Boehner Loses on CR UPDATED! WI (R) Delegation on Wrong SIde

Here's the news that AP doesn't report.

The Republican leadership tried to pass a continuing resolution through the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon that would have permitted funding for Obamacare implementation, Planned Parenthood, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Palestinian Authority to continue in the new federal fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. 

The bill was defeated 195 to 230 when 48 House conservatives joined with 182 House Democrats in voting against it.

The (D) Party objected on different grounds:  the CR would have removed $1.5Bn from pixie-dust-and-unicorn "green cars" funding in order to fully fund disaster-relief requests.  IOW, Pelosi's bunch doesn't really care about citizens in need so much as they care about the Green Goddess myth.

Actual Conservatives also objected to the total dollar spend of the CR, which was $24Bn above what Ryan's budget committee had recommended.

Reality is calling, Mr. Speaker.  Please answer the phone.

UPDATE:  Ryan and Sensenbrenner voted to PASS the CR.   So did Ribble and Duffy.

Sheeple in (R) disguise.

Big Switch Upcoming for County Workers

This is a story which is interesting because it's odd.

Nearly 350 Milwaukee County economic and child care assistance jobs transform into state posts Jan. 1 or sooner, prompting confusion over whether the employees holding them now can shift to state or other county positions.

The move also has led to uncertainty over what happens to their pensions and other benefits.

Seventy-three of the total are child care workers who become state workers or lose their jobs Oct. 1, three months earlier than expected, county supervisors were told Wednesday. The remaining 272 economic assistance jobs make the transition to state status Jan. 1

They've been under State management for a couple of years; the payroll-switch makes sense.

...The switch is expected to hit the county hard in the pocketbook. The state will no longer reimburse the county nearly $6 million a year to cover health and pension costs for the workers, as it has for the past 20 months under an unusual arrangement, according to a county staff memo.

Really?  The State will now absorb all the payroll costs, and the workers will not draw County retirement/health costs--so how, exactly, will it 'hit the County....in the pocketbook'?

And there is the usual ululation.

...The workers whose jobs could disappear "feel very, very disrespected and marginalized by this process," Yunk said.

Vanessa Brown, a $40,000-a-year county economic assistance worker with more than 27 years on the job, said she had gotten no good answers from either the state or the county to a series of questions.

Among her concerns: whether she'll be able to invoke the county's "Rule of 75" permitting her to retire when her years on the job and age soon hit 75. The state doesn't have a similar benefit.

"I can assure you, I'm not working until I'm 65," Brown told members of the County Board's Health and Human Needs Committee. She said the response she'd gotten so far to her concerns had been, "So what."

Well, Vanessa, what else can be said?  You don't want to work to age 65.  So....you expect.....what, exactly?

Oh, there'll be more.

It's the SPENDING, STUPID, Part 101,556

Paul Ryan has a chart.

Sure, there's text:

Even if tax revenue as a share of the economy were to grow in excess of its historical average, tax increases simply cannot match the spending commitments of the federal government in the years ahead.

Nice to note that Ryan's back in the game.  For a while there, he 'went dark,' apparently to satisfy Boehner and Cantor, the Mealy and Weaselly of the House--respectively.

HT:  BeltConfid

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics"

You'll note that Senator Conrad chose the worst of the three "lying" categories.

What a surprise!  A politician!  Who coulda knowed??

HT:  HotAir

So: NYT and MSM, or Actual Real People?

A friend notes that the NYT (and all the other usual suspects) yammer that "I.T. unemployment hovers in the 5% range"--which is low, indeed!

But Dice, a jobs-board for I.T. professionals, ran its own survey, and finds that I.T. unemployment at 29%.

Even if you cut the Dice number in half, it's 14.5%.

There's a reason for that, of course.  It's the season to renew/extend/modify US immigration laws, and if Congress can be persuaded that the Usual Corporate Suspects (and contributors) can't find "qualified" help in the US, then Congress will substantially increase the number of imported IT folks.

Who, by NO co-incidence, will work for nothing, live 25-to-a-flat, and never really learn to speak English.  And none of them will be over the age of 40.

The Yout' Ministers of the Past

The JS Faithwatch blog is a very good resource.  Let's hope it continues in existence.

Today they tell us about a new Catholic yout' deal:  "Arise"

Well, OK.  Good thing, yada.  Held in the Basilica, Bp. Hying to preach, buncha priests for confessions.

Then you read this:

A fantastic Catholic praise and worship band featuring local musicians

Unhhh. Ugh.  The '60's (and '70's, and '80's, and '90's) are gone.  But the dreck never seems to depart.

Mike McCabe, the One-Note Fool

Kevin makes it obvious:  McCabe is a one-note flute player who doesn't know when to stop playing.

