What’s new Today
Story #1 tells you where James Madison stands on Obamacare. #2 tells you where SCOTUS stands on Obamacare. #3 gives a few facts regarding the Trayvon killing in Florida. #4 shows another democrat calling people who disagree with her names (that isn’t much of a shock). #5 is an article a heartily encourage you to read. It hits the nail on the head. #6 is a side argument, really from yesterday and today on Obamacare. When is a tax, not a tax? #7 discusses Obama’s biggest gaffe. #8 looks at Barack Obama, support of the oil industry! #9 has Dennis Prager’s evaluation of the left and their view of the world.
1. Madison and Obamacare
The shade of James Madison hovers over the Obamacare argument at the Supreme Court.
It is the system of limited and carefully divided government powers that he had a large hand in crafting — and defended so ably in the Federalist Papers— that is at stake in the contest over the constitutionality of the individual mandate.
If the mandate stands, it will be the latest blow to Madison’s scheme, which is the best architecture for self-government yet devised by man, but has been steadily worn down over time. It is a damning indictment of contemporary Washington that, overall, it is so hostile to the Madisonian ethos. He is a most inconvenient Founding Father since he tells us: No, the federal government can’t do whatever it wants; no, we can’t just all get along; no, we can’t rush to pass whatever legislation is deemed a “can’t wait” priority by the president. Now, grow up…
To the left, the Constitution is the problem. It keeps them from doing whatever they want when they are in power. But this function of the Constitution keeps all of us safer and more free.
2. Day 2: Obamacare and SCOTUS
The Supreme Court's conservative justices Tuesday laid into the requirement in the Obama administration's healthcare law that Americans have health insurance, as the court began a much-anticipated second day of arguments on the controversial legislation.
Even before the administration's top lawyer could get three minutes into his defense of the mandate, some justices accused the government of pushing for excessive authority to require Americans to buy anything.
"Are there any limits," asked Justice Anthony Kennedy, one of three conservative justices whose votes are seen as crucial to the fate of the unprecedented insurance mandate.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suggested that the government might require Americans to buy cellphones to be ready for emergencies. And Justice Antonin Scalia asked if the government might require Americans to buy broccoli or automobiles.
"If the government can do this, what else can it ... do?” Scalia asked…
The headline called today a very bad day for the Obama Mandate. The breakdown by the Justices seems to be the predictable ones with 4 Conservative vs 4 Liberals who appear will vote as expected. In view of some of the question by Justice Kennedy it certainly appears to be a very bad day for Obamacare’s mandate.
3. Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head
With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law enforcement authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel.
That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say. There have been no reports that a witness saw that initial punch Zimmerman told police about.
Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened Feb. 26. But that night, and in later meetings, he described and re-enacted for police what he says took place.
In his version of events, he had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him….
… Police have been reluctant to provide details about their evidence.
But after the Sentinel story appeared on the newspaper's website Monday morning, City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. issued a news release, saying there would be an internal affairs investigation into the source of the leak and if identified, the person or people involved would be disciplined.
He did not challenge the accuracy of the information.
At a Monday news conference, Trayvon's mother, father and their lawyers called the report that their son was suspended from school because of a marijuana baggy irrelevant and needlessly hurtful.
Trayvon's father Tracy Martin, said "even in death, they are still disrespecting my son, and I feel that that's a sin."
His mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, "They killed my son and now they're trying to kill his reputation."
Supporters have held rallies in Sanford, Miami, New York and Tallahassee, calling the case a tragic miscarriage of injustice….
This is beginning to look a lot like the Duke Lacrosse case. There is an assumption which has been enough to get Al Sharpton involved (beware of the facts when he’s there). Let’s get all the facts before we do anything.
4. Pennsylvania State Rep. Calls Pro-Life Women 'Men with Breasts'
Speaking at a rally today, Pennsylvania State Representative Babette Josephs suggested that pro-life women are not in fact women, but 'men with breasts'. Apparently women cannot be truly women unless they support unfettered abortion.
