IT'S THE CHOICE OF TARGET, STUPID: Could model airplanes become a terrorist weapon?

MICHELLE MALKIN: Solar Energy School Propaganda 101.

JOHN RANSOM: Who makes money in the market? My favorite comment:

“Specifically, since 1965, 46 years of empirical data demonstrates ... that over long periods of time the stock market performs dramatically better on days when Congress is out of session as compared to days when Congress is in session.”

Read it all.

PAUL GREENBERG: the wit and wisdom of Timothy Geithner (and other Obama acolytes).

GREAT NEWS: another billion to solar companies. Doubling down on failed policies with taxpayer money. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon it amounts to real money.

SARAH PALIN: Now Obama's blaming Europe. Anyone but himself.

NEW YORK: Let taxpayers foot the bill for sex-change surgery. Why not? We're already footing the bill for stupidity.

THE POINT OF GOVERNMENT is to give people a livelihood so they can provide for their families.

Really? Couldn't it also be said that "the point of slavery is to give (black) people a livelihood so they can provide for their families?"

It depends on who are the slavemasters (pointy-headed intellectuals) and who are the slaves (everyone else).

REMEMBER THE 'BUSH IS HITLER' SIGNS? Mockery is better.

JONAH GOLDBERG: "There are few things more pathetic than rats deserting a sinking ship while claiming they're a superior breed of rat."

NY MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: the highest duty of government is to make sure its citizens eat right. Time to retire, Mr. Mayor.

GOOD RIDDANCE: U.S. born terror boss Anwar al-Awlaki killed. Oddly enough, al-Awlaki was born in Las Cruces, NM, the year before my son was born there. His father and I were graduate students there at the same time; he in agricultural engineering, I in electrical engineering.

THE SILENCER.

SUPPORTING HERMAN CAIN is evidence of racism. Janeane Garafalo's mind is a steel trap ... shut tight.

GUN CRIME continues to decrease, despite an increase in gun sales. Despite? Or as a result of?

PROBLEM? OR OPPORTUNITY? SpaceX puts Falcon 1 on ice. Is the market actually soft, or has rocketry and satellite development reached the level of sophistication where "small-sat" launch services are no longer required?

SAME SH*T, DIFFERENT 'CHURCH'.

PAUL GREENBERG: Where's the Tea Party?

Working quietly in the background.

FOX NEWS POLL: Majority says as a CEO, Obama would have been fired. This is a surprise?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Why does the good life end?

Read it all. I would only add that when it ends, it will end with a whimper.

ORION COULD FLY with a crew aboard by 2016.

OBAMA: sign my jobs mobs bill.

USE YOUR FEET? Three ways to convert your toilet to hands-free flushing.

COURAGE TO FAIL: Is it time to let the economy collapse so that it can finally heal?

I DUNNO: cold turkey works for me.

BARACK OBAMA: the man who would be King.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on modern-day class warfare.

ANOTHER FAILURE of 'progressive' education. Is it too far 'outside the box' to suggest that perhaps the cause of the students' emotional distress is the progressives' emphasis on social engineering?

More here.

TOO BIG TO FAIL?


I learned better from the last stimulus that there's nothing too big to fail. Linked from here.

SANDY RIOS defends Rick Perry, and Herman Cain wins the Florida straw poll.

MAXED OUT OBAMA DONOR Ted Leonsis is not happy with Obama’s new class warfare rhetoric: “Someone needs to talk our President down off of this rhetoric about good vs. evil; about two classes and math. Our country was founded on the premise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Is anyone happy right now with all of this? Hit a reset button ASAP.”

Read it all.

OBAMA'S JOBS PLAN: silly or sinister? The administration is too corrupt and incompetent to do sinister correctly, so it wound up being just plain silly.

THE MERE FACT THAT Obama met with pop singer Lady Gaga is enough for me to vote him out of office.

TOUCHÉ: Elizabeth Warren puts those villainous job creators in their place.

[ADDED] Jeff Jacoby has more.

BEAR (CUB) WRESTLING MATCH:



Linked from The Blaze.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH (WYOMING)?

The Obama administration, which is dripping in Ivy League-educated academics, made an elementary geographical error during its recent fundraising tour.

In a map of the United States appearing on press credentials issued to reporters and photographers for Obama’s West Coast tour, Wyoming is highlighted instead of Colorado. The tour was scheduled to include Colorado, California and Washington.

In their defense, both states are rectangular.

IT HAPPENED ON THE DEMOCRATS' WATCH: Ignoring the Scandal of the Century.

JESUS SAVES; Obama 'invests'.

SLOW MOTION LANDING: Owls are authorized to use 'in-flight thrust reverse' and 'full speed brake extension'. If only humans could build adaptive wings like that.

THOUGHTLESS COMMENT about thoughtless politician spouting progressive nonsense. Is it even possible to inject a coherent thought into the minds of progressives?

SHOCKING (NOT): New Study Shows Obamacare’s Impact on Ohio Coverage and Premiums. Our (Democratic) political class knew it in advance and chose to press on anyway.

A NEW DEFINITION OF 'SHOVEL READY'.

Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels, is bankrupt, which is inconvenient for the Obama administration, which extended half a billion dollars' worth of loan guarantees to the firm as part of the president's stimulus effort. The inconvenience extends to the 1,100 Solyndra employees who have just lost their jobs and to the U.S. taxpayers who may be on the hook for the bankrupt firm's loans. The project was indeed "shovel ready," as the president likes to put it; unhappily, in this case, the shovel belongs to the gravedigger. Perhaps the gravestone could read: "Another project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

From the dead tree edition of National Review (October 3, 2011)

WEALTHY MAN asks Obama to ‘Please Raise My Taxes’. Hey, buddy, raise your own damn taxes.

WHY YOU SHOULD never believe the government when it declares it's "running out of money": FEMA finds $114 million 'in the bank'.

