Paul Ryan, Not an Extortionist

We're not knocked over by Paul Ryan's policy prescriptions on immigration.  On the other hand, he does seem to get the idea of subsidiarity, which means he still may think the 9th and 10th Amendments mean something.

For the Establishment Pubbies, however, he has a major flaw: he's not a good extortionist.  That's why one of them will oppose Ryan's bid for Chair/Ways & Means.

Kevin Brady has decided to run against Rep. Paul Ryan in the latter’s bid for chairmanship of the Ways & Means Committee....the role of the Republican chair of Ways & Means is to milk money from lobbyists terrified that the committee is rewriting the whole tax code (which touches on the profitability of every business in America) — and then to distribute that money to other Republicans.  It’s almost as if they’d pretend to rewrite the tax code every few years just to scare more  protection money contributions out of K St., whether the committee actually reformed anything or not....

That's not news to anyone who lives in Flyover Country (about 85% of the USA.)  Whether it's tax-code, environmental, labor, or ObozoCare regs, whether it's Pubbie or Democrat, the principles are the same:  threaten-for-money.

"Nice little business you have there.  It'd be too bad......" is a Mafia line. 

And the Mafia learned from Congress.

Boehner Goes All War-Daddy

Boehner, demonstrating that Teh Stupid is a transmittable disease:

House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday the U.S. may ultimately “have no choice” but to send combat troops to take on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), contending that relying on airstrikes will not be enough to defeat the terrorists.

Well, John, why not take out ISIS' financiers, the Saudis, instead of doing the Whack-A-Mole dance?

“We have no choice,” Boehner replied. “These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. And if we don’t destroy them first, we’re going to pay the price.”

"They intend to kill us" exactly where, John?  In Syria?  Yemen?  Iraq?

Or in St Cloud or Minneapolis?  Because if it's in the US, there's an easy solution, too:  deport 'em all, right now, no debates or arguments.

The D.C. Crowd has screwed up Every. Single. Issue. beginning with immigration (in the '60's), then VietNam, border-control, and now Permanent War.  You no longer have any credibility, either here or abroad, John.

Pick up an M-4 and go over there yourself.  Take McCain and Graham with you.

GDP Up 4% Second Quarter?

What!  You don't believe that GDP was up over 4% last quarter?

Neither do those 28.9 million.

So you, and they, must be wrong.

Goldie Owns the Fed and You Don't

The Federal Reserve Board is a property of Goldman, Sachs.

Oh.  You didn't know that?

Do We REALLY Know the Terrorists?

An interesting essay here.  Out-take:

....The appearance of the Islamic State as a major force in Iraq and Syria, with threats of terrorist attacks on the West, has concentrated minds again to a degree. But unwillingness to ask difficult questions persists in many quarters. Despite the fact that we have more than circumstantial evidence that the Islamic State is being manipulated by Syrian intelligence, and Iran’s too, these notions are dismissed out of hand by too many Westerners who study terrorism. Yet if we want to defeat the Islamic State, it would be wise to actually understand it. That Washington, DC, continues its bipartisan blocking of release of the full 9/11 Commission Report, which includes troubling details of Saudi misconduct regarding Al-Qa’ida, is not an encouraging sign.

This week we have yet another appalling beheading by terrorists linked to the Islamic State, this time the victim was a French tourist in Algeria. Given that the Islamic State has been cast out of the Al-Qa’ida family for its takfiri ways, including mass murdering of civilians — just as GIA was in 1997 — any serious analyst should be asking questions about what is really going on here, particularly given Algeria’s murky counterterrorism track record. Don’t let the Credulous Number-Crunching Brigade win, the stakes are too high.

The author's claims that both Syrian and Iranian intel outfits are manipulating ISIS, as had been done with the Algerian terrorists (GIA) are part of a larger parcel:  that the "terrorists" are often played by other countries for their own interests.

IOW, it ain't as simple as the idiot-box chatterers would have you think it is.

ADDED:  For a parallel to this item, see Malkin's exposition of the student strife in Colorado.  The concept of utilizing third parties as sacrifice is not restricted to spy-v-spy war games.

Catholicism v. Muslim Heresy

Pay attention.

St. John Damascene, a doctor of the Church, characterizes Islam as a Christian heresy.

 “There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites [read:  Muslim Arabs] which to this day prevails and keeps people in error, being a forerunner of the Antichrist. They are descended from Ishmael, [who] was born to Abraham of Agar, and for this reason they are called both Agarenes and Ishmaelites… 

"From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration.”

End of "they're just like Catholics, kinda, sorta."  They are heretics at best.

Quoted at Athanasius

Yup, Reince: Diss Your Base!

You have to hand it to the (D) folk.  They get "how it works." 

The Democrats and the institutional left have a new political tool that allows them virtually to ignore moderates yet still win elections.

 

This tool, the Catalist database, was employed in the 2012 election. That election defied conventional wisdom: Mitt Romney sought and won independent voters overwhelmingly, but still lost. If you wondered why the conventional wisdom about independents and moderates didn’t seem so wise in 2012, the answer is Catalist....

 

Anderson goes on to 'splain it further.  Meanwhile, Romney, Ryan, Boehner (et.al. under the helpful Reince) continue to slap their own base--Conservatives--across the face.

 

Whoever called the Pubbies the "Stupid Party" didn't know the half of it.

No Kidding? Ginsburg's a Eugenecist?

The quest for a Master Race remains in place--at SCOTUS.