Josephs' remarks came at a political rally sponsored by the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, in which she accused Republicans in control of the state Senate and state House of turning Pennsylvania into a "laboratory for the right-wing. They're trying all these experiments on us."
Then, she took specific aim at women lawmakers who co-sponsored the ultrasound bill, asking rhetorically, "I do not understand how a woman in this Legislature can say to herself: 'I'm not capable of making my own health decisions... but I can get elected and make them for somebody else.'
"What is wrong with these women? What are they thinking about?" Josephs continued. "Are they women? Or are they men with breasts."
It’s funny of the left thinks that abortion is the only place where a person can make their own decisions. They certainly believe in regulating just about everything else. And Ms Joseph appears to be a typical name calling leftist who doesn’t seem to be able to articulate a decent argument to support her political doctrine.
5. Five Truths about the Left they don’t want you to know
“When one becomes a liberal, he or she pretends to advocate tolerance, equality and peace, but hilariously, they’re doing so for purely selfish reasons. It’s the human equivalent of a puppy dog’s face: an evolutionary tool designed to enhance survival, reproductive value and status. In short, liberalism is based on one central desire: to look cool in front of others in order to get love. Preaching tolerance makes you look cooler, than saying something like, “please lower my taxes” — Greg Gutfeldt
1. Most liberals are hateful people. Who are the most hateful people you can think of off the top of your head? If you're not a liberal, the first people that probably come to mind are the God hates f@gs lunatics from Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. What type of human beings would do sick protests at funerals? Well, liberals have their own version of this. Whenever a prominent conservative gets sick or dies, there's an orgy of celebratory hatred on the Left. It happened with Reagan, Tony Snow, Breitbart and every other big name conservative in between.
Bill Maher, Barney Frank, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, Amanda Marcotte, Ed Schultz, Dan Savage, Ted Rall, Al Sharpton, etc., etc. are some of the most hate-filled people you'll ever run into outside of a maximum security prison, but liberals consider it to be okay because their hate is aimed at conservatives, who are acceptable targets. …
2) Liberals do more than any other group to encourage race-based hatred. It's amazing how much we still hear about Nazis and the KKK, even though they're both marginalized, nearly powerless groups of misfits and losers. On the other hand, how marginalized are the hatemongers on the Left? MEChA is allowed in public schools, Al Sharpton is on TV every night, and Democratic congressmen are still willing to appear on stage with Louis Farrakhan….
3) Most liberals are less moral than other people. You won't see liberals being accused of being hypocritical if it turns out that they don't have "good family values," commit adultery, or don't live up to their Christian beliefs because they don't really buy into any of those things….
4) Most liberals don't care if the policies they advocate work or not. This may seem like an alien concept to a lot of people, but liberals don't push policies based on whether they improve people's lives or not. To the contrary, liberals support policies that make them feel good about themselves or alternately, help cement liberals in power….
5) Most liberals are extremely intolerant. Liberals talk incessantly about tolerance and yet they lash out whenever anyone dares to present a view that doesn't toe the liberal line. Conservative college speakers usually need extra security because budding liberal fascists often try to shout them down or assault them. Liberals desperately try to censor talk radio…
… To liberals, tolerance is, by definition, whatever their opinion happens to be. So, to be tolerant, you have to agree with them. People who don't even know what tolerance is shouldn't be lecturing everyone else on the subject…
If you want a current example of point number 1 look at the tweets regarding VP Cheney’s heart transplant. Liberals should be ashamed of themselves, but apparently they don’t have the ability to feel shame.
6. When is a tax not a tax
…In defending the law, the Justice Department has taken a legal position — that the health care act constitutes a tax — that contradicts the political stance taken by President Obama. To do that, it has relied on legal semantics to argue that the insurance mandate will be enforced through the tax code even though Congress took pains to label it a penalty and not a tax.
After losing that argument in a lower court, the government’s lawyers switched positions to agree with the plaintiffs that the litigation was not blocked by the Anti-Injunction Act. But in its brief to the Supreme Court, the administration argued that while the penalty was not a tax that would fall under the Anti-Injunction Act, it should be viewed as a tax when the court considers on Tuesday whether the mandate is permitted under Congress’s broad authority to levy taxes.