BOEING'S 'PHANTOM EYE' UAV being readied for hydrogen-fueled flight tests.

YELLOW ARCTIC SNOW could have clues for life on other planets.

A patch of yellow snow in one of the most remote corners of Arctic Canada has supplied fresh insights into an exceedingly rare natural phenomenon that could help scientists detect life — if it exists, as some experts suspect — on one of Jupiter's moons.

Then again, it could simply be the polar bears' outhouse.

THOMAS SOWELL: in defense of Rick Perry.

AUTONOMOUS FLYING ROBOTS taught to flock like birds. I'd like to see longer video of the actual flights showing the actual maneuvering.

CRONY CAPITALISM IN COLORADO: 'Green' no longer refers to the environment.

GOOD NEWS? The Obama administration is creating more jobs -- government jobs.

ROGER SIMON: Disband the Congressional Black Caucus. And while you're at it, disband the Congressional White Caucus, the Congressional Asian Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Gay Caucus, the Congressional Jewish Caucus, the ... what, there are no white, asian, hispanic, gay or Jewish caucuses?

THE ECONOMY got you down? In the last 8 months, the DJIA has dropped 8.6%; NASDAQ, 7.7%, and my retirement savings, 4.2%. But there is an upside: since January 2009 when the Obama administration took over, the DJIA increased 33%; NASDAQ, 57%, and my retirement savings, 43%, which indicates to me that America will survive despite the Administration's best efforts.

More here.

PROGRESSIVISM IN BRIEF: We are good and therefore can act badly. Read it all.

WATCHING ATTACK WATCH ... do nothing for the past nine (now eleven) days.

Commenter Max1000 points out that there is some truth to Attack Watch's immigration claims.

MORE MISINFORMATION about environmental pollution from another NGO busy sucking at the government teat. I've linked to the pertinent comment, so let the links settle and then scroll up to read the post first.

WITH RESPECT to taxes and the social contract, here's another thought:

In the broad sense, don't businessmen pay all income and FICA/Medicare taxes? After all, they pay your salary (your income) and withhold some of it (again,
your income) at government direction to pay your state and federal income taxes.
The same is true of FICA/Medicare, though only half of it shows as withheld on
your pay stub.

Aren't they already paying their "fair share"?

FIVE MYTHS ABOUT MILLIONAIRES. From the Washington Post, no less. Did the 'clue bat' strike the editorial office in the dark of night?

I OWN YOU: Obama tells the Congressional Black Caucus to "stop complaining" and start marching.

JEFF JACOBY: "No Democratic presidential candidate could get the nomination unless they deny the large role that natural variability plays in climate."

STEVEN HAYWARD: "[T]he environment is much too important to be left to environmentalists—they’ll just screw it up further...."

DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CANDIDATE ELIZABETH WARREN on taxation and the 'social contract'. Hot Air responds by asking if businessmen aren't already part of the social contract?

And finally Instapundit chimes in with some reader responses.

OUT OF EVERY DOLLAR I EARN, how much do I deserve to keep? According to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL): "... you don’t deserve to keep all of it. It’s not a question of deserving, ..."

I've taken the quote slightly out of context, since clearly some taxes must be paid to use for those things only a collective (government) can provide. Here is the real question, as posed -- and answered -- by Tina Korbe:

Why don’t liberals think they deserve to keep more of their money than they do? The first part of Hensley’s question reveals the answer. He didn’t ask, “Of every dollar I possess, how much do I deserve to keep?” He asked, “Of every dollar that I earn, how much do I deserve to keep?” For there are many means by which we come by property and not all of them involve earning. But what we earn, we are much more loathe to part with stupidly. That might explain why earners don’t exactly want to hand their hard-earned cash to a government that has proved itself, time and again, to be horribly irresponsible with tax dollars.

Indeed.

THE ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS of the rich and famous.


What? They're the same deductions available to you and me?

GOOD: Linda McMahon is running again, this time to replace retiring Senator Joe Lieberman.

RIDE THE LIGHT "NASA wants to provide power to airborne spacecraft without having to use a refueling ship, instead beaming power to the craft via lasers or microwave energy."

It's an interesting reversal of the 70's era enthusiasm for space-based solar powersats.

One question, though. What is an 'airborne' spacecraft?

IT'S CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (Godwin's Law) that the first use of the Nazi analogy signals defeat for the user in a political argument. Here's an amusing counterexample. Click through to watch the video.

THE UNSPOKEN REASON why more Americans are obese. Think of the benefits to Medicare and Social Security if more skinny Americans would die sooner because of smoking.

RANDOM THOUGHT: I saw one of the few remaining McCain/Palin bumper stickers the other day and pondered this question:

Suppose the Republicans had won in 2008, McCain died or became incapacitated, and Sarah Palin succeeded to the presidency. Would I be better or worse off than I am today?

The answer is obvious.

EAT MORE GRASS -- and learn to love it. Your government commands it.

WAS PALIN LIBELED by Joe McGinniss?

Probably not. But he did succeed in trashing his own reputation as a journalist -- assuming he had one to begin with.

YOU BETCHA: Time to Abolish the Education Department? It should have been done years ago.

FIRST there was a Bridge to Nowhere; now there are Government Loans to Nowhere. At least the bridge to nowhere would have been a physical structure.

BOLDEN: NASA needs to take more risks. In today's risk-averse culture? Good luck with that.

POWER FOR THE WORLD: All we need is the wind, the water, and the sun.

• 3.8 million wind turbines, 5 megawatts each, supplying 50 percent of the projected total global power demand

• 49 000 solar thermal power plants, 300 MW each, supplying 20 percent

• 40 000 solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants supplying 14 percent

• 1.7 billion rooftop PV systems, 3 kilowatts each, supplying 6 percent

• 5350 geothermal power plants, 100 MW each, supplying 4 percent

• 900 hydroelectric power plants, 1300 MW each, of which 70 percent are already in place, supplying 4 percent

• 720 000 ocean-wave devices, 0.75 MW each, supplying 1 percent

• 490 000 tidal turbines, 1 MW each, supplying 1 percent.

