Phelim McAleer is a journalist. In his capacity as a journalist, he is a skeptic. The role of skeptic - the one who asks the questions, the one who demands answers - is generally a lauded role in modern society. At least .. as long as there’s a Republican on the hot seat. But in climate circles, they have another word, a pejorative term, for skeptics: deniers. The church of global warming has no tolerance for heresy, and even less for probing questions or investigations. And so it is that the journalist Phelim McAleer was denied press credentials for the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in sunny Cancun, Mexico this week. (Certainly a better PR choice than frigid Copenhagen.)
Power Line brings us the news that the Council on American Islamic Relations (”CAIR”) has been found by both the executive and judicial branches of the United States Government to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.
If you recall, the Justice Department prosecuted the Holy Land Foundation for providing support to a terrorist group. In the particular case it was Hamas.
As Power Line notes, the Justice Department named CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case and both a federal district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concurred.
Maybe now the media will stop trying to pretend that CAIR is some innocuous civil rights group. Hahahaha. Who am I kidding?!
Last week the smut-peddlers at Gawker.com introduced us all to Pete and Alisha Arnold. Alisha Arnold is apparently 17 weeks pregnant, and the Arnolds have allegedly decided to let the Internet vote on whether Alisha will carry their son to full term or abort him. I say “allegedly” because I am fairly skeptical of whether the Arnolds intend to follow through with their plan. In fairness, the Arnolds have left themselves a pretty substantial loophole, declaring essentially that they have veto power over the Internet poll. This seems to be fairly transparent way of saying that the Arnolds will check the results of the poll and then do whatever their hearts desire.
To my mind, the question of whether this episode is a hoax or publicity stunt is quite beside the point. What ought to concern us more are the hordes of American citizens voting in the Arnolds’ poll and publicly obsessing over their gratuitous display of moral vacillation.
Yesterday afternoon, Ireland finalized terms of a bailout valued at 85 billion euros, from the ECB, the IMF, a government pension fund, and several European states. So far, the bailout is NOT having a calming effect on Europe’s capital markets.
Credit spreads on so-called “peripheral” European sovereigns are blowing out this morning, and government bonds of Portugal and Spain are falling sharply. Italy managed to tap the credit markets earlier today, but the interest rate was high and the subscription level was disappointing.
This can’t keep up. If investors continue to dial up the interest rates they charge Europe’s governments, there’s little chance of a sustained recovery. And that makes European states even less credit-worthy.
Fred Upton’s liberal voting record is a textbook example of why Republicans were kicked to the curb. From taxes to energy to federal government land grabs, Upton is no conservative.
Upton’s proudest energy achievement is co-authoring the ban on incandescent light bulbs with über-liberal Rep. Jane Harman (D.–Calif.).
A big believer in global-warming-consensus “science,” Upton told a Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing in 2009—just last year—that the global warming debate is over: “I have said at nearly every climate change hearing that for me I don’t dispute the science. Right or wrong, the debate over the modeling and science appears to be over.”
Welcome back. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. There are a few stories that came out over the holiday weekend and I think they are best tied together by one word — impotence.
Barack Obama increasingly appears to be an impotent President and no among of viagra funded through Obamacare seems capable of helping the man.
You remember how ObamaCare was all about making health care more affordable and protecting the most vulnerable, right?
And, surely you remember how much money and resources (i.e., members’ dues) the purple behemoth known as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) put into the fight for ObamaCare—even going so far as (allegedly) beating Kenneth Gladney at a St. Louis town hall meeting.
Heck, it was SEIU’s then president Andy Stern who pushed for the tactic known as “demon pass” that gave us final passage of ObamaCare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Well, somehow we missed this last week.
“One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements.”
The US Senate has before it a proposed treaty with Russia which according to the administration is nothing more than a benign extension of Ronald Reagan’s “doveryai, no proveryai” or “trust, but verify.” For reasons that are more than a little unclear, the Obama regime has chosen to make ratification of this treaty its highest priority insisting that the ratification take place during the upcoming lame duck session of Congress, an act unprecedented in our history. Far from being benign is exemplifies not only weakness and arguably some kind of a 1960s idealism it is nothing more than political desperation.
The US Senate should refuse to act upon this treaty during the lame duck session or at anytime in the future.
Pejman Yousefzadeh has a great post on airport security. You’ve probably seen similar things.
Throughout the country the full body x-ray machines were turned off for travel the day before Thanksgiving and have largely been unused for several days.
Now, the TSA says there is no official policy, but it seems hard to believe it is sheer coincidence that on the busiest travel days of the year at the largest airports across the country the full body scanners were just . . . randomly?. . . turned off.
