We finally have Big Brother!
In the name of "national security," NSA collects all the phone calls and emails, and ObozoCare will be collecting all your medical information.
To complete the trifecta, another agency (not subject to Congressional budgeting) will be collecting all your financial and demographic data if you've had a mortgage at any time in the last 16 years.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice
of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to
include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a
reversal of previously stated policy.
But that's not all.
... under the April register notice, the
database expansion means it will include a host of data points,
including a mortgage owner’s name, address, Social Security number, all
credit card and other loan information and account balances.
The database will also encompass a mortgage holder’s entire credit
history, including delinquent payments, late payments, minimum payments,
high account balances and credit scores, according to the notice.
The two agencies will also assemble “household demographic data,”
including racial and ethnic data, gender, marital status, religion,
education, employment history, military status, household composition,
the number of wage earners and a family’s total wealth and assets.
So, comrade, all that remains is for Big Government to monitor every word you say to anyone, at any time, in any place.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
What Epic Systems REALLY Does: Spy on You!
If you're not living in a cave, you know that ObozoCare is a gold-mine for IT systems providers, especially if they have current installations in hospitals and clinics. You also know that people who know what the system-requirements are going to be will do very well, indeed, when the bids are let.
So yah, Epic Systems had a large installed base in health-care institutions, and yah, their CEO was in Obozo's office quite a few times before the "law of the land" was cast in stone.
Humdrum, right? Crony capitalism is not new.
Well, some of this crony-ism IS new, and you won't like it.
A very broad government biosurveillance plan that makes your health records a matter of “national security” showed up on my radar today. It opens the door leading to the government having near-real-time access to monitor your health....the reason we might not have heard much about this “sneaky biosurveillance plan that will track American’s health records” is because the 50-page departmental draft (pdf) states, “Do not cite or quote.”
Hmmmm.
It’s regarded as national security, meaning in the same way NSA surveillance was a secret until the Snowden leaks, you won’t even know how your health is being spied upon and shared with others. The 2015-2018 National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) (pdf) will keep track of and share information about not just sick people and sick animals, but even sick plants.
“The information collected by the government will be ‘all-encompassing’ and include ‘what our health status is, whether we exercise, how often we get a cold, or what kind of medications we’re taking,” according to the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).
And how do you s'pose it will be tracked? Epic Systems' software.
“Officials want a ‘near-real-time’ reporting requirement for electronic data systems. What is a ‘health threat’ or ‘incident’ that could jeopardize our ‘national health security?’ The Strategy says these could include terrorist activities, antibiotic resistance, climate change or subjects surrounding the economic environment. In other words, anything and everything could become a health threat by the government’s standards.”
So. What, exactly, will be tracked by the Ruling Class?
...The draft proposal (pdf) claims NHSS will create “health situational awareness” made up from “many types of health-related and non-health-related data.” A graphic illustration of inputs to health situational awareness includes: non-health sources like informatics, supply chain, energy, environment, event driven, media, social determinants, transportation services, active intelligence and veterinary. Examples of health-related sources include: morbidity and mortality, lab/diagnostics, social service utilization, disease prevalence, health service utilization, public health investigation and response asset data. All of the above are merely part of the big picture, or “examples” of what data feeds into the “biosurveillance” portion of public health and medical situational awareness.
And what does the Ruling Class call this?
...Brase warns that the “government’s biosurveillance plan is much more intrusive than the data collection currently being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” It “talks about the need for the ‘examination of data from electronic medical records’ and calls for ‘cooperation among federal and non-federal stakeholders, including the scientific community and public and private healthcare providers ... to achieve an efficient and reliable surveillance system.”
But the (R) Party doesn't want to repeal ObozoCare. They want to "fix" it, instead.
You can bet that the 'efficient and reliable surveillance system' will not be "fixed.', folks.
So yah, Epic Systems had a large installed base in health-care institutions, and yah, their CEO was in Obozo's office quite a few times before the "law of the land" was cast in stone.
Humdrum, right? Crony capitalism is not new.
Well, some of this crony-ism IS new, and you won't like it.
A very broad government biosurveillance plan that makes your health records a matter of “national security” showed up on my radar today. It opens the door leading to the government having near-real-time access to monitor your health....the reason we might not have heard much about this “sneaky biosurveillance plan that will track American’s health records” is because the 50-page departmental draft (pdf) states, “Do not cite or quote.”
Hmmmm.
It’s regarded as national security, meaning in the same way NSA surveillance was a secret until the Snowden leaks, you won’t even know how your health is being spied upon and shared with others. The 2015-2018 National Health Security Strategy (NHSS) (pdf) will keep track of and share information about not just sick people and sick animals, but even sick plants.
“The information collected by the government will be ‘all-encompassing’ and include ‘what our health status is, whether we exercise, how often we get a cold, or what kind of medications we’re taking,” according to the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).
And how do you s'pose it will be tracked? Epic Systems' software.
“Officials want a ‘near-real-time’ reporting requirement for electronic data systems. What is a ‘health threat’ or ‘incident’ that could jeopardize our ‘national health security?’ The Strategy says these could include terrorist activities, antibiotic resistance, climate change or subjects surrounding the economic environment. In other words, anything and everything could become a health threat by the government’s standards.”
So. What, exactly, will be tracked by the Ruling Class?
...The draft proposal (pdf) claims NHSS will create “health situational awareness” made up from “many types of health-related and non-health-related data.” A graphic illustration of inputs to health situational awareness includes: non-health sources like informatics, supply chain, energy, environment, event driven, media, social determinants, transportation services, active intelligence and veterinary. Examples of health-related sources include: morbidity and mortality, lab/diagnostics, social service utilization, disease prevalence, health service utilization, public health investigation and response asset data. All of the above are merely part of the big picture, or “examples” of what data feeds into the “biosurveillance” portion of public health and medical situational awareness.
And what does the Ruling Class call this?
...Brase warns that the “government’s biosurveillance plan is much more intrusive than the data collection currently being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” It “talks about the need for the ‘examination of data from electronic medical records’ and calls for ‘cooperation among federal and non-federal stakeholders, including the scientific community and public and private healthcare providers ... to achieve an efficient and reliable surveillance system.”
But the (R) Party doesn't want to repeal ObozoCare. They want to "fix" it, instead.
You can bet that the 'efficient and reliable surveillance system' will not be "fixed.', folks.
The Real Perps in Milwaukee
Couldn't have said it better.
Of particular interest: Chisholm, the politically craven cluck, and DiMotto, who's even dumber.
HT: The Invaluable Sykes & Co.
Of particular interest: Chisholm, the politically craven cluck, and DiMotto, who's even dumber.
HT: The Invaluable Sykes & Co.
The Big Boys Got What They Wanted, and....
....it bit them in the ass. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch, either.
Corporate America was an early supporter of Obamacare, because CEOs thought they could “game the system” by dumping their sickest workers onto state and federal healthcare exchanges that are often subsidized by taxpayers. But in an unexpected financially important ruling, the Internal Revenue Service just notifed employers they will be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual exchange....
The Business Roundtable boyzzzz were perfectly happy to dump their obligations onto taxpayers.
Too bad.
Corporate America was an early supporter of Obamacare, because CEOs thought they could “game the system” by dumping their sickest workers onto state and federal healthcare exchanges that are often subsidized by taxpayers. But in an unexpected financially important ruling, the Internal Revenue Service just notifed employers they will be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual exchange....
The Business Roundtable boyzzzz were perfectly happy to dump their obligations onto taxpayers.
Too bad.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Walker to "Settle"? It Fits
Apparently Scott Walker wants to "settle" with the John Doe kleagles. While much remains to be learned about this "settlement," the legal beagle for the targets of the Doe is very unhappy.
...David B. Rivkin Jr., lead attorney for Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, who are taking on the John Doe prosecutors in a civil rights lawsuit, had much to say on the reported potential deal — and the environment in which it may be created.
...David B. Rivkin Jr., lead attorney for Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, who are taking on the John Doe prosecutors in a civil rights lawsuit, had much to say on the reported potential deal — and the environment in which it may be created.
Rivkin takes aim at the notion by the left and the prosecutors
pushing the probe that Walker’s campaign and the reported 29
conservative groups targeted in the investigation have illegally
coordinated.
"Self-appointed campaign-finance 'watchdogs’ act as if the
Wisconsin Club for Growth is a proxy for the Walker campaign. They and
the John Doe prosecutors assume issue advocacy groups are in cahoots
with candidates whose policies they may support and, for that reason,
those groups’ speech may be regulated by the government and even subject
to criminal penalties. But reporting in today’s Wall Street Journal
explodes that myth," Rivkin wrote in a statement issued to Wisconsin
Reporter....
We mentioned earlier that Capitol rumors have it that Walker quashed the pro-life bills in the State Senate (i.e., he told Fitzgerald to shut them down) for his own political purposes.
Principles, schminciples. We have an election to worry about!
Like I Said: Buy More Ammo!
In these days, it came to pass that the Emperor got worried.
A 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration’s potential use of military force against Americans.
... Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.”
“Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority,” the directive states.
“In these circumstances, those federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” under two conditions.
The conditions include military support needed “to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order.” A second use is when federal, state and local authorities “are unable or decline to provide adequate protection for federal property or federal governmental functions.”
Hmmmm. 'State authorities....decline to provide adequate protection for [the Feds]'? WHY would THAT happen, eh?
Oh, I know!! I know!!
....A U.S. official said the Obama administration considered but rejected deploying military force under the directive during the recent standoff with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his armed supporters....
Yes, there's more. PajamaBoy President needs a large Palace Guard, ya'know:
Defense analysts say there has been a buildup of military units within non-security-related federal agencies, notably the creation of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. The buildup has raised questions about whether the Obama administration is undermining civil liberties under the guise of counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts.
Other agencies with SWAT teams reportedly include the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Education Department.