Read the details. The plan is completely unrealistic.

TOP DOWN EDUCATION: Obama Rewrites 'No Child' Law.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: U.S. space program is 'embarrassing'.

THE MORNING AFTER: pundits pile on Gov. Rick Perry. Did they watch the same debate I did?

HOPE AND CHANGE: "[Obama] has given us change, but it is destructive change. He has given us hope, but it is hope that the nightmare he has engineered will soon be over."

JACKIE GINGRICH CUSHMAN: Fairness and equality are not the same.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: By putting our deck chairs on the stern, we'll be the last to go down.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT from the Republican debate comes from former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson: "My neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready projects than President Obama."

E.J. DIONNE: GM is back, thanks to Uncle Sam.

Uh, huh. And how much money is still owed to the taxpayers?

BUT YOU STILL HAVE TO HAVE AN AIRPORT: NASA competition could lead to air taxis anyone can afford.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Can Israel Survive? They can -- and will. If the Arab world doesn't get a clue, and soon, they will be subject to a devastation equaled only by their own rhetoric.

OBAMA'S ECONOMY -- Running Out of Excuses. There's always the Tea Party. Oh, wait ... that's already been tried.

CAL THOMAS: misunderestimating Texicans. The allusion to the difference between bulls and steers is priceless.

HMM. SEA LAUNCH is back.

LIGHTSQUARED UNVEILS system designed to fix GPS interference.

So their solution is to make us pay for a problem they created. Makes sense ... to anyone with political connections.

YOU DON'T SAY: big government equals big money.

MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: the biggest driver of U.S. government revenue. Thanks to the good folks at Political Calculations for the data.

THE MAN who would be King.

Obama talks like he wants to succeed Ban Ki Moon and play like he’s king of the world when he’s done as POTUS. I don’t doubt that’s his goal. He sees the world through Rockwellian glasses, in which “freedom from want” is a legitimate human right, and we don’t ever have to put our foot down and tell Palestine that it cannot negotiate for itself someone else’s land.

Let him. Then defund the UN and move their headquarters to FEMA trailers in Somalia.

WHAT TO DO WITH OBAMA: ignore him.

GALLUP POLL: Federal government wastes 51 cents of every dollar spent. State and local governments fare much better; they only waste 42 and 38 cents respectively.

SLATE: “The president hasn’t yet threatened to throw his steering wheel out the window, but he’s loosening the bolts.”

BUT IT'S ALL ABOVEBOARD: Solyndra officials to take the Fifth.

F-22 RAPTORS return to service.

THERE ARE ALIENS AMONG US: Washington's 'War of the Worlds'.

NASA SEEKING TO PROTECT APOLLO LANDING SITES. Why not just have the EPA declare the moon to be an "environmentally sensitive area" and ban all future landings?

UNIONS FINALLY getting their dues?

HAS YOUR JOB BEEN SAVED? Yep, and they hired someone cheaper than me to save it.

BAPTISTINA 'FAMILY' EXONERATED: it was another astroid 'family' that killed the dinosaurs.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S administration proposed a $100 per-flight fee on corporate jets and other turbine-powered planes that use the U.S. air-traffic system.

Don't those little people know that Air Force One is the only corporate jet that should be allowed to fly for free?

THE 'ONE-TRICK PONY': another whinny and Americans are still not impressed.

ANOTHER TAX ON THE POOR: Rahm Emanuel proposes to fix Chicago with a city-owned casino. At least it's a 'voluntary' tax.

DAVID BROOKS: I've lost that lovin' feeling.

HE THOUGHT HE WAS A KING: Our Plodding, Self-Pitying President.

NAVAL AVIATION needs swagger: “Those attributes of naval aviators — willingness to take intelligent calculated risk, self-confidence, even a certain swagger — that are invaluable in wartime are the very ones that make them particularly vulnerable in today’s zero-tolerance Navy,”

HEADLINE: State Record on Jobs is No Guarantee as President.

Hoo, boy. Don't journalists pay any attention to Wall Street? Read any prospectus any you'll see prominently displayed the phrase "past performance is not indicative of future results." Nevertheless, it's still the way to bet.

WHERE IS SNOOPY?

PONZI! PONZI! PONZI! Thomas Sowell responds.

IF YOU EVER WONDERED how stupid politicians can be, here's your answer.

BYRON YORK: Obama Plagued by Democrats' Ingratitude. Democrats are the political equivalent of a two-year-old who, after cleaning out the toy store, throws a temper tantrum because Momma can't afford to buy candy afterward.

CONSTITUTION? What Constitution?

LARRY KUDLOW on Obama's bizarre tax attack. "At the end of the day, it sure looks like our president wants to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and large corporations in order to spend more and enlarge the size and scope of government."

My thought: any balanced budget amendment should include a cap on the percentage of tax receipts that can be spent on the government bureaucracy -- at all levels: local, state, and federal.

OBAMA VS. AMERICA: 2012 Spending edition. Note that since 2007, median household income (including 'the rich') has been stagnant or declining; spending has not.

CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: "We would be 'marching on the White House' if Obama weren't president." Chris Muir takes note.

AN UNPRECEDENTED VIEW of some U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

More here.

PROTECT OBAMACARE: get sick, America.

OBAMA COMPARES HIMSELF TO CARTER -- and loses. As Instapundit has noted many times, that's a best-case scenario.

THE TEXAS DROUGHT: scenes from the highland lakes. For those of you familiar with the area, you'll recognizes many of the places shown.

NOT AGAIN: Obama proposes new czar(s).

YA DON'T SAY: He made it worse.

