Quote:  

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who would pervert the Constitution."

Abraham Lincoln 

If you see a story that you believe would be useful and important to our readers, simply respond to this email with a link and a brief description of why it is important.  (Even if it may be obvious)

DHS Releases Hundreds Of Illegals - Blames Sequestration

Read More . . . 

An Argument For Gun Ownership From an Unlikely Source

Ask the average gun owner which of America's major political parties is most likely to support gun control and gun bans, and the overwhelming answer will be Democrats. Therefore, if a person who was unfamiliar with Kleck's research reviewed only the titles of his books and articles and compared them with Kleck's political ideology, they might expect him to be making the case for gun control.

In his 1997 book, Targeting Guns, Kleck revealed that he is a member of several liberal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Democrats 2000. He is registered as an active Democrat and has contributed financially to the campaigns of Democrat political candidates. He is not a member of the National Rifle Association, or any other pro-gun organization.

Yet Kleck's 1993 study on guns and their use in self-defense proved to be one of the most damaging arguments against restricted gun rights as the gun control movement reached its peak in American politics.

Read more:  

The Heritage Foundation | Hans von Spakovsky | February 27, 2013 at 4:45 pm  

In the midst of a large rally and protest on the steps of the Supreme Court building this morning, the Justices sharply questioned both sides in Shelby County, Alabama vs. Holder. This is the case challenging the continued constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, an emergency provision passed by Congress in 1965 that was originally supposed to terminate after five years. It was renewed for a fourth time in 2006 for another 25 years.

Section 5 requires certain covered jurisdictions (nine states and parts of seven others) to get the preapproval of the federal government before they can make any changes in their voting laws. The main provision of the Voting Rights Act, Section 2, which is a nationwide, permanent ban on racial discrimination in voting, is not at issue in the case.

The Heritage Foundation | Alyene Senger | February 27, 2013 at 3:30 pm  

Obamacare has been law for nearly three years, with its anniversary approaching on March 23. And while the major provisions (exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion) aren't slated to begin until 2014, Obamacare is already having devastating effects on Americans and their health care.

Recall that fateful Presidential promise, made on several occasions during the health care reform debate, "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."

Despite the President's promise, Heritage warned that many provisions in Obamacare would encourage employers to drop health coverage for their workers:

Many businesses and their employees-especially lower-income employees-will find that replacing ESI [employer-sponsored insurance] plans with subsidized coverage on the exchanges is mutually beneficial. Employers would no longer offer health insurance but would offer wage increases as wages and benefits are substitutes in an employee's net compensation. At the same time, these workers will still have access to coverage through the exchanges with the subsidies or through Medicaid.

Heritage had it right. As employers and businesses prepare for the law's major insurance regulations and mandates to begin next year, more stories of people losing their current coverage are emerging.

The Blaze | Jason Howerton | Feb. 27, 2013 7:19pm  

Appearing on CNN Wednesday, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward said a "very senior person" at the White House warned him that he would "regret doing this," referring to his outspoken criticism of President Barack Obama's handling of the impending forced cuts known as the sequester.

"I think they're confused," Woodward told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. Woodward apparently went on to criticize Obama further over the sequester the same day he received the warning from the White House.

"It makes me very uncomfortable for the White House to be telling reporters, you are going to 'regret' doing something that you believe in," he added. "It's Mickey Mouse."

CNN invited a White House official to debate Woodward on-air, but the offer was declined

Glenn: Help us get in millions of home

Why should you support the "Get TheBlaze" movement to get TheBlaze in millions of homes across the country? For starters, how about a network that will cancel out the damage Al-Jazeera will be doing in America as it replaces Current in your lineup? Check out Glenn's "why" in this exclusive letter HERE.

PO Box 745
Doylestown PA 18901
www.cgobc.org 

Corner of Court Street and Main Street
Doylestown PA 

The rally will start at 11 am and disperse at Noon. Bucks County's finest will be in the area. Make sure to thank them (and Vets) for their service. Ask them to uphold the Constitution and not support any gun control efforts that may come out of Washington.

Follow us at www.cgobc.org

 

13 States, and Counting, with Bills to Nullify Federal Gun "Laws  

Return Petitions to Representative Daryl Metcalfe's office:

P.O Box 202012, Harrisburg, PA 17120-2012  

Hello Patriots on this Day!

We need to make daily calls to Washington to stop infringement on our 2nd Amendment rights!!

Senator Casey 1-866-802-2833 www.casey.senate.gov/contact

Rep. Fitzpatrick (R-8) 215-579-8102 www.fitzpatrick.house.gov

Rep. Meehan (R-7) 610-690-7323 www.meehan.house.gov

Rep. Schwartz (D-13) 215-517-6572 www.schwartz.house.gov

Rep. Chaka Fattah 215-871-4455

Rep. Bob Brady 610-874-7094

Important Dates:

• 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

Email:        Lil:    patriot1944@gmail.com

                   Rob: freedomwatcher1949@comcast.net

                   Bill:   uspatriot741776@yahoo.com

Twitter:        Rob: @pennpatriot1949

                     Lil:    @gypsypatriot

Rob & Lil Home:               215-547-6136

Rob's Cell:                         267-278-0827

Lil's Cell:                            267-278-1656

Bill's Cell:                           215-431-8438

Dear Patriots:

We're looking to increase our group!  Join us...bring a friend or two.

An invitation has gone out to Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County to speak at our meeting.  The 2nd Amendment must be a concern of all law-abiding citizens.  We CANNOT let the opposition infringe upon our God given rights.