Ag SWAT for Killer Chickens, OPM SWAT for ???, CPSC SWAT for Drug-Crazed Davenports, Ed SWAT for Killer Kindergartners. Ya' never know when the little bastards will haul out their SuperSoakers to attack the Fed Ed 'crats.
Right?
Or, as we're reminded by ColdFury, that Manufacturing Rebellion is just around the corner.
HT: Zippers
A 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration’s potential use of military force against Americans.
... Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.”
“Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority,” the directive states.
“In these circumstances, those federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” under two conditions.
The conditions include military support needed “to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order.” A second use is when federal, state and local authorities “are unable or decline to provide adequate protection for federal property or federal governmental functions.”
Hmmmm. 'State authorities....decline to provide adequate protection for [the Feds]'? WHY would THAT happen, eh?
Oh, I know!! I know!!
....A U.S. official said the Obama administration considered but rejected deploying military force under the directive during the recent standoff with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his armed supporters....
Yes, there's more. PajamaBoy President needs a large Palace Guard, ya'know:
Defense analysts say there has been a buildup of military units within non-security-related federal agencies, notably the creation of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. The buildup has raised questions about whether the Obama administration is undermining civil liberties under the guise of counterterrorism and counternarcotics efforts.
Other agencies with SWAT teams reportedly include the Department of Agriculture, the Railroad Retirement Board, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Education Department.
Ag SWAT for Killer Chickens, OPM SWAT for ???, CPSC SWAT for Drug-Crazed Davenports, Ed SWAT for Killer Kindergartners. Ya' never know when the little bastards will haul out their SuperSoakers to attack the Fed Ed 'crats.
Right?
Or, as we're reminded by ColdFury, that Manufacturing Rebellion is just around the corner.
HT: Zippers
Monday, May 26, 2014
One Shooter Nabbed; Courts Indicted
The Milwaukee cops nabbed one of the two shooters who shot a 10-y-o girl at a playground.
..Flynn said the 18-year-old man they have in custody has been arrested by Milwaukee police 15 times previously and was on probation. ...
The criminal justice system, hard at work for you!!
..Flynn said the 18-year-old man they have in custody has been arrested by Milwaukee police 15 times previously and was on probation. ...
The criminal justice system, hard at work for you!!
The Unfathomable Stupidity of Obozo & Co.
I suppose that it's "unfathomable stupidity" rather than intentional mayhem against the Republic.
Right?
Right?
Santa Barbara: Koch Brothers!!
Harry Reid will tell us that the Santa Barbara murders were caused by the Koch Brothers.
Al Gore will assign blame to Climate Change.
Our DipsyDoodle President will mention immigration policy.
Al Gore will assign blame to Climate Change.
Our DipsyDoodle President will mention immigration policy.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Image Is All
Apparently the (D) (short for duhhh) party is pushing a new image for Obozo.
Here's the one I think fits best:
Yup. Excellent representation of the subject, with complete fidelity, too!!
HT: PJMedia
Here's the one I think fits best:
Yup. Excellent representation of the subject, with complete fidelity, too!!
HT: PJMedia
Buy More Ammo, With CASH Only
GWBush initiative (Operation SWIFT) becomes Obozo/Holder dream scenario.
In June 2006, the New York Times, over strident pleas not to from the Bush 43 administration, published details of how counterterrorism officials were “tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry.” According to the administration, the program had “helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia.” Other outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, which were apparently on the brink of breaking what the Times reported first, also chipped in with their own supplements. The stories received prominent network TV coverage, and reinforced the image of the Bush administration as secretive and far less than transparent....
Well, yah--because as far as the GWB ops went, 'secretive' was--arguably--a national security imperative.
But just like with the "Patriot Act", good intentions are easily corrupted, especially when corrupt people are regnant. Not by co-incidence, sloppy Congressional law-writing in combination with the Congressional habit of turning all decisionmaking over to the Agencies and Bureaus will invariably result in Bad Things--specifically, Totalitarianism.
...why has the press been barely interested in a far more troubling development, namely Eric Holder’s U.S. Department of Justice using pressure on the financial system to conduct “a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law,” which has been going on for at least a year? Welcome to “Operation Choke Point.”
The Press never got off its knees in the last 6 years, that's why.
(Quoting American Banker):
On March 20, 2013, federal prosecutor Michael Bresnick gave a little-noticed speech to the Exchequer Club in Washington in which he said that that (the) Justice Department planned to crack down on banks that allowed online scammers to access the payments system. “Sadly, what we’ve seen is that too many banks allow payment processors to continue to maintain accounts within their institutions, despite the presence of glaring red flags indicative of fraud,” said Bresnick,
So far, not all bad. 'Scammers' are evil, right? Your Granny (and your kids) can be ripped off.
...In recent months, Operation Choke Point has increasingly become a political football. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder in January, requesting a slew of documents and suggesting that the probe was a veiled effort to eliminate even legal online lending. Around the same time, an anonymous online campaign, “Stop the Choke,” sought to persuade conservative lawmakers to attack Justice’s investigation. Then in February, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and 12 other congressional Democrats wrote to Holder urging the Justice Department not to cave in the face of Republican opposition....
DOJ is essentially employing a variant of the tactics former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer used against mutual fund companies last decade: threatening to smear them in the business community and otherwise make their lives miserable unless they settle....
Yah. So?
...There are two problems with this position....
The first is that DOJ doesn’t have the constitutional authority to go after businesses whose illegality has not been established by threatening their bank and financial services providers with legal sanctions and regulatory harassment if they don’t participate in the persecution. There are these things called laws which must be passed to declare certain financial practices and contracts illegal. That hasn’t happened. Short of that, there at least need to be court rulings having the same effect. There is apparently no evidence that DOJ has involved the courts at all.
Yup. This is now. Granted, "the law" never had a close nexus with Obozism/Holderism. And sure enough, when corrupt people get their hands on 'good intentions,' things go directly to Totalitarianism.
(Now quoting Cryptocoin, with link to FDIC website embedded.)
The DOJ is targeting 30 high-risk industries, as labeled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2011, in a report titled “Managing Risks in Third-Party Payment Processor Relationships.”
The FDIC’s list of 30 high-risk merchant categories that are currently being pursued by the DOJ.
Now quoting "Techdirt":
Let’s not mince words: a program that was built upon the goals of stopping financial fraud has devolved into a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law. … The intention of the government, it would seem, is to make the banks unwilling to deal with the government harassment and simply cut anyone in those industries off from the financial institutions. Nobody is happy about this....
The federal government is lording over legal industries operating within their respective states’ laws and single-handedly directing banking institutions to cut their legs out from beneath them. … It represents a violation of a free and legal marketplace by a government that has as much moral authority as can fit in a thimble.
… This should be terrifying to business owners in every industry. Sure, this time they’re going after some companies that you may not like, be they porn, or payday lenders, or people making racist materials, tobacco, or fireworks. But if those industries are operating within the law, they have the right to exist. The law is the only measure by which the DOJ should be invoking banking policy....
It's not a stretch to say that within 2 years, you will be paying cash-only for guns and ammo--assuming you can find a retailer that's still operating.
So who gives a s*&^ about the Second Amendment (or the Fourth, or Fifth)? Not Obozo/Holder.
In June 2006, the New York Times, over strident pleas not to from the Bush 43 administration, published details of how counterterrorism officials were “tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry.” According to the administration, the program had “helped in the capture of the most wanted Qaeda figure in Southeast Asia.” Other outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, which were apparently on the brink of breaking what the Times reported first, also chipped in with their own supplements. The stories received prominent network TV coverage, and reinforced the image of the Bush administration as secretive and far less than transparent....
Well, yah--because as far as the GWB ops went, 'secretive' was--arguably--a national security imperative.
But just like with the "Patriot Act", good intentions are easily corrupted, especially when corrupt people are regnant. Not by co-incidence, sloppy Congressional law-writing in combination with the Congressional habit of turning all decisionmaking over to the Agencies and Bureaus will invariably result in Bad Things--specifically, Totalitarianism.
...why has the press been barely interested in a far more troubling development, namely Eric Holder’s U.S. Department of Justice using pressure on the financial system to conduct “a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law,” which has been going on for at least a year? Welcome to “Operation Choke Point.”
The Press never got off its knees in the last 6 years, that's why.
(Quoting American Banker):
On March 20, 2013, federal prosecutor Michael Bresnick gave a little-noticed speech to the Exchequer Club in Washington in which he said that that (the) Justice Department planned to crack down on banks that allowed online scammers to access the payments system. “Sadly, what we’ve seen is that too many banks allow payment processors to continue to maintain accounts within their institutions, despite the presence of glaring red flags indicative of fraud,” said Bresnick,
So far, not all bad. 'Scammers' are evil, right? Your Granny (and your kids) can be ripped off.
...In recent months, Operation Choke Point has increasingly become a political football. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder in January, requesting a slew of documents and suggesting that the probe was a veiled effort to eliminate even legal online lending. Around the same time, an anonymous online campaign, “Stop the Choke,” sought to persuade conservative lawmakers to attack Justice’s investigation. Then in February, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and 12 other congressional Democrats wrote to Holder urging the Justice Department not to cave in the face of Republican opposition....
DOJ is essentially employing a variant of the tactics former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer used against mutual fund companies last decade: threatening to smear them in the business community and otherwise make their lives miserable unless they settle....
Yah. So?
...There are two problems with this position....
The first is that DOJ doesn’t have the constitutional authority to go after businesses whose illegality has not been established by threatening their bank and financial services providers with legal sanctions and regulatory harassment if they don’t participate in the persecution. There are these things called laws which must be passed to declare certain financial practices and contracts illegal. That hasn’t happened. Short of that, there at least need to be court rulings having the same effect. There is apparently no evidence that DOJ has involved the courts at all.
