Happy Fourth Of July

4th of July celebrations may keep me from my blog post so I want to take a moment now to wish everyone a very happy holiday.

Also, to all the Tea Party Protestors out there, keep up the good work!!!

Palinpalooza

The Other McCain takes apart and re-assembles the Palin Phenomenon here.

Go Libertarians!

Libertarians may finally be getting a toehold in Conservative circles. Since my husband works for a free-market libertarian think tank, I see this as a good thing.

More Obama Hypocrisy

This time on signing statements.

Boxer Rebellion

Sonja Schmidt takes on Barbara Boxer. Get her girl!

What No Halo?

Be prepared to see more pictures of Obama looking like this. Please.

What A Surprise - Corrupt Liberal Politician

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth.

The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal cases, according to agency documents.

Two weeks after the inquiry from Inouye's office, Central Pacific announced that the Treasury would inject $135 million.

Many lawmakers have worked to help home-state banks get federal money since the Treasury announced in October that it would invest up to $250 billion in healthy financial firms. But the Inouye inquiry stands apart because of the senator's ties to Central Pacific. While at least 33 senators own shares in banks that got federal aid, a review of financial disclosures and records obtained from regulatory agencies shows no other instance of the office of a senator intervening on behalf of a bank in which he owned shares.

Read the whole thing here in the Washington Post.

Sen. Inohofe Wants to Kill Waxman-Markey

Sen. Inohofe is a good man. He came to one of my husband's book parties and graciously did the introductions.

That Sen. Inohofe is against the Waxman-Markey bill is another sign of his good sense.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Jim Inhofe, who earlier said a criminal investigation “probably should be’’ conducted into allegations the EPA suppressed a climate change report, conceded Tuesday he is not qualified to make that determination.

“I have no way of knowing,’’ the Oklahoma Republican said.

Inhofe, however, stood by his prediction that a historic climate change bill narrowly approved by the House last week faces certain defeat in the Senate.

“It’s dead in the water,’’ he said.

Inhofe said the much-anticipated conclusion of a Senate race in Minnesota that will give Democrats the 60 votes needed to overcome Republican filibusters would not be enough to save the climate change bill.

“I’ll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota,’’ he said.

“They are not going to get more than 35 votes.’’

Asked if he was referring to Al Franken as the clown from Minnesota, Inhofe confirmed he was.

Forbes Points Out Five Obamacare Lies

Here is an excellent dissection of the five principle lies Obama tells regarding his healthcare monstrocity from Forbes Magazine.

But when it comes to health care reform, with every passing day, Obama seems less God and more demagogue, uttering not transcendental truths, but bald-faced lies. Here are the top five lies that His Awesomeness has told--the first two for no reason other than to get elected and the next three to sell socialized medicine to a wary nation.

Let's put it this way, if you have to fudge or outright lie in order to convince someone to do anything, then what you are asking them to do is wrong.

And you know it. Obamacare will be a vile mistake that will destory the US economy.

And as the Washington Examiner points out here, national healthcare or government-run healthcare has been tried in Europe and it has failed, failed, failed.

Just like a socialist to repeat the mistakes other socialists have made. Perhaps the socialists hope that if they keep doing the same thing over and over again, they will get a different outcome.

More likely, they will run mad.

No Atheists In Foxholes

This Wall Street Journal op-ed on the Ricci case is very good. But I think the principle message is best from Frank Ricci. Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, ""When your life's on the line, second best may not be good enough." Residents in a burning building want competent firefighters. They don't care about the race of those whose job it is to save them."

Iranian Protestors (Possibly) Hanged

And yet, lefties take the side of fanatical islamists against America even after they commit atrocities such as this.

Shame.

Form Letter Response from Sen. Warner

I told the Senator not to do it and did he listen to his constituent?

NO!

So below is the FORM LETTER response to my letter to Sen. Warner.

Dear Mrs. Murray,

Thank you for contacting me about global warming and related legislation. I appreciate hearing your views on this important issue.

In order to best protect America's citizens and environment, I believe that we need to develop a comprehensive energy policy that both reduces our emissions and utilizes alternative sources of energy. Doing so would not only help to preserve the environment, but would also create green jobs and ultimately lower domestic energy costs. Any discussion of our national energy policy must also consider the international scope of this challenge as individual nations confront problems such as the finite supply of fossil fuels, overhauling outdated energy infrastructures, and many other important environmental challenges.

Members of the relevant Congressional committees are currently working on legislation that would address climate change on a national level, and I look forward to participating in this debate during the 111th Congress. Though the science surrounding this issue supports the need for dramatic changes in policy, any comprehensive legislation to address climate change must balance this interest with the need to keep our economy viable during this challenging time.