PASS THIS BILL NOW! "[T]he smartest president in history has calculated that, if he says the same four monosyllables over and over, a nonexistent bill to create nonexistent jobs with nonexistent money will be yet another legislative triumph in the grand tradition of his first stimulus...."

Read it all -- and weep at the sheer magnitude of stupidity.

THAT'S RIGHT: just keep on 'misunderestimating'me. The fact that I have a PhD from a 'cow college' may mean that I'm smart enough to recognize the lack of value of a PhD from the Ivies.

ABOUT TIME: a Tree Party rebellion. I lived in New Mexico for many years; they're doing the right thing.

GEORGE F. WILL: Butt Out, 'Federal Family'. More consisely, "Get.Out.Of.The.Way."

COLBERT I. KING: Sarah Palin deserves better. But not, apparently, from progressives.

OBAMANOMICS: yet another way to waste your money. Has dumping millions billions of dollars into the bloated education bureaucracies significantly improved education outcomes?

I think not.

EVEN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY has a 'most wanted' list.

WOMEN IN OBAMA WHITE HOUSE felt excluded and ignored. I doubt it was just women; it was probably everyone who offered a dissenting opinion.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Gas prices, the unemployment rate and desperation.

Just remember that while correlation does not necessarily imply causation, it may be an indicator of something worth investigating.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE the media hates the least. Not a bad analysis until the very last line: "The question is will he be strong enough to survive and propagate the increasingly rare species of moderate Republicans." If Juan Williams had changed the very last word to 'Democrats' he'd be absolutely correct.

DAY OF RAGE: a pointless exercise in stupidity. Only MSNBC bothers to cover it. Fox News, CNN, Yahoo, Associated Press, Reuters, the Austin American Statesman, Washington Post, New York Times -- nothing.

ONE OF THE HAZARDS of democracy is vapid, pseudo-intellectuals like this one.

TRADING PLACES.

BILL WHITTLE: some thoughts on the aftermath of 9/11/2001.

Linked from Instapundit.

WAXMAN: Jews Trending Republican Because They Want to Protect Their Wealth.

Who wouldn't want to protect their property from Robbing Hood and his Merry Band of Takers?

YBYSAIA: Are you a Turtle?

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED MONEY SINK - in Seattle, no less. Click through to the preliminary program agenda and ask yourself how many of the presenting organizations are feeding at the government trough.

OBAMA'S TWITTER DISASTER. AttackWatch.com has become an online bulletin board for jokes. One report: "There's a new Twitter account making President Obama look like a creepy, authoritarian nutjob: @AttackWatch."

Not to rub it in, but I told you so.

HAS PRESIDENT OBAMA been taking lessons from the 'Magic Bunny'?

24 HOURS OF BORE GORE: a summary of Al Gore's "24 hours of climate reality".

Thanks to PowerLine for the link.

MORE ALASKA: Here's a professionally shot video of the air tour my daughter and I took last month.


The web site for Alaska Bush Floatplane Service is here -- and highly recommended.

NYC MAYOR BLOOMBERG: You Have the Responsibility as an American to Make Obama Successful. And I take that responsibility seriously; I'm working to make Obama a successful ex-President.

A CAT'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE:


Never run when you can walk;


Never walk when you can stand;


Never stand when you can sit;


Never sit when you can lie down; and --


Never lie down when you can eat.

LOOKING FOR LOVE in all the wrong places: "[I]t has come to this. 'The One' has gone from messiah to pleading like a teenage boy on a date. 'Come on, baby. If you love me, you'll do it.'"

More and more, Americans have fallen out of love with 'The One'.

THE PLANNING FALLACY: I learned early in my engineering career that it's sometimes better to let the fire burn itself out. Unfortunately, government never learns.

JOHN GALT HAS MYSTERIOUS WAYS:

Ninety years ago — in 1921 — federal income-tax policies reached an absurdity that many people today seem to want to repeat. Those who believe in high taxes on “the rich” got their way. The tax rate on people in the top income bracket was 73 percent in 1921. On the other hand, the rich also got their way: They didn’t actually pay those taxes.

The number of people with taxable incomes of $300,000 a year or more — equivalent to far more than $1 million in today’s money — declined from over 1,000 people in 1916 to fewer than 300 in 1921. Were the rich all going broke?

It might look that way. More than four-fifths of the total taxable income earned by people making $300,000 a year and up vanished into thin air. So did the tax revenues that the government hoped to collect with high tax rates on the top incomes.

Still want to tax 'the rich'?

OBAMA? Obama who?

SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM (SLS) UNVEILED; first launch planned for 2017.

A GOOD DAY TO STAY INSIDE? Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite re-entry expected around September 24th: "NASA estimates the odds at 1 in 3,200 that someone somewhere on the planet could be struck..."

Will every radio station on Earth be issuing "falling satellite" advisories?

HEH: Look at the sponsored links.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

The Great Recession conveniently allowed the president to start the spendathon under the guise of economic stimulus. (‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.’ – White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, 2009). As it turns out, the $38.6 billion loan program for clean energy firms that Solyndra benefited from has created just 3,545 permanent new jobs after parceling out half its dough. That works out to around $5 million a job…

That’s not how the private sector makes investment decision. But it’s routine for government where the stakeholders are politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists and favored constituencies. The takers, not the makers. That’s whose side Obamanomics is on.

Read it all.

SNICKER: "I never said I wasn't petty."

CASH FOR CLUNKERS FAILED; so now let's expand 'Cash for Visas'.

ONE MORE NAIL IN HIS COFFIN: Obama decides against Social Security cuts.

IT'S TIME to call Joe the Plumber.

GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL. What surprises me is the apparent bystanders coming into the picture after the gunman is killed.

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN CUCCINELLI on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissal of Virginia's ObamaCare lawsuit:

Dear Fellow Virginians and Americans,

As you all probably know, we heard from the Fourth Circuit last week in Virginia's healthcare lawsuit.

