Friday, February 27, 2009

Congress Breaks Constitution

It is clearly written that Washington DC be a federal city with no state status and therefore can not vote in Congress.

Until now when Congress has voted to give DC a vote. This is the first of what will be many tears in our US Constitution.

Don't be suprised to find our founding document in shreds by the end of this administration.

The DC activists who wanted Washington DC to have a vote in our Federal Congress used the slogan "No Taxation Without Representation". And they are right.

But rather than give them a vote that VIOLATES the Constitution, DC residents should not be forced to pay Federal Taxes - only city ones.

I promise you half the city's woes would have been solved by that tactic only. Now the predominately democrat city will be used to add yet another leftwing vote in our Federal government and this tiny city will help dictate the direction of our entire country.

Hopefully, some right-thinking soul will do a legal challenge in order to prevent this travesty of democracy.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Obama Lifts 18 Year Old Ban

On one hand, I support freedom of speech. On the other hand, I support the right to privacy in the face of a personal tragedy or loss.

That said, lifting the 18-year ban on allowing press photos of the war dead without permission from the families of the dead soldier is wrong.

Who would want a picture of their son or daughter, husband or wife, father or mother's coffin in the news without their express consent?

I know how I would feel if in the middle of heartbreaking grief, people in politics and the media used a picture of my child's coffin to further an agenda I do not agree with. I know exactly how I'd feel about that.

Privacy should be respected for families who want it and a separate ceremony area be created for those who wish to allow the media to film their dead's homecoming.

The False Promise of Green Jobs

My husband has an article he wrote for the DC Examiner up on the CEI website explain just how and why "Green Jobs" are a big fat lie.

No Oil For YOU

According to the Institute for Energy Research, Obama's Interior Department is withdrawing it's proposal to study the Shale Oil reserves in three states.

Unfortunately, the Interior Department’s decision today may help ensure that potential never becomes reality – in the process, locking-away an American energy resource larger than the total reserves of the entire Middle East.
Nice, move Obama. Let's restrict Americans from domestic oil reserves that are larger than the entire Middle East.

And let's restrict access to that oil in the middle of a recession.

Drill, Baby, Drill.

At CPAC

My husband will be at CPAC 2009 this Saturday from 11am signing his book, "Really Inconvenient Truths" and giving a speech at the 11:30am session titled Threats to Our National Sovereignty.

Townhall.com is providing live-streaming of the event if you want to watch.

Re: The Hidden Climate Tax

This post was written by my husband for NRO - The Corner.

According to the budget preview document, the revenues from the hidden climate tax will be split between $15bn for alternative energy pork and about $52 billion per year to help pay for the Making Work Pay tax cut/welfare check of $800 for "95 percent of all American workers."

How much will cap and trade cost households in increased energy costs? Well, we know from a CBO study last year that a 15 percent reduction in emissions from 1998 levels would cost each household at least $660. That target is about 25 percent more stringent than the budget target, which is simply a return to 1990 emission levels by 2020 (far less than environmentalists demand). So we can apply simple arithmetic to estimate that the current budget cap and trade program will cost each income quintile $510, $660, $870, $1125 and $1635 (in 2006 dollars, slightly more in nominal values) respectively.

So the tax cut for 95 percent of working Amercians is going to be significantly offset by hiking energy prices in order to pay for it in the first place. Sheesh. Talk about a shell game.

Biden Gets It Wrong Again

Was this Joe "loose lips" Biden's attempt to undermine Gov. Jindal by claiming in a big fat lie that Louisana was losing jobs?

Why lie, Joe? Why? Are you deliberately trying to appear both more arrogant and idiotic?

Top Ten Ig Nobel Awards

Sometimes science just ain't right.

Like this #6 Levitating Frog scientific "research" or toad torture?