In a 2009 interview with the New York Times, Ginsburg had this to say about abortion and population control: “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

The Reich's Justice elaborated on that statement last week.

...Ginsburg argues that access to abortions should be readily available to both poor and rich women, but more so the former because they can’t afford the cost of a new child. “It makes no sense as a national policy to promote birth only among poor people,” the Supreme Court justice says....

And we all know who "poor people" are.  No wonder Obozo wants her to retire.

The Pink Unicorn Reform

The alternate-universe crowd writes plans for Great Lakes "renewal."

The Obama administration unveiled an updated five-year plan for restoring the Great Lakes on Wednesday that outlines accelerated efforts to address toxic pollution, invasive species and farm runoff and restore plant and wildlife habitat....

OK.  As you expect, there are not many details provided in the story, because EPA's intent is to shut down farming, mining, and industry.  Providing the details would show that.  Not a good idea.

But the story does provide one illuminating detail:

....Beginning in 2017, projects must consider the impact of climate change. For example, wetland plants and trees would be selected for suitability to warmer temperatures and watershed restorations would be designed to handle more frequent and intense storms....

Why, sure!!  Coconut palms outside of Lambeau would be really nice, no?  They'll go VERY nicely with the decor of the swamps created at the edges of the parking lots for hurricane-waters remediation.

All we'll need is rainbows.

Feathers, Flocking, and Bp. Cupich

When an Obama political-action front-man praises someone....hmmmm.

(The pastor of a large Waukesha County Catholic parish also endorsed Bp. Cupich in no uncertain terms, ending any speculation about that pastor's inclinations.  That happened just after he severely criticized home-schoolers in his bulletin.)

Birds, feathers, yadayada.  The Bishop caught attention for ordering his seminarians and priests NOT to picket an abortuary, and for shutting down Holy Week services in the Extraordinary Form (Old Rite.)

Time will tell, of course; but Chicago already had one Bernardin.  Obviously, temporal punishment is in play.

IRS' Filthy, Repulsive, Lerner-Laundry

It's bad enough that Lerner continues to collect taxpayer-funded salary and benefits in her million-dollar manse while throwing a self- pity-party at Politico.

Now it emerges that she and her pals were actively targeting groups who liked the Constitution.

...the IRS also targeted those who would educate their fellow citizens about the United States Constitution....

If you are offended at that, as anyone should be, you'll be moved to anger when you learn this:

...this particular IRS targeting commenced on Jan. 25, 2012 — the beginning of the election year for President Obama’s second campaign....

There is no such thing as "co-incidence."

...What is most corrosive about this IRS tripwire is that it is triggered by a particular point of view; it is not, as First Amendment scholars say, viewpoint-neutral. It does not include obfuscating or denigrating the Constitution; only those “involved in … educating on the Constitution” are captured by this criterion. This viewpoint targeting potentially skews every national debate about politics or government. And the skew is not strictly liberal; indeed, it should trouble liberals as much as conservatives. The ultimate checks on executive power are to be found in the United States Constitution. Insidiously, then, suppressing those “involved in … educating on the Constitution” actually skews national debate in favor of unchecked executive power....

There are some things that Conservatives should not do.  Finishing this post the way it should be finished is one of those 'not-to-do' things.

HT:  Political Capital

For AlGore!

Sure, I'm in AlGore's camp!!

The more green, the better, I say!

HT:  Sipsey

The Putin-Haters and The Family

An international pro-family congress was held in Moscow last week.

Nothing of this size and import can happen without the knowledge and consent of Putin, of course.

Here's a brief of the "General Concept" paper from that forum:

The Russian forum in its “General Concept” preface succinctly identified the harms caused by the “sensate culture” (a term from Pitirim Sorokin, a famous Russian sociologist who knew well the deleterious effects of a man-centered, atheistic worldview), a modern-day post-Christian dimension in world history: “the destruction of moral standards such as Goodness, Truth, and Beauty and destruction of faith in a Created natural order that distinguishes good from evil.” Such attitudes -- “this modern-day ambiguity, relativity, and indeterminacy regarding family” -- “creates the threat to the civilized existence of societies.” The Russians declare that “it is high time to talk not only about the role of the family institution in the retention of humanity as a biological species but also about the vital role of [the] natural family in the preservation of civilized society and “ordered liberty.”  This transformation is “crucially important especially given the millennial battle between civil society and barbarism, where the latter appears in a highly technological and disguised progressive form contributing to the increasing moral chaos.”

Hmmmmmm.

Is it just co-incidence that Putin's government has been the object of revulsion by Western "intellects" recently?

"Craft Brewers" Love Them Lotsa EPA

What's in the brews of these turkeys?

A battle is brewing in the beer industry over a new regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that spells out the agency’s authority to regulate bodies of water. 

Dozens of small craft brewers such as Sierra Nevada and New Belgium are rallying behind the EPA’s proposed Waters of the U.S. rule, arguing it will help ensure that they have clean water for their products.

Blah, blah, blah.

EPA's proposal will, in effect, grant EPA total authority over all ponds, streams, and creeks in the USA, including those "ponds" which show up only after hard rain and disappear in a couple of days.  EPA will be "regulating" those puddles which will be 'waterways'.

(No surprise:  the National Resources Development Council (NRDC) is behind all this.  Like Sierra Club, this bunch is a watermelon:  green on the outside, red on the inside.)

...under the EPA’s proposed waters rule, Lentz is concerned the agency could stop him from farming as much has 80 percent of his lands, because at some times of the year they are covered in water.

