Issa to business: Tell me what to fix

Politico ""Is there something that we can do to try to ease that [regulatory] burden and stimulate job creation?" he added. "Is there a pattern emerging? Is there a consistent practice or regulation that hurts jobs? Until you have all the facts, you really can't make a lot of determinations and judgments."

"At the same time, Issa is getting his cue from and a voice to a chorus of largely disgruntled industry groups and companies that have collectively groaned about regulations in the pipeline and on the books."

Obamacare Waivers Go To Allies

Judicial Watch  "In the latest of many scandals to rock the administration that promised change and a new level of transparency, a disproportionately high number of Obamacare waivers are being granted to the president’s allies in a secretive process."

ObamaCare Rewards Friends, Punishes Enemies "In a speech at the University of Iowa last March, the president heralded health-care reform as "a new set of rules that treats everybody honestly and treats everybody fairly." Determining whether that is true will be another task for House Republicans. They have an obligation to look into this matter, and Mr. Obama can hardly object. It was former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, whom the president frequently quotes, who wrote in 1913 that sunlight "is the best of disinfectants."" Karl Rove

Repeal Doesn’t Increase the Deficit

Heritage  "Only someone so out of touch with reality that they could claim that “deficit reduction” has been their “highest priority” while simultaneously adding more than $1 trillion a year to the debt could possibly claim that repealing Obamacare would add to the debt. But that is exactly what Pelosi wants us to believe. Also on Tuesday she claimed that repealing Obamacare would do “very serious violence to the national debt and deficit.” Nothing could be further from the truth."

OBAMACARE AND THE DEFICIT .. WHO IS RIGHT?? 

Democrats and the CBO's ObamaCare numbers  "The crucial thing to understand is that the CBO is just a calculator: It only adds and subtracts the numbers Congress gives it. For example, a bill -- to be called ObamaCare -- that has $857 billion in expenses over the first ten years; approximately $500 billion in tax increases, in addition to approximately $500 billion in Medicare cuts over the same period, will give you a savings of $143 billion. This is what the CBO tells you. However, the CBO will not be there to make sure that the planned Medicare cuts indeed take place or that the tax increases will be enacted."

The Bill of Rights and the reading of the Constitution

Archives.gov via Constituting America  "Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument. Here, in exalted and unforgettable phrases, Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people. The political philosophy of the Declaration was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by John Locke and the Continental philosophers. What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy in "self-evident truths" and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country."

Slate’s Shot At Constitutionalists Misses The Mark … Again  "With typical hyperbole of which liberals are so adept at accusing  conservatives, Ms. Lithwick goes on to label the interest in the document around which the framework of this entire nation was constructed as a “fetish.” "



The Mohammed Cartoon Dust Has Not Settled

STRATFOR  "Every year STRATFOR publishes a forecast of the jihadist movement for the coming year. As we were working on that project for this year, we were struck by the number of plots in 2010 that involved the cartoon controversy — and by the number of those plots that had transnational dimensions, rather than plots that involved only local grassroots operatives."

Jihadism in 2010: The Threat Continues   "The al Qaeda core is comprised of Osama bin Laden and his small circle of close, trusted associates, such as Ayman al-Zawahiri. Due to intense pressure by the U.S. government and its allies, this core group has been reduced in size since 9/11 and remains relatively small because of operational security concerns. This insular group is laying low in Pakistan near the Afghan border and comprises only a small portion of the larger jihadist universe."

Mike Luckovich on Boehner, Obama

http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/

PASSING OF THE GAVEL

Nealz Nuze  "These versions are so much better."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

http://townhall.com/cartoons/michaelramirez

Don't stop me now, I'm on a roll here:



Gary Varvel, Newsbusters

 

Why Our Best Officers Are Leaving

The Atlantic  "Why is the military so bad at retaining these people? It’s convenient to believe that top officers simply have more- lucrative opportunities in the private sector, and that their departures are inevitable. But the reason overwhelmingly cited by veterans and active-duty officers alike is that the military personnel system—every aspect of it—is nearly blind to merit."

"Performance evaluations emphasize a zero-defect mentality, meaning that risk-avoidance trickles down the chain of command. Promotions can be anticipated almost to the day— regardless of an officer’s competence—so that there is essentially no difference in rank among officers the same age, even after 15 years of service. Job assignments are managed by a faceless, centralized bureaucracy that keeps everyone guessing where they might be shipped next."

Passengers overpower plane hijacker after he storms cockpit shouting he had bomb

Infidel Bloggers Alliance "The man, identified as 40-year-old Cumar Yasar, put on a ski mask and began shouting 'I have a bomb' before two passengers were able to restrain him.

"When police in Istanbul entered the plane to arrest Yasar they found one of the passengers sitting on him."

Bid to 'reform' filibuster is dangerous

canstockphoto

Brian Darling  "The Senate, we should remember, was created to be an institution far different from the House of Representatives. The House was to be the voice of the people, with representatives elected every two years, while the Senate would represent the interests of the states, with senators elected every six years.
"According to the Senate's official history, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison saw the upper chamber as a "great 'anchor' of the government" that would calm the passions of the House. "George Washington is said to have told Jefferson that the framers had created the Senate to 'cool' House legislation just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea.""

The Daily Show Mocks San Francisco’s Happy Meal Ban

Heritage   "Last year, war was declared on McDonald’s Happy Meals and their toys. These meals are so dangerous and exploitative of children we were told that government simply must get involved. Nowhere was this nanny state silliness more on display than in San Francisco, where that city’s activist board of supervisors banned Happy Meals and other kids meals."....
"But we simply can’t do a better job at pointing out the absurdities of this misguided crusade than Aasif Mandvi did in this excerpt from a recent episode of The Daily Show"

chicagobusiness.com

Repeal Doesn’t Increase the Deficit

Heritage  "When now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ... was sworn in as Speaker on January 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8.67 trillion. By the time Pelosi surrendered the gavel to Speaker John Boehner ... yesterday, the national debt stood at $14.01 trillion. At $5.34 trillion, that means Speaker Pelosi added more than $1 trillion in debt per year during her tenure as Speaker. And yet she has the audacity to tell reporters Tuesday: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.”