Mike Henry was hired as the Philadelphia Regional Coordinator for Heritage Action.  Mike will be speaking to our group at the meeting. He joined Heritage Action after successfully  running a local outreach campaign as an intern for American Majority Action in southeastern Pennsylvania. During the campaign, he worked closely with local tea party groups to organize their canvassing efforts. He is an alumnus of Archmere Academy, in Claymont, Delaware, and will be a 2013 graduate from Pennsylvania State University.  Heritage Action is the Pennsylvania think tank of Heritage Foundation which is being led by former Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC).

We have persons within our group who give a short summary of what is happening in their community.   

What are the hot issues in Harrisburg? How do you feel about Governor Corbett's budget?  liquor privatization?  Agenda 21?   

 Why is Penn State on the New Drone Authorization List?  Who is funding these drones?

How do you feel about Immigration?  the "No Labels" group in Congress?    and lots more discussion.

Lil Boysen, Co Coordinator

We would like to clarifiy the Prothonotary candidates for the upcoming Republican Primary are Michelle Christian (not Diane) and Pat Bachtle. It does not change a call for an open primary in this race.

Why all the fuss about a Prothonotary race?

If you have wondered what a Prothonotary is, you are not alone. In addition, whoever thought that it would be the focus of a power struggle within the Bucks County GOP for the 2013 elections?

There are two people running for Prothonotary this May. Pat Bachtle a long time incumbent and a newcomer Diane Christian. On paper this looks ok, but when you take a closer look, more questions than answers arise.

The Tea Party should be happy to see a newcomer on the ticket. Right?

We should be happy to see the incumbent challenged by a newcomer. Right? Except this newcomer was hand selected by Bucks County GOP Chairwoman Pat Poprik.

Do you remember the countless "newcomers" who have tried to run for office in the past few years? They were handily dismissed by the party leadership and told that positions only go to those who have worked hard for the party over several years. Pat Bachtle is the incumbent Prothonotary and has worked for the party for many years. Now Pat Poprik is embracing a newcomer that she has hand selected with no prior experience or record. There is clearly a double standard.

One does not have to think too hard to figure out what the reaction would be to an unknown Tea Party candidate running against an established incumbent. Remember when the GOP called the Constables to intervene against non-endorsed GOP candidates in 2010?

Why is the party chair deciding to pick this fight when Bucks County is becoming more liberal? This has the potential to leave the seat wide open for a Democrat grab. Bucks County GOP money should not be spent in a primary for a Prothonotary seat. This is foolish and wasteful use of resources.

We at The Kitchen Table Patriots

If you are a registered Republican and live in Bucks County Pennsylvania we are urging you to contact your local committee person and ask them to vote for no endorsement. If you do not know who you committee person is than call the Bucks County Republican Headquarters at 215-345-8811

CALLING ALL PATRIOTS!  JOIN US AT THE VALLEY FORGE PATRIOTS MARCH 8^TH MEETING.

FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2013 AT THE PHOENIXVILLE COUNTRY CLUB, 6PM.

Our main speaker will be Matt Brouillette, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation in Harrisburg.

Matt will discuss Governor Corbett's new budget and the major issues in it including privatization

of liquor stores, pension reform, Medicade stabilization, and lowering the corporate income tax.

All of these issues are of great importance to the citizens of PA.

Also joining us will be Matt Hissey of Americans for Prosperity who will update us on the near term activities of AFP.

One of their recent successful projects was working to stop healthcare exchanges in PA that many of us helped with.

And very important, will be an open mic' discussion of VFP's focus for 2013. Please give this some serious thought and bring your ideas to the meeting. One big issue is Voter Fraud and how and with whom we should address this. Some members have signed up to work with True the Vote as well as Club for Growth who helped elect Senator Toomey.

We look forward to seeing you all on March 8^th.

From your Steering Committee, Joe Panas, Jeff Morgan, Mark Driver, Betty Dunkel

February 14, 2013

Your First Amendment right to express an opinion about Islam is under attack.

Not just from those who have no recourse but to call you an "Islamophobe."

But from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)-and our very own State Department.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/radical-islam-how-it-threatens-free-speech

& Legislative Briefing!

The National Conference & Legislative Briefing will begin on Wed. evening, June 19th, and conclude on Friday, June 21st at noon, with additional optional training sessions Friday afternoon.

Important Announcement from SFL You're probably wondering why you've been getting more emails from me and Sustainable Freedom Lab after having had next to none for quite some time. Well, the truth is that I've been very busy. As always, I spend enormous amounts of my time researching, writing, and speaking to the public about the threats of Agenda 21 and Regionalism. I've also been working on important projects behind the scenes. Now I'm finally ready to reveal the first of these "secret" projects: The DVD version of "Stopping Agenda 21 in Your Community". Like the title suggests, this DVD program offers step-by-step training on how you can fight back against those who would bring Agenda 21 into your community. The test audience who saw this program during the limited streaming we held last Fall felt it was critical viewing for anyone concerned about the erosion of our property rights. Click here to read my blog post on the SFL website about our first DVD.

Helping you fight back, John Join Our Mailing List!

If you've been wanting an interesting, clearly written, how-to-manual for identifying and fighting UN Agenda 21, here it is. Agenda 21--All the information you need to understand what is happening in your town, why it's happening, who is behind it, and what you can do to stop it. BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 is 172 pages of truth. Part history, part current events, part hand-to-hand combat, and part blueprint for keeping your freedom, this is one book that you'll put to work immediately. Boots on the ground and all hands on deck is the order of the day. Awareness is the first step in the Resistance.

BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 [Paperback]

 
Awareness about Agenda 21 is finally spreading throughout the country, due in no small part to your efforts. But knowing it is there isn't enough. Now we need to educate ourselves on how to combat it. That's where you come in.

American Policy Center has recently released a booklet that explains everything you need to know to start fighting back against sustainable programs both locally and nationally. The booklet is called Special Report: Agenda 21 and How to Stop It and is available in the APC store for only $5.95.

I wrote this 35 page booklet in order to give activists a succinct resource they can refer to if they suspect Agenda 21 or Sustainable Development is being implemented in their area. It includes my own research coupled with incredibly helpful graphics created by Carroll County, Maryland Commissioner Richard Rothschild.

In the booklet you will find answers to several roadblocks that grassroots anti-Agenda 21 activists often face, including a definition of property rights and "Resolution to Protect Citizens' Property Rights," which many concerned citizens are already using to tie the hands of power hungry politicians.

This booklet is a great resource for anyone interested in preserving their property rights. It includes all the information to put up a first line of defense and step by step instructions for how to proceed from there. If you face Agenda 21 or Sustainable development in your area or are simply concerned with the national fight this booklet is a must read.

Click here to order your booklet now!

In Liberty,


Tom DeWeese
President - American Policy Center

P.S. - The American Policy Center store has recently updated our inventory to include everything you need to fight back against Agenda 21. The revamped catalogue includes the "Stop Agenda 21 Action Kit", which provides users with everything they need to know about Agenda 21 in their own living room, as well as ways to share it with other concerned activists and critical knowledge on how to fight back. The store also offers DVDs of past successful conferences and symposiums, books and articles that deal with the issues of sustainability and Agenda 21 and individually packaged manuals and workbooks to aid you in your activism. You don't need to look any farther than the American Policy Center Store for everything you need to combat Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development in your area.

View our online store

Go here:  

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Today in Washington

THE SUPREME COURT: The justices just finished hearing arguments in the most important civil rights case of this term, which will determine whether the central provision of the Voting Rights Act is thrown out altogether after five decades on the books or - more likely - the polarized Congress is sent back to the drawing board with instructions to narrow the law's reach.

At issue is the "preclearance" system, which currently requires nine mostly Deep South states (and parts of seven others) to get permission from the Justice Department or a panel of federal judges before making any changes to the way elections are held - from drawing a new congressional map to moving a single polling station. (The idea is to prevent places with histories of racial discrimination from perpetuating those prejudices with procedures that effectively disenfranchise African-Americans or Latinos.) A county outside Birmingham, Ala., argued this morning that the political situation is now so different from the 1960s that the law has outlived its usefulness - and is an unconstitutional federal reach into states' rights, besides. The administration argued the law remains an effective brake against discrimination and is within Congress' power to enforce the Constitution's equal protection guarantee.

The court rejected a similar challenge to the law four years ago, but signaled then (and when it took today's case) that it's open to landing on the middle ground. The current version of the law, written by a GOP Congress and signed by Bush in 2006, continued using data from the 1970s in coming up with the roster of covered jurisdictions. Critics say that coverage formula is unfairly outdated and that - at a minimum - Congress should be told the law's future is contingent on a rewrite that uses current registration and turnout numbers in the formula, which would significantly shrink the list of places subjected to preclearance.

THE PRESIDENT: The White House said this morning that Obama will meet in the Oval with Boehner, Reid, McConnell and Pelosi on Friday for their first negotiations on what to do about the sequester, which by law will be formally taking effect that day.

It will be the first substantive meeting this year between the president and the top congressional leaders, although all of them got together (awkwardly) a few minutes ago for a ceremonial occasion. Obama came to the Capitol for the dedication of an almost double life-size statue of Rosa Parks, who will become the first African-American woman represented in Statuary Hall. (There's a bust of another civil rights icon, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, in the Capitol Visitors Center.)

THE HOUSE: Convened at 10 and before 3:30 will set up a process that looks to send a revival of the Violence Against Women Act to Obama's desk tomorrow. Under the ground rules for debate that will be approved this afternoon, lawmakers will return in the morning to debate two versions of the legislation. They'll vote first on a narrow expansion of the law's domestic violence prevention and prosecution programs favored by GOP conservatives, but it's likely to be defeated by a coalition of Democrats and both centrist and very conservative Republicans. If that happens, a solid bipartisan majority in the House will then vote to clear the more expansive version (it would provide new protections for gays, lesbians, American Indians and undocumented immigrants) embraced two weeks ago by 78 senators - an outcome engineered by GOP leaders eager to put an end to the "war against women" talk lingering from their decision to kill the bill during last year's campaign.

THE SENATE: Convened at 10 and is on course to confirm Jack Lew as Treasury secretary by the end of the day - and with a broad bipartisan majority. (The biggest holdout against a speedy vote, top Budget panel Republican Jeff Sessions, who says Lew misled Congress about Obama's budgets when he was OMB director, abandoned his resistance this morning.)

There's no longer a clear plan, however, for initial test votes on the parties' best ideas for replacing the sequester. A roll call is set for tomorrow on the Democrats' alternative, a mix of tax hikes on the rich, cuts in farm subsidies and stretched-out defense reductions that would more than offset the seven-month, $85 billion, indiscriminate cut set to start in two days. But that may be scuttled unless the Republicans can smooth over their own internal squabble about what to propose - a requirement that Obama take the lead in deciding how to apportion the same depth of cuts or a specific roster of reductions to replace the across-the-board approach.