Sibelius Excommunicates Self from Church

You can read the "how" right here.

President Barack Obama’s top health official, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, will host a massive fundraiser for one of the nation’s biggest pro-abortion organizations next month.

...Sebelius will be the featured speaker at the 17th annual “Power of Choice” luncheon NARAL is throwing in Chicago at The Standard Club in Chicago, Obama’s stomping grounds, on October 5. The event is clearly a big fundraiser for NARAL as tickets for anyone other than college students and young professionals start at $200 and top sponsorship levels range anywhere from $2,500 to $25,000.

Pray for her.

Technically, the Church does not "excommunicate" her members; they ex-com themselves.  On occasion, the paperwork is generated, but it's mere followup.

The Smell of Chicago: LightSquared Edition

It's only national defense and every single GPS user in the country, so who gives a damn?

“The GPS community is concerned because testing has shown that LightSquared’s ground-based transmissions overpower the relatively weak GPS signal from space. Although LightSquared will operate in its own radio band, that band is so close to the GPS signals that most GPS devices pick up the stronger LightSquared signal and become overloaded or jammed.”

Two high-ranking witnesses — Air Force Space Command four-star Gen. William Shelton and National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Director Anthony Russo — have now blown the whistle on how the White House pressured them to alter their congressional testimony and play down concerns about LightSquared’s threat to military communications. According to Eli Lake of The Daily Beast, both officials were urged to express confidence in the company and endorse its promise to address any technical concerns “within 90 days.”

That's not the half of it.

...Despite industry-wide protests, the firm somehow received fast-track approval for a special FCC waiver that grants LightSquared the right to use wireless spectrum to build out a national 4G wireless network on the cheap. Ken Boehm, of the conservative watchdog National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) in Washington, D.C., summed up the deal earlier this year: “LightSquared will get the spectrum for a song, while its competitors (e.g., AT&T and Verizon) have to spend billions.”...

That would be an $8Bn hike to the value of LightSquared's asset-base.

$EIGHT BILLION!!

Not a bad return on a few hundred thou in political campaign gifts.

Don't stop reading now:  the best part is here:

Obama bought his Skyterra stock the very same day the FCC “ruled in favor of the company’s effort to create a nationwide wireless network by combining satellites and land-based communications systems.”  [Skyterra is now called LightSquared]

Good timing.  Just like Hillary's extremely astute chicken-futures purchases/sales, right??

HT:  Malkin

The Ruling Class Gets No Love

Gee, what a surprise!

...roughly one-out-of-two Likely U.S. Voters (49%) think it’s fair to say neither party in Congress is the party of the American people, up six points from a year ago. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 32% say it’s not fair to characterize the two parties that way, while 18% are not sure.

A plurality (44%) of both Republicans and Democrats agree that neither party in Congress represents the people. But voters not affiliated with either of the parties are even more emphatic: 60% feel that way. --Hot Air quoting Rasmussen

No, really??  REALLY??

200 Jobs, $800 Million: EPA Screws Kentucky

Long form of the story is here.

Short form:  Kentucky utility forced to scrap a coal plant 20 years early, build $800 million nat-gas plant, dump 200 workers in the process.

EPA's MACT rules smash another economy.  Oh, well.

The Madistan Mess, Updated!

In the words of the immortal Vince Lombardi:

"WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON OUT THERE??"

Sykes spent a little radio-time with three (R) leggies, each of whom told stories about the BozoLefty harassment, death-threats, vandalism, and near-assault/battery incidents--which include screaming at leggie's small children.

It also seems that Lena Taylor is a Platinum-Level Screeching Twitch.

The "press" ignores all this, of course, as does the Dane County Hack-in-Charge of civil order (a/k/a/ the District Attorney) and the Clown Prince of cops, Chief Tubbs.

I'm well-acquainted with a social friend of an (R) leggie, and that person has had to run the gauntlet of these bozos on occasion.  Fortunately, when CCW becomes effective, having a little pepper-spray in the jacket will also become a lot more common.

The assaulters will have to carry milk jugs, I guess.

UPDATE:  Maybe this is the plan:  

Department of Labor? Or Department of Stasi?

The Obama Department of Labor is just as Statist as is Obama.  (That's about 100%, if you're keeping score.)

DoL has a new regulatory proposal (note well:  regulation) which will have significant effects.

Say that Company X's workers go on strike, and Company X hires a bunch of replacement workers.   You are one of those workers.

Under the proposal, that means that YOU have to register with DoL and included your home address.

Ask AFL-CIO President Trumka about 'what happens to people who cross Trumka's United Mine Workers'.

Reid to Shut Down Gummint?

Egads.  Harry Reid doesn't like Gummint any more?