Yup. This is now. Granted, "the law" never had a close nexus with Obozism/Holderism. And sure enough, when corrupt people get their hands on 'good intentions,' things go directly to Totalitarianism.
(Now quoting Cryptocoin, with link to FDIC website embedded.)
The DOJ is targeting 30 high-risk industries, as labeled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2011, in a report titled “Managing Risks in Third-Party Payment Processor Relationships.”
The FDIC’s list of 30 high-risk merchant categories that are currently being pursued by the DOJ.
Ammunition SalesThe red-highlighted items are not necessarily "illegal" businesses. Some may be extremely distasteful, some are abusive, and certainly, every one of the operations on this list (red OR blue) could be run by criminals. But that's not the point.
Cable Box De-scramblers
Coin Dealers
Credit Card Schemes
Credit Repair Services
Dating Services
Debt Consolidation Scams
Drug Paraphernalia
Escort Services
Firearms Sales
Fireworks Sales
Get Rich Products
Government Grants
Home-Based Charities
Life-Time Guarantees
Life-Time Memberships
Lottery Sales
Mailing Lists/Personal Info
Money Transfer Networks
On-line Gambling
PayDay Loans
Pharmaceutical Sales
Ponzi Schemes
Pornography
Pyramid-Type Sales
Racist Materials
Surveillance Equipment
Telemarketing
Tobacco Sales
Travel Clubs
Now quoting "Techdirt":
Let’s not mince words: a program that was built upon the goals of stopping financial fraud has devolved into a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law. … The intention of the government, it would seem, is to make the banks unwilling to deal with the government harassment and simply cut anyone in those industries off from the financial institutions. Nobody is happy about this....
The federal government is lording over legal industries operating within their respective states’ laws and single-handedly directing banking institutions to cut their legs out from beneath them. … It represents a violation of a free and legal marketplace by a government that has as much moral authority as can fit in a thimble.
… This should be terrifying to business owners in every industry. Sure, this time they’re going after some companies that you may not like, be they porn, or payday lenders, or people making racist materials, tobacco, or fireworks. But if those industries are operating within the law, they have the right to exist. The law is the only measure by which the DOJ should be invoking banking policy....
It's not a stretch to say that within 2 years, you will be paying cash-only for guns and ammo--assuming you can find a retailer that's still operating.
So who gives a s*&^ about the Second Amendment (or the Fourth, or Fifth)? Not Obozo/Holder.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Sensenbrenner Brags, NSA Rejoices
Jim Sensenbrenner is bragging that his USA FREEDOM act passed.
Justin Amash, who had originally co-sponsored the act, voted against it. Why?
“This morning's bill maintains and codifies a large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying program,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page. “It claims to end ‘bulk collection' of Americans' data only in a very technical sense: The bill prohibits the government from, for example, ordering a telephone company to turn over all its call records every day.”
... For example, the government could order AT&T to turn over all phone records for a particular area code or for “phone calls made east of the Mississippi,” according to Amash.
The current bill also extends the Patriot Act’s controversial section 215, which allows for the bulk collection of data, until 2017. The original bill expired that section in 2015.
In other words, Jim Sensenbrenner--who wrote the Patriot Act that was "mis-used" by NSA--wrote another bill which doesn't really stop NSA surveillance of US citizens.
Jim kinda likes the Gummint, ya' know. He's lived on it for a long, long, long, long, long, time.
Justin Amash, who had originally co-sponsored the act, voted against it. Why?
“This morning's bill maintains and codifies a large-scale, unconstitutional domestic spying program,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page. “It claims to end ‘bulk collection' of Americans' data only in a very technical sense: The bill prohibits the government from, for example, ordering a telephone company to turn over all its call records every day.”
... For example, the government could order AT&T to turn over all phone records for a particular area code or for “phone calls made east of the Mississippi,” according to Amash.
The current bill also extends the Patriot Act’s controversial section 215, which allows for the bulk collection of data, until 2017. The original bill expired that section in 2015.
In other words, Jim Sensenbrenner--who wrote the Patriot Act that was "mis-used" by NSA--wrote another bill which doesn't really stop NSA surveillance of US citizens.
Jim kinda likes the Gummint, ya' know. He's lived on it for a long, long, long, long, long, time.
What Abp. Listecki SHOULD Be Prioritizing
The Archbishop of Milwaukee has been busy attempting to resolve the bankruptcy case precipitated by two of his predecessors (Weakland and Cousins). He's also been busy attempting to silence the growing dissent over his apparatchik's ramming Common Core into the Archdiocesan schools.
Prioritizing the former is appropriate but secondary. Prioritizing the latter is silly at best, and threatens the unity of the Church, especially with the incendiary and borderline-slanderous flapjaw of his designated mouthpiece on the matter.
What should the Archbishop be prioritizing? Exactly what the Second Vatican Council (in several documents) described as "the source and summit" of Catholic life: the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Specifically, the Archbishop should be focusing on the clear and continuous teachings and regulations concerning that 'source and summit', particularly the music therein.
(Perhaps it's just co-incidence, but the mouthpiece above has openly bragged at least twice that he's not a liturgical "fusspot." Apparently he's only a "fusspot" when it comes to demanding that the Faithful shut up and obey about Common Core. Other "fusspotting"--say, about the 'source and summit'--well, that's just silly. A waste of breath, time, and his intellectual superiority.)
Uh-huh.
Let's begin with a takeoff on the thinking of Marshall McLuhan, who happens to be Catholic. Recall his famous dictum that "the medium is the message" here utilized in an essay in Patheos:
“The music of the Mass is made similar to the
music of our culture. The demeanor of the Mass is made similar to the
“Christian services” of our culture. The clothing we wear to Mass is made
similar to our everyday clothing. The posture, structure, language,
architecture, the position of priest to people — all this, and nearly anything
that can be presented in a mode of similarity is thus presented. And, in a
sense, it works. People come. But what does the mode of similarity do to the
way in which people encounter the Mass? What does the mode do to the message?
Indeed. One does not go to the tavern to hear sacred music. What on earth possesses diocesan priests who want their flocks in the church to hear variations on "Evita" and/or third-rate Elton John tunesmithing from Haugen, et.al., dressed up with 'hymn-language'?
The good news for Abp. Listecki is this: another US Bishop has written a clear and concise document on the matter. H.E. Listecki could re-publish it and tell his priests that he expects them to....ahhh....shut up and obey. (Of course, he might then be called a "fusspot", as is--apparently--the Bishop of Phoenix.)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1157) makes a direct reference to St. Augustine’s experience when it teaches that the music and song of the liturgy “participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.”
The
Council’s enthusiastic rediscovery and promotion of sacred music was not meant
to discourage “religious” music but rather to encourage it — assuming the clear distinction and proper
relationship between them.
Priorities, Your Excellency.
Prioritizing the former is appropriate but secondary. Prioritizing the latter is silly at best, and threatens the unity of the Church, especially with the incendiary and borderline-slanderous flapjaw of his designated mouthpiece on the matter.
What should the Archbishop be prioritizing? Exactly what the Second Vatican Council (in several documents) described as "the source and summit" of Catholic life: the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Specifically, the Archbishop should be focusing on the clear and continuous teachings and regulations concerning that 'source and summit', particularly the music therein.
(Perhaps it's just co-incidence, but the mouthpiece above has openly bragged at least twice that he's not a liturgical "fusspot." Apparently he's only a "fusspot" when it comes to demanding that the Faithful shut up and obey about Common Core. Other "fusspotting"--say, about the 'source and summit'--well, that's just silly. A waste of breath, time, and his intellectual superiority.)
Uh-huh.
Let's begin with a takeoff on the thinking of Marshall McLuhan, who happens to be Catholic. Recall his famous dictum that "the medium is the message" here utilized in an essay in Patheos:
“This possibility of undoing the message by the mode in
which you yodel gains special importance with respect to the Divine Liturgy.
Catholics have, for the past 60 years or so, tended towards presenting the
Divine Liturgy in a mode of similarity. We want to “get people to come,”
and so we strive to make our liturgies similar to other experiences, to provide
that condition by which someone may enter comfortably into its presence, as I
am comfortable to be in the presence of someone I already know, comfortable to
engage a conversation with people who have similar interests, similar views.
Indeed. One does not go to the tavern to hear sacred music. What on earth possesses diocesan priests who want their flocks in the church to hear variations on "Evita" and/or third-rate Elton John tunesmithing from Haugen, et.al., dressed up with 'hymn-language'?
The good news for Abp. Listecki is this: another US Bishop has written a clear and concise document on the matter. H.E. Listecki could re-publish it and tell his priests that he expects them to....ahhh....shut up and obey. (Of course, he might then be called a "fusspot", as is--apparently--the Bishop of Phoenix.)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1157) makes a direct reference to St. Augustine’s experience when it teaches that the music and song of the liturgy “participate in the purpose of the liturgical words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.”
The Mass itself is a song; it is meant to be sung. Recall
that the Gospels only tell us of one time when Jesus sings: when he institutes
the Holy Eucharist (Cf. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26). We should not be surprised, then,
that Christ sings when he institutes the sacramentum
caritatis (the Sacrament of love), and that for the vast majority of the
past 2,000 years, the various parts of the Mass have been sung by priests and
lay faithful. In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council strongly encouraged a
rediscovery of the ancient concept of singing the Mass: “[The musical tradition
of the universal Church] forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy”
(Sacrosanctum Concilium,112). The Mass
is most itself when it is sung.
This recent rediscovery of “singing the Mass” did not begin with the Second Vatican Council.
Following a movement that stretches back at least to Pope Saint Pius X in 1903,
Pope Pius XII wrote in 1955, “The dignity and lofty purpose of sacred music
consists in the fact that its lovely melodies and splendor beautify and
embellish the voices of the priest who offers Mass and of the Christian people
who praise the Sovereign God” (Musicae Sacrae Disciplina, #31).
