July 28, 2014

Halbig decision quote of the month

Dan McLaughlin at Red State had this to say about the specific criticism of good faith in the Halbig decision:
No, The Good Faith Of The Lawsuit Doesn’t Matter: One of the stranger arguments made against Halbig, not only by non-lawyers who don’t know any better but even in the opening lines of Judge Edwards’ dissent, is that the lawsuit is somehow illegitimate because the people filing it are not really trying to help the ACA, but are foes of the statute. Here’s a little secret: people who file lawsuits against federal laws are not usually big fans of those laws. Do you think the Guantanamo detainees who challenged the Military Commissions Act were really just disinterested scholars motivated by a concern for proper functioning of the military justice system? It’s the job of courts to determine the meaning of laws, not the motives of litigants.
BAM!


Obamacare returning to earth like space shuttle Columbia

Too soon?

In 2003 NASA, America, and humanity suffered a loss when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart, piece by piece as it returned to earth.   foam strike on the wing during takeoff doomed the craft and crew as Columbia was exposed to intense heat that melted it's structural integrity and disintegrated the craft in a horrifying display as it attempted to return to earth.

Over a decade later, in the days following the Halbig Supreme Court decision, Obamacare seems to be experiencing a similar fate, albeit at a much slower pace.

The Halbig decision has already experienced some fallout. The architect of some of the Act's language has been caught not once but twice obfuscating on indications that the Act was deliberately designed with the specific faulty language that had led to the court's decision.  This issue is not going to go away quickly because the flaw means that some sort of change to Obamacare will be required.  How is that going to happen with a Republican congress and potentially a Republican senate come election time?

The analogy doesn't end there. The culture at NASA prior to the accident was one that minimized safety.
Several people within NASA pushed to get pictures of the breached wing in orbit. The Department of Defense was reportedly prepared to use its orbital spy cameras to get a closer look. However, NASA officials in charge declined the offer, according to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) and "Comm Check," a book about the disaster... 
Besides the physical cause – the foam – CAIB had a damning assessment about the culture at NASA that led to the foam problem and other safety issues being minimized over the years.
The similarities to the culture among liberals with Obamacare - minimizing the issues - are stark. For example, they argue that the Act`s legal problems are not important. They dutifully point out that two courts reached two different conclusions and arguing that the Halbig conclusion is wrong.  Minimizing the problem was part of the institutional issue at NASA; minimizing the problem seems to be an institutional problem with the liberal mindset as well.  

More pieces will break off of Obamacare in the months and years to come.  Once a complex system starts to come apart, it can`t simply go back together, especially mid-flight.

The same fiery Columbia experienced conclusion awaits Obamacare.

July 27, 2014

Growing call to impeach is a wasted effort

The time to impeach the president has passed, if it ever existed in the sense that it is being called for now.  The time to impeach president Obama was on election day 2012.  It didn't happen.  The role of those who oppose his agenda is clear for the remainder of his term: oppose his agenda.  It's that simple.

(To read more click the link below)

Photo via DMLDaily

Sunday Verse - Luke 6:27-36

Not the easiest set of verses to live by, but good words to remember:
But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

July 26, 2014

Saturday Learning Series - Back on Saturday Again

The continuation of the Constitutional History lectures as shared by Tom Woods carries the Saturday Learning Series forward this week.  The continuing discussion of the Philadelphia Convention takes us through this week.

July 25, 2014

Scandalous behavior

Via Truth Revolt, the growing political myopia of president Obama is apparently contagious among some Hollywood liberals.  Shonda Rhimes, producer of the show Scandal, holding  fundraiser for president Obama at her home (as he traipses around the country raising money for not-another-run-for-president, while a number of crises erupt both at home and abroad), failed to see the scandal beginning to engulf the president's disinterest in the apparent emergencies.
As President Obama arrives in Los Angeles for his $32,000 per plate fundraiser at the home of Shonda Rhimes this week, a local street artist is pointing out the irony of the producer of the hit TV show Scandal, a show about a Washington public relations firm that specializes in managing political scandals, hosting the producer of such actual scandals as the cover-up surrounding the Benghazi attack, the lost hard-drives of IRS officials targeting conservatives, and the Fast and Furious gun running scheme.

Posters went up Monday night all over Hollywood around Rhimes's Hancock Park home and the Sunset Gower Studios where Scandal is filmed. 

