Friday, January 04, 2013

SCOAMF's Recovery

(Click to embiggificate.)

Four years of this Stuttering Clusterf*** Of A Miserable Failure's "Stimulus" and we have Tennessee Ernie's .'...another day older and deeper in debt...'

A LOT deeper. 

Some Animals Are More Equal

Feinstein explains why SHE is entitled to self-defense.

You?  Suck an egg.

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Another Little Problem With ObozoCare

Surprise!  The box of chocolates has another soured-cream bite!

In a long-awaited interpretation of the new health care law, the Obama administration said Monday that employers must offer health insurance to employees and their children, but will not be subject to any penalties if family coverage is unaffordable to workers.  --JustOneMinute quoting NYT

In other words,

The gist is that employers are not obliged to weigh a worker's family status in deciding his total compensation, which makes sense - because the family insurance can cost an extra $10,000 per year, an employer would have a strong incentive to avoid family guys and gals when hiring for lower paying jobs.
Unfortunately, this means that a stay-at-home spouse becomes a tremendous financial burden due to lost federal subsidies; the employed partner's income can make the couple ineligible for Medicaid but the federal subsidy for health insurance may not be available either.

Nice.

EPA "Experiments" on Old, Sick, and Children

Think Dustin Hoffman v. "Dr." Mengele.

This has been ongoing for a while, but under the radar.  The MFM doesn't give a rip, and Conservatives haven't yet jumped on the bandwagon.

The Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says no law empowers any judge to stop it from conducting illegal scientific experiments on seniors, children and the sick.


That astounding assertion will be tested Friday, when a federal district court in Alexandria decides whether it has jurisdiction to hear claims made by the American Tradition Institute that EPA researchers are exposing unwary and genetically susceptible senior citizens to air pollutants the agency says can cause a variety of serious cardiac and respiratory problems, including sudden death.

Say what?

...EPA-employed or -funded researchers have intentionally exposed a variety of people to concentrated levels of different air pollutants, including particulate matter (soot and dust), diesel exhaust, ozone and chlorine gas — the latter substance more recognized as a World War I-era chemical weapon than as an outdoor air pollutant....

Say WHAAAT?

...The American Tradition Institute contends in its lawsuit that the EPA has broken virtually every rule established to protect human subjects used in scientific experiments, including the Nuremberg Code, ethics principles for human experimentation adopted following the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II, and similar U.S. regulations known as “The Common Rule.”...

OK.  So how does EPA intend to defend itself?

The answer is meaningful.  They will not deny the specific allegations.  Instead, EPA argues that it is not subject to any law on the matter.

Mengele would be proud.  There was no law which prohibited his activities, either.





Megna, Fallone Are In SCOWI Race

This will be fun to watch.

Both Vince Megna and Ed Fallone have filed enough signatures to run for SCOWI.

In all likelihood, Fallone will run to the right of Megna (even though they are similarly Left-inclined.) 

Fallone will have the Democrat Party's machinery behind him, as noted by Lakeshore.  That means that Fallone has a fat source of funds, too--and unless Megna wants to spend a whole lot of his personal fortune, he's not likely to prevail.

The fact that the Dem Party of Wisconsin has more-or-less anointed Fallone leaves Megna and his supporters in the position that Eric Hovde and his supporters were in during the Senate primary.  Megna won't necessarily like that comparison (nor Hovde), but the Party Elders have wrinkled their noses at him.

Hmmmm.


Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Obozo's Gifts Buried in "Tax" Bill

If he weren't the savior, some in the MFM might question this.

The "fiscal cliff" legislation passed this week included $76 billion in special-interest tax credits for the likes of General Electric, Hollywood and even Captain Morgan. But these subsidies weren't the fruit of eleventh-hour lobbying conducted on the cliff's edge -- they were crafted back in August in a Senate committee, and they sat dormant until the White House reportedly insisted on them this week....

Really?  These provisions?  Tax-avoidance?

Really.

...A Republican Senate aide familiar with the cliff negotiations tells me the White House wanted permanent extensions of a whole slew of corporate tax credits. When Senate Republicans said no, "the White House insisted that the exact language" of the Baucus bill be included in the fiscal cliff deal. "They were absolutely insistent," another aide tells me....

Sure enough, Title II of the fiscal cliff legislation is nearly a word-for-word replication of the Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012.

The Slimebucket-in-Chief pays off his friends.

The Title Is Correct

Insurrection titles his essay"To say that Republicans in Congress folded like a cheap suit is an insult to cheap suits."

There's another little gem in that essay having to do with lawyers.  Read it.

