Teacher's Strike?

It could be coming to the Capistrano Unified School District:

Chanting "Do the right thing!" while clapping in unison, about 400 educators and their supporters rallied Wednesday at Capistrano Unified School District headquarters to protest a 10.1 percent pay cut that the school board is imposing on all teachers.

Many held up signs demanding that Capistrano's school board "respect our teachers" by returning to the negotiating table to try to work out a compromise with the district's 2,300-member teachers union.

The board room in San Juan Capistrano was packed to capacity with about 300 teachers and their supporters, while about 100 more demonstrated outside.

"All the other districts have the same problems we do, but they are asking so much more of us than other districts," said demonstrator Julia Ferguson, a fourth-grade teacher at San Juan Capistrano's Kinoshita Elementary School and a 20-year educator. "It just doesn't seem fair."

The 10.1 percent pay cut, formally enacted at Wednesday's school board meeting, will end months of bitter negotiations over how to achieve pay concessions intended to help the district close its gaping $34 million budget deficit.

The pay cut was approved in a 6-1 school board vote, with trustee Jack Brick dissenting.

"There is not one single person who rejoices in what we may do tonight," school board President Anna Bryson said just before the vote. "We understand it is painful. It is not a process we have enjoyed, and it has been extremely difficult for every one of us."

As the meeting concluded, demonstrators in the audience shouted, "Strike! Strike! Strike!" in unison.

They may know about teaching but they know nothing about protest signs. I was driving by a local high school and some of the teachers were out marching around with their signs and unless you're standing right next to them they're unreadable (you can see a photo at the link). They have big bold red borders, but the print is too small to be read from more than a few feet away.

It's pretty hard to sell your cause if nobody can figure out why you're protesting.

Bonus Political Cartoon of the Day

Seen on Facebook:

The Immaturity of Code Pink Continues

Here's a photo of a major donor to Obama and the Dem party greeting him in September, 2009:
And here's the same major Obama donor one year almost to the day earlier as she attempted to interrupt Sarah Palin's Republican National Convention speech in 2008.
Who is this red-headed piece of human debris? Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, who is still acting as immature as ever (from Big Government):

Top Obama funder, terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans assaulted former President George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove Monday evening at a Beverly Hills appearance by Rove to promote his new book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life As a Conservative in the Fight.”

Jodie Evans approached Rove while he was speaking to an audience at the Saban Theater and announced she was making a “citizen’s arrest” as she attempted to place metal handcuffs on him.

Video by KCAL-TV shows Rove pushing Jodie Evans away as she tries to cuff him. The audio picks up Rove saying to Jodie Evans, “No, no, no I didn’t say go ahead. I looked at…You get away!

Two men intervened and pulled Jodie Evans away from Rove.

Jodie Evans can be heard yelling at Rove, “Look what you did! You outed a CIA officer! You lied to take us to war! You ruined a country! Totally ruined a country!”

I'll believe she seriously cares about the ruination of this country when she starts screaming at Obama.

Metrolink Could Cut Service in Orange County

I'm not really surprised by this and I'll tell you why in a moment:

More cuts to train service and a fare increase could be in store in Orange County as Metrolink looks for ways to close its budget gap.

The commuter rail line is facing a projected shortfall of $17 million for the next fiscal year, said Metrolink spokeswoman Angela Starr.

Two trains on the Inland Empire-Orange County line - 850 and 851 – might be discontinued for weekday service. The changes would affect service from San Bernardino to Oceanside. The trains travel through Riverside, Santa Ana, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente and Oceanside.

Metrolink officials originally proposed four trains to be discontinued on the I..E-O.C. line.

Trains servicing the San Bernardino, Antelope Valley, and Ventura County lines are also on the elimination list.

I've twice ridden the Inland Empire-Orange County lines on a weekday, both times to go from Laguna Niguel to Riverside. On each of those rides I was almost the only one on the train. The second time I rode that route I went all the way from Laguna Niguel to San Bernadino, saw only one other person in my car the whole trip, and was never asked for my ticket. I don't know what it cost for Metrolink to take me out there and back with a locomotive, four passenger cars and two employees, but I only paid about $24. I don't think they made money on those trips.

ObamaCare Writedowns Will Cost Business $14 Billion

So says the Wall Street Journal in an editorial today:

So the wave of corporate writedowns—led by AT&T's $1 billion—isn't caused by ObamaCare after all. The White House claims CEOs are reducing the value of their companies and returns for shareholders merely out of political pique.

A White House staffer told the American Spectator that "These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general. Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative Web sites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS." (We called the White House for elaboration but got no response.)

In other words, CEOs who must abide by U.S. accounting laws under pain of SEC sanction, and who warned about such writedowns for months, are merely trying to ruin President Obama's moment of glory. Sure.

Presumably the White House is familiar with the Financial Standard Accounting Board's 1990 statement No. 106, which requires businesses to immediately restate their earnings in light of their expected future retiree health liabilities. AT&T, Deere & Co., AK Steel, Prudential and Caterpillar, among others, are simply reporting the corporate costs of the Democratic decision to raise taxes on retiree drug benefits to finance ObamaCare.

When the Medicare prescription drug plan was debated in 2003, many feared that companies already offering such coverage would cash out and dump the costs on government. So Congress created a modest subsidy, equal to 28% of the cost of these plans for seniors who would otherwise enroll in Medicare. This subsidy is tax-free, and companies used to be allowed to deduct the full cost of the benefit from their corporate income taxes (beyond the 72% employer portion).

Democrats chose to eliminate the full exclusion and said they were closing a loophole. But whatever it's called, eliminating it "will be highly destabilizing for retirees who rely upon employer sponsored drug coverage" and "will impose a dramatic and immediate impact on company financial statements."

There's more at the link.

Henry Waxman is on a fool's errand if he thinks summoning the CEOs of these companies to D.C. for a show trial is going to change their outlook or their numbers. As the WSJ points out above they are simply responding to a financial accounting requirement, and not some political grievance with the president or the Democrats (though I don't doubt for a minute they have one).

Most CA District Attorneys Oppose Obama Judicial Nominee

Why? Because he's another lefty nut that Obama seems to gravitate to:

Forty-two of California's 58 county district attorneys are opposing President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu to the federal appeals court in San Francisco, saying they believe the UC Berkeley law professor is hostile to the death penalty.

In a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the prosecutors attacked a paper Liu coauthored in 2005 that criticized death penalty decisions by Samuel Alito, then President George W. Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court.

The paper did not state its authors' views of the death penalty, but said Alito's opinions "show a disturbing tendency to tolerate serious errors in capital proceedings." The district attorneys said Liu's critique shows he would vote as a judge to overturn nearly every death sentence.

The document "demonstrates beyond serious question that his views on criminal law, capital punishment and the role of the federal courts in second-guessing state decisions are fully aligned" with an appeals court that is "far out of the judicial mainstream," the prosecutors said.

They included two Bay Area district attorneys, Ed Berberian of Marin County and David Paulson of Solano County.

In response, the White House released a letter from the state's prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, saying Liu would "further the cause of justice and follow the law and Constitution for all parties ... including crime victims and peace officers."