"Some times" is the key phrase.  EPA will 'benevolently' rule over farmlands FULL-time for a sometimes thing because "craft brewers" don't want to pay for sanitizing the water they use.

Does quaffing craft ale make you into a totalitarian-lover?

Have a Family? Eat Dirt Under ObozoCare!

Only another 2 million victims of ObozoCare, the "keep your doctor/keep your health-plan" scam of the century.

(By the way, is 9.5% of your income really "affordable"?)

'Fixing' Ballots: The Counter to Voter ID

Since Wisconsin voters will have to produce ID, the lefties have come up with a new trick:  a confusing ballot.

And GAB wouldn't talk about any aspect of the change process, which only confirms the El Slimo Jefe reputation of Kennedy and his far-left staff.

Graphic design:  the new War on Conservatives!!

Clemson Voyeur-versity

So. 

Clemson mandates that its students and faculty confess their sexual adventures or risk 'code of conduct' violation which could prevent graduation.

All in the name of "Title IX Training," you understand.  And, of course, it's a perfectly secure internet thing; you only have to sign in with your name, email address, and student number. 

Students are pleased that they don't have to submit pictures of the activity/ies.

Yet.

Once Again, Ryan Votes for ObozoCare

ObozoCare is, arguably, the single most pernicious pus-oozing wound on the US economy.

250,000 Virginia health policies--cancelled.  250,000 policies held by immigrants may be cancelled b/c the immigrants are illegals (but Obozo stalled that for a couple of years.)  Minnesota's largest ObozoCare insurer just dropped out of the plan.  Deductibles are up, full-time employment is down, and so is "employment" in general--small biz is simply not hiring due to ObozoCare requirements.  Nuns are still being persecuted by Obozo, although for the time being he's not executing them like ISIS would.

And yes, Paul Ryan voted to continue it as is.

The Bi-Partisan Stench of Washington D.C.

A curious vignette mentioned by Andy McCarthy vis-a-vis the Benghazi hearings.

...Intriguing questions have also been raised by Judicial Watch’s Micah Morrison about the activities of Aegis Defense Services, a military contractor active in Libya that has close ties to the U.S. intelligence community. One of Aegis’s top U.S. executives was Kristi Rogers, the wife of Congressman Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers’ committee was responsible for investigating the Benghazi Massacre, including the CIA’s still unexplained mission there. As Eli Lake has reported, Rogers gave a pass to CIA officials accused by others of stonewalling his committee, and he vigorously opposed the appointment of a select committee. Recently, Rep. Rogers abruptly announced he would not seek reelection to his safe congressional seat and coveted chairmanship; Mrs. Rogers resigned first from Aegis and then, quite suddenly, from a law firm she’d joined only 13 months earlier – a law firm that had touted the “top secret facility security clearance” Mrs. Rogers had obtained for Aegis, and her creation of a board of directors that included two former senior CIA officials....

There's very good reason that actual Conservatives have zero respect for Republicans.

I won't miss "Lightbulb" Rogers, the ultra-jackass who banned incandescent bulbs.  It would be nice to see him in Club Fed, just for that offense alone.  But if he's also complicit in the Benghazi slaughter, I think he should be sent--alone--to fight ISIS.

Reality Check

Noted by Cold Fury, this brief column reminds us that politicians are .......apocalyptic gasbags.

“We’re in the most dangerous position we’ve ever been in as a nation,” claimed Senator Inhofe, the top ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee not long ago. John McCain warns that the “Islamic State is the “biggest threat we’ve ever faced.” More dangerous than the strife experienced during the Civil War. More serious than facing fascism. Scarier than the atomic age. A greater existential threat than communism during the Cold War. That’s chilling, for sure.

So what happens if America fails to engage ISIS in the manner prescribed by these senators? Well, as Lindsey Graham recently noted, the “president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed here at home.”

All of us?

ISIS could do Flyover Country a big favor and begin its work in D.C., of course.  I'd love to see a one-on-one winner-take-all between Sen. Graham and the current caliph.  Winner gets to occupy Congress for the next 2 years.

Can't be much worse than EPA and IRS, can it?

Cdl Burke Out

Not really a shock, but still a surprise.

Sandro Magister, who has emerged as the most authoritative and reliable of Vaticanists in the reign of Pope Francis, reports in his column for today, September 17, that Raymond Cardinal Burke is about to be removed from the position of Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, and from the Roman Curia altogether. His new position? That of "Cardinal Patron" of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a symbolic position usually reserved either for retiring Prelates, or as a merely extra position for this or that Curial head. A symbolic position devoid of the governing responsibilities that come from being the Prefect of a Curial Congregation or Tribunal, or of a Pontifical Council, or of a major Archdiocese.

Curiouser and curiouser.  Of course, Magister could be wrong. 

Hmmmmmm.

HT:  Rorate

The Abortion Industry's C-in-C

The biggest war that Obozo is fighting is his war on unborn babies.  This IS a war he can fight from the 9th hole--which explains his enthusiasm.

...Again and again, during the congressional debate, Obamacare defenders promised: Obamacare subsidies won't subsidize abortion; customers will be able to choose insurance plans that don't cover abortion; Obamacare subsidies, if they want to pay for abortion coverage, will be billed separately....

Wrong.

...The new GAO study shows that, instead, taxpayers are subsidizing abortions. Customers in five states have no abortion-free plans available to them, and in many states, customers can't tell which plans cover abortion and which don't....

Maybe Paul Ryan would say that this is all a misunderstanding, or something.  He certainly hasn't acted to cut off funding on the Abortion Front.

