Krauthammer: Government by fiat

Charles Krauthammer   "The Supreme Court this week admonished the Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching in regulating greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act covers polluters that emit 250 tons per year (or in some cases, 100 tons). This standard makes no sense if applied to greenhouse gases. Thousands of establishments from elementary schools to grocery stores would be, absurdly, covered. So the EPA arbitrarily chose 100,000 tons as the carbon dioxide threshold.

...
"It was a welcome constitutional lesson in restraint, noted the Wall Street Journal. One would think — hope — that an administration so chastened might reconsider its determination to shift regulation of the nation’s power generation to Washington through new carbon dioxide rules under the Clean Air Act.

"Fat chance. This administration does not learn constitutional lessons. It continues marching until it meets resistance. And it hasn’t met nearly enough."
...
"Having been supine for years in the face of these encroachments, Congress is stirring. The Republican House is preparing a novel approach to acquiring legal standing before the courts to challenge these gross executive usurpations. Nancy Pelosi, reflecting the narrowness of both her partisanship and her vision, dismisses this as a “subterfuge.' ”
More...

Warning Signs

 

Democrats being Democrats

NYC Democrat Wants Junior ROTC Program Removed From High Schools: Training Students For “War Machine”…
"But Dromm said he had already visited the programs and opposed their very existence.
“I really have a problem with . . . them being there. It sends a message to kids about armed forces and their policies, what happens when they move forward with college,” he said."

                                                                 Dromm, pictured at right.

Obama Declares June Gay Pride Month… 

 Obama to “Borrow the Power” Needed to Solve Immigration Problem  
Democrats: No bluff, Obama will go it alone on immigration
"The Obama administration is “not bluffing” in its intent to take executive action on immigration policy if House Republicans don’t act soon, top Democratic leaders warned Thursday.

"President Obama has delayed any potential changes to his deportation policy to allow House GOP leaders time to bring legislation to the floor this summer. But if the Republicans don’t act in July, the Democrats say, unilateral changes by Obama are inevitable.

“ 'We’re at the end of the line,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. “We’re not bluffing by setting a legislative deadline for them to act.

“ 'Their first job is to govern,” Menendez added, “and in the absence of governing, then you see executive actions.' ”

Terrorism Victims Take Innovative Approach Against Offending Nations

Legal Insurrection

 

   "A group of terrorism victims is seeking unsatisfied court judgements. How do they plan to obtain the cash they were awarded? By taking over Iran’s internet.
   "At the helm are Israeli civil rights attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Robert Tolchin of New York. Darshan-Leitner has won over  $1-billion in judgments, frozen more than $600-million in terrorist assets and collected $120 million in payments, according to the National Post. She hopes to replicate her success in her latest effort.
   "ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is an agency of the US Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, which administrator the World Wide Web. ICANN licenses domain names like “.gov” “.ca” and in this case, “.ir”. Countries are then able to allocate the domain names, effectively making “.ir” an asset. 
   "Court papers have been served to ICANN and seek ownership of top-level domain names like .ir TLD, the ایران TLD and all Internet Protocol (IP) addresses being utilized by the Iranian government and its agencies. Darshan-Leitner believes these domains are worth the over $1-billion required to satisfy the outstanding debts owed by the Iranian government to the families participating in the civil suit.
   "Darshan-Leitner said: “This is the first time that terror victims have moved to seize the domain names, IPs and internet licenses of terrorism sponsoring states like Iran and are attempting to satisfy their court judgments. The Iranians must be shown that there is a steep price to be paid for their sponsorship of terrorism. In business and legal terms it is quite simple – we are owed money, and these assets are currency worth money. ” 
   Baruch Ben-Haim whose son, Shlomo, was severely injured in a 1995 terrorist bombing of an Israeli bus: “It’s not right that the US government would provide these licenses to Iran while it is refusing to pay off the judgments handed down against it for funding global terrorism. The federal court awards given to our families must be satisfied.”
   "Darshan-Leitner said, “For years the Iranian government has refused to pay its judgments, thumbing its nose at these terror victims and the American court system. Our clients continue to suffer from the suicide bombing that Iran financed in Jerusalem nearly seventeen years ago. It is not our intention to shut down Iran’s internet usage, but we want what is rightfully due. If by seizing any funds earned from these licenses and contractual rights we can satisfy the judgments, we will have served our clients. We remain committed to helping these American families satisfy their judgments.” 

The maneuverings to keep Thad Cochran in the Senate will not soon be forgotten.

Remember Mississippi   "How far did the establishment GOP forces backing Senator Thad Cochran go in Mississippi this week? Too far, and their tactics are likely to leave permanent scars in a civil war with Tea Party forces that are out of all proportion to the importance the establishment placed on saving one 76-year-old senator’s ability to please Washington’s K Street lobbying interests.