The dueling messages continued a partisan battle for public opinion over Liu's nomination to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 39-year-old professor has drawn rave reviews from academic colleagues and the American Bar Association. But conservatives have branded him a liberal activist and criticized his support for affirmative action, same-sex marriage and the view that constitutional rights evolve over time.

As I understand it Liu is also a big fan of reparations for slavery, and that should disqualify him all by itself.

Many fear that this guy is being groomed to be the first Asian on the Supreme Court. Like the "Wise Latina" it will be hard for the GOP to oppose a racial first no matter how wacky his political leanings. A little time on the already crazy Ninth Circuit court would enhance his resume just in time for a future Supreme Court opening.

Boeing Takes a $150 Million Charge

Another day, another big company takes it in the bottom line:

Boeing Co. will take a charge of $150 million due to the recent health care overhaul legislation, the aircraft maker said Wednesday.

The charge will hurt earnings by 20 cents per share in the first quarter of 2010.

In 2013 Boeing will no longer be able to claim an income tax deduction related to certain prescription drug benefits for retirees. Accounting rules require that the company take the charge during the period the legislation is enacted.

What's interesting about this to me is it comes several days after several other large companies were commanded to come to Washington to explain their massive Obamacare write-downs. Boeing has to know their name will be added to the list of Henry Waxman's show trial participants, and yet accounting principles and federal regulatons required they make this announcement. That pretty much confirms that the announcement is not just revenge on Democrats for passing the bill, but the actual effect this bill will have on their business.

Waxman's hearing won't go as smoothly as he thinks it will. He's going to learn some things about this bill he should have known before he voted for it.

Obama's Offshore Drilling Fantasy

For a few brief moments last night it looked like the president might actually do something right and authorize new offshore drilling to help with our energy needs. As I feared it was too good to be true:

The Obama administration’s plan adopts some drilling proposals floated by President George W. Bush near the end of his tenure, including opening much of the Atlantic and Arctic Coasts. Those proposals were challenged in court on environmental grounds and set aside by President Obama shortly after he took office.

[snip]

The first lease sale off the coast of Virginia could occur as early as next year in a triangular tract 50 miles off the coast that had already been approved for development but was held up by a court challenge and additional Interior Department review, officials said.

But as a result of the Obama decision, the Interior Department will spend several years conducting geologic and environmental studies along the rest of the southern and central Atlantic Seaboard. If a tract is deemed suitable for development, it is listed for sale in a competitive bidding system. The next lease sales — if any are authorized by the Interior Department — would not be held before 2012.

In other words, Obama wants to appear to be responding to America's energy needs without actually doing that. The enviros will get upset, and that plays well for Obama with most people, and others who aren't paying attention will think he's finally on the right track. And all the while nothing will actually get done.

It's pretty much the same as Obama's claims to want bipartisanship.

As knifework said on Twitter:

How broke do we have to be for Obama to even talk about offshore drilling?

Since we cannot take any of Obama's words as truth, we must assume that this fake new interest in offshore drilling is really an effort to buy GOP support for cap-and-tax. He doesn't have to pick off many RINOs to get such a bill passed.

Congressman Mike Pence agrees:

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the American Energy Solutions Group, issued the following statement today regarding President Obama's announcement on oil and gas exploration:

"As usual, the devil is in the details. Only in Washington, D.C. can you ban more areas to oil and gas exploration than you open up, delay the date of your new leases and claim you're going to increase production.

"The President's announcement today is a smokescreen. It will almost certainly delay any new offshore exploration until at least 2012 and include only a fraction of the offshore resources that the previous Administration included in its plan.

"Unfortunately, this is yet another feeble attempt to gain votes for the President's national energy tax bill that is languishing in the Senate. At the end of the day this Administration's energy plan is simple: increase the cost of energy on every family in America and trade American jobs overseas at a time when millions of Americans are looking for work."

Buying Easter Church Attendance

Easter and Christmas are sometimes jokingly referred to a Christian Open House since those are the two days a year when people who don't ever show up at church finally darken the door for a few minutes. Many churches try all kinds of things to get people to come.

This weekend Saddleback Church will have the Jonas Brothers in one of two huge services that will be held at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. That service sold out (the tickets were free but required) very quickly and I'm sure there will be a fair number of teens with their parents who otherwise would not have attended.

In Corpus Christi, TX another megachurch is trying a prize giveaway to attract the lost to their Easter services:

How would you like to register for $4 million in prizes? One church is making you that offer in exchange for attending Easter Service. It's a big price tag and all the prizes collected came from the Coastal Bend.

Pastor Bil Cornelius spreads his ministry's message each weekend from Bay Area Fellowship on Weber. His message from God extends far beyond the building; his service runs nationally.

With Easter Week upon us, his message is getting an even bigger boost with a big giveaway.

"We've got two BMW's, we have an Audi, an Avalanche, we have a Mitsubishi Eclipse, a Jaguar," said Trish Fraizer, a spokesperson for the church.

From dresser drawers to cars, bedroom sets and even bikes; the total giveaway is valued at $4 million, the goal initially was to give away one million dollars in prizes.

"Our hope is someone that's never been here, that may come for the wrong reasons, comes here and we're able to plant a seed," explains Fraizer. That seed, they hope, will increase membership.

"You get the free gift of Heaven if you just accept Christ," said Pastor and Founder Cornelius.

The church spreads its message to about 7,000 members and every weekend, those members' donations bring in about $100,000 to the megachurch. It's money that goes back out into the community.

"It goes into facility operation, it goes into personnel cost, outreach, church planting, we start other churches we start other locations and community outreach programs as well," said Pastor Paul Schulz.

He tells us the goal is to double members in the next ten years.

I'm kind of agnostic on this whole deal. I have nothing against using creative marketing means to attract people to church...or any other business. There's probably a line you shouldn't cross...somewhere...but I'm not sure where that would be. If the church's ministry is solid and Bible-based, any creativity that works is good.

Political Cartoon of the Day

Seen on Facebook:Very true.

"It's Too Late to Save the Planet"

So says the creator of the Gaia theory which views the Earth as a single organism:

Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, has said it is too late to try and save the planet.

The man who achieved global fame for his theory that the whole earth is a single organism now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change.

Interviewed by Today presenter John Humphrys, videos of which you can see below, he said that while the earth's future was utterly uncertain, mankind was not aware it had "pulled the trigger" on global warming as it built its civilizations.

What is more, he predicts, the earth's climate will not conveniently comply with the models of modern climate scientists.

As the record winter cold testifies, he says, global temperatures move in "jerks and jumps", and we cannot confidently predict what the future holds.

Prof Lovelock does not pull his punches on the politicians and scientists who are set to gain from the idea that we can predict climate change and save the planet ourselves.

Scientists, he says, have moved from investigating nature as a vocation, to being caught in a career path where it makes sense to "fudge the data".

And while renewable energy technology may make good business sense, he says, it is not based on "good practical engineering".

At the age of 90, Prof Lovelock is resigned to his own fate and the fate of the planet. Whether the planet saves itself or not, he argues, all we can do is to "enjoy life while you can".

That's the best advice from a climate scientist I've heard yet.

