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A Federal Appeals Court has Ruled Obama Recess Appointments are Unconstitutional
January 26, 2013
In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama's controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess.
The three-judge panel's ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments he made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and hence the five-person board did not have a quorum to operate.
But the ruling has even broader constitutional significance, with the judges arguing that the president's recess appointment powers don't apply to "intra-session" appointments - those made when Congress has left town for a few days or weeks. They said Mr. Obama erred when he said he could claim the power to determine when he could make appointments.
"Allowing the president to define the scope of his own appointments power would eviscerate the Constitution's separation of powers," the judges said in their opinion.
Feinstein Gun Control Bill to Exempt Government Officials
(Weekly Standard) - Not everyone will have to abide by Senator Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill. If the proposed legislation becomes law, government officials and others will be exempt.
"Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel," the Washington Times reports.
The Huffington Post confirms these exemptions, and adds that guns owned prior to the legislation becoming law will be permissble, too. "[T]he bill includes a number of exemptions: It exempts more than 2,200 hunting and sporting weapons; any gun manually operated by a bolt, pump, lever or slide action; any weapons used by government officials and law enforcement; and any weapons legally owned as of the date of the bill's enactment."
The bill's measures include stopping "the sale, manufacture and importation of 158 specifically named military-style firearms and ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. It would also ban an additional group of assault weapons that accept detachable ammunition magazines and have at least one military characteristic," according to the Huffington Post.
The left-leaning website adds: "Other new provisions include requiring background checks on all future transfers of assault weapons covered under the bill and eliminating the 10-year sunset that allowed the original ban to expire."
Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County Meeting 7:00 p.m. on 01/28/13 at Warminster VFW Post
Topic: Resisting Federal Gun Control and Registration
Where: Warminster VFW Post, 645 Louis Dr.
Warminster, PA 18974
(1/10th Mile east of Street Rd (Rt 132) Between Rts 263 and 332)
When: Monday January 28 2013, 7 to 9 PM
For more information contact:
Mike Tilley
215 852 7296
wdawes2@verizon.net
The recent tragedy in Newtown, CT has shocked our country. Unfortunately, the media and liberal politicians are using this evil act to demonize the 2nd Amendment and law-abiding citizens. Draconian gun control is being called for to exploit this tragedy. It is yet another step in their ultimate goal of weakening the American citizenry and consolidating further power and control into the federal government.
THE THREATS
Vice President Biden's task force released recommendations that calls for many semi-automatic rifles and 30 round magazines to be banned.
Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) is introducing legislation that will affect up to 75% of all lawfully owned guns and 100% of all law-abiding gun owners. This bill could require amongst other things:
current gun owners to register themselves as if pre-criminals
registration of firearms and creation of federal tracking database
force owners to pay an annual tax in order to keep their guns.
ban the production and/or sale of many firearms and magazines
require that firearms be surrendered to the government upon the owner's death and not be able to be transferred to living relatives, etc.
Mr. Obama has publicly stated that he will use Executive Orders to implement gun control if Congress should resist implementing severe gun control measures. This is an unconstitutional usurpation of authority and all about CONTROL.
History has demonstrated repeatedly - Gun registration is precursor to gun confiscation!!
A CALL TO ACTION
This meeting will bring together concerned, law-abiding gun owners to discuss:
these gun control activities in Washington DC, and
the ACTIONS we should and will take together as a free people to stop this legislation and power grab.
Now is the time to get actively involved, and draw a line in the sand. If we lose the 2nd amendment, there will be no limits to what can done to us.
Spread the word and pass this notice on.
Citizens of Bucks, Montgomery and other counties welcome.
See you on January 28th.
Hello Patriots on this Day!
We need to make daily calls to Washington to stop infringement on our 2nd Amendment rights!!
Not supported by TPP - individual - Saturday, Feb. 2nd - Rally on 2nd Amendment Rights from 12-3 National Mall across from White House.- call Lil at 215/547-6136 if interested in going by car, train.
February 15 - March 27, 2013 - Debt Ceiling: Sometime in this date range we are expected to reach the debt ceiling (Technically we have already hit the debt ceiling, but this is the date range when we will reach a point where the Treasury can no longer implement "extraordinary measures" to meet our spending obligations.
February 28, 2013 - Sequestration: The "fiscal cliff" bill created a new manufactured crisis that will happen sometime at the end of February. This is when the sequestration can was kicked down the road.
March 31, 2013 - Continuing Resolution: The current Continuing Resolution that the government is operating under expires on March 31. This means that they will have to pass a CR between now and then.
April 15, 2013 - Budget Resolution: This is the date by law in which both Houses should have a budget resolution passed. We are already hearing that the President is late in submitting his budget, the House is reporting that they will not meet their deadline for a budget, and the Senate... well they haven't passed a budget in over 1,350 days.
Any questions, holler.
Lil
Rob Boysen Lil Boysen Bill Harper
Tea Party Patriots PA State Coordinator, S.E. Region Co-Coordinator Co-Coordinator
Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots Group Coordinator Communications Coordinator, Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots-Lower Bucks
The major political battles of 2013 are about to commence.
Last year, the Association successfully lobbied against the phony "school choice" bill, SB 1, and supported HB 1330--the budget neutral expansion of the EITC scholarship fund . A version of HB 1330 was attached to another bill, approved by the Assembly, and signed into law by Governor Tom Corbett.
In addition, very early on, the Association backed the PA Voter ID bill--which also passed the Assembly and was signed into law.
Finally, the Association successfully lobbied the respective Governors of NJ and PA, Chris Christie and Tom Corbett, against establishing state health insurance exchanges--a fundamental requirement of ObamaCare.
This year, the Association will focus its limited funding, energy, and resources on a handful state and federal issues.
In this letter, we will emphasize important state battles shaping up in Harrisburg, Trenton, and Dover.
Harrisburg
Pennsylvania Right to Work is topic #1 as State Rep. Darryl Metcalfe and other legislators announce the reintroduction of aRight to Work bill during today's 11 AM Harrisburg Presser (details below).
Next on the agenda is State Rep. Matt Baker's Opt Out of ObamaCare legislation. This bill cleared the House Health Committee last session--only to whither on the vine. We must pass the bill in this session and persuade Gov. Corbett to sign it into law.
Also, we have been working behind the scenes with State Reps. Stephen Barrar and Darryl Metcalfe to enact legislation allowing any registered Pennsylvania voter to poll watch at any precinct within the boundaries of the Commonwealth.
Trenton
In New Jersey, we will press Governor Christie to veto proposed bills seeking to increase the minimum wage and restrict 2nd Amendment Rights.
Dover
In Delaware, we will join efforts to stop the numerous gun control bills that have been introduced in the state legislature.
In the coming days, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to demonstrate our commitment to conservative values.
From tomorrow's Right to Work press conference to Dom Giordano's Salute Our Troops (Presidents Day, February 18), there are two terrific events being hosted by four great organizations.
1. Right to Keep & Bear Arms--A Peaceful Demonstration
When: Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, 10 AM
Where: State Capitol, 125 West State Street, Trenton, NJ
Sponsored by the New Jersey Second Amendment Society
2. 2nd Annual Salute Our Troops! Live Broadcast and Luncheon
When: Presidents Day, Monday, February 18, 2013, 11 AM
Where: Crowne Plaza Valley Forge, 260 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia, PA
Before signing-off, I would like to acknowledge one of the saddest anniversary dates in our nation's history.
Forty years ago today, Roe v. Wade became the law of land--overturning some form of legal protection for unborn children in every state in the union.
Since that tragic day, it is estimated that well over 50 million lives have been ended through the controversial practice of abortion.
Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, as a conservative, you must
recognize the disastrous legal consequences of the US Supreme Court's decision which made a mockery of states rights.
We can all agree that the Warren Court's decision demonstrated a virulent contempt for the US Constitution and its 10th Amendment.
We can also agree that taxpayer funded abortion is a grave moral affront to those among us who believe that the sanctity of innocent human life is paramount.
On behalf of the Association Board of Directors,
Teri Adams
The Independence Hall Tea Party Association formed after historic February 28 and April 18, 2009 Tea Parties on Independence Mall. It is the oldest and largest independent grassroots Tea Party organization in the tri-state (DE, NJ, PA) region and encompasses the 5th leading media market in the United States.
Metcalfe Seeks to Make Federal Gun-Grabbing A Criminal Offense in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG - State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) today announced his legislation that would make any new federal gun control laws unenforceable within the Commonwealth.
"Passage of my legislation will send the message that there will never be additional gun control, anywhere in Pennsylvania," said Metcalfe. "Whether by White House executive orders, congressional fiat, or judicial activism, we will never allow the left to benefit from the wicked acts of murderers in order advance their senseless gun-grabbing agenda which would only succeed in replacing one of our most sacred personal liberties with the chains of government tyranny."
Similar to legislation most recently introduced in Wyoming and Texas, Metcalfe's Right to Bear Arms Protection Act (House Bill 357) would:
Prohibit enforcement of any new federal registration, restriction or prohibition requirement for privately owned firearms, magazines and ammunition.
Require the state of Pennsylvania, including the Office of Attorney General, to intercede on behalf of Commonwealth citizens against any federal attempt to register, restrict or ban the purchase or ownership of firearms and firearms accessories which are currently legal products.
Final enactment of Metcalfe's Right to Bear Arms Protection Act would mean that anyone - even federal agents - who try to enforce any type of gun control restriction within state borders would face arrest and being charged with a felony offense.
"The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned," said Metcalfe. "Article 1, Section 21 of the Pennsylvania Constitution makes it crystal clear that no level of government, especially the federal government, has any authority whatsoever to impose senseless restrictions on law-abiding firearms owners, or worse, the confiscation of legally owned firearms. The purpose of my legislation is to force any gun-grabbing federal official to count the costs of unconstitutionally disarming or denying Pennsylvania citizens their God-given right to keep and bear arms."
Metcalfe is also calling on all Pennsylvania citizens who support Constitutional liberty to attend Pennsylvania's annual Second Amendment Action Day on Tuesday, April 23, beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the State Capitol Rotunda, and to sign the all-new Armed Pennsylvania: Say to No Gun Control petition by visiting RepMetcalfe.com.
Representative Daryl Metcalfe 12th District Pennsylvania House of Representatives Media Contact: Ty McCauslin 717.772.9979
E15, a higher blend of ethanol and gasoline, has rolled out in a handful of states. But its use in older vehicles is generating warnings from AAA, which says E15 could be harmful to pre-2012 vehicles.
The AAA says the Environmental Protection Agency and gasoline retailers should halt the sale of E15, a new ethanol blend that could damage millions of vehicles and void car warranties.
AAA, which issued its warning Friday, says just 12 million of more than 240 million cars, trucks and SUVs now in use have manufacturers' approval for E15. Flex-fuel vehicles, 2012 and newer General Motors vehicles, 2013 Fords and 2001 and later model Porsches are the exceptions, according to AAA, the nation's largest motorist group, with 53.5 million members.
"It is clear that millions of Americans are unfamiliar with E15, which means there is a strong possibility that many may improperly fill up using this gasoline and damage their vehicle," AAA President and CEO Robert Darbelnet tells USA TODAY. "Bringing E15 to the market without adequate safeguards does not responsibly meet the needs of consumers."
