Our Constitutional Scholar -- NOT!

I think to say want is in this video is scary would be understating it a bit. President Obama has instructed members of his staff to…

”scour this report,… identify all those areas which we can act administratively without additional Congressional authorization and just get it done.” (Emphasis: PACNW Righty’s)

So our Constitutional scholar wants to further damage the Constitution by passing legislation without Congressional approval. Isn’t enough that his stormtrooper’s at the EPA have already bypassed Congress when it comes to the Clean Air Act? Hasn’t his DOJ already done enough damage with Fast and Furious and the look the other way stance when it comes to voter fraud and intimidation?  This just boggles the mind. I my memory I don’t think there has been a president who treats the Constitution with such unconcealed contempt.

(h/t and video via: The Blaze)

Are CBC Member Rasict?

Dennis Prager over at World Net Daily has an interesting article on the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Rep Alan West is a member although likely to quite soon. Rep Waters (go to H-E, double toothpick) and Rep Carson (hang ‘em high) are also members. I’d like to point out that Rep Carson was the Congressman that leveled charges of racism against the Tea Party during the Obama Care debate. He was the one who said that he heard a racist term directed at black congressmen at least 15 times while said congressmen were making their way from the Cannon Building to the Capitol. The charge has never been proven true.

While reading Prager’s piece I learned something new. It appears that while the CBC is free to lob charges of race-based discrimination at anything that moves, especially if it is white or tea-based, they are free from this judgment themselves.

A black member of Congress whose district is largely non-black can be a member of the CBC, but a non-black congressman whose district is largely black cannot be a member. Democratic Rep Steven Cohen, whose Tennessee district is largely black, applied for membership in the CBC and was turned down for one reason: He is white. (Source: World Net Daily)

I find this hypocrisy very telling. On the one hand, we have prime examples of heated un-civil rhetoric, maybe even race-based; being tossed about by members of Congress and hardly anyone calls them on carpet for their language and statements. But a group that is opposed to the liberal waste and spending in DC is smeared with unproven accusations of racism and it continues to be a false talking point for the left to this day.

Freedom Ticking Away

With all of his czars and power given to his cabinet, President Obama is more like a dictator every day. He has rendered Congress nearly useless. Now, it looks like Congress is complicate in Obama’s efforts. The Congressional Black Caucus has urged Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval.

Of course, this won’t be reported in the media, or if it is, it will be to support these efforts.

The longer this guy stays in office, the more freedom is eroded.

More Wiener Photos Appear

Will this photo finally force Rep Anthony Wiener to resign? For anyone not living under a rock, the story trace is well known so I won’t rehash here. What makes this photo interesting is that it looks to have been taken in the House Gym, which adds a whole new dimension to the scandal.

The pressure is mounting for him to step down after the gym photos showed up. The photos shown at TMZ at cellphone photos, one with a towel around his mid section.

In a potential career-ending twist, they also appear to have been taken in the House of Representatives gymnasium, said the report, which suggested this could be the final straw that forces his resignation.

After lying point-blank about his x-rater Internet liaisons for days, even suggesting that hackers had infiltrated hi Twitter account, Wiener called a nationally televised press conference on Monday and made a tearful admission.

He said he had been sending pictures online and sexting with six women, but refused to stand down as a New York congressman, saying he had not met any of the women, not had he had a physical relationship outside his marriage.

By Friday, it appeared that the congressman may have weathered the worst of the storm uyt it then emerged that had been exchanging private messages, again through the micro-blogging site Twitter, with a 17-year-old girl. (Source: Yahoo News)

Both his democrat colleagues and Republicans have been calling for him to step down.  I agree. I really doesn’t have much to do with the back and forth with the pictures (although I question his morals), but has more to do with the lying straight to our faces. He can no longer be trusted.

Fact Checking Ryan's Medicare Plan

Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan has been trashed by democrats, especially regarding Medicare. They have resorted to fear mongering to gain political traction. It has already had an impact in New York where Corwin lost to Hochul in a special election in district 26. In that race the democrats were able to out-message the Republicans on the Medicare issue.  If the Republicans don’t want this to happen yet again, they need to show that Ryan’s plan isn’t as nearly as bad as the democrats are saying (lying in some cases).

Over at The Daily Caller they do a little fact checking on a statement made by Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL):

WASEMAN SCHULTZ: “They would take the people who are younger than 55 years old today and tell them: ‘You know what, your own. Go and find private health insurance in the health care insurance market: we’re going to throw you to the wolves and allow insurance companies to deny you coverage and drop you for pre-existing conditions. We’re going to give you X amount of dollars, and you figure it out.’”

