The rest of the House GOP rejected it. They just don’t get it:

Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia had unveiled late Wednesday a moratorium on GOP earmark requests through Feb. 16 while a new panel of Republicans comes up with proposals for permanent restrictions and disclosure requirements for earmarks

But Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, who is an appropriator, offered an amendment to strip the requirement for an earmark moratorium. And Tiahrt’s moratorium-killing proposal was approved by the full caucus, said several GOP aides. The amended rules package was then adopted.

Tiahrt has been a staunch defender of earmarks, and has been a rival of outgoing Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, one of the strongest proponents of a permanent earmark moratorium for all Republicans. Tiahrt lost a bitter head-to-head race against Hensarling for the chairmanship of the RSC at the start of the 110th Congress, and later opted to leave the conservative faction.

Before we go any farther, here is Tiahrt’s website and a link to his e-mail. The phone number to his Washington, D.C. office is 202.225.6216. His Wichita office number is 316.262.8992.

He stopped a key message to the American people. The message being, “Hey, we hear you. We lost our way. Limited government, fiscal responsibility, less spending. Here’s our way of showing you we hear you.”

Had this passed, it would have done a lot of good towards repairing the damage the Republicans have done to their brand. The fact they rejected it says a lot about them. They don’t get it and they will continue to damage themselves, the party and America.

I can only shake my head in disbelief that they didn’t embrace this idea.

As for Boehner, the day after he is elected, he betrays consevatives:

House Republicans are not shifting to the political right, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told CNSNews.com on Wednesday, just hours after two of the top three GOP leadership spots were won by conservative lawmakers in an internal leadership election.

Members Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.), and John Mica (R-Fla.), however, told CNSNews.com that they think the conference is shifting to the political right.

But Boehner said, “No, I don’t think it’s right or left. It’s what are the issues Americans are concerned about, and how do we build solutions on our principles? It’s not left or right.

“That’s minimizing and marginalizing the situation.”

Marginalizing the situation? What an idiot! This guy doesn’t get it at all. I don’t want a person with leftist principles leading the party, and those who voted for conservative leaders in the House show that.

What do you vote for if it isn’t someone who represents your beliefs and principles?

With this guy leading Republicans in the House, you can expect more losses in 2010.

I don’t know that much about Gov. Napolitano, but this blogger from Arizona does:

A couple ways to look at this one. First off, it’s a tremendous positive for my state of Arizona. Napolitano has helped bankrupt our local government, yet she is somehow the only electable Democrat in the state when it comes to national office. The loss of Napolitano almost guarantees that Arizona will retain its two Republican Senate seats for the near future.

However, Arizona’s gain is America’s loss. The new person in charge of homeland security has failed miserably to protect her own state from foreign invasion on a massive level. The fact that Obama could select someone who is perhaps America’s worst offender when it comes to homeland insecurity says more about his future amnesty plans than any speech and any denial he could ever make.

It’s hard to believe that we could have an administration more apathetic to border issues than the current one, but I think Obama is going to give it a shot.

Perhaps the next governor will do something about it.

In his latest audio recording, Ayman al Zawahri says to Obama, “You represent the direct opposite of honorable black Americans like Malcolm X.” He accuses Obama of betraying his race and father’s Muslim heritage and criticizes the President-elect for supporting Israel. The terror leader goes on to encourage increased attacks on the U.S. until it leaves Muslim land. Zawahri also charges that any additional American troops sent to Afghanistan will fail.

Blah blah blah.

The United States is like a family. We might fight amongst ourselves, but if you’re not part of the family you shouldn’t get involved. And since when does Ayman al Zawahri have any frame of reference to credibly call Barack Obama a “house Negro”? Does he even understand what he’s saying when he throws b.s. like that out?

Ayman al Zawahri has no business commenting on our President-elect. I’m not a fan of Obama, but some jackass hiding in a cave halfway around the world is just talking out the side of his neck when he sends out his dumbass terrorist mix-tapes. Perhaps he should spend a little more time digging holes to hide in and less time spouting off about things that are none of his business.

I hope Obama has the balls to go put an outhouse over al Zawahri’s foxhole.

“Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” Obama said. “Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious.”

He repeated his campaign promise to create a system that limits carbon dioxide emissions and forces companies to pay for the right to emit the gas. Using the money collected from that system, Obama plans to invest $15 billion each year in alternative energy.