Sacred music is distinct from the broader category of what
we may call “religious” music, that which aids and supports Christian faith but
is not primarily a part of the sacred liturgy. “Religious” music includes
various devotional music, such as much popular hymnody, “praise and worship”
music, as well as a host of other musical forms.
Sacred music is, in the narrowest sense, that music created
to support, elevate, and better express the
words and actions of the sacred liturgy. The Council praises it as music
“closely connected…with the liturgical action” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112),
for example, the Order of Mass (dialogues between ministers and people, the
unchanging framework of the Mass), the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, The
Creed, Sanctus and Agnus Dei), and the Proper of the Mass (the priest’s sung
prayers, the Responsorial Psalm, Alleluia and Verses, the antiphons and psalms
prescribed for the processions [specifically, the Introit, Offertory, and
Communion processions]).
Sacred music is distinct from the
broader category of what we may call “religious” music, that which aids and
supports Christian faith but is not primarily a part of the sacred liturgy.
“Religious” music includes various devotional music such as much popular
hymnody, “praise and worship” music, as well as a host of other musical forms.
Priorities, Your Excellency.
VA Problems? It's "Da Union."
Responding to the VA scandal, the House passed a bill which would dminish Da Union's power to negate firing of Da Union's members.
It's not hard to tell who is on Da Union's side here. 33 (D) Congress-slimes voted against it.
...House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and House Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), all voted in opposition. All 33 votes against the measure came from Democrats....
There's an interesting history here.
...President Carter's biggest domestic policy achievement was winning passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 that included several desperately needed changes in the federal bureaucracy.
The most important of those changes was creation of the Senior Executive Service, the highest level of career managers, and the Merit Pay program for federal middle managers.
Both the SES and Merit Pay managers were put under a Pay-for-Performance system and could be more easily disciplined, transferred or removed entirely from the civil service than before.
Of all people! Carter!!
But that didn't last too long. The Hildebeeste's hubby un-did that.
...the Clinton administration gave the employee unions significantly more power, the Bush administration ignored civil service issues and the Obama administration consolidated union power and privileges in the federal workplace....
The Examiner's item points out that the bill will have repercussions which go far beyond VA--which is why Da Union is going to do everything in its considerable power to block the legislation in the Senate.
In Wisconsin, we are well-aware of Da Union's (former) ability to suck the taxpayer dry. We are also aware that all it takes to slap Da Union into the next galaxy is the Tea Party.
It's not hard to tell who is on Da Union's side here. 33 (D) Congress-slimes voted against it.
...House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and House Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), all voted in opposition. All 33 votes against the measure came from Democrats....
There's an interesting history here.
...President Carter's biggest domestic policy achievement was winning passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 that included several desperately needed changes in the federal bureaucracy.
The most important of those changes was creation of the Senior Executive Service, the highest level of career managers, and the Merit Pay program for federal middle managers.
Both the SES and Merit Pay managers were put under a Pay-for-Performance system and could be more easily disciplined, transferred or removed entirely from the civil service than before.
Of all people! Carter!!
But that didn't last too long. The Hildebeeste's hubby un-did that.
...the Clinton administration gave the employee unions significantly more power, the Bush administration ignored civil service issues and the Obama administration consolidated union power and privileges in the federal workplace....
The Examiner's item points out that the bill will have repercussions which go far beyond VA--which is why Da Union is going to do everything in its considerable power to block the legislation in the Senate.
In Wisconsin, we are well-aware of Da Union's (former) ability to suck the taxpayer dry. We are also aware that all it takes to slap Da Union into the next galaxy is the Tea Party.
The Pope: "Homosexual Marriage Is Contrary to Nature"
There's a reason that the homosex-marriage people frame the argument as one of 'religion.' It's because 'religion' (and truth) has been relative-ized in what remains of Western culture.
St. John Paul II saw that, as did Benedict XVI; JPII therefore argued from truth in his theology of the body; Benedict, on the other hand, argued against 'the culture of relativism.'
Pope Francis argues from nature, as did JPII.
...the Pope has rejected the idea of same-sex marriage as an “anthropological regression” and stressed that when it comes to adoption, “every person needs a male father and a female mother.”
Pope Francis explained his views on these hot-button issues in his book, On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century, which he co-wrote with Rabbi Abraham Skorka in 2010 and which was republished after the then-Argentine cardinal was elected to the papacy in March 2013.
The book is a dialogue between Skorka and the future Pope and includes a chapter on same-sex marriage, which is where the pontiff also talks about adoption.
Looks like Pope Francis will not again grace the cover of Time Maga-rag, eh?
Skorka first explains that Judaism “prohibits sexual relations between two men” and then expresses worry about how a proposed gay-marriage law in Argentina could change “the core values of our society.”
Pope Francis (then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) says, “I have the exact same opinion; in order to define it I would use the expression ‘anthropologic regression,’ a weakening of the [marriage] institution that is thousands of years old and that was forged according to nature and anthropology.”
It's not only Jews and Catholics, of course. There is NO civilization on the face of the Earth which endorses homosexual "marriage." (And for those of you who argue that black-robed lawyers represent 'civilization,' let's remember Dred Scott and Roe.)
In the end, Francis, JPII, and Benedict all argued from "what is", the epistemology of truth. "What is" also is the essential of nature. It's why rain falls down, not up.
But none are so blind as those who will not see; another Jewish/Catholic maxim which just so happens to be true, and conforms with nature.
St. John Paul II saw that, as did Benedict XVI; JPII therefore argued from truth in his theology of the body; Benedict, on the other hand, argued against 'the culture of relativism.'
Pope Francis argues from nature, as did JPII.
...the Pope has rejected the idea of same-sex marriage as an “anthropological regression” and stressed that when it comes to adoption, “every person needs a male father and a female mother.”
Pope Francis explained his views on these hot-button issues in his book, On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century, which he co-wrote with Rabbi Abraham Skorka in 2010 and which was republished after the then-Argentine cardinal was elected to the papacy in March 2013.
The book is a dialogue between Skorka and the future Pope and includes a chapter on same-sex marriage, which is where the pontiff also talks about adoption.
Looks like Pope Francis will not again grace the cover of Time Maga-rag, eh?
Skorka first explains that Judaism “prohibits sexual relations between two men” and then expresses worry about how a proposed gay-marriage law in Argentina could change “the core values of our society.”
Pope Francis (then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) says, “I have the exact same opinion; in order to define it I would use the expression ‘anthropologic regression,’ a weakening of the [marriage] institution that is thousands of years old and that was forged according to nature and anthropology.”
It's not only Jews and Catholics, of course. There is NO civilization on the face of the Earth which endorses homosexual "marriage." (And for those of you who argue that black-robed lawyers represent 'civilization,' let's remember Dred Scott and Roe.)
In the end, Francis, JPII, and Benedict all argued from "what is", the epistemology of truth. "What is" also is the essential of nature. It's why rain falls down, not up.
But none are so blind as those who will not see; another Jewish/Catholic maxim which just so happens to be true, and conforms with nature.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Doctor/Patient Confidences? Not in Obozo's America
Noted by Ticker, from CNS News:
The federal government is piecing together a sweeping national “biosurveillance” system that will give bureaucrats near real-time access to Americans’ private medical information in the name of national security, according to Twila Brase, a public health nurse and co-founder of the Citizens Council for Health Freedom.
Sure. It's "national security" whether you have hemorrhoids in ObozoLand.
The federal government is piecing together a sweeping national “biosurveillance” system that will give bureaucrats near real-time access to Americans’ private medical information in the name of national security, according to Twila Brase, a public health nurse and co-founder of the Citizens Council for Health Freedom.
Sure. It's "national security" whether you have hemorrhoids in ObozoLand.
Monday, May 19, 2014
The Business Model of the Abortion Industry
Anyone who saw the "sex-ed" curricula rammed into Wisconsin schools back in the '70's/'80's knew what the results would be. Now comes the admission from an ex-Planned Parenthood Abortion Revenue employee.
The business model is simple: 1) Get 'em while they're young, 2) establish trust, and 3) sell them the "service". Cha-Ching!! You've monetized!!
...Public school sexual education programs run by pro-choice groups “break down the natural modesty (of students), they separate them from their parents and their values … and they eventually give them low-dose birth control pills they know they’ll get pregnant on,” Everett told Progressives Today.
...many parents don’t understand what their children are learning about sex at school, or more importantly, how their kids are being targeted as potential clients by the abortion industry.
“We went to the schools as early as kindergarten,” Everett said of her years working in the industry. During those sessions, sex ed instructors “are planting the seed (in student’s minds) that parents don’t know what they are talking about.”
In elementary schools, the sex ed curriculum utilizes several books – such as Robie H. Harris’ “It’s So Amazing,” “It’s Perfectly Normal,” and “It’s Not the Stork” – to acclimate students to the idea of sex, and to promote sexual behaviors....
Yup.
...By fifth or sixth grade, the curriculum turns to “talking about having sex” and intentionally encourages a “parents don’t understand you” mentality.
“That’s when we gave them the low-dose birth control we know they’ll get pregnant on,” Everett said. The pills must be taken at exactly the same time every day, something those administering the pills know is very difficult, if not impossible, for most teens, she said.
Inevitably, many young girls become pregnant while still in school. Scared, vulnerable, and conditioned to avoid discussions of a sexual nature with their parents, they call the only people they think they can trust.
When crisis pregnancy counselors at Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics get a troubled young girl on the line, “they … pull out their abortion script and use that to sell an abortion,” Everett said.
By the way, repeat business is best!!
“It’s more deceptive than people realize,” Everett said. “The abortion industry sells and re-sells their product.
“Our goal was three to five abortions per student for every student we could get.”
About 45 percent of women who have an abortion have more than one, she said.
Any questions, class?
HT: Gateway
The business model is simple: 1) Get 'em while they're young, 2) establish trust, and 3) sell them the "service". Cha-Ching!! You've monetized!!