The posters feature a modified version of the Scandal logo, which now reads “Scandals” and a quote from Rhimes's infamous commencement speech at Dartmouth where she urged graduates, “Don’t be an asshole.” The artist added a hashtag to the epithet in a seeming nod to another part of Rhimes's speech in which the producer called out online social movements like Michelle Obama's #SaveOurGirls as being faux-activism. “A hashtag is not a movement,” Rhimes declared.
Now her show has been brought into the discussion.  Her own political myopia is not likely to have an impact on her show.  But perhaps  even without that, drawing some attention to it might shake her out of it.

Friday Musical Interlude - Led Zeppelin

I'm not sure I've ever posted a Led Zeppelin Friday Musical Interlude before. There are so many over-shared songs I thought I'd go with a little less shared one - Hey, Hey, What can I do?

Enjoy.

July 24, 2014

Pelosi's "pass it to see what's in it" so far.


Nancy Pelosi once informed Americans that it was necessary to pass the Affordable Care Act to see what was in it.

Well, apparently it's just a bag full of stupid. Thanks for that, Nancy.

Thursday Hillary Bash - Wednesday Warren Warning?

Yesterday I posted a Wednesday Warren Warning for the first time.  I still believe Hillary Clinton is the inevitable Democratic nominee for president in 2016, but now I'd say "almost inevitable" rather than inevitable.  The left, at least the progressive left, is having their temper tantrum with Hillary right now.  After an awful stretch of events recently for Hillary, anyone but Hillary seems to be more plausible than it was 6 months go.

But at some point in 2015, Hillary will be the de facto nominee again for Democrats. Almost inevitably.  While Biden won't step aside for her run, he's not a serious challenger.  Warren however, could somehow manage to duplicate Obama's unlikely successful 2008 run.  But Hillary has stumbled before (in 2008).  And while she's likely to stumble yet again in her march towards the White House, she's probably very happy to be getting her latest stumbles out of the way now instead of later on.

July 23, 2014

Wednesday Warren Warning - inaugural edition

Well...it's not wrong.
A new weekly installment, the Wednesday Warren Warning, as in Elizabeth, the progressive phenom-du-jour.  Given her potential as the most recent flash in the pan for progressives, this may be a short-lived weekly episode post.

In an article on National Review, Jonah Goldberg points out the hypocrisy of Warren regarding the Export Import bank, which subsidizes big business at the expense of taxpayers.
Heritage Action (the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation) invited Senator Elizabeth Warren to speak at an event dedicated to phasing out the Export-Import Bank. The Ex-Im, as it’s known inside the Beltway, has become a favorite target of populist forces on right.

The Ex-Im gives U.S. taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to the foreign customers of giant U.S. corporations that don’t need the help. It socializes the risk while privatizing the profits. Basically, it’s free money for big businesses like GE, Caterpillar, and particularly Boeing (hence the outfit’s nickname, “the Bank of Boeing”). Even Barack Obama, shortly before he became president, derided Ex-Im as “little more than a fund for corporate welfare.”...

Since Warren is the dashboard saint of left-wing populism these days, denouncing big business and Wall Street at every turn, the puckish policy pixies at Heritage Action thought they could enlist her in their cause...

Her spokeswoman told Bloomberg, “Senator Warren believes that the Export-Import Bank helps create American jobs and spur economic growth, but recognizes that there is room for improvement in the bank’s operations.”

Warren’s decision to turn down the invitation sparked numerous charges of hypocrisy from Ex-Im opponents. As one writer for Reason magazine put it, “That’s right: The woman best known for demonizing big businesses nevertheless wants to maintain an outlandishly generous subsidy package for them.”
 The obvious conclusion: Warren as populist as she wants everyone to believe - she wants to keep funding big businesses.  It's a target almost everyone can agree upon, but she won't take action.  She doesn't want to be in bed with her political foes, even when there is common cause.

So there must not be common cause.  As Goldberg points out, the progressive movement,  or its leadership at least, doesn't want to destroy big business, it wants to subjugate it.  They likely figure a few big businesses are more easily brought to heel than a plethora of small businesses.  So progressives like Warren are happy to feed the few, at the expense of taxpayers, in order to keep them on a short leash (to continue with Goldberg's analogy).

The other obvious conclusion:  Warren is certainly no post-partisan.  She's an all or nothing candidate - no compromise with her will be possible.  That's not because she's a progressive and has no ideas the right can tolerate (though there would be very few), but rather because of her intransigence. It will be her way, or no way.  A Warren presidency would leave those of us on the right pining away for Obama as a king of compromise.  