The court decided unanimously to throw the case out on standing and not address the merits of our constitutional arguments.

However, the story is far more complicated than that. You may recall that Liberty University's suit was heard at the very same time as Virginia's. The court threw that case out as well; however, two of the judges stated what they would have done on the merits, and that has interesting implications as we press on to the Supreme Court.

Here are the things I'm going to address today:

-The court's ruling that Virginia lacks standing to bring the lawsuit;
-The implications of the court's standing ruling for state sovereignty; and
-The extraordinary position of the court as compared with Federalist 51 (you know, written by that radical guy by the name of James Madison...).

Then I'll do a quick walk-through of the Liberty ruling, and I'll explain how it relates to Virginia's case. Finally, I'll note the three unique aspects of what this court did last Thursday that make the decisions true outliers that need to be corrected.
The Court's Ruling

Before the federal health care bill became law, Virginia passed the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act (VHCFA). The VHCFA applies to employers and governments in Virginia and anyone else who might seek to force a Virginian to buy health insurance. With limited exceptions, it provides that no one can mandate that a Virginian buy health insurance.

Along came the federal government and passed the federal health care bill. In that bill was the individual mandate requiring most all citizens to buy federal government-approved health insurance. The individual mandate conflicted with the VHCFA, and under the supremacy clause the federal law would trump; however, the supremacy clause does not apply if the federal law is unconstitutional.

Thus was born Virginia's lawsuit.

We sued the day the President signed the bill - May 23, 2010 - the 235th anniversary of Patrick Henry's 'give me liberty, or give me death' speech. So began our fight for liberty against the unconstitutional federal mandate.

To bring any lawsuit, a plaintiff must have what is called "standing." Standing is the right to sue.

To have standing, a plaintiff has to be able to show three things: 1) an injury; 2) that is currently occurring or is certain to occur; and 3) the court must be able to remedy the injury if the plaintiff wins.

Virginia's injury is that the federal government's health care law stops Virginia from exercising its legal authority to regulate health insurance mandates using the VHCFA.

This is an injury unique to a state. You and I don't have a code of laws. States do. And States have the right to protect their code of laws. In fact, as attorney general, I have an obligation to protect Virginia's laws (the district court judge in our case explicitly noted that responsibility).

Our suit was premised on redressing this sovereign injury. However, the Fourth Circuit rejected our position, stating that, to allow Virginia to bring this suit would allow States to act as "roving constitutional watchdogs" over the federal government. And yes, that quote comes straight from the opinion!

We now know what caused the earthquake in Virginia - James Madison obviously saw a draft version of the final order and rolled over in his grave!

This ruling is an extraordinary assault on state sovereignty and the role for States envisioned by the Founders in our constitutional system.

If you read Federalist 51 - written by that constitutional radical from Virginia, James Madison - you will find that States are supposed to check federal power when the federal government gets outside its constitutional authority!!!

From Federalist 51:

"In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments [federalism], and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments [separation of powers]. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself."

How do you suppose the "different governments" are supposed to "control each other?" Contests of authority are carried out in the federal courts - exactly what we are doing, and directly contrary to the Fourth Circuit's opinion! In fact, as the United States Supreme Court noted in 1992 in New York v. United States,

"In 1788, in the course of explaining to the citizens of New York why the recently drafted Constitution provided for federal courts, Alexander Hamilton observed: 'The erection of a new government, whatever care or wisdom may distinguish the work, cannot fail to originate questions of intricacy and nicety; and these may, in a particular manner, be expected to flow from the establishment of a constitution founded upon the total or partial incorporation of a number of distinct sovereignties.' Hamilton's prediction has proved quite accurate. . . . While no one disputes the proposition that the Constitution created a Federal Government of limited powers, the task of ascertaining the constitutional line between federal and state power has given rise to many of the Court's most difficult and celebrated cases. At least as far back as Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304, 324, 4 L. Ed. 97 (1816), the Court has resolved questions 'of great importance and delicacy' in determining whether particular sovereign powers have been granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government or have been retained by the States."

The Liberty Ruling

Liberty lost its case in the district court in the Western District of Virginia (we were in the Eastern District of Virginia), and so they appealed to the Fourth Circuit. Their oral argument was the same day and before the same three-judge panel as Virginia's.

The Liberty plaintiffs were found not to have standing in their case under what is known as the Anti-Injunction Act or "AIA". I won't go into this, but suffice it to say that other judges around the country considered the AIA in other cases and not one judge anywhere in America found this statute to apply. In fact, even President Obama's Justice Department conceded in the Fourth Circuit that the AIA did not bar Liberty's suit.

So, in addition to being the only appeals court to deny a State the authority to defend its own law, they are also the only court in any of the health care cases to find that the AIA applies. That's two "unique" conclusions.

The vote to dismiss the case based on the AIA was 2-1.

Normally, when a case is kicked out under the AIA (or on standing), the judges do not comment on the merits of the case. To do so would violate the long held principle that the federal courts do not issue merely "advisory" opinions. However, in Liberty's case, two judges did comment on the merits.

Judge Davis was the one judge that voted against kicking the case out under the AIA. He said that he agreed with all of the other judges around the country who had concluded that the AIA did not apply. He then explained how he would have ruled on the merits, indicating he would have found Congress had the power to implement the mandate and penalty under the commerce clause.

It was not unusual for Judge Davis to issue an opinion that discussed the merits. Because he voted not to kick the case out under the AIA, all he was doing was saying how he thought the case should have been resolved.

Despite finding that the case was not properly before the court because of the AIA, Judge Wynn wrote an opinion that also addressed the merits of Liberty's challenge. This opinion provided the THIRD "unique" aspect of the Fourth Circuit's health care opinions. Judge Wynn said that he would have upheld the federal health care law under the taxing power of the constitution.