From the Popular Mechanics website, they state...
A large portion of scientific research remains forever off the public radar. A select few studies deliver results that reverberate in the scientific community and make their way to textbooks. Then there are those research efforts that, as one group puts it, represent "achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced." Every year the Annals of Improbable Research highlights this last group with the Ig Nobel, an award for the top engineering solutions, science products and peer-reviewed papers that, according to the editors, "make you laugh, then make you think." We looked back at 18 years of the prizes to bring you our 10 favorite Ig Nobels of all time.

What is She Holding On To?

I think the best you can say about this float is that it is an interesting example of how GroupThink can fail spectacularly.

Re: CPAC 09

Below is my husband's post on NRO-The Corner about his speech to CPAC.

There's another panel that might qualify, Mark, and I'm speaking on it. It's "Threats to our National Sovereignty" at 11:30am, also on Saturday. I'll be speaking alongside my good friend and colleague Chris Horner, of Planet Gore fame, the incredibly clever Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason University and David Rivkin of Baker & Hostetler, another NRO contributor. I'll be looking at the threats posed by various environmental treaties and will doubtless mention how the UK got sucked into a supranational government without ever voting to do so. Hope to see you and others there!

"New Black Overclass"

Make of this what you will but I received an email from EbonyJet/CNBC about an hour-long program airing this evening, Feb. 26th about our "new black overclass".

Well, setting aside the worrying similarity to the word "overlord" and the idea of a new and higher level of elites, is this really what Rahm Emmanual meant as a conversaton?


This is the text of the email I received:
In its next CNBC Original, CNBC takes viewers inside the growing class of young, self-made black multimillionaires - mostly under 40 - who have built wealth and influence in the sports, entertainment, and media industries. The journey to the black overclass, black America's new financial elite, is often filled with vast opportunity, but even greater pressure to help family and community. In one-on-one interviews with the celebrities, called "NEWBOs," Lee Hawkins takes us inside the experience of high-profile athletes and entertainers, discussing the implications of their sudden wealth and fame and their transition from the underclass or working class to wealthy class in a matter of a few years.
Now I am the first in line to cheer success, especially the rise of those who started with so many strikes against them. Success via overcoming challenges is a cherished American value and classic story.

But this TV program is nothing but an hour-long plug for Lee Hawkins book, "Newbos: The rise of America's New Black Overclass". Since when does that count as news? And why hasn't CNBC given my husband an hour's worth of airtime for his book, "Really Inconvienent Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophe's Liberals Don't Want You To Know About Because They Helped Caused Them."

Oh wait, I think I answered my own question.

I'm not sure what Lee Hawkins hopes to achieved with this book title other than being provokative. I do believe describing one group of people by their ethnicity and claiming "overclass" status for them could be taken as racist. But maybe that's just me (and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate).

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Obama Demands Secrecy Pact With Pentagon

So much for transparency or hope or change. Obama has required that all Pentagon officials sign a secrecy pact that does not allow them to share budget information to non-federal government employees.

The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.

In an undated non-disclosure agreement obtained by Defense News, the administration tells defense officials that “strict confidentiality” must be practiced to ensure a “successful” and “proper” 2010 defense budget process.

Palin-Jindal, Jindal-Palin 2012

And I don't care which so long as I keep getting more of this!

Go Bobby Go!

Pants on Fire - Obama's State of Union 09 Speech

My Way News has done a pretty reasonable fact check on Obama's speech last night.

Not a good showing in the truth/transparency department but probably not hugely worse than any other damn politician these days.

And over at Politico's they have Sam Wurzelbacher laughing at Obama's speech. Good Stuff.

Obama Spanked by Byrd

Sen. Byrd spanked Obama over his attempt at grabbing more and more power despite being in the same party as Obama.

Who'd have thought you'd be glad for Sen. Byrd?

Breaking News: Ice Melts In Summer

This article is absurd and stupid.

It reports on a study that says Antarctic glaciers are melting faster than expected.

First, it is summer down there right now. Could that be why the ice is melting?

We don't know, this report doesn't once mention what time period the study covers.

Second, the article says it is only glaciers in the western region of the Antarctic that are "melting". Just how big is the region? Are we talking a western region the size of Rhode Island or the size of California?