...Public school sexual education programs run by pro-choice groups “break down the natural modesty (of students), they separate them from their parents and their values … and they eventually give them low-dose birth control pills they know they’ll get pregnant on,” Everett told Progressives Today.
...many parents don’t understand what their children are learning about sex at school, or more importantly, how their kids are being targeted as potential clients by the abortion industry.
“We went to the schools as early as kindergarten,” Everett said of her years working in the industry. During those sessions, sex ed instructors “are planting the seed (in student’s minds) that parents don’t know what they are talking about.”
In elementary schools, the sex ed curriculum utilizes several books – such as Robie H. Harris’ “It’s So Amazing,” “It’s Perfectly Normal,” and “It’s Not the Stork” – to acclimate students to the idea of sex, and to promote sexual behaviors....
Yup.
...By fifth or sixth grade, the curriculum turns to “talking about having sex” and intentionally encourages a “parents don’t understand you” mentality.
“That’s when we gave them the low-dose birth control we know they’ll get pregnant on,” Everett said. The pills must be taken at exactly the same time every day, something those administering the pills know is very difficult, if not impossible, for most teens, she said.
Inevitably, many young girls become pregnant while still in school. Scared, vulnerable, and conditioned to avoid discussions of a sexual nature with their parents, they call the only people they think they can trust.
When crisis pregnancy counselors at Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics get a troubled young girl on the line, “they … pull out their abortion script and use that to sell an abortion,” Everett said.
By the way, repeat business is best!!
“It’s more deceptive than people realize,” Everett said. “The abortion industry sells and re-sells their product.
“Our goal was three to five abortions per student for every student we could get.”
About 45 percent of women who have an abortion have more than one, she said.
Any questions, class?
HT: Gateway
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Even MORE ObozoCare Trouble
Yah, well, the website didn't work, and you can't keep your plan, nor your doctor, prolly not your hospital, and the insurers will be given tax money by the ton next year.
Otherwise, all dandy, right?
Not if you have an ObozoCare policy.
The Washington Post has learned that more than a million Americans who signed up for Obamacare insurance policies are being paid too much or too little in taxpayer funded subsidies.
Bad enough, right? It gets worse
The process by which the government informs these taxpayers that they are receiving an incorrect subsidy has broken down, or is not even in place yet. In their unholy rush to sign people up and “prove” Obamacare “works,” the administration has created a monstrously confusing situation that won’t be resolved any time soon....
If you are over-subsidized, you'll find out next year when you do your taxes. Then you'll have to pay the bill.
Yes, there's even MORE trouble. Read all about it at the link.
Otherwise, all dandy, right?
Not if you have an ObozoCare policy.
The Washington Post has learned that more than a million Americans who signed up for Obamacare insurance policies are being paid too much or too little in taxpayer funded subsidies.
Bad enough, right? It gets worse
The process by which the government informs these taxpayers that they are receiving an incorrect subsidy has broken down, or is not even in place yet. In their unholy rush to sign people up and “prove” Obamacare “works,” the administration has created a monstrously confusing situation that won’t be resolved any time soon....
If you are over-subsidized, you'll find out next year when you do your taxes. Then you'll have to pay the bill.
Yes, there's even MORE trouble. Read all about it at the link.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Sensenbrenner Worried About Attack Chickens!!
We mentioned that the USDA was purchasing submachine guns (.40 cal) in preparation for ......well.......maybe.......ATTACK CHICKENS!
As it turns out, Jim Sensenbrenner voted for the legislation which allows USDA to establish its own mini-army. Evidently Sensenbrenner was aware of the ATTACK CHICKEN menace.
He'll be in the district this weekend. Ask him about ATTACK CHICKENS. Then ask why he did not vote to de-fund ObozoCare when it counted. (Fake "no" votes don't count in this game, Jimbo.) For that matter, why didn't he vote to cut the bloated cesspool that is the US budget?
Finally, ask when he's going to retire to play the lottery full-time.
As it turns out, Jim Sensenbrenner voted for the legislation which allows USDA to establish its own mini-army. Evidently Sensenbrenner was aware of the ATTACK CHICKEN menace.
He'll be in the district this weekend. Ask him about ATTACK CHICKENS. Then ask why he did not vote to de-fund ObozoCare when it counted. (Fake "no" votes don't count in this game, Jimbo.) For that matter, why didn't he vote to cut the bloated cesspool that is the US budget?
Finally, ask when he's going to retire to play the lottery full-time.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Rubio: "Vote (D) Senators Back In"
Sure he's being candid.
Senate Republicans say they'll try to pass immigration reform legislation in the next two years if they take back the Senate in November.
The Republicans say winning back the Senate will allow them to pass a series of bills on their own terms
Let's see if that wins the Senate for the Ruling Class.
Senate Republicans say they'll try to pass immigration reform legislation in the next two years if they take back the Senate in November.
The Republicans say winning back the Senate will allow them to pass a series of bills on their own terms
Let's see if that wins the Senate for the Ruling Class.
Does Wisconsin Need the G.A.B.? (Hint: "NO")
The Seventh Circuit tells us that about 75% of the GAB staff is a waste of money and oxygen.
...The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down several GAB rules meant to regulate so-called issue ads run around an election. Many of those rules weren't enforced after the agency was sued in a separate suit.
Still, the court also threw out GAB reporting requirements that those who spend as little as $300 on express advocacy must formally organize, register and report like a PAC....
...The court also ruled bans on corporate speech and limits on corporate PAC spending were unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United.
In addition, the court said the definitions of "political purposes" and "political committee" were overbroad and vague and should be narrowed to align with court precedent in defining express advocacy. The court took issue that the definitions seems to include nearly every political speaker who exercised that right close to an election, when it should only include groups advocating the support or defeat of a candidate.
The court said the state also unconstitutionally treated issue advocacy groups with "PAC" status if it mentioned a candidate within certain windows of an election. Instead, the court ruled that those standards should only apply to groups who engage mostly in express advocacy.
Just dump the whole damn thing into Lake Mendota.
...The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down several GAB rules meant to regulate so-called issue ads run around an election. Many of those rules weren't enforced after the agency was sued in a separate suit.
Still, the court also threw out GAB reporting requirements that those who spend as little as $300 on express advocacy must formally organize, register and report like a PAC....
...The court also ruled bans on corporate speech and limits on corporate PAC spending were unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United.
In addition, the court said the definitions of "political purposes" and "political committee" were overbroad and vague and should be narrowed to align with court precedent in defining express advocacy. The court took issue that the definitions seems to include nearly every political speaker who exercised that right close to an election, when it should only include groups advocating the support or defeat of a candidate.
The court said the state also unconstitutionally treated issue advocacy groups with "PAC" status if it mentioned a candidate within certain windows of an election. Instead, the court ruled that those standards should only apply to groups who engage mostly in express advocacy.
Just dump the whole damn thing into Lake Mendota.
ONE Tax Ends
Unlike the Selig/Attanasio tax, the Packer tax actually ends.
The Selig/Attanasio tax was another product of the Tommy Thompson reign, just like Lynn Adelman and the greatest headcount-growth of State Gummint in our history.
The Selig/Attanasio tax was another product of the Tommy Thompson reign, just like Lynn Adelman and the greatest headcount-growth of State Gummint in our history.
The USDA Prepares for Attack Chickens
Apparently inspecting chickens, pigs, and cows is far more dangerous than anyone thought.
But sub-machine guns?
Ya'd think that ordinary potato guns would suffice.
But sub-machine guns?
Ya'd think that ordinary potato guns would suffice.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
H. E. Listecki Threatens the Loyal Opposition
While Common Core is causing problems with public-school kids, it's also causing a problem with the Catholic schools in Milwaukee. As some of you know, ONLY the Milwaukee Archdiocese mandated Common Core for its schools; Green Bay, Madison, and LaCrosse politely declined.
Opposition to Common Core is significant in both spheres. The program's contents in math and literature are particularly controversial.
Now, apparently taking advice from John Chisholm and Francis Schmitz, the Archbishop of apparently mailing lengthy nastygrams to the loyal opposition, complete with threats (!?!)
Common Core is a Federally-pushed program (take it or lose your Federal aid dollars.) Numerous teachers' organizations, college professor's alliances, and plain old parents oppose it. So do some faithful Catholics in Milwaukee.
While the Archbishop has authority over the Catholic schools, his threats remind us of Abp. Weakland's modus operandi. That's not a good memory to bring back; nor is the name-calling and slanders which have been made by his underlings.
Stay tuned. This could be fun.
Opposition to Common Core is significant in both spheres. The program's contents in math and literature are particularly controversial.
Now, apparently taking advice from John Chisholm and Francis Schmitz, the Archbishop of apparently mailing lengthy nastygrams to the loyal opposition, complete with threats (!?!)
Common Core is a Federally-pushed program (take it or lose your Federal aid dollars.) Numerous teachers' organizations, college professor's alliances, and plain old parents oppose it. So do some faithful Catholics in Milwaukee.
While the Archbishop has authority over the Catholic schools, his threats remind us of Abp. Weakland's modus operandi. That's not a good memory to bring back; nor is the name-calling and slanders which have been made by his underlings.
Stay tuned. This could be fun.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Il Papa, Marriage, and 'Holy Smokes!!'
Ed Peters is the go-to Canonist in blogdom, and he's sent out an alarm.
...Either the pope did not say what Kasper claims he said, whereupon the cardinal should immediately retract his words, or the pope really did tell Kasper that half of all marriages (let’s just say half of all Catholic marriages, although the phrasing here embraces all marriages on earth) are invalid, whereupon the Church needs immediately to examine the truth of that claim. If, Deus vetet, half of all Catholic marriages really are invalid we are facing an unprecedented sacramental, social, and pastoral catastrophe that demands emergency action.