There’s big money at stake for unions at Delta Air Lines, Inc—over $22 million in annual union dues. As the only (primarily) union-free major airline (Delta’s pilots are unionized), unions have long targeted the Atlanta-based carrier. However, now, with the National Mediation Board members being controlled by unions*, as well as Delta’s recent merger with unionized Northwest Airlines, the unions have declared it open hunting season on Delta. So far, however, the unions have lost eight out of the eight elections they’ve called for—and now are going to rely on the union-controlled NMB to overturn the results so they can hold rerun elections.
Interior Secretary Salazar has decided that America has serious energy needs - needs which must be addressed through an emergency effort to activate new sources quickly. Is this a sudden move to expedite offshore drilling - and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil? Not quite.
Bob Decheine, chief of staff for Rep. Steve Rothman (D, NJ), has been abruptly fired. This came as a bit of a surprise, as Decheine has been a notable figure in NJ Democratic politics: he was a senior adviser to the Obama campaign in 2008, and as Rothman’s CoS had just shepherded his boss to another win in Congress, by fair means or foul. In other words, a bit of a surprise, no? Turns out Decheine got arrested last week for soliciting sex from a minor. It was a sting operation, which means that - thank God - no kids were hurt by this guy.
That Mohamud was arrested and no one was hurt is a testament to good intelligence and law enforcement work. Having Mohamud behind bars has undoubtedly saved lives in Portland; had he not encountered the undercover FBI agents, he might have worked with actual terrorists to construct a bomb, or he might have simply gotten a gun and carried out "an operation here, you know, like something like Mumbai," as he told the agents. What is ironic is that the operation that found and stopped Mohamud is precisely the kind of law enforcement work that Portland's leaders, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected during the Bush years. In April 2005, the Portland city council voted 4 to 1 to withdraw Portland city police officers from participating in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Mayor Tom Potter said the FBI refused to give him a top-secret security clearance so he could make sure the officers weren't violating state anti-discrimination laws that bar law enforcement from targeting suspects on the basis of their religious or political beliefs. After his own loss, a general salutes two brave Marines This article is adapted from a speech that Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly delivered in St. Louis on Nov. 13, four days after his son, Robert M. Kelly, was killed in action in Afghanistan. The younger Kelly was on his third combat tour, his first as a second lieutenant, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines: I don't know why they hate us, and I don't care. We have a saying in the Marine Corps that there is "no better friend, no worse enemy, than a U.S. Marine." We always hope for the first, friendship, but are certainly more than ready for the second. If it's death they want, it's death they will get, and the Marines will continue showing them the way to hell if that's what will make them happy. Michael Barone - For tottering states, bankruptcy could be the answer
We won't be able to say we weren't warned. Continued huge federal budget deficits will eventually mean huge increases in government borrowing costs, Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Obama's deficit reduction commission, predicted this month. "The markets will come. They will be swift and they will be severe and this country will never be the same."
Final campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission have come in, and they show a very different picture from the one painted by Obama and most of the media. The Democrats' advantage in money from traditional PACs was just about 10 times the size of the Republicans' advantage from the new Super PACs.
The Obama line -- special interests, upset about the Democrats' tough reforms, favored the GOP -- got plenty play this cycle, and fit neatly into many journalists' prejudices. But the truth is more complicated. Both parties are probably equally cozy with special interests.
The State Department also is warning ominously of "grave consequences" for those who distribute the classified documents. Wikileaks now claims it's under some kind of cyberattack. The website has previously released documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More Stories
I am thankful for Christ who died for me. I am thankful for my wife, my children, Eagle Publishing, and many more things. But I want to take just a moment to share with you that I am also thankful for you. This morning email is a daily labor of love. Many of you have become good email friends. It remains a pleasure to get the Morning Briefing to you each week day. Five days a week I get up early, get this out the door, and go back to bed. Occasionally I take day or two off and enjoy sleeping in. Tomorrow, instead of sending this out, I’ll be up before dawn getting a turkey in the smoker. Friday, wonderful Friday, I will be sleeping in. Have a wonderful, safe, and delicious Thanksgiving. Enjoy the leftovers on Friday, And God bless each and every one of you. See you Monday morning.
I know some of you are a bit perplexed about why I, a guy in Georgia, keep writing about Joe Straus, a liberal elitist in Texas. It is very simple really. Texas is going to make big gains in the census and pick up some congressional districts. Conservatives across the country must be concerned that the man who will have the heaviest hand in drawing those lines is 100% NARAL supported and ridiculously corrupt. We must fight at the state level here to help the conservative cause nationally in the 2012 elections. And what happened late yesterday should concern everyone — really concern everyone, not to mention embarrass all the Texans. Please click here for the rest of the post.