Just so you fully understand what he wants to do, I’ll break it down. He is going to go the already established coal-fired power plants and make them pay a tax to put carbon dioxide into the air. He is going to take this money, which he admits will trickle down to you and cause prices to electrical prices to skyrocket, and he is going to give it to companies that make windmills and solar panels. (He says nuclear power is part of the plan, but I’m not holding my breath.)

This will prevent the creation of new coal-fired power plants in America, which is why Forbes is warning us to prepare for blackouts and brownouts:

Right now the nation has 760 gigawatts of power plants to meet current consumption, with another 154 in reserve capacity to maintain grid reliability. But in fact only 10 gigs is truly excess capacity. The other 144 is utterly essential to keep lights on when unexpected demand arises from heat waves, outages or maintenance downtime. That reserve will begin to shrink quickly. NERC estimates that over the next decade 135 gigawatts of new capacity will be needed to meet the growth in consumption. But right now plants producing a total of 57 gigawatts are planned.

Ninety percent of electric power is fueled by nonrenewable coal, natural gas or nuclear power. Renewable sources will not cover the growth in demand. While wind is gaining ground (and now supplies 1% of power), hydro’s share (7%) is shrinking as dams are dismantled. Solar, at 0.01%, is an inconsequential contributor.

And:

So how will this scenario play out if more plants don’t get built? The first thing is that utilities will burn more natural gas. There is excess capacity now in gas-fired electric generators, currently used for peak loads and for filling in gaps during maintenance and plant breakdowns. (Electricity has an unresolved, annoying feature–it cannot be stored in any useful quantities, and must be produced the instant it’s needed.)

But that margin of safety will disappear in only a few years, according to NERC. Electric rates, especially at peak times, will then soar–as much as tenfold. After that, we may see forced conservation, meaning voluntary or involuntary rationing, or even blackouts in rotation among business and residential customers. Utilities could give consumers the choice of staying cool by paying a lot more for the privilege.

Recall the summers of electric discontent for California in 2000 and 2001? Wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed, reflecting tight supply conditions (conditions that were exploited, but not created, by traders at Enron). The consequences were a bankruptcy filing by the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., and the early departure of a governor.

Sounds like things are going exactly as the Chairman said they would back in February, when he pledged to bankrupt the coal industry and make electrical prices “necessarily skyrocket.”

Sometimes “change” is a bad thing.

And for the record, the Earth has cooled a third of a degree since Al Gore’s crockumentary was released, telling us we were all causing the global to heat up.

Hat Tip on the Forbes article: McQ

John Ziegler paid Zogby polls to talk with Obama voters and gave them all the same 12 question survey to gauge their knowledge of the current political world.

The following video is a series of interviews done with Obama voters just after they voted. While this video is anecdotal, the poll results are not. They follow the video.

From the page How Obama Got Elected:

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

• 57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
• 71.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
• 82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
• 88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
• 56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet…..

• Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
• Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
• And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
• Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
• Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we “gave” one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

When I posted audio of Obama supporters saying that Sarah Palin was a good choice for Obama’s vice president, shining a spotlight on their ignorance, it was said that if Obama won it would be because of voters like that.

Did he? Let me know in the comments below.

Daschle accepted the offer, according to two Democratic sources close to Daschle and with intimate knowledge of the decision. Daschle had been a longtime adviser on Obama’s campaign and served as a frequent surrogate on the campaign trail and in media interviews.

The appointment has not been announced, but these officials said the job is Daschle’s, barring an unforeseen problem as Obama’s team reviews the background of the South Dakota Democrat.

Appointing Daschle, a serious pro-choice Democrat, brings another Clinton retread to the front lines of the Obama campaign, though not in any official capacity. Daschle’s wife, “Linda Hall Daschle was “acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration” for the Clinton Administration.

She is also one of Washington’s top lobbyists, whose client list includes “American Airlines, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.”

And Daschle himself works for a lobbying firm, Alston & Bird. What cause do they lobby for?

Health care interests, including CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories and HealthSouth, are among the firm’s lobbying clients.

Perfect.

Remember Obama pledged not to have any lobbyists in a position that they had been lobbying for within the last two years.

Well, first he said, “They won’t work in my White House!”

Then he said, “They are not going to dominate my White House.”

Finally, he settled for letting them work in his administration, “just not for two years in an area related to their work as lobbyists, according to the candidate’s proposal released earlier this year.”

Technically, this fits, but it’s still shady and suspect.

Photo by nmfbihop.