I’m serious: suppose we awoke to find half of all Catholic baptisms invalid, or half of all Masses, or half of all ordinations, or half of all Confessions, would not virtually everything else in the Church come to a screeching halt until the cause of such stunning invalidity were identified, rooted out, and repaired? Of course! But by the same token, how can the possibility—one being openly attributed to the highest level in the Church—that half of all Catholic marriages are invalid not call for an equally urgent immediate ecclesiastical response? We simply have to know whether the pope (a) is really alerting us to impending disaster, or (b) was just spit-balling ideas with an old colleague (and is now steaming mad at him for broadcasting his idle remarks to the world), or (c) said absolutely nothing of the kind. Precisely because all three scenarios are possible, Fr. Lombardi has to seek a clarification from the Holy See. And, yes, I sympathize with his reluctance to do so.
Indeed. Of course, as a Canonist, Peters happens to have experience.
To be clear, I see no evidence that half of the world’s marriages (or even half of all Catholic marriages) are invalid, but I am certainly open to examining whatever evidence the pope (perhaps) and Cdl. Kasper (at least) might have to support this astounding claim. Indeed such an investigation would be of the highest priority for many in the Church.
In an update to the post, it is mentioned that Cdl. Kasper did not accurately relay his conversation with the Pope.
That's not a surprise. Cdl. Kasper has an agenda. Twenty years ago, a priest-friend of mine who was well-acquainted with Cdl Kasper's work (and who knew him socially) referred to the Cardinal in clear and disparaging terms. Not polite, nor politic, nor the usual Romanita; it was direct and forthright. Kasper has been at the ragged edge/fringe for at least two decades, on a wide variety of issues.
Be careful when citing Cdl. Kasper's works or comments. Be VERY careful.
...Either the pope did not say what Kasper claims he said, whereupon the cardinal should immediately retract his words, or the pope really did tell Kasper that half of all marriages (let’s just say half of all Catholic marriages, although the phrasing here embraces all marriages on earth) are invalid, whereupon the Church needs immediately to examine the truth of that claim. If, Deus vetet, half of all Catholic marriages really are invalid we are facing an unprecedented sacramental, social, and pastoral catastrophe that demands emergency action.
I’m serious: suppose we awoke to find half of all Catholic baptisms invalid, or half of all Masses, or half of all ordinations, or half of all Confessions, would not virtually everything else in the Church come to a screeching halt until the cause of such stunning invalidity were identified, rooted out, and repaired? Of course! But by the same token, how can the possibility—one being openly attributed to the highest level in the Church—that half of all Catholic marriages are invalid not call for an equally urgent immediate ecclesiastical response? We simply have to know whether the pope (a) is really alerting us to impending disaster, or (b) was just spit-balling ideas with an old colleague (and is now steaming mad at him for broadcasting his idle remarks to the world), or (c) said absolutely nothing of the kind. Precisely because all three scenarios are possible, Fr. Lombardi has to seek a clarification from the Holy See. And, yes, I sympathize with his reluctance to do so.
Indeed. Of course, as a Canonist, Peters happens to have experience.
To be clear, I see no evidence that half of the world’s marriages (or even half of all Catholic marriages) are invalid, but I am certainly open to examining whatever evidence the pope (perhaps) and Cdl. Kasper (at least) might have to support this astounding claim. Indeed such an investigation would be of the highest priority for many in the Church.
In an update to the post, it is mentioned that Cdl. Kasper did not accurately relay his conversation with the Pope.
That's not a surprise. Cdl. Kasper has an agenda. Twenty years ago, a priest-friend of mine who was well-acquainted with Cdl Kasper's work (and who knew him socially) referred to the Cardinal in clear and disparaging terms. Not polite, nor politic, nor the usual Romanita; it was direct and forthright. Kasper has been at the ragged edge/fringe for at least two decades, on a wide variety of issues.
Be careful when citing Cdl. Kasper's works or comments. Be VERY careful.
The Trajectory of Left-Liberalism
Speaking of Deneen (below), he essays on something that G K Chesterton encapsulated with his quip that "When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws."
Deneen's version is longer.
...Longstanding local rules and cultures that governed behavior through education and cultivation of certain kinds of norms, manners, and morals, came to be regarded as an oppressive limitation upon the liberty of individuals. Those forms of control were lifted in the name of liberation, leading to regularized abuse of those liberties. In the name of redressing the injustices of those abuses, the federal government was seen as the only legitimate authority for redress and thereby exercised powers (ones that often require creative interpretations of federal law to reach down into private institutions) to re-regulate the liberated behaviors. However, now there is no longer a set of “norms” that seek to cultivate forms of self-rule, since this would constitute an unjust limitation of our freedom. Now there can only be punitive threats that occur after the fact. One cannot seek to limit the exercise of freedom before the fact (presumably by using at one’s disposal education in character and virtue); one can only punish after the fact when one body has harmed another body.
In effect, this immorality tale is Hobbes in microcosm: first tradition and culture must be eliminated as arbitrary and unjust (“natural man”). Then, we see that absent such norms, anarchy is the result (“the state of nature”). Finding such anarchy unbearable, we turn to a central sovereign as our sole protector, that “Mortall God” who will protect us from ourselves (“the social contract”). We have been liberated from all custom and tradition, all authority that sought to educate by habit and within the context of ongoing communities, and replaced it with a distant authority that punishes us when we abuse our freedoms. And, now lacking any informal and local forms of authority, it’s virtually assured that those abuses will regularly occur, and that the role of the State in ever more minute personal affairs will increase (“Prerogative”).
In place of the parent we now have a distant power which, perhaps like a parent, seeks to punish us when we act against decency and civilization. But, unlike a parent, it does not educate or seek to cultivate its wards into self-governing adults. It infantalizes us by saying that we don’t have to grow up—just don’t get caught.
Yes, well, we were just talking about "virtue," ain'a?
Deneen's version is longer.
...Longstanding local rules and cultures that governed behavior through education and cultivation of certain kinds of norms, manners, and morals, came to be regarded as an oppressive limitation upon the liberty of individuals. Those forms of control were lifted in the name of liberation, leading to regularized abuse of those liberties. In the name of redressing the injustices of those abuses, the federal government was seen as the only legitimate authority for redress and thereby exercised powers (ones that often require creative interpretations of federal law to reach down into private institutions) to re-regulate the liberated behaviors. However, now there is no longer a set of “norms” that seek to cultivate forms of self-rule, since this would constitute an unjust limitation of our freedom. Now there can only be punitive threats that occur after the fact. One cannot seek to limit the exercise of freedom before the fact (presumably by using at one’s disposal education in character and virtue); one can only punish after the fact when one body has harmed another body.
In effect, this immorality tale is Hobbes in microcosm: first tradition and culture must be eliminated as arbitrary and unjust (“natural man”). Then, we see that absent such norms, anarchy is the result (“the state of nature”). Finding such anarchy unbearable, we turn to a central sovereign as our sole protector, that “Mortall God” who will protect us from ourselves (“the social contract”). We have been liberated from all custom and tradition, all authority that sought to educate by habit and within the context of ongoing communities, and replaced it with a distant authority that punishes us when we abuse our freedoms. And, now lacking any informal and local forms of authority, it’s virtually assured that those abuses will regularly occur, and that the role of the State in ever more minute personal affairs will increase (“Prerogative”).
In place of the parent we now have a distant power which, perhaps like a parent, seeks to punish us when we act against decency and civilization. But, unlike a parent, it does not educate or seek to cultivate its wards into self-governing adults. It infantalizes us by saying that we don’t have to grow up—just don’t get caught.
Yes, well, we were just talking about "virtue," ain'a?
Federalist? Anti-Federalist? How About "Virtuous Constitutionalist"?
A thought-provoking essay which asks the Tea Party folks to join the Constitutionalist movement, and then do the really hard work of doing something other than worshiping Mammon.
The author recites arguments from both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties, then moves to his proposed resolution:
...The modern conservative movement has a unique opportunity to address these unresolved issues in a manner that strengthens both adherence to the Constitution and the spirit of liberty on which it is based. To exploit this opportunity, however, conservatives will have to focus on requiring all three branches of the federal government to adhere to the actual provisions of the Constitution.
Of course, there's a Big Problem with that:
...In particular, it will require them to push the Congress to exercise its powers under Article I in a responsible and effective manner.
May as well ask water to run uphill.
Congress has allowed its constitutional powers to make laws and declare war to atrophy by a de facto unconstitutional delegation to the executive branch. Instead of passing clear and comprehensible laws that reflect well-crafted political compromises, Congress has fallen into the habit of writing unclear and overly complex laws that require the unconstitutional delegation of policy making authority to executive agencies for their implementation.
There's a reason for that: Congress-critters seek re-election. Actually passing definitive laws will put their double-talking, slime-sliding, gobbledygook-pushing little selves out of business.
Let's face it: it's much easier to raise campaign cash by subtly playing "judicial appointments" and "regulatory change" flapdoodle to the right audiences, whether Lefty or Righty.
Don't believe that? Well, then, which "small Gummint" House members de-funded ObozoCare when the chance came?
Q.E.D.
Buy more ammo.
But there's more.
...conservatives will first have to embrace the concept of citizen responsibility that is so central in the writings of great conservatives such as Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, and their classical forbears, particularly Aristotle. The darker passions of human nature threaten both individual well-being and social harmony. They must be checked from within or without. If they are not checked by cultivated moral sentiments from within, they will be checked by state power from without, however misguided the exercise of that power may be.
True dat.
....Unfortunately the modern conservative movement has operated under the false premise that economic self-interest will provide the necessary internal check. In an effort to counter so-called “liberalism,” postwar conservatives such as William F. Buckley substituted religion for the classical ideas of republican virtue and civic responsibility that are the foundation of earlier 19th and 20th century conservatism. By fusing a diffuse and undefined concept of religion with extreme libertarianism and its worship of free markets, postwar conservatives created a political philosophy that supports market competition as a good unto itself without any moral constraints based on a concept of the “common good” that transcends tribal preferences based on religion, culture, or race.
