No Oil For YOU, Sucka!!

Friday document dump, of course.

Yesterday the Obama administration announced a delaying tactic which will put off the possibility of new offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic coast for at least five years: 

The Gulf is dead, Federal lands on-shore are dead, Alaska is still dead...but Obozo opened a Pipeline to Nowhere.

That "Pipeline to Nowhere" is actually a good name for his entire term in office.

HT:  AOSHQ

The Divisive, Political, Left

When you come right down to it, the "divisive" and "politicizing" people are the Lefties.

...“You know what the Democrats are going to say -- and it is completely justified: ‘We tried, we did something, go see a 5-4 Supreme Court majority,’” Carville said on CNN Tuesday. “The public has these guys figured out. Our polls show that half think this whole thing is political. Just as a professional Democrat, there’s nothing better to me than overturning this thing 5-4 and then the Republican Party will own the health care system for the foreseeable future. And I really believe that. That is not spin."

Carville's statements edge closer to how the Left is preparing to respond if the court strikes down Obamacare. They will not stop at blaming Republicans for higher insurance premiums. They are going to try to demonize the Supreme Court itself as simply a tool of the heartless Right....

 

Upholding the Constitution's deliberately-written restrictions on the Central Government is not "political," nor "heartless".  It's what judges and justices are sworn to do.

 

 

Bipartisanship Returns!! (Obama Gets ZERO Votes)

See?  There is such a thing as bipartisan agreement!

...House Democrats and Republicans united in their opposition to President Obama's 2013 budget, which failed tonight with 414 votes against and zero in favor of the budget.

The Democrats wanted MORE taxes and spending than even Obozo dared.  The Pubbies want to save the country from a BK/foreclosure action.

ACT's and SAT's Voter ID Law

Obviously, SAT and ACT are racist oppressors.

The companies that administer two key college entrance exams have adopted new measures arguably designed to decrease participation in the tests - and, ultimately, enrollment in colleges in university - by minority and elderly students.

The two companies that administer the tests, the College Board and ACT Inc., which administer the SAT and ACT tests, have announced that students taking the tests will be required to present photo IDs.

The new requirement is being called a "key security upgrade" and comes in response to an alleged cheating scandal in which students allegedly paid someone else to take the tests for them.

Cold medicine, SATs--what's next?  Driving??

The Sociological Breakdown

Looks like what we already knew.

...In the March 21st NYT, Nicholas Kristof reviews a new book:  ”The Righteous Mind”.  In it, author Jonathan Haidt discusses some original research that investigates some key values held by conservatives and liberals – and how these two groups perceive each other on these values....

...Americans speak about values in six languages, from care to sanctity. Conservatives speak all six, but liberals are fluent in only three. And some (me included) mostly use just one, care for victims.

...for liberals, morality is largely a matter of three values: caring for the weak, fairness and liberty. Conservatives share those concerns (although they think of fairness and liberty differently) and add three others: loyalty, respect for authority and sanctity.  --RedState quoting N Kristof/NYTimes

The rest of 'the review of the review' elaborates on that core.

Like Electricity? Suck Wind, Jerk!

The Obozo Boyzzzz just shut down all new coal-fired electic plants.

...The proposed rule — years in the making and approved by the White House after months of review — will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt....--Red States quoting WaPo

November, November, November.

Bernanke on 'The Recovery'

Bernanke's not exactly enthusiastic.

...A wide range of indicators suggests that the job market has been improving, which is a welcome development indeed. Still, conditions remain far from normal, as shown, for example, by the high level of long-term unemployment and the fact that jobs and hours worked remain well below pre-crisis peaks, even without adjusting for growth in the labor force. Moreover, we cannot yet be sure that the recent pace of improvement in the labor market will be sustained. Notably, an examination of recent deviations from Okun's law suggests that the recent decline in the unemployment rate may reflect, at least in part, a reversal of the unusually large layoffs that occurred during late 2008 and over 2009. To the extent that this reversal has been completed, further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more-rapid expansion of production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies.  --quoted at CalcRisk

"Accomodative policies" has been interpreted as "QE3" (!!)--another debt-increaser.

Madistan Approaches "Going Critical"

Another in the long, long series of "incidents" targeting Pubbies in Madistan, this one a threatening note left on a car which bore a pro-Walker bumper sticker.

Will Ryan's Song Put the Debt Monster to Sleep?

In a word, no.

...Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, for whom I have a high regard, was among those representatives who appeared at the Heritage Foundation to express misgivings regarding the Ryan plan’s timidity. They’re not wrong on that: The alleged terrorizer of widows and orphans does not propose to balance the budget of the government of the United States until the year 2040. That would be 27 years after Congressman Ryan’s current term of office expires. Who knows what could throw a wrench in those numbers? Suppose Beijing decides to seize Taiwan....

Steyn concludes:

...given the dollar’s decline over the last decade, that most Americans can no longer afford to flee to any place worth fleeing to. What’s left is the non-flee option: taking a stand here, stopping the spendaholism, closing federal agencies, privatizing departments, block-granting to the states — not in 2040, but now. “Suddenly” is about to show up.

"Suddenly" is a reference to Hemingway's novel.

We have a great deal of work to do in re-reforming Congress, (and for that matter, the State of Wisconsin.)