In other words, the Justice Department is essentially arguing that the penalty is not a tax, except when the government says it is one.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was quick to highlight the seeming contradiction during Monday’s session. “Today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax,” he told Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the administration’s lead advocate. “Tomorrow you are going to be back and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax. Has the court ever held that something that is a tax for purposes of the taxing power under the Constitution is not a tax under the Anti-Injunction Act?” …
This probably is the best illustration of the left’s logic. They are very flexible in what they will say as long as it gets them what they want. In other words, you can’t believe a thing they say.
7. Obama’s biggest Gaffe?
Barack Obama has, like most in public life, made his share of gaffes--the president of Canada, 57 states, the Austrian language, E Pluribus Unum, the pronunciation of corpsman, among others. To be sure, they are stunning signs of ignorance of things that are common wisdom for most, even Harvard alums.
Closet Obama supporters will seek to downplay the incident. But his Monday mis-step is huge politically and may well come to haunt and hurt him as Republican Mitt Romney rolls out the attack plan for this fall's campaign and before. Of all the GOP wannabes, Romney has been Obama's most outspoken critic, especially on the Democrat's "failed leadership" in foreign policy.
A main strain of Romney's assaults has been basically, given the spending, chronic ineptness and apologies for America, can you imagine what Barack Obama would do in a second term unrestrained by any need to face voters ever again?
That's an effective line because it leaves the worst things possible to voters' imagination. And there is no response. What can Obama say, "My secret plans aren't as bad as you think."
What makes Obama's Monday blunder so bad is that it doesn't come from any sort of dismissable ignorance by someone who spent formative childhood years in Indonesia. It was clearly backstage conniving on Obama's part and feeds directly into Romney's 'Can you imagine' line…
You are going to hear a lot of this in the coming election. It’s an enormous gaffe which says Obama will be less responsive to rather than more responsive in his second term. And his record for being responsive to the majority in the first term is pathetic.
8. Obama: Oil supporter?
… But Obama wasn't in Cushing because he has approved so much new pipeline. He was there because he is facing bipartisan opposition, in Congress and across the country, for blocking the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bring about 700,000 barrels of oil from Canada to refineries in Texas every day, creating thousands of new jobs in the process. The opposition appears to be growing, and there's good reason to believe Obama will be forced to reverse himself in the next few months.
A new Gallup poll shows that 57 percent of Americans say the government should approve building Keystone. That number includes 81 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of independents and 44 percent (a plurality) of Democrats. The only good news for the White House is that most Americans aren't following the issue very closely, at least not yet…
… Recently, Senate Republicans forced a vote on a proposal to approve Keystone. The final vote was 56 - 42, with 11 Democrats breaking with the president to vote in favor of the pipeline. The only reason it didn't pass was that the Democratic leadership filibustered the measure, requiring 60 votes for passage. (Liberal critics of the filibuster, so angry when Republicans used it to block Democratic measures, were uncharacteristically silent after the vote.)
If Obama has already lost 11 Democratic votes, with the election still several months away, it's likely he is going to lose more in the future. "Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the last vote that the issue would not be going away," says a Senate GOP source. "There is strong bipartisan support, and we'll have more shots at this."
In coming months, Republicans can likely count on the support of more and more Americans who are more and more angry about rising gas prices. As the general election campaign begins, Obama will face determined arguments from Republicans that in his desire to promote green energy -- Obama will hear the word "Solyndra" many, many times this fall -- he is standing in the way of making America more self-sufficient in oil and gas. It won't matter how many photo-ops he stages in front of piles of pipes. In the end, he'll have to say yes to Keystone.
Obama has so many issues going against him in the Fall, but the price of gasoline is the one that Americans face every day when they fill up their cars.
9. To the left, it’s nothing but luck
Dennis Prager looks at how the left views affluence. They seem to think the affluent are simply more “fortunate” or lucky.
Somehow I am reminded of the old saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