 

... "There has been much speculation about the offensive robo-call, which trashes the Tea Party for “their disrespectful treatment of the first African American president.” The female narrator claimed that Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel would cause “even more problems for President Obama.” 

 

"As I said, the wounds from all of this are likely to be long lasting."...  John Fund, NRO

 

Meet Mitzi Bickers; A scandal-plagued Democratic operative may have worked the black vote for Cochran.   ... "In a bizarre turn of events, it seems that Bickers was in the middle of a bitterly contested Republican Senate primary. Two Atlanta-based entities affiliated with Bickers, ... [Haley] Barbour’s nephew Henry, paid the groups a total of $44,000 for get-out-the-vote “phone services.' ”
...
The Cochran supporters’ arrangement with Bickers is especially notable, given the role of racial politicking generally and of one sketchy robo-call ​in particular that raised the ire of Tea Party voters as the race drew to a close. Near the end of the runoff campaign, a recording came to light — it was first reported by investigative reporter Charles Johnson – of a racially tinged call that urged voters to combat the Tea Party by casting a ballot for Cochran. It accused the Tea Party of “disrespectful treatment of the country’s first African-American president.” The Cochran campaign has denied any connection to the call, and Barbour says the call was not from the Mississippi Conservatives PAC or from Bickers. He believes, he says, that Bickers placed two automated calls to African-American households." ...Eliana Johnson

theweek.com/

Poor Hillary; poor, fired from her job, laughed at, and cheated on by her husband

As we relish these revelations of Hillary's character, bear in mind who will replace her as the Democrat candidate:  Elizabeth Warren: The Obama of 2016   
 "Her brand of populism could spell doom for Hillary’s White House ambitions."


Hillary Clinton fired for lies, unethical behavior   "I’ve decided to reprint a piece of work I did nearly five years ago, because it seems very relevant today given Hillary Clinton’s performance in the Benghazi hearings. Back in 2008 when she was running for president, I interviewed two erstwhile staff members of the House Judiciary Committee who were involved with the Watergate investigation when Hillary was a low-level staffer there. I interviewed one Democrat staffer and one Republican staffer, and wrote two pieces based on what they told me about Hillary’s conduct at the time.

...
"When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

 

“ 'Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

 

Poor Mouth

"Hillary’s book tour got off to a poor start during an interview with Diane Sawyer.  We learned that Bill and Hill came to the White House “with no money” and left “not only dead broke but in debt“. People used to call her Patches.

 

"It wasn’t for lack of effort, though, or “dint of hard work” as Hillary put it.

 

"The threadbare baggage the Clintons brought to Washington from Arkansas in 1993 included the Whitewater real estate scheme. They lost $40,000 on that one. According to prosecutors, dubious loans through a failed S&L didn’t profit them either. More hard work and nothing to show for it. Plucky Hillary did finally manage to shoo the wolf from the door by turning $1,000 into $100,000 on a cattle futures trade. She attributed her investing acumen to reading the Wall Street Journal." ....

 

http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/

 

WaPo

 

 NRO Slideshow: Hillary in Three Words   "Hillary Clinton (probably) wants to be president in 2016, but even her supporters can stumble in defining her accomplishments and qualifications. How best to describe HRC? Never fear, Twitter users are up to the challenge. Here’s a sampling of snark at #HillaryInThreeWords."

  "Obama's Third Term"

Some new names for the Washington Redskins

Here are just some of the suggestions at National Review Online

 

 

 

15 Most Annoying Expressions in Politics

Here's one for Greg Gutfeld of The Five and his Banned Phrases:

RealClearPolitics  "Irritating phrases and words are not confined to political circles, or solely to Washington, although here in the nation’s capital they burrow in and proliferate like obsolete, but entrenched, government programs. This is a call to arms to fight them—but only metaphorically."
Read more:

I would like to add the cliché' that all our incumbents are "fighting" for us. TD
"I'll fight to see that yada, yada, yada"

Winter Is Coming for Global Warming: Is Climate Change the Hoax of the Century?

PJ Media   "Recent evidence calls into question the accuracy of climate data, and every day, natural gas looks like a cleaner domestic alternative to Middle East oil. So why is the left promoting global warming and resisting the use of natural gas? Find out."




 Climate Reparations—A New Demand   "At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in December 2009, leaders from more than a hundred nations gathered to consider an agenda that included a massive transfer of money from developed countries to the Third World.  The developed states were tagged to provide $130 billion by 2020 to help developing nations deal with the consequences of global warming.  The proposed transfer was widely discussed as “reparations” for the damage caused by use of fossil fuels in the developed world."