This philosophy is inconsistent with the Constitution in word and in spirit.
At this point, the author wanders into fuzziness himself.
...In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle defines happiness as acts in pursuit of the highest virtue, carried out in the context of a complete life. Steeped in classical ideas, and particularly Stoic conceptions of virtue (Washington had his soldiers perform Addison’s Cato at Valley Forge), our founders would have understood, appreciated and internalized Aristotle’s definition.
They would not have understood or appreciated the economic partisanship and social atomism that is all to prevalent among self-described conservatives, including some Tea Party activists, many of whom are prepared to defend benefits of the welfare state that go to themselves and their families, but are willing to deny them to people who are less fortunate than themselves. There are valid reasons for criticizing Obamacare, but some conservatives appear to oppose it primarily because it appears to threaten their privileged access to benefits and make them pay for extending those benefits to other “less-deserving” citizens.
Well. "Some," "many," "appears," and the comparatives which pepper those grafs tell us that the author is in trouble--so he equivocates. Why not just agree with Deneen, (no mean thinker, by the way) and include in 'civic virtue' the mandate of personal charity combined with a strong defense of 'intermediary institutions' which could effectively distribute that charity?
So yah. Constitutionalism is the right path, exercised in lockstep with the Law of Subsidiarity and the virtue of charity. The other required virtue: self-restraint in pursuit of the common good.
It's a very tall order, but a miracle might happen.
The author recites arguments from both the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties, then moves to his proposed resolution:
...The modern conservative movement has a unique opportunity to address these unresolved issues in a manner that strengthens both adherence to the Constitution and the spirit of liberty on which it is based. To exploit this opportunity, however, conservatives will have to focus on requiring all three branches of the federal government to adhere to the actual provisions of the Constitution.
Of course, there's a Big Problem with that:
...In particular, it will require them to push the Congress to exercise its powers under Article I in a responsible and effective manner.
May as well ask water to run uphill.
Congress has allowed its constitutional powers to make laws and declare war to atrophy by a de facto unconstitutional delegation to the executive branch. Instead of passing clear and comprehensible laws that reflect well-crafted political compromises, Congress has fallen into the habit of writing unclear and overly complex laws that require the unconstitutional delegation of policy making authority to executive agencies for their implementation.
There's a reason for that: Congress-critters seek re-election. Actually passing definitive laws will put their double-talking, slime-sliding, gobbledygook-pushing little selves out of business.
Let's face it: it's much easier to raise campaign cash by subtly playing "judicial appointments" and "regulatory change" flapdoodle to the right audiences, whether Lefty or Righty.
Don't believe that? Well, then, which "small Gummint" House members de-funded ObozoCare when the chance came?
Q.E.D.
Buy more ammo.
But there's more.
...conservatives will first have to embrace the concept of citizen responsibility that is so central in the writings of great conservatives such as Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, and their classical forbears, particularly Aristotle. The darker passions of human nature threaten both individual well-being and social harmony. They must be checked from within or without. If they are not checked by cultivated moral sentiments from within, they will be checked by state power from without, however misguided the exercise of that power may be.
True dat.
....Unfortunately the modern conservative movement has operated under the false premise that economic self-interest will provide the necessary internal check. In an effort to counter so-called “liberalism,” postwar conservatives such as William F. Buckley substituted religion for the classical ideas of republican virtue and civic responsibility that are the foundation of earlier 19th and 20th century conservatism. By fusing a diffuse and undefined concept of religion with extreme libertarianism and its worship of free markets, postwar conservatives created a political philosophy that supports market competition as a good unto itself without any moral constraints based on a concept of the “common good” that transcends tribal preferences based on religion, culture, or race.
This philosophy is inconsistent with the Constitution in word and in spirit.
At this point, the author wanders into fuzziness himself.
...In the Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle defines happiness as acts in pursuit of the highest virtue, carried out in the context of a complete life. Steeped in classical ideas, and particularly Stoic conceptions of virtue (Washington had his soldiers perform Addison’s Cato at Valley Forge), our founders would have understood, appreciated and internalized Aristotle’s definition.
They would not have understood or appreciated the economic partisanship and social atomism that is all to prevalent among self-described conservatives, including some Tea Party activists, many of whom are prepared to defend benefits of the welfare state that go to themselves and their families, but are willing to deny them to people who are less fortunate than themselves. There are valid reasons for criticizing Obamacare, but some conservatives appear to oppose it primarily because it appears to threaten their privileged access to benefits and make them pay for extending those benefits to other “less-deserving” citizens.
Well. "Some," "many," "appears," and the comparatives which pepper those grafs tell us that the author is in trouble--so he equivocates. Why not just agree with Deneen, (no mean thinker, by the way) and include in 'civic virtue' the mandate of personal charity combined with a strong defense of 'intermediary institutions' which could effectively distribute that charity?
So yah. Constitutionalism is the right path, exercised in lockstep with the Law of Subsidiarity and the virtue of charity. The other required virtue: self-restraint in pursuit of the common good.
It's a very tall order, but a miracle might happen.
Another Day, Another Cops-Gone-Wild Story
The "rule of law" continues to take body-blows from those entrusted to preserve it.
...The only reason Sgt Cotton was emptying his gun into Mr Tolan was because his colleague, Officer Edwards, had mistransposed a digit when taking down Tolan's license plate, which is 696BGK. Instead, Officer Edwards entered into the database 695BGK, which came up stolen.
As Mr Tolan and his cousin exit the vehicle, Officer Edwards draws his gun, orders them to the ground, and accuses them of stealing the car. "That's my car," says Tolan, but complies with the request to lie face down....
Family members emerged from their home, and Tolan's mother asked the cop what in Hell he was doing.
...[The cop] radios for back-up - because in America one heavily armed officer shouldn't have to deal with four unarmed civilians all on his own - and so the small mistake of a transposed number becomes a very big mistake. Sgt Cotton arrives, pistol drawn, and orders Mrs Tolan, a law-abiding person not accused of any crime, to stand against the garage door. She says, "Are you kidding me? We've lived here 15 years. We've never had anything like this happen before." Three people testified that Sgt Cotton grabbed her arms and slammed her into the garage door with such force that she fell to the ground.
Yes, there are pictures of the damage this "law-enforcer" did to Mrs. Tolan.
At this point, the kid--who had been face-down, as you recall, became a bit contentious.
...Both parties agree that Tolan then exclaimed, from roughly 15 to 20 feet away, 713 F. 3d, at 303, "[G]et your fucking hands off my mom."
So, in order to adjust this kid's attitude,
... Cotton then drew his pistol and fired three shots at Tolan. Tolan and his mother testified that these shots came with no verbal warning. Id., at 2019, 2080. One of the bullets entered Tolan's chest, collapsing his right lung and piercing his liver. While Tolan survived, he suffered a life-altering injury that disrupted his budding professional baseball career and causes him to experience pain on a daily basis.
There! Lesson learned, punk!!
The good news? The cops didn't use their .50-cal tripod-mounted Ma Deuce on the rest of the family.
HT: Cold Fury
...The only reason Sgt Cotton was emptying his gun into Mr Tolan was because his colleague, Officer Edwards, had mistransposed a digit when taking down Tolan's license plate, which is 696BGK. Instead, Officer Edwards entered into the database 695BGK, which came up stolen.
As Mr Tolan and his cousin exit the vehicle, Officer Edwards draws his gun, orders them to the ground, and accuses them of stealing the car. "That's my car," says Tolan, but complies with the request to lie face down....
Family members emerged from their home, and Tolan's mother asked the cop what in Hell he was doing.
...[The cop] radios for back-up - because in America one heavily armed officer shouldn't have to deal with four unarmed civilians all on his own - and so the small mistake of a transposed number becomes a very big mistake. Sgt Cotton arrives, pistol drawn, and orders Mrs Tolan, a law-abiding person not accused of any crime, to stand against the garage door. She says, "Are you kidding me? We've lived here 15 years. We've never had anything like this happen before." Three people testified that Sgt Cotton grabbed her arms and slammed her into the garage door with such force that she fell to the ground.
Yes, there are pictures of the damage this "law-enforcer" did to Mrs. Tolan.
At this point, the kid--who had been face-down, as you recall, became a bit contentious.
...Both parties agree that Tolan then exclaimed, from roughly 15 to 20 feet away, 713 F. 3d, at 303, "[G]et your fucking hands off my mom."
So, in order to adjust this kid's attitude,
... Cotton then drew his pistol and fired three shots at Tolan. Tolan and his mother testified that these shots came with no verbal warning. Id., at 2019, 2080. One of the bullets entered Tolan's chest, collapsing his right lung and piercing his liver. While Tolan survived, he suffered a life-altering injury that disrupted his budding professional baseball career and causes him to experience pain on a daily basis.
There! Lesson learned, punk!!
The good news? The cops didn't use their .50-cal tripod-mounted Ma Deuce on the rest of the family.
HT: Cold Fury
The Left's Intellectual Leadership, Part II
Speaking of Lefty Interleckshuls, we also have Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an ex-CPUSA member with a black robe.
Lots of food for thought in her screeds. Surprising that Screechin' Shirley (SCOWI) didn't adopt this stuff as her own.
HT: PowerLine
Lots of food for thought in her screeds. Surprising that Screechin' Shirley (SCOWI) didn't adopt this stuff as her own.
HT: PowerLine
The Left's Intellectual Leader
Now and then it's worth stopping by this place. It's the blog of the intellectual leadership of the Wisconsin Left.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Should the State Bar Get Involved?
Instapundit--who is a law-prof--suggests that Chisholm, Schmitz, and the two ADA twits should lose their law licenses, too.
Not a bad idea.
Not a bad idea.