Illinois Redraws the Map

The first salvo of the 2010 census results have been fired. In Illinois, the democrat control legislature has redrawn the district map and it will heavily favor democrats, possibly negating election results from 2010. Several new Republican Congress-critters will more than likely be facing an uphill battle for reelection due to the redrawn districts.

Politics, what a messy endeavor. The funny thing is that Republicans will be doing the same thing in states they now control. The 2010 election results at the state level do heavily favor the Republicans so it might be the goings-on in Illinois will not have a significant impact in the overall picture.

Rep Green is Weird

I have been following the debate about rep King’s hearings on home-grown jihadists but have not really covered it much on this blog. I am in a bit of a quandary about it. There is a tad bit of McCarthyism about the hearings, but is that really such a bad thing? Over the years the McCarthy hearings have kind of gotten a bad rap for singling out individuals with ties to communism. By most yardsticks the hearings were successful in rooting out some communists in highly placed government positions. But as time, the media, and a progressive agenda have the ability to do, the facts are messaged and omitted to come up with the narrative that the McCarthy hearings were all bad. But I do understand the misgivings that some folks are having; fearful this will turn into some sort of search truth that gets bastardized by political shenanigans and posturing.

Budget Bills Go Down in the Senate

The democrats have defeated both version of the budget bill so now we start all over again under the cloud of a government shutdown.

“Today’s votes in the Senate demonstrate that democrats and Republicans must come together to find common ground on a budget that cuts spending and puts us on a path to live within our means, but also ensures we continue to invest in our future,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said after the votes, which democratic leaders said they hoped would prove to House republicans that their deep cuts cannot pass.

Well, duh. As long as the senate is populated by the likes of Harry Reid and his crew, meaningful spending cuts are not going to happen. There is going to be pain, there is no two ways about it. People are going to have to bit the bullet a little in many different areas. We have spent ourselves in this mess and we need to make significant cuts to get us out of the mess.

Oregon Democrat Machine in Full Smear Mode

In the last election cycle Art Robinson, a Republican, ran against Chris Defazio in Oregon’s Fourth District. Even though the final tally wasn’t very close Robinson has decided to run again in 2012.  It looks like the Oregon democrat machine is not very happy about this and has launched a smear campaign, going after Robinson’s children, who are students at Oregon State University. He has written about his experience over at World Net Daily.  Based on what he has written, it really does appear that OSU and the democratic party in Oregon have gone after this guy and his family.

One more thing you should know about Dr Robinson; He has directed the Petition Project which opposes, based on scientific grounds published in peer reviewed journals, the “human-caused global warming” hypothesis. Since it is obvious that he does not sip from the same “Obama kool-ade” cup, he is a target for the more media connected democrat machine.

Also of note is that the Oregonian has not yet begun to cover this story. But don’t hold your breath waiting for it as the Oregonian has indorsed democrat candidates since time began (OK, I have over stated this a bit, but I really don’t remember them endorsing Republicans except Hatfield and McCall, who had their hey-days in the 1970’s).

Local Washington News: Fed Budget Cuts are Going to Hurt

The federal government budget cuts are going to have an impact. The budget passed by the House recently calls for significant reductions in money available for higher education, namely Pell Grants. In my home state of Washington there would be $82 million less for students attending college.

You know, everyone is going to complain about something when/if the House budget becomes law. Fewer dollars for transportation projects, so roads will continue to deteriorate. Fewer dollars for education, so class sizes might have to increase and some programs will have to be eliminated. Fewer dollars for the elderly, so now they will have to pay more out of pocket expenses.  All of these are going to hurt, and in some cases, hurt a lot. But what can we do about it? Federal programs have becomes much too expensive and there just isn’t enough money out there to pay for it all.

Local Washington State News

Here are a few stories from around the local (Washington State) area from the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times (occasionally I throw on a link to Crosscut, a kind of funky Seattle news site).

Gas Guzzler Tax

WA State resident may have to pay higher licensing fees if they own what is deemed as a “gas guzzler”. State legislators are floating ideas that could possibly increase the price drivers pay at the pump, or to register a vehicle, especially if that vehicle is larger. The extra taxes would go to support already heavily subsidized mass transit in King and Pierce counties.