BEEN HERE, DONE THIS: Where this budget battle is headed has looked pretty clear for a while now, and today it became all but official.

The fifth fiscal countdown clock of the past two years will wind down to zero without any negotiations (either formal photo ops or real back-channel talks) to stop the sequester ahead of time; that much was made clear by the revelation that the first talks between the principals won't happen before Friday - a timetable that, if nothing else, will afford Boehner and Reid an opportunity to discuss who is more stuck on his own behind. More importantly, the House Republicans announced that they would meet behind closed doors this afternoon to begin discussing their options for stopping countdown clock No. 6 - ticking toward the March 27 expiration of the law that's allowed the federal government to remain open since the fall. The result of the caucus will be a plan to pass next week a bill to replace that appropriations statute with another one that allocates the coming spending cuts differently over the next seven months than the across-the-board approach now on tap. In other words, the sequester debate and the midyear CR debate are now merging.

The main issue for the GOP - already in the Senate and starting today in the House - is how much, if any, flexibility to grant the president to apportion the cuts as he sees fit. So long as the same $85 billion is reduced by Oct. 1, should he be allowed to alter the current 50-50 split between domestic and defense cuts, which would permit him to take still more away from the guns so less would be taken from the butter? GOP opponents say that would allow Obama to wriggle out of the straitjacket he's in, and also would be a bad-precedent-setting abdication of the congressional power over the purse. Proponents say that might win over some Democrats, and maybe even the president, who for now says he doesn't favor this approach because it would require him to accept the premise that almost all the deficit reduction should  come from discretionary programs, with almost none from entitlements and none at all from new revenue. And, as a political matter, proponents of this idea say it would allow the GOP to get the best of the president in this budget round - because he would be made to "own" the tough choices about which of his sky-is-falling warnings to make come true, and which to make go away.

One alternative under discussion would include adding a venue for Congress to come up with a supermajority to disapprove of Obama's allocation of the cuts, but that's destined to be discarded relatively quickly as too clever by half. Another, more likely alternative, would be to give Obama closely prescribed leeway - by allowing him to pick winners and losers for programs within an agency, so long as the bottom line spending limit set by Congress for that agency was not altered. How far that idea flies could be known in the next couple of days, once the appropriators and the leadership pick over the details of an important 35-page document that began circulating last night: the extensive list of spending changes (known in the federal budget world as "anomalies") that he would like to achieve in the CR. (Since the bill is not going to be a comprehensive "omnibus" rewrite and update of all the dozen measures that normally govern such spending, Congress will write line-by-line exceptions - or else the agencies will have no choice but to keep their spending at status-quo-minus-a-haircut levels.)

CHECKING THE CHECKS: House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte made clear today that he opposes universal background checks before firearms sales, and he said it was very unlikely such a proposal would be put to a vote when the entire House considers a package of proposals for reducing gun violence. "It's not a very practical thing to do and you'll have a lot of inconvenience to law-abiding citizens at the same time you're not going to keep many weapons out of the hands of people who are misusing them," he said.

His statements, at a breakfast for reporters, will raise significant new obstacles to the piece of Obama's gun control agenda that looked to have the best chance of enactment this year - especially because a bipartisan consensus in favor of background checks has looked to be gelling in the Senate in recent days. Goodlatte also threw cold water on the notion that there should be a vote on reviving the ban on some kinds of military-style rifles - even though it's already clear the NRA has more than enough votes to defeat that proposal. (Obama and some gun rights groups have each called for such a vote, if only to put lawmakers on record on the issue.) Instead, Goodlatte said he supports language bolstering the existing federal background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking by "straw man" purchasers.

The top Republican on Senate Judiciary, Chuck Grassley, said at a hearing this morning  that he viewed a revival of the 1990s assault weapons ban (and new limits on the size of ammunition clips) as unconstitutional and would fight them strenuously as a result. In comments similar to Goodlatte's, he said he believed the legislative focus should be confined to boosting penalties for illegal firearms  trafficking and doing more to keep guns from the mentally ill - including requiring states to make their mental health records part of the system that conducts federal background checks, which are done only for buyers at conventional retailers.

AFTER JACKSON: The newest member of the House is going to be Robin Kelly, who won her ticket to Washington with a lopsided victory in Chicago and its southern suburbs yesterday thanks in large measure to her support for new gun control legislation, which won her $2.2 million in officially not-coordinated campaign spending from the super PAC financed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg - who is spending the day at the Capitol lobbying for the president's gun control agenda.

"You sent a message that was heard around our state and across the nation," Kelly told supporters last night. "A message that tells the NRA that their days of holding our country hostage are coming to an end." In virtually complete returns this morning, Kelly had 52 percent of the 59,000 primary ballots cast. (Despite Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC TV barrage, turnout was about 15 percent because of the lousy weather.) Former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who ran with the NRA's top rating, had 24 percent; Alderman Anthony Beale took 10 percent and another 13 Democrats split the rest. Kelly, a former state legislator who's now the appointed Cook County administrator, will have to wait until the general election April 9 (two weeks before she turns 57) before coming to Congress. (The district gave 81 percent to Obama last fall, and the Republicans chose as their nominee yesterday Paul McKinley, a local protester gadfly who in the 1970s and 1980s spent almost 20 years in prison for burglaries, armed robberies and aggravated battery.)