Thank you again for your input on global warming. Please be assured that I will continue to monitor related legislation and will consider your views as the Senate debates and votes on relevant legislation. I very much look forward to serving the Commonwealth during the 111th Congress.

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

Look Senator, the science DOES NOT support Waxman-Markey. Vote yes on this bill and there are many folk, including me, who will work tirelessly to vote you out of office.

Criminalize? Illegal Immigration

While I applaud the efforts of the Arizona Senate in cracking down on illegal immigration, isn't it already a crime?

coming from the wife of an immigrant, I know how hard it is to enter America but it should be that way. Just walking in and helping yourself to all the freedoms and opportunities shouldn't be allowed.

America is earned, just like respect.

When its citizens no longer value or respect the freedom, justice and prosperity opportunities a (non-socialist) America provides, then America isn't all that much different from any other country.

In the past, it was a struggle to achieve America. It took days and months to get here and when you did, you assimilated because there was no going back.

Now, America is being treated by illegal immigrants - particularly those from central and south America - as merely a job. A way to pass your time. A large percentage of illegals from these countries come here to work their time and send their earnings out of the country. They don't enter the melting pot - when they've clawed out a big enough chunk - they return to their home country and that's it.

As is demonstrated by the uptick in farm worker applications, there are plenty of jobs Americans WILL do, when not crowded up by cheap labor.

Finally, it is no use throwing up the fear of racial profiling as an excuse not to enforce a law. Even if a larger proportion of a particular "race" commits a particular crime, America still has rule of law. You get a fair trial (and no, I will not entertain examples of unfair trials as they are the exception, not the rule). The vast majority of America's justice system is fair. Period.

While being hassled because of the color of your skin is wrong, there is a reason for stereo-types. I don't care what color your skin is, if you are covered in tattoos, riding a motorcycle, your head is shaved, and wearing a leather jacket with skull heads all over it, I'm gonna avoid you. Sorry.

Act, look, and speak like a stereotype and you will be treated like one. Don't pretend to be all shocked and upset about it. You brought it on yourself.

Enter America illegally, falsify identity cards, take jobs from legal Americans, and get caught, well then, I don't care where you came from, you broke our laws and you've got to go.

My husband followed all the legal channels to come here. He is working tirelessly for America, his new country and the birthplace of his children. That is the immigrant America needs and deserves. All states should keep their eyes on Arizona and defend our Union.

Letter to Sen. Warner

Dear Senator Warner,

My name is K. Murray and I received an email from you today telling me that you got a third-party email in my name and asking me to contact you directly.

I am doing so to re-affirm my deep and abiding HATRED of the Waxman-Markey bill. This taxation in the form of regulation will raise my energy bill without adding one benefit to the US economy or the environment.

The argument that America must set an example is insulting. We do not drill off-shore and are the ONLY country in the world that does not do so. Indeed, China is syphoning our oil by drilling into our coastal waters from inside international waters.

This global warming nonsense MUST stop. This horrific power-grab by the federal government MUST stop. Raising taxes and reducing energy supplies in the middle of a ghastly recession is beyond idiotic and enters into reckless abandonment by Congress of their duties to enact laws that protect and enhance America, not tear her down.

Please understand I am a stay-at-home mother with a website and plenty of time on her hands. A yes vote will only empower me to explain to ALL Virginians that the reason why their energy bills are so expensive is because Congress in general and you in particular are responsible.

With Tea Party Protests and growing consumer concern with the economic decisions Obama and the democratic party are making, can YOU afford to impoverish thousands of registered voters?

Thank you for your time and attention in this matter. And please be aware that a copy of this email will be posted on my website.

Sincerely,
K. Murray

Light Posting Day

I've foolishly agreed to take the kids into the city to the Natural History museum, so this will be a light posting day.

Enjoy the peace.

Re: Treason Against the Planet

(From my husband's post on NRO)

Let's remember another group of traitors, then, shall we? I wonder who's going to play the Pitt the Elder to Krugman's John Lind.

Cato Dissect Obamacare

You'll never regret watching this.

Goalposts Are Moved

ABCNews is reporting here that the "goalposts" of Obama's stimulus is being moved in order to make the economic recovery "look" better than it is.

Another shining example of liberal/Obamas hope and change.

Man Caves

Golly. I'm gonna have to win me the lottery because I would love, love, love to give my husband John Bryant's super-cool Castle Turret Man Cave.

Re: Obama's No-Win Situation

(Originally posted by my husband on NRO-The Corner)

Actually, there is a way he can win. If he is seen as the centrist on this ("even Obama has problems with it . . .") then after a couple of tweaks he can announce himself satisfied, and all of a sudden the center ground on the bill shifts further to the left. Yet the job-killing threat will still be there; such is the nature of the beast. We can't allow Obama to be the arbiter of what is an acceptable bill. We must continue to make the case that there is no such creature. Trade war isn't the central problem (although it's a pretty big one); the central problem with this bill is that it is a tax on energy, and a tax on electricity in particular. We can't let Obama change the subject.