One Nation Under Arrest

The Heritage Foundation's Morning Bell talks about the federal government's criminalization of American life:

Before President Barack Obama took over the White House, no United States citizen had ever been forced by the federal government to buy a product against their will. But now, thanks to the passage of Obamacare, Americans, by dint of their mere existence, are now required to purchase Obama administration approved health insurance or face a penalty assessed through the Internal Revenue Code. This is simply unprecedented. The income tax doesn’t kick in until an American earns income. Auto liability insurance doesn’t become mandated until an American chooses to drive (and even then it’s only by the state). And farmers must first grow food before they are subject to the regulations of the Department of Agriculture. But facing federal government sanction for simply breathing? That is a troubling assault on American liberty.

Unfortunately, Obamacare is just the latest example of the growing reach of the federal government into all aspects of our lives. While the final bill passed by Congress specifically made the noncompliance with an IRS individual mandate penalty not a crime, far too often when the spotlight of American attention is not focused on an issue, Congress has gone ahead and criminalized what was once before perfectly normal behavior.

Read the rest of it for examples of how out-of-control things have gotten with federal regulations.

The Battle of the Weather People

Clash of the titans - weathermen versus climatologists:

The debate over global warming has created predictable adversaries, pitting environmentalists against industry and coal-state Democrats against coastal liberals.

But it has also created tensions between two groups that might be expected to agree on the issue: climate scientists and meteorologists, especially those who serve as television weather forecasters.

Climatologists, who study weather patterns over time, almost universally endorse the view that the earth is warming and that humans have contributed to climate change. There is less of a consensus among meteorologists, who predict short-term weather patterns.

Joe Bastardi, for example, a senior forecaster and meteorologist with AccuWeather, maintains that it is more likely that the planet is cooling, and he distrusts the data put forward by climate scientists as evidence for rising global temperatures.

“There is a great deal of consternation among a lot of us over the readjustment of data that is going on and some of the portrayals that we are seeing,” Mr. Bastardi said in a video segment posted recently on AccuWeather’s Web site.

Such skepticism appears to be widespread among TV forecasters, about half of whom have a degree in meteorology. A study released on Monday by researchers at George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin found that only about half of the 571 television weathercasters surveyed believed that global warming was occurring and fewer than a third believed that climate change was “caused mostly by human activities.”

More than a quarter of the weathercasters in the survey agreed with the statement “Global warming is a scam,” the researchers found.

Even among weathercasters there has been quite a debate. John Coleman, who started the Weather Channel, is a vigorous opponent of man-caused global warming, while one of the current Weather Channel hosts was advocating the removal of credentials from any weathercaster who did not follow the global warming line.

TV weathermen don't have the luxury of throwing wild guesses out there like climatologists do. If the TV weatherman is wrong he hears about it from his viewers. If the climatologist is wrong...nobody knows or cares.

Tanning Tax Fantasy

I wonder how many other fantasy projections were in the Obamacare bill?

Representatives for the indoor tanning industry predict the country will never see the $2.7 billion tax on tanning services the healthcare law is supposed to collect.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that a 10 percent tax on tanning-bed services would raise $2.7 billion over the next decade, but the industry says there simply aren't enough salons or customer traffic to generate that much revenue.

"We call it fantasy land," John Overstreet, executive director at the Indoor Tanning Association, told The Hill. "There is no one in this industry that thinks those are remotely reasonable revenue targets for the tax."

"For our industry, it [the tax] highlights the disconnect between policymakers and the folks that actually pay the tax," Overstreet said.

The JCT said it could not divulge the economic models it used to come up with the revenue estimate. The Senate Finance Committee did not immediately respond to inquiries on the matter.

Roughly 30 million Americans visit tanning salons at least once a year and pay an estimated $7 for the service. Collectively, these patrons would have to visit a tanning bed roughly 3.9 billion times over the next 10 years to raise the amount of revenue Congress seeks.

However, the cost for most tanning sessions are commonly incorporated into a broader membership fee that includes other services or product purchases.

Liberal tax projections are never accurate. They assume that purchasing and spending habits will remain constant even with the addition of a new tax. In fact, people act differently when taxes are added. You pretty much always get less of any activity you tax than you would have had without the tax.

That's why the income projections for Obamacare are full of baloney.

Political Video of the Day

The Presidents and the Marines:

Health Insurers Try Appeasement

This is doomed to fail. I posted the other day on the omission from the Obamacare bill of language that would have supported Obama's promise that children with pre-existing conditions could not be denied insurance. Following the letter of the law the health insurers could have continued to deny coverage and been fully within the law.

Democrats threatened the industry, even though they didn't have a legal let to stand on, and it looks like the health insurers are going for appeasement:

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry's top lobbyist said insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized guarantee that children with medical problems can get coverage starting this year.

Quick resolution of the doubts was a win for Obama — and a sign that the industry has no stomach for another war of words with a president who deftly used double-digit rate hikes by the companies to revive his sweeping health care legislation from near collapse in Congress.

"Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a letter to Sebelius. Ignagni said that the industry will "fully comply" with the regulations, expected within weeks.

I personally think this is a mistake on the part of the insurers. They would have to be completely naive not to believe that the ultimate goal of Obamacare is the destruction of their industry. Complying on a profit-killing measure just to buy the temporary good will of Henry Waxman is kind of like hoping the grizzly bear eats you last. Democrats hate insurance companies, and this little capitulation will buy the insurers absolutely no good will in the long term...and maybe even the short term.

Now it could be that the lobbyists are doing this to buy some favor knowing full well that some group or organization will end up litigating this on their behalf so they won't have to look like the bad guys.

But probably not. They've probably just caved to Congress for no good reason at all.

Obama to Allow Offshore Drilling?

Wow, he may actually do something I agree with. There must be rip in the time/space continuum:

The Obama administration is expected to announce by Wednesday its updated plan for oil and natural gas drilling in U.S. waters, including whether to allow exploration for the first time along the U.S. East Coast.

The plan could pave the way for a significant new domestic source of energy, helping to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports and boost supplies of natural gas used to displace coal in power plants as the country works to reduce emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Of course, there's no guarantee that he'll allow American companies to do the drilling. The way he operates it could go to Venezuela or China.

Today's Great Moment in Obamacare

Profile in courage:

A Democratic senator I can't name, who reluctantly voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to his party and his admiration for Barack Obama, privately complained to me that the measure was political folly, in part because of the way it goes into effect: some taxes first, most benefits later, and rate hikes by insurance companies in between.

You know that if it was a Republican voting for a bill as unpopular as Obamacare his name would have been all over the piece. Why is Howard Fineman hiding this coward?

And speaking of folly, how will this play with the folks in Obama's home state (Illinois, not Hawaii, Kenya or Indonesia):

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) today announced that as a result of certain provisions in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care program, future Medicare prescription drug subsidies received by the Company for retiree prescription drug coverage will now be taxable. As a result, the Company expects to record a discrete tax adjustment of $22 million, or 4 cents of diluted income per share from continuing operations, in its 2010 first quarter results to reflect this change in tax treatment. This discrete tax adjustment was not included in the Company's March 15, 2010 revised earnings forecast.

The hits just keep on coming.