What "Foreign Policy" Is "Right," Paul?

Rep. Ryan was on national TV.

...Then, unprompted by Todd, Ryan began to praise Obama's recent foreign policy decisions. "I can say a lot of ugly things about his past foreign policy but I think he's now getting it better and a little more right," Ryan said....

Umnnhhhh.....OK, I'll bite:  what, exactly, is "better" and "more right", Paul?

By the way, Mr. Ryan, your call for 'dialog' with the socialist totalitarians on the domestic front is all very nice.  But as a Catholic, you should have read your Chesterton.

I'll help:

...war itself is not one thing at all, but is necessarily the collision of two things. And one half of the war is right simply because the other half of the war is wrong....

The Left--which has become Extremist in toto--has been at war with the Constitution (and Catholicism) for well over 75 years.  That 'other half' is wrong, Paul.  Is patty-cake your proposal?

GKC on Peaceniks

Chesterton was a bright guy.  Here he talks about the peaceniks:

...they cannot bring themselves simply to distinguish between wars that are right and wars that are wrong. I should say, rather, perhaps, attacks or resistances; for the war itself is not one thing at all, but is necessarily the collision of two things. And one half of the war is right simply because the other half of the war is wrong.

True dat.

HT:  Rorate

Did Cruz Provoke the Boos?

Apparently Ted Cruz wants him some Press and pushed the envelope--hard--to get it.

Douthat is suggesting that the crowd wasn’t booing Israel, instead, they were booing Cruz for playing politics — for having the audacity to lecture them about their own business.

Unhhhhh....hmmmm?

Cruz' assertion--that Catholics in the Middle East have 'no greater friend' than Israel--may or may not be correct.  But the conference was not about Israel at all.

So now the conference is all about Cruz.  Well, he got what he wanted.

The question is:  is that what Americans want?

The Best Way to Start a War? Lie Like Hell!

To some, Winston Churchill was a hero.

To the families of US troops killed during WWI, he was--indirectly--a murderer.

In 1907, Britain launched the Lusitania, “the greyhound of the sea,” the fastest passenger ship afloat. In 1913, Churchill called in the head of Cunard and said Lusitania would have to be refitted for a war he predicted would break out in September 1914....

Following some chicanery by Churchill--who was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time---...

...German naval commanders began to order submarines to sink merchant ships on sight....

A practice with which a Brit naval commander approved.

...Churchill, seeing an opportunity to bring America into Britain’s war, wrote the Board of Trade: “It is most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hope especially of embroiling the United States with Germany. … We want the traffic—the more the better—and if some of it gets into trouble, the better still.” ...

Of course, Woodhead Wilson was complicit; he refused to keep US citizens off British ships and out of war zones, and he would NOT prevent US flagged ships from carrying war materiel.

On May 1, 1915, Lusitania set sail from New York. As Windchy writes, the ship “secretly carried munitions and Canadian troops in civilian clothes, which legally made it fair game for (German) U-boats....

...German diplomats in New York warned American passengers they were in danger on the Lusitania. And instead of sailing north of Ireland to Liverpool, the Lusitania sailed to the south, into waters known to be the hunting ground of German submarines....

Yah.  Then came Versailles, followed by the rise of Hitler and WWII.

Thanks, Winston!

Was Posner Right?

With a little scholarship, Posner's gay-marriage decision becomes highly suspect.  Not because he refuses to consider the moral position, but rather because Posner's philosophy is fundamentally amoral.

....he argues that homosexual orientation is genetic, an immutable and innate characteristic rather than a choice. To support this he cites a 2008 brochure from the American Psychological Association – not exactly the summit of genetic scholarship, although admittedly, it is the APA’s official view. However, no genetic cause has yet been identified; homosexuality’s origin is still an open question. Besides, if homosexuality is genetic, it should have disappeared according to evolutionary theory, as homosexuals do not produce offspring. Posner acknowledges that this is a problem, but says that the “kin selection  hypothesis” shows that homosexuality is compatible with evolutionary theory. What he doesn’t say is that the kin selection hypothesis is so controversial that it has been criticized by the Harvard evolutionary biologist who popularized it in the first place, Edward O. Wilson. Whether this is true or false is a matter for the scientists to work out. But the genetic origin of homosexuality is unsettled and contestable....

Hmmmm.  He finds a scientist who argues against his own theory and adopts it.  Really?

...he argues that same-sex marriage does no harm to the institution of marriage or to society at large. This is a claim which is impossible to prove in less than two generations....[and] ...Posner seems quite impressed by a recent study which analysed whether marriage rates fell after Massachusetts permitted same-sex marriage. “Allowing same-sex  marriage has no  effect on the heterosexual marriage rate,” he concludes. So what?...

Always an excellent question, by the way.

...Posner says that the welfare of children should be front and centre of arguments about marriage. Since marriage is the best place to raise children, he argues, it is discriminatory to deny homosexual couples the right to raise their children within the framework of marriage.

But he only considers the material benefits of a hefty household income. The real question is whether a marriage with a mother and a father is the best place to raise children. Posner ignores almost completely the psychological effects on children of growing up in a heterosexual marriage, focused as he is on the rights of adults.

How could such a brilliant scholar offer such conventional arguments about social morality based on such weak evidence?

Well!!  Glad you asked!!

...Posner defends his view of the relationship between morality and law. He calls himself a “moral subjectivist”, arguing that “an individual acts immorally only when he acts contrary to whatever morality he has adopted for himself. I am sympathetic to this position.”...

