PLATFORM COMMITTEE puts marriage equality (gay marriage) on Democrat party platform. If they want to speed up their slide into oblivion, that's fine with me.

TEA PARTY-BACKED TED CRUZ beats Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Republican nomination for US Senate. I think we're seeing the Tea Party as a force to be reckoned with and (I hope) a threat to the entrenched bureaucrats on both sides of the political aisle.

The progressives won control of the Democrat party in 2006, won the Presidency and Congress in 2008, and promptly imploded with their starry-eyed, narcissistic incompetence. The 2010 election was a strong rebuke to the progressives, which they refused to accept, and 2012 will be a watershed election where Americans will take back their government. In 2014, I expect (hope) that Americans will complete the process by tossing out the entrenched on both sides of the political spectrum.

AMEN!

Ease of living and the stupid Cyclops eye of media meteorologists have Americans into weather wimps. The wimpiest live in Washington, D.C., and environs. In a continental nation subject to hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, blizzards, and heat waves, the least jog out of the normal -- a few flakes of snow, for instance -- shuts the nation's capitol down. Recent high winds -- with a fancy Spanish name (derecho) like a cheap sports car -- caused real havoc, but were treated like the end of the world. The wind's force multiplier was the local utility, Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), which was a day late and a dollar short in clean-up. There was ample power, though, for handwringing, some of it coming from conservatives (Farewell? A long farewell to all my greatness!). Here's a suggestion: Next time there is a spot of bad weather, could everybody just do his job, and suck it up?

From the dead-tree edition of National Review (July 30, 2012).

JUST A CONCIDENCE: CNN didn’t intentionally play ‘Stupid Girls’ for the Palin introduction. And just by coincidence, I happen to have some nice oceanfront property in Arizona for sale ....

DUPLICATION, WASTE, INEFFECTIVENESS, AND STUPIDITY: A Government Program. I know you're shocked.

GIVE THE MAN A BONUS. Romney aide to 4th Estate: "Kiss my ass." Cordially, of course.

GET YOURSELF A 'DISABILITY' and be a victim too. It wasn't that long ago that it was politically correct to declare the disabled to be 'differently abled' to avoid being thought of as 'victims'. Now that victimhood is politically correct (and profitable), everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

THE TEA PARTY IS DEAD? We'll find out in Texas tonight.

TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: When your friends use Facebook apps, they compromise your privacy, too.

YES, ABSOLUTELY. Let's tax the rich.

KATIE KIEFFER: Where Is John Galt? Sitting in the 12th row, center seat. He's the smiling guy with the big bag of popcorn.

PRINTING YOUR OWN WEAPONS: the end of gun control?

REP. MIKE KELLY (R, PA-3): “You want to talk about creating jobs in America? ... Take the heavy boot off the throat of America’s job creators, and let them breathe!”



Linked from the PJ Tatler.

SQUINT REAL HARD and for Heaven's sake, don't think: racism is why people are irritated at Obama's "you didn't build that" line.

And racism is the real reason why Romney went to Poland.

WHAT A SURPRISE: U.S. Business Owners Now Among Least Approving of Obama.

OF COURSE: Is Your Cell Phone Snitching on You?

OBAMA STANDS BEHIND SMALL BUSINESSES -- the better to knife them in the back.

JEFF JACOBY: Public discourse, without the 'hard zinger'. More, please.

THE 'OCTOBER SURPRISE' I'm looking forward to.

SOCIAL JUSTICE? We don't need no stinkin' social justice. At least not your social justice.

BELIEVING IN SOMETHING DOESN'T MAKE IT SO: New gun laws will do nothing to stop mass shooting attacks. But common sense is not a strong suit for liberals.

BLOOMBERG: Maybe cops across the country should go on strike until tougher gun control laws are passed. Bloomberg quickly backed down, perhaps realizing that if the government went 'on strike' they might find out that we can do quite well without them.

SALLY RIDE, America's first woman in space, loses cancer battle at 61. Sally Ride, it turns out, was a lesbian. No one noticed -- or cared -- until she died. Now the gay activists are upset; because she didn't 'out herself' earlier to support their cause. No one else cares.