On Monday, President Barack Obama nominated former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to be his next Secretary of Defense in succession to Leon Panetta. Chuck Hagel's record is one of being a frightening and dangerous apologist for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hizballah, as well as for the Iranian terrorist regime, while being arguably one of the most vicious and hostile critics of Israel. The ZOA believes that appointing Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary would also serve to confirm the fears that many have that President Obama is no friend of Israel and is not serious about stopping Iran's nuclear program.
ACTION:
Please call your U.S. Senators to urge President Obama not to nominate Chuck Hagel and to vote against his appointment if Hagel's name goes forward for Secretary of Defense. You can reach all U.S. Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard: 202-224-3121.
Call Sen. Casey 202-224-6324
Call Sen. Toomey 202-224-4254
New Jersey:
Call Sen. Lautenberg 202-224-3224
Call Sen. Menendez 202-224-4744
Delaware:
Call Sen. Carper 202-224-2441
Call Sen. Coons 202-224-5042
BACKGROUND:
In 2009, Hagel signed a letter urging President Obama to begin direct negotiations with Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist group committed in its Charter to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, a position President Obama has not taken up.
In a 2006 interview with former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller, Hagel said that "the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people" on Capitol Hill ('Hagel named to intelligence board,' Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 29, 2009).
In July 2006, at the outbreak of the Lebanon war, Hagel argued against giving Israel the time to break Hizballah, urging instead an immediate ceasefire ('Key Republican breaks with Bush on Mideast,' CNN.com, July 31, 2006).
December 2005: Hagel was one of only 27 senators who refused to sign a letter to President Bush urging him to pressure the Palestinian Authority (PA) to ban terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections.
June 2004, Hagel refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to highlight Iran's nuclear program at the G-8 summit and was one of only two senators in to vote against renewal of the Libya-Iran sanctions act.
November 2001: Hagel was one of only 11 senators who refused to sign a letter urging President Bush not to meet with the late Yasser Arafat until his forces ended the violence against Israel.
In July 2001, Hagel was one of only two senators to vote against extending the original Iranian sanctions bill.
October 2000: Hagel was one of only four senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel.
If you want to understand what is happening to our beloved country please watch this important movie. Please share it with everyone.
Yes, it's true: You can support ACT! for America-at no cost to you!An important message from Guy Rodgers, Executive Director
The next time you make an online purchase of almost anything, you could be helping ACT! for America-at no cost to you.
Sound too good to be true? It isn't.
All you have to do is sign up for "iGive"-a program that's been around since 1997.
The concept is as powerful as it is simple.
Every time an iGive member makes an online purchase at over 1,000 brand-name stores, a percentage of that purchase is donated to that person's charity of choice.
And with the holidays just around the corner, you could be helping ACT! for America with every gift you buy!
The concept isn't new. In the mid-1990s many supporters of non-profit organizations signed up with long distance telephone programs where a percentage of their bill was donated to their charity of choice.
But our investigation of iGive has convinced us that this program has an ease of use and sophistication that we find remarkable.
Imagine booking a hotel room on Orbitz-and having 1.6% of that purchase price donated to ACT! for America.
Or buying an Xbox at Best Buy-and having 1.2% of the purchase price donated to ACT! for America.
The same goes for buying merchandise at Amazon, Bath and Body Works, Advance Auto Parts, Game Stop, Kmart, Home Depot, Holiday Inn, Old Navy, NASCAR Superstore, Overstock.com, Mattel, J.C. Penney, Office Max, QVC, Radio Shack, Shoe Carnival, Pottery Barn-and on and on the list goes.
In other words, every time you make a purchase of merchandise you would buy anyway, you would be financially supporting ACT! for America!
All you have to do is log on below and follow the directions to create your account and download the iGive "button." (Note: downloading the "button" is key).
When I was first informed of iGive, I was skeptical. I've seen these ideas come and go. Often, they're too good to be true. Or there are all kinds of glitches and problems.
So I spent hours researching.
I looked at online customer reviews (which were very good). I read all of iGive's fine print, such as Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I signed up and even emailed two tech support questions to see how good their tech support was.
And the more I dug, the more I liked what I saw. For instance, both of my tech support questions were responded to within 60 minutes. How often does THAT happen?
As you know from our Patriot Partner program, we're all about encouraging a lot of people to each do a little-to do something. When everyone does a little, together we accomplish a lot.
So consider what could happen.
If just 1% of ACT! for America members each purchased just $400 in merchandise in 2013, from all the available outlets, and the average percentage donated to ACT! was 1.5%, the total amount donated back to ACT! for America would be...
...$15,000. That's a lot of money, wouldn't you agree?
And if you were one of those ACT! for America members, it wouldn't cost you one thin dime to help ACT! for America receive $15,000.
If this idea really caught on, and eventually 5% of our members made purchases with iGive, that $15,000 could explode to $50,000, $75,000 or more!
What's more, that 1.5% figure might be low. Many of the merchants offer percentage donations that are much higher. One printer inkjet company I looked at offered 13%!
Every merchant website you visit tells you right at the top what percentage of your purchase price will be donated to ACT! for America.
Just think what we could accomplish with an extra $15,000, $50,000 or $75,000 in our fight against radical Islam!
One of the things I most wanted to know was their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Check it out for yourself. I confirmed the terms with a company representative. And I like what I learned. As security-conscious as I am, I have no hesitation using the service-and I'm already doing so.
I know there are many people out there who would love to support ACT! for America, or give more than they're giving, but in these tough economic times they simply can't.
Well, here's a way that everyone who believes in our mission can easily support what we're doing-at no cost to them.
It doesn't get any better than that.
There are already chapter leaders who have signed up for the program, and the feedback I have been getting from them has been all positive. They love the idea and many of them are already using it.
So please, join me and these ACT! for America chapter leaders who are already signed up and using the iGive service.
Yours for a safe and free America
Guy Rodgers
Dear Fellow Conservative,
Registration for CPAC 2013 is now open! The American Conservative Union's legendary annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is scheduled for March 14-16, 2013 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
Register Now for CPAC 2013 Don't miss your chance to help take our country back to the right. To register now and reserve your space, visit conservative.org.
Join the Celebration In honor of CPAC's 40th Anniversary, we look forward to joining conservatives from across the nation for CPAC 2013, celebrating the accomplishments of the movement while also energizing the next generation of conservatives.
New Location CPAC 2013 boasts a new location at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Complimentary CPAC shuttle busses to and from the Gaylord Center will be available at convenient locations across the National Capitol Region. Details will be released in the coming weeks; please visit conservative.org for updates.
CPAC Past & Present The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation's Capital since 1973, and it now stands as the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. Additionally, the ACU this year hosted two regional CPACs designed to energize and mobilize Midwest and Mountain West conservatives, giving them the tools needed to defeat the liberal agenda in 2012 while also highlighting rising conservative stars and issues in the region. Stay tuned for details on 2013 regional CPAC locations!
Interested in Sponsoring CPAC 2013? National and local partners are critical to achieving a successful event. CPAC 2013 provides an excellent platform to promote your message and network with the leaders and activists who are on the frontlines of the conservative movement. We invite you to review the special opportunities available to join the action at CPAC 2013 by visiting conservative.org.
This email was sent by: American Conservative Union 1331 H. St., NW Washington, DC, 20005,
The Great Betrayal: Obama's Wars and the War in Iraq
Jul 18th, 2012
Daniel Greenfield's new Freedom Center pamphlet,The Great Betrayal: Obama's Wars and the War in Iraq, is an effort to understand the politics of the "war on terror" which has now reached a final punctuation point with the U.S. decision to speed its withdrawal from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan (where success was once deemed so crucial to national security), and to practice an incoherent form of regime change in Libya while ignoring more serious threats in Syria and Iran.
The war on terror began, Greenfield shows, as an admirable bipartisan commitment soon after the tragedy of 9/11-an effort to transcend party lines not only to punish those who attacked our country but also to interrupt planning for further attacks and try to stop the international spread of the Islamic jihad behind the attacks. But the Democratic Party, with the honorable exception of a few individuals like Richard Gephardt and Joe Lieberman, turned its back on a war soon after authorizing it, and did so at a time when American troops were facing hostile enemy fire.
Although Senate Democrats on the intelligence oversight committee had been granted access to every piece of data available to the White House, they now accused President Bush of tricking them to secure their approval. In fact, their own about-face was entirely dictated by political considerations when a Sixties antiwar activist, Howard Dean, surged ahead in the Democratic primary polls and it appeared for a moment that Americans were on the side of retreat and capitulation.
Although regime change in Iraq had been official U.S. policy since Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, Democratic senators such as John Kerry who only months earlier had supported the war effort now launched demoralizing attacks on the American commander-in-chief and his troops in the field, stigmatizing it as "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time." If the truth was the first casualty of their war against the Bush administration, the second casualty was the principle of bi-partisanship that had guided foreign policy debates throughout the Cold War, the principle that "politics stops at the water's edge." Now partisan politics trumped security.
The unrestrained attacks on the Iraq War as illegal and unjustified went largely unanswered by Republicans who failed to call the Democratic saboteurs of the nation's war effort to account or to decry the risk their cynical attacks posed to American servicemen and women on the battlefield. As Greenfield demonstrates, the Democrats' partisanship had consequences not only in Iraq but elsewhere in the region: the paralysis that resulted from their "anti-war" campaign led straight to the destruction of Lebanon and the installation of a terrorist army, Hezbollah, there as a regime within a regime. And it emboldened an overtly Islamofascist regime in Iran not only to supply the IEDs responsible for most of our troop fatalities in Iraq but also to proceed with a nuclear program aimed directly at Israel and the West.
The Great Betrayal shows that Barack Obama's abandonment of Iraq is a betrayal of all the Americans and Iraqis who gave their lives to establish freedom in that country. And the result of his policies in Afghanistan has been as disastrous. While the President presented his rationale for pursuing war there as the pursuit of al-Qaeda, after abandoning his "surge" (which resulted in two thirds of all America's Afghan casualties there and the resurgence of the Taliban allies of al-Qaeda), he blithely prepared for withdrawal as if national objectives had been met.
Order your copy of The Great Betrayal today by clicking here.
Individuals sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood's sinister agenda have infiltrated the Obama Administration.
Brainwashed by the Muslim Students Association and then propelled in to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the David Horowitz Freedom Center tracks the path of Huma Abedin and other Muslim sympathizers who have navigated their way into positions of great influence in the Obama Administration. Everything is revealed in the explosive new Freedom Center pamphlet, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration," written by Frank Gaffney, national security expert who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center is committed to educating the public on the Muslim Brotherhood's sinister Agenda. That is why we are giving away this pamphlet for FREE.
This is a major push forward for APC in the battle to stop Agenda 21, and I need you to look it over and sign your approval to it.
Let me explain this vital project.
Across the nation, individuals and local activists have been working to stop the ravages of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development. And we have won some astounding victories.
We've made Agenda 21 a major issue.
But we are vastly outgunned by the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are pushing this agenda from the UN all the way to your city council.
They are flooding state capitals with lobbyists, money, and a flood of issue documents. They are rich, powerful and well organized.
We aren't. We are a rag tag band of dedicated activists with passion for the cause of freedom and little else.
That has got to change.
Our activists need the tools necessary to win.
That's just what my "Stop Agenda 21" project is designed to provide.
NATHAN HARDEN is editor of The College Fix, a higher education news website, and blogs about higher education for National Review Online. A 2009 graduate of Yale, he has written for numerous publications, including National Review, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, The New York Post, and The Washington Times. He was a 2011 Robert Novak Fellow at the Phillips Foundation, a 2010 Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and is author of the recent book Sex and God at Yale: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad.
