGAINST DARRELL ISSA, chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.


AVERELL "ACE" SMITH OF SAN FRANCISCO'S LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC CONSULTING FIRM SCN STRATEGIES, a "cutthroat" operative who won the California and Texas Democratic primaries for Hillary Clinton in 2008, WILL LEAVE "NO STONE UNTURNED IN DIGGING INTO ISSA'S PERSONAL AND BUSINESS HISTORY," SCN told Politico this week.

Why Issa? Because the California Republican is asking 180 federal agencies to explain their voluminous Freedom of Information Act request refusals in detail…..

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2011/02/issa-subpoenas-friends-of-angelo.html


We saw this during the Clinton Administration happen to Ken Starr. It seems civility is a one way street for the Democrats and only applies to the Republicans.



Obama's budget assumptions only exist in fantasyland

"Blue smoke and mirrors" is a particularly apt phrase to describe the way Washington politicians in both major parties create annual budgets. "Rosy scenario" is another.

Call it what you will, healthy public policy cannot be based on fantasy foundations. To be sure, multiple assumptions about future economic and fiscal conditions must be made in constructing a forward-looking budget, BUT IN DOING SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES ARE CREATED FOR PUBLIC POLICY MISCHIEF. Since professional politicians are at the helm, said mischief is almost ALWAYS IN THE DIRECTION OF CREATING A MISLEADINGLY POSITIVE OUTLOOK ABOUT THE FUTURE AS A TOOL FOR GAINING SUPPORT FOR MORE SPENDING AND DEBT IN THE PRESENT. Consider President Obama's 2012 federal budget proposal in this context. Rosy scenario certainly applies to the Obama budget's assumptions about economic growth, unemployment, and inflation between now and 2013. The president's proposal ASSUMES REAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROWTH OF 3.1 PERCENT THIS YEAR, 4 PERCENT NEXT YEAR AND 4.5 PERCENT THE YEAR AFTER. To grasp the unreality of that projection, recall that IN ONLY FOUR YEARS OF THE PAST 30 HAS THE ECONOMY GROWN 4 PERCENT OR MORE. Two of those years, 1983 (4.52 percent) and 1984 (7.19 percent), were at the outset of the economic boom sparked by President Reagan's tax cuts. The other two years, 1997 (4.46 percent) and 1999 (4.83 percent), both followed on compromises between President Clinton and Republican congressional majorities that restrained federal spending and debt, and cut taxes. White House assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, the proposed OBAMA BUDGET RAISES TAXES, ADDS MORE DEBT AND RAISES FEDERAL SPENDING

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/02/obamas-budget-assumptions-only-exist-fantasyland#ixzz1EDSOQFke


This is nothing really new, but it is a good idea to remember that what you see in budget projections tend to be fantasy.



Obama Offers Spending Inertia, Not Hope and Change

One way to judge the merits of the budget Barack Obama unveiled this week IS BY THE COMMENTS OF HIS POLITICAL ALLIES. "IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO FOCUS PRIMARILY ON THE NON-SECURITY DISCRETIONARY PART OF THE BUDGET," SAID SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN KENT CONRAD.

ERSKINE BOWLES, the Democrat whom Obama appointed as co-chairman of his fiscal commission, said the budget goes "NOWHERE NEAR WHERE THEY WILL HAVE TO GO TO RESOLVE OUR FISCAL NIGHTMARE."

"The president punted," began the editorial of THE WASHINGTON POST, which endorsed Obama in 2008. The paper noted tartly that he "CHOSE TO DUCK" THE FISCAL COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDATIONS….

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/02/17/obama_budget_offers_inertia_not_hope_and_change_108930.html


It appears everyone but the majority of Democrats in congress knows that the jig is up and we MUST address our fiscal insanity.

Obama can only tie a generic Republican

At this moment -- 57% of the way through a first term with only 628 days left until the 2012 presidential election -- THE DEMOCRAT CAN ONLY TIE ANY CONCEIVABLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE.

The GOP doesn't even need a frontrunner to catch the incumbent of the most powerful political office in the world. No wonder Obama's bringing fresh blood into the White House and shipping out aides to kick-start the billion-dollar campaign back in Chicago.

