Monday, March 29, 2010

Arrest in the Eric Cantor Death Threat Case

A Philadelphia man was arrested Monday for posting death threats on YouTube against House Minority Whip Eric Cantor.

The best part of the story is that "The Department of Justice takes threats against government officials seriously."

Since there have been no arrests for anyone "threatening" Democrat leaders, despite the Justice Department taking such threats seriously, you really have to wonder if such threats happened.

Obama's Broken Promises

National Review has compiled a list of all of President Obama's broken promises to date.

I have to admit though, I am glad he broke some of them - like closing Guantanamo Bay within a year, having troops out of Iraq within 16 months, signing the Freedom of Choice Act and opposing nuclear energy.

On the other hand, with most of the other broken promises, my guess is that he never intended to keep any of them.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Massive Job Losses on the Horizon

School districts across the country will be laying off teachers and staff in the coming months. For example, Los Angeles Unified plans to cut 5200 jobs. 93% of New Jersey school districts will conduct layoffs. 8500 teachers will likely lose their jobs in New York. And these cuts are playing out all across the country.

This statistics are unfortunate for the teachers involved. But they are also interesting for another reason.

Taking Los Angeles Unified as an example, the school district had planned to lay off over 7000 employees last year. But an influx of funds from the stimulus bill allowed the district to keep all but 2000 employed. One year later, there is no more stimulus money for the schools and so the remaining employees will be let go in 2010 instead.

So, the interesting question is: will President Obama reduce the calculation on the number of jobs "saved" by the stimulus bill? If a job is only extended for a year, is the job "saved?" I think I know how the people laid off would answer that question.

The Arrogance is Astounding

"Go for it."

That's what President Obama told Congressional Republicans about their intent to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

We already knew Obama was completely full of himself, so this is just one more brick in the wall.

Hopefully, Obama's bravado will push Republicans along even further to seeking to repeal and replace the bill. Apparently there is already some concern in Washington that seeking to repeal the bill will be viewed poorly by the public.

But, if this CBS poll is any indication, most people want the Republicans to repeal the bill - and that includes 41% of Democrats asked.

So, let's hope the GOP does take Obama's advice. Go for it!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Obama Campaign Continues

Campaigner-in-Chief Obama just can't let up. He spent the past year trying to sell ObamaCare, and the more he talked, the more people turned against it.

But now that it has passed, and Democrats stand to lose a substantial number of seats in November, Obama is making a concerted effort to increase public perception of the bill. It hasn't worked so far, so I wonder how successful it will be now.

And in reality, doesn't this seem backward. Now that he and Congress have foisted this on us, he is trying to convince us he has done us all a favor. It's not as bad as Nancy Pelosi saying, "We have to pass the bill before we will tell you what's in it," but it is along the same lines.

The funny thing is, he obviously doesn't care about public perception or else he wouldn't have passed it until he had the support of a majority of people. Instead, he only cares about saving control of Congress from what will surely be an albatross around their collective neck.

I doubt it will work - as the taxes and fees start up in the coming months, without the attendant benefits of the plan, the public will just get more and more angry.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Well, A Bit of Good News

ACORN is closing it doors.

There have been stories for a few weeks that the community organizing (and prostitution-enabling) group was struggling financially. Well, apparently the group is shutting down and trying to figure out how to pay off its debts.

This is a big win for Andrew Breitbart, James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and everyone else who helped to expose their corruption.

Of course, the bad news is that ACORN is just one part of a vast network of corrupt liberal organizations that will continue on once this group folds.

Time to get to work bringing down the next one!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Constitutional Challenges All that Protect Us from ObamaCare Now

Thankfully, lawsuits will be filed all across the country challenging the Constitutionality of ObamaCare.

The best grounds to challenge it are, of course, that it mandates people to buy insurance.

Sadly, any average citizen cannot sue, because they will not be deemed to have "standing" to sue - there is no general taxpayer standing except for a challenge to spending that allegedly violates the Establishment Clause (which is pretty ridiculous in my book).

Instead, lawsuits will have to be filed by states or by individuals who don't have health insurance and don't want to buy it and therefore will be harmed by the mandates.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Way to Stand Strong Bart!