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on September 20, 2012.
In 1951, William F. Buckley, Jr., a graduate of Yale the year before, published his first book, God & Man at Yale. In the preface, he described two ideas that he had brought with him to Yale and that governed his view of the world:
"I had always been taught, and experience had fortified the teachings, that an active faith in God and a rigid adherence to Christian principles are the most powerful influences toward the good life. I also believed, with only a scanty knowledge of economics, that free enterprise and limited government had served this country well and would probably continue to do so in the future."
The body of the book provided evidence that the academic agenda at Yale was openly antagonistic to those two ideas-that Buckley had encountered a teaching and a culture that were hostile to religious faith and that promoted collectivism over free market individualism. Rather than functioning as an open forum for ideas, his book argued, Yale was waging open war upon the faith and principles of its alumni and parents.
Philadelphia recently witnessed apparent union thuggery of the worst kind when the construction site of a Quaker Meeting House was vandalized to the tune of half-a-million dollars. The building contractor's "offense" was having a mixture of union and non-union workers. http://articles.philly.com/2013-01-14/news/36314444_1_vandals-quaker-meetinghouse-goldtex
This union entitlement and our-way-or-the-highway mentality has been hurting not just the Philadelphia economy but the whole Pennsylvania economy for decades. It prices potential employers out of our state in search of states where both the employee and employer have more freedom.
AFP STANDS WITH REP. METCALFE: IT'S TIME FOR RIGHT TO WORK IN PENNSYLVANIA
On Tuesday, AFP-PA Director Jennifer Stefano stood with and spoke in support of Daryl Metcalfe's (https://twitter.com/darylmetcalfe) and other PA legislators' Pennsylvania Open Workforce Initiative legislation (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20130&cosponId=11198), which, if passed, would guarantee the right to work to all Pennsylvanians. Twenty-four states have now passed right-to-work laws guaranteeing workers the right to join or not to join a union. Their decision not to join cannot be used as a precondition in order to get the job.
Pennsylvania is one of four states in the country with a Republican Governor and legislature that has not passed this vital piece of legislation.
If Michigan, the home to the United Autoworkers Union, can pass this vital piece of legislation needed to get the economy moving again, it can pass in Pennsylvania, too. To paraphrase Rocky Balboa, if Michigan can change, Indiana can change, Pennsylvania and all of America can change.
Click here now to tell your state representative to pass Right to Work NOW.
One of the most egregious aspects of the inheritance tax is the burden it places on Pennsylvania's family-owned businesses. Those family members inheriting a business are often faced with the difficult decision of either selling assets, taking out a loan, selling the business or closing it outright just to pay the inheritance tax.
Click here to send an email to your state reps telling them to repeal this burdensome part of the death tax.
NO TO MEDICAID EXPANSION
On February 5th, Governor Tom Corbett will go before the state legislature and submit his FY 2013-14 budget.
One vital decision the Governor and our state leaders will have to make is whether to expand Pennsylvania's Medicaid program beyond the nearly 20 percent of the population (2.4 million) already covered.
Let's not make an open-ended promise Pennsylvania cannot keep to a program badly in need of a cure. Click here to take action right now!
For more information on expanding Medicaid, check out these links:
-OP-ED: Pennsylvania should reject failing Medicaid program expansion -Let's not double down on a failing Medicaid program
In Liberty,
Katy Abram
Director of Communications
Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's healthcare law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.
The Affordable Care Act - "Obamacare" to its detractors - allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.
For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.
Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge.
Workers covered on the job would be able to avoid tobacco penalties by joining smoking cessation programs, because employer plans operate under different rules. But experts say that option is not guaranteed to smokers trying to purchase coverage individually.
1.Obama's Union-Controlled NLRB Thumbs Nose At Court Ruling, Chairman Vows To March Onward
Following Friday morning's appeals court ruling that Barack Obama's "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional, union attorney (and current NLRB chairman) Mark Gaston Pearce vowed to ignore the court's ruling.. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2.On NLRB Decision Nullification: No One For Union Bosses & Democrats To Blame Except Themselves
Following Friday's Appeals Court ruling striking down Barack Obama unconstitutional "recess" appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, the New York Times points out that more than 300 NLRB decisions might get tossed into the trash.. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4.Unite or Perish: How to Become a Force Multiplier 2.0
In 2011, having spoken for some time to groups of activists, there was a realization on just how little was understood about the leviathan on the Left.
More importantly, however, was the realization that, with so many competing agendas (and egos) on the Right, activists were clamoring for information on how to combat the forces eroding our Constitutional Freedoms.
Hillary's First Big Lie Jack Cashill Just when was it that public integrity ceased to matter? After some research, I came to an unexpectedly specific answer -- January 26, 1992. More
Hillary Gives Away the Game Daren Jonescu During her Benghazi testimony last week, all at once, before the whole world, one of the highest ranking progressive authoritarians on the planet spilled the beans -- all of them -- about the left's modus operandi. More
Why Romney Lost Dr. Charles T. Kenny An objective analysis based on an understanding of the universal rules of marketing and communication that are rooted in the laws of branding and positioning More
Gang Violence and Gun Control Michael Geer Guns and gangs. Haven't read anything from the Left about that. Certainly nothing from Congress. More
Obama and the Restoration J. Robert Smith Obama is doing his single-minded level best to upend Reagan's accomplishments (both philosophically and practically) and earn a mantle beside or surpassing FDR in the left's pantheon. More
Encounter with a Low-Info Voter Howard J. Warner A clear demonstration of the severe problem facing our country resulting from the poor educational system we have underwritten for generations. More
TV's NCIS on those Sinister Israelis Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel The leaders of the State of Israel, according to NCIS, are into breeding decoy Palestinians rather than engaging in negotiation, and into motivating their own children to become ruthless killing machines dedicated to thwarting any peace efforts More
American Thinker Blog
Two Good Signs January 28, 2013 Separation of powers worked exactly as it was supposed to. More
Mohamed Merah was the sadistic jihadist who murdered seven people, including three Jewish children, in France last year. Now the jihadists responsible for the jihad mass murders at the Algerian gas plant are promising more such jihad massacres in France. "Jihadist group delivers chilling threat to France," from The Local, January 22 (thanks to Lookmann):
The jihadist group believed to be behind the deadly hostage siege in Algeria has issued a series of alarming threats against France, warning that last week's mass kidnapping at the In Amenas gas plant was "only the beginning."
Speaking to French weekly Paris Match, the spokesman for the cell known as "Those Who Sign In Blood", which is headed by notorious Mokhtar Belmokhtar said "French crusaders, Zionist Jews and their minions, will pay for their aggression against Muslims in northern Mali."
In a warning deliberately aimed to stir up fear in France, the spokesman, who called himself Joulaybib, said there would be repeats of recent terror attacks carried out on French soil by self-proclaimed Islamist extremists.
Moreover, there are organizations that have reasons to work for lower and less-demanding standards, specifically teachers unions and professional teacher organizations.
The change is intended to ensure that the best qualified and most capable service members, regardless of gender, are available to carry out the mission, Panetta said.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ~ Ronald Reagan
"You should be afraid," says a 24 year veteran officer of the U.S. State Department who is facing job termination for writing a book about what really went on in the Iraq war years. He has been stripped of his security clearance and diplomatic credentials. Blogging on TomDispach.com , Peter Van Buren is warning that President Barack Obama is "declaring himself above the law; he decides himself who lives or dies by death by drones." This state department veteran writing in the liberal leaning Mother Jones Journals, is revealing yet another non reported story about the Obama Administration.
An award winning documentary producer James Spione goes on to point to Americans that "whistleblowing in the age of Obama is very troubling because the LAW IS BEING SELECTIVELY APPLIED!" Continuing in the Mother Jones article are troubling incidents of being harassed on ... Continue Reading:Whistleblowers feel Obama's sting
In the throes of her faux outrage Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's made this phrase famous. She uttered it while being questioned about the lies this administration told after four Americans were killed in Benghazi. She acted like a child who was caught in a lie trying to find a way out of any consequences. Whether she realizes it or not, this will register with the low information voter and thus will become her legacy. If you don't think of this being her legacy what is the first thing you think when someone mentions her husband Bill?
Why does it matter?
During the months leading up to the murders at Benghazi, Chris Stevens, and the Ambassador in Libya were begging for the increased security that was denied by all levels of the State Department and no one was held responsible. The White House pressured Tweeter to ... Continue Reading:What difference, at this point, does it make?
Large pockets of Mexico are little more than a third world enclave. The streets run freely with the blood of honest and dishonest people alike. Many of the criminals in Mexico are armed with very dangerous guns given to them by Eric Holder through his Fast and Furious scheme to discredit all guns in America. Until now no one seemed able or inclined to stop this carnage, but that is changing in one besieged area of Mexico.
The people of some of the towns surrounding Acapulco have witnessed the deaths of over 70,000 men women and children since 2006, some beheaded and carefully laid out on the resort city's streets to send the message "We the drug cartels are in charge."
Posted byDaniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog
Sending women into combat, like the end of the ban on official homosexuality, has been met with worried remarks about its impact on the "warrior culture". But the new military that the left has been building for some time now is not interested in warriors; it wants peacekeepers.
The old army fought for a nation. The new one fights for vague concepts such as human rights or international law. Its goals are as intangible as those of the ideology it serves. It doesn't fight actual enemies, but concepts and social problems. It fights against climate change, poverty and obesity. It fights for education, tolerance and the right of everyone to the gender of their choice. It isn't really the army, it's the hall monitors of the United Nations, the State Department, NATO and every liberal group on the planet.
Their ideal new soldier is not a warrior; he speaks three languages, appears non-threatening and can direct refugees, hand out aid to them and quickly pick up the local culture and religion. He is uncritical when witnessing child molestation, human sacrifice or any other quaint local custom. He is willing to die, not for his country, but to win the hearts and minds of the locals. He will not fire in self-defense if there is a single unarmed man, woman or child within twenty miles.
American soldiers have played the role of peacekeepers before, but in the new military that is their only role. They are the Peace Corps, riding in under a U.N. flag when the video game boys back across the ocean have used remote drones to take out that portion of the enemy force that didn't manage to find a human shield in time. Their mission is to set up generators, dig wells, patrol roads and smile a lot, unless smiling is not approved of by the local culture.
According to Hillary Clinton's long-delayed Benghazigate testimony, the State Department just did not have enough money to provide security for a mission in one of the most dangerous places in the world.
It had $79,000 to spend on Obama's books and $20,000 on a portrait of Obama. The US Embassy had $150,000 to spend on a book about the ambassador's residence.
There was $4.5 for art in embassies, but no money for Benghazi security.
THE WAR IS OVER, WE LOST
Mullah Baradar's capture by the CIA in coordination with the ISI was really the only serious victory won against the Taliban in recent years.
While Baradar is often referred to as second-in-command of the Taliban, with Mullah Omar's whereabouts and aliveness still uncertain, he was in practice the leader of the Taliban.
Obama to Shut Down Southern Air Defense Systems: "It Will Be Open Season for Terrorists Flying In With Nukes, Low Altitude Missiles, Or Even Full Scale Invasion of America"
As the U.S. government continues to expand surveillance and monitoring systems to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars within the borders of the United States, a recent announcement regarding the country's southern air defense systems is raising eyebrows.
