Shocker: Major corporations may dump health insurance, pay penalties instead

Hot Air "Well, well, well. Remember when Barack Obama said that under ObamaCare, people would keep their existing health plans and doctors? Remember when any suggestion that companies would find it a lot less expensive to dump employer-based health care and pay the penalties instead were cast as “myths” and “scare tactics,” even though the math was extremely easy to see? Welcome to Hope and Change:"... Who'da ever thunk it?

The trouble with prosecuting treason

NY Post   "Prosecutions for treason are rare in the United States, with fewer than four dozen such cases brought since our nation's founding. As noted in "The Heritage Guide to the Constitution," one reason is that constitutional standards associated with the definition and proof of treason are specific and quite high."

Constitution in decline

Washington Times "That's because the health care bill, like most major laws passed by Congress over the past hundred years, isn't really a law. Rather, Obamacare is a series of assignments to bureaucrats in the Department of Health and Human Services. It is emblematic of what scholars call the administrative state, where legislative, executive and judicial powers are delegated to unaccountable experts sequestered in a fourth branch of government. If we are seeking the most effective means of defending - and restoring - the Constitution, we must pay attention to the rise of the administrative state and the decline of constitutional government in the United States." Via Heritage   Emphasis mine.

Mike Ramirez cartoon

OC Register

Letters: The illegal immigration hornet's nest

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER "Hello. Illegal is illegal. We do not hate Hispanics. We want Hispanics, like other countries immigrants, to be in America as legal citizens and speak the language. My son married a wonderful Hispanic girl and she has caring, extended family. Both sets of my grandparents arrived in this country through Ellis Island. They had sponsors and learned English to provide for their families. So to be here legally is not impossible – it takes work and determination."

The Politics of Contempt/ It's not "hope and change."

Weekly Standard "Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress didn’t invent the politics of vilification, and they will not be the last to practice it. The president and his political allies, however, have refined the practice to an art form – they say they abhor vilification, yet consistently demonize when promoting their legislative aims."...."Building contempt among these core voters is one possible way to do that, but it’s a few degrees lower on the idealism meter than “hope and change.” "

A Dysfunctional Supreme Court: Remedies and a Comparative Analysis

The Rutherford Institute " "The time has surely come for an independent judicial appointments commission to be established ... to take Supreme Court appointments out of the hands of politicians and beyond the reach of the political process..."--John W. Whitehead & John M. Beckett" The 221 page report here: Charleston Law Review

Thoughts on Gorism

Victor Davis Hanson  "You see, professed liberal humanitarianism and old fashioned “get mine” breed cynicism among the populace. If one were to believe Al Gore that there is a danger of manmade global warming and we all need to cut back, one might well lose faith when one sees that Al Gore lives differently from the way in which he has convinced you to live. And if one sees that the advocates for forced equality most certainly don’t want to be forced to do anything they advocate, then what are we left with?"

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/MichaelRamirez

Illegal Aliens: Law and Sovereignty in Arizona

Andrew C. McCarthy  "Why “misguided” and “irresponsible”? The president elaborated that the Arizona law “threaten[s] to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” To be sure, Obama has notions of fairness, but they are his own, marinated in doctrinaire leftism. As for the American ideal that he ceaselessly invokes but clearly doesn’t get, our Constitution’s framers thought fundamental fairness would be fatally undermined by two things: the inability of the governed to consent to legal arrangements because it had become impossible to know what the law is, and the failure of central government to tend to its first responsibility: the nation’s security."

Beyond Schadenfreude: What George Will’s Crucifixion of Bill Maher Really Means

Big Hollywood "Maher’s accusations about race are not only odious, racist, and repugnant on their face, they are characteristic of the wholesale and relentless attempt by the left—and many in the media—to brand the Tea Party movement and, on a wider basis, any critic of the current administration as racially motivated. Those who watch Maher’s Real Time and enjoy his brand of political chatter would do well to examine its loose-lipped host for the very kind of bias he accuses the conservative movement of so blithely and so blanketly." The aforementioned analysis:  George Will Skewers Bill Maher :"It must have been a gut-wrenching moment when you were actually challenged to back up your outlandish assertions and accusations against the right you make so freely on HBO".

Amnesty Will Legalize More Terrorists

Human Events  "“Every aspect of our immigration system has been used by foreign terrorists to gain a safe haven in the United States,” Smith said. “A massive amnesty would not only fail to address this problem, it would overburden the system with millions of more individuals whose identities cannot be known or, as a practical matter, checked.”"  Connie Hair is a freelance writer, a former speechwriter for Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and a former media and coalitions advisor to the Senate Republican Conference.