A new Gallup Poll finds Obama a little worse off in that generic presidential ballot category this year than he was last year at this time.

And -- this'll get the ex-state senator chewing the nicotine gum faster -- THE NEW GALLUP NUMBERS SHOW OBAMA SIGNIFICANTLY BEHIND THE SAME STANDING OF HIS REPUBLICAN PREDECESSOR, that Texas guy who still refuses to reciprocate Obama's criticism…..

…. But THE YOUTH VOTE, so crucial to the Democratic ticket last time, IS EVAPORATING. Going into the 2008 election Obama had 63% of the registered voters aged 18 to 34. Today, he's got only 51%. Likewise, OBAMA'S SUPPORT AMONG 35-TO-54-YEAR-OLDS HAS CRUMBLED FROM 53% IN 2008 TO 43% TODAY….

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/02/obama-tied-with-no-name-republican-for-2012.html


Things do not look good for Barack Obama. It’s early yet, but America bought a dream the last time and it isn’t clear what they would need to buy this year if he wants to be reelected.



Andrew Jackson vs Henry Clay

For all of its complexities, American politics is sometimes reducible to a single enduring conflict, symbolized by THE HISTORIC BATTLE BETWEEN ANDREW JACKSON AND HENRY CLAY IN THE ELECTION OF 1832.

JACKSON SAW THE STATUS QUO IN GOVERNMENT AS AN UNFAIR PAYOFF TO THE PRIVILEGED, AND BELIEVED THAT HE SHOULD BE THE GREAT LEVELING AGENT. This explains much of the Jacksonian agenda: the assault on the Second Bank of the United States, the elevation of the spoils system to a civic virtue, and efforts to secure more land for poor Western farmers.

Clay, the greatest statesman never to become president, ADVOCATED FOR THE “AMERICAN SYSTEM,” A COMBINATION OF PROTECTIVE TARIFFS TO GROW AMERICAN INDUSTRY, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS TO FACILITATE TRADE, AND THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES TO STABILIZE THE MONEY AND CREDIT SYSTEMS. The government was not, in Clay’s view, intended to be the GREAT EQUALIZER, BUT THE GREAT FACILITATOR of American enterprise in all its varieties.

TODAY’S DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS CAN TRACE THEIR ROOTS TO THIS CONFLICT, although the road back in time is somewhat tortuous. For one thing, the issues that the country debates have largely changed, and in some cases the parties hold different positions than they once did: the Whigs supported higher tariffs while Republicans backed NAFTA; Jacksonian Democrats thought less government would level the playing field while liberal Democrats have reached the opposite conclusion. Still, the broader orientation to the country and its problems has remained generally the same. BORROWING A PHRASE FROM THEODORE WHITE, WE MIGHT CALL IT THE EVERLASTING BATTLE OF THE “SHARE OUT” AGAINST THE “SHARE UP.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-2012-thrilla-manilla_550203.html


Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. This is a great read for history buffs who are trying to apply the lessons to today’s politics. And it’s viewpoint on the ideological battles being infrequent, but that 2012 appears to be one is very interesting.



Wisconsin and the Unions

Say you generally liked Gov. Scott Walker's move to rein in government labor costs but had a few doubts on his method. The last few days should have cleared that up nicely.

The public-sector union tantrums, meant to make lawmakers wobble, have an inadvertent message for the rest of us: VOTERS CAN VOTE ALL THEY WANT. We can elect a cheapskate governor and a Legislature to match. BUT COME THE MOMENT, UNIONS WILL HAVE THE LAST, LOUDEST WORD.

THEY'LL HAVE IT IF TAKES MARCHES. THEY'LL HAVE IT IF IT TAKES WHAT AMOUNTS TO AN ILLEGAL STRIKE, with so many Madison teachers calling in sick Wednesday that the district closed schools. If it takes showing up for a we-know-where-your-family-is protest on Walker's Wauwatosa lawn while he was at work, THE UNIONS ARE SURE THEY CAN OUTSHOUT ANY ELECTION RESULT.

This is exactly why Walker is right to limit the unions' power over government spending.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/116355379.html


Be prepared to see more of these kinds of stories in the coming years.