It seems like an insurmountable task for GOP candidates to take out the liberal fixtures of Nancy Pelosi, Charlie Rangel, and Barney Frank in congressional elections, but how about making them part-time workers instead? Perhaps that’s one way to minimize the amount of unpopular legislation coming out of Washington these days. Bobby Jindal thinks so. According to him, it’s about time we slice and dice the number of hours lawmakers have in a work day. “We used to pay farmers not to grow crops, let’s make congressman stay out of Washington, D.C.,” the Louisiana Governor said in an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS. “Our liberty, our wallets are safest when the legislature’s not in session,” he added, borrowing the line from Mark Twain. Please click here for the rest of the post.
As many of us go through the grand experience of the TSA prostate exams — no doubt a part of healthcare cost savings under Obamacare — we need to consider a few things. When terrorists started trying to bring liquid explosives on planes, we went to 3 oz. bottles. When terrorists started wearing bombs as underwear, we went to full body screening. What happens when terrorists start using their body cavities? God help us. In each of these instances, the threats occurred overseas. No one overseas is going through the motions that we are going through here. No one. Why us? And if this is designed to stop terrorists from blowing up airplanes, why stop there? Why not trains? Why not buses? Please click here for the rest of the post
Barack Obama is only halfway through his term, but it's not too early to ask: What is the biggest whopper he has told as president? So far, the hands-down winner is:
"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. 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."
Obama made that particular pledge in a speech to the American Medical Association in June 2009, but he said the same thing, with slight variations, dozens of times during the health care debate. And now, exactly eight months after he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, we're seeing just how empty the president's promise was.
Time is running out on Congress' lame duck session and on lawmakers' opportunity to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," the policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.
And those who want to end the ban are directing their frustration at the Obama administration, which they said prolonged the ban by sending mixed signals about the president's intentions and by failing to push harder for Senate approval.
The White House on Monday was struggling to explain contradictory statements about the airport security procedures that are generating increasing commotion as the nation heads into the heavily traveled Thanksgiving holiday.
Getting caught in a message whipsaw is nothing new for the Obama administration.
The NATO plan to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014 will force U.S. and allied troops into overdrive as commanders struggle to prepare Afghan security forces for the task of protecting the country's elected government while reducing corruption and breaking the will of the Taliban insurgency.
Michele Bachmann, for reasons unknown to me, decided to sit down with the BBC. God bless her for evangelizing and bringing the message of freedom even to places like that.
But she is being attacked and distorted for what she said in this interview. The interviewer kept asking Congresswoman Bachmann if she stood by a 2008 statement that Barack Obama was anti-American.
What she responded with was one billion percent on the money.
Freedom of speech is under attack courtesy of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. He is effectively trying to stuff as much speech as possible into the definition of “political advertising,” hassling average Texans out of the conversation. In his interim charge to the General Investigating & Ethics Committee Straus commanded the following:
“Review the definition of “political advertising” and determine whether the definition should be expanded to include content contained in blogs and other types of Internet communications.”
By changing the definition of “political advertising” in this way, Straus would effectively quash the ability of ordinary citizens to discuss politics online. All of a sudden your tweet about supporting a candidate would be a political advertisement instead of free speech and you’d have to file an ethics report with the State of Texas. There would have to be monetary values tied to blog posts, tweets, facebook statuses, etc. and the burden of that reporting would be on you!
The Teamsters are ramping up their campaign aimed at taking down Toys R Us. The union famous for its horses’ head logo and thuggish tactics is teaming up with “environmental justice organizations, consumer advocates, public health professionals, parents, children’s health activists” to use the Holiday Season to attack giant retailer Toys R Us and Babies R Us for allegedly selling toxic toys. However, despite their shaky allegations, what may be really driving the union attack is the fact that Toys R Us is owned by private equity Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (more commonly known as KKR).
Fred Upton is exactly the type of Republican we should be working to unseat.
He was one of only 38 House Republicans to support the Democrats’ Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 that removed millions of acres of federal lands from oil and gas leasing, thus driving up energy costs for consumers.
He was one of only 20 Republicans to vote against an amendment that would have reduced the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 funding to 2008 levels.
He teamed up with Democrat Jane Harman to pass an invasive energy bill which mandates that only politically-favored “environmentally-friendly” light bulbs be used. Yes, he thinks the Constitution gives him the power to tell you which light bulb you can use.