I take my high hat off to Rep. Ackerman for his public chastisement of the auto execs. While the auto companies claim to be streamlining operations, they wouldn’t dare think to fly coach like common folks do. Rep. Ackerman did the right thing in shining a light on these stooges for wasting money riding a private jet while they’re on the verge of bankruptcy. Ironically, these executives would make great legislators. They seem to have mastered the art of pissing away money they don’t have.

Flying in private jets to ask the American people for bailout money is nothing more than an example of the systemic problem the automakers are dealing with. These companies need to go bankrupt. And then the stockholders need to demand these dimwits get tossed out of their private jets - without golden parachutes. It’s time to bring in some new executives, with a little basic knowledge of economics, and get these ailing companies back on track.

but then I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain

Given the talk of President-elect Obama’s possible selection of Sen. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in his new administration, the likelihood of “change” is growing more distant by the hour.

The Obama administration is going to look very much like the Clinton administration and, if anyone recalls, we spent the 1990s sorting out its many scandals and failures, despite a healthy economy bequeathed by the Reagan years. Clinton finished his term pardoning—among a raft of miscreants, Linda Evans, a former member of the Weatherman terrorist group led by Obama pal, William Ayers.

A raft of insanely liberal legislation is waiting to be foisted on Americans. One up for consideration by the lame duck Congress is S. 2433, otherwise known as the “Global Poverty Act of 2007.”

In his book, “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest have Done so Much Ill and so Little Good”, William Easterly noted that, in 2002 “We had the world’s twenty-five most undemocratic government rulers (out of 199 countries the World Bank rated on democracy) get a sum of $9 billion in foreign aid…similarly, the world’s most corrupt countries got $9.4 billion in foreign aid.”

Easterly, an expert on such aid efforts pointed out that “Since donors understandably don’t want to admit they are dealing with bad governments, diplomatic language in aid agencies becomes an art form. A war is a ‘conflict-related reallocation of resources.’ Aid efforts to deal with homicidal warlords are ‘difficult partnerships.’ Countries whose presidents loot the treasury experience ‘governance issues.’

It is estimated that at least a billion of the world’s population lives in poverty. Nobody denies it remains widespread, but poverty is solved by maintaining educational systems that ensure literacy and other useful skills, encouraging entrepreneurship, and mostly by ending the corruption that is the hallmark of virtually every nation on the continent of Africa, the distinguishing feature of Middle Eastern nations, and too many others.

For decades the nations of the West have transferred billions of dollars to nations with no evidence of any progress.

The Global Poverty Act proposes to work with what is possibly the most corrupt international institution in the world, the United Nations, as well as other “international organizations, international financial institutions, the governments of developing and developed countries, United States and international nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, and other appropriate entities…”

Its expressed purpose is “To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global policy, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the Millennium Development goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 a day.”

Its sponsors include Sen. Barack Obama and a who’s who of liberal legislators that include Joe Biden, John Kerry, Diane Feinstein, et al.

Let us understand this. We and the rest of the world are not under attack from Islamofascists because of poverty. This is a movement drawn entirely from the Koran, an alleged holy book that serves as a battle plan for the complete subjugation of the world to Islam. We’re not going to end this conflict by giving the al Qaeda, the Taliban, or the nations in which they flourish a few billion.

As Easterly and many others point out, much if not most of the foreign aid the U.S. has spread around the world has been a complete and utter waste of our financial resources. The poverty it was supposed to end continues and will continue until the recipient nations operate under the rule of law that is not laid down by the dictators who control and loot nations.

The Global Poverty Act of 2007 will further sap the United States of its financial resources at the same time they should be applied to the nation’s aging infrastructure and resolve the huge burdens of reckless debt that exist from small towns up the States and the federal government.

This is just the beginning of comparable legislation that will wreck America’s economy, leave us bereft of the energy we require, and ruin the future of “Generation O” along with the rest of us.

Author: Alan Caruba

Originally published at WesternFront America

“A lot of those kids are demented…”

Here are a few of the “demented” children who were homeschooled:

• Twelve year-old Bryceson Harvey, winner of “the 14th annual ‘Can You Find the Mapman?’ Contest”
• Haley Stewart, winner of the Reading Rainbow Competition
• Nathan Cornelius, winner of the 2005 National Geographic Bee
• 16-year-old mathematician Michael Viscardi, winner of the prestigious Siemens-Westinghouse Competition
• These “seven homeschooled high schoolers” who “swept the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship”
• Christopher Paolini, homeschooled author of Eregon, Eldest and Brisingr
• Heisman trophy winner Tim Bebow
• Dakota Fanning, the “most powerful actress in Hollywood”

Homeschoolers generally own academic competitions:

A home schooler, 13-year-old Evan O’Dorney, is once again the winner of the Scripps National [sic] Spelling Bee. In fact, home schoolers took fully one third of the top 15 spots in the Bee, utterly out of proportion with their share (about 1/40th) of the U.S. student population. Another two spots were taken by private school students, and three were taken by Canadian public school students (hence the “sic,” above — we’ve yet to anschluss the Canucks so far as I can recall).