Yes, really.

This creates some problems.

Posner actually defended the following positions:  1)  It is impossible even to say that a practice like female genital mutilation is wrong; 2)  There are no actions which are always everywhere wrong, even infanticide; 3) ...the Nazis cannot be condemned in any objective way. In the light of the moral standards of the countries which won World War II their actions were appalling crimes. But these were just the feelings of the victors.

I suppose, then, that one could defend 'taking out' certain judges--as does the Mafia--under #2 above.  To the Mafia, that sort of thing is simple self-defense, and that's certainly a good reason, no?

Although I have never argued the morality of homosexual activity, choosing instead to argue from Nature, there is no question that homosexual activity is morally wrong.  In fact, it is gravely disordered.

Yah, even Ron Reagan made mistakes.  This was a big one.

Chisholm Not Partisan, of Course

Milwaukee's DA claims that his persecution of conservative groups is "not partisan."

We now know that in fact, it was NOT "partisan."

It was nookie.

The Dumbness of Ann Coulter

It's no wonder that Coulter couldn't draw an audience in Milwaukee and as a result cancelled her appearance.  She's kinda......ahhh......dumb.

Surveying the wreckage of a mere two years of a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress, all Americans should be focused like a laser beam on putting the Senate in Republican hands.--Coulter, 9/11/14

Ann, you twit:  "Republican" has nothing whatsoever to do with "conservative."  Filling Congress with Boehners and McConnells is not different in kind than filling Congress with any other group of grifters or charlatans, or two-bit hustlers.

Get real, Ann.

Let's Amend the Constitution

The street-hustlers who call themselves "Members of Congress" need a serious yank on their leashes.

...If this CR is enacted, the current Congress must return to Washington in a “lame-duck” session and vote for yet another funding bill before Dec. 11. That will allow members thrown out by voters in November to come back and vote to fund the government into next year--if not for the rest of fiscal 2015, which will end on Sept. 30, 2015....

Umnnhhh, yah.  Just like ObozoCare was "enacted," remember?

So.

The next Amendment should remove legislative power from Congress following an election until new Members are seated--or allow only those Members who are RE-elected to vote.

A better way, of course, is to vote out all of them and start over.  Or something like that.

RoJo: Kill Off EPA, Part Two

We are reminded that EPA's Green Jihad also threatens the nation's food supply. 

And since EPA is determined to corn-a-hole us with their damned corn-liquor gasoline, they also threaten the food supply of tens of millions of impoverished people in other countries who subsist on corn-based diets.

RoJo!!  The Time Is NOW!!

RoJo: Kill Off the EPA Jihadists

It is clear that the EPA is full of zealots who are waging Green Jihad against flyover country.

...A report published by the Institute for 21^st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlines the stark economic impacts of the proposed Clean Power Plan. Between 2014 and 2030, the U.S. GDP will see an average annual economic loss of $51 billion, an average decline of 224,000 job losses per year, and an average annual loss of real disposable income topping $200. It is also likely that those families with low and fixed incomes with bear the greatest financial burdens associated with these proposed regulations.

Further, EPA Jihadists, like their (current) President and Attorney General, are at war with the 9th Amendment to the Constitution:

...The proposed Clean Power Plan also represents a significant change in the relationship between the EPA and the states in the environmental regulatory making process. ...Since the time of the New Deal, the regulation of retail electricity sales and local distribution has been a sovereign state function and the 1935 Federal Power Act limits the authority of federal regulators to “only those matters which are not subject to the regulation by the States.” The proposed Clean Power Plan radically alters this relationship....

And their swarms of regulators will make our quarters virtually uninhabitable:

...The EPA itself concedes that 50 gigawatts of installed baseload capacity will be forced into retirement by 2020 due directly to the proposed Plan. This would come in addition to the 70 gigawatts of installed capacity that have already been retired or will retire in compliance with other EPA regulations. This 120 gigawatts of installed capacity is no small number – it is roughly equivalent to the amount of generation needed to power 60 million homes....

As destructive as that plan is, it is only one of the battles that EPA is conducting against the US citizenry.  Other jihads are running against the automobile, factories, wood-burning stoves, and anyone living near a ditch which might carry water.

It's long past time for someone--ANYone--to begin a counter-offensive against EPA.

Maybe RoJo will take it up, if McConnell lets him.

Sometimes I Feel Like Following the Law,....

....sometimes I don't....

"Whenever we can, we follow the law," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health on Wednesday. --quoted at AOSHQ

That smarmy little pants-stain just gave up the whole game of the Obozo Administration.

Gun Control Repeaters

Hate the pun, love the punner....right?

Anyhooo......it seems that there's nothing new in the world.  The Million Mommy Hen-in-Charge figured out how to end Gun Violence (!!!)

...The only way we can truly be safe and prevent further gun violence is to ban civilian ownership of all guns. That means everything. No pistols, no revolvers, no semiautomatic or automatic rifles. No bolt action. No breaking actions or falling blocks. Nothing....

And how will THAT happen?

...What we need to do is establish the regulatory and informational institutions first. This is how we do it.  The very first thing we need is national registry. We need to know where the guns are, and who has them....

Yah, we've seen that before, but very few have been stupid enough to put it in writing, sistah.

By the way--before you go all goo-goo about "registry", check the results of that law in Massachusetts.  IIRC, it was a 90% fail.