Meanwhile, Wisconsin Democrats are nowhere to be seen

POLICE OFFICERS WERE DISPATCHED THURSDAY TO FIND WISCONSIN STATE LAWMAKERS WHO HAD APPARENTLY BOYCOTTED A VOTE ON A SWEEPING BILL THAT WOULD STRIP MOST GOVERNMENT WORKERS OF THEIR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS.

The lawmakers, all Democrats in the state Senate, did not show up when they were ordered to attend a midday vote on the legislation.

The proposal has been the focus of intense protests at the Statehouse for three days. As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed "Freedom! Democracy! Unions!"

Republicans hold a 19-14 majority, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before taking a vote on the bill.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110217/ap_on_re_us/us_wisconsin_budget_unions


This has happened in the past, but it is a dreadful example of leadership by the Democratic party. It appears not only don’t Democrats have any useful ideas, they have no guts either.


DNC Caught Organizing Wisconsin Protests

THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE'S ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA ARM -- the remnant of the 2008 Obama campaign -- IS PLAYING AN ACTIVE ROLE IN ORGANIZING PROTESTS AGAINST WISCONSIN GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER'S attempt to strip most public employees of collective bargaining rights.

OfA, as the campaign group is known, has been criticized at times for staying out of local issues like same-sex marraige, but IT'S RIDING TO THE AIDE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS WHO HOPING TO PERSUADE SOME REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS TO OPPOSE WALKER'S PLAN. And while Obama may have his difference with teachers unions, OfA's engagement with the fight -- and Obama's own clear stance against Walker -- mean that he's remaining loyal to key Democratic Party allies at what is, for them, a very dangerous moment.

OFA WISCONSIN'S FIELD EFFORTS INCLUDE FILLING BUSES AND BUILDING TURNOUT FOR THE RALLIES this week in Madison, organizing 15 rapid response phone banks urging supporters to call their state legislators, and working on planning and producing rallies, a Democratic Party official in Washington said.

http://nation.foxnews.com/wisconsin-protests/2011/02/17/dnc-caught-organizing-wisconsin-protests


This gives a whole new meaning to Federalism.



Let’s we forget who we are fighting

….The girl, who was illiterate when she left Afghanistan, is now learning English as she prepares to study for a full education and put her troubled past behind her.

WHEN AISHA WAS 12, HER FATHER PROMISED HER IN MARRIAGE TO A TALIBAN FIGHTER TO PAY A DEBT. SHE WAS HANDED OVER TO HIS FAMILY WHO ABUSED HER AND FORCED HER TO SLEEP IN THE STABLE WITH THE ANIMALS.

When she attempted to run away, she was caught and, AS A PUNISHMENT, HER NOSE AND EARS WERE SLICED OFF BY HER HUSBAND while her father-in-law held a gun to her head.

'When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out. In the middle of the night it felt like there was cold water in my nose. I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood,' she told CNN reporter Atia Abawi.

Left for dead in the mountains, SHE CRAWLED TO HER GRANDFATHER'S HOUSE AND HER FATHER MANAGED TO GET HER TO AN AMERICAN MEDICAL FACILITY, where medics cared for her for ten weeks.

They then transported Aisha to a secret shelter in Kabul and IN AUGUST SHE WAS FLOWN TO THE U.S. BY THE GROSSMAN BURN FOUNDATION TO STAY WITH A HOST FAMILY

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357654/Bibi-Aisha-Time-cover-girl-takes-New-York-subway.html#ixzz1EDqcwBsm


All civilizations are not equal. The one we are fighting can be particularly brutal.



The First Silver Fleece Award goes to…..

Today, U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) unveiled the first winner of the “Silver Fleece” Award for government waste profiled in “Wastebook on Facebook,” a joint initiative of Senators Kirk and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

On Wastebook, thousands across THE COUNTRY VOTED TO GIVE THE SILVER FLEECE AWARD TO A GRANT BY THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES (IMLS) OF $998,000 TO PROVIDE POETRY FOR SIGNS IN ZOOS.