Warren would make Hillary Clinton seem far more palatable by comparison.  And maybe that's the underlying ruse of it all anyway.

July 22, 2014

The (White) House of the Unbelievable

The White House has become so wrapped up in their spin that they are now even having trouble convincing the liberal media that they have a coherent story about the president's focus on matters of real national importance rather than say fundraising for Democrats or vacationing.  And the unbelievable versions of 'the truth' they keep forwarding on Benghazi, or the continuing IRS scandal, or the immigration problem, Gaza or Russia just don't seem to make any sense or have any coherence let alone any level of believability.

Read the links and tell me you can still find believability in the is president and his team.

You think they'd learn to shut up like they have on the targeting of Christians in the Middle East when even the U.N. responded to that one.  But they just can't seem to do that when it comes to trying to make themselves look good.  The irony is that the outcomes are 180 degrees the polar opposite of their intentions as the truth trickles out anyway.  Unbelievable.


July 20, 2014

Saturday Learning Series - a delayed entry

Yes, this is Sunday, and no Saturday Learning Series isn't moving. I've been quite behind this past week and I'm trying to catch up.

We're at the 6th part of the Constitutional History series on Tom Woods' Youtube channel, having left off previously with the Articles of Confederation.

We pick up this time with the Philadelphia Convention.

July 19, 2014

Minimum Standards when hiring government workers

Please?

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

Friday Musical Interlude on Saturday

If you're looking for the Saturday Learning Series today, guess what, it's going to be a day late too.

A day late this week but not a dollar short.  This week's Friday Musical Interlude, the first ever on a Saturday, comes from MGMT.  The song from 2007 is called Kids.


July 17, 2014

Elizabeth Warren - rock star (not).

Earlier I posted about Hillary Clinton losing here cache with the progressive left - and that includes the Huffington Post, which has somehow successfully managed to pass itself off as the being in the center of the political spectrum.  As proof, take a look at this other recent post in the Huffington Post with the headline "Rock Star Elizabeth Warren".

The story links to the original Washington Post article which is somewhat more muted in it's assessment, though not entirely unfavorable:
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Populist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) got a rock-star reception during a standing-room-only campaign rally here Monday, as hundreds of liberal activists cheered her broadsides against corporate interests and voiced hopes that her presence might shift the political winds in an increasingly Republican state.
Here's a news flash for the progressive Huffington Post - 100s of supporters is not a Rock Star. A rally in an "increasingly Republican state" does not make her a Rock Star in that state. In short - she's not a rock star. Sorry. (But not really).


Thursday Hillary Bash - Losing the Left

Has the dependable liberal Huffington Post turned on Hillary Clinton?  In a post to follow this one, the Washington Post talks about Elizabeth Warren's rock star status on the left.  With that happening and now HuffPo clearly less enamored with Hillary, is her star starting to fade, long before the 2016 presidential contest begins?

As far as the far left goes, it sure seems to be the case.  It's not just that Post Huffington is questioning Hillary's credentials, it's how they are doing it.  The salvo clearly comes from the populist left;
In 1992, a 44-year-old attorney made the following remarkable assertion: "For goodness' sake, you can't be a lawyer if you don't represent banks."

The attorney was Hillary Clinton...

Having been an attorney briefly myself, my reaction upon hearing her comment was: "I know nearly a hundred lawyers, but not one represents a bank." My lawyer friends worked for unions, tenants, immigrants, indigent criminal defendants, civil liberties, civil rights, battered women, prisoners on death row, etc. (Which explains why I wasn't a great fit in corporate media.)
Read the last paragraph in the article - Hillary Clinton is part of "the same old Democratic players". Ouch. The left doesn't like her. Maybe she can still win the Democratic nomination without the backing of the progressive left, but her job will be a lot harder. And momentum can have a curious effect, as Hillary herself knows from 2008.

July 16, 2014

Lessons from the "All politics is local" file - Barry vs. Ford

The Marion Barry sting.
Yesterday I wrote about the small conservative South Carolina town that rebelled against their mayor in support of an openly gay police chief that he had fired.  One of the lessons from the issue that I neglected to point out was that local activism will usually result in a more immediate change or have a stronger impact than trying to do the same at a  statewide or national level.  Enough local impact combined can then have a statewide impact and so too national impact down the road.  After all, the local story about the police chief actually bubbled up to the national level.  Liberals use the slogan "Think globally, act locally" to considerable effect.