HT:  Captain's

ObozoCare: Worse, Worser, and Worstest

Remember Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Senator who was going to "repeal Obamacare"?  Yah, I heard of the guy.  Last time he talked about this, he was going to "fix" it.  He won't, by the way; McConnell won't let him.

The fifth column's agitprop notwithstanding, ObozoCare continues to piss off everyone--except the hospitals (who profited), the insurance companies (who profited), and the thousands of new bureaucrat-drones who have a fire-proof job with REAL 'healthcare' benefits.  And it's going to get a lot worse, folks.

Rate increases are modest, sez the MSM.  Good, no?

No.

The insurers don't have enough actuarial experience to come up with real numbers--and besides, Obozo gave 'em all the money they wanted through the tricks and gimmicks in the law.

Want real solid numbers (and a horrific increase in rates)?  Wait until 2017.  By sheer co-incidence, Obozo will be out of office and most of the (D) slime who voted for it will have lost their election or will retire--or are in completely 'safe' districts.

Another thing:

How many people are enrolled in Obamacare? Without a government to insurance company accounting system yet built, no one knows. 

Hmmmm.

Then there's the "baseline premium decrease" story.  Yes, it's true--but it's not ALL of the true.

...The new 2015 Silver baseline plan may have a lower premium than the 2014 Silver baseline plan. But that is almost always because the insurance company that held that slot in 2014, and almost always got the largest share of business, significantly increased their rates for 2015.

Then another insurance company, who didn't write much business and likely now eager to increase market share, decreased their rates and has become the 2015 baseline plan. The second company was able to decrease their rates without much fear because the Obamacare "3Rs" reinsurance scheme virtually protects them from any material losses....

That's a glacial-speed version of the "hide the pea" game played--illegally--in New York City.

Oh, yah!  Remember the BSOD-enriched "enrollment" process?  It's baaaa---aaack!!

 ...however many million people (pick any number other than 8 million) are still enrolled, everyone really needs to visit their state exchange or HealthCare.gov in the month between November 15 and December 15 in order to have their January 2015 enrollment validated, to be sure their income information is up-to-date, and to be sure they are enrolled in the optimal plan for the best subsidy.

Five to ten million people all trying to get through exchange websites between November 15 and December 15? Add however many people are going to sign-up for the first time this November to all of those existing participants re-enrolling for January 1, who will all be hitting the still fragile Healthcare.gov and state exchanges during that four week period, and it is not hard to see how Obamacare could be back in the news....

Last thing I'll mention is this:  the deductibles go up in lockstep with cost-trend and rates.

Should be a helluva great year for consumer 'free cash' next year, eh?

The Fix: Big Banks, Again

Well, well.  The Big Banks were price-fixing, eh?

Surprised?  Then you're living under a rock for the last.....ohhhh......10 years or so.

HT:  Ticker

By the way, yes indeed!!  The list includes Goldie and Chase.

The Mega-Recession

In a series of very revealing graphs, the Fed Reserve maps the mega-recession which began in the mid-2000's.  Yes, I said MID-2000's--because that's when median incomes began to collapse.

Since (roughly) '08, asset-holdings also collapsed.

There are exceptions:  the upper 10%, and the cohort in the 65-74 age range but it's complicated:  see the graphs.

"Stimulus"?  Bullshit.

HT:  ZeroHedge

(R) Strategy: Screw the Taxpayers!

Sure, the Pubbies have a strategy! 

...current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti Murray deal that had included a tax hike. However, that is subject to change.

Third, and probably most significantly, they will make sure the continuing resolution expires after the election, but before January. That will free them up to go back for a lame duck session where outgoing members can use their votes to pass amnesty, tax increases, and further extend the Ex-Im bank.

After all, what counts more?  You, or the Cronies?

Hmmmmm??

Cdl Dolan Steps In It

Sometimes Cardinals of the church should tell their PR advisers what Jesus told Peter:

"Get thee away from me, Satan....."

That assumes that the Cardinals actually know what is going on.  Cardinal Dolan's latest foray into 'we're all one big family/hail-fellow-well-met/hearty guffaws' Irish politicking is--at best--ill-advised.

At worst, it tells us that His Grace does not understand that admonition IS a part of love.

Just Co-Incidence: IRS v. Breitbart

Strictly co-incidence that IRS demanded:

.....all of its organizational documents, financial records, W-2s, W-4s, 1099s, and K-1s filed, personal income tax returns for each member of the company, payroll tax forms, information regarding properties and assets acquired by the company, bank statements, and array of other records documenting revenues, expenses, and depreciation costs....

...from the conservative news source, Breitbart.

We all know that the IRS is just as pure as John Chisholm's wife.

Chisholm's Harridan Wife? Really?

According to at least one source, John Chisholm's war against conservatives and the First Amendment was started and has been kept alive due to John Chisholm's wife, a union member.

If true, there's only one conclusion here:  John Chisholm is not man enough for the job he has.

But his wife, Colleen, is!

ObozoCare Wunnerful? Not So Fast!

The propaganda that ObozoCare is just fine and dandy has begun (again.)

But there are plenty of reasons to doubt, beginning with a still-unbuilt "back end" of the ObozoCare systems--which is supposed to verify eligibility--and the massive tax subsidies awarded to whoring insurance companies.

Did VanHollen Throw the Game?

A writer hints that perhaps the Wisconsin's A.G. threw the game on gay "marriage" through sheer incompetence before the 7th Circuit. 

Nothing would surprise me about Van Hollen.