The Silver Fleece award pays homage to Senator William Proxmire’s “Golden Fleece” award given for government waste between 1975 and 1988. “We named our award the ‘Silver’ Fleece because in these times of austerity and we can no longer afford a Golden Fleece award. I started the Wastebook on Facebook’s Silver Fleece Award with the intention of HIGHLIGHTING EXAMPLES OF WASHINGTON “FLEECING” AMERICAN TAXPAYERS,” SAID SENATOR KIRK.

As Congress reviews the White House budget proposal for 2012, Wastebook on Facebook will continue to profile government waste. WITH 1,087 VOTES (63%), THE FIRST SILVER FLEECE AWARD GOES TO A $998,000 GRANT BY THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES for signs with poetry in zoos. A $615,000 GRANT TO BUILD A GRATEFUL DEAD ARCHIVE GOT 412 VOTES (24%). In last place with 217 votes (13%) was a $456,000 grant by the National Science Foundation to Stanford University for a study of online dating and why political figures were vague on social networking sites.

http://www.wifr.com/politics/headlines/Kirk_Announces_First_Silver_Fleece_Award_for_Government_Waste_998000_for_Poetry_in_Zoos_116407254.html

It’s no wonder we have problems with the country’s finances.

10 days since the shooting

Gabrielle Giffords could lose her seat

Even as REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS SHOWS SIGNS OF A NEAR-MIRACULOUS RECOVERY, with doctors on Sunday upgrading her condition from critical to serious, a little-known statutory provision in ARIZONA STATE LAW COULD ENDANGER THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSWOMAN'S HOLD ON HER SEAT through what doctors say will be a protracted medical struggle.

A statute buried in Arizona law states that if a public officeholder CEASES TO "DISCHARGE THE DUTIES OF OFFICE FOR THE PERIOD OF THREE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS," the office shall be deemed vacant - at such time, a special election could be called to fill the vacancy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/17/AR2011011702542.html?hpid=topnews


This is a tough one. No one wants to let an assassin deprive the congresswomen of her seat, but she has a long recovery ahead and the people of Tucson deserve to be represented in the 112 congress.



Unions and the destruction of the public school system

KIDS AREN'T CARS" is a new short film series set for release February 1st. Using examples from the Midwest, it DOCUMENTS THE IMPACT ORGANIZED LABOR HAS HAD ON THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM, creating a one-size-fits-all assembly line model that leaves students behind and treats teachers equally, stifling innovation and improvement.

Our government education system has been spending more and more each year, yet the results have been the same. While unions demand higher spending - which of course ends up in the pockets of their members - MONEY IS NOT FIXING THE PROBLEM.

Those that have been in the trenches gave shocking interviews - stories of money grabs by adults while children are left behind.

AN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF A LITERACY CLINIC IN DETROIT - where high school graduates go to learn how to read - COMPARED THE ACTIONS OF THE SCHOOL BOARD TO THE KU KLUX KLAN. "If they were sitting up there in Klan robes," she said, no one would be tolerating what is going on, but the effect is the same

 

http://townhall.com/columnists/KyleOlson/2011/01/17/new_film_documents_unions_destruction_of_public_education


Unions have their place, but it isn’t at the public trough.

Obamacare

Prognosticators are rarely held accountable in Washington, but SENATE DEMOCRATS MAY WANT TO CONSIDER HOLDING CHUCK SCHUMER ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS ANALYSIS OF THE BENEFITS OF OBAMACARE. Last March, Sen. Schumer smugly predicted, “BY NOVEMBER THOSE WHO VOTED FOR HEALTHCARE WILL FIND IT AN ASSET and those who voted against it will find it a liability.”

Well, November has come and gone and it is safe to say THE 65 HOUSE DEMOCRATS WHO LOST THEIR SEATS IN 2010 MIGHT QUIBBLE WITH SCHUMER’S PREDICTION. Indeed, the weight of Obamacare hung like an albatross around the necks of these defeated Representatives. And the wreckage is likely not over.