 

Lt Col Peters: Obama Is A Coward Who Won’t Make Tough Decisions to Defend America

independentsentinel.com.

Barack Obama, The Reluctant Commander-in-Chief

 

... "President Obama had an opportunity a month ago to bomb ISIS/ISIL while they were on the Syrian border, away from towns and civilians, but he failed to act.

"If he is consistent about anything, it’s about his failure to act unless it’s to push a socialist domestic agenda.

"He watched ISIS gain in power and did nothing. ISIS intends to one day attack us, on that they have been clear.

"ISIS is moving rapidly towards Baghdad and, along the way, they have been erasing borders that have existed in the heart of the Middle East since the 20th century. They intend to eventually go into Jordan and Lebanon. The Iraq-Jordan border is already evaporated in some places.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge reports: 

 

Full Article.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hEdz4XYJ4Yw?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Oldman Denounces Hollywood Political Correctness, Hypocrisy

The American Culture    "The acclaimed actor and self-described libertarian Gary Oldman comes out with guns blazing against political correctness and Hollywood hypocrisy in a soon-to-be-Playboy magazine. In the interview, he notes that Hollywood leftists such as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can publicly use any words they like and imply people are homosexuals (without adding “not that there’s anything wrong with that”), but a private outburst by an actor such as Mel Gibson or Alec Baldwin results in widespread denunciation and loss of employment. (Gibson has been blatantly blacklisted by the Hollywood studios ever since his antisemitic outburst directed at two policemen who were arresting him on a DUI charge, and Baldwin was fired from his talk-show duties at MSNBC.)"


Ann Althouse: Gary Oldman can't stop apologizing for that Playboy interview he did where he kept denouncing political correctness.     Hmm.

I read the interview. It wasn't such a big deal. Was this all a set-up to get publicity?

I just think political correctness is crap. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a f--king joke. Get over it....

Apparently not!

We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That’s what gets me. It’s just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going, “Isn’t that shocking?”

He did say "everyone," so technically, he's not a hypocrite.

IRS scandal evolving too fast for reporters to ignore

Hot Air    "A handful of former IRS executive Lois Lerner’s emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee seem to be serving as a Rorschach test for political actors and members of the press alike. For some, the early reaction to those emails revealed more about an individual’s thinking about the IRS scandal, and the Republican-led House committees, than it did about the alleged misconduct of one of the country’s most powerful law enforcement agencies.

"On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee released emails sent by Lois Lerner to a colleague reveal that she received information about Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) which led her to inquire about referring him and an unnamed organization soliciting him for a paid speech for an audit. After somehow receiving an event invitation meant for Grassley in which the event planners offered to pay for the senator’s wife to attend, Lerner asked her colleague if she could take action on the apparent infraction. "   How might these people be discussing you and me?
...
“Makes it hard for the White House to say ‘This is Republicans trying to make a big partisan issue out of a mistake,’”[CNN's John] King noted.

IRS: A Series of Unfortunate Events? ..."The alternative and much more likely — undeniable, to my mind — explanation is that the Internal Revenue Service is engaged in an active and ongoing criminal conspiracy to misappropriate federal resources for political purposes, to use its investigatory powers, including the threat of criminal prosecution, for purposes of political repression, and to actively mislead Congress and the public about the issue;  that the Justice Department is turning a blind eye to these very serious crimes for political purposes and is therefore complicit in the cover-up; that these crimes were encouraged if not outright suborned by Senate Democrats; and that the White House is at the very least passively complicit, refusing to lift so much as a presidential pinkie as the IRS runs amok.

"And, apparently, there’s nobody in Washington with the power and the inclination to do anything about it.

The Supreme Court rules against Obama's recess appointments.

Supreme Court Narrows Recess Appointment Authority   "In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court "limited a president's power to make recess appointments when the White House and the Senate are controlled by opposite parties, scaling back a presidential authority as old as the republic," NBC News reports.

" 'The case arose from a political dispute between President Obama and Senate Republicans, who claimed he had no authority to put three people on the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012 when the Senate was out of town' ."

Supreme Court limits president's recess appointment power  "On a separate track, House Speaker John Boehner said a day earlier he plans to proceed with a lawsuit against the president over his alleged abuse of executive power.

"The issue of recess appointments receded in importance after the Senate's Democratic majority changed the rules to make it harder for Republicans to block confirmation of most Obama appointees. "

The Washington Post has this:   "Breyer and Kennedy were joined in that part of the opinion by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

"Justice Antonin Scalia disagreed strongly, signaling his displeasure by reading from the bench a statement accusing his colleagues of “judicial adventurism.' ”