Tag: politics

I find it remarkable that so many Americans still believe they live in a Constitutional democratic republic when it’s quite clear that it is neither Constitutional nor democratic, nor is it even a republic any longer.

Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget. The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.

Never before — since the creation of the Congressional budget process — has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.

I mean, Congress isn’t even seriously trying to make things look legitimate anymore. They’re barely bothering to go through the motions and they’re certainly not concerned about whatever the will of the People might happen to be. But please don’t let that get in the way of enjoying your Department of Public Safety-regulated, Division of Fire Safety-approved, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms-licensed pyrotechnics celebrating liberty today.

So saith the Supreme Court:

OKAY, having quickly skimmed the McDonald opinion, a few thoughts.

First, it’s 5-4. Though a pro-gun-rights opinion may pacify the gun-rights crowd to a degree, the closeness of these decisions is likely to keep them active in upcoming elections.

Second, it shows how little influence legal academics have. Virtually all of us have been saying that Slaughter House is lousy and that privileges and immunities should be far more significant, but only Justice Thomas was willing to go that far.

Third, it really is interesting how much emphasis the majority, and Justice Thomas’s concurrence, put on the racist roots of gun control. See this article and this one by Bob Cottrol and Ray Diamond for more background. And isn’t it interesting that this is happening on the same day the Senate’s last Klansman went to his reward?

On the one hand, I am all for whatever puts more guns in the hands of individuals. Or tactical nukes, for that matter. I will never understand why people who understand the many and manifest evils of the DMV think that only government employees should have weapons of mass destruction. Today’s decision didn’t go nearly far enough to return the many laws of the land on the matter to a reasonably Constitutional state.

On the other, I am opposed to increased federalization even in a good cause. Although since the States haven’t been sovereign since the political debate was settled by mass slaughter, I suppose it’s a bit late to worry about that now. And since the federal government isn’t about to stop ruling over the state and local governments with an iron hand, this is a better decision than the most likely alternative.

And much respect to the liberal law professors whose intellectual integrity played a major role in this case. Remember them when you find yourself tempted to think all liberals are inconsistent and hypocritical charlatans. Integrity and honesty are not part of the political spectrum.

I’m not sure, but I think the rabbis just called her a pig:

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is “not kosher” — meaning she is not fit to serve on the court — according to more than 850 Orthodox members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. That’s the term the rabbis used about Kagan in a press release issued Thursday, saying “Elena Kagan is not kosher. She is not fit to sit on this Court — or any court.”

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that “a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.”

I can’t muster much concern about Kagan one way or the other. I mean, the only surprise was that she wasn’t black. I was expecting Obama to appoint a black Marxist lesbian, so the fact that he went with a Jewish one instead doesn’t fill me with alarm. It’s not like the Supreme Court matters anymore, it’s about as relevant as the Imperial Roman Senate.

Two things. First, this proves that Democrats are children who are inherently incapable of taking responsibility for anything. Blaming Republicans because 100,000 Democrats voted for an unemployed man with no apparent interest in politics marks a new high-water point for their whining. Second, ALVIN GREENE FOR PRESIDENT! I would totally vote for the man.

There are suggestions that George Stephanopoulis may have spoken a little too quickly in correcting Obama about “my Muslim faith”:

In the [Israel Today] report, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying during an appearance on Nile TV that, “The American president told me in confidence that he is a Muslim.”

The White House remained silent on the comment, declining to respond to a WND request for comment.

Curiouser and curiouser… but the question is if this is simply Israeli disinformation being released due to their obvious displeasure with the Obama administration or a genuine statement from an Egyptian official who is confirmed to have met at least twice with Obama in the last two years. Perhaps someone at Fox should get Mr. Gheit on the line and ask him a few pertinent questions.

Given what we know of Obama, it wouldn’t surprise me if he intentionally misspoke. Even the most deceptive individuals can’t seem to resist advertising the truth about themselves to those who are paying attention.

Steyn on Obama:

In recent months, a lot of Americans have said to me that they had no idea the new president would feel so “weird.” But, in fact, he’s not weird. True, he’s not, even in Democratic terms, a political figure — as, say, Clinton or Biden are. Instead, he’s the product of the broader culture: There are millions of people like Barack Obama, the eternal students of a vast lethargic transnational campus for whom global compassion and the multicultural pose are merely the modish gloss on a cult of radical grandiose narcissism. As someone once said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” When you’ve spent that long waiting in line for yourself, it’s bound to be a disappointment.

Obama isn’t the first black president, he’s the first teen president. On a tangential note, I have to admit that I find it both irritating and amusing when left-liberal Americans who have never been anywhere outside the borders for more than two weeks, don’t speak anything but English, and have seldom encountered an idea that wasn’t spoon-fed to them by a teacher or professor try to strike the citoyen du monde pose in front of me.

But I have to disagree with Steyn. The fact that there are no shortage of other useless and narcissistic weirdos doesn’t make Obama any less weird. It is surprising to me that more people didn’t observe how psychologically strange Obama has been from the start. There is something intrinsically wrong with anyone who is still that much of a blank slate after more than a decade in the public eye. Forget the missing birth certificate, where are the friends and old girlfriend, where are the proud teachers and professors? And since his inauguration, Obama’s presidency has provided one risible moment after another, and I strongly suspect that the ultimate punch line is going to be a doozy.

Well, if nothing else, the election clerk’s testimony would certainly explain Obama’s difficulty in producing one.

A college instructor who worked as a senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in 2008 is making the stunning claim Barack Obama was definitely not born in Hawaii as the White House maintains, and that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Obama does not even exist in the Aloha State.

“There is no birth certificate,” said Tim Adams, a graduate assistant who teaches English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky. “It’s like an open secret. There isn’t one. Everyone in the government there knows this.”

At the time, there were conflicting reports that Obama had been born at the Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, as well as the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children across town. So Adams says his office checked with both facilities.

“They told us, ‘We don’t have a birth certificate for him,'” he said. “They told my supervisor, either by phone or by e-mail, neither one has a document that a doctor signed off on saying they were present at this man’s birth.”

I don’t think this will faze the remaining Obama die-hards at all. They’ll just cite it as proof of his birth in a manger. Of a virgin.

There is a reason the media is trumpeting the year of the Republican woman as shown in the following example: Five Primary Races Dominated by Republican Women Could Set Course for Midterm Elections.

If there is one lesson that should be learned from the voting habits of past female Republicans, it is that they are usually Lite Democrats. I can still remember when Christie Todd Whitman was supposed to be the great conservative hope… and what a joke that turned out to be. The Carly Fiorinas and Sue Lowdens of the world are NEVER going to vote to overturn a single federal entitlement. It’s just not going to happen.

With the exception of Sharon Angle, I see no reason to think of these Republican candidates as anything but electoral pressure valves. Naturally, she’s the one candidate that the Republican establishment opposes.