More on the ugliness of Ryan's proposal:

...we are opposed to how the budget dismantles the annual sequestration spending cuts enacted into law by last year’s Budget Control Act (also known as the debt-limit deal). As you may recall, the debt deal established annual discretionary spending caps for the next ten years. But the debt deal also required additional cuts (both discretionary and mandatory) because the supercommittee failed. Therefore, for the upcoming year, the real number that needs to be achieved, beyond the spending cap, is $110 billion in cuts in total spending authority. But Ryan’s budget achieves less than that: $19 billion in discretionary cuts and $53 billion in cuts to mandatory authority, of which only $18 billion would be included in budget reconciliation, a fast-track process requiring committees to actually pass implementing legislation.

House leaders know that they are $39 billion short — and thus, are breaking the terms of the BCA — but they overcompensate for this by promising deeper spending cuts in the out years.

In other words, they are kicking the can down the road . . . again. Congress made a solemn promise last year that they would abide by the spending restraints in the Budget Control Act. But already, House Republican leaders are breaking that promise. This is now more than a fiscal problem. It’s a credibility issue. Like we said in our original press release, “It is hard to have confidence that our long-term fiscal challenges will be met responsibly when the same Congress that passed the Budget Control Act wants to ignore it less than one year later.”   --Camp of the Saints quoting Club for Growth

Seems that we need more than a little gentle prodding here.  A good kick in the ass might be helpful, but it's possible that these people will have to be removed from office, one way or another.

The Good News About Obama (!)

Holy smoke.

Sturm, Ruger (the 4th largest gun-maker in the US) who after receiving orders for over one million units in Q1 has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.

Guess I'll have to look at little harder at that Savage in -06.

RomBama the Petty

Noted at Hot Air, posted by the Examiner:

...Romney aides were on the job Saturday night.  In Green Bay, a Romney spokesman, Ryan Williams, showed up at the bar where Santorum was holding his election-night event, to make a few disparaging comments and put the Romney campaign's spin on events. "This is the saddest, most pathetic victory party I've ever seen," an AP reporter quoted Williams saying.  "Where are all the supporters?"

Not long after, Santorum campaign manager Mike Biundo asked Williams to leave, which Williams did.  "I didn't think it was appropriate," Biundo said later.  "They keep wanting to write this race off and say that it's done, yet they keep sending surrogates to our events to spin the press.  They've been following us around for a while.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence that we were in the same bar."

It's NOT a coincidence.  Green Bay has about 10,000 bars.

The only question is whether Romney's staff is just a bunch of assholes, or whether they're actually just bitchy little broads pretending to be men.

As to Williams' question:  Santorum supporters are too damn busy working (unlike the Landed Gentry, Romney) to be hitting the bars with Rick.

We vote, instead.

Louisiana Exit Polls

Huh.  S'pose you'll hear this someplace else?

The exit polls in Louisiana shared some interesting information - when people can get to know the real Rick Santorum, he wins in almost every polled category.  Rick won Tea Party voters, conservatives, moderates, liberals and every income group except one: people making over $200,000 a year (Mitt Romney won this group, but it was close).  

We won because we had the resources to tell the real Rick Santorum story, and refute Romney's negative commercials and robocalls.  Because when people get to know Rick's and Romney's real record, Rick wins every time.

Gerry Ford did very well for the first several months, too.  Then Reagan swamped him.  I can't recall whether Ford was as dirty a player as Romney, though.

"When in the Course of Human Events...."

A very mild-mannered Bishop in California:

Bishop Cordileone described the HHS mandate not as a Catholic or Christian issue, nor as one just affecting people of faith, but as an issue that affects all Americans as Americans. He related a conversation he had with his mother about the mandate. She told him “This (religious freedom) is what the pilgrims came to this country for!" The bishop continued “If my 85 year-old mother, who never went to college, can understand this, why is it so hard for our elected officials?...How dare the government define for us what constitutes our religious faith? Get the Government out of our church!"

Lawsuit to follow.  In the alternative, ride to the sound of the guns.

HT:  Shepherd

Romney, the Dirtball Campaigner

Ya' know, only two years ago, Sykes was yammering that "I'm a Conservative, not a Republican."

Now, ol' Charlie's looking for a nice Federal job someplace in France, so it's Romney all the way.

Meantime, the Dirtball Special--MittWillard--does what he does best:  lie about his opponents.

...Romney’s response — that he was “disappointed to hear that Rick Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican” — was utterly misleading. I’m not surprised the media outlet that broke this story attempted to generate some buzz with it, nor am I surprised the Romney campaign has attempted to blow this out of proportion. What does surprise me, however, is how many people have bought into it....Camp of the Saints quoting Matt Lewis

(One example of 'buying in' is Charlie Sykes, who played a highly-edited version of Santorum's remarks, leaving some question as to what was actually said, in what context.  Charlie did that before both Willard AND his wife appeared on his show.  Just co-incidence, don'chya know...)

Then Willard the Dirtball expects all of us to enthusiastically beat the streets for him, too. 

SCOTUS to EPA: "Jam It!"

The Sacketts won.

Far more important than the victory was the margin:  9 to 0.

The "Two Percent" Lie, Again

Seems like the Leader of the Pond-Scum has a habit of lying.  Doh.

...He loves to tell audiences that we need to invest billions in “green” energy because we only have 2% of the world’s oil reserves, and consume 20% of the oil. We and many others have called Obama on this misrepresentation many times. His fibbing has been so persistent that even the Washington Post has called him on it. “Reserves” in the United States (unlike other countries) include only petroleum that can profitably be recovered at current prices, and that it is legal to develop under existing laws and regulations. So Obama’s reasoning is circular: if we opened up ANWR, for example, to drilling, our “reserves” would expand dramatically, overnight.

There's the truth, and then there's Obozo-isms.