McConnell: The Engineer of US Bankruptcy

Mirengoff has the rundown:

Let’s step back and consider the impact of McConnell’s deals on the valiant effort of House Republicans in 2011 to use the debt-ceiling to attack the debt. So far, the results are as follows: (1) the debt ceiling was raised, (2) the debt continued to soar, (3) the latest McConnell-brokered deal will increase, rather than decrease, the debt, and (4) taxes are about to go up.

There are extenuating circumstances, to be sure — most notably the 2012 election. But they are insufficient to explain how the Democrats have thus far been able to turn the debt-ceiling battle of 2011 so decisively to their advantage. 

It’s a tribute to McConnell’s skill that John Boehner seems to be taking most of the heat over the latest deal.

Well--that last point is true, but then Boehner doesn't know "conservative" from zits, either.

DeMint and Erickson are right.  McConnell and his ilk is the fifth column in this country.

SCOTUS, Here We Come!

Bingo!

An Oklahoma district denied an injunction to Hobby Lobby.

A Michigan district did the opposite:

A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt on the Obama administration’s birth-control coverage policy for Tom Monaghan, the Catholic billionaire who founded Domino’s Pizza. 

Federal District Court Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff issued the decision Sunday, less than two days before the policy would have taken effect and exposed Monaghan to fines for non-compliance.

“Plaintiff has shown that abiding by the mandate will substantially burden his exercise of religion,” Zatkoff wrote. 

The government has failed to satisfy its burden of showing that its actions were narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. … This factor weighs in favor of granting Plaintiffs’ motion.”  --HotAir quoting The Hill

Maybe the US Bishops will join Monaghan's action.

Intel to Blow Up Cable Companies

Well, somebody's looking out for Americans.  

Clay [Forbes reporter] says Intel is planning to deliver cable content to any device with an Internet connection. And instead of having to pay $80 a month for two hundred channels you don't want, you'll be able to subscribe to specific channels of your choosing.

That means that ATT, Charter, Time-Warner (et al) will be spending several $Ka-Zillion on lobbying over the next several months--which you will pay for, assuming you continue their "service."

And that spending will be at the State level, not just the Federal level.  Watch your friendly local legislators closely, folks.

Obozo to UNILATERALLY Raise Debt Ceiling

Didn't take long for this little bomb to fall:

Speaking Jan. 1 at the White House at 11:20 p.m., less than an hour after the House voted 257 to 167 to approve new tax hikes, President Barack Obama announced that he will assert the authority to raise the debt ceiling for spending approved by Congress....

...Obama framed his assumption of the authority to borrow funds, regardless of a statutory debt ceiling, in the context of the upcoming fight to raise it—a fight Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R.-S.C.) called “Round 2” becuase the senator said Republicans had been beaten in the negotiations to avoid the “fiscal cliff” or “Round 1.”

The president was direct. Either Congress raises the debt ceiling or he will go ahead and borrow the money to pay the bills on his own in order to avoid damage to the U.S. and world economies.

Obviously, the GOP "leadership" thought of this when they caved in.

Right?

Lights Out!

Here's a fine opportunity for an entrepreneurial smuggler.

Beginning today, the 75-watt incandescent lightbulb has been banned from production and importation in the United States.

It's good as practice-running; in one year, the 60- and 40- watt bulbs will be illegal, too.

Ryan, Ribble Vote for McConnell Tax Increase

Some principles are just not all that important.

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Samuel Whittemore

Don't know the name, eh?

Owens provides a bit of history.

Whittemore was one of  [t]hose too young, too old, and too female to be part of the organized militia of their day. These were the “alarm listers.”

...The oldest man to fight that fateful day was an alarm-lister named Samuel Whittemore, a 78-year-old veteran of three American wars in the King’s service.

While Lord Percy’s relief column attempted to link up with Regular forces under attack by colonial militias, Whittemore set up behind a low stone wall near his home and attacked the 47th Regiment of Foot by himself.

Whittemore’s aimed fire did enough damage to the column that an assault was ordered upon his position.
Whittemore is documented to have killed one man from this assaulting force with his musket, then killed one and severely wounded another with horse pistols he’d removed from the body of French officer he’d dispatched decades before. Whittemore was in the act of drawing his ornate French Calvary sabre—again, taken from another French officer who “died suddenly” according to Whittemore, more than 20 years before—when half his face was shot away at point-blank range. Whittemore’s horrified relatives watched from a distance as the nearly 80-year old patriarch of their clan was bayoneted thirteen times by the Redcoats, and left for dead in a pool of his own blood.

He survived, by the way, for 18 years.

Oh, there's more.

The proximate, immediate cause of the first American Revolutionary War was an attempt to capture powder and shot, cannon, and community food stores...

That's the part to remember.  Taxation was part of it, but not 'proximate.'  Quartering was part and proximate, but not immediate.

The gun-takeaway?  That was the spark that lit the fire.