This Is What the (R) Party Calls "Success"?
Ripped from yesterday's headlines:
Only one employee in the entire federal government lost a job due to sequestration, according to a government audit that found the only permanent cut came at the U.S. Parole Commission, which eliminated one position.
Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, said Wednesday that the audit — performed by the Government Accountability Office and released last month — shows that the worries over sequestration’s impact on jobs was overblown.
“Despite relentless warnings about the dire consequences of sequestration’s budget cuts, it appears sequestration resulted in only one layoff,” he said. “While that’s good news for federal employees and other workers, it is devastating to the credibility of Washington politicians and administration officials who spent months — and millions of dollars — engaging in a coordinated multi-agency cabinet-level public relations campaign to scare the American people.”
Wow. Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, et.al. REALLY shrunk that Gummint, eh?
HT: ColdFury
Only one employee in the entire federal government lost a job due to sequestration, according to a government audit that found the only permanent cut came at the U.S. Parole Commission, which eliminated one position.
Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, said Wednesday that the audit — performed by the Government Accountability Office and released last month — shows that the worries over sequestration’s impact on jobs was overblown.
“Despite relentless warnings about the dire consequences of sequestration’s budget cuts, it appears sequestration resulted in only one layoff,” he said. “While that’s good news for federal employees and other workers, it is devastating to the credibility of Washington politicians and administration officials who spent months — and millions of dollars — engaging in a coordinated multi-agency cabinet-level public relations campaign to scare the American people.”
Wow. Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, et.al. REALLY shrunk that Gummint, eh?
HT: ColdFury
Friday, May 09, 2014
EPA: Corruption Personified
It's bad enough that EPA fabricates "science" and bases its regulations on......well......lies.
Now we find that EPA has gone completely rogue.
The office of about 10 employees is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s office, and the inspector general’s office is accusing it of operating illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has impeded independent investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats, including compelling employees involved in cases to sign non-disclosure agreements.
However, Boehner, McCarthy, Cantor, and Ryan will continue to fund EPA at whatever level EPA wants.
Now we find that EPA has gone completely rogue.
The office of about 10 employees is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s office, and the inspector general’s office is accusing it of operating illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has impeded independent investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats, including compelling employees involved in cases to sign non-disclosure agreements.
However, Boehner, McCarthy, Cantor, and Ryan will continue to fund EPA at whatever level EPA wants.
Thursday, May 08, 2014
The End of Prosecutorial Over-Reach?
The Hon. Rudolph Randa has--once again--delivered a body-blow to the Court of Star Chamber gang: Chisholm, Schmitz, and three minor-league thugs.
The stakes are quite high; Chisholm et.al. are now subject to PERSONAL liability for expenses incurred by the aggrieved--and damages, too!
Over the last couple of decades, the term "prosecutorial over-reach" has become better-known. (One example here).
When (not "if") the plaintiffs win their lawsuit, there will be a Big Chill in the ranks of the law enforcers who, in a lot of cases, are merely self-aggrandizing popinjays on power-trips. Some of those are political power-trips, as in the case at hand. Others are 'criminal' power-trips.
The Rule of Law has almost disintegrated under the Obozo regime. Perhaps Randa's action will begin the long, slow, climb back to a Constitutional Republic.
We can hope, eh?
The stakes are quite high; Chisholm et.al. are now subject to PERSONAL liability for expenses incurred by the aggrieved--and damages, too!
Over the last couple of decades, the term "prosecutorial over-reach" has become better-known. (One example here).
When (not "if") the plaintiffs win their lawsuit, there will be a Big Chill in the ranks of the law enforcers who, in a lot of cases, are merely self-aggrandizing popinjays on power-trips. Some of those are political power-trips, as in the case at hand. Others are 'criminal' power-trips.
The Rule of Law has almost disintegrated under the Obozo regime. Perhaps Randa's action will begin the long, slow, climb back to a Constitutional Republic.
We can hope, eh?
John Malan Spews Obozo Agit-Prop
This item reminded me that John Malan (Channel 4/WTMJ) spewed the ObozoClimate talking points in his runup to the weather forecast earlier this week.
Too bad. We'll not be watching agit-prop on that "news source" any more.
Too bad. We'll not be watching agit-prop on that "news source" any more.
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Fitzgerald Should Ignore Ranting Adelman
Lynn Adelman has always been, and always will be, a turkey.
SCOTUS has already approved Voter ID laws in several States, and they'll approve a Wisconsin effort--assuming it follows the Indiana model closely.
Fitzgerald should man up and defy Adelman on principle.
But then, Fitzgerald should have passed the anti-abortion bills on principle, too.
So the question: does Fitzgerald have any principles?
SCOTUS has already approved Voter ID laws in several States, and they'll approve a Wisconsin effort--assuming it follows the Indiana model closely.
Fitzgerald should man up and defy Adelman on principle.
But then, Fitzgerald should have passed the anti-abortion bills on principle, too.
So the question: does Fitzgerald have any principles?
Harry Reid: Projection's Model
The Left wails and screeches about "campaign funding abuse". Not because it's wrong to contribute to campaigns, of course.
They wail and screech because they know exactly how corrupt politicians will respond and attribute that response to (R) politicians.
That's called "projection."
The Left ought to know about corrupt response: its name is Harry Reid.
They wail and screech because they know exactly how corrupt politicians will respond and attribute that response to (R) politicians.
That's called "projection."
The Left ought to know about corrupt response: its name is Harry Reid.
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
"Don't Let the Door Hit You...."
So said Hon. Rudy Randa to John Chisholm, the (formerly honorable) D.A. of Milwaukee County, along with the Widdle Brats Landgraf and Robles.
I will never understand how Schmitz got involved with these slimebags.
Let's hope that Landgraf or Robles slips up and gets slammed with contempt of court. A little over-reach, treated with federal pen-time, is a good thing.
I will never understand how Schmitz got involved with these slimebags.
Let's hope that Landgraf or Robles slips up and gets slammed with contempt of court. A little over-reach, treated with federal pen-time, is a good thing.
Nixon, Shamed
Yah, Nixon was a jerk, and maybe even a crook.
But he's nothing compared to Obozo.
It is against the law for government officials to conduct their business via private email accounts not subject to public scrutiny, yet we now have a second such instance on the record. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren joins EPA Director Lisa Jackson on that particular dishonor roll.
Benghazi, Lerner, Fast/Furious, ..........
As Gregg Steinhafel has demonstrated, the CEO is responsible for his subordinates' actions.
Of course, Steinhafel has honor.
(So if Chisholm wants to investigate "secret email accounts," here's something for him to do!!)
But he's nothing compared to Obozo.
It is against the law for government officials to conduct their business via private email accounts not subject to public scrutiny, yet we now have a second such instance on the record. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren joins EPA Director Lisa Jackson on that particular dishonor roll.
Benghazi, Lerner, Fast/Furious, ..........
As Gregg Steinhafel has demonstrated, the CEO is responsible for his subordinates' actions.
Of course, Steinhafel has honor.
(So if Chisholm wants to investigate "secret email accounts," here's something for him to do!!)
Obozo's Wacko Minions
Whatever planet these folks inhabit, it ain't the one the greatest generation defended.
...United Nations representatives today suggested that the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion in the case of rape and incest constitute a violation of the UN Charter Against Torture.
... Felice Gaer, the director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said the Catholic Church's 2,000-year-old doctrinal teaching on abortion may be responsible for nine-year-old rape victims giving birth.
“This committee has found repeatedly that laws that criminalize the termination of pregnancy in all circumstances can violate the terms of the convention" on torture, she said.
Obviously, the Blaustein Institute doesn't consider babies to be "human." That irony is mind-boggling.
...United Nations representatives today suggested that the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion in the case of rape and incest constitute a violation of the UN Charter Against Torture.
... Felice Gaer, the director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said the Catholic Church's 2,000-year-old doctrinal teaching on abortion may be responsible for nine-year-old rape victims giving birth.
“This committee has found repeatedly that laws that criminalize the termination of pregnancy in all circumstances can violate the terms of the convention" on torture, she said.
Obviously, the Blaustein Institute doesn't consider babies to be "human." That irony is mind-boggling.
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Oh Yes, the US Is In Ukraine
Just in case you think that Obozo hasn't jumped into the Ukraine mess, you're not keeping up with the news.
Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA
and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of
Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure. --AFP citing Bild
So when Putin declares that 'the US is interfering,' he's not blowing smoke.
The same M.O. turned out real well in Syria, didn't it?
HT: ZeroHedge
So when Putin declares that 'the US is interfering,' he's not blowing smoke.
The same M.O. turned out real well in Syria, didn't it?
HT: ZeroHedge
Saturday, May 03, 2014
The Emergence of ObozoGeoPolitk
Benghazi was far more than a Nixonian lie-campaign FBO the GirlyMan. And it was far more than GirlyMan's absconding from his position as C-in-C.
It was also the revealing of the ObozoGeoPolitik.
The Thinker author goes on to assemble the other pieces of the Obozo strategy, including the overthrow of Mubarak, and the enabling of the Iranian nuke-development program, among others.
(Not mentioned is the Ukrainian arms-to-jihadis program which the Russians have interrupted.)
Seems that the Muzzie Brotherhood has a new BFF.
It was also the revealing of the ObozoGeoPolitik.
“The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented -- if the U.S. hadn't been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.
'The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,' Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.
London Daily Mail quoted at ThinkerShe blamed the Obama administration for tacitly approving the diversion of half of a billion dollars of Qatari arms shipment to al-Qaeda-linked militants.”
The Thinker author goes on to assemble the other pieces of the Obozo strategy, including the overthrow of Mubarak, and the enabling of the Iranian nuke-development program, among others.
(Not mentioned is the Ukrainian arms-to-jihadis program which the Russians have interrupted.)
Seems that the Muzzie Brotherhood has a new BFF.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