Democrat dedication to a Department of Energy loan program may end up shutting down the federal government by the end of this month. The federal government’s fiscal year expires on September 30th, and Congress has not yet passed legislation authorizing any money to be spent after that date.

The House plans to pass a temporary funding bill, today, that would keep the government open through November 18th. But Senate Democrats say they’ll reject the cuts to clean energy loans the House included in the bill to pay for increased Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid funding.

Uh huh.  Gotta make those loans.  Have friends who need loans.  Where will campaign-contributions come from if those friends don't have taxpayer-provided cash?

Did Sen "Leaky" Leahy Zip Lip on Fast & Furious?

Looks like Leaky Leahy is a one-way leaker.

...Although the recordings have been turned over to congressional investigators and the Inspector General, excerpts that were released to the public make it sound like the gun dealer was extremely concerned that news of Fast and Furious was going to reach a House member or senator who would take action on it.

HOWARD [the gun dealer]:  "[Dodson’s] more toxic than you realize.  I can tell you because I asked him, 'How much of this f-----g file did you release?' ”

McALLISTER [the BATFE slimebucket]:  "Mmm hmm."

HOWARD:  "He said basically the underlying case file.  I said, 'Okay, who’d you release it to?  F-----g [Sen.] Patrick Leahy​!'  Okay?  Wasn’t just [Sen. Chuck] Grassley, it was Leahy, alright?  Leahy, as we both know, has adjourned this inquiry right now, okay, with no plans to reconvene it.  So your people were successful to that end."

Nice to know that Obozo can rely on Leahy to shut up when this country is supplying arms to the Sinaloa cartel.

Our New Mommy

Maybe you don't think you need a new Mommy.

But you have one, anyway.

...Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.”

The "transition" that's appropriate is the transition of January 2013--when Obozo leaves office and takes Mom Vilsack with him.

Perry Confuses Presidency With "Christianity"

Governor Perry is in the lead--for the time being--but that doesn't prevent him from making utterly stupid remarks.

At one point, a reporter asked Perry how he views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of his Christian faith. Perry replied by saying that as a “Christian,” he has a “clear directive to support Israel”:

PERRY: As a Christian I have a clear directive to support Israel, from my perspective its pretty easy both as an American and a Christian. I am going to stand with Israel.

--ZIppers quoting ThinkProgress

The President should be concerned ONLY with "the national interest."  If defending Israel is in the national interest, fine.  But to state that Christianity posits 'a clear directive to support Israel'-- is both stupid and ill-informed.  (Unless Perry can come up with some sort of Christian doctrinal statement to that effect---and he won't.)

Teh Won's Bullhockey

Hennessey analyzed the "plan" of "balanced" "shared-sacrifice" outlined by Obozo.

• The President is not, as he claims “proposing real, serious cuts in spending.”  His proposals would result in a tiny net reduction in spending:  -$86 B over 10 years.  Almost all of the spending cuts for which he wants to claim credit have already been enacted or accounted for.  Almost all the new spending cuts he proposes would be used to offset higher spending in his Jobs bill proposal and for more Medicare spending on doctors.
• The President is proposing about $1.5 T in higher taxes over ten years, offset by about $250 B of tax relief, for a net tax increase of almost $1.3 T.
• Almost all of the President’s new proposed deficit reduction comes from tax increases

Other than that, no problem-o!!

HT:  AOSHQ

The Big Spenders: Holder & Co.

Not only does Holder staff the joint with Lefty ideologues; the Lefties then eat US out of house and home.

U.S. Justice Department agencies spent too much for food at conferences, in one case serving $16 muffins and in another dishing out beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving, an audit found. 

...The inspector general reviewed a sample of 10 Justice Department conferences held between October 2007 and September 2009 at a cost of $4.4 million. The Justice Department spent $73.3 million on conferences in fiscal 2009, compared with $47.8 million a year earlier, according to the report. 

...The new report found that agencies were able to “circumvent meal and refreshment cost limits” when conferences were planned under cooperative agreements, a type of funding awarded by a Justice Department agency. 

Justice Department agencies “did not adequately attempt to minimize conference costs as required by federal and DOJ guidelines,” the report said.

No cake?  Oh, yah, I forgot.  That's for us to eat.

Ruh-Roh. Copper's Down

I've often mentioned that copper is "the old farts' leading economic indicator."

That's because copper is used in damn near every manufactured good, not to mention power-transmission (infrastructure/RE development/housing).

Copper prices are showing strain amid worries that Europe's sovereign-debt problems will substantially erode demand and create a surplus of the industrial metal.

Futures on Monday hit a fresh low for the year, falling 3.8% to $3.7715 a pound.

Ugh.

HT:  Ritholtz