HT:  PowerLine

Recycling Contributions: Use Tax Dollars!!

Pond-scum....

Obama’s promotion of algae as a fuel source at a campaign speech in Miami last month caught the nation’s attention.

Fuel source?

...algae companies have been banking on administration support from Day One. In December 2008, when the White House announced the nomination of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the CEO of Florida-based biofuels startup Algenol, Paul Woods, exulted to Time magazine: “You see this smile on my face? It’s not going away. Everyone is really excited by this.”

The next year, Woods and Algenol — dubbed “Obama’s favorite algae company” by Forbes magazine — racked up $25 million in federal stimulus grants from Chu. Say cheese.

Yet another algae-based biofuels developer, Sapphire Energy, has absorbed $105 million in stimulus funds and loan guarantees even as doubts about the practicality, efficiency and viability of pond-scum fuels multiply. Sapphire’s CEO, Jason Pyle, has donated exclusively to Democratic campaigns, candidates and committees — and his company’s website reads like a satellite White House communications office...

I say that Obozo doesn't have to go too far to find pond scum.  The Cabinet meetings are full of it.

These Bozos GOVERN?

The PrissyPants McTwit bunch governs "for the chilllllllllllllllllllllllllllrun."

Last year, DOL Secretary Hilda Solis proposed rules that would restrict family farm operations by prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from being near certain age animals without adult supervision, participating in common livestock practices such as vaccinating and hoof trimming, and handling most animals more than six months old, which would severely limit participation in 4-H and FFA activities and restrict their youth farm safety classes; operating farm machinery over 20 PTO horsepower; completing tasks at elevations over six feet high; and working at stockyards and grain and feed facilities. The language of the proposed rule is so specific it would even ban youth from operating a battery powered screwdriver or a pressurized garden hose.

Ya never know when one of those garden hoses or 14V screwdrivers will get away from ya and kill a couple dozen people, eh?

HT:  Gateway

Moochie's Right About THIS

Michelle Obama, who is (currently) proud of America, utters the truth.

...First Lady Michelle Obama told a campaign event Monday evening that the “kind of world we’ll be leaving for our children” was at stake.

“[W]hether it’s health care or the economy, whether it’s education or foreign policy, the choice we make will determine nothing less than what kind of world we’ll be leaving for our children,” she told an Obama for America bowling fundraiser at New York’s Chelsea Piers complex.

Indeed, Moochie.

"Your Truth, My Truth" Games: Critical Race Theory

Not hard to find the pig in this poke.

...California teacher Matthew Kertesz: When our black and brown students underperform, it’s not based on any lack of ability, but it’s because equal resources isn’t the same thing [sic] as equally served.  So our schools often falsely assume that kids of color can and will simply change and thrive in an environment based on white culture.  Now, when our schools and society truly value our black and brown youth -– and that’s shown through school culture, and practice, and policy –- then we’ll start to see equal performance.....

The 'culture' of mathematics, grammar, physics, chemistry, and spelling never used to vary much.  Maybe "progress" has changed that, eh? 

Has "progress" changed the nature of logic?  Art?  Biology?  Or 'what IS', as the philosophers put it?

"Critical race theory" is more of the same slushbucket 'thought' which has been around--in one disguise or another--for thousands of years; it's denial of truth.

Whither Conservatism?

McCotter:

...Bereft of the soulful perspective requisite to rebel against itself and reform, the conservative movement became a racket of GOPimpery.  Losing its beloved leader, as well as the conservative movement’s initial creativity, entrepreneurship, impishness and, above all, roots in the shared experiences of Americans, a culturally flaccid Republican Party could no longer even make a pretense of aping Reagan in speaking to Americans; instead, the GOP bewailed his absence in revisionist, discordant country-pop dirges of empty praise that littered the new conservative establishment media.  Such culturally atonal singing may have resonated with the die-hard members of a shrinking choir and facilitated the Republican Cashocracy’s lingering in political power for an extra Sunday or so; but culturally the die was cast and the GOPhilistines’ “permanent majority” imploded beneath the street level activism, dominant media bombardment, and cyber-broadsides of a politically revitalized, culturally attuned and revanchist Left.

Subtitle:  is RoJo a flash in the pan?  Can Hovde use the same tools to achieve the same success?

Or will we watch more "Hollywood Movie Tax Credit" schemes befoul Wisconsin?

HT:  The Winning McCain

The Statist Pubbie Party

Oh, yes, Statism is infectious.

HR 347 passed the House with only 3 Republicans against, and zero Democrats against.

Why?

Because politicians hate anti-politician demonstrations.  Someone might be offended, or maybe have to duck a few tomatoes.

Awwwwwwww.  Po', po' babies.

Oh, yes, it's another attack on the First Amendment.  Perhaps they don't realize that they lost the fight on the most important one--the Second.

Tap the Oil Reserve? Why?

Noted here:

....for all the rhetoric about flat-earthers who believe in strange things like supply and demand, Obama himself knows that increasing oil supply does matter. Why? Because he is pondering again tapping the strategic oil reserve, while Democratic senators keep reminding us that the U.S. is begging the Saudis to increase their own production. So why would increased oil from a reserve or from Saudi Arabia matter in a way that increased domestic production heretofore has not? --Cold Fury quoting VDHanson/Corner

Irony abounds, and Obozo is its bitch.

McPain Still Last in His Class

John McPain, former candidate and current bozo, was not a star student at Annapolis.  (That's being kind about his record.)

He's still not very bright.

...Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the GOP needs to stop talking about contraception and that focusing on the issue is hurting voter perceptions of the party.