RoJo's Short on Explanations

RoJo, the green-eyeshade, voted for McConnell's Gummint-First cheese, and said 'well, it's not very good.'

But he voted for it anyway.

...The Senate deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” will add roughly $4 trillion to the deficit when compared to current law, according to new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). . . .
The CBO says the budget agreement will lead to an overall increase in spending of about $330 billion over 10 years.
. . .--quoted at Real McCain.

'It's not very good.'

That's the best you can do, RoJo?

Oh, by the way, here's what RoJo says.  Compare to his "yea" vote.

“It’s an alternate universe. No, this — this place is a joke. I mean, bottom line, this is an absurd process,” Johnson said on CNBC. “It certainly proves the genius of our founding fathers that government should be limited. I mean, the fact that we have this place having such an enormous effect on our economy, on people’s livelihood, is wrong. It’s simply wrong.”...

...“We’re here at the end of the year, a couple of elected officials with their unelected staffs, are doing these deals behind closed doors,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening behind there. Am I all of a sudden going to get a product sometime in the middle of the day and say, ‘you’ve got to vote on it right away’? I mean, that is an absurd process.”...

Well, yes, Ron.  Vote right away.  And vote the way McConnell tells you, Ron.  Thankyouverymuch.

They're Gone

Bob Owens reports:

...The cases of ammunition that typically lined the far wall were picked to pieces. There was a 100-round case of .50 BMG, and cases of European shotshells suitable for small game. The .223 Remington, 5.56 NATO, 7.62×39, 7.62 NATO, and 7.62x54R had sold out long ago, along with the bulk 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. A few pump shotguns remained along with a smattering of deer rifles, single-shots, and longer double-barreled shotguns suitable only for trap or skeet. Even the semi-automatic .22LR rifles like Ruger 10/22s were gone, along with all but one BX-25 magazine

... They didn’t know when they’d be getting anything back in stock, from magazines to rifles to pistols. Manufacturers were running full-bore, but couldn’t come close to keeping up with market demand.It wasn’t just the AR-15s, the AK-pattern rifles, the M1As, and the FALs that were sold out. It really hit me when I realized that the World War-era M1 Garands , M1 carbines, and Enfield .303s were gone, along with every last shell. Ubiquitous Mosin-Nagants—of which every gun store always seems to have 10-20—were gone. So was their ammo. Only a dust free space marked their passing. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Every weapon of military utility designed within the past 100+ years was gone...

Well.  That's a sign of something.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Reid: 'I Can't Get the Votes the Obozo Plan'

If you were paying attention during the National Handwringing, you'd notice what the MFM has not.  (It's only the size of a 6,000 lb. elephant, after all....)

...This morning, we have been trying to come up with some counteroffer to my friend’s [Mitch McConnell] proposal. We have been unable to do that. I have had a number of conversations with the president, and at this stage we’re not able to make a counteroffer....

Reid has been on the sidelines because his party is NOT entirely composed of Marxists.  He cannot get them behind the SCOAMF's plan, and he cannot let them vote on a common-sense plan because it will look a lot like the House's original position.

HT:  Zippers

Who's Afraid of the Fiscal Cliff?

Really--it's not that big a deal, outside of the AMT and Medicare.

(Did you ever wonder why Congress NEVER 'fixes' the AMT with a permanent inflation-indexing law?  Think "Campaign Contributions."  The scumbags are consistent, anyway....)

Medicare is an easy one-target fix, too.

As to DOD cuts:  even after they are fully implemented---which they won't be---DoD spending will still be greater as a percentage of GDP than they were just after VietNam.

Those Damn Facts....

The NYPD released info on murders (2011 stats.)

...Blacks were 23% of the NYC population but 68% of the homicide victims; 38% of all victims were black males aged 16-37; 86% of black male victims aged 16-21 were shot.

On the other side, 59% of suspects were black. 83% of black suspects had a black victim.
Among all suspects, 34% were aged 16-21; 41% were aged 22-37.

And a stat I would like to know more about: 42% of suspects and 38% of victims had prior arrests for drug sales or possession. ...--quoted by JustOneMinute

Well, THAT is foundation for removing guns from middle-aged Americans whose drug-use is .......ahhh.....aspirin and Viagara, no?



The Behind-Leader

Obozo's not going heavy on gun control.

...In an interview with David Gregory on “Meet the Press,” Obama said he would await the recommendations of his gun control task force and present a package of gun control proposals. But he said, “We’re not going to get this done unless the American people decide it’s important and so this is not something that’s going to be a matter of me spending political capital.”...

That tells you that the polls are against "control".  And it reminds you that Obozo has about zero testosterone.

Remember, Obozo did not "lead" on ObozoCare, either.  That was strictly a Nancy-and-Harry deal, although Obozo was very happy to snatch the credit in the end.