PURCHASING POWER: Monthly orders jumped 6.3 percent last month for the sort of big-ticket business hardware - computers, factory machinery and construction equipment - that signals corporate America is confident enough in its collective prospects to show a willingness to invest. The Commerce Department issued that number this morning for so-called core capital goods. Excluded from the calculation are orders for commercial aircraft, which are very volatile; with them in the mix, the overall durable goods orders change was a 5.2 percent drop between December and January, the first decline since August.

QUOTE OF NOTE: "You'll always know that you have a secretary of Defense that will deal straight with you. I'll be honest. I'll be direct. I'll expect the same from you," Chuck Hagel told employees at the Pentagon this morning a few hours after he was sworn in - and one day after he survived the most closely divided Senate confirmation vote ever for his position. "I will never ask anybody to do more than I wouldn't do. That's the story of your lives. I wouldn't be worthy if that was not the case."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: House sophomore Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (35) and his freshman Republican colleague Luke Messer of Indiana (44).

- David Hawkings, editor

Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com/DavidHawkingsDC. Or follow me on Twitter @davidhawkings.

More congressional campaign coverage is on Roll Call's At the Races politics blog.

EDITOR'S PICKS FROM THE CQ ROLL CALL NEWSROOM

Senate's Democratic Class of '08 Faces New Challenges

The class of senators swept into office riding Barack Obama's coattails in 2008 - giving Democrats a supermajority in the process - now stands to be the party's majority firewall when it faces voters in 2014. » View full article 

Senate GOP Divided on Sequester Alternative

A GOP plan to grant federal agencies more flexibility to implement $85 billion in fiscal 2013 spending cuts worries some Republicans, who fear the White House would use the measure to circumvent congressional budgeting authority. » View full article 

Halligan Vote Could Rekindle Judges Fight

A senior Senate Democratic aide said the chamber could take up the Halligan nomination next week. » View full article 

Greater Federal, State Roles Sought to Help Develop Offshore Wind Potential

More than two years after the Interior Department launched an initiative to speed up and simplify its permitting process, there are still no commercial-scale wind projects up and running in federal waters. » View full article 

Kelly Wins Democratic Primary to Succeed Jackson

The Cook County chief administrative officer scored solidly above 50 percent of the vote. » View full article 

Wednesday Chronicle

Apocalypse Now

The Foundation

"No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable." --James Madison, Federalist 62

Editorial Exegesis

"And when the Republicans opened the seventh seal of the sequester, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black and the stars fell unto the Earth; and our nation's ability to forecast severe weather, such as drought events, hurricanes and tornados, was seriously undermined. Lo, and the children were not vaccinated, and all the beasts starved in the zoos, and the planes were grounded. Or so President Obama and his Cabinet prophets have been preaching ahead of the automatic budget cuts due to begin Friday. The bit about the weather is a real quote from the White House budget director. ... The truth is that the sequester already gives the White House the legal flexibility to avoid doom, if a 5% cut to programs that have increased more than 17% on average over the Obama Presidency counts as doom. According to Mr. Obama and his budget office, the sequester cuts are indiscriminate and spell out specific percentages that will be subtracted from federal 'projects, programs and activities,' or PPAs. ... Not so fast. Programs, projects and activities are a technical category of the federal budget, but the sequester actually occurs at the roughly 1,200 broader units known as budget accounts. Some accounts are small, but others contain hundreds of PPAs and the larger accounts run to billions of dollars. For the Pentagon in particular, the distinction between PPAs and accounts is huge. This means in most cases the President has the room to protect his 'investments' while managing the fiscal transition over time. ... This White House has never been fussy when a statutory text or even the Constitution interferes with its political ambitions. ... Could it be that Mr. Obama is exaggerating the legal stringency of the sequester in a gambit to force Congress to shut it off? ... Neither the legal details of the sequester nor the practical work of reforming government are as interesting to the media as Mr. Obama's invocations of plagues and pestilence. The real revelation is that if the world does end, it will be Mr. Obama's choice." --The Wall Street Journal 

Upright

Read more:

RedState Morning Briefing

For February 28, 2013

I begin this morning with a decidedly non-political topic.

Yahoo! has a new CEO named Marissa Meyer. She just had a baby. She was criticized during her pregnancy for how she would or would not take maternity leave. Basically everything the lady does appears to be criticized.

But the newest media outrage is perhaps the stupidest, most selfish bottom feeding outrage the media can muster.

Marissa Meyer has decided that employees can no longer telecommute. They must get into a Yahoo! office.

2. Buying Access in Obama's Washington

A recent story in the New York Times shined a light on the kind of access that big money donors are given to the President and the White House.

Organizing for Action, the tax exempt "social welfare group" that has evolved from his campaign committee, is raising funds to further President Obama's agenda in his second term including initiatives like climate change and gun control. According to the New York Times, the group is relying heavily on raising big money from a small group of Democrat power players willing to raise $500,000 or more. Those donors also get another nice perk - insider access to Obama and the White House.  . . . please click here for the rest of the post →

Forget John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. Conservatives in the House and Senate have been hit with the stupid stick. All I can think is that George McClellan's ghost is whispering in their ear.

The conservatives in Congress - forget Republican leaders for a minute - want to make their stand not on the continuing resolution to keep the government going, but on the debt ceiling.

Each time Congress has had a debt ceiling fight, it has ended badly for the GOP. Conservatives have been rhetorically slaughtered by even conservatives in the media each time they've tried to block a debt ceiling increase.