Our southern border is, in part, protected by the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS), which utilizes moored balloons hovering at about 15,000 feet to identify low flying aircraft and missiles that may penetrate the border and cross into U.S. airspace.
The system is utilized by the U.S. Air Force, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for a number of missions including detection of drug smuggling and preservation of the air sovereignty of the continental United States.
According to Exelis Systems Corporation, the company that built and jointly maintains TARS with the U.S. Air Force, the government has ordered a complete shutdown of Aerostat flight operations:
The government also indicated its intent that aerostat flight operations will cease on March 15, 2013, and that the remainder of the fiscal year will be used to deflate aerostats, disposition equipment, and prepare sites for permanent closure. We are currently reviewing all the details of the RfP and evaluating the possible impacts on the program and our workforce. We continue to communicate with the government on this matter, and we will have more information in the coming days and weeks.
An Exelis employee close to the TARS project had this to say about the closure of the sites:
This Issue: Federal Judge Decides ICE Agents have Standing in Lawsuit Against Federal Government
Federal District Court Judge Reed O'Conner has ruled that 10 ICE agents and officers have standing to challenge in Federal court the so-called Morton Memo on prosecutorial discretion and the DREAM directive on deferred action. The agents filed their complaint in October, charging that unconstitutional and illegal directives from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton order the agents to violate federal laws or face adverse employment actions. This is a major first step for the ICE agents in their case against the administration!
Something that's concerned several of our activists this week is the Senate debate over the filibuster rules. Senate rules allow any one Senator to block a piece of legislation, requiring 60 votes to lift the block.
Under the old rules, the Senate couldn't even begin debate on a bill without first reaching the 60 vote threshold. That's changed, however, un der new rules adopted by the Senate late Thursday night.
Under the new rules, a vote on a motion to begin debate will still occur, but as long as the motion passes with a simple majority, debate can still begin. If the motion falls short of the 60 vote threshold, however, the rules call for consideration of at least four amendments - two offered by the minority party and two offered by the majority.
Once debate has ended, there will be a vote on a motion to end the debate and proceed to final passage. This motion will still need 60 votes to pass.
The question is will these new rules make it easier to pass a mass amnesty bill in the Senate? No.
Back during the big immigration battle of 2007, the Senate did debate the Bush-Kennedy-McCain bill, but it was during the vote on the motion to end debate and proceed to final passage that the bill received fewer than 60 votes. Again, that vote to end debate is still in place.
Our Capitol Hill team tells us that the fact that the first Senate bill is designated for CIR means Reid expects to move a bill. Although there is no text available, he will insert text once they have decided just how much damage they intend to do to American workers and taxpayers. Last week, Reid warned that there would be no vote on immigration legislation in the Senate unless it contains a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens.
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI
Fri, Jan 25th
Pres. Obama's Amnesty Proposal Contradicts his Inaugural Message to Grow the Middle Class
Pres. Obama made only one reference to immigration during his second inaugural address on Monday, but that wasn't the statement that stood out on the topic. Instead, it was his statement echoing his concern for a shrinking middle class. A concern, however, that is contradictory to his immigration proposal that would award millions of illegal aliens with amnesty thus putting a major strain on the middle class.
Sen. Reid warns: No immigration bill without an amnesty
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to immigration reform in the Senate. Reid told the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday that no bill will be voted on in unless it contains a path to citizenship for the nation's 11-18 million illegal aliens.
SitRep: 1 in 5 Overseas Military Personnel Did Not Receive an Absentee Ballot
"Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote," said President Obama in his second inaugural address last week. This sentiment demonstrates a lack of perspective when considering the voting rights for ALL Americans. On Friday, The Army Times reported that more than 21 percent of all military voters never received the absentee ballot they had requested prior to 2012 deadlines. That cross-section of the American electorate - larger than cities such as Boston, Seattle, Denver and Baltimore - suffered
voter denial. Long lines may be inconvenient for someone living in south Florida or northern Virginia. It is unacceptable, however, that a man or woman who volunteered to go to Afghanistan can be denied the opportunity to vote. Demand better voting systems for our men and women stationed overseas - write your congressman today.
Want to Shorten the Lines at Polls? Drop Same-Day Registration
The State of Montana has a common sense idea to cut down on the waiting line at the polling place - give election administrators less to do on the big day. Montana State Rep. Ted Washburn put forth legislation to push back the registration deadline to the Friday before an election. Washburn and colleagues say they "[B]elieve strongly that voting is a right and with all rights come responsibilities. Sometimes those responsibilities include making sure that you are registered to vote in a timely manner." Keep an eye out for this legislator; he's got a nifty voter ID bill in the works as well.
Exploiting Motor Voter in Louisiana
While True the Vote works tirelessly to litigate Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act in order to keep voter rolls up to date, other organizations have realized political gain by exploiting Section 7 of the same law. Considered the "Motor Voter" provision of the Act, Section 7 states that all public assistance and government service offices give visitors voter registration information and forms. While this may seem like a smart way to multi-purpose your visit to a government office, political interests have found ways to use your information in ways that can conflict with your personal beliefs. This week, ACORN spinoff Project Vote congratulated itself for winning "a major legal victory on behalf of Louisiana's public assistance agency clients, the state's most vulnerable and most marginalized residents." Apparently welfare offices weren't registering enough voters in ACORN's opinion. The Daily Caller detailed this week how data gathered from this lawsuit goes to the DOJ and then Catalist (remember them?) to better serve the "progressive community."
Meet Matt
We learned a lot in 2012 - and one of our biggest lessons was the need to provide more year-round support to True the Vote Empowered Groups across the country. So, we scoured the country looking for someone with a head for national program development; a heart for grassroots community organizing; and a spirit steeped in faith, truth, and love of liberty. We found that person in Matt Armstrong. Matt had an award-winning career in sales and management and was a founding partner in the revolutionary campaign technology firm, Political Gravity.He's been an active political operative for more than 12 years. We're thrilled to have him on our team! Matt knows that our country is at a crossroads - free and fair elections being a focal point. He's dedicated to serving his country with all of his talents. So, without further ado - ladies and gentlemen, please join us in welcoming True the Vote's National Program Director, Matt Armstrong.
This month marks forty years since the infamous Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion-on-demand in the United States. The status of the pro-life movement is something of a mixed bag, with large demonstrations and political victories amid ever-increasing government support for abortion providers.
The scourge of abortion is an American institution, with over three thousand children slaughtered each and every day. In the forty years since the Supreme Court handed down Roe vs. Wade, politicians and pro-life groups have accomplished little to stop the bloodshed. And with the rising popularity of abortion-causing contraceptive methods like the Morning After Pill, it's clear that any estimates of the abortion toll since 1973 are probably greatly understated.
The years of bloodshed cannot be ignored by those who grieve its impact. Many events are taking place across the nation to remember the ruling that has resulted in the deaths of countless millions of unborn children. Record-breaking crowds are expected to take part in the annual "March for Life" in Washington, DC, perhaps outnumbering attendees for President Obama's second inauguration.
Additionally, a coalition of pro-life groups have launched the "Remembering Roe" campaign, which inspired pro-life citizens to join together in a special day of prayer and reflection about abortion. The campaign website features historical information about Roe v. Wade and a forum for prayers for an end to abortion. These pro-life demonstrations follow one of the most productive years of state-based pro-life legislation. 2012 saw state legislatures across the United States pass the second-highest number of pro-life laws since the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down in 1973.
A new report from Planned Parenthood's research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, shows that 43 laws protecting unborn children and their mothers were passed in 19 states in 2012. That number is only surpassed by the efforts of pro-lifers in 2011, when a record-setting 92 pro-life provisions were enacted. The report did not find a single instance of a state provision passed in 2012 that liberalized abortion laws.
New pro-life laws are related to matters like informed consent, regulation of abortion clinics, late-term abortions, insurance coverage, requiring abortionists to comply with hospital-level standards, etc. These kinds of restrictions have had an effect, even prior to 2012. The Wall Street Journal cites a report by Operation Rescue claiming the number of abortion clinics nationwide fell from 2,200 in 1991 to 678 in 2011.
The news is not all good, however, since taxpayers are being fleeced to reward abortion providers with millions of dollars. Last year, Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer money, marking a steady increase in government funding despite pro-life efforts at the state and federal levels to cut off that stream. The funding figures showed roughly 45% of Planned Parenthood's budget now comes from taxpayers.
Pro-life groups have seized on that report to renew their calls for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List said, "Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation's largest abortion business." Tennessee Representative Diane Black said the report "underscores the pressing need to cut off all federal funding for Planned Parenthood."
Taxpayer funding was recently extended to members of the armed forces in December, when Congress passed a Democrat-sponsored provision to allow women in the military to use their health insurance to pay for abortion in cases of rape or incest. Previously, the Department of Defense would pay only for abortion only when the mother's life was at stake. The expanded abortion coverage was included as part of an overall defense budget bill and was supported by pro-abortion politicians.
But make no mistake: Those politicians who spend their careers fighting to ensure that women have the ability to murder their unborn children are just as responsible for the bloodguilt of America's abortion holocaust as those evil men and women who actually perform abortions.
The Bible makes clear in Romans 13 that governments are charged with the purposes of promoting good and restricting evil. Evil is hardly personified more clearly than in the malevolent practice of abortion. A government that continues to fund and support this barbaric act will surely incur the righteous wrath of a holy God. The US government must fulfill its God-given duty to restrict murder, an evil that grieves and angers God. Pray for the United States and those in leadership. Beg God to begin a work of repentance in their hearts and minds and cause them to turn away from enabling this great evil.
As Americans, we have the unique ability to act on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. As Christians, this opportunity is an obligation. In 2013, let's renew our commitment to tirelessly work to protect the unborn. May God guide our steps as we do.
Friday, January 25, 2013
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
March For Life
The March for Life is always a highlight of my year in Washington. I spoke to a number of pro-life groups this morning, including the Right to Life delegation from my home state of Kentucky.
The good folks who come here each year, often braving the worst of Washington's winter weather, give me hope that someday our nation will see Roe v. Wade for what it is: a rejection of our nation's highest ideal -- that liberty is a gift from God and that each of us has been endowed by our Creator with the right to life.
Forty years ago, the Supreme Court denied that right to unborn children. Roe v. Wade is fundamentally based on the same philosophy as Dred Scott. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom. The Supreme Court decided that he was no different than a horse or any other piece of property. As a black man, the court declared he had no rights we were bound to respect. Scott's life could be decided by someone else.
That is fundamentally the same decision that the court made in Roe v. Wade when it held that the unborn child had no rights we were bound to respect; that life in the womb could be snuffed out by someone else's choice.
There is tremendous irony that the first president of color, who surely sees the evil of Dred Scott, is the most aggressive defender of Roe v. Wade. So much so that he has promoted abortion overseas while he tries to force religious believers to pay for abortions here.
Roe Will Fall
While Roe v. Wade has stood for 40 years, it stands on very flimsy ground, and I believe it will fall.
Its moral flaws are self-evident. The court's majority claimed in 1973 that it was in no position then to "speculate" as to when life begins. Basic biology has always been clear on that point, but ultrasound technology has given us a window to the womb, so we can now witness the life growing there.
But as a matter of law, even liberals freely admit that Roe is deeply flawed. In a column this week, Tim Carney wrote about abortion's "foundation of lies." Consider this excerpt:
"'One of the most curious things about Roe,' wrote liberal Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe 'is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found.' Alan Dershowitz, another legendary liberal Harvard Law professor, called Roe 'judicial activism' lacking 'clear governing constitutional principles.'