House Republicans Experience Some Bumps

Things are getting a little bumpy for Republicans who now control the House of Representatives (source: Politico.com).  After a couple of early successes, most notably the passage of the bill to end Obama Care, it has slowed down a bit. More recently Republicans have not been able to pass two bills, and a third struggle is looming on the horizon.

1. On Tuesday, several House Republicans broke ranks and shot down an extension to the PATRIOT Act. The break-away Republicans were basically telling the leadership that you didn’t give us enough time to study the bill and we don’t like you break the rules to get this to the floor. The bill is expected to pass later once it is brought back “under rule”.

Republican Congressman Scandal Breaks

Just to prove that neither party has the market cornered on sleaziness NY Republican Representative Chris Lee goes a does something really, really, really, really stupid.  Seems he answered a woman’s personal posting on Craigslist with a bare-chested picture of himself.

He resigned effective today.  Very good on him. While a scandal is a scandal, trolling a website like Craigslist is not the same thing as having $90K in your freezer. CNN has the full story.

Obama Care Going Bye-Bye?

Here are a couple of links from the Drudge Report on the continuing slide of Obama care. Congress will move to defund next week, and public support continues to wane.

EPA Has a Fight On It's Hands

Sen John Barrasso (R-WY) is going up against the Obama Administration and the EPA. According to Politico.com’s “Morning Energy” newsletter, Sen Barrasso plans to introduce legislation on 24 Jan that will seek to block federal climate rules under the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

“The Barrasso bill stops this backdoor attempt to enact Obama’s cap-and-trade agenda through the EPA and the rest of the federal bureaucracy,” said Barrasso spokeswoman Emily Lawimore.  “By passing the Barrasso bill, we can protect jobs, consumers, and small businesses from Obama’s overreaching bureaucracy that is stifling job creation and slowing our economic recovery.”

Others in Congress are looking at ways to hamstring the EPA by either “blocking the agency from regulating climate”, or by looking at “the EPA’s funding”.

Tragedy In Arizona (Re-posted)

Been trying to wrap my head around this whole tragic situation in Arizona. This morning, prayers were said in church for Rep Giffords and the other individuals killed and injured in this senseless attack. I thought about posting something here about the attacks, but this is not a hard news site, it is opinions.  I wanted to wait a little while to see what developed. And out of respect for the families or those killed and injured, there was NOTHING more important for me to discuss over the past 36 hours.

Disagreeing with someone is certainly no reason to kill them in cold blood. Was Giffords threatening physical harm to Jared Loughner? I’m guessing not. So why did this guy try and kill a sitting Congresswoman and then gun down several more? My hat off to the three individuals involved with taking this guy down. Most often, in cases like this, the shooter takes his own life, denying justice to the victims and the survivors. Not this time. If there is any bright light in this terrible tragedy, it is the fact this guy is going to be held accountable for his actions. He was not given the opportunity to take the cowards way out.

If you are so inclined please say a pray for the families of those who have lost a loved one. Here is a list of those who have died from foxnews.com. More info here.

John Roll, 63, US District Judge

Gabe Zimmerman, 30, Director of Community Outreach for Rep Giffords

Christina Taylor, 9, Recently elected to her school’s student council

Dorwan Stoddard, 76, Pastor

Dorothy Morris, 76

Phyllis Schneck, 79

What I Want the 112th Congress to Do (Part 3)

3. The wars. I don’t care what you want to call the operations in Iraq, we are still in a state of war in that country. As recently as 3 Jan 2011, there were two soldiers killed during operations in Iraq. The death toll has decrease dramatically in the last year or so, but people are still dying. But there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. Iraqi Security Forces are being trained and we should depart by the end of the year.  

And Afghanistan is a complete mess. The Karzai Gov’t is corrupt beyond all reason. We are tossing billions into that country and a lot of it is unaccounted for. See Here, and here, and here. President Obama’s strategy is without focus. He won’t listen to his commanders on the ground. He fired a true warrior because he spoke his mind. In Afghanistan, Pres Obama is doing one thing right by increasing the use of RPVs to hunt down and kill the bad guys. This is his war now and he needs to act like it.

I don’t think we should depart, but I do think we need to get the resources to the soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Seaman fighting these wars, finish it and come home.

What I want the 112th Congress to Do (Part 2)

2. Get the damn spending under control! For me, this comes in two phases. The first is to pass the 2011 spending bill, which should have been passed several months ago, and still nowhere near ready for “primetime”. The federal gov’t has been working under continuing resolutions since Oct. I know there was an attempt to pass the spending bill during the lame duck session, but it was flawed with outgo more than the projected income, which was not satisfactory to the American people.