So far, 16 different judges have addressed this subject and he is the ONLY judge in America to say he would uphold the federal health care law under the taxing power.

This is truly an extraordinary position. What it means is that Congress can pass a law to tell you to do anything (as long as it doesn't violate some other part of the constitution like the free speech or double jeopardy clauses), and as long as they fine you ($$$) if you disobey their command, that fine is an exercise of Congress' constitutional taxing power and that makes the underlying statutory command constitutional!

Congress could pass a law ordering us all to wear purple on Mondays, pink on Tuesdays, etc. and fine you $50 if you disobey. And Judge Wynn's reasoning would say that the $50 fine is an exercise of the taxing power and therefore such a statute was constitutional.

Conclusion

So, we lost in the Fourth Circuit; however, we are working on our appeal right now and will file it as soon as practicable. And the fact that the Fourth Circuit is utterly alone in three extraordinary aspects of its rulings leads me to be cautiously confident that the Supreme Court will take a different course regarding all three of those aspects of the Fourth Circuit's decisions.

I am still cautiously optimistic that the individual mandate will be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and I am hopeful that we will have such a ruling by the end of June of 2012. Whether that happens in our case or in another does not matter so long as the correct constitutional answer is reached.

The federal government will likely try to slow the case down by asking for more time to file its brief in our case and by asking to drag out the appeal in the 11th circuit (where the Florida case with 26 other states was decided). So it is still possible that this will not be decided before Election Day 2012; however, if you were President Obama, do you really want this being argued in the Supreme Court in October of 2012? I would think he'd want it disposed of in June 2012 rather than watching a maelstrom of news coverage related to the case on the verge of the election.

Nonetheless, they keep doing everything they can to drag it out.

I will keep you informed!

From my email.

IT'S TIME to end energy subsidies, not increase them.

UNEXPECTEDLY?

Bloomberg: Unemployment claims rise to highest level since June.

Associated Press: Mortgage default warnings surged in August.

Gallup: Unemployment most important problem in U.S.

Well, unexpectedly to the Obama administration.

KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE finds Tatooine.

NOTORIOUS GRID BOTTLENECK spawns western blackout. And San Diego suffered because California's environmental policies have shuttered many of southern California's baseload generating units: "They rely on imports, and if those imports go offline they have nothing ...."

REGULATION NATION, from Fox News:

Crop of EPA rules restricting business

Rules hinder conversion of FEMA shelters into school buildings

Overlap and overkill of government rules (video)

Regulation: when is enough, enough (video)

Real "public service" announcements.

[Update & bump] Two more:

Regulation's war on trucking (video)

Small Businesses (video)

ASTRONAUTS return safely aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

BAN SMART PHONES IN PUBLIC! Secondary bullshit has to be at least as hazardous as secondary smoke.

DRIPS TO LEAKS TO FLOODS: Obama's plans are falling apart. Read through the embedded links.

First you have to have a, you know, a real plan. Then it's wise to listen to your advisors.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: a launch pad for small satellites?

RUSSIA SETS NOV. 12 as date for next manned launch to the International Space Station.

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY: "The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring." Nobel Laureate and former APS Fellow: "Goodbye."

And a side note. This morning I sent a note to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science: don't bother trying to recruit me any more.

WE DECIDE; you pay.

DEATH DIVING COMET dragged toward its demise (video). The article is here.

SPACE FARM 7: Crop circles for science.

I thought it would be cool if we could work with NASA and highlight some of the NASA anniversaries going on and use our cornfield as an outdoor classroom to re-enthuse the new generation of youth about space exploration and get them fired up about looking towards the stars.

The complexity of the mazes is astounding.

OBAMA IS AT BEST a 'one-trick pony': Tax Plan for Jobs Bill Has Familiar Ring.

THOMAS SOWELL: Doing nothing has a better economic record, but 'doing something' -- even if it's wrong -- gets politicians reelected.

MICHAEL MEDVED: Are the poor really helpless without government? The correct answer is that they're probably worse off because of government 'help'.

SO SOON? AttackWatch.com becomes a laughingstock of conservatives:

According to deputy press secretary Katie Hogan, 100,000 people signed up for the site in the first 24 hours. “This site is a tool providing our supporters with the facts they need to fight back against lies and distortions about the President’s record,” Hogan said.

Of the 100,000, I suspect half or more are conservatives signing up to fact check laugh at the fact checkers.

CORRECTED: See strike-through.

FRANCE TALKS, Coca-Cola walks. Governments should remember that businesses have a right to not be there.

WILL CONCEALED CARRY GO INTERSTATE? It just might.

THE EPA'S job killing agenda is not an accident. Follow the link.

"RE-ELECT PRESIDENT MILLSTONE": the perfect bumper sticker for 2012.

ON THE OTHER HAND, maybe rear-view cameras will let the driver aim better.

SO THEY'RE GONNA BE THRILLED WITH OBAMACARE? More U.S. workers unhappy with health benefits than in 2008.

ATTACKWATCH.COM: soon to be ridiculed out of existence. See also Snitch Central.

DEMOCRAT: You don't deserve to keep your money. Probable Tea Party response: You don't deserve to keep your job."

SO WHERE ARE YOU ON THE INCOME SCALE? Here's an interesting little calculator. It claims to be based on individual incomes, but I suspect it's as accurate for dual-income households.

BYRON YORK: Left Paints the Campaign as a Religious War. Custer's last stand?

WHAT? Obama slept with a guy and did coke? Oh ... never mind.

OBAMA'S NEW POLICY to destroy competition.

For all practical purposes, it's a non-compete clause for continuing service contracts. More here.

SARAH PALIN on the Solyndra debacle: “History has proven again and again, when government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck with the losers, and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!”

SHOULD TAX DOLLARS support green technology? Right now, the 'no' vote is ahead by 4:1.