"Even [Justice] Ruth Bader Ginsburg called Roe 'Heavy-handed judicial intervention' that 'was difficult to justify.'
"'As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible,' wrote Ed Lazarus, an Obama administration appointee and avowed pro-choicer who clerked for the decision's author, Justice Harry Blackmun."
There are more examples, but you get the point, which brings me to my next point. The men and women we elect to public office appoint and confirm the justices who sit on the Supreme Court. On the issue of life, public opinion is moving our way. Men and women of faith must remain engaged in the political arena so we can get pro-life judges nominated and confirmed.
Obama Overruled
Barack Obama got smacked down today by one of the most important courts in the country -- the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In a unanimous decision, three federal judges declared Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board to be unconstitutional.
Obama made the appointments in January 2012 when the Senate was not in recess. Yet Obama claimed the power to unilaterally make the recess appointments anyway because most senators were out of town and no votes were being taken.
Under Obama's logic, he could, without congressional approval, make recess appointments every weekend. The court strongly rejected Obama's position, writing in its opinion, "Allowing the president to define the scope of his own appointment power would eviscerate the Constitution's separation of powers."
The ruling likely invalidates hundreds of decisions made by the board. Prior to Obama's illegal appointments, the board did not have a functioning quorum.
Whenever Obama pulls a stunt like these illegal appointments, I get an avalanche of emails asking, "Why aren't Republicans fighting back? Why do they let him get away with this?" Well, my friends, they did fight back. They didn't let him get away with it.
In our system of divided government, courts settle disputes between the branches of government. Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner joined lawsuits challenging Obama's appointments, and, while it took a year, they prevailed.
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apparent union thuggery of the worst kind when the construction site of a Quaker Meeting Housewas vandalized to the tune of half-a-million dollars. The building contractor's "offense" was having a mixture of union and non-union workers.
This union entitlement and our-way-or-the-highway mentality has been hurting not just the Philadelphia economy but the whole Pennsylvania economy for decades. It prices potential employers out of our state in search of states where both the employee and employer have more freedom.
AFP Stands with Rep. Metcalfe: It's Time for Right to Work in Pennsylvania
On Tuesday, AFP-PA Director Jennifer Stefano stood with and spoke in support of Daryl Metcalfe's and other PA legislators' Pennsylvania Open Workforce Initiative legislation, which, if passed, would guarantee the right to work to all Pennsylvanians. Twenty-four states have now passed right-to-work laws guaranteeing workers the right to join or not to join a union. Their decision not to join cannot be used as a precondition in order to get the job.
Pennsylvania is one of four states in the country with a Republican Governor and legislature that has not passed this vital piece of legislation.
If Michigan, the home to the United Autoworkers Union, can pass this vital piece of legislation needed to get the economy moving again, it can pass in Pennsylvania, too. To paraphrase Rocky Balboa, if Michigan can change, Indiana can change, Pennsylvania and all of America can change.
One of the most egregious aspects of the inheritance tax is the burden it places on Pennsylvania's family-owned businesses. Those family members inheriting a business are often faced with the difficult decision of either selling assets, taking out a loan, selling the business or closing it outright just to pay the inheritance tax.
On February 5th, Governor Tom Corbett will go before the state legislature and submit his FY 2013-14 budget.
One vital decision the Governor and our state leaders will have to make is whether to expand Pennsylvania's Medicaid program beyond the nearly 20 percent of the population (2.4 million) already covered.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. has a message for residents: learn how to use a gun.
Citing recent budget cutbacks, in a new radio ad Clarke said that safety is �no longer a spectator sport.� Watch him tell citizens, �I need you in the game�HERE.
The hacker-activist group Anonymous said it hijacked the U.S. Sentencing Commission�s website and was threatening to release secret government information to avenge the suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz. See the group's message and their threatHERE.
The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to acquire 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO �personal defense weapons� (PDW) � also known as �assault weapons� when owned by civilians. Is the government showing its hypocrisy by essentially saying these weapons are good �personal defense� for them, but not for American citizens? Get the whole storyHERE.
A true story of Tommy gun-toting tough guys that is now a major motion picture, Gangster Squad is the post-World War II tale of a covert LAPD unit out to get an underworld kingpin. Set your sights on all the colorful characters and nonstop action HEREfor just $7.99.
Thousands of people, many holding signs with names of gun violence victims and messages like �Ban Assault Weapons Now,� joined a rally for gun control on Saturday, marching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. See our full coverageHERE.
According to U.S. government statistics, annual health care costs for smokers and the obese are approaching $250 billion. Faced with this high cost, some experts say society must grapple with a chilling question... "Why not just let these health sinners die?� See their argumentHERE.
Underwater wildlife photographer Amos Nachoum's job is to capture the "circle of life." And he's done it. Nachoum's incredible image of a leopard seal preparing to devour a young penguin in Port Lockroy on the Antarctic Peninsula was taken in 2009 but was recently awarded �Best in Show� for 2012 by the American Photographic Artists. See this amazing imageHERE.
Parallel parking is no easy task; even veteran drivers tend to avoid it if they can. That�s why, when faced with the prospect on an icy, uphill road, it might be better to circle the block once more. Watch the worst parallel parking job we've ever seenHERE.
�Protecting my family from worst-case violence is TODAY my highest priority. Yet relying on a firearm can be a huge mistake. The solution I found protects my family... and can protect yours, too. >>Here�s how>>�
Pulitzer Award-winning author, producer and director David Mamet has been extremely open about his conversion from �brain dead liberal� to conservative. And in the wake of President Obama�s latest push for stricter gun control measures, Mamet has penned yet another column setting the record straight as he sees it. Read his latest work HERE.
United States Marine Corps Gen. James �Mad Dog� Mattis was notified that he was being replaced as commander of U.S. Central Command not by a phone call from Washington, but by a note passed to him by an aide. HERE.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Fox News have parted ways. The 2008 GOP VP nominee�s contract as a paid network contributor has ended and will not be renewed. See the full storyHERE.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is urging two of the biggest financial institutions in the country to stop supporting gun manufacturers unless the companies agree to �common sense reforms� on firearms. The issue of gun control aside, the request sounds a little like blackmail. Get the detailsHERE.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit have declared that President Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year to the National Labor Relations Board. What does this ruling mean? Find out what happens nextHERE.
On Friday's edition of MSNBC's The Cycle, co-host Toure celebrated the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion by telling the story of when he and an old girlfriend decided to have an abortion 15 years ago. Watch the segmentHERE.
Thousands of pro-life demonstrators marched through Washington to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to protest the landmark decision that legalized abortion. See TheBlaze coverageHERE.
GoPro-style headcams are all the rage right now to document everything from extreme sporting adventures to events like Republican National Convention. Tech company, Always Innovating, has created the aptly named �MeCam,� which is described as a self-video nano copter. See it in actionHERE.
The Belgian TV channel that orchestrated an insane viral stunt last year is back with a new curiosity-peaking ploy: another big red button with a sign that reads �push to add drama.� The outcome? Even more outrageous results. Observe the madness HERE.
For the last two years, Jennifer Stahl has been a strong advocate against the smart meter program in Naperville, Ill. The issue came to a boiling point Wednesday afternoon when she was arrested while refusing to let utility workers install the controversial device. TheBlaze interviewed Ms. Stahl. Read her storyHERE.
Following Barack Obama�s inauguration earlier this week, Speaker John Boehner received a three-page text message from a famous sports figure. The rambling message stated, "I'm done, finished, the country's over with." Find out who sent the text and how the Speaker reactedHERE.
No shots were fired. That's an important fact. On Tuesday, two home intruders, one holding a handgun, broke into a New York apartment and waited at the bottom of the stairs for a potential �victim� to come down. After hearing some noise coming from the basement, Christopher Boise, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, went to check it out. He also brought his AR-15 rifle with him. Get the rest of the story HERE.
There were dozens of photographs taken of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she went on the record regarding the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Libya. But medical experts have taken a closer look at the photographs and have found that they reveal something else about her current health. Find out what medical problems the Secretary of State might be facingHERE.
The Harrisburg Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show was originally scheduled for Feb. 2-10 in Harrisburg, Pa.The country's largest sports and outdoor show has been postponed indefinitely following severe backlash over a recently enacted policy banning the display and sale of �modern sporting rifles,� or semi-automatic rifles. Get the whole storyHERE.
Recently, TheBlaze spoke with Brandon Webb, the president of SOFREP media and a former Navy SEAL, about the difference between two firearm components -- the magazine and the clip. Watch the video that explains the difference between the two and why it�s important to be clear with your terminologyHERE.
Aw, yeah! It�s time for another �Bad Lip Reading� video! Because we all had a good laugh at their NFL video last week (and if you didn�t laugh, you should probably see your therapist more often), we figured we couldn�t ignore their version of President Obama�s second inauguration.HERE
�Freedom Forever. WTC 9/11" is scrawled on a beam near the top of the gleaming, 104-story One World Trade Center. �Change is from within� is on a beam on the roof. Another reads: �God Bless the workers & inhabitants of this bldg.� See more of the inspiring messages written on the beams inside the new towerHERE.
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." ~ Samuel Adams
Obama To Military Leaders: Will You Fire On US Citizens?
Is Obama Ordering Military To Fire On U.S. Citizens? WHDN-Boston/Posted On America's Conservative News
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jim Garrow shockingly claims he was told by a top military veteran that the Obama Regime's newest "litmus test" for military leaders is whether or not they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens.
Joint Chiefs Chairman: 'We Can Figure Out Privacy' for Young Ladies in Frontline Combat, Including in Navy SEALS and Delta Force By Terence P. Jeffrey CNSNews.com
Gen. Martin Dempsey, President Obama's chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that the U.S. military could figure out ways to preserve the privacy of young ladies serving in frontline combat units, including special forces combat units such as the Navy Seals and the U.S. Army's Delta Force.
Appeal Blasts Judges' 'Religious Phobia' By Bob Unruh WorldNetDaily
An appeals court decision that barred high school students from holding their graduation ceremony at a church building shows "hostility" toward religion and should be reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, because it violates the U.S. Constitution, charges a team of legal experts.
'No Budget, No Pay' Advances Despite Reservations Associated Press/NewsMax.com
In an earlier era, a move like the one engineered by House GOP leaders to pass a "no budget, no pay" measure probably would have been stopped in its tracks.
Video: Senators And Congressman Need To Be Tested!
Jan 26, 2013 11:57 am
They need to start reading the giant bills they pass!! Related posts: Senators, Congressmen, And Mr President, You All Work For Us A letter from a former Marine Corporal, Joshua Boston, has... Advice For A Few Misguided GOP Senators A couple of Senators have forgotten our founding principles. Let's...
Video: Barack Obama: 'Turn In Your Guns, America!'
Jan 25, 2013 01:33 pm
It always happens the same way. There is some horrific massacre. There is a supposed "public outcry" to ban whatever weapons were used. The weapons are banned. Then comes the national gun registry. Then all guns are banned. This is what happened in England and Australia, and now it is happening in the United States. [...]
Pastor Disparages GOP, Describes Obama As Moses, In Pre-inauguration Message
Jan 25, 2013 01:27 pm Barack Obama and family attended a service at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church just before privately taking his oath of office to begin his second term Sunday. In itself, that fact scarcely bears repeating. The content of the pastor's message, however, provides a distinct insight into the psyche of Obama's sycophantic followers. After years of [...]