Promises, Promises

No, we're not talking about a long-running Broadway musical, but the campaign and presidential rhetoric from Barack Obama. A regular theme of The Campaign Spot is that all of Obama's promises come with an expiration date...all of them. Jim Geraghty has been the official compiler of said promises and said expirations and he has kindly gathered them all together in one post.

Read it and weep.

Airliner Repo Man

Here's something completely different - an interesting story about a firm that makes its living repossessing airliners. It's a good read.

They Can Put a Man on the Moon But They Can't Fix Stupid

NASA has a new mission. No, nothing sexy like putting a man on the moon or creating a new mission to Mars. Instead the finest scientists and engineers at NASA will be trying to figure out why drivers of Toyotas have a predilection for stepping on the gas while thinking they're on the brake.

NASA and the National Academy of Sciences are joining the government's effort to figure out what caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to Toyota's massive recalls.

NASA scientists with expertise in electronics will help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study potential electronic ties to unintended acceleration in Toyotas. NASA's knowledge of electronics, computer hardware and software and hazard analysis will ensure a comprehensive review, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday.

NASA managed to put spacecraft on the moon that had less computing power than the wristwatches of today's Toyota owners. However, I'm not sure how all that scientific ability is going to cure stupidity. The long skinny pedal is the gas, not the brake. I'm not even an engineer and I figured that one out.

This smells like another attempt by the administration to put the screws to Toyota and leave the impression hanging that they make dangerous cars, while at the same time the government is propping up two of Toyota's big competitors, GM and Chrysler.

The Year of Our...Well, Disembodied Cosmic Being Who May or May Not Exist

It's always entertaining to see what college kids think is important:

Two months from graduation, there is controversy at Trinity University over the wording on its diploma. At issue is whether two words should be removed:
Our Lord.

"This is the embodiment of that conflict between our religious culture and roots and our diversity," said interim Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students David Tuttle.

Founded in 1869 by Presbyterians, Trinity University touts itself as a distinctive, diverse campus. But some students say a diploma that says In the year of "Our Lord" does not respect religious diversity.

"If the university has made an effort to make this campus more diverse, it should also recognize there should also be a diploma with a common platform that includes all of these students, not simply the Christian student," said Sidra Qureshi, president of Trinity Diversity Connection. The Muslim student has led the effort to have the wording removed. Other students question where the line will be drawn.

"We've got a chaplain on campus, there's a Bible in our seal. That's just our background, why we were founded, who we are. I don't think we should remove it because a couple of people don't want to remember that history," said Brendan McNamara, president of College Republicans.

Students on both sides of the issue have faced off in a series of forums on campus.
"The change is small but it means a lot to some students," said student body president Emalee Bannon.

The student government and commencement committee are both recommending the Board of Trustees remove the words "Our Lord" from the diploma. Trinity faculty is embracing the debate.

This could be one of those situations where some of these kids have been educated beyond their intelligence.

And of course, if they really thought about his they wouldn't put "2010" on their diplomas either, because after all, that date references a Biblical figure and we can't have that.

CNN Plunges, Fox Soars

The only thing that will save CNN now is a government takeover:

CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year.

The trend in news ratings for the first three months of this year is all up for one network, the Fox News Channel, which enjoyed its best quarter ever in ratings, and down for both MSNBC and CNN.

CNN had a slightly worse quarter in the fourth quarter of 2009, but the last three months have included compelling news events, like the earthquake in Haiti and the battle over health care, and CNN, which emphasizes its hard news coverage, was apparently unable to benefit.

The losses at CNN continued a pattern in place for much of the last year, as the network trailed its competitors in every prime-time hour. (CNN still easily beats MSNBC in the daytime hours, but those are less lucrative in advertising money, and both networks are far behind Fox News at all hours.)

About the only break from the bad news for CNN was that March was not as bad as February, when the network had its worst single month in its recent history, finishing behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but also its sister network HLN — and even CNBC, which had Olympics programming that month.

CNN executives have steadfastly said that they will not change their approach to prime-time programs, which are led by hosts not aligned with any partisan point of view.

But the numbers are stark: For the network’s longest-running host, Larry King, who has always been regarded at CNN as the centerpiece of prime time because he drew the biggest audiences at 9 p.m., the quarter was his worst ever.

Mr. King’s audience dropped 43 percent for the quarter and 52 percent in March. He dropped to 771,000 viewers for the quarter from 1.34 million in 2009. More alarming perhaps, Mr. King, whose show has been regularly eclipsed by Rachel Maddow’s on MSNBC (and is almost quadrupled by Sean Hannity’s show on Fox), is now threatened by a new host, Joy Behar on HLN (formerly Headline News.)

In her first full quarter competing with Mr. King at 9 p.m. Ms. Behar wound up beating him in the ratings 21 times.

Behar is a piece of work. CBS Sunday Morning did a feature on her last weekend during which she described her opinions as "politically incorrect". Nothing could be further from the truth. She's as politically correct as they come - pure liberal. She certainly won't stand out from Rachel Maddow or any of the other nuts she'll compete with on CNN or MSNBC.

As for Larry King, why would anyone watch the "King of Softball Questions"? His show is as old and tired as he is.

Fox understands what CNN doesn't -we're in a war for the future of this country. CNN has already surrendered. Fox has only begun to fight.

Will Jerry Brown Ask California to Drink the Kool-Aid?

Welcome Campaign Spot readers!  After you're done reading this post, here's another Jerry Brown post you might enjoy.
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Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown wants to be California's governor again, but as with most lefties, you have to be concerned about the friends he has. Here's a little blast from Brown's past:

California Governor Jerry Brown and Jim Jones

By virtue of producing rent-free rent-a-rallies for liberal politicians and causes, Jim Jones engendered enormous amounts of good will from Democratic politicians and activists. They allowed their political ambitions to derail their governing responsibilities. Frisco pols like Harvey Milk never seemed to care how Jones could, at the snap of his fingers, direct hundreds of people to stack a public meeting or volunteer for a campaign. City Councilman Milk just knew that he benefitted from that control, and therefore never bothered to do anything to inhibit the dangerous cult operating in his city. Instead, he actively aided and abetted a homicidal maniac. It wasn't just local hacks Jones commanded respect from. He held court with future First Lady Rosalyn Carter, vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale, and California Governor Jerry Brown.

A man who killed more African Americans than the Ku Klux Klan was awarded a local Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award and won the plaudits of California lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally, state assemblyman Willie Brown, radical academic Angela Davis, preacher/politician Jesse Jackson, Black Panther leader Huey Newton, and other African American activists. From Newton, whom Jones had visited in Cuban exhile in 1977, Jones got his lawyer and received support, such as a phone-to-megaphone address to Jonestown during a "white night" dry run of mass suicide. This was appropriate, as it was from Newton whom Jones appropriated the phrase "revolutionary suicide"--the title of a 1973 Newton book--that he used as a moniker for the murder-suicides of more than 900 people on November 18, 1978. "We didn't commit suicide," Jones announced during the administering of cyanide-laced Flavoraid to his flock, "we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world." Newton's comically idiotic slogan boomeranged on him, as several of his relatives perished in the Kool-Aid carnage.
It's worth remembering that before the people of Peoples Temple drank Jim Jones's Kool-Aid, the leftist political establishment of San Francisco gulped it down. And without the latter, the former would have never happened.