February 28, 2013   

Today's Articles:

Low Information Voters? How about a Low Information President?
Bruce Johnson
Obama's non-engagement and aversion to compromise is actually seated in his complete lack of knowledge, and therefore inability to defend his agenda or even forge a compromise More

Austin Finds Its Great White Defendant
David Paulin
When a rich, blonde, preppy-looking daughter of a GOP insider went on trial, she became red meat for the trial-watching mob and prosecutors in Austin -- a politically liberal mecca in a conservative red state. More

Getting Lincoln Right
Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison
Conservatives today are in danger of losing sight of the true Lincoln and his legacy to the nation. More

Why Blacks and Women Should Not Have Guns
William A. Levinson
A whites-only paper by the Ku Klux Klan, with input from the Colorado Democratic Party. More

Bloomberg's Progressive Kosher Kitchen
Fay Voshell
The Left delights in ridiculing fundamentalists and Mormons about their tee-totaling ways and chaste life styles. But maybe they should take a look at their own religious practices and food laws, which they are forcing on everyone More

'Forward!' They Cried
Warren Beatty
Mussolini and Hitler may be tough acts to follow, but Obama's the man who can do it. More

Minimum wage: Taxation by Misrepresentation
Steve Baker
Well-intentioned feelings about the minimum wage do not trump facts about the minimum wage More

American Thinker Blog

Obamacare Debt on a Geological Time Scale
February 28, 2013
We all knew it, but here it is. More

Racism as an Antidote to Racism
February 28, 2013
Notwithstanding evidence showing that racial preferences in college admissions actually harm the intended beneficiaries, race-based policies have spilled over into every aspect of American life. More

Tunisia's Harlem Shake
February 28, 2013
Dancing fever hits North Africa. More

There's Jell-O, and then there's McDonnell and Christie
February 28, 2013
The GOP establishment mans the ramparts. More

Medicaid Expansion -- the New Wealth Killer
February 28, 2013
The next step on the road to serfdom. More

Bob Woodward threatened by White House over sequester reporting
February 27, 2013
"...you will regret doing this," More

Obama boxed in on sequester
February 27, 2013
It turns out that the "across the board cuts" of Sequester leave plenty of flexibility for the Obama administration. The devil is in the details, and it turns out that the legislation was somewhat carelessly written. More

EU nervous about inconclusive Italian election results
February 27, 2013
The pot is beginning to boil again on the EU debt crisis with the fate of the Italian economy and the EU at stake. More

Bloomberg plays kingmaker
February 27, 2013
Turf war! More

The real reason for the Christie CPAC snub
February 27, 2013
Is Christie a "true" conservative? More

Islamists' Primary Target
February 27, 2013
We can't win the war that Islamists have declared on us if we don't know what they are fighting for. More

Sequester blamed for the release of a 'wave' of illegal aliens
February 27, 2013
Since when did the New York Times care about illegals on the loose in our communities? More

Why Are Gas Prices So High?

Traveling To Anywhere But There

Americans have "the right to be stupid" - John Kerry

Crisis of the University: Why Are Colleges Hotbeds of anti-Semitism, and What Can Be Done?

Chris Matthews Offers To Help Hillary's 2016 Campaign: 'We'll Get You In There'

Fatah Member In Gaza: We Must Sanctify The Blood Of Suicide Bombers

Inside the Muslim Student Association Conference, Part 3

Capitalism: A Hate Story

The Face of "Diversity Training"

President Michele Obama in 2016?

Inside the Muslim Student Association Conference, Part 2

China Tests Japanese and U.S. Patience

Immigration Reform News and Impact on US Homeland Security February 25, 2013

February 27, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Capitalism: A Hate Story 

Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog 

In Year 1 of Obama, two fat cats named Michael Moore and Harvey Weinstein released a movie. Their magnum opus was "Capitalism: A Love Story". The unsubtly sarcastic point after the colon was that capitalism was an unmitigated bag of evil. And to reaffirm the faith of capitalism-haters in the evils of capitalism, here was a movie put out by a bunch of corporations owned by millionaires.

 

The traditional image of the anti-capitalist as a ragamuffin who dies of consumption in his garret has always been at odds with the real image of the anti-capitalist as a rich man or the son of a rich man. When Obama launched his big push for higher taxes, he enlisted as his ally none other than the richest man in the country. And when Occupy Wall Street's demographics were broken down, the courageous opponents of capitalism turned out to be the sons and daughters of the upper class.

This sort of thing isn't a surprise, it's history. Lenin's father was a nobleman. Cuba's dictator attended Castro's wedding. The man of the people is rather often stuck at the bottom of the top of the pole. The people who make revolutions are not the dispossessed, but those who are close enough to see what power really looks like, but have no hope of wielding absolute power unless they enlist the mob. They are close enough to see the throne, but not close enough to non-violently sit down in it.

That's not even the case in America. Here we instead have the bizarre spectacle of Nicholas II and Batista calling for a revolution against the petite bourgeoisie. It's a class war being waged by billionaires against people earning six figures a year. It's millionaires making movies for profit using workers to denounce the practice of making things for profit using workers.

All of this is done in the name of democracy. Just look at the Democracy Alliance, an alliance of left-wing billionaires spending huge amounts of money to win elections. What could be more democratic than that except actually paying individuals for their vote. But just as there are bad capitalist movies and good capitalist anti-capitalist movies, there are bad billionaires who use their fortunes to influence the political process and good billionaires who use their fortunes to etc...
 

City Proposes Disarming Citizens In The Event Of A Disaster

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

To: Friends & Supporters

From: Gary L. Bauer


Woodward Blasts Obama "Madness"

While most media elites are bending over backwards to promote President Obama and his agenda, Bob Woodard, one of the nation's most respected journalists, is ruffling feathers for daring to speak critically of Obama.