Jan 25, 2013 01:00 pm The best thing about math is that it's a constant. The numbers are what they are. That's why I'm a data guy; because as a person who believes in absolute truth, I have a tendency to like things cut and dried. Leading up to the 2012 election, several lies and clever myths were postulated by [...]
Court Rules Obama Appointments Are Unconstitutional
Jan 25, 2013 12:42 pm WASHINGTON - President Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel, a federal appeals court panel ruled Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments last year [...]
Video: Three Good Reasons Americans Need Their Guns
Jan 25, 2013 12:35 pm
SOURCE: The Truth Is Viral We live in a violent world. American citizens are much more likely to be killed by lightning than by international terrorism. That's a given; but the odds of being killed in a violent crime increase dramatically here at home, among our shopping malls and movie theaters. Mass shootings like the [...]
Jan 25, 2013 12:14 pm American History Month is my suggestion for re-naming Black History Month, as balm in the cultural Gilead of ethnic tensions at the dawn of Obama 2.0. Observers will note the redundancy of American Blacks citing our color before every occasion or organization naming given its self-evidence for anyone with eyes. Conservatives have argued this double [...]
Luke Rudkowski hits the streets of NYC to find out what people think about the possibility of Tyranny in the United States. Let us know what you think of the video in the comments section below. Related posts: Obama Supporters Actually Hate Obama's Policies Luke Rudkowski hits the streets of NYC to find out... Rapper [...]
Jan 25, 2013 11:01 am CHARLOTTE, N.C. (OfficialWire) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is calling on the Republican Party to "recalibrate the compass of conservatism" as party leaders on Thursday promised fundamental changes to help stave off future losses. The governor will deliver the keynote address at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting Thursday night in Charlotte, becoming the latest [...]
In one of his lesser works, Ernest Hemingway famously observed that "all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." Not true, but true enough, and I think the same might be said of modern American theater with respect to one play by Eugene O'Neill called Long Day's Journey Into Night. Written by O'Neill in 1941-42, but not published until 1956, after his death, the play comes straight out of O'Neill's painful family life.
It is an incredibly influential play. I hear it in the work of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, and David Mamet, as well as in the best work of lesser playwrights such as Frank Gilroy in The Subject Was Roses and Tracy Letts in August: Osage County. O'Neill showed a lot of American playwrights how to put home truths up on stage.
Long Day's Journey is a play that runs four hours in production. I have previously seen it only in the 1962 film version, directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Katharine Hepburn and Jason Robards, and the 1987 television production, directed by Jonathan Miller, starring Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey. The 1987 television production can be seen in its entirety here on YouTube.
Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater is now running an accomplished production of Long Day's Journey, directed by Joe Dowling, through February 23. We saw it with friends on January 19, the week after it had opened. I loved it. If you haven't seen it live before, this is a great opportunity to do so and, if you live in the vicinity of Minneapolis, it might even be worth a special trip.
Rohan Preston has reviewed the production for the Star Tribune. My favorite reviewer, the Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout, will not be taking it in, perhaps because of his reasonable reservations about the play. If he were to give the Guthrie production a look, I think he might note the following.
The Guthrie production compresses the text and has the actors talking over each other (extremely effectively) to achieve a streamlined running time of three hours. The production performs a service to the play in doing so. The cast is good and Helen Carey, as Mary Guthrie, stands out with a luminous portrait of a tortured soul. Dowling has brilliantly staged the play to put the rest of the family in motion revolving in orbit around her. She dominates the production. Indeed, it is worth seeing if only for her performance, but there is much more on offer here for anyone interested in the play.
What to do about Obamacare? With Obama reelected and with implementation of the law (and regulations) scheduled to kick in next year, the nightmare is almost upon us. I haven't seen much creative thinking about our options. What to do? In the new issue of the Weekly Standard, James Capretta and Jeffrey Anderson propose "Delay, repeal, replace."Their proposal has a lot of moving parts. Realistic or not, the proposal is a call for urgently needed thinking as a predicate to action taking account of the correlation of forces.
The defectors from the True Church of Green Religion (i.e., environmentalism) are starting to line up faster than defectors from Soviet Communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A few weeks ago, the reliably green British journalist Mark Lynas issued a mea culpa about his longtime opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As I've experienced first hand, European opposition to GMOs is nearly as sacred as opposing plastic bags here in the U.S. (This is even true, to my great surprise, among many conservatives in Europe.) Here's Lynas, from his lecture at the Oxford Farming Conference on January 3:
I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.
As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.
So I guess you'll be wondering - what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.
This week another icon of modern environmentalism defected from the party line: James Lovelock, the inventor of the famous "Gaia hypothesis" beloved of environmentalists and fruit-juice drinkers everywhere. The proximate cause of his defection is his quite proper reaction against the wind power fanatics who are desecrating the English countryside. But as you'll see his critique goes beyond contesting the wind-breaking nuttery of the greens. Here's the relevant part of what Lovelock wrote a few days ago:
I am James Lovelock, scientist and author, known as the originator of Gaia theory, a view of the Earth that sees it as a self-regulating entity that keeps the surface environment always fit for life... I am an environmentalist and founder member of the Greens but I bow my head in shame at the thought that our original good intentions should have been so misunderstood and misapplied. We never intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of the Earth are not separable from human needs. We need take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on Easter Island, monuments of a failed civilisation.
Reza Kahlili served the CIA Directorate of Operations as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He tells the story in A Time to Betray. Kahlili now asserts that an explosion at Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, all "according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime." The explosion is said to have taken place on Monday. Israeli news stories - here and here - on Kahlili's account rightly emphasize that the account remains uncorroborated by any source.
Kahlili's account appears on the WND site. It would be nice to have a little bit more in the way of information that might allow readers to evaluate the veracity of the account. Even more questionable, however, is the lead in the New York Times story on outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (linked by Drudge). With the help of two other Times reporters, Isabel Kershner relates that, according to Barak, "the Pentagon had prepared sophisticated blueprints for a surgical operation to set back Iran's nuclear program should the United States decide to attack" and, according to Kershner, this is "a statement that was a possible indication that Israel might have shelved any plans for a unilateral strike, at least for now." Possibly!
The Times of Israel runs an interesting account of an interview with Iran's former counsel in Oslo, Mohammad Reza Heydari. Having obtained political asylum in Norway there three years ago, Heydari asserts that "[i]f Iran is given more time, it will acquire the knowledge necessary to build a nuclear bomb within a year." Asked whether Iran would use the bomb against Israel, he said: "If Iran gets to the point where it has an atomic bomb, it will certainly use it, against Israel or any other [enemy] country."
In this context, consider Norman Podhoretz's assessment in an interview with Giulio Meotti: "If Iran gets the bomb, the Israelis would have to decide whether to preempt or to retaliate from the rubble. The Iranians would face the same decision. Each would therefore have an irresistible incentive to beat the other to the punch. It is hard, if not impossible, to see how a nuclear exchange could be avoided under such circumstances."
Also linked by Drudge is the AP story on the latest announcement of Iranian foreign policy:
As quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency, an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Syria held a key position among a group of Middle Eastern powers opposed to U.S. and Israeli influence in the region.
"Syria plays a very key role in supporting or, God forbid, destabilizing the resistance front," said Ali Akbar Velayati. "For this same reason, (an) attack on Syria is considered (an) attack on Iran and Iran's allies."
The Khameni Doctrine! It's long past time to bring back the Monroe Doctrine to address Iran's operations in the Americas.
A few days ago in "Great Moments in Failed Predictions" John visited what Bjorn Lomborg called in another context "The Litany" of environmental doom and gloom culminating in the spectacular flameouts of Paul Ehrlich. As I noted in a recent spindle dump (Item #4), the "population bomb" turned out to be a wet firecracker. (I'll add, in passing, that I have debated Paul Ehrlich twice, and believe it or not he is more edifying to debate against than anyone from the Sierra Club, or NRDC, or other corrupt lobby organization.)
Today Science magazine reports that the other great environmental scare of our time (after global warming, that is)-species extinction-is vastly overestimated. The full article is behind a subscriber paywall, but here's some of the account in The Telegraph:
Professor Mark Costello, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, said that globally, around one per cent of species are likely to be vanishing per decade rather than the five per cent figure some experts have proposed.
"Our findings are potentially good news for the conservation of global biodiversity," said lead scientist Costello.
"Over-estimates of the number of species on Earth are self-defeating because they can make attempts to discover and conserve biodiversity appear to be hopeless," he said.
"Our work suggests that this is far from the case.
"We believe that with just a modest increase in effort in taxonomy and conservation, most species could be discovered and protected from extinction."
Co-author Professor Nigel Stork, from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, said: "Surprisingly, few species have gone extinct, to our knowledge.
In other words, we have once again an environmental problem that is a normal problem, requiring sensible and strenuous effort to be sure (just like other normal problems), but not a world-ending problem that requires we surrender more power and wealth to government, which is Ehrlich's default position to every crisis problem.
Now I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm sorry, they're going to have to do better than this. I'm not going to give out a coveted Green Weenie for just another failed prediction. Standards for giving a Green Weenie have risen.
The city of Chelm figures prominently in traditional Jewish humor, where it appears as a den of supposedly wise fools. You know the type. David Mamet draws on the tradition for his Newsweek cover story/essay "Gun laws and the fools of Chelm." As you might expect, Mamet has many wise words in the essay. Here he gets around to the subject of guns:
Many are opposed to private ownership of firearms, and their opposition comes under several heads. Their specific objections are answerable retail, but a wholesale response is that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of the citizens to keep and bear arms. On a lower level of abstraction, there are more than 2 million instances a year of the armed citizen deterring or stopping armed criminals; a number four times that of all crimes involving firearms.
The Left loves a phantom statistic that a firearm in the hands of a citizen is X times more likely to cause accidental damage than to be used in the prevention of crime, but what is there about criminals that ensures that their gun use is accident-free? If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.
Violence by firearms is most prevalent in big cities with the strictest gun laws. In Chicago and Washington, D.C., for example, it is only the criminals who have guns, the law-abiding populace having been disarmed, and so crime runs riot.
Cities of similar size in Texas, Florida, Arizona, and elsewhere, which leave the citizen the right to keep and bear arms, guaranteed in the Constitution, typically are much safer. More legal guns equal less crime. What criminal would be foolish enough to rob a gun store? But the government alleges that the citizen does not need this or that gun, number of guns, or amount of ammunition.
But President Obama, it seems, does.
Please check out Mamet's essay. You may also want to vote in the embedded poll asking readers whether they agree with Mamet's views. At the moment, Yes votes outweigh No votes by 85 to 15 percent.
Our friend Peter Schweizer writes to alert us that he is narrating a one-hour Hannity special airing tonight called "Boomtown" on the Fox News Channel at 9:00 pm EST. The show promises to provide a look at how cronyism has made a lot of people rich in Washington, D.C. A preview clip is posted here. And there's a nice notice in the New York Times Friday listings:
In this edition of "Hannity," the host, Sean Hannity; Peter Schweizer, the president and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute; and Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News and co-founder of the Government Accountability Institute, investigate what they call crony capitalism among the city's power elite and the tactics used by lobbyists, bureaucrats and legislators to finance their lifestyles with taxpayer money.