Getting Green with Cap and Trade

Hat Tip Jonah.


And here is the Tax Foundation website with a Cap and Trade calculator, so you too can see how much you're going to be paying if this stupidity is passed in the Senate.

Maybe you might want to let your senator know what you think sooner rather than later...

What Happens When You Are Arrested In Iran

This compelling article describes what happened to one student protestor 10 years ago in Iran. Eight months of beatings were only a small part of his suffering.

Those arrested in Iran over the best two - three weeks will only fare worse. My God bless them and keep them safe.

Obamacare Sticker Shock Unsurprising

Well, the galaxy-high costs of Obamacare come as a surprise only to the liberals and democrats stupid enough to think it is a good idea.

They don't want to do the logical thing and fix Medicare first because the democrats know they can't. They don't have the balls. So they do the spineless thing and try to cram down the same Medicare/Medicaid mistakes on us - only huger.

What is it with liberals? Something doesn't work. A program fails massively and their regular solution is to do the EXACT SAME THING AGAIN ONLY BIGGER.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Choosing to be Weak

The Washington Times has an upsetting op-ed discussing how Obama's military postures - especially regarding missile defense - boil down to "choosing to be weak".

Obama can be as weak as he wants but I expect America's defense to be the strongest in the world.

Libertarian Ron Paul Rings Fed's Bell

Over here at CQ Politics, they are talking about Ron Paul's call for the Federal Reserve to be less secretive.

Amen.

"Career Suicide for Cap and Trade Yes Voters?"

9 to 0 Against Sotomayor

Ouch!

Every single US Supreme Court Justice agreed that the Ricci case was badly handled and 5 to 4 voted to overturn Sotomayor (and the two other appellate judge's) opinion.

Good. Good. And good.

Obama will still try to put her on the bench but does this "wise latina" deserve a job-for-life as a reward for a lifetime of racist views

Cap and Trade Interview

Here is a radio podcast from the G. Gordon Liddy show between Mr. Liddy and my husband on the devastating impact of the Waxman-Merkey cap and trade bill on the economy.

The Tragedy of Bad Ideas

This Wall Street Journal op-ed here by Andrew Klaven about the movie The Stoning of Soraya M. is touching as well as academic. Well worth a read - below is a sizeable chunk of Mr. Klaven's work.

The tragedy of bad ideas unfolds from a moral flaw in a worldview or philosophy as inevitably as classical tragedy unfolds from a flaw in individual character. Tragedies of bad ideas are the most common, pervasive and destructive man-made mass disasters. Yet our thinking class has become powerless to oppose them or even recognize them for what they are.

The reason is that too many of our intellectuals are themselves ensnared in a bad idea. That idea is multiculturalism -- the notion that no system or government is inherently better than any other, that the rules of morality are just a doctrine written by history's winners. Thus there are no enduring human truths, only "narratives" by which almost any beastliness can be explained away if committed by a people with a claim to having been victimized by a dominant culture.

This bad idea has all but silenced our nation at a moment when the world most needs our voice. Thousands of people in Iran are marching in the streets, protesting a sham election, heroically risking life and limb to try to tear some little breathing space in the smothering shroud of theocracy. Yet President Barack Obama, the leader of the most powerful free nation on earth, responds with mealy-mouthed strategic dithering. The man who in his recent speech in Cairo drew an absurd moral equivalence between Western errors and Islam's unstinting history of oppression has condemned the Iranian government's violent reaction to the demonstrations but remains canny and vague in his support of the protestors.

This is too shrewd by half. There comes a time in the affairs of men when bad ideas can be -- and therefore must be -- powerfully opposed by good ones.

Compare, if you can bear it, President Ronald Reagan's response to the 1982 crackdown on the Polish union Solidarity by the Soviet Union: "The struggle in the world today for the hearts and minds of mankind is based on one simple question: Is man born to be free, or slave? In country after country, people have long known the answer to that question. We are free by divine right." In less than a decade, in startlingly large measure because this one idea found so mighty a voice, the Soviet Union was gone.

Cap and Trade Bill Will Hurt Many

The title of this article here from TheHill.com is "Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t'" but I think the really interesting line comes at the end.

One Democrat was upset that his leaders would needlessly force vulnerable Dems to vote for a bill that will come back to haunt them. Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor (D) voted against the measure that he says will die in the Senate.

"A lot of people walked the plank on a bill that will never become law," Taylor told The Hill after the gavel came down.

From your lips to God's ear Rep. Taylor.

And let's face it, the man is right. A lot of political careers died when they voted to raise energy bills and cost jobs. No wonder those foolish yes-voters in the House have a twitter hashtag, capntraitors.