...“I think there is a perception out there because of the way this whole contraception issue played out — we need to get off of that issue in my view. I think we ought to respect the right of women to make choices in their lives and make that clear...

First off, turkey, it's the Fifth Column which is yapping about 'contraception.'

That's so that dimwits like you forget that this is a FIRST AMENDMENT matter. 

It worked, too, sap.

The Coming Breakdown in the (D) Ranks

You only have to read the very short take in this post to get the impression that Obozo has few (D) pals left in Congress--if any at all.

College Women, Cats, and Dogs

The Obozo-ites don't think too much of "college women," do they?

All student health care plans covering female college students in the United States must include coverage for free voluntary sterilization surgery, the Department of Health and Human Services announced late Friday afternoon.

Women of college age who do not attend school will also get free sterilization coverage whether they are insured through an employer, their parents, or some form of government-subsidized plan.

Can't have them going around and re-pro-DU-cing, can we now?   After all, feral college women ....well, ....you know.....

The Obozo Queerness Re: Families, "Privacy", and Life

We've often mentioned "legal positivism" as a danger to the country (and mankind, as it turns out here). 

Lecturer Obozo, while at U of Chicago, shows us how this is so; he ignores the Declaration to lead his students to a Statist conclusion.

...Once again, constitutional law exams work in a very specific way: the teacher presents an “issue-spotting” question, in which students are asked to provide analysis of a set of facts; the teacher then provides sample answers, so students know if they covered the issues....

...Obama suggests that there is a fundamental constitutional right to clone oneself. The precedent cases “all argue for a broad reading of the right at stake: a right to make decisions regarding childbearing free from government interference—at least absent a government showing that such interference is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest.”

...Obama next examines the state’s interests in preventing cloning. He rejects nearly all of them, but focuses in particular on the state’s interest in “preserving the sanctity of life/family bonds.” The state, says Obama, probably doesn’t have a “compelling interest in preventing what it considers to be the ‘devaluation’ of human life that might result from cloning.” As to the family, Obama states, the state has no ability to restrict “an individual’s fundamental right to bear children or form a family solely on the basis of the state’s abstract judgment of what a family should look like.” The case law may support the first proposition in this sentence – that who bears children is not up to the state. But the second proposition – that forming a family is also not up to the state – is an early argument for gay marriage,...

In the real world, the State has a grave and compelling interest in 'preventing the devaluation of human life...'.  The consequences of such devaluation are ......ahhh.......Statism.  Surprised?  In contrast, the Declaration of Independence implicitly and explicitly calls for the State to protect "life, liberty, and the pursuit...."  Notice the word-order here:  'life' is the first-mentioned for a reason; it is the most important of the three.  

...Obama believes that the right to privacy should encompass everything up to and including cloning...

That assumes that Griswold's "right to privacy" is actually a Constitutional finding.  It is not so (pace Charlie Sykes and other libertarian-oriented folks).

The GAB: Following the [Obozo] Un-Constitutional Leader

Who in Hell does the GAB think it is?  You have a bunch of semi-senile retired blackrobes who are managed by a Left-O-Wacky and his pack of do-nothing bureaucrats (the Democrat Party's sixth column), now blatantly adjudicating the Wisconsin Constitution to assume control of special elections!!

Egads. 

Owen points out their latest Eric Holder-esque stunt:

...The GAB, however, is out of line here. First, it does not have the authority to make this decision. The Constitution clearly states “Filling vacancies. SECTION 14. The governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies as may occur in either house of the legislature.” The governor. Not the GAB. There should not be a recall because there isn’t anyone to recall. And the governor has the sole constitutional authority to call an election to fill the seat.

It's not "out of line".  It's insubordination or worse.

Order the GAB to STFU on the Galloway replacement, and hold a special election when the Governor SAYS so.

The Legislature's Next Project: Truth in Budgeting

It's a good thing that the Wisconsin Leggies are trying to pass an "earmark ID" bill.  Let the sun shine in!

Here's another good thing for them to do next session:  GAAP standards for Wisconsin budgets.

...Last year, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a budget that avoided most of the accounting tricks and fund transfers used by previous administrations, Democrat and Republican alike, to balance the budget as state law requires.

“(W)e balanced the $3.6 billion budget deficit with long-term, structural reforms. We thought more about the next generation than we did about the next election,” Gov. Scott Walker said in this year’s State of the State address.

Well, maybe not.

...A report from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau indicated that Wisconsin is projected to have a $53 million deficit at the end of fiscal 2012, which concludes June 30, and a $208 million deficit at the end of fiscal 2013, due largely to lower-than-expected tax revenue.

Even if the state’s general fund — which covers most state expenses — was statutorily balanced, the state’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles deficit, or GAAP, measuring beyond the general fund, is running between $2.5 billion and $3 billion, said Dale Knapp, research director of WISTAX, a private government research nonprofit.

GAAP is a much more stringent way of accounting.

Knapp gave the analogy of charging an item on a credit card: Under the state’s current way of accounting, there isn’t a budgeted expense until the bill comes due.

Balancing the budget using GAAP principles may take another 6 years or so, but honest budgeting should be a priority for actual Conservatives.

Conservatives Win One!

Actual Conservatives--not the jello-folk--won one yesterday.

.,..a key legislative committee voted Wednesday against building a new train maintenance base - a decision that officials warned could mean mothballing two brand-new trains and walking away from the $71.8 million already invested in them.

Gov. Walker, for some reason, does not agree with this move.

...Under the terms of the company's no-bid contract with the state, Talgo was to maintain its trains at a base provided by the state.