That left five spots for U.S. public school students — the same number taken by home schoolers whom they outnumber by 50 million or so kids. And it isn’t as though the homeschoolers are fabulously wealthy and able to hire special tutors. The winner’s father is a subway train operator and his mother oversees his education.

Homeschoolers excel in such competitions because they enjoy more educational freedom than any other category of learner. They can pursue their interests and competitive drives (spelling isn’t even O’Dorney’s favorite subject) without being constrained by the pace of a classroom targeted at the “average” student — a pace that must be, by definition, too fast or too slow for the majority.

Joy Behar owes the entire homeschool community an on-air apology for her insult. Her ignorant statement is not only offensive, but reenforces a stereotype that is harmful to the homeschooling families in America.

I went to ABC.com and filed the following comment:

I am very insulted by Joy Behar’s comment that homeschool children are “demented.” Homeschool children in American far outperform public school children in academic and now athletic achievement.

There are children all across America who heard Ms. Behar say they were demented. Read the comments on YouTube to see how her liberal bigotry has insulted them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6slZ4Fps6Bo

A formal, on-air apology is necessary. What she said is unacceptable.

Duane Lester

Feel free to leave your own response, either to ABC, or the comments below.

Climbing back in bed I thought about this week and how hectic and long it will be. We are training another unit to deploy. This week will be a larger unit than the last few so I am sure we will be in for some early mornings and long nights. I dozed off thinking about the 4 day pass we will get for Thanksgiving.

0500: I wake to “The Outsider” by A Perfect Circle, my ringtone. It’s my team leader.

“Gotta come in early. They walk at 6,” he tells me.

“Ok, en route” I say as I reluctantly climb out of bed. I hate mornings just to let everyone know.

Getting ready is a breeze. I lay out all my gear, wallet, and car keys the night before so I can be out the door in minutes. I start my car thinking it is going to be cold morning to play OPFOR. Driving in, I listen to some sports radio and the talk of Monday Night Football. “Bills lost…good,” I think to myself. I listen to this for the 50 minutes I spend driving to the Camp. Pulling into the main gate I tell the guard good morning and have a great day.

As I drive away the cell phone goes off again. My squad leader this time.

“Meet us at the Range Control, we are picking up weapons.”

“Roger,” I say as I deviate from my normal route on my way to Range Control. I pull in just as they are pulling up.

“You better hurry up!!!” one of them playfully yells. Making sure to grab all my “snivel gear” I head to the van. As I climb I am told to grab the SAW (M249 Machine Gun), two drums of ammo, and get both our squads radios ready.

I hand the radio up as we pull into my hide spot. I jump out with my SAW, ammo, “snivel gear”, and radio. Finding just the right spot I “snivel up.” I also put on my “traditional Middle Eastern garb.” I opt out of the head scarf today due to the fact I am wearing a ski mask and I would look a bit ridicules with both on. As I finish this I lay in, load my weapon (with blanks of course), and prep my grenade sims.

Now I wait.

Waiting to attack these units can be pretty tough especially on a cold November morning laying on a ground lightly peppered in snow, but it is my job and I deal with it the best I can. On days like today I think of the people who fought in wars past. I think of the things they endured for this great country and for some reason, it makes me laying in the cold snow covered leaves about an hour from my house a lot easier to take. If doing this helps even one soldier make it home alive and in one piece then it will all be worth while.

Suddenly I hear an explosion followed by gunfire to the north. This means the other members of my squad are attacking the first of three platoons. Listening to this I know soon they will cross my path. As I keep a lookout, I listen for the sound of feet shuffling across the gravel and leaders barking orders to their soldiers. I watch and listen as the first of the unit crosses my sight, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Finally, I see a soft spot I pull the trigger listening to the familiar sound of blanks popping on full auto as I watch the unit respond.