PAUL KRUGMAN: I called it a Ponzi scheme before Rick Perry did.

Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation takes more out than it put in. Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today's young may well get less than they put in).

To be fair, in 1997 Krugman was still a liberal, but at least then he was an honest liberal.

Linked from here via Instapundit.

FEDERAL GERRYMANDERING: Justice Department about to block Texas redistricting plans.

IT BEGINS: Obama Should Quit. Well, it's not the first time it's been suggested.

FOX NEWS POLL: Would you change your lifestyle if you could be assured you could live to be 100? At last check, the poll was 46% 'no', 36% 'yes' and 18% undecided.

I take that to mean "Nanny staters, you'll have to pry my cold, dead hand away from that donut."

SOME THOUGHTS on Social Security.

The Rick Perry quote is wrong in one detail. It's incorrect to say that in 2036 Social Security will only be able to pay back 76 cents for each dollar contributed unless reforms are implemented; the correct statement is that Social Security will be able to pay back only 76 cents for each dollar of projected benefits unless reforms are implemented.

HEH. NAVY FOOTBALL supports the Tea Party.

THESE GUYS are schoolyard bullies.

SHOE gets it.

BERING STRAIT TUNNEL to connect U.S. and Russia?


The comments are uniformly negative, and often overwrought. As a recent visitor, I wonder what Alaskans think of the idea?

HEADLINE CORRECTED: 75% of Congress Lack Economics or Business Education.

AU CONTRAIRE: About 10 days ago, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote an OpEd whining about crony capitalism, 9/11, and the war in Iraq. While there is some merit to his remarks about crony capitalism, his comments about Iraq are particularly irksome.

I'm a proponent of Gen. Powell's "you broke it, you own it" philosophy, or as my Dad used to say, "Always finish what you've started." Any living beings under your protection, be they nations, cats, dogs, birds -- babies -- are not convenience items to be discarded when no longer useful.

GET A JOB OR ELSE: IF ObamaCare prevails, what's to prevent an ObamaJobs mandate?

IT CAN'T BE SAID LOUDLY OR OFTEN ENOUGH: Ponzi! Ponzi! Ponzi!

WHY BLACK AMERICA should give up on the Democratic Party.

A real What's the Matter with Kansas? moment.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS on Social Security: "[W]hen God gave Moses the Commandments, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ he did not mean unless you get a majority vote in Congress.”

FOR THOSE OF YOU following the news, here are some photos of the devastation in and around Bastrop, Texas.

NOT IN AMERICA -- YET: New Resolution Could Bar Parents From Knowing Baby’s Sex. Interestingly, Fox reports it as "baby's gender." Sex is the physical characteristic; gender is the psychological/social construct. Ultrasound distinguishes sex, not gender.

Political correctness. What is this world coming to?

THE WORD 'CYNICISM' is inadequate here.

"I REALLY WISH that Obama hadn’t wasted my Thursday evening ... listening to a jobs plan that was only designed to produce one job -- a second term for Barack Obama.”

UNION OF UNION STAFFERS (really!) calls out Wisconsin teachers' union as a poor employer.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: 112 years ago today.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Our New Cold War.

ANOTHER VICTIM GROUP ready-made for government intervention and subsidization: Amateur-Built Planes More Prone To Accidents.

ACADEMICS grade the Tea Party. Which is why they should never be allowed out of the Ivory Tower without escort. The real world would send them into a catatonic stupor (assuming, of course, they haven't already attained that state).

PREDATOR DRONES do domestic duty; privacy -- and safety -- 'experts' uneasy.

PUNDITS RESPOND to the Republican debate. I think they're paying too much attention to the trees and not enough to the forest.

SOME DAYS IT JUST DOESN'T PAY TO GET OUT OF BED.


Hope they're not, er ... "loaded."

PRESIDENT NARCISSIST: It's all about him. And some wonder why he's increasingly being ignored....

HE MISSED THE WORD 'WRONG': Obama's Angry, Direct, and Eloquent Defense of Government.

'MOVE AN ASTROID' COMPETITION may help protect Earth: "[T]the technique was 'feasible' and the technology is 'based on, kind of, nearish(ph) technologies'." Uh, huh. And aren't we giving those space alien environmentalists a 'heads-up' to speed up their planned attack?

OBAMA: pull back from the future. Stat!

I'M WATCHING the CNN/Tea Party Republican debate, and what's remarkable is the relatively unified response from all the candidates. There's a little bit of nattering about the edges, but on the fundamentals, the candidates are united.

POWER COMPANIES should revisit 'undergrounding' (putting distribution power lines underground). One might want to reconsider that desire a bit. In the U.S., distribution level voltages are: 11 kV, 6.6 kV, 4.16 kV, 415/400 V, and 240/230 V.

The electric chair operates at 2500 V. Digging into a high-voltage distribution line is likely to be an 'exciting' experience.

And I would add is that 'undergrounding' ignores transmission lines and distribution substations, which are the ones that are the true cause of large numbers of homes going dark.

ENVIRONMENTAL 'PROTECTION' AGENCY kills 500 jobs in Texas; then blames the victims.

WHY CONSERVATIVES don't trust liberal experts. I beg to differ in only one word: 'liberal'.

HANG IT UP, AL; we're on to your scam.

A NEW LOW FOR THE DEMOCRATS? Republican Bob Turner is poised to pull a huge upset in the race to replace Anthony Weiner as the Congressman from New York's 9th Congressional District.

OF COURSE Social Security is a Ponzi scheme: "If Americans prefer getting negative returns on what they pay in order to save an unworkable government system, we deserve the mediocre, second rate nation we are becoming."

IT ALL ABOUT where you place your faith.

MOST OF TEXAS is already part of the control group.

Now go ahead and read the whole thing.

DANG! The garage door won't open; press the button again.

