The first characteristic that people look for in a leader is honesty.
Don A. Sanders
Earlier One-Off Post: Midterm Election Thoughts
Image of the Day
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| Via WhiteHouse.gov: Think That Hillary Can Distance Herself From Barry in 2016? |
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| Courtesy of the Independent Institute |
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| Via Rand Paul |
A Rare Moment of Judiciary Sanity on Judicial Fascism on Marriage Definition: Thumbs UP!
The Cincinnati Circuit overruled lower court decisions imposing "gay marriage" on Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. This will likely result in returning the issue to SCOTUS where Justice Kennedy paid lip service to the principle of federalism in his deciding vote. It should be noted that the lower courts went where Kennedy did not go, i.e., a so-called constitutional right to marry.
Will Obama Play With Fire On Immigration?
As someone who is pro-immigration, I find myself cringing at Obama's thinly-veiled threats to impose some unilateral amnesty executive order:
"But what I’m not going to do is just wait," Obama said. "I think it’s fair to say that I have shown a lot of patience and have tried to work on a bipartisan basis as much as possible. And I’m going to keep on doing so. But in the meantime, let’s figure out what we can do lawfully through executive actions to improve the functioning of the existing system."In fact, immigration is on Boehner's agenda, and in 2007 Bush was behind immigration reform when Obama and others passed amendments kicking out key GOP-favored concessions. If Obama attempts to abuse his authority to make policy, it will be like an act of war on Congress and Obama will permanently lose any goodwill with Congress. Everyone knows the reason that Obama delayed this unilateral action was because he knew it would have negative effects on his party's chances in the midterm election. Now pretending there can't be any further delay for the new Congress to meet and pass something, Obama is engaging in an uncharacteristic risky game of political chicken--and there's a possibility it could end up in his impeachment.
Facebook Corner
(National Review). Caption this...
I just felt a shiver up and down my spine.
(Reason). The GOP would do well to remember they won a Senate majority despite themselves and their agenda.
Well, of course the President's policies were on the ballot, including his spending record, ObamaCare and his energy/environmental policies. I do think the GOP realizes they still have high negatives, and I expect part of what this election gives is accountability to show what they can do in control of Congress. They need to get a functioning budget process in the Senate, show some steps forward in terms of policy reform. I remember Carville around 2010 was crowing that the Dem majority would be in power for the next 2 generations or so. I think the GOP, which had a near-death experience over the 2006 and 2008 elections, knows that what the voters have given, they can take away just as quickly.
(Reason). Voters aren't happy with Barack Obama—and they took it out on his fellow Democrats in the midterm elections. That has to be worrying for Hillary Clinton.
By then, people will be tired of Republican social conservatism and will vote the other way...Plus, we'll probably be even more deeply mired in some unjustified middle east conflict...
What delusional bullshit! Tell me, when did you hear any of the GOP candidates focus on any social policy issue--abortion, "gay marriage", etc.? And these were never social policies--they were legacy state laws that were reversed by judicial fascists. It was Senator Uterus and various "progressives" focusing on this trumped-up "War on Women". The Republicans mostly focused on public spending, ObamaCare, tax and regulatory impacts on the economy, etc.
(LFC). The state-owned supermarkets often have empty shelves, and kids are going hungry. A few people in town have built a well-functioning private supermarket with full shelves, and the solution is clear: We must destroy it. As soon as everyone is reduced to a common level, there will be equality. We must make everyone poor, to fight poverty.
This is populist crackpot bullshit as usual. How many other times have we heard this before in other contexts--let's force the Congress to eat its own dog food. Let's force the Congress members to enroll in ObamaCare, let's draft their kids to war, etc. In this case. eliminating the only competition to public monopoly schools doesn't improve product/service quality, price, selection, etc.
(Lew Rockwell). "For the first time since 2006, Republicans have control of the Senate (or at least they will at the beginning of the year). What will Republican control of the Senate, and therefore total control of the Congress, mean? As someone who has studied the actions of the Republican Party for over 20 years—including the legislation they have passed or helped to pass, the bills they have introduced that did not pass, the speeches Republicans have made, the Party Platforms they have adopted, and the budgets they have proposed—I can say without hesitation that it will mean absolutely nothing. They will continue to spend, spend, spend, bomb, bomb, bomb, tax, tax, tax, and regulate, regulate, regulate. Watch them for the next two years and try to prove me wrong. I will be watching them like a hawk," says Laurence Vance.
Crackpot delusional bullshit as usual. This jerk doesn't seem to remember the first 4 balanced budgets in decades were under a GOP House, the GOP has finally broken the $1T Presidential debt streak, this President shut down the government rather than accept a spending cut, he went apeshit over a modest 2% sequester cut. The GOP is holding its strongest hand in years to control the budget process in reconciliation, and almost every post-election report I've seen has business tax and regulatory reform at the top of the list. Whereas I don't doubt some neo-cons are among the new faces, make no mistake--this is not your Grandfather's GOP. Rand Paul was the most popular face on the campaign trail, and he is no neo-con.
(Reason). "Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!" - Ron Paul
No. He is just a crazy old uncle going off the deep end again, and this comes from a committed non-interventionist. Let's point out that the Dems under Obama and a Dem-controlled Senate managed to double down on Afghanistan, radically expanded drone attacks on 7 countries without a declared war. The Republicans also realize that they lost the 2006 and 2008 elections over Iraq. The REAL problem is that we have a Commander in Chief who seems to think meddling is part of his Constitutional powers, with or without Congressional approval.
(The Libertarian Catholic). Simply abhorrent. (See above video.)
They would rather see Statist "charity" financed at the point of a gun. Voluntary acts of charity undermind the rationale of the State.
(The Mackinac Center for Public Policy). Should schools and teachers be judged without accounting for the poverty level of their students? http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/20682
Not exactly sure what this means from a standpoint of public policy. I would submit there are a number of factors confounded with poverty, and others correlated with academic success, including cultural (consider Asian communities which are not well-to-do). This seems like some implicit argument to grade teachers in poor schools/neighborhoods on the curve. The fact of the matter is what higher education and life judges you is on the basis of performance, not some socioeconomical fudge factor. Whether or not a school is doing "better" considering the nature of student differences doesn't change the fact of career-killing low language and math scores. It also doesn't explain how Catholic schools in urban neighborhoods, taking in kids from the same neighborhoods and at a fraction of the cost, routinely outperform their public school competitors.
I can't believe a free market think tank would be effectively buying into an excuse for abysmal public monopoly schools. The solution to abysmal public schools is a competitive education market, which does not currently exist.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Henry Payne via Townhall |
Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, "Somewhere Out There"