“In the woods on the right!” someone yells. Then they let me have it as I hear and see multiple weapons fired in my direction. I fire back and this time I get even more of a response. I then wait for a lull and as they get complacent I throw my grenade sim and let loose with one more volley of automatic fire. They attack back furiously as I move back to another hide and wait for the next unit.

This goes on for three platoons, and as the early morning darkness gives way to another Army sunrise I realize just how lucky I am. Yes, there are times I hate this job but today I can think of no other job I would rather do. I am thankful for the soldiers we train, they are doing something not many Americans will ever do. And I am blessed with the opportunity to help them come home safely.

So although this week will be long and I am due for even more cold unpleasant mornings, I know in the end I am doing something I am proud of and will always remember this opportunity I have been blessed with.

Photo by Army.mil

This is urgent. She lives in Lansing, Michigan and goes to MSU. Any information you can provide to the whereabouts of Krista - please report to the authorities immediately.

Her name is Krista Lueth. She’s 35 years old and about 5′5″. She rents a house just east of downtown Lansing near the intersection of N Pennyslvania Ave and E Michigan Ave. Based on interviews so far that’s where she was last seen - on Tuesday - but we don’t yet know if she went to classes over at MSU that day.

She has no car so someone would have had to pick her up and drive her out of town if she is no longer in Lansing.

She sometimes likes to go to “Clara’s Lansing Station,” a well known bar and restaurant on East Michigan Ave.

IT’S EASY TO DO A GOOD THING WITH THIS
CLICK HERE TO TWITTER THIS STORY!

Trust me, this hurts me. I love MOPAR. I have watched the maker of such beautiful cars like the ‘69 Dodge Charger, the ‘74 Dodge Challenger, the ‘68 Dodge Hemi Coronet, and of course the new Challenger Hemi SRT8 (Hemi made in Mexico) go through its ups and downs. With the dedication I have for Chrysler (yes I drive a Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible, which was MADE IN MEXICO), the manufacturer doesn’t share that same dedication for me, the consumer. Let me explain.

The mismanagement of car companies force huge odds against making a profits. The fact the UAW prices its labor and benefits at extreme rates forces the price of these cars higher and higher each year. The average American consumer is left with few options when it comes to buying a new car. With higher prices come higher monthly payments. Loans have gone from 36 months to 72 months to keep these monthly payments affordable. Most American cars don’t stand up to the average wear and tear of six years. Many Americans look in another directions.

I have gone down the Japanese road. American tariffs, thanks to UAW lobbyist, have pushed the price tags of these cars up. I felt guilty at first when I bought my first Toyota, but understanding the economics of the American car industry caused my guilt to die quickly. Many of these non unionized Japanese auto plants have found homes in the United States and provide Americans with good jobs (there is a ‘new’ car industry growing in the South). Most of them are doing well considering the economy. And where is GM, Ford, and Chrysler opening plants to compete? MEXICO, and Chrysler has been in talks with China to produce a small, fuel efficient model.

Why is it that American car manufactures are moving to Mexico and yet the cost of American cars don’t reflect the labor savings? It’s simple. The contracts with the UAW are so outrageous that they can’t cut cost and pay benefits.

Daimler sold Chrysler is for this reason. The union pensions were draining the company. The bailout is mostly for the UAW to continue to pay benefits.

Frankly, I am tired of being a slave to the UAW. The last two decades have seen price breaks in so many industries for the average consumer, but not in the car industry. I say it’s time for Detroit to reinvent itself and say goodbye to the UAW.

If they aren’t willing to kiss them goodbye, then good riddance to the Big Three. It’s been nice knowing you. You have priced yourself out of my life while lessening the quality.

I once used to fear any of the Big Three going under, and now I see the possibility of all three going under. I say don’t give them a dime. They have done this to themselves, and they have failed to reinvent themselves by ridding themselves of the UAW. Simply put, the time is past for the UAW and they are no longer effective in the global economy.

You are screaming what about the jobs? When it comes to being a member of the UAW or feeding your family and maintaining a living, I would choose my family. If the auto workers want to choose the UAW, they need to face the fact their jobs have been placed on life support. They aren’t coming out of the deep coma.

I guarantee you this will be the best thing for the American consumer. When you go to look at that new shiny car on that showroom floor, you will know the sticker doesn’t contain the hidden cost of outrageous UAW benefits. In other words, prices go down, and you win.

Author: Clay Bowler

Originally published at WesternFront America

Of the 230 metro areas tracked, Las Vegas was the highest ranked with one in every 62 units foreclosed, seven times the national average. Total foreclosures in Nevada were 14,483 with 12,155 in Las Vegas.