Here is an exhaustive list of his votes dating back to 2003/2004.
He is entirely out of step with the Tea Party, with the GOP, and with America.
Just a reminder that I’ll only be writing the Morning Briefing through Wednesday of this week. And if you have any good tips of smoking turkeys, send ‘em my way. I’ll be throwing my first on the Big Green Egg at some point before sunrise on Thursday. — Erick
You may have heard about Janet Napolitano’s blue shirts forcing a cancer-surviving flight attendant to remove her prosthetic breast, or the woman whose pants the TSA’s hand went down.
You may have also heard about the woman who was singled out because she was wearing a skirt.
You may have also heard about the cancer survivor who, due to an “enhanced” TSA pat-down breaking the seal on his urastomy bag, was left humiliated, in tears, and covered in his own urine.
Now, meet a little boy who was randomly selected for an “enhanced” screening by the TSA.
Until 2008 it was actually a crime in Texas under the state’s ethics rules for citizens to voice support or opposition for anybody running for Speaker of the House. This law, while longstanding, was blatantly un-constitutional. Thanks to the hard work of the great team at the Liberty Institute the situation was remedied (back then it was called Free Market Foundation.)
The Federal Court ruled that, “The election of the speaker is not, therefore, a matter of internal Housekeeping. It is an issue of great political importance and a legitimate subject for public debate.” (Free Market Foundation v. Reisman, 573 F.Supp.2d 952, 955 (W.D. Tex. 2008)
Since the decision in 2008 it has been legal for Texans to use their Constitutional right to free speech to voice their opinion regarding the election of one of Texas’ most powerful leaders. Still, some people don’t seem to like common folk like us speaking up.
A few weeks ago, Speaker Joe Straus (the liberal Republican speaker that is running for re-election) lashed out at “outside forces” that were trying to have an impact on the Speaker race. From that kind of label you might think that big corporate donors or crony lobbyists were slandering Straus and throwing big wads of money to fight his re-election. The reality is that the outcry for a conservative speaker is coming from you, the conservative resurgence.
As if the incumbent Speaker telling you to sit adown and shut-up isn’t enough, Chuck Hopson (Straus’ Democrat-recently-turned-Republican Chair of the House Ethics Committee) sent a letter to the legislature offering them a “word of caution.” In this letter Chairman Hopson points to anti-bribery statutes and insinuates that letting a constituent or organization influence your vote for Speaker is illegal.
Ok, so we’ve got the sitting Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives telling you to sit down and shut up and his Ethics Committee Chairman is telling you that it may be illegal to tell our Representatives to actually represent you. Could this get more crooked?
The fascinating thing about the upcoming Obama tax hikes - and I imagine that the irony that if the Democrats had just made Bush’s tax cuts permanent in the first [place] then they wouldn’t be in this mess right now hasn’t been lost on the Democratic leadership* - is that they’re hardly inevitable. The current ratio is 255/180 Democrat/Republican in the House; 58/41 (Kirk needs to be seated, still) in the Senate. The Democrats can easily pass a bill that will ensure that people’s taxes will not automatically rise in January; and they can pass it whenever they like.
After the election, it seemed like the White House might have gotten the message. Obama said “the overwhelming message that I hear from the voters is that we…want you to work harder to arrive at consensus. We want you to focus completely on jobs and the economy…” White House officials were reported to be “deeply concerned about winning back political independents”. The FCC also seemed to get it. Chairman Genachowski said “At the FCC, our primary focus is simple: the economy and jobs.”
The Senate has voted to take up consideration of S.510, the so-called Food Safety Modernization Act, which would grant the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) more control over our diets. The supposed intention behind the legislation is to protect consumers from food-borne illnesses. But will it really?
If passed, the misnamed Food Safety and Modernization Act would authorize the FDA to tell farmers how to grow their crops. Federal bureaucrats who likely know little to nothing about farming will set the guidelines on appropriate temperatures, what soil to use, how much water to use and what animals are allowed to be on certain fields.
A study by Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) office states “on the whole this bill represents a weighty new regulatory structure on the food industry that will be particularly difficult for small producers and farms to comply with (with little evidence it will make food safer)”
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First he claimed no memory
That he supported Hillary
Then living high he tried his best
But to the bank he lost his nest
In the end and after all
Fitzgerald finally dropped the ball.
Horst Kraus - September 1, 2010
"However, putting all the policy and politics aside, the main reason I support McCain over Hayworth is character. McCain has character, and Hayworth is a character." - Sean Noble June 24, 2010
"Just when I thought I was OUT, They PULL Me Back IN"!