As if the DC Circuit Court opinion striking down Obama's recess appointments weren't enough of a blow to liberals, there is the fun constitutional controversy over presidential elections bubbling up again. Liberals who have long hated the Electoral College and want it abolished in favor of direct popular vote are suddenly . . . in love with the EC just as it is. Why? Because noises by some solid blue states to follow the Maine and Nebraska model of apportioning electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all would tilt the playing field towards Republicans.
I love the situational ethics of today's liberals. Right before the 2000 election, when it appeared possible that George W. Bush might win the popular vote but lose the EC to Gore, there were a series of preemptive articles arguing why an EC result against the popular vote result should be respected. Then, when the opposite happened. . . Well, it was rather embarrassing to see the Left turn on a dime and return to their argument from the 1970s that the EC needed to be junked. More recently, the Left has been arguing for a compact among states whereby states would pledge to cast their EC votes for the popular vote winner regardless of how their state votes, apparently afraid that the Bush 2000 scenario might repeat itself. But now with some Republicans agitating for a similar scheme that would surely hurt Democrats' current geographic EC advantage, the Left is saying, "No-wait, we like the EC just fine the way it is."
Legal Insurrection's William Jacobson is all over this story and directs our attention to the outraged gasps of the Human Sound Bite Machine,* Larry Sabato:
As we suspected, it would permit a GOP nominee to capture the White House even while losing the popular vote by many millions. This is not a relatively small Electoral College "misfire" on the order of 1888 or 2000. Instead, it is a corrupt and cynical maneuver to frustrate popular will and put a heavy thumb - the whole hand, in fact - on the scale for future Republican candidates. We do not play presidential politics with a golf handicap awarded to the weaker side.
Republicans face a choice that can best be characterized by personalizing it. A healthy, optimistic party is Reaganesque, convinced that it can win the future by embracing it, and by making a positive case for its philosophy and candidates to all Americans. A party in decline is Nixonian and fears the future; it sees enemies everywhere, feels overwhelmed by electoral trends, and thinks it can win only by cheating, by subverting the system and stacking the deck in its favor. Whose presidency was more successful, Reagan's or Nixon's? Which man made the Republican brand more appealing?
As Jacobson points out, the district apportionment scheme is perfectly constitutional, and as such the breathless denunciations from the Left that this would "undermine democracy" (Jacobson's post gives a number of examples) are silly.
But I'll add another layer to Jacobson's analysis. Right now a favorite talking point of the Left is that the current GOP House majority is the result of partisan gerrymandering, as Democrats did indeed receive a larger total House vote than Republicans in the last election, and as such it is conceivable that Sabato is right that a district-based EC would favor Republicans. But who is largely responsible for the current gerrymander? Don't be so fast to say Republicans following the 2010 blowout election. One major factor has been the Democrat-driven, Voting Rights Act-fueled drive for majority-minority districts, which have the effect of diluting Democratic voting strength overall. To be sure, Republicans have been only too happy to cooperate to maximize minority districts in a way that distributed the GOP vote more widely and hence enables a House majority with a smaller vote.
So in other words, the current House GOP majority represents the Democrats being hoist by their own petard, and if losing the EC partly on account of the same racial politics they've embraced for the last several decades, then maybe it's time they deserve to have this learning experience. Yet, the Supreme Court is poised perhaps to sweep away the racial gerrymandering of the Voting Rights Act this term, in which case the Democratic Party may be spared from their folly. Either way, the Constitution wins.
*If a journalist calls Sabato's office on election night, you get a phone tree that has messages like, "If you need a Sabato comment on Romney, press 1; if you need a Sabato comment on Obama, press 2; if you need a Sabato comment on the Senate races, press 3," etc.
President Obama seems to have been responding to Eberstadt in a key passage of his second inaugural address: "The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. (Applause.) They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great. (Applause.)"
Let us pause to consider the import of what has been said. Here we have the Obama doctrine: transfer payments are the source of America's greatness.
Nicholas Eberstadt responds:
[T]he country's social-welfare spending is generating severe and mounting hazards for the nation. These hazards are not only fiscal but moral.
The evidence documents as well a number of perverse and disturbing changes that this entitlement state is imposing on society.
Consider:
* Over the 50-plus years since 1960, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, entitlement transfers-government payments of cash, goods and services to citizens-have been growing twice as fast as overall personal income. Government transfers now account for nearly 18% of all personal income in America-up from 6% in 1960.
* According to the BEA, America's myriad social-welfare programs (the federal bureaucracy apparently cannot determine exactly how many of these there are) currently dispense entitlement benefits of more than $2.3 trillion annually. Since those entitlements must be paid for-either through taxes or borrowing-the burden of entitlement spending now amounts to over $7,400 per American man, woman and child.
* In 1960, according to the Office of Management and Budget, social-welfare programs accounted for less than a third of all federal spending. Today, entitlement programs account for nearly two-thirds of federal spending. In other words, welfare spending is nearly twice as much as defense, justice and everything else Washington does-combined. In effect, the federal government has become an entitlements machine.
* According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly half (49%) of Americans today live in homes receiving one or more government transfer benefits. That percentage is up almost 20 points from the early 1980s. And contrary to what the Obama White House team suggested during the election campaign, this leap is not due to the aging of the population. In fact, only about one-tenth of the increase is due to upticks in old-age pensions and health-care programs for seniors.
Instead, the country has seen a long-term expansion in public reliance on "means-tested" programs-that is, benefits intended for the poor, such as Medicaid and food stamps. At this writing, about 35% of Americans (well over 100 million people) are accepting money, goods or services from "means-tested" government programs. This percentage is twice as high as in the early 1980s. Today, the overwhelming majority of Americans on entitlement programs are taking "means-tested" benefits. Only a third of all Americans receiving government entitlement transfers are seniors on Social Security and Medicare.
Under the Obama doctrine, we can see, America is becoming greater all the time. Just wait until Obamacare kicks in!
Eberstadt continues:
* As entitlement outlays have risen, there has been flight of men from the work force. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of adult men 20 and older working or seeking work dropped by 13 percentage points between 1948 and 2008.
The American male flight from work is so acute that more than 7% of men in their late 30s (the prime working age-group) had totally checked out of the workforce, even before the recent recession. This workforce opt-out, incidentally, was more than twice that of contemporary Greece, the poster child for modern welfare-state dysfunction. The share of 30-somethings neither working nor looking for work appears to be higher in America than in practically any Western European economy.
* Arithmetically speaking, the recent American flight from work has largely been a flight to government disability programs. According to the Social Security Administration, the number of working-age Americans relying on Social Security's disability programs has increased dramatically over the past two generations.
In December 2012, more than 8.8 million working-age men and women took such disability payments from the government-nearly three times as many as in December 1990. For every 17 people in the labor force, there is now one recipient of Social Security disability program payments.
But the pool of working-age government disability recipients may be even larger than those getting funds just from the Social Security disability programs alone. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that more than 12.4 million working-age Americans obtained disability income support from all government programs in 2011. That's more than the total number of employees in the manufacturing sector of the economy.
* In recent years, the biggest increases in disability claims have been for "musculoskeletal" problems and mental disorders (including mood disorders). But as a practical matter, it is impossible for a health professional to ascertain conclusively whether or not a patient is suffering from back pains or sad feelings. The government's disability-insurance programs were intended to address genuine need. On the current trajectory, the Social Security disability fund is projected to run out of money during Mr. Obama's second term.
Not to worry: the Federal Reserve can pick up the slack. Eberstadt concludes:
The moral hazard embedded in the explosion of social-welfare programs is plain. Transfers funded by other people's money tend to foster a pernicious "something for nothing" mentality-especially when those transfers seem to be progressively and relentlessly growing, year by year. This "taker" mentality can only weaken civil society-even as it places ever-heavier burdens on taxpayers.
Our modern house divided may precipitate another crisis:
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
Alex Jones is joined in-studio by author and journalist Jerome Corsi. Dr. Corsi discusses Obama's second term agenda and Dr. Jim Garrow's claim that Obama is using a "litmus test" to determine who in the military will fire on U.S. citizens ...(more)
The Governor has been at the forefront of the fight against the Permanent Political Class and, as such, inspired Peter Schweizer and myself in our work last night on Fox News with Sean Hannity's special "Boomtown." ...(more)
With emotions running high in the aftermath of the Newtown Sandy Hook shooting, politicians on the State and Federal level have begun introducing legislative actions to curtail access to firearms protected by the Second Amendment. In Missouri, parents may soon be forced to register firearms with their child's school under threat ...(more)
It should come as no surprise that the Communist Party USA is on board with President Obama's plan to attack Americans' right to keep and bear arms as a means to "end gun violence."
A cardinal feature of communist regimes, like all dictatorships, is the prohibition of private ownership of arms, creating a monopoly of force in ...(more)
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is putting more pressure on gun makers to get behind his push for an assault weapons ban and criminal background checks for gun purchasers.
This time, he wants to go after their bottom line ...(more)
Not everyone will have to abide by Senator Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill. If the proposed legislation becomes law, government officials and others will be exempt ...(more)
Senator Dianne Feinstein was joined by lawmakers, law enforcement, clergy, and Americans adversely affected by gun violence as she put forth her full updated version of the 2013 Assault Weapons ban legislation. Pointing to a display of high capacity weapons, Feinstein told a room of reporters and visitors...(more)
In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama's controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess ...(more)
An Orwellian inaugural address and a backwards march to another failed utopia.
Backwards, march!
Yesterday's declaration by President Obama, signaling with his inaugural address that he intends to turn America around and march it backwards to the glory days of failed leftism - making of America one gigantic society of beggars - raises the central and obvious point.
While he may walk the liberal walk and talk the liberal talk, Piers Morgan actually has no discernible political philosophy. His stance on a given subject is determined by what will generate the most controversy, get him the most coverage, and strengthen his hand when negotiating his next book or TV deal.
In November of 1978, former San Francisco city supervisor Dan White shot and killed mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk. It is this tragedy to which Sen. Feinstein, in a bitterly ironic twist, owes her entire state and national political career. But nothing she's advocating now would have saved the lives of Mayor Moscone or Harvey Milk on that awful fall day 34 years ago.
In Plato's dialogue the Phaedrus, the sine qua non of the educational transaction is identified as "an acquired conviction which causes us to aim at excellence." This conviction, and the double purpose of such excellence - knowledge of the subject to be learned and knowledge of the soul that digests the subject (thus relating the academic subject to the psychological subject) - has today been almost entirely forgotten or deliberately abandoned.
Just down the street from my office in Washington, D.C., every year hundreds of thousands of Americans come to the March for Life to protest the enormous loss of innocent lives engendered by this legal decision. The participants include my brother Michael and his family. He works to raise money for members of his church to travel the long distance to Washington.
While Republicans contemplate how to improve their party's political performance at the Republican National Committee (RNC) winter meeting, which opens today, Democrats are already taking politics to a new level, creating parallel organizations to advocate for President Barack Obama's agenda and using their political clout to rearrange private business relationships to their liking. American politics has never seen anything like it.
Politico reports today that major donors--including billionaire George Soros (above), bailout beneficiary Citi and others--were approached by Obama campaign veterans to donate millions to Organizng for America, the president's new 501(c)4 non-profit advocacy group. Under the tax code, 501(c)4 groups do not have to disclose their donors--a provision, ironically, that President Obama spent years campaigning against.
Kerry: I Will Implement 'President Obama's Vision For The World' More
Rand Paul: Obama covering up dark Benghazi secret?