Realty trac’s related website, Foreclosure Pulse, notes that of the 10 highest foreclosure states, 8 voted Democratic in the last election. Of the 184 electoral votes, Senator Obama received 159 to Senator McCain’s 25. The swing states of Nevada, Colorado and Ohio, which all went Republican in 2004, and which all made the top 10 this year, went Democratic with 34 electoral votes.

With all the talk of hope and change, and what’s wrong with conservatism, “It’s the economy, stupid” is still a powerful argument.

Cross Posted from All American Blogger Nevada Edition, Written by Ron Andersen.

This post was created with Live Writer and over the next few days, weeks, possibly months, I’ll be experimenting with it to see if there is something about this that I am missing.

Photo by y rjbare

Well, that is one thing I like.  I can pull pics right off of Flickr and paste them in the post, without saving them to my computer.  Of course, when I use Photoshop to add some text, I’ll have to save it but that is still a nice feature. 

For any other bloggers who read this and are interested in trying this experiment with me, you can download Live Writer for free here.

Also, you can make turn Live Writer into a portable app.  Here’s how.

Examples of the type of Republican covered under this definition are:

• Rep. Mark Kirk [R-IL]
• Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL]
• Rep. Michael Ferguson [R-NJ]
• Rep. Christopher Shays [R-CT]
• Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]

These five supposed Republican are nothing more than jackasses in elephant’s clothing. Rep. Mark Kirk has introduced a bill, H.R. 6257: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008, which would “To reinstate the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act.” The bill has been co-sponsored by the other four jackasses listed above. All of them claim to be Republicans.

All of them need to leave the party.

Seriously.

Go.

We don’t need your kind anymore. It is this kind of stuff that lost the Republican majority in Congress. No, not this particular issue, but the failure to adhere to Republican values in general. If you want to behave like a gun-grabbing Democrat, go sit on their side. It is better that the Republicans be in the minority, but true to conservative values than to be in the majority with no clear values at all.

The problem with gun violence isn’t that law abiding citizens have access to assault weapons, whatever that means. It’s that criminals use them to commit crimes. Read that last sentence. Commit crimes is the key part of that sentence. Having these guns be illegal will not limit the criminal’s access to them. It will only make them better armed than their victims.

I found out about this through the Jawa Report, who saw it on The Arsenal. Tip of the hat to both of them.

By the way, the phone number to Rep. Kirk’s office is 202-225-4835. Let him know how you feel about his actions.

The RINO image is by Jeff Johnson at Toasty Aroma.

Cross posted at Right Wing News.

Pelosi said the auto industry funds would come with many strings attached, including restructuring company finances, meeting new standards for gas mileage and requiring advanced technologies “to compete in the domestic and global market.” The speaker’s office offered no specifics about what the new fuel efficiency standards would be and what types of technologies would be required for the auto industry.

Democrats also said they would include new limits on executive pay at the Big Three auto companies, but offered no specifics on that idea either.

How absurd. The Queen of Congress thinks the way to turn the auto companies around is to impose MORE restrictions on what they can produce, coupled with limiting compensation for producing it.

Maybe if the unions allowed the companies to build cars in the most cost efficient manner, and the government stopped telling them what they had to build, they could turn a profit.

What Pelosi is talking about here is lunacy.

And where are they supposed to get this “advanced technology?” What does that even mean? A flying DeLorean that runs on your garbage? If they had “advanced technology to compete in the domestic and global market,” why wouldn’t they just use it? Why would they need Congress to make them? That makes no sense to me.

On the other hand, Ford has a car that gets 65 miles per gallon, and it isn’t a hybrid. It’s a diesel:

If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.

Ford’s 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here’s the catch: Despite the car’s potential to transform Ford’s image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. “We know it’s an awesome vehicle,” says Ford America President Mark Fields. “But there are business reasons why we can’t sell it in the U.S.” The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.

Automakers such as Volkswagen (VLKAY) and Mercedes-Benz (DAI) have predicted for years that a technology called “clean diesel” would overcome many Americans’ antipathy to a fuel still often thought of as the smelly stuff that powers tractor trailers. Diesel vehicles now hitting the market with pollution-fighting technology are as clean or cleaner than gasoline and at least 30% more fuel-efficient.

Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline. Add to this the success of the Toyota Prius, and you can see why only 3% of cars in the U.S. use diesel. “Americans see hybrids as the darling,” says Global Insight auto analyst Philip Gott, “and diesel as old-tech.”