This week, the House will again vote on Obamacare – this time, to repeal it. After this vote, House members will have no where left to hide on the question of repealing Obamacare. The upside – if there is one – for the far-left is only 13 of the 34 House Democrats who courageously voted against the federal government’s hostile takeover of our health care system remain. And yet, many of them are now waffling on their position.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeNeedham/2011/01/17/repealing_obamacare,_and_the_senate/page/full/

We will hear a lot about this over the next two years. In this case, the Democrats will be fighting to keep it while the Republicans we try to repeal it.

Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate

…..Being a writer makes one a reader, and this writer is no exception. Yet try as I might last week, I couldn't find a single column blaming the American left for what Jared Loughner did in Tuscon. Not one. That is not to say that none existed. Perhaps some obscure publication or two created by some far-right fringe elements published screeds of which I am unaware. But nothing remotely compares to the avalanche of vitriol which spewed from high-profile, mainstream media sources such as the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC or Newsweek, all of which was not only easy to find, but almost impossible to avoid.

Which is precisely why I refuse to go where far too many of those on the right went last week, neatly encapsulated in THE PART OF THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH WHEN HE TOLD AMERICANS THAT "WHAT WE CANNOT DO IS USE THIS TRAGEDY AS ONE MORE OCCASION TO TURN ON EACH OTHER." With all due respect, we didn't turn on each other, Mr. President. IT WAS OVERWHELMINGLY THE AMERICAN LEFT WHICH TURNED ON ANYONE AND EVERYONE from Sarah Palin to talk radio, to the Tea party movement in particular, and conservatism in general. And anyone who equates those on the right defending themselves with those on the left attacking them—as a means of demonstrating "moral equivalence," no less—is only kidding himself….


…..What did progressives see? The 2012 election. The genuine possibility of historically unprecedented political irrelevance in less than two years. THINK LAST WEEK WAS UGLY? THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE 2012 ELECTION CAMPAIGN. The bet here is that by the time we reach the end, what Americans heard and saw last week will be tame by comparison. Progressive are "all in" for 2012—but unlike 2008, most Americans now know exactly who they're dealing with.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0111/ahlert.php3


This is a very interesting commentary on what we’ve seen by the left since the shootings in Tucson. The last paragraph is prophetic. Here’s hoping we have a campaign on the issues rather than what we saw last week.

Can’t we all just get along?

A week’s worth of talk about civility is very nice. WE SHOULD BE MORE CIVIL TOWARD EACH OTHER. There’s little more depressing in life than the incivility of much public discourse. But if you take five seconds to think about it, what happened in Tucson had nothing whatever to do with unmannerly misbehavior. Quite the opposite: the morning’s events gave ample evidence of humankind’s ability to hear the immediate call to greatness, as in Daniel Hernandez’s heroic salvation of Gabrielle Giffords’s life and HOW DORWAN STODDARD GAVE HIS LIFE TO SHIELD HIS WIFE, MAVANELLE, from Jared Loughner’s spray of bullet fire.

Thus, as we continue to gather more evidence of Loughner’s schizophrenia, the continuing rhetorical calls for the need for “civility” are now turning into nothing less than cover. THEY’RE A DODGE, a means by which those responsible for the slanderous accusation that somehow the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and the right were responsible for the massacre have been excused for hurling their grievously unjust charge. FOR, YOU SEE, THEY WERE ONLY CALLING FOR A “NEW TONE,” FOR “CIVILITY,” AND WHO COULD BE AGAINST THOSE?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/257283/yup-jonah-goldberg


I remember a cartoon. In it a mother was hitting her son while she said, “Don’t (whack), Hit (whack), your sister (whack). It seems a condemnation of others while calling for more civility parallels the cartoon.

2010 Crude Oil: 50 Billion Barrels Discovered, 30 Billion Barrels Used

With the price of oil hovering above $70 a barrel for over a year -- and around $90 a barrel for several weeks -- oil exploration companies can get to work discovering rich new oil fields. In 2010, more new oil was discovered than was consumed -- and we can expect that trend to continue as long as oil stays high -- above fundamentals.

http://www.thegwpf.org/energy-news/2234-2010-crude-oil-50-billion-barrels-discovered-30-billion-barrels-used.html


So much for peak oil. Makes you wonder why the price of crude is rising so much? Speculators perhaps?