Big Media has loyally parroted the White House's spin on the sequester, but Woodward has been the lone voice crying out that the sequester was Barack Obama's idea. This morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Woodward ratcheted up his own rhetoric.

Referring to the Obama Administration's claim that the sequester cuts would prevent it from deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, Woodward said:

"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, 'Oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document'? ... Under the Constitution, the president is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the president going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement [saying] 'I can't do what I need to do to protect the country.' That's a kind of madness that I haven't seen in a long time."

Who would have imagined that the media's hero -- the man who brought down Richard Nixon by exposing the Watergate scandal -- would be accusing the media's anointed one of "madness"? White House retaliation will be swift and harsh. But Woodward is no "right winger," and his honest critique of Obama's conduct is raising eyebrows all over Washington.


Hagel Confirmed

Sadly, the Senate voted yesterday 58-to-41 to confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. I say sadly because I never thought I would see the day when a nominee for Secretary of Defense endorsed by Louis Farrakhan would be confirmed! But that day has arrived.

Every Senate Democrat voted for Hagel. They were joined by four Republicans -- Thad Cochran (MS), Mike Johanns (NE), Rand Paul (KY) and Richard Shelby (AL). All four votes are depressing, but I want to comment on Senator Paul's vote.

When Rand Paul ran for the Senate three years ago, there were concerns about his views on Israel and the Middle East. He has tried to dispel the doubts.

In January, Paul traveled to Israel and said, "I came here to show that I am supportive of the relationship between Israel and America." He later said, "I think we should ... announce to the world ... that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States." That is why his vote for Hagel yesterday was so disappointing.

And it is disappointing for another reason too. Paul explained his vote for Hagel by saying, "The president gets to choose political appointees." That's true to a point, but Paul is under no obligation to vote for them.

Rand Paul's claim to conservative support is that he is a champion of constitutional government. The Founding Fathers could have easily said that the president gets to appoint his cabinet and left it at that. But after a protracted debate, they decided that the president's nominees must receive the consent of the Senate.

Paul's explanation implies he is ignoring the clear words of the Constitution in exchange for a formulation that suggests presidential appointments are essentially guaranteed. That doesn't pass the straight face test.

I don't see how anyone who claims to support a strong national defense, who wants to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons and who believes that Israel is our best ally could vote to confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. If Rand Paul wants to be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2016, he has some explaining to do.


Defend Religious Liberty

The sequester may be dominating the headlines, but other important public policy battles are also taking place right now. Recently I signed on to a coalition effort that is fighting to defend conscience protections in the wake of the Obama Administration's unprecedented assault on religious liberty. More than 50 national, state and local organizations are part of the Call2Conscience coalition.

You will recall that Hobby Lobby and other Christian-owned businesses are still fighting Obamacare's outrageous mandates. Now we need your help!

The House of Representatives will soon take up legislation to fund the government for the rest of the year. We want to make sure that critical conscience protections are included in this legislation so that businesses are not forced to pay for services and procedures that violate their religious beliefs.

Click here to learn more about this important effort and to take action in defense of religious liberty!
 

Karl Rove's declaration of war on conservatives will bring the GOP a slow and agonizing death

Feb 27, 2013 05:13 am | Coach Collins

By Kevin "Coach" Collins

The Republican establishment is still trying to blame conservatives for last November's disaster.

The phonies of the Karl Rove Wing of the Republican Party didn't get it then and they still don't. They are fooling themselves by refusing to look at the numbers. The GOP just doesn't understand that asking us to vote for a Republican because he is not a Democrat doesn't fire conservatives up, and the stupid fools think they can win without conservative support.

For conservatives the road to settling on a Republican presidential candidate had many ups and downs. Nevertheless, almost to the very end Mitt Romney was at the bottom of our list. We knew we could beat Barack Obama with the right candidate and we knew there was only one wrong candidate in the field: Mitt Romney. Unfortunately the Republican establishment's list was upside down. Romney was their first and only candidate - the man "they ... Continue Reading:Karl Rove's declaration of war on conservatives will bring the GOP a slow and agonizing death

comments | read more

by Michael CHILDS | February 27, 2013 at 2:12pm

Wednesday press secretary Jay Carney said, The White House was unaware of Immigration Customs and Enforcement's decision to release detainees until the agency announced it.

(Also on POLITICO: Blogs decry illegal immigrant release)

"The decision made by career officials at ICE was without any input from the WH, as a result of the fiscal uncertainty over the continuing resolution, as well as possible sequestration," Said Carney.

Tuesday ICE announced that it has released several hundred undocumented immigrants in recent weeks as funding cuts approach. The detainees will instead be monitored in less expensive ways.

(WATCH: Eric Holder: Sequestration to make Americans 'less safe')

Carney said those released were "low-risk, non-criminal detainees."

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Boy what a surprise. This is getting so old. Thank God people are finally waking up and catching on to this idiot!

I don't believe anything that comes out of the White House -- they lie by the minute. However, if this is true, fire Janet TODAY. Then prosecute her immediately. What she did was treason.

DHS releasing illegal immigrants before sequestration  

This is yet ANOTHER bald faced lie by the Obama administration. You know for sure that Obama and his cronies sat in a room and discussed ways to maximize the impact of these 'cuts' to the public. The fact that DHS released prisoners was a calculated move. These so called budget cuts are yet to even take place. What a load of bull.

"The buck stops over there..." The harm the Imposter in chief and his minions is doing is irreversible.