Then as if to undermine its own argument, the article mentioned (near the end of course) that
Antarctica's average annual temperature has increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.56 degrees Celsius) since 1957, but is still 50 degrees Fahrenheit (45.6 degrees Celsius) below zero, according to a recent study by Eric Steig of the University of Washington.

The article is based on a report from the International Polar Year 2007 - 2009 which is funded by the NSF. This IPY report seems rather alarmist especially when you look at the quote from Steig-UWA report. I mean the average temperature of the Antarctic is 50 degrees BELOW ZERO?

Seriously 50 degrees below zero is 82 degrees below water's freezing point? How much ice can melt in an area that cold?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Biden-Stanford Corruption Connection

Apparently two members of Joe (loose lips) Biden's family run hedge funds that were marketed exclusively by Allen Stanford, a man recently charged with fraud.

Ah, yet another charge of bad behavior linked to an associate of Obama.

Fraud, corruption, and tax evasion circle Obama like friends and yet somehow never touch him.

Stopping The March of Socialism

David Limbaugh offers a cry from the heart about the decline into socialism Obama's policies represent. Worth a read.

Shocker - Gov. Palin was Right

About William Ayers being an unrepentant terrorist.

Well, duh.

Defending the 14th Amendment

This excellent article over at Reason defending the FULL implications of the 14th Amendment should be required reading for all Americans who value "self-ownership". So get on over there!

Dodd's Irish Cottage

The always outstanding Toby Hardon hammers away at Christopher Dodd and his latest "murky" mortgage on his summer cottage in Ireland.

Why the UK Telegraph is better at investigating our politics than most US papers is beyond me. Only the Hartford Courant is keeping up the pressure.

It is shameful on both Dodd and the US media.

Lamest Activists Ever

Watch this video and listen to the jargon the camerakid uses during this "revolutionary" action to take over a student food court.

What a bunch of morons!

Even Air America Admits It

In this video here between Air America and Reason, you can watch a fascenating discussion between Ann Marie Cox and Matt Welch about how mealy-mouthed Obama's assertion that he will "create or save" 4 million jobs. A good watch indeed!

Are we finally seeing some bipartisanship in an agreement that Obama is full of it?

Still Questioning Obama's Citizenship

A soldier has filed suit demanding to see an original "vault" copy of Obama's birth certificate so he can, in good faith, follow the orders of his Constitutionally correct Commander-in-Chief.

This concern about Obama's citizenship and the lawsuits several people have filed will continue to grow and spread until Obama produces his original birth certificate. So why hasn't he?

I'm not sure why someone can't petition the Kenyan or Indonesian governments to show if Obama ever held dual citizenship with them.

Or why Obama has never released his college papers and applications which would have shown if he applied as a US citizen, US resident or foreign national.

And what about Obama's passport and passport application documents? Would access to those clear up this issue?

Until something legitimate and convincing is produced, these questions will dog Obama for the rest of his term. With all that's going on, proving his legitimacy to hold our highest office would probably help many people accept him.

Because quite frankly, while I still believe he probably meets the requirements of the US Constitution, the longer these questions go unanswered, the more my slight concern has reason to grow.

Why Are We Giving Aid To Gaza?

US aid to Gaza may hit $900 million. My question is why?

Even if officially the US has no ties to Hamas and the money is spent on humanitarian aid and "rebuilding", why should US taxpayers money leave America to give aid and succor to terrorists?

Because no matter how you slice it, a significant portion of that money will go end up in Hamas hands either via accessing humanitarian aid or using the rebuilt buildings to launch more attacks against Israel (while using innocent civilians has human shields).

If we must help the people of Gaza (before we help ourselves) then I'd much rather we give the money to Israel and ask them to distribute it to Gaza civilians. The Israelis have a much better idea of who is safe to help and it would work in Israel's best interests (and ours) to help the right people while keeping Hamas from being able to launch terrorist attacks.