"No-bid" means that Diamond Jim handed the contract to Talgo, no questions asked.

...Republican lawmakers attacked the deal Wednesday, pointing to state Department of Transportation calculations that the state could save $10 million a year by mothballing the new state-owned trains and continuing to use 20- to 30-year-old Amtrak-owned equipment. The state would save money even though it would be paying $739,347 a year to store the Talgo trains, which probably couldn't be sold to another state, Gottlieb said.

Good.  That $10 million should be offset by a TAX REDUCTION.

T-Bonds: Weather or Climate?

Hmmmm.

10-year notes fell for a seventh day, the longest losing streak in more than five years, before U.S. reports forecast to show claims for jobless benefits declined and a regional index of manufacturing improved.

Benchmark yields climbed to the highest level since October as a gauge of the inflation outlook increased to a seven-month high, damping demand for fixed-income securities. Government bonds around the world have slumped this week as the Federal Reserve raised its assessment of the U.S. economy and said strains in global financial markets have eased. 

Could be just a short-term swing.

Or it could be that ObozoNomics are shifting into Phase Two: inflation.

Zipperer Does the Right Thing

Rich Zipperer is doing the right thing here.

Sen. Rich Zipperer has scheduled a public hearing Monday for both the Assembly and Schultz-Jauch versions of the iron mining bill an attempt to keep the legislation alive.

"I think basically we can see that the bills are on life support," Zipperer said. "The rationale is to keep the bill alive and to have an opportunity to move forward if we can come to an agreement."

Zipperer, R-Pewaukee and chair of the Judiciary, Utilities, Commerce and Government Operations Committee, said there has not been any compromise yet, but that the meeting serves as a placeholder if a deal is reached that would move the bill forward.

If an agreement is reached, a special session would be needed to pass the bill, Zipperer said. Gov. Scott Walker said last night he was considering a special session on the mining legislation in the hopes of persuading those senators who voted against the bill last week to change their minds.

(In the case of Jauch, it's "alleged" mind.)

Zipperer could have let the Democrats cook in their own stew--having screwed their working-man base to the wall with their "no" vote of last week.

Instead, Zipperer (and Walker) are looking out for the good of the State.

He deserves applause.

Don't Like Abortion? Pay For It, Anyway, Sucka!!

Sebelius' sacrament WILL be paid for.

The final rule for the health care exchanges set for implementation under the federal health care law has maintained an original accounting arrangement allowing taxpayer funding of abortion, despite the Hyde amendment.

The Department of Health and Human Services this month issued a final rule regarding the exchanges required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The rule provides for taxpayer funding of insurance coverage that includes elective abortion through a direct abortion subsidy. 

To comply with the accounting requirement, plans will collect a separate $1 abortion surcharge from each premium payer. As described in the rule, the surcharge can only be disclosed to the enrollee at the time of enrollment, and insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without disclosing the abortion surcharge.

Really?  You mean that Obozo/Sebelius don't LIKE full-disclosure?

Oh, my.

BUY MORE AMMO!!!

ObozoCare Cost Doubles

Don't be surprised.  As we mentioned below, figures lie and liars figure.  We know Obozo's a liar--but I'm not certain that he can actually figure; we still don't have any college transcripts from wherever he actually went to college.

Anyhooo...

President Obama's national health care law will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade, according to a new projection released today by the Congressional Budget Office, rather than the $940 billion forecast when it was signed into law.

Buy More Ammo

The Oh-So-Green Solyndra (Irony Alert)

Sure, there's more to the Solyndra story than a mere BK-with-taxpayer-guarantees.

...the solar-panel maker’s abrupt closure now threatens to leave behind an environmental mess.

The company plans on paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up its own property in Fremont, Calif., but a separate leased property in nearby Milpitas sits vacant with barrels of unknown chemicals and lead-contaminated equipment, attorneys for the landlord, iStar CTL I L.P., said in recent bankruptcy court filings.

....two large blue drums are filled with a black substance with no secure lids and covered instead with clear plastic wrap. Another photograph shows a yellow drum about the size of a large garbage can containing a yellow-brown gooey substance. Yet another picture shows a large machine with a metallic tube coming from the top and another tube from the side. Both tubes display the words “lead exhaust.” A smaller sign on the front of the machine says “toxic” next to what appears to be a small skull and crossbones.

Nice.  Very nice.

More on Obozo's Energy Lies

Yah, well, figures lie and liars figure.

...President Barack Obama claimed that under his administration, oil production in America was “at an eight-year high,” that the number of operating oil rigs had quadrupled, and that millions of acres had been opened for drilling, which were assertions that did not present all the facts, said energy experts

... “In classic fashion, he’s using a technicality to skirt the facts and keep the myth of energy scarcity alive,” the IER email said.  “The reality is that the U.S. has enough recoverable oil for the next 200 years, despite only having 2 percent of the world’s current proven oil reserves.”

... “Declaring that “the U.S. has only 2% of the world’s oil,” which Obama has done, “is akin to saying that the only gasoline we will have is that which is in our tanks,” said IER. 

... oil production on federal lands declined in fiscal year 2011 from fiscal year 2010 by 11 percent, and natural gas production on federal lands dropped by 6 percent during the same timeframe. :

In contrast, oil production on private and state lands accounted for the entire increase, reported the IER, as production was up 14 percent from 2010 to 2011. Natural gas also was up 12 percent from 2010 to 2011.

There's a very simple reason for the price of petroleum, by the way:

 “The problem is that we have had no plan in this country to take care of ourselves. We have been living off imports for most of the last 30, 40 years,” Hofmeister said.