Oxy-Clean Pitchman Dead

Billy Mays is dead. That's another 50 year old who's died this week.

Bring Us Dumb Regulation

This Wall Street Journal webpage here has a compelling post on dumbing down regulation as well as many links to other topics.

Big Government Creats Creeps and Misfits

The latest Mark Steyn op-ed is up at OCRegister here. As always, inciteful and funny - I especially like the quip that politics is show business for ugly people.

The real bubble is a consequence of big government. The more the citizenry expect from the state, the more our political class will depend on ever more swollen Gulf Emir-size retinues of staffers hovering at the elbow to steer you from one corner of the fishbowl to another 24/7. "Why are politicians so weird?" a reader asked me after the Sanford news conference. But the majority of people willing to live like this will be, almost by definition, deeply weird. So big government more or less guarantees rule by creeps and misfits. It's just a question of how well they disguise it. Writing about Michael Jackson a few years ago, I suggested that today's A-list celebs were the equivalent of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria or the loopier Ottoman sultans, the ones it wasn't safe to leave alone with sharp implements. But, as Christopher Hitchens says, politics is show business for ugly people. And a celebrified political culture will inevitably throw up its share of tatty karaoke versions of Britney and Jacko.

Creating An Army of Davids

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds wrote the book An Army of Davids. And now folks are out there creating armies of Davids to fight corruption.

Here is a link to Pierr LeGrand's Pink Flamego Bar website.

As well as this link here to Zero Hedge which appears to be doing hero's work.

And of course, my husband's Read The Bill here.

The Difference Between Men and Males

You tell 'em AlfonZo.

Watch this video here!

Why "No" is The Government's Best Word

George Will has an excellent opinion piece up at The Washington Post. If you believe that the government is rushing headalong into uncontrolled debt and intrusiveness, then read this op-ed here.

Just Read The Bill, Already

(Orginally posted by my husband at NRO - The Corner)

The news that President Obama's much vaunted transparency promises have already gone the way of all flesh comes as no surprise to me. The farce on the House floor yesterday was a good example of why they couldn't survive. For those who missed it (and Andy's post doesn't quite convey the whole story of the farrago), Rep Mike Pence started the debate yesterday morning by pointing out that the House leadership had dropped a 300-page amendment to the already 1200-ish page Waxman-Markey energy tax bill at 3:09 in the morning. Clearly, debate started before anyone had had a chance to read it properly, but the House leadership just didn't care. Then, mid-afternoon, Reps Louie Goehmert (who did a splendid job all round) and Energy & Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (who clearly couldn't believe what was going on) raised a series of Parliamentary Inquiries as to whether there was a copy of the amended bill anywhere in the House for members to read. Chairman Markey was dismissive, saying there was a copy on the wesbite, which, Rep Barton pointed out, was not much help to members on the floor of the House actually, you know, debating the bill. Eventually the Chair, who was very fair throughout the afternoon, admitted that the Clerk was in the process of integrating the amendment into the hard copy in the House. So for most of the day the House was debating a bill that didn't actually physically exist, never mind having had a chance to read, digest and consider it.

Let me just state this as simply as I can: this is a gross abuse of the Parliamentary process and represents nothing less than contempt for the people of the United States of America.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened this year. As I suggested during the Stimulus idiocy, a simple constitutional amendment might help:

Before voting on any Bill, a Senator or Representative shall certify to the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House respectively that they have read the Bill in full.

One reader had similar ideas, suggesting (link may be broken):

“No bill shall be deemed to have passed the House of Representatives or the Senate unless such bill shall have received a majority of yeay votes from the membership of each House; yeay votes shall only be counted from members who swear under penalty of perjury that they have read the entirety of the text of each bill.”

Another reader agreed, saying,

I say "Amen". Some would complain that this would slow Congress down, allowing only for a few bills to be passed per session. To which I say "Amen", yet again. It's like putting money in the bank and making even more with compounding interest. One good things leads to more good things with this. Excellent idea, Iain. Where do we get the process started?

Good question. On the principle that social media is the future of political campaigning, I've set up a website for Read The Bill, which is currently just a skeleton, although I'll copy these posts there. I also think a pledge by lawmakers that they will read a bill and not vote for any rule to allow debate on a bill they haven't read might be a useful idea, and that might be a good way to start. Ideas are welcome - head over there and sign up. Let's see if we can reach critical mass.

I add here that this is a purely personal idea, not affiliated with CEI or National Review (unless they want to come on board) and is intended as a completely nonpartisan initiative. I cannot believe that liberals of good faith are happy with the idea that our Congress is routinely voting on bills they haven't read. So I hope some liberals will come on board and will help promote the idea as well. This is an initiative on behalf of the people, so let's see what the people say, and where they lead us.