Positivizing the Eschaton at SCOTUS

It's likely that SCOTUS will be Positivizing the Eschaton of gay "marriage" in the next couple of years.  That'll happen despite the clear will of the people in three dozen States.  But Fed Gummint judges can't stop themselves from trampling all over the 9th Amendment;  it's what Fed judges do, as the scorpion famously said.

When that happens, let us remember the semi-immortal words of Justice Kennedy:

...The laws on marriage are typically made in the States, but there are many questions that must arise in federal law about the meaning of marriage – e. g., who counts as a “married couple” in immigration and naturalization, in matters of taxation, or benefits in the military?

  

But Justice Kennedy would write, with a straight face, that this federal portion of DOMA had trodden upon the  “historic and essential authority [of the States] to define the marital relation,” and sought to “influence or interfere with state sovereign choices about who may be married.”

Why are those "semi-immortal" words?

Because Kennedy will kill them off.  

Abrogating the Rule of Law, Part 15,467

The Obozo-ite march toward the Totalitarian Dream continues at the DC Circuit.

....because the current administration recognized this court as critical in future legal challenges to Obamacare, they wanted to – and hypocritically did – shift the balance of the court in a decidedly Progressive way – which is to say in a way which recognizes almost no limits on government power nor on the appropriate behavior of judges in expanding that power.

On Thursday, those malign efforts paid off for Obama and Reid as the DC Circuit agreed to an en banc review (all of the judges rehearing the case after it is initially decided by a three-judge panel) of the July 22^nd ruling in Halbig v Burwell that the IRS may not issue subsidies to those who purchase health insurance plans through the federal insurance exchange known as Healthcare.gov – because the plain text of the law specifies that subsidies are available on exchanges “established by the State.” In fact, this language is in the law twice....

Plain text be damned, full speed ahead, eh?

...The judges should consider the ramifications of what they do next. An overturning of the original panel’s ruling will properly be considered a purely political move leading to a further erosion of the public’s trust in our highest courts....

This is important because if the en banc reverses, SCOTUS will not likely take up the case unless Roberts suddenly obtains a conscience over his ridiculous ruling in NFIB.

So.  The citizen will be forced to ask "what 'law'?"--just as the citizen will be asking about queer "marriage" when plebiscites are over-ruled in black-letter violation of the 10th Amendment.

EPA: Where's the (R) House?

It's a given that IRS management is filled with crooks and liars, and that an actually-conservative House of Representatives would act to change civil service law to eradicate the cancer, since IRS is the most potent weapon of the Gummint aside from the military.

But the second-most potent Gummint weapon of war, domestically, is EPA.  It, too, is filled with crooks and liars, and that screams for similar reforms:  change civil-service laws and fire a bunch of its employees.

Aside from some show-trials, none of them effective, the "conservative" House has done diddly-squat on either of these enemies of the people.

...For example, the 2012 Utility MACT rule was peddled as essential to reduce mercury emissions (at a cost of $10.5 billion annually). But as documented by the Chamber study, the vast majority of benefits claimed by the EPA—nearly $62 billion—actually were derived from reductions of particulate matter. The reduction of mercury, meanwhile, is credited by the agency with a comparatively measly $400 million in benefits.

Similarly, the EPA’s emissions standard for sulfur dioxide is credited by the EPA as producing $2 million in benefits from the sulfur dioxide reductions but $29 billion in benefits from reductions of particulate matter...

This is called "bait and switch," which is also known as fraud.

But "fraud" is not a prosecutable offense when committed by Gummint, even with a "conservative" House.

We'll hear the girlymen yammer about '1/2 of 1/3rd.'  We are not impressed.

Elon Musk, Tax-Sucker Extraordinaire

If you don't get the term "crony capitalist" yet, perhaps this story will help.

....the nasty little secret about renewables is that the sun doesn’t shine enough to make any power 70% of the time and the winds tend to blow in the spring and fall, which are periods of low energy demand. Furthermore, sometimes the wind blows and sometime the sun shines. 
 
This intermittence requires utilities to pay very high fees under the Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act to provide “Qualifying Facilities” stand-by carbon based power plants that are available to be quickly cranked-up to maintain the power to their electric grids on a 24/7 basis. 

The California Public Utilities Commission regulation allows full pass-through percentage markup on all purchased utility costs in the state. Consequently, it is more advantageous for utilities to pay higher costs to buy power. This explains why utilities are so enthusiastic to pay the high subsidized cost of “sustainably” generated power.

Since battery power has been politically deemed to be “sustainable power”, SolarCity and Tesla intend to manufacture huge “battery farms” in states like California that can be recharged at low electrical rates and then receive fees from utilities as stand-by power sources, regardless if the battery power is ever used. 
Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX are headquartered in California. As CEO, Elon Musk successfully led lobbying for each of these companies to receive huge amounts of government subsidies from the state. Having proved that he is the best CEO at getting subsidies from California taxpayers, Elon Musk seems to have chosen to switch where he is building his new factory to Nevada in order to avoid being a taxpayer.

If you STILL don't get it, please:  do not vote in any elections.  Ever.

Useful Self-Defense Tip

Vox comments on the 5-on-2 attack of the other night.  You'll figure out his use of the term "vibrants" unless you live under a rock.

...This is why you must carry. If both those victims had had compact .357s, there would be five fewer predators out there looking for kicks through beating up white people. Remember, vibrants never fight fair, so you always have to be prepared to deal with at least three of them at a time, and four is the safer assumption. Or, as in this case, five.

If you're armed, it's actually better if there is more than one attacker because it's that much less likely that the pro-diversity crowd will try to concoct a case against you. Just don't pull a Bernie Goetz and shoot anyone in the back or when they're already down.