Second, they need to do something about the debt ceiling. Within the next few weeks our national debt will exceed $14T (yes, the “T” does equal a trillion). The federal gov’t is currently working under a $14.3 T debt ceiling which will probably met this spring. So far, I have not heard any concrete numbers for a possible new debt ceiling but more than likely it will be well north of $15T.  Imagine that. In the middle of Bush’s second term the National Debt was south of $8T, and within four years the Dem control Congress and (White House for two of those years) have managed to increase the debt by 60%. Bush was a notorious big spender, but he is a pup compared to Princess Pelosi when it comes to spending our tax dollars without a second thought.

There are some who are saying if Congress votes NOT to raise the debt ceiling it would have a significant negative impact on our economy. Click here to read what the chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisors, Austan Goolsbee, has to say about it.

I think I might be going against the conservative tide here a bit, but I do think the debt ceiling should be raised one more time. But along with this raise there needs to be across the board cuts in spending in all areas. Even defense needs to take their share of cuts. Orders for equipment (tanks, planes, etc.) not associated with protecting service member lives (body armor, bullets, etc.) need to be restructured so the spending is spread out over a few extra years. If the contractors don’t like, cancel the project completely. Welfare needs to take a hit. Transportation projects that are current funded by not underway need to be stretched an extra year or two (less employment impact this way). And the Health Care bill needs to go the way of the dodo. Most of all, if there is to be an increase in spending in one area, then a like cut in spending needs to happen elsewhere. There is going to be pain, most certainly. But there will be pain no matter how we approach this. We can’t keep spending the way we have been. That is unsustainable.

What I Want the 112th Congress to Do (Part 1)

Well, today is the big day. The 112th Congress will be sworn in today. The day the House of Representatives comes back to the people, when it will truly be known as “The People’s House”. What a landslide the Nov elections were and I won’t detail that here.  But I would like to cover some of what I’d like to see them try to accomplish.

I am well aware that the Senate and the White House still belong to the Dems and also know that getting much done will be difficult at best but a guy can hope.

1. The repeal of the Unconstitutional Obama Care. Looking back at this monstrosity of a bill I firmly believe there should be charges of deception filed against some members of Congress for the way they got this bill passed. It was shady and underhanded. The Dem leadership knew they couldn’t pass the bill under normal circumstances to they had to rely on a tactic that has only been used to pass government funding bills. Other underhanded deals included the attempted “Cornhusker Kickback” and the “Louisiana Purchase” And the aftermath, with Pelosi and her crew marching through the streets like they were some sort of victorious army, was appalling.

This bill is so bad, many industries and unions are requesting waivers from the employer mandates. According to information on Michelle Malkin’s web site the number of waiver granted by the Obama administration for avoiding employer mandates is up to 222. (7 Dec 2010)

Today, the presumptive House leadership placed on-line their one line bill to attempt to repeal. There are several other lines one the bill, but mostly just typical Congressional gobbledygook that has to go on the paper.

“To Repeal the job-killing health care law and health care related provisions in the Health Care and Education reconciliation Act of 2010.”

Read the full text here.

Some of the dems are already out there are tripping over their tongues trying to paint this attempt as an attack on all things American or hypocritical.

There are some other reasons to get rid of this bill, but my number one focus is loss of freedom by unilateral action by a small group of elites. Most of you probably remember the brouhaha over the so-called death panels (Palin brought this to light). It caused such a ruckus that it was removed from the original bill. It has made its way back through efforts of Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Under provisions within Obama Care Sebelius has the authority to implement this bill pretty much any way she sees fits. Apparently she saw fit that the end-of-life counseling should be paid through Medicare as part of Obama care annual wellness visits (thanks Neal Boortz).  National Review’s Rich Lowry has a great summation of the fast one pulled by the HHS Sec’s Office.

- One of the more scary things about this is Oregon Rep Earl Blumenauer (Dem) told his folks “not to broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your list, even if they are ‘supporters’ -- e-mails can too easily too forwarded”. Talk about your 1984 moment.  To think a Congressional Representative would actually instruct his staffers not to publish this sends shivers down my spine. I’d be curious if the lefties in the great state of Oregon might be having some second thoughts about supporting a guy who would actually try to keep from the American people just what is happening in Washington DC? Being originally from OR, and knowing what a lot of people are like, especially those from around the Portland area, I’m going to guess they are not concerned about the method as long as the results are justified.