“And while we are in a nation that has more oil than Saudi Arabia, that has more oil than we’ll ever need, we have a government policy, Republican and Democratic governments alike, that have prohibited oil companies from accessing natural resources in this country,” he said.

He also said that American consumers are paying more at the pump because “we haven’t had a plan to produce domestic energy,” adding that “we’ve imported it for too long.”

That guy happens to be a registered Democrat, folks.

Snatching...Ahhhhh......Ummmnnnnhhhh......

Not quite, Mitt.

Not quite.

Taking Money From Terrorists

Well, well.  Isn't this an interesting list.

In August of last year, The Christian Science Monitor‘s Scott Peterson published a detailed exposé about “a high-powered array of former top American officials” who have received “tens of thousands of dollars” from a designated Terrorist organization – the Iranian dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — and then met with its leaders, attended its meetings, and/or publicly advocated on its behalf. That group includes Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Michael Mukasey, Ed Rendell, Andy Card, Lee Hamilton, Tom Ridge, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark, Michael Hayden, John Bolton, Louis Freeh — and Fran Townsend. --Ticker quoting Salon

Apparently there's now a question as to whether taking the money, then pushing MEK's cause, is even legal.

Flynn Ought to Talk With Prosecutors

This is the typical Lefty/Statist path to erasing rights:  start with the "obvious cases." 

On review, you find that the cases are not quite so obvious, largely because they simply point to the earlier failures of the Lefty/Statists.

Milwaukee police are asking state legislators and gun rights activists to back three proposals police say would repair Wisconsin's concealed-carry law...

[1]: barring people with three misdemeanor convictions in five years from obtaining a concealed-carry permit...

[2]:  straw purchases - buying a firearm for someone who is prohibited from possessing a firearm - are a misdemeanor on a state level, not a felony as they are on a federal level...

[3]  the requirements for a gun permit ignore the reality of plea bargains. Many habitual criminals legally qualify for, and could obtain, a concealed-carry permit because they were never convicted of a felony for which they were charged

For numbers 2 and 3 above--these are problems with prosecutors and judges, not the laws.  Too bad that the "flying my Mercedes while drunk" folks are out there--and that prosecutors (and/or judges) don't bother with enforcement.

As to #1 above:  WHICH misdemeanors?  Any of 'em?  All of 'em?

Let's be serious here.  

Another Project for the Wisconsin Legislature & Walker

We mentioned below that AG Holder and Obama believe that the President can order assassinations of US citizens it deems to be "terrorists."  That's not the only card that the Statists can play.

[T]he [NDAA] law allows Barack Obama as the president to determine when someone, even an American citizen, would be taken into custody and held under the law of war – that is, without trial, hearing, charges or due process.

At least one State has responded.

...The issue has become a focal point in just the last few days as lawmakers in Virginia approved by 96-4 and 37-1 votes a state plan that simply would not allow the federal provision to be used within state borders.

Seems to me that the Wisconsin legislature ought to follow the Commonwealth's lead.

Immediately.

Gas Prices Now, Tax Increases Later: The Obozo Plan

Having choked off most petroleum development on US lands, and having killed of the XL pipeline, and with Operation Kill Coal now up and running, the current occupant's policy to raise the price of energy to the sky is well underway.

Next:  tax increases!!

...The first series of tax hikes will hit personal income tax rates. Because many small employers pay business taxation at these rates, this is also a tax rate hike on small businesses. The lowest personal rate will rise from 10 percent to 15 percent and the highest rate will go up from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. This means that every American with an income tax liability is scheduled to see a rise in taxes.

The majority of small employer profits face taxation at the top marginal tax rate. That means that the top personal rate is actually a proxy for the small business tax rate in America. That rate will rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Thanks to a provision in the jobs-killing ObamaCare law, most small employer profits will face a Medicare tax rate of 3.8 percent, pushing the total small business rate over the 40 percent mark....

These are the people who spend money on other goods and services--if they have it, of course.

...The child tax credit will be cut in half, from $1000 to $500 per child. For seniors, the top effective marginal tax rate on Social Security benefits will rise from almost 30 percent in 2012 to almost 34 percent in 2013....

Obozo and his aborto-cult followers can't stand seeing (other people's) children, of course.  More important, if there are less children, then who in Hell will pay the national-debt taxes?  As to seniors, who needs them?  They'll cost ObozoCare a bunch of money anyway...

....The top rate on long-term capital gains is set to rise from 15 percent to 23.8 percent. If you receive dividends, the top rate on this income will rise from 15 percent to 43.4 percent. The Tax Foundation reports that 70 percent of taxpayers over age 55 reported dividend income, earning 71 percent of the total dividends in America. A tax hike on dividends is another tax hike on seniors.

Even if your retirement savings are all in traditional pensions, 401(k) plans and IRAs, the financial markets will have to price in these higher taxes, shrinking everyone’s nest egg. Taxes are a cost like any other, and markets have to price in the cost of higher taxes...

Can you say "Depend on Gummint because your saved-income is worthless!!"  I knew you could...

...Since 2011, we haven’t been able to use our health savings accounts (HSAs) or flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (the “medicine cabinet tax”)....If you have an FSA at work, and you use it for large medical expenses (like special needs education, durable medical equipment, reconstructive surgery, etc.), you will find yourself locked out in 2013. Currently unlimited by tax law, there will be a new $2,500 cap on FSA deferrals.

Yup--that's more of the same.

And there's more!!