Even if you can't carry a gun for some reason, a serrated three-inch blade on your keychain will be enough to address the first attacker. Get the blade out, keep your hand out of sight as the first attacker comes in, stay low, drive in with your left shoulder, rear hand in and up, and the attacker should be out of commission before he even knows you're armed. Don't try to warn them off, because when outnumbered you want surprise on your side. Vibrants tend to be cowardly, as you can see by the way they dart in and out when they attack, so they're probably not going to stick around after the first guy goes down. But don't pause and wait for them to run off, move in and take out the second one as soon as the first one is incapacitated....

Good stuff.

Saddam, The Mob, and Joan Rivers

Found near the end of a Noonan obit on Joan Rivers:

...Twenty years ago, when everyone was talking about how wonderful it was that Vegas had been cleaned up and the mob had been thrown out, Joan said no, no, no, they are ruining the mystique. First of all, she said, those mobsters knew how to care for a lady, those guys with bent noses were respectful and gentlemen, except when they were killing you. Second, she said, organized crime is better than disorganized crime, which will replace it....

Joan Rivers should have been GWB's foreign affairs adviser instead of the NeoCon horde of prissy-twits (see, e.g., Wm. Kristol.)  Unlike Kristol et.al., Joan understood the human condition.  Now we see in Iraq what Rivers understood about Vegas. 

HRC Trolls for MegaBucks

News item:

Clinton called climate change “the most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face as a nation and a world.”

Umnnhhh.....yah.  That's her way of asking for Crony Capitalist megabucks.

Is GE listening??

ISIS, What to Do

What to do about ISIS?

Arm the daylights out of the ISIS foes in the Middle East and support them with air power and intel.

There are plenty of ISIS foes. 

Then strip US passports from everyone who left here to join ISIS, and refuse entry to anyone with a European passport who did the same.  That's not all:  if we know they've been there, pack their US belongings into a dumpster and toss it into a landfill.  Or a bonfire, whichever is easiest.

Remember this:  GWB and the War Party destabilized Iraq; Obozo deposed an elected gummint there, too.  It appears from the evidence that the US is simply incapable of making a good choice (other than helping Israel) in the Middle East.

So stick to what we CAN do well, rinse, and repeat.

What Is Cdl. Dolan Doing?

When Bill Clinton was President, the nation learned how to parse words carefully.

So.  When the Archdiocese of New York blabbers about "allowing people" to walk in the St Patrick's Day parade, it is important to note that ALL "people" have been allowed to 'walk in the parade.'

But they have NOT been allowed to carry signage, posters, banners, or flags which contradict or derogate from Catholic teachings.

Until now.

One may ask "why."

Here's the simple rule:  Follow The Money.

Same as with Milwaukee's adoption of Common Core for its remaining Catholic schools:  it is the money from the Choice program that drove that decision, not pedagogy, nor Catholic cultural values.

It's true:  a man cannot serve two masters.

The Rules of ISIS

Found at the Captain's Journal.  These are the ISIS rules after they capture a new territory:

“No drugs, no alcohol and no cigarettes allowed,” it added.

"No public gathering other than those organised by ISIS will be allowed at any stage. No guns will be allowed outside of its ranks."

No alcohol, no cigarettes?  That's bad enough.  But that's Totalitarianism, just like their 'guns' rule.

"Moderate Muslims"? An Interesting Thesis

So.

What's a "moderate Muslim"?  Here's a provocative insight:

...The real Islam is a topic that non-Muslims of no faith who hold sacred only the platitudes of a post-everything society are eager to lecture on without knowing anything about it.

Their Islam is not the religion of Mohammed, the Koran, the Hadiths, the Caliphs or its practitioners in such places as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq or Indonesia. Their Islam is a religion that does not exist, but that they fervently believe must exist because without it their way of life is as doomed as the dodo.

They aren’t Muslims. They have no faith in Allah or the Koran. Instead they have faith in the goodness of an Islam that exists without resort to scriptures, theology or deity....

In other words, a "moderate" Muslim is no different than a secular Jew, or a secular Catholic.  And there are plenty of those folks around.  Why should Mohammedanism have a different spectrum of adherence than Judaism or Catholicism, especially in the ultra-secular West?

Huh.

HT:  ColdFury

What JPII Said, Again

St. John Paul II warned the US against the Iraq war. 

There was a reason for that:  he knew that--as despicable as Hussein was--that Hussein's fall would leave Iraq to an even less desirable fate.

He was right.

Now comes James Antle to outline Chapter Three in that story--the one that's playing out in the US today.

And Hell will freeze over before Wolfson, McCain, or any of that crowd, will say "We was wrong."

And yes, I gave GWB the benefit of the doubt back then.  But (go ahead and look for it in this blog) I gave him only a 51% 'right' v. 49% 'wrong' margin, largely because he was privy to intel.

As it turns out, "intel" was largely bullshit of the NeoCon variety. 

And I apologize.

Say WHAT, Ms. Happ?

Rather tantalizing story here.

Seems that Ms. Happ, the (D) candidate for State Attorney General, was.......ahhhh.......a bit slow in issuing sex assault charges against some guy who was paying for a house she sold under land contract.

Hmmmm.

Umpty-Bazillion Dollar FAIL

That would be Obozo's D.H.S. and Obozo's State Department.

This while the meatball girly-boy rouses rabble in Milwaukee.

Let's face the facts:  Obozo is the single largest threat to US national security since King George.