Meanwhile, the automakers are spending millions of dollars to get billions. I’m not talking about investing the money in a way that will reap rewards in the market. I’m talking about lobbying:

In the first half of 2008, GM spent $7.3 million on Washington lobbying activities. Ford shelled out $3.8 million, and Chrysler another $3.3 million in gaining the ears of those who redistribute taxpayers’ wealth.

As the table below shows, in the last 10 years, Detroit’s Big Three have expended $228.4 million in lobbying costs in Washington. Out of this quarter-of-a-billion dollars, GM spent $92.9 million, Ford spent $78.6 million, and Chrysler, $56.9 million.

In 2007 alone, the automakers “spent a record $70.3 million lobbying Congress.” Now they want those to whom they have given millions, to reward them with billions. Your billions. Billions we have to borrow so these companies can stagger and limp a few more years into the future.

I say that if we bail these companies out, there need to be restrictions. Not on the automakers, but on government. Government will be restricted from telling them what kind of cars the need to make. The market will force them to make the best car. The government will restrict themselves on how much taxes they collect on diesel. The government will just get out of the way and let these guys build what they used to build: great cars that move the world.

If the government won’t do that, then no deal. What do you think?

Photo by Dr. Keats.

• Arkansas Edition
  Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in State Blogs - Comments: (0)
  Arkansas Edition is a blog about politics in Arkansas.
• Why Ginny Brown-Waite has my Vote
  Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in State Blogs - Comments: (0)
  When the first bailout came to the House for a vote, it was defeated.  I wrote my representative, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite of the 5th district in Florida to thank her for voting against it.  She provided a breakdown on her website explaining her position which can be found here. The second time around, Congresswoman Brown-Waite stuck to her guns and voted no again.
• The Penis of the United States
  Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in State Blogs - Comments: (0)
  Many Floridians make the claim “Florida is the Penis of the United States” and follow the claim with a statment concerning the obvious visual relationship to the rest of the US.  They continue to say everything happens in Florida.  From the violent, outragous, sickening, and humerous, it seems to always happen here, and Florida gets all the attention.Florida loves to be the center of attention.
• Nixon-created foundation helps fund ACORN
  Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 in State Blogs - Comments: (0)
  Missouri EditionNixon-created foundation helps fund ACORNVia the Hulshof08 news page, we learn that a foundation that Jay Nixon helped to start in order to provide medical care to uninsured Missourians has been granting thousands of dollars to ACORN, a group accused of voter fraud across the United States:Image via WikipediaColumbia, Mo – For the past two years a Jay Nixon-created health care foundation doled out $85,000 to ACORN, the controversial group that is once again embroiled in voter registration controversies in Missouri and other states.
• Three Young Sailors
  Posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 in The Blog - Comments: (1)
  A Facebook friend of mine and one time shipmate, Jason Douglass, posted this as a way of saying happy Veteran’s Day:That’s me in the middle there, at a ripe old age of 22. You can see JO2 Alex Casadonte, aka Cas, also. Alex stops by the blog from time to time. He’s a cop now, still serving the country. Thanks for that, buddy.

There is also something called “the curse of oil” because, if the price per barrel drops, the fate of some nations goes with it. This is the case, for example, of the former Soviet Russia whose government collapsed when it could no longer secure hard currency when oil and gas prices fell. Venezuela is an economic basket case these days, having nationalized oil and most of its financial and business sectors.

The history of nationalized oil and gas-rich nations is that they tend not to invest in their energy industries. They do not engage in sufficient exploration. They do not expand their capacity to extract their natural resources or to refine it. We have seen otherwise oil-rich nations like Mexico encounter financial tremors as in the 1990s when the Clinton administration had to loan Mexico billions to keep it functioning.

America has adopted anti-energy policies because of incessant environmental propaganda about “dirty” coal, out of the fear of nuclear power, and the refusal to permit exploration of 85% of the continental shelf and, of course, Alaska’s ANWR area, a tiny fraction of that State’s landmass.

If Congress imposes a windfall profits tax on the American oil industry, it will quite simply wreck the economy. As my friend, Seldon B. Graham, Jr., a longtime oil industry attorney as well as a petroleum engineer, points out, “”President Jimmy Carter started the ethanol subsidy on November 9, 1978 and signed the oil windfall profits tax on April 2, 1980.”