FOX NEWS has a new poll up asking "What do you think NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg will try to regulate next?" The winner with 52% of the vote: red meat portion size.

As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon."

GUTSY CALL: standing up to Valerie Jarrett.

THOMAS SOWELL: Random thoughts on the passing scene. Here are some nuggets:

Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as "racists."

One of the arguments for Medicare is that the elderly don't want to be a burden to their children. Apparently it is all right to be a burden to other people's children, who are paying taxes.

Read them all.

BELIEVING IN SOMETHING DOESN'T MAKE IT SO - something Obama has found out the hard way. Unfortunately Obama's actions suggest that he hasn't 'found it out' -- the hard way, the easy way, or any other way -- he acts as if we just need to believe harder.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OBAMA: "He seems completely unaware of all the contradictions he's wandered into, as if he had only been speaking, not thinking."

OH.MY.GOD. Nepotism in South Carolina. American flags in Oregon. What is this world coming to?

BIG GOVERNMENT RUN AMOK? In Oregon, man faces jail for collecting rainwater on his own property.

INSTAPUNDIT should have titled this post 'All your boobs are belong to mikey'. It would have been accurate in both senses of the word 'boob'.

AN ARMED CITIZEN may not be able to prevent Aurora, but he/she can damned sure stop it quickly.

DEAN BAKER: Mr. Arithmetic will save Social Security. Mr. Baker may have passed third-grade arithmetic, but it's clear that his math skills stopped there. If you follow 'Mr. Arithmetic' (not obvious) then it's clear that Baker's political leanings are Marxist (from each according to his ability, to each according to his need) and his intellectual skills (scroll through his other posts) are about on a par with my three cats.

[Added: my wife thinks I'm insulting the cats. Apologies to Diamond, Daisy, and Shadow.]

WEEKEND CULTURE WRAP and other news to amuse from PowerLine. Teaser: Can the Earth explode as a result of global warming?

Read it all for more mockery of the liberal left.

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN:


The data is here.

CHUTZPAH? Or sheer lunacy? Driving to the store this morning, I encountered a jogger/runner who was running down the centerline of a two-lane road. Just another case of putting the 'nut' into health nut.

OBAMA CAMPAIGN SAYS ex-President Bill Clinton will have a marquee role in the Democratic National Convention. Hah! He must have Obama's real birth certificate....

IT'S NOT THAT I'VE BECOME MORE CONSERVATIVE,


it's that the progressive activists have moved so far left that the center appears to have moved right.

TOO DUMB TO VOTE in in Minnesota and Michigan. You can't allow voters actually understand what they're voting on. Then they might not need you.

WHERE WERE YOU IN '62? I had just graduated from high school, moved with my family to Austin, Texas, and was preparing for my freshman year in college. Just over six months later, I was on an Army base in Germany, a technician on a mobile satellite tracking station.

Times have changed indeed.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT -- you don't have a permit!

BREAKING NEWS: Florida man who lost hand charged with feeding alligator. What was the alligator charged with?

MOMMA'S, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES be born in New York City.

Best comment: "Large-breasted women will only be permitted to dispense milk in 16oz increments."

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: The Regulation of the American People.


Historical Notes: the Environmental Protection Agency was created December 2, 1970. And ObamaCare, if not repealed, will be implemented in earnest in 2014.

BILL WHITTLE: "It's a Miracle."

A YOUNGER OBAMA considered his first employer 'the enemy'. He was employed?

GREAT WEB SITE: Demwits(dot)Com. Here's a sample:

‘PUNISHER’ gets its first battlefield tests. But it won't be available in time for Christmas.

ILLINOIS CONGRESSMAN Jesse Jackson, Jr. is at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota being evaluated "for depression and gastrointestinal issues." Is 'gastrointestinal issues' medical-speak for 'full of sh*t?'

NY MAYOR BLOOMBERG on gun control. If there's a sensible suggention in there, I couldn't find it.

Best comment: "How do we tighten Bloomberg's grip on reality?"

'SOMEONE ELSE' killed Joey Vento.

A FEW. A VERY FEW. Can We Still Call Men Heroes?

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS:



Linked from NRA News.

A WALK FOR THE PRESIDENT.

UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE WITH GEORGE W. BUSH



Linked from here.

BOUNTY MUTINEER DESCENDANTS may hold key to myopia.

The article is interesting in itself, but what I found noteworthy were two items:

1} Myopia is 'short-sightedness'. I'm myopic, and I've been near-sighted for as long as I can remember. I wonder if people with hyperopia know they're now 'long-sighted' instead of far-sighted.

2) Myopia is a 'disease'. In today's world, anything short of perfection must be a disease and subject to control by our betters.

LEAN FORWARD -- and fall flat on your face. Liberals like Maddow don't pretend; they simply aren't capable of accepting a differing opinion.

PEOPLE ON THE LEFT think ...the primary purpose of every profession ... is to increase what they call social justice.

I didn't sign on.

THIS ONE BEARS WATCHING: IRS, Labor Department Audit Businessman on Obama’s Enemies List. I hate to think any administration would ever even consider such behaviour, but I'm afraid the Obama administration is clearly capable.

A NEW ENGLAND PURITAN? Now that's something I'd have never accused Obama of being.

NULLIFICATION: it's okay if we do it.

THE END of free conference calls.

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN.



Massachusetts' Senator Scott Brown says it all.

NO GREEN CHILE PEPPERS, but plenty of drugs and illegal immigrants.

TWO MORE California city bankruptcies.

OBAMA'S “extraordinarily foreign” course for America.

THOMAS SOWELL: Obama's Rhetoric.

One of the tricks of professional magicians is to distract the audience's attention from what they are doing while they are creating an illusion of magic.

Which is the point of Obama's rhetoric; to distract Americans from his collectivist leanings.

The whole point of the collectivist mindset is to concentrate power in the hands of the collectivists....

And make freedom disappear.

WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE, the Obama campaign or your lyin' eyes? The Obama campaign, of course.

SORRY but I didn't sign your 'social contract'.

TEACHING AIRLINERS how to taxi.

ANOTHER BANKRUPTCY: Amonix closes North Las Vegas solar plant after 14 months -- and $20M in federal tax credits.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Blowing Up History.

Beware of the wages of professed purity, whether religious or environmental -- whether it targets a mausoleum in Timbuktu or a stone arched bridge in Yosemite.

Or a Christian cross in La Jolla. They want to destroy history because it refutes their belief that they alone know what is right and proper and true.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA should be renamed 'mainstream propaganda.' No actual news would be harmed by so doing.

THESE HANDS built America.

MIKE ADAMS: How Obama Earned My Doctorate.

DEMOCRATS GETTING DEFENSIVE: He didn't say that!

I'd strongly recommend young Mr. Sarlin delve into the history of the internet. Not only did his idol Al Gore not invent the internet, neither did the government. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) certainly did have a hand in developing the data protocols for sending binary data over telephone lines, but the development of the commercial internet was at best not hindered by our far-seeing, all-knowing government interlocutors.

UPDATE & BUMP: Here's more on the government 'invention' of the internet.

DEMOCRATS GO Thelma and Louise on U.S. Economy. I'd applaud if it were limited to Democrats.

NASA: the sky is falling. As it does every 150 years or so. For the environmental movement, it's as if nothing ever happened to the Earth pre-satellite era.

WHAT THE ??? Federal regulators can't talk to the industries they're regulating?

[T]he Administrative Procedures Act, longstanding federal law that governs the process by which federal agencies make rules for the industries they regulate, is very strict about when and how officials may share their thinking about future regulations.

“Under the Administrative Procedures Act, we cannot discuss what a proposed regulation might look like, and so that kind of hinders us in talking to industry,” Melroy said.

So even as AST prepares to tap industry experts for their take on launch, flight and passenger safety, the office has set certain ground rules to avoid running afoul of the law.

“We can’t propose anything, we can’t tell people what we think the answer is, or anything like that,” Melroy said. “But we can tee up a subject and then let people talk to us, and that will help us understand if we’re on the right track or not.”

No expertise required ....

COULDN'T HAPPEN TO NICER PEOPLE: Thanks to the unsolved foreclosure crisis, Obama campaign workers are having trouble identifying Obama voters.

ANN COULTER: "[T]he United States is on its way to becoming a Third World, one-party state."