Today I'm sharing another example of "All politics is local", with a different lesson attached to it.  


July 15, 2014

Lessons from the "All politics is local" file

From South Carolina, comes some local interesting developments that have some broader truths underlying them.  The story via ABC:
When openly gay police chief Crystal Moore was fired by a mayor who condemned her lifestyle as "questionable," she feared her two decade career in law enforcement in this town was over.

Then, this conservative, small town rebelled.

The people of Latta, who voted overwhelmingly for a state amendment banning gay marriage eight years ago, turned against the mayor, stripped him of his powers and the town council rehired Moore. They said her dedication to the town mattered more than her sexual orientation.
The truth - true conservatives are not concerned about someone's sexual orientation but rather, they are concerned about government OVER-oversight and encroachment on liberty.  It's evident in the town's reaction to the firing of Moore.  Government, of any polticial persuasion, does not, opr should not, have the right to condemn or restrict someone's personal orientation using a government office as a big stick to do it.

The mayor was wrong.  Conservatives in town are rightly concerned about whether the police chief was doing a good job, which she was, and not her personal orientation.  So the town admonished a politician who had previously been popular enough to run unopposed for his office.  

While the mainstream media may portray this as an awakening of conservatives to the realities of the 21st century, that is not the case - it`s just liberal spin.

Yes, there are social conservatives, and many of them are also fiscal conservatives.  Not all fiscal conservatives are social conservatives. (Full disclosure - I would consider myself socially predominantly conservative and fiscally fully conservative). But real conservatism does not seek to impose itself upon those with differing views.  It seeks to enlighten, and challenge people.  Just as Christianity does.  Unlike some other religion, it does not seek to impose itself.  Force removes choice, which removes free will, which removes the ability to have faith.

Conservatives have become more enlightened over the decades, but not by progressive liberalism - rather by the more libertarian live and let live rationale.  So long as your lifestyle does not impinge upon mine, or harm anyone, then you are, as Milton Friedman would say, `Free to Choose`.  The people of Latta have proved that conservatives get that.  They may not bow to political correctness, but they do know what is right, and they act accordingly.

July 13, 2014

Racists under the bed

"There's a red under my bed."

Back in the 1950s, McCarthyism was viewed as a witch hunt for communists, seeing them where none existed.  Of course there were communists, but a lot of people were targeted as communists who weren't.  Hence the bad name today for the practice of McCarthyism,
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism."[1] The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1950 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression against communists, as well as a fear campaign spreading paranoia of their influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents.
Despite that, the tactic is still being employed today by liberals.  A recent example, is Eric Holder using race as the bogeyman and painting a broad swath of the population with a racist brush;
Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday he and President Obama have been targets of “a racial animus” by some of the administration’s political opponents.

“There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus."
To say this is an irresponsible statement is an understatement. It plays on the notion of racism to quiet political opponents for fear of being politically incorrect based on an implied intent that does not match any of their political motivations. That is irresponsible at a minimum but Machiavellian in it's intent. 

How about the idea that those who are questioning your actions are actually concerned about what you are doing?  Seeing racists under the your bed is one thing, trying to convince the nation that this is the case is McCarthyism in reverse. Liberals in Hollywood decried McCarthyism in its heyday. Don't expect Hollywood to point out the Holderism this time around.

July 12, 2014

Saturday Learning Series - Constitutional History (part 5)

Last week this video series looked at the Declaration of Independence.  This week the series continues with the Articles of Confederation.

July 11, 2014

Friday Musical Interlude - Van She

Electropop band Van She from about 2008  with "It Could Be The Same".

July 10, 2014

Thursday Hillary Bash - A plan for the White House, none for America.

In an article on Fox, referencing an article in Politico, it appears that Hillary Clinton has designs on the White House but no plans for a future of America.  It's about being the next Clinton president.  It's about being the first female president.  It's about winning.  Unfortunately that is not enough.  Say what you will about president Obama's ineffectualism and his heinous ideas about policy, and his clear disinterest in most things he should be making decisions on, at least he has some semblance of a direction to head the country in (wrong, WRONG, WRONG though it may be).