If California chooses Brown for governor again I may just go ahead and drink the Kool-Aid. It can't be worse than what a liberal nutcase governor combined with a liberal nutcase legislature will do to the state.

Obama Declares Tea Party Movement a "Birther" Movement

It is yet another attempt to paint the Tea Party activists as a bunch of nuts:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he believes the Tea Party is built around a "core group" of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.

But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves "folks who have legitimate concerns" about the national debt and whether the government is taking on too many difficult issues simultaneously.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, Obama said he feels "there's still going to be a group at their core that question my legitimacy." But he said he didn't want to paint Tea Party activists "in broad brushes" and he hopes to win over members who have "mainstream, legitimate concerns."

Most Tea Party types probably do think Obama is a socialist, and why not...he is. And, unfortunately, there are those who are still obsessing over the whole birth certificate thing. The media always seems to find them first and you can guarantee any media report will include a birther sign or two to reinforce the point.

However, the vast majority of Tea Party activists got involved because they didn't like the direction Obama was taking the country. They didn't want bigger government, higher taxes, and less freedom. It had nothing to do with his place of birth.

He can keep trying to delegitimize the Tea Party movement but it won't stop the people from opposing his socialist policies.

The Great Unifier to Become More Combative

Don't you feel the love?

President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress.

Okay, let's stop right there. At what point did Obama "fitfully search for compromise"? He was never interested in compromise at all. He was interested in getting his way and forcing the GOP to go along. He routinely ignored GOP requests and ideas and only met with the GOP when he thought he could get a good photo opportunity out of it.

You can read the rest of the story at the link, but basically it just says the president who promised to unite us will apparently do so by becoming even more partisan.

Hope and change.

Environwackos Plan to Save Mother Gaia Through Lawsuits

If they can't get the nuts in Congress to enact cap-and-tax they'll sue everybody in sight:

Environmentalists, unable to squeeze “cap and trade” rules through the U.S. Senate, have a new strategy for combating what they believe is man-made global warming:

They’re going to sue.

They’re revving up their briefs and getting ready to shop for judges who will be sympathetic to their novel claim that the companies they believe contribute to global warming are a “public nuisance.”

The environmentalists allege that individual companies are responsible for climate change because they have emitted greenhouse gases during the course of their operations. Those gases, they say, have “harmed” them by fostering Hurricane Katrina, eroding the shorelines of America’s coasts and causing global warming.

“People have a right to sue for redress of grievances,” said Lee A. DeHihns III, a partner with law firm Alston & Bird’s environmental and land development group and a former associate general counsel with the EPA. He said global warming is a “public nuisance,” just like a neighbor with a loud stereo. “You can sue for an intentional infliction of harm, a nuisance,” said DeHihns, whose firm is consulting with plaintiffs pursuing these cases.

I hope some of these corporations fight back in a big way and financially destroy these nuts.

Team Stupak Gets $3.4 Billion in Earmarks

It was never about abortion, it was about money:

The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform legislation mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks -- and one watchdog group wants to know whether the money represents business as usual or political payoffs.

The Sunlight Foundation says it plans to track the earmark requests, which were put in one day after health care reform cleared Congress, to see whether they're approved and whether it appears lawmakers are being rewarded for their vote.

"We know that in Congress one of the ways that leadership tries to influence members is through earmarks," said Bill Allison, editorial director at the nonpartisan organization. "So this seemed to us something good to follow."

Stupak and the 10 other Democrats were critical to the success of the health care bill. They were holding out over concerns about funding for abortion coverage but announced the president had assuaged their worries -- with an executive order restricting abortion funding -- the morning of the big vote.

Stupak's office said there's absolutely no link between the earmarks and the health care bill's passage.

Noooooo. No connection at all.

Bart Stupak may end up being the biggest loser (besides the American people) in this whole Obamacare mess. He's now the poster boy for selling his morals for a few bucks and I doubt he'll survive November.

Support for Closing Gitmo Drops 12 Points

Obama isn't completely out-of-touch with America. His inability to close Gitmo has brought him in line with a majority of Americans:

Attitudes about the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have changed dramatically since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new national poll.

Support for closing the facility has dropped 12 points over the past 14 months, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey indicates.

Shortly before Obama's inauguration, 51 percent of Americans said they thought the facility in Cuba should be closed. Now that number is down to 39 percent, and six in ten believe the United States should continue to operate Guantanamo.

The poll, released Sunday, suggests independent voters are contributing to the 12 point overall drop.

"Just Democrats still think that Guantanamo should be closed, but Independents have completely changed - from an even split in January 2009 to three-quarters who want to keep the facility open today," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

More than three out of four Republicans questioned in the poll think that the facility should stay open.

When Obama fails America wins.

And a Fox News story tells us that keeping those people in Gitmo is the smartest thing to do:

More Guantanamo Detainees Are Returning to Terror Upon Release

USATodayGallup - Nearly 2/3rds Don't Like Obamacare

Obama's approval has sunk to 47% with 50% disapproving, and a strong majority think Obamacare was a bad idea:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

Those surveyed are inclined to fear that the massive legislation will increase their costs and hurt the quality of health care their families receive, although they are more positive about its impact on the nation's health care system overall.

Supporters "are not only going to have to focus on implementing this kind of major reform," says Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard. "They're going to have to spend substantial time convincing people of the concrete benefits of this legislation."

The risk for them is that continued opposition will fuel calls for repeal and dog Democrats in November's congressional elections. The bill was enacted without a single Republican vote.

In an interview airing Tuesday on NBC's Today, Obama acknowledges concerns about cost. "It is a critical first step in making a health care system that works for all Americans," he said of the law, adding, "We are still going to have adjustments that have to be made to further reduce costs."

Obama's approval rating was 47%-50% — the first time his disapproval rating has hit 50%.

In other words, until Obama finishes the destruction of the private health care industry costs will have to rise. Once the government is the last man standing THEN maybe things will get better.

Physicians and Surgeons Sue Over Obamacare

The AMA foolishly backed ObamaCare, but another doctor's group is having none of it:

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) became the first medical society to sue to overturn the newly enacted health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). AAPS sued Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (AAPS v. Sebelius et al.).

“If the PPACA goes unchallenged, then it spells the end of freedom in medicine as we know it,” observed Jane Orient, M.D., the Executive Director of AAPS. “Courts should not allow this massive intrusion into the practice of medicine and the rights of patients.”

“There will be a dire shortage of physicians if the PPACA becomes effective and is not overturned by the courts.”

The PPACA requires most Americans to buy government-approved insurance starting in 2014, or face stiff penalties. Insurance company executives will be enriched by this requirement, but it violates the Fifth Amendment protection against the government forcing one person to pay cash to another. AAPS is the first to assert this important constitutional claim.

The PPACA also violates the Tenth Amendment, the Commerce Clause, and the provisions authorizing taxation. The Taxing and Spending power cannot be invoked, as the premiums go to private insurance companies. The traditional sovereignty of the States over the practice of medicine is destroyed by the PPACA.