Democrats are not idiots. They are traitorous anti-American socialists and communists obsessed with "fundamentally transforming" the America they all hate so much.

Repeat after me, America, "It's never 0bama's fault, it's never 0bama's fault!"

You got it, good job. Whether it's Fast and Furious, Benghazi, or lack of a budget for the last five years; it's never 0bama's fault!

Obama doesn't really need you anymore sis, prepare yourself to be tossed under the bus.

Voting Rights at the Supreme Court Today

To understand what's going on in the Supreme Court today, we have to go back in time.

The year was 1965. Hundreds of people gathered in Selma, Alabama, to march for black Americans' right to vote. Some states, especially in the South, had set up obstacles to voting, such as charging would-be voters money or making them take a test.

The marchers were beaten back by police with billy clubs and tear gas in what would become a historic outrage. But just a few months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, making it illegal for towns to discriminate in any way in their voting practices.

Johnson said that day:

Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.

Congress ensured that states could not get around the new law by coming up with more changes to local voting rules. For those areas that had historically discriminated against people, the law required that they check with the feds before making changes to their voting practices. This part of the law is called Section 5.

Section 5 was supposed to be temporary. It was supposed to transition the states into the new law and ensure that they were all implementing it correctly. As President Johnson said at the time, "if any county anywhere in this nation does not want federal intervention, it need only open its polling places to all of its people."

The problem is, that federal intervention continues to this day. And that is what the Supreme Court is considering today-the outdated Section 5, not the whole Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act provides "broad and powerful protection against discrimination," explains Heritage's Hans von Spakovsky, a former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Regardless of the Supreme Court's take on Section 5, the Voting Rights Act remains in effect to protect all Americans from voter discrimination.

But Section 5 outlived its purpose decades ago-and the federal government is still forcing some voting jurisdictions to justify all of their local rule changes. Von Spakovsky points out:

[Section 5] effectively presumes that all voting-related actions by certain states and jurisdictions are discriminatory and therefore requires that they obtain pre-approval from the federal government for otherwise ordinary and routine actions, such as moving a polling station from a school that is under renovation to another one down the street or drawing new redistricting plans. This is a major and unusual imposition on state sovereignty.

What was originally intended to safeguard individual liberty has become a way for the feds to attack state liberty. For the Department of Justice and many activists, Section 5 merely exists to bully local authorities.

Von Spakovsky says that if Section 5 were struck down, "The only change would be to curb the abuses of federal bureaucrats and check the power and influence of the liberal activist groups that rely on Section 5 to enforce their agendas."

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Shelby County (AL) v. Holder, the case raising the question of Section 5's constitutionality. The case doesn't threaten anyone's right to vote; it deals with an outdated provision that is no longer necessary-and in fact has become an unwarranted federal intrusion into local practices.

LEARN MORE:

VIDEO: Panel discussion, Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder: The (Un)Constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Ac

Union That Bankrupted Hostess to Receive Generous Government Subsidies  

Now those who helped bring down an American icon will receive generous, taxpayer-funded benefits from the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. These generous benefits come in addition to existing unemployment insurance, job placement, and job training programs.  

Read More . . . 

Mr. President, Don't Forget: Imports Create Jobs, Too  

According to the President, the proposed Trans-Pacific and Transatlantic Partnerships should boost exports and create American jobs. Exports, however, are only one side of the coin. Free trade also boosts imports. Imports not only provide cheap goods and different products for U.S. consumers, but also create thousands of jobs. U.S. workers on average contribute about 78 percent of the value to the cost of apparel in the United States, according to a recent report by Moongate Associates on behalf of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Apparel Coalition.   

Read More . . . 

Unemployment Insurance: Adding Online Education  

While Members of Congress have debated the amount and duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, they have largely ignored reforming the UI system to help the unemployed return to work more quickly. Traditional government job training programs are both expensive and ineffective, but technological advances have made online education a viable option.  

Read More . . . 

Today's Headlines:  Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Testimony: DHS No Longer Uses Control of Border as Measure of Border Patrol

In Europe, Kerry Says U.S. 'Pivot' to Asia Won't Come at Europe's Expense

COMMENTARY:

The Malignancy in Federal Medical Research
By Terence P. Jeffrey
President Obama is complaining that the minor curtailments in anticipated federal spending that he signed into law in 2011 in exchange for a $2.4-trillion increase in the national debt will decimate the NIH's research capabilities. In fact, Congress needs to pay much closer attention to exactly how the now-bloated NIH is spending borrowed federal dollars.

The White House Court Jesters of Sequester
By Michelle Malkin
President Obama has been warning America that if Congress allows mandatory spending "cuts" of a piddly-widdly 2 percent to go into effect this week, the sky will fall. Cue every last teacher, senior citizen and emergency responder who will be catastrophically victimized by hardhearted Republicans. In fact, the reductions in spending are CINO: Cuts In Name Only. If the sequester goes into effect, Pentagon spending will increase by $121 billion between 2014 and 2023.

How to Go $16.5 Trillion in Debt
By Rich Galen
Governments are not successful when they try to do what private companies do because governments do not know what they need to know.



NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP:

Alternative Tips for Avoiding U.S. Drone Strikes  

Granted, a mixture of mud and sugar could make you partially invisible to the next drone - but wouldn't the wiser tactic be to become completely invisible to the entire U.S. government and mass media altogether? All it takes is learning a few useful facts about the American political establishment.

Try these 23 alternative tips: if used as directed, people in Washington will either pretend you don't exist or they will alter your public image until you become unrecognizable - even to yourself.  

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