Not so for Hillary Clinton.  Like her husband it's all about getting there and staying there.  It's not about a vision.  And sadly, that's not enough for America's needs, even though it may be enough for many voters.
A Politico story, headlined “Searching for Hillary Clinton’s Big Idea,” reports that it can’t find one. It dissects the Democratic Party’s debates on topics ranging from income inequality to income inequality and finds her positions are mushy. It concludes that, during a campaign, “the pressure will be on to make clear what she would actually do in the White House.”

That’s easy: She’d live in it. That’s her Big Idea.
The article is worth a read. It is short, but so is Hillary's vision.

July 5, 2014

Saturday Learning Series - Constitutional stuff continues

The Saturday Learning Series continues with Part 4 of Tom Woods' coverage of professor Kevin Gutzman's lecture on the Declaration of Independence.

July 4, 2014

Happy July 4th America!

That's it, that's all I've got with this limited connectivity issue.  No picture, no bandwidth to write a lengthy treatise on the meaning of liberty, or the sacrifice of generations to make America great.  But it's a heartfelt wish from an admirer abroad.

Have a happy July 4th one and all!

July 3, 2014

Thursday Hillary Bash - This is the end (not)

Derailing the Hillary Clinton machine that represents her run for the presidency in 2016 is something conservatives would love to do. While it's certainly not a fait-accomplis, it's something that has garnered quite a bit of headway over the last month.  It's also something that she herself has been doing far more effectively than conservatives lately.  Standing back and chronicling the self-destruction is the best thing conservatives can do.

Having been ridiculously busy the past month and having been blessed with failing computers and ailing internet connectivity, I haven't been keeping up with Hillary's self-destruction.  Thankfully, these people have been.

Hot Air exposed Hillary's dishonesty in the Hobby Lobby case.

And did you know that she's been so busy raising money for her presidential run that she's not going to be in the United States for the Fourth of July?  BizPacReview did.

Even the Washington Post is printing stories about Hillary's political woes these days.  Granted Rubin is a conservative, but the fact that this sort of thing is not only being published, but also noticed is kind of a big deal coming from a liberal news organization.

Meanwhile the fundraising continues.  Hillary has been noted as having taken some high paying gigs to talk at schools while students attending those schools continue to struggle with massive student loan debts.  Even students have begun to take note of it.  Hillary. Is. Out. Of. Touch.  If you are losing Politico, as a liberal, you are in trouble.

And even CNN has a report that Hillary Clinton may have violated attorney-client privilege as noted in her recent book. And with a criminal client to boot.

Yet with all of this going on, Clinton still hs her defenders.  And with it, she is busy amassing a large war chest.  She's still the favorite to win, make no mistake.  So the more paper-cuts she applies to herself the better for every other contender, Republican or Democrat.

July 1, 2014

Hobby Lobby Fallout?

The Supreme Court of the United States in a ruling in the case of Hobby Lobby, has once again pointed out the over reach of the Obama administration, whose philosophy seems to be that you have the freedom to believe anything you want, as long as you agree with whatever liberal dogma suggests.
Hobby Lobby stunner: Supreme Court issues long-awaited ruling in birth-control dispute: The government cannot require closely held corporations to insure birth control in company health plans if it violates their religious beliefs, a divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The 5-to-4 decision in the “Hobby Lobby” case is a political blow to the Obama administration, which had allowed nonprofit groups to avoid direct responsibility for Obamacare’s contraception mandate but held firm against for-profit owners who complained and filed suit.
The Hobby Lobby ruling does not mean that women who work for companies who disagree with some contraception methods based on their religious beliefs are now going to go without coverage that they may want.  It means only that those "closely held" companies cannot be forced to provide health care coverage that offers something contrary to their religious beliefs.  But that does not mean these women will need to go without coverage. It means that the government, the ACA (Obamcare), will have to fund it itself.

Closely held corporations represent 90|% of American companies and employ 52% of the U.S. workforce.  In other words, this is a major blow to Obamacare and one of their perceived core constituencies, women. 

 This represents a huge opportunity for Hillary Clinton, who has had to do virtually nothing to be perceived as a champion of women's rights.  It plays into the Democratic fictitious narrative of conservatives war on women.  It may even become a rallying point prior to the 2014 midterm elections, although that is far less likely - remote in fact.

In the bigger picture, it means that there will need to be a re-working of Obamacare in order for the administration to find a way to fund this promise.  It may play out as a push for single payer insurance.

It's too soon to tell exactly what the win for those opposed to Obamacare will turn into over time, but at a minimum, liberty from government tyranny has been defended in this instance.
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