The more the merrier as far as lawsuits are concerned. Maybe one of them will find the right combination of issues to shut this thing down.

Support for Obamacare Plunges 12 Points in Six Days

America is really embracing the vision, Mr. President. Don Surber has the details:

From the USA Today on March 23: “More Americans now favor than oppose the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against the legislation. By 49%-40%, those polled say it was a good thing rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms — as enthusiastic or pleased — while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as disappointed or angry.”

Democrats acted triumphant.

Not so fast.

From the USA Today 6 days later: “A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats to convince most Americans that the health care overhaul passed last week will help them and their families. In the poll, 50% call passage of the bill a bad thing and 47% say it was a good thing. That’s at odds with the findings of a one-day USA TODAY Poll taken a week ago — a day after the U.S. House approved the legislation — in which a 49%-40% plurality called the bill a good thing.”

So there has been a 12-point turnaround — up by 9 points to down by 3 points — in the popularity of Obamacare in just 6 days.

Nancy Pelosi told us once it would pass we'd find out what was in it and we'd be happy.

Not happening, Nan. The more America hears about Obamacare the less they like it...and you.

A Tale of Two Rallies

Zombie has an entertaining photo comparison from two rallies - the Tea Party rally in Searchlight, NV, and an antiwar rally in Los Angeles, both held about a week apart. Take a look.

The Three Stooges Plan New Climate Bill

Leave it to John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham to try and solve a problem that doesn't exist:

Three senior US lawmakers are piecing together a sweeping bipartisan energy and climate bill, which looks set to include sweeteners to galvanise support among Republicans and industry groups.

The proposed legislation, encouraged by President Barack Obama, dilutes a climate bill that stalled last year in the Senate. The senators have hosted meetings with industry groups over the past two weeks, revealing details about their plan that would cap carbon emissions while expanding offshore oil drilling and nuclear power generation.

Nearly six months have passed since the Senate’s last climate bill failed to win over conservatives and moderates, a political stalemate that cast a shadow on America’s presence at the Copenhagen climate summit. But some Democrats say the passage of healthcare reform has opened the door for climate change legislation, while acknowledging tradeoffs will be needed to secure 60 Senate votes. “They know that to pass a comprehensive bill they will have to ease concerns of some special interests and mid-western senators whose states have manufacturing-oriented economies,” said Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think-tank....

The bill’s sponsors – John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, Joseph Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, and Lindsay Graham, the South Carolina Republican – said the new sectoral approach would begin imposing carbon caps on utilities in 2012 and manufacturers in 2016.

The bill includes a new petrol tax, which would be passed on to consumers, though this could be vulnerable in the efforts to reach a compromise. By mentioning investment in conventional energy, the senators have elicited favourable responses from industry leaders, including BP executives and lobbyists from the US Chamber of Commerce, who opposed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives last spring. After meeting the senators, Bruce Josten, the chamber’s top lobbyist, said their efforts were “largely in sync” with industry targets.

Mr Graham, distinguishing his legislation from last year’s bill, told reporters this month “the cap-and-trade bills in the House and Senate are dead” and would be replaced.

He hopes his sector-by-sector approach to regulation, unlike Waxman-Markey’s economy-wide cap, will help him save face among conservatives. His role in the bill’s formulation was itself in doubt after he said the Democrats’ handling of healthcare reform “poisoned the well” for bipartisan co-operation.

This bill needs to die. Imposing carbon limits on business will not "fix" the climate but will only further damage US business. They're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist, but will instead create new problems that didn't exist.

RNC Aide Acts Incredibly Stupidly

And he's been fired for spending RNC money on a questionable Hollywood nightclub:

A Republican National Committee staffer who accompanied a group of young donors to a bondage-themed West Hollywood club and then expensed the nearly $2,000 tab has been fired by the committee, POLITICO has learned.

RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay announced the firing in an internal committee email obtained by POLITICO.

“This was not an RNC sanctioned event and was not associated in any way with any RNC official event,” McKay wrote of the February outing to Voyeur, a West Hollywood club modeled after the risqué Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman movie “Eyes Wide Shut.”

The late-night excursion followed an official RNC event in Los Angeles for donors in its “Young Eagles” program, McKay wrote, stressing that neither Chairman Michael Steele nor any senior staff were aware of either the outing or the committee’s reimbursement of the cost.

McKay wrote that the fired staffer, who is not named in the email, “was aware that this activity was not eligible for reimbursement and had been previously counseled on this very subject. Accordingly, that staff person has been terminated.”

McKay also wrote that the donor who was reimbursed for footing the bill at Voyeur, Erik Brown, “has verbally agreed to repay the funds to the RNC.”

A source with knowledge of the situation said Brown, a church-going mid-level political operative, “was not entirely thrilled with the venue that people ended up at,” but nonetheless agreed to foot the bill after the RNC staffer in question told him the committee would reimburse the cost.

It's not enough to get rid of the clown to spent the money and submitted the expense, whoever approved it for reimbursement also needs to go, even if it's Steele himself.

The Finest Emergency Radio System in The Country Just Failed

It's a dangerous night in Washington D.C. Take a look at these tweets from Marc Ambinder:

Police radios in DC silent after catastrophic multi-system failure. Eerie silence on all channels.

Officers responding to calls using cell phones and thru text messages. Governemnt interoperability frequenies, set up for emergencies...

....aren't being used, so far as I can tell. Fire/EMS calls dispatched from surrounding counties. 9/11 circuits still work.

DC's digital hybrid system, manufactured by Motorola, is supposed to be secure and invulnerable. The seat of govt deserves the best.

Seems as if police are able to respond to calls fairly quickly using improvisations, but there is plenty of confusion.

Hope you don't need help in D.C. tonight.

For My Jewish Friends

Have a Happy Passover and enjoy a little Texas-style Hava Nagila from Cornerstone Church in San Antonio (and no, it's not a Jewish Temple):

Are You a Young Adult? Pay Up, Sucka!

Remember those lower health care costs we were all promised if Obamacare passed? You younger folks who, many of whom fell for the whole rainbows and unicorns thing, are about to pay for your electoral sins:

Health insurance premiums for young adults are expected to rise about 17 percent once they’re required to buy insurance four years from now. That estimate is from an analysis by Rand Health.

Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more.

Even so, the pluses could outweigh the minuses. Some 2 million people under age 26 should qualify for coverage under their parents’ health plans. And Medicaid expansion will insure 9 million more young adults.

Meanwhile us old folks will get a much cheaper ride even though we'll be responsible for a much bigger percentage of the costs. This is the kind of plan you get when someone who has never run a business designs it.

Health Care Quote of the Day

From a senior lobbyist for one of the big companies announcing massive write-downs because of Obamacare:

"Most of these people [in the Administration] have never had a real job in their lives. They don't understand a thing about business, and that includes the President," says a senior lobbyist for one of the companies that announced the charge. "My CEO sat with the President over lunch with two other CEOs, and each of them tried to explain to the President what this bill would do to our companies and the economy in general. First the President didn't understand what they were talking about. Then he basically told my boss he was lying. Frankly my boss was embarrassed for him; he clearly had not been briefed and didn't know what was in the bill."