...President Obama has proposed new taxes beyond those already scheduled. He wants a “Buffett Rule” to ensure that those making more than $1 million pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent. This is on top of the dreaded “alternative minimum tax” (AMT), which is scheduled to rise from 4 million to 30 million victims in 2013....

How very nice!

Remember that energy-cost hike?  He's going to double down on that!

 President Obama wants to raise taxes on energy companies, driving up the cost of electricity and gasoline for every family and small employer in America.

And good luck finding a second job to pay the energy bills:

For larger employers who earn profits overseas, he wants to make it more difficult to bring that money back to America by double-taxing it, a suicidal refusal to bring capital and jobs home. The research and development tax credit, which manufacturing employers depend on to cope with our world’s-highest 35 percent federal corporate income tax rate, has already expired in 2012

So he kills the R&D credit and yaps his flapper about "innovation at home."

Right-O, O-bozo!!

All in all, I'd rather cut spending.

"Lawless" Is Just the First Problem with AG Holder

He also seems inclined to murder.

Holder said in a speech at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago that the government is within its rights to kill citizens who are senior leaders in al-Qaeda or affiliate groups who pose an "imminent threat" of attack against the USA and whose capture is "not feasible"

"Given the nature of how terrorists act and where they tend to hide, it may not always be feasible to capture a U.S. citizen terrorist who presents an imminent threat of violent attack," Holder said, according to a text of his speech. "In that case, our government has the clear authority to defend the United States with lethal force."--RenMan quoting USAToday

This is "pre-emptive" murder.  Sounds all very fine and dandy when referring to "terrorists" and "hide"--and all that stuff.

Until you recall that anti-abortion demonstrators are "terrorists" under the definition advanced by Homeland Security's Napolitano.  Same applies to (as it turns out), any white middle-class citizen who disagrees with .......ahhh.......Obama and Nappy'tano.

BUY.  MORE.  AMMO.

UPDATE:  Even the NYTimes thinks Holder/Obozo have gone a bridge too far.

The Dis-Graced Weakland Strikes Again

Technically, a Bishop is addressed "Your Excellency" and an Archbishop is addressed "Your Grace."

So Abp. Weakland......you get the idea.

And sure enough, he signed a petition to recall Walker, along with his pals (Fr.) Ken Knippel, pastor of St John Vianney in Brookfield, (Fr.) Anthony Zimmer, pastor of St Anthony on the Lake, Pewaukee, (Mgr) T. Connors, pastor of St Albert the Great of Sun Prairie (who, curiously, lives in Wauwatosa, WI), and (Mgr) Michael Barrett, pastor of Blessed Trinity in Milwaukee--who shares the residence with Connors.

No further comment.

HT:  Badger

Birds of a Feather.....

GWBush admitted that he made a fool of himself over Putin.

On the other hand, we have this:

Barack Obama called Vlad Putin today to congratulate him for stealing winning the president for life election this week.

....They sang the Internationale, according to the rumor....

HT:  Gateway

Balistreri's Right: State Democrats are Jerks

Lyle Balistreri is with the Building Trades Council of the AFL-CIO, and he's hopping mad at the Democrats.

"So…Senator Coggs how bout I send 300, 400 of my unemployed guys up to your office and you can explain to them why you voted the way you did! I've had it! I've had it! "Solidarity" "I've had it," Balistreri said.

Send 1,000, Lyle.  The other half can visit Carpenter, or some Madistan Bozocrat.

Barrett--the Milk Carton himself--now mewls and screeches that Walker 'failed to lead' on the mining bill.  Irony abounds; Barrett has a notorious lack of political testosterone except when it comes to baby-killing.

Is Hovde a Conservative Without Baggage?

News item:

...Hedge fund manager Eric Hovde announced his candidacy Thursday in Dane, and planned additional campaign stops in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Eau Claire. A native of Madison, Hovde has lived the past 24 years in Washington, D.C. 

His first speeches would indicate that he's a Ron Johnson-kinda guy.  This is a good thing, as Neumann, who has the right fiscal positions, has a track record of dirty campaign tactics, and Tommy Thompson is simply a RINO.

Good News: Kohl Retiring. Bad News: He's Still Voting

Another RedStates report highlights Herbie Kohl's utter contempt for taxpayers of the future (no surprise here, he has no children....)

...Coburn amendment no. 1738 that would direct the OMB to find at least $10 billion in spending recissions from eliminating and consolidating duplicative  programs.  It was rejected 52-46 (60 votes were required).

And yes, Herbie woke up to vote the wrong way.

The Cantor Problem

RedState reminds us that Eric Cantor is merely a pretty face.

On February 18, 2011, 98 Republicans joined with the whole of the Democratic Caucus in the House to defeat legislation offered up by Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee designed to ensure the House GOP lived up to is “$100 billion in cuts” pledge to nowhere.

As I noted at the time, “Blackburn’s amendment, by its own description, would have ‘reduce[d] spending by 5.5% in 8 non-securiy spending subsections of the bill and reduce[d] Legislative Branch appropriations by 11%.’

Ushering Republicans across the aisle to join with Democrats in a refusal to cut the budget was House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy.

It was the first major vote that separated the men from the boys. It showed who the fiscally responsible were and who the fiscally irresponsible were. Eric Cantor himself had co-sponsored the same Blackburn measure three separate times. But this time, the tea party had the votes to actually get it passed. So Cantor led squishy Republicans to the Democrats. And our debt soon went up to over $15 trillion.

The pretty boys--Boehner and Cantor--will have to go.

Holder: Not 'Rule of Law,' But "Rule of Holder"

I thought Holder couldn't be any worse.