While the mainstream media continue to ignore the disaster at Benghazi, Libya, and the Obama adminstration's role in it, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is now speaking out.
In an interview with WND, Paul says he suspects Benghazi was used for this devious purpose, and the president is now in cover-up mode.
The next time one of your liberal friends laughs at you for believing the courts are hostile to Christians and says you just have a persecution complex, bring out THIS case.
These judges have dispensed with any pretense of neutrality in their hostile ruling ...
The latest development in Syria suggests it would be a mistake to count President Bashar al-Assad out. He's still standing and acting like a guy in charge ...
If you thought having marriage defined in your state's constitution as the legal union of one man and one woman would protect Christian business owners who refuse to cater to the "gay"-marriage market from destructive lawsuits, think again.
These Democrats aren't about to let anything as trivial as a state constitution, the First Amendment or the right to conscience get in their way.
Homosexuals and trial lawyers are being licensed to plunder people of faith ...
"Come and Take It," the song that has rallied gun owners with its remember-the-Alamo-like message featuring one of the slogans of the Texas Revolution, may have been a little vague about its intentions in the present debate over gun control.
The time for nuance is over.
The new accompanying music video leaves no doubt who Grammy-winning musician Steve Vaus is talking to in the lyrics.
Why won't Panetta release study on women in combat?
When "lame-duck" Defense Secretary Leon Panetta imposed a radical "diversity" agenda on the U.S. military that would put women in direct ground combat - "tip of the spear" battalions that attack the enemy with deliberate offensive action under fire - he did so without consulting Congress or the American people.
The Marine Corps conducted extensive research last year on the subject of women in land combat. If the results supported his decision, why hasn't he cited them?
The decision, critics warn, is a sure-fire formula for weakening the military and getting people killed. Here's why ...
Is this GOP rising star setting the stage for the Republican Party's destruction?
In an effort to out-Obama Obama on immigration reform, he's offering a list of ideas that sound uncomfortably familiar, warns one critic ... ideas that, if embraced, will do these four things ...
A draft of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's plan to make sure that the 2nd Amendment is "not unlimited" in the United States - and her proposed list of banned weapons, has been posted online ...
First, the good news ... you can keep your slingshots, peashooters and rubber bands ... for now.
The bad news ... if you're a gun owner, one or more of your firearms are likely on her list.
According to a top Middle East expert and foreign policy adviser to the Obama administration, all the Saudi and Gulf state oil money will probably be unable to prevent this catastrophe from happening ...
If you're a federal agent charged with enforcing any new gun laws that smack of confiscation or anything else constitutionally questionable, here are some of the counties you should avoid.
Sheriffs across the U.S. are waiting for you ... to stop you ... arrest you.
In a stunning setback for President Obama, a federal appeals court has ruled he abused his powers and violated the Constitution by doing THIS without the consent of the Senate.
The court also moved to curtail the chief executive's actions in the future.
Police in Iowa city to buy their own semi-automatic AR-15s
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published January 25, 2013
Police in one Iowa city could soon be buying their own assault rifles to carry in squad cars to ensure they aren't outgunned by criminals in the wake of several high-profile shootings involving semi-automatic AR-15s, FoxNews.com has learned.
Half of the 50-member force in Marion, Iowa, will take part in the upgrade, paying for the $2,000 guns in installments deducted from their paychecks, according to Police Chief Harry Daugherty. He said the proposal, expected to be approved by the city's seven-member City Council late Thursday, will mean initial responders will have enough firepower to deal with heavily armed suspects. Currently, only members of Marion's 12-member SWAT team carry AR-15s.
"We can't wait for SWAT to get there," Daugherty told FoxNews.com. "We have to do something and, at this point, the chances of the assailant having more firepower [than responding officers] is greater than vice versa. I want them to at least be on the same playing field when we're going into these types of situations."
Any amnesty bill that emerges from the Senate will most certainly have Chuck Schumer's name on it. Full Story
Obama Mentions High Skilled Immigration in Innauguration Speech
President Obama made a brief mention about the need for high-skilled immigration reform during his inaugural address at the United States Capitol on Monday. Full Story
Newest Hiring Trend for Members of Congress: Illegal Aliens
To add to the list of jobs that Americans won't do: Congressional Staffer. Full Story
Villaraigosa: Amnesty Bill Isn't Amnesty
This week, Villaraigosa announced a six-point plan, which includes a path to citizenship, family reunification, and smarter border enforcement. Full Story
New AP Poll Offers One Choice on Immigration Reform
Back in the day of the Model T, Henry Ford famously told consumers, "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black." Full Story
Later today, hundreds of thousands of people will descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life.
Crowds are expected to exceed last year's 400,000 participants, to walk a now-familiar route to the steps of the Supreme Court to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that, along with an accompanying ruling in Doe v. Bolton, legalized abortion-on-demand across the United States.
The official theme of this year's march is "40 = 55M." It's an equation meant to reflect the enormous cost of 40 years under the ethic of Roe: Since the Supreme Court's decision in 1973, an estimated 55 million abortions have been performed.
Like many annual March for Life events before it, there will likely also be smaller groups of counter-protests by abortion advocates holding signs and chanting slogans championing the ethic of Roe that pledges unwavering allegiance to a right of abortion-on-demand, for any reason. But those now-tired slogans are no longer able to convince a new generation that denying life to some will lead to a more just society and freedom for others.
It is a simple witness by a tireless pro-life movement over the past 40 years that has reoriented the hearts and minds of an entire generation toward the dignity and worth of every individual-born or yet to be. Despite obstacles, the pro-life movement has achieved notable victories in public opinion, law, and culture.
Today, roughly half of Americans now identify themselves as "pro-life," including many of the millennial generation who will make up the crowds at today's march.
More than 100 pro-life laws have been passed in states across the country since 2010, including parental notification, informed consent, and abortion clinic regulation legislation. Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, which is leading the legal defense of life, notes: "There is a rising tide across this country of pro-life legislators who are picking up the flag and advancing the defense of life in law."
"Pregnancy resource centers are just now entering their heyday," writes Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the education arm of the Susan B. Anthony List. Indeed, every day, roughly 2,500 centersharness the best of the power and spirit of civil society to provide compassionate counseling, accurate information, and life-affirming alternatives to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
Despite the many cultural advances and legal gains of the pro-life movement, challenges persist-especially as the Obama Administration insists on entangling taxpayers in the abortion business here and abroad, and Obamacare finds new ways to force the American people to foot the bill for elective abortion.
As the March for Life draws to a close and Americans look to yet another year under the waning, yet still deadly ethic of Roe, there remains hope that government will one day soon return to a deeper respect of the principles that founded and sustain America by ensuring the basic rights of liberty and life to everyone-including those yet to be born.
For, as then-President Ronald Reagan wrote in 1986:
Respect for the sanctity of human life has not died in America. Far from it. With every passing year it shines ever more brightly in the hearts of more and more of our citizens as they come to see the issue with greater clarity in all of its dimensions. As we carry this message to our courts, our legislatures, and our fellow citizens, let us never be discouraged. ... May we soon rejoice in the day when reverence for human life is enshrined as surely in our laws as in our hearts.
Sarah Torre is a research assistant in the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.
Did you know that you could be put in jail for charging your cell phone? Or for hanging your clothes out to dry? These are just two examples of recent events illustrating the burden that overcriminalization puts on the poorest among us
Ashley Warden was fined $2,500 after three-year-old Dillan pulled down his pants to urinate on his grandmother's front yard. The police officer, Ken Qualls, was in his car at the end of the block when he spotted the young urinator. Qualls wasn't fazed by the fact that the young toddler was on private property when the wetting occurred. "I said we are on our property and he said it's in public view," recalls Jennifer Warden, Dillan's grandmother.
The Definitive Book on Why and How to Reform Criminal Law Available Now
ABOUT OVERCRIMINALIZATION
The Heritage Foundation and a coalition of public interest legal groups are committed to reversing the troubling trend of overcriminalization, which is defined by three attributes:
1. Federalizing crime that properly belongs under state and local jurisdiction;
2. Imposing criminal penalties upon persons who acted without criminal intent (mens rea);
3. Applying criminal sanctions to conduct that historically has not been considered wrongful.
This Legislative Update includes bills our researchers have identified that add or expand federal criminal offenses or penalties, but it generally does NOT include bills involving drugs, firearms, or crimes of violence.
The Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is the nation's most broadly supported public policy organization. Heritage created the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies in 2001 to educate government officials, the media and the public about the Constitution, legal principles and how they affect public policy.
Here are the most-read reports of the week from The Heritage Foundation:
There have been several instances over Obama's term when flies have landed on his face during media appearances. That in and of itself isn't all that odd, but the way Obama doesn't even flinch is certainly unusual. Check out the latest bizarre incident HERE.
The man for 2016? Glenn interviews Rand Paul
Rand Paul was one of the few who actually grilled Hillary Clinton during the Benghazi hearing, and he was just as tough on John Kerry during his confirmation hearing. Glenn interviewed Senator Rand Paul on radio today to talk about his hard hitting exchanges with Kerry - check it out HERE.
Woman arrested for refusing smart meter
Glenn called this story one of the most important issues that will be ramping up in the months and years to come. A woman would not allow workers to enter her property and install a 'smart' meter. The woman refused the update and ended up being arrested over it. Glenn talks more on radio today about why you should be concerned.
Get AGENDA 21 for only $4.99!
Now through Monday you can get Glenn's latest thriller novel AGENDA 21 for only $4.99 on e-book! Order a copy today!
It's no secret Salon is generally going to be a pro-abortion website, given their far lef leanings. But a column appeared on the site this week that was especially disturbing. It's one thing to be pro-abortion when you believe it's a 'clump of cells' in the womb - at least those people don't think they are committing murder. This column, however, readily accepts the fact it's a human life in the womb and is still wildly pro-abortion. Is this article a nightmare or a win in the fight for life?
PC Madness: man told to remove Princess Bride t-shirt
A passenger on a commercial flight was told to change after other passengers complained they felt 'intimidated' but the t-shirt he was wearing. The shirt was merely a reference to a very famous movie line from The Princess Bride. Who would be offended by that? Furthermore, if the passenger really wanted to inflict harm, how does changing shirts help the situation? More from radio today.
Manti Te'o has been the subject of much ridicule over the past few days after news surfaced that his dead girlfriend never actually existed. But is it possible that he was not in on the scheme, as everyone suggested? As more evidence comes to light that seems to be increasingly the more likely the scenario. More details from radio today.
Assault Ban: The Sequel
Dianne Feinstein decided now was the best chance to cash in on more gun control and announced plans for a do-over of the 1994 assault weapons ban that had no effect on crime whatsoever. Except this time the ban is far more wide ranging - get all the details HERE.
This weekend on TheBlaze Radio Nework: Join Real News's Buck Sexton to get the latest insight and analysis on the debt ceiling, gun control and more. Don't miss The Buck Sexton Show Saturday, 12-3pm ET, followed by the newest edition to TheBlaze Radio Network,Wallbuilders Live with David Barton and Rick Green. Join the conversation by calling 888-900-3393 or on Twitter with #TheBlazeRadio.
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This month marks forty years since the infamous Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion-on-demand in the United States. The status of the pro-life movement is something of a mixed bag, with large demonstrations and political victories amid ever-increasing government support for abortion providers.
Initiative
PROG OFF: A three-part series by Oleg Atbashian published in the American Thinker this week:
Obama has yet another fly land on him