The whole American Spectator article is interesting. Read it here.

Congress is now summoning these business titans to Washington for a public show trial, but I don't think it's going to go the way Henry Waxman et al thinks it will. These guys will be ready for him.

Subway Bombing in Moscow Prompts Increased US Security

I don't think the people who bombed the subways in Moscow are a threat to the United States, but authorities are not taking any chances:

In the hours after suicide bombers killed dozens in the Moscow subway system, transit rail systems in New York and Washington, D.C. are heightening security.

The District is beefing up the presence of uniformed Metro Transit Police officers at stations and on subway platforms, and bringing in more bomb-sniffing dogs.

New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has taken similar precautions, rolling out more security during rush hours and at major transit hubs.

This reminds me very much of July 9, 2005. On July 7th the London bombings took place and on the 9th my family was in Washington D.C. for the start of a family vacation. We took the Metro subway that morning to the Mall to visit some of the Smithsonian Museums and as we walked to the Metro station in McPherson Square we could see a lot of officers around with automatic weapons watching everyone who entered the subway system.

Bloodsuckers

Bob Weir at American Thinker has some thoughts about the government's role as Chief Bloodsucker, taking the wealth of the ambitious:

In 1819, John Marshall, the great Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote, "The power to tax involves the power to destroy." The eminent jurist was amazingly prescient when one considers that the comment was made about a hundred years before the federal income tax was imposed, a tax that became the precursor to a laundry list of tariffs that would insinuate themselves into the socioeconomic landscape of the country.

Nickel by nickel, dollar by dollar; the people have been subjected to the increasingly rapacious arm of state-sponsored income distribution. Whenever some government official or bureaucrat, who probably never worked in private industry, decides to expand the reach of the state, he proposes a tax hike. A business owner, who needs more revenue to expand or simply to continue operating, must create a marketing plan to improve sales or services. By using talent and creative ability to attract clients, the business will improve. You see, businesspeople can't simply force people to buy what they offer.

Not so in the freewheeling atmosphere of liberal orthodoxy. Any time one of those knee-jerk ideologues wants another "program" or another entitlement for those who don't contribute to the economy, he simply taxes the people who do contribute.

In the latest example of government's overreaching power and repudiation of the Constitution, Democrats have passed a bill that once again forces the productive to pay for the non-productive. We were told that 30 to 40 million people don't have, or don't want, health care insurance. Hence, they will now be forced to buy it against their will if they don't have it, or get it free if they can't afford it, in order to enable President Obama and Speaker Pelosi to construct a legacy for themselves. The predilections of the American people notwithstanding, these tyrannical glory-hounds have decided that public opinion is the least of their concerns.

The fact that workers are already paying about 50 percent of their earnings in taxes every year is of no interest to those who live by sucking the blood of the ambitious. Make no mistake about it: The government's hands just went even more deeply into our pockets. After all, what are the people going to do about it? If they refuse to pay, hit them with fines, take away their homes, or throw them in jail. Using the principle of strength in numbers, the state can pick off individual members of the populace without fear of serious resistance; gangs are stronger than loners. If you happen to be one of those bloodsuckers, you have nothing to fear because you have nothing for the government to take. However, that's why a concerned citizenry is an essential element of democracy; the voice of the people is more than a cliché.

There's more at the link.

The voice of the people must be heard loud and clear throughout the remaining days before the November election, and especially on that crucial election day. It's time to overthrow those who so willingly rob our productive citizens with threat of force. They need to understand that the citizens have force available to them too - their votes.

Let's Make the Democrats Buy the Stuff WE Want Them to Buy

Frank at IMAO has a good idea of how to make the precedents set by Obamacare work for Republicans once they're back in power:

The idea of the Democrats in power now seems to be to as erode as much rights as possible and get more control in the hands of the government. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to roll that back, but another strategy would be to just have fun with it. See, the Republicans should regain majorities again, so maybe we should just abuse this new found power. Like, Democrats are going to force people to buy health insurance, and if that somehow passes the Supreme Court, let’s think of all the things we can force liberals to buy when we’re back in control:

THINGS TO FORCE LIBERALS TO BUY

* Bibles

* Guns (HC ed.note - I wouldn't let them buy ammo)

* Soap

* Country music

* Glenn Beck’s latest book

* An angry badger

* Framed photo of Ronald Reagan

Afterward, maybe liberals will be like, “Hey, maybe giving the government so much power was a bad idea.” Too late!

Feel free to add your own mandatory purchases in the comments section.

Where's My 3,000% Rate Decrease?

During the last days before the ObamaCare vote Obama made a speech promising Americans that if his bill was passed we'd see a 3,000% decrease in our health care premiums. Of course, that's not even mathematically possible, let alone true. Aetna chief Ron Williams was asked where he thought premiums would go thanks to this bill:

Will insurance premiums go up?
The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.

The President said that this bill would not have any impact on people who already had coverage, that it was about the uninsured, that there would be no change. Will this legislation change the coverage of people who are already paying for it?
My perception is, yes, things will change. You might not have a plan that includes the exact same doctors. You might have plans that have richer benefits, and therefore you're going to pay more for benefits you may or may not want. It would have been a better message to say, we're going to make certain you maintain your eligibility.

Americans will get an expensive lesson in liberal politics when their health plans renew next time. Sadly, most of those increases won't be felt until after the November election. If the health industry was smart they'd announce their planned rate hikes early - before November - and in time for voters to find out what the Democrats have done to them. It may be the only chance the private health industry has to survive.

The Dems Aren't the Only Ones in Denial

Democrats think that by November you'll be in love with ObamaCare once you find out what's in the bill. Not likely.

But just in case you don't hear enough bull from the Dems there are other groups that will be investing millions to brainwash you to accept ObamaCare and reward those who brought this travesty on the nation:

With sweeping health care reform almosta reality, another battle is about to begin to define what it means for a skeptical public.

Whether it is the Democratic definition that prevails or the Republican one, the outcome will have huge consequences for the 2010 midterm elections, and ultimately for President Barack Obama’s chances of reelection in 2012.

Starting Monday, a coalition of progressive groups — from labor unions to health care advocates — will sink millions of dollars into television advertising and sponsor grass-roots events in swing House districts thanking Democrats for passing the law and highlighting its importance for average Americans.

“We’re going to let our friends know we are going to be there for them,” said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. “We expect in three months, the American people will understand the bill and they will be happy and satisfied with it.”

As you look into your crystal ball three months from now do you see yourself "happy and satisfied" with ObamaCare and the people who foisted it on you?

Not likely.

Democrat Breaks Dem Office Windows in Denver

If you read of violence against the offices of Democrat candidates or the party itself don't just assume it's an angry Tea Partier:

One of two people suspected of shattering 11 windows Tuesday morning at the state Democratic Party headquarters has an arrest record and a history of helping a Democratic political candidate, public records show.

Police said that about 2:20 a.m., 24-year-old Maurice Schwenkler, now in custody, and an at-large accomplice took a hammer to the picture windows displaying posters touting President Barack Obama and his health care reform efforts.