I was wrong.

Last month, in an appearance at Columbia University, his alma mater, Holder made a jarring statement in support of racial preferences, saying he "can't actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease." "Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices," he declared. "The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin. . . . When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?"

.....But to have an attorney general of the United States say that the force of government must be used, forever, to enshrine into law what used to be called "reverse discrimination" is for him to say that American law will always put skin color above other considerations - and pick winners accordingly.

This is not the rule of law as most Americans understand the very concept, and it certainly violates every reasonable notion of equal justice under the law.  --AmSpec quoting John Fund

Holder's disgusting and condescending racism is beyond the pale.

Marginal Romney

Sharp observation from RedState:

...Romney is steadily outpolling any one of his individual rivals, cementing his frontrunner status. Two, his frontrunner status derives entirely from the division among his opponents: the conservatives have consistently outpolled the moderates. And three, despite winning his home state of Massachusetts by a 60-point, 220,000 vote margin on Super Tuesday and despite none of the conservatives being on the ballot in Virginia, Romney’s not getting any stronger – even with Perry and Bachmann out of the race and Cain not drawing a single recorded vote, the conservatives drew a majority of the votes on Tuesday.

Yup.

Farcical Flanagan, the Reliable Madistan "Judge"

Esenberg simply nukes Farcical Flanagan's silliness.

...Without rehearsing all of the legal niceties, reliance on the Wisconsin Constitution gives the plaintiffs an opportunity to argue that laws that may make it more difficult to vote should be subject to what lawyers call heightened scrutiny. Judge Flanagan accepted that argument, stating that the law must be subject to what is "strict scrutiny," i.e., that the law must be necessary to serve a compelling interest.

This is what I think won't hold up on appeal. While it may be superficially attractive to say that anything that makes it harder to exercise the "sacred" and "fundamental" right to vote should be held to this high standard, a little thought reveals that this is not a workable idea. Elections have to have rules. Rules will make it harder to vote than it might otherwise be. Recognizing this, courts have not always subjected rules regulating voting to "strict" or even "heightened" scrutiny. Rather, they have tended to do so only when the restriction on the voting rights of some group of electors has been severe or is wholly unrelated to the qualifications to vote and the rational administration of elections....

...which is NOT the case in Wisconsin.

Flanagan assured himself of re-election in LaLaLand, however.

The Bankrupti-zation of the US, Obozo Style

News note:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the division the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, will provide “hormone therapy” to illegal aliens it has detained who say they are transgender, according to the agency’s operations manual for its detention facilities.--Moonbattery quoting CNS News

Obama realizes that the easiest way to demolish the US is through bankrupting the country.  As a side benefit, bankrupting the country will allow for "emergency" Presidential powers.

Stalin would have been proud of his little student.

Our President, the Marxist

Yah, that's what he is, if one is sagacious enough to judge by the company he kept--and continues to keep.

There was a play about Alinsky put on in Chicago.  The Marxist-in-Chief was one of the panel-members who discussed Alinsky and the play afterwords.

Who else was a panel-member?

Leon Despres: Despres knew Saul Alinsky for nearly 50 years, and together they established the modern concept of “community organizing.” Despres worked with secret Communist and Soviet spy Lee Pressman to support strikers at Republic Steel in Chicago in 1937...

Quentin Young: From 1970 until at least 1992, Quentin Young was active in the Communist Party front organization, the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights...

Timuel Black: An icon of the Chicago left, Black was originally denied officer training because military intelligence claimed he had secretly joined the Communist Party. Black also worked closely with the Socialist Party in the 1950s...

Roberta Lynch: A leading member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and a leader of the radical Marxist New American Movement (NAM)...

....and Studs Terkel, generously described as a running dog.

That's only the beginning of the Saga of Barack Hussein Obama.

The Elite Kills More Jobs

No surprise here:

The state Senate voted Tuesday to reject the latest version of mining legislation, prompting a company that planned a mine in northern Wisocnsin to announce it is pulling the plug on the project.

The Senate voted 17-16 with GOP Sen. Dale Schultz joining all 16 Dems in rejecting the Joint Finance Committee's substitute amendment...

Those ~2400 jobs weren't "high tech," nor AFSCME, nor teachers, nor in Madistan.

So who needed them, anyway?

Nobody important.

Go Ahead. Make My Day.

The price of following your conscience is high – especially if you resist the mandate to furnish your employees with reproductive products and services that violate your religious beliefs. According to a report released by the Congressional Research Service,  religious institutions that fail to provide abortifacient drugs to their employees could be fined $100 a day for each of its employees --LifeSite News

I don't think that Sibelius or the Twit-in-Chief has the balls to try it.

Primary the Bastard RINOs!

I'm thinking of Dale Schulz, the anti-job twit/Left-o-dweeb in the State Senate. 

Here's what could happen to him:

...the biggest news of the night is outside the confines of the presidential election.  In OH-2, Representative Jean Schmidt was defeated in a stunning upset by conservative challenger Brad Wenstrup.  She is the first of those who voted for the debt ceiling deal to go down in a primary.--RedState

Just primary the bastards.  Make them find a real job someplace.

Obama to Democrats: "Too Bad. Raise Your OWN Money."

Seems that the current occupant has troubles of his own.

Democratic congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have privately sought as much as $30 million combined from Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee — a replay of the financial help they received from Obama in 2008 and 2010.

But that’s not going to happen, top Obama aides Jim Messina and David Plouffe told Reid and Pelosi in back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill on Thursday  --RedStates quoting Politico

Couldn't happen to nicer people.