CAPITAL GAINS TAX RATES benefiting wealthy feed growing gap between rich and poor: “Over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of the capital gains income realized in the United States has gone to 5 percent of the people; about half of all the capital gains have gone to the wealthiest 0.1 percent.”


This chart is misleading: capital gains tax applies to all capital gains income; the ordinary income line is for the highest marginal rate, which in 2011 applies only to taxable income (total income less deductions) greater that $379,150. A typical married couple would not pay more that 15% until their taxable income exceeds $77,500. Isn't algebra wonderful?

Another wee, minor error is this: "The way you get rich in this world is not by working hard... It’s by owning large amounts of assets and having those things appreciate in value." Um, and how does one come to 'own large amounts of assets' other than by working hard (John Kerry exempted, of course)?

WHAT? It wasn't available for the joint session of Congress last Thursday?

A RESPONSE to Paul Krugman. His screed is "an admission of impotence from a sad and irrelevant little man."

More: Paul Krugman is insane.

GOODBYE, CALIFORNIA: Maybe later, when you heal yourself.

LATEST OBAMACARE GLITCH Enables States to Block New Entitlement Spending. Would have helped to have 'read the bill' before passing.

NOT TO WORRY, rats don't carry concealed handguns.

EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK: The Washington Post's Dana Milbank occasionally gets one right. Surprisingly enough, here's a second.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Lan astaslem (I will not surrender).

INSTAPUNDIT remembers 9/11.

HERO


The original is here.

POST-9/11: Will we ever learn?

THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL is afraid to allow comments on this outrageous post. Coward.

9/11 REMEMBERED: Former Chief of Staff Andy Card Reflects on the Morning of September 11, 2001.

PJTV: We Remember.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Myth and Reality After 9/11.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER REFLECTIONS ten years after 9/11.

FROM "LET'S ROLL" to let's roll over.

NEVER FORGET: September 11, 2001

HALF A NANNY is still worse than one. Why not just ban smoking throughout the whole damn state? I suspect that would cause a significant number of your most productive to move out-of-state and the rest of you can sink or swim by yourselves.

OOOH! You hurt my delicate feelings.

POINTY-HEADED POLITICIANS rush in where angels fear to tread: Calif. Bill Would Mandate Minimum Wage & Breaks for Babysitters.

OMG: Obama must go.

HEH: more unintended consequences.

OBAMA JOBS SPEECH "amounted to a decent pre-game show for the Packers and Saints." I would question "decent."

THE WASHINGTON POST'S DANA MILBANK: "Yeah, this president's irrelevant."

OBAMA (DIS)APPROVAL INDEX:


For those who thought that the Republicans would suffer following the debt 'crisis' during June and July, here is some good news. The trend lines are not ecouraging for the President.

OH.MY.GOD. The New York Times actually listens to Sarah Palin?

MESSAGE TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Atlas Shrugged was meant as a cautionary tale, not a freaking how-to manual.

MORE CIVIL DISCOURSE from the union left.

RED STATE on the Obama Jobs Plan:

Barack Obama has largely proposed a plan key portions of which can pass with bipartisan support. And they will pass with bipartisan support. And there will be a grand bipartisan signing ceremony. Lots of pictures will be taken.

No jobs will actually be created. The recession will double dip. But Barack Obama will have gotten his bipartisan jobs plan. So he will not be able to blame the GOP. He’ll have to blame mother nature again.

Mother Nature has been a bit grouchy since Obama took office.

AN INTERESTING NUMBER: 397,239.6 ... that's the number of gallons of water that have fallen on our property in the last 4 days. More is expected.

SHOVEL READY: the Obama jobs program.

MARK STEYN: Pass this bill now.

IT MIGHT BE WORTH IT if pointy heads were included in the ban.

MAJORITY RULES? Well, no.

“YOU'RE LIKABLE ENOUGH, BARACK. ... But it’s time for someone new."

LEAN FORWARD -- and fall flat on your face.

OBAMA SPEAKS, MARKETS REACT:

DJIA, -303.68;
NASDAQ, -61.15;
S&P 500, -31.67

All down about 2-1/2%.

JOHN GALT'S ADVICE TO OBAMA: "Get out of the way."

DID RICK PERRY blow it on Social Security? Absolutely not. And neither did Herman Cain.

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN: Even an MSNBC talking head can (eventually) learn.

HEH: Luxury aircraft converted to manned spyplane.

DOMINIONISM EXPLAINED. Progressives will take it seriously.

A LIBERAL'S 4-LETTER WORD, beginning with the letter 'F', not to be used in polite company -- fact. Thanks to GDI for the comment.

A SIDE BENEFIT OF SMOKING: cigarette smoke is toxic to spiders. I was outside tonight having a cigarette when my smoke drifted by the ceiling fan where a small spider was lurking. As soon as the smoke passed, the spider began rappeling down as fast as his little web-spinner would let him -- then scurried off.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK is just hype. So if a 'professional librarian' has a budget to buy 1,000 books and 10,000 are offered for sale, haven't the 90% that weren't purchased been banned? It seems to me that 'book banning' is a just euphemism for questioning the 'expert's' judgment.

THIS IS A SURPRISE? Obama Now Meets the Colloquial Definition of Insanity.

NUDISTS: please tidy up.

HERMAN CAIN Takes On Entire MSNBC Roundtable After Debate.

MSNBC, 0; Herman Cain, 10.

THE JOBS SPEECH: Long on promises; weak on substance.

DEBATES MATTER: The Washington Examiner's Conn Carroll collects pundit reaction to last night's Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. While the pundits were generally supportive, I think the missed the mark on their Perry comments about Social Security and global warming. But then I'm a raging, right-wing Tea Party extremist -- who votes.

LET'S CREATE SOME NEW JOBS -- overseas. Contributions to all the wrong places?

NASA PLANNING for the possibility of an unmanned International Space Station.

IS INTEGRITY the most important quality to look for in a President?