Early Tuesday, Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak said the damage to her building in Denver's art district was a consequence of "an effort on the other side to stir up hate." She tempered her statement after Schwenkler's political history was revealed.
"What I've been saying is there is a lot of rhetoric out there from both sides of the spectrum," Waak said. "That's what's been disturbing to me. People are saying a lot of things not appropriate for civil discourse."

For weeks, people on both sides of the health care debate have rallied across the country.

Schwenkler is charged with criminal mischief and is to make his first appearance in Denver County Court today.

He is accused of doing an estimated $11,000 in damage and could face a felony conviction.

On the last day of the 2008 Republican National Convention, he was charged with misdemeanor unlawful assembly in St. Paul, Minn.

These people are sooooooo stupid.

The Obamacare Dead Cat Bounce

Pundits were predicting a bounce for Obama and Obamacare once the bill was signed. How's that going?

One week after the House of Representatives passed the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, 54% of the nation’s likely voters still favor repealing the new law. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42% oppose repeal.

Those figures are virtually unchanged from last week. They include 44% who Strongly Favor repeal and 34% who Strongly Oppose it.

Repeal is favored by 84% of Republicans and 59% of unaffiliated voters. Among white Democrats, 25% favor repeal, but only one percent (1%) of black Democrats share that view. …

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, notes that “the overriding tone of the data is that passage of the legislation has not changed anything. Those who opposed the bill before it passed now want to repeal it. Those who supported the legislation oppose repealing it.”

Meanwhile, Obama's approval numbers, which made an almost imperceptible upward blip, have returned to their falling status. The American people are that easily duped.

Where's the Outrage Over the Takeover of Student Loans?

There are just so many things to be outraged over regarding the Obama administration and his cohorts in the Dem party it's easy to skip over some important stuff. Dana Perino, former Press Secretary to President Bush, reminds us that not only did we lose freedom when Obamacare was passed, but an additional outrage was enacted in the reconciliation bill when Obama took over the student loan program and essentially put several institutions out of business:

So, here we are -- with a majority of Americans feeling distinctly un-American as a partisan takeover of health care was engineered last weekend. But do Americans realize that Congress just took over student loans as well? Unlikely.

Now, not only will government increasingly be making decisions about individuals' health care, but students will also have to deal exclusively with the government to get the financing they need for college. The government will be in charge of the delivery of $1 trillion in federal student loans over the next 10 years. That means 19 million students will have no where to call but to 1-800-DEPT-OF-ED. -- I'm sure the calls will be handled in the order in which they were received. Good luck with that. Competition and choice have been taken away in the student loan market. Let's face it, this experiment can only end badly.

It's frustrating that a law this sweeping was swept under the Obamacare rug. The Senate never introduced a student loan reform bill. It never held a hearing. And proposed changes to the student loan program were never even considered by lawmakers at the committee level.

"Schoolhouse Rock's" Bill is red faced with shame. What's worse is that The Wall Street Journal editorial page and The Washington Times reported on Thursday about certain Democratic Congressmen giving certain non-profit companies in their states non-competitive carve outs...And these are companies that already didn't pay taxes. And there was even a special "carve out" for Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota. But it was taken out at the last minute because it was just too unseemly. At least we know they have standards!

If the tables were turned, Democrats would be crying foul and demanding an ethics investigation. The American people -- and its students -- deserve to know what really happened.

So, there's goes another part of private enterprise - the banks and lending institutions that made student loans. At least one firm will be laying off 2,500 employees as a result and now students will have only one place to go should they need to access the student loan system. The studentsbetter hope they stay on the good side of Uncle Sam.

Health Care Photo of the Day

For those Democrats now demanding civility from their opposition, here's a flashback photo for you of some of the civility they showed during the Bush Administration:
Well, she wasn't using them.

Corporate America Let Us Down

The corporations that are now announcing big write-downs in anticipation of the new taxes and costs associated with ObamaCare could have done us all a lot of good had they only announced the projected costs BEFORE the vote took place. Jim Geraghty has some thoughts:

Hey, thanks for getting our backs in the big health-care fight, corporate America. As we watch company after company declare the intense financial hit they're immediately taking from Obamacare, I can't help but think how useful this information is . . . if we have access to a Hot Tub Time Machine. Otherwise, it's about two weeks after when it would have packed the most punch in persuading those wavering House Democrats that they didn't want to vote yes -- too much immediate economic downside, and too much political fallout to go with it.

Sure, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hit the legislation with all it had, but we're only finding out now about the specifics, and they amount to a vacuum cleaner being applied to the bottom line of some of the country's biggest companies: John Deere ($150 million), Verizon, Caterpillar ($100 million), AK Steele Holding Corp. ($31 million), Valero Energy ($15-20 million), Medtronic, 3M ($90 million), and AT&T
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The Wall Street Journal reveals that when the real-world impact of legislation conflicts with administration rhetoric, congressional Democrats know that inconvenient reality can be defeated through confrontational hearings: "Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment 'appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.' In other words, shoot the messenger. Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don't like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet."

Andy McCarthy's in disbelief: "If a company like AT&T failed to make a legally mandated restatement of its financial position while continuing to participate in the capital markets, it would be investigated and the responsible management officials would likely find themselves prosecuted while the SEC, concurrently, went after the company and its officials in civil enforcement suits. There are prosecutors and investigators who would salivate at the prospect of doing such a career-making case. If we are now under a system where disclosure gets you a public whipping and other threats by the Powers That Be while nondisclosure promises the ruinous expenses of defending against criminal investigations and civil enforcement, this is no longer anything but a thugocracy."

Granted, until the law was actually signed there was no requirement for these financial disclosures, and perhaps announcing them early would have earned the ire of Congress, but they're going to get that anyway. Congress will drag them to D.C. for a show trial in April, but that effort is likely to backfire on Henry Waxman and his cohorts since these financial reports will have been meticulously prepared by the corporations and will be essentially Congress-proof. Waxman can stop around, fume and fuss, but he won't be able to get them to change their numbers. To do so could expose the corporations to liability from government regulators and their shareholders.

And the whole show trial thing will not look good to most Americans. It will look like a heavy-handed borderline fascist government abusing its power.

As always, the Democrats are overreaching and exercising their power in a very dangerous way.

The Shut-up Candidate

Over the weekend Obama made several recess appointments of candidates he couldn't get through the Senate confirmation process. Do you wonder why they were difficult to confirm? Here's one of them, Craig Becker, appointed to the National Labor Relations Board:

Becker, a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and SEIU, in many ways fits the mold of a typical Democratic pick for the agency, but there are three reasons to have serious reservations about putting him in such a powerful position. First: His opinions are extreme. He has argued that workers should be allowed to choose only between unions, not between a union and no representation, and he wants employers to be banned from even attending NLRB hearings about union elections. On the subject of the NLRB itself, he has gone so far as to write that “employers should have no right to be heard in either a representation case or an unfair labor practice case, even though Board rulings might indirectly affect their duty to bargain.” In other words: “Shut up.” Second: He is affiliated with ACORN, a corrupt enterprise that works the intersection of Big Labor and politics for its own benefit. Third: He has lied to Congress about his relationship with ACORN.

Obama has no shortage of radical friends who are interested in destroying capitalism.