In effect, Carter put in motion an anti-oil policy that has existed for over three decades. Why is that a bad thing? The ethanol policy has severely disrupted the price of food worldwide as corn is diverted into fuel. The justification for this is “energy independence” from the purchase of foreign oil, but U.S.-produced oil has always been cheaper than imported oil.

If, however, the government creates conditions under which it is simply too risky, too expensive or prohibited to explore for more oil reserves, obviously oil production declines. There has been a 59% decline in U.S. oil production since 1980, the year the windfall profits tax was imposed. It was later repealed, but U.S. oil companies have a responsibility to their investors to act prudently and that has driven them to explore for oil outside of the U.S. or, to put it another way, to find foreign oil.

When you add in the idiotic ethanol mandates, you compound the problem. Graham points out that, “After thirty years, U.S. ethanol production was only able to produce less than 3% of our oil demand last year.” Moreover, “ethanol cost taxpayers $3.3 billion in subsidies in 2007.” Environmental claims that ethanol is cleaner than oil are false. Not only do you get less energy and poor mileage when ethanol is blended with gasoline, it actually emits more carbon dioxide per mile. “It is absolutely impossible for ethanol to replace foreign oil,” says Graham.

The justification for a windfall profits tax on oil companies ignores, for example, that ExxonMobil, just one of the few remaining oil companies operating in the U.S., pays more than $100 billion in taxes on the average.

Less than 11% of ExxonMobil’s profits come from marketing and refining in the United States and the company recently announced it was spinning off its retail outlets. Yes, it made great profits in recent years, but it also had enormous, risk-filled expenses.

Imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies will give them cause to consider moving their corporate headquarters to other more congenial nations. The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has been engaged in a vast office building effort, perhaps anticipating the movement of corporate headquarters.

Americans greeted the expiration of the ban on offshore exploration and drilling with the expectation that American oil would begin to flow and thus lower their costs for this vital national asset. That will not happen if the President or a Democrat controlled Congress reinstates the ban and/or imposes a windfall profits tax.

The city of Houston has been enjoying a boom due to the increase in the cost of a barrel of oil. Even at $80 dollars a barrel, it is enough to have created “its strongest resurgence in more than 20 years” according to a 2007 New York Times article about Houston. “Some energy companies are expanding and putting up new buildings.” Others, like Schlumberger among the hundreds of service providers to the energy industry have established their headquarters in Houston.

Houston is home to the headquarters of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and foreign owned companies like Citgo, BP and Royal Dutch Shell also maintain corporate offices there.

About half of Houston’s jobs, an estimated 1.1 million positions, are tied to the energy industry. The impact of a windfall profits tax would prove devastating to Houston.

Destroying the oil industry in America, a process that has been in place since the Carter administration, has left the nation vulnerable to foreign sources. The U.S. already imports some 70% of its oil. There has been a significant decline in the exploration and development of national reserves.

Unleashing the energy industries in America could dramatically improve our present financial troubles. Congress, having turned boom into bust, has a historical opportunity to reverse that trend.

Author: Alan Caruba

Originally published at WesternFront America

After leaving the Clinton administration in its waning months, newly tapped Vice Presidential chief of staff Ron Klain lobbied for an asbestos industry bailout package, an airline merger, mortgage regulations to help Fannie Mae and a drug-maker under congressional scrutiny for withholding life-saving drugs from dying patients, among other clients.

Klain’s career as a lobbyist, during which clients paid nearly $700,000 for lobbying in which he participated, ended when he left his partnership at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers in 2005.

That makes him eligible to be the top aide to Vice President-elect Joe Biden under the rules outlined by President-elect Barack Obama, who decreed early in his campaign that lobbyists can work in his administration — just not in areas related to their lobbying within two years of that lobbying.

More Clinton folks. This is looking more and more like Bill’s thrid term.

Obama’s first major appointments have been Democrats who worked for President Clinton and did not endorse him in the primary: Transition chief John Podesta and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, stayed neutral, and Ron Klain, who will be Joe Biden’s chief of staff, backed Biden. Obama, advisers told Politico, may even be weighing offering Hillary Rodham Clinton herself the Cabinet plum of Secretary of State.

“Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience,” said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who’s now at the Brookings Institution. “You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around — and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function.”

But, the Chairman was supposed to be different. He was going to bring change. This sounds like more of the same.

Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its’ a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and new releases. Strictly speaking, not every cent is directed a result of what’s called the financial crisis, but it arguably related to it.

It was government meddling that created this mess in the first place.

Photo by Daquella manera.