Congressman Bart Stupak claimed to have eight pro-choice votes in his pocket. But even if it had only been the 4 that others thought he had, he would have had enough to stop ObamaCare if he hadn't caved. Needing 216 votes, Nancy Pelosi cobbled together 219 - take away the Stupak 4 and you're at 215, which is a fail.

But no, in the immortal words of Joey Tribiani - "He folded like a cheap hooker who got punched in the stomach by a fat guy with sores on his face."

Stupak could have been a hero - but he went down like all the rest.

I cannot believe he is actually pro-life; instead his actions were an attempt at political cover to show his anti-abortion constituents that he was trying to protect them. All he got was an "executive order" that cannot override the language in the Senate bill that provides federal funding for abortion.

Way to protect life, sir.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Kill the Bill - Call Your Congressman

Call your Congressman - it might be the only hope we have of stopping the government from taking over the nation's healthcare.

Speaker Pelosi and President Obama are telling wavering Congressmen this: you are going to lose in November anyway, so you might as well pass the bill and have your loss accomplish something.

But what we need to tell them is this: people are going to vote in November based almost exclusively on health care. Any Democrat that votes against it and stops it from happening is going to be a hero to the people and will win re-election, even in a Republican district. The Congressmen that are afraid of losing their jobs will only keep them if they prevent Obamacare from happening.

Joe the Blabbermouth

We can always count on Vice President Joe Biden to say something he probably shouldn't. The latest: "You know we're going to control the insurance companies..."

Thursday, March 18, 2010

House Approves Slaughter Solution

The House voted 222-203 to approve the rule that would allow the House to "deem" the Senate healthcare bill passed when the House votes to pass amendments to the Senate bill

Therefore, it seems a foregone conclusion that the House will vote to approve the amendments, thus deeming the Senate bill passed.

Congratulations America - you now (or very soon will anyway) have government-run healthcare.

Barbara Boxer in Dead Heat

Senator Barbara Boxer (D - Michigan of the West) is facing a difficult challenge in her search for a 4th term in the Senate.

A new Field Poll shows her losing by a point to former Representative Tom Campbell and up a point on former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.

The poll also shows that Campbell has a 26-22 lead over Fiorina for the Republican nomination, with 40 undecided.

Boxer has a 51% unfavorable rating, which is a death knell for any politician seeking reelection.

If she is to lose, it gets Republicans one difficult step closer to reclaiming control of the Senate. Republicans will likely gain seats in North Dakota (open), Delaware (open), Indiana (open), Arkansas (Lincoln), Nevada (Reid). They have a chance for further pickups in Colorado (Bennett) and Pennsylvania (Specter). That gets them to seven. Then they need three more difficult seats out of a group of California, Wisconsin (Feingold - likely to lose if Tommy Thompson enters the race), Illinois (open), New York (Gillenbrand - who would lose to Pataki) and Washington (Murray).

So, it's possible, but will be difficult. However, if Scott Brown can do it, why not the others?

Obama Delays Asia Trip

President Obama has delayed his upcoming trip to Asia.

Is he doing it because he plans to have a bill to sign on Monday?

Or is it because, as MSNBC suggests, he is desperately trying to rally enough support to get 216 votes in the House?

It's a good sign if it's the latter, because that indicates that Pelosi has been unable to do the work herself.

But one has to wonder what sort of tactics President Obama will use to rally that support. After the Louisiana Purchase, Cornhusker Kickback and others, I think we get a sense of what will be happening in Washington the next few days.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

So, How's that Jobs Bill Coming, Mr. President?

Remember how, during the State of the Union Address, President Obama said that the focus for 2010 would be a new jobs bill (which begs the question - why wasn't the focus for 2009 a jobs bill)?

Well, 2010 is nearly a quarter over and we are still talking about health care reform.

As Dennis Kneale says over at CNBC (how he got that job, I'll never know), Obama is Captain Ahab and health care reform is his white whale.

Let it go Mr. President. Focus on something the people actually want.

Hello All

Life has been really busy the past few months (and it will probably continue that way), but that old blogging bug has crept back into my heart. So, I will try to keep it up more faithfully for all of my loyal readers.