"THE MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT ruled Wednesday that a Duluth-based aircraft manufacturer had no legal duty to provide training for a pilot who died along with a passenger in a 2003 crash."

Requiring one to take responsibility for his/her own actions -- what a novel idea....

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: Medicaid Patients, Not Uninsured, Crowd Emergency Rooms.

DRAGON VISITS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION:

SEVEN HABITS of highly ineffective government. Inspiration and perspiration not included.

BUH-BYE: The End of Limitless Data?

OF COURSE IT ISN'T POLITICAL: Congressmen question FAA over Massachusetts wind project. It seems to me that the FAA made the correct (technical) decision on Cape Wind, but of course nothing is non-political in these days of unlimited government power.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: Tyrants and Human Nature.

THEY'LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS 'cause they're easier to please: No more work requirement for welfare recipients.

NOT ANY MORE: Are Race Riots News?

THE BEGINNING of Obama's downfall. Neal Boortz on the beginning of what has become the 'you didn't build that' conflagration.

THE BUCK STOPS HERE -- except when it doesn't.

NO MORE FREE ZONES.

PSYCHIATRY, not gun laws, needs fixing. Progressives need to put their own house in order....

SEE WHAT GREED LOOKS LIKE.

DOES THE OLD RALLYING CRY "Guns don't kill people. People kill people" hold up to philosophical scrutiny? Probably not, since at best (liberal) philosophy has only a marginal correlation with physical reality.

WORLD'S SHORTEST BOOKS:

MY BLACK GIRLFRIENDS
By Tiger Woods
---------------
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY
By Jane Fonda, Cindy Sheehan & Michelle Obama
Illustrated by Michael Moore
Foreword by George Soros
---------------
MY CHRISTIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS & HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA
By "The Rev" Jesse Jackson & "The Rev" Al Sharpton
---------------
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL
By Hillary Clinton
---------------
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY
By Bill Clinton
---------------
THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD
By Bill Gates
---------------
THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY
By Dennis Rodman
---------------
THINGS WE KNOW TO BE TRUE
By Al Gore & John Kerry
---------------
GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC
By Amelia Earhart
---------------
HOW TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
By Dr. Jack Kevorkian
---------------
TO ALL THE MEN WE HAVE LOVED BEFORE
By Ellen de Generes & Rosie O'Donnell
---------------
GUIDE TO DATING ETIQUETTE
By Mike Tyson
---------------
MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLERS
By O. J. Simpson & Casey Anthony
---------------
HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE SAFELY
By Ted Kennedy
---------------
By Bill Clinton
Introduction by The Rev. Jesse Jackson
Foreword by Tiger Woods with John Edwards
---------------
HOW TO WIN A SUPERBOWL
By The Buffalo Bills
---------------
MY COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF MILITARY STRATEGY
By Nancy Pelosi

And the shortest book of them all ....

THINGS I DID TO DESERVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
By Barack Obama

From my email.

THEY'LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS 'CAUSE THEY'RE EASIER TO PLEASE. Gold in Them Thar Hills, But EPA Won't Let 'Em Dig.

AS IF IT WEREN'T OBVIOUS: White House appears to be responsible for some leaks of classified information. Dianne Feinstein may be a Democrat, but she's a national security Democrat and not a political expediency one.

UNEARNED SUCCESS is the central theme in his life story. Follow the link.

WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF EXTERNAL ENEMIES an intra-victim war ensues.

ELECTION 2012 IN A NUTSHELL: the individual vs. the collective. We know which side the president is on. Which side are you on? Follow the links.

HEH: Obama -- The Black Man's Burden.

MOVING OFF THE PLANTATION? The NAACP no longer speaks for me.

EAT MORE BLUE BELL ICE CREAM and support 'right-wing attack ads'.

Linked from Instapundit.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BAN BIG GULPS: NYC jobless rate hits ten percent.

SELLING SYSTEMS ENGINEERING: This is a long post, but if you're a lead systems engineer responsible for working with customers developing system-level requirements, it's well worth the read. I've found over the years that I've developed pretty much the same ideas, but without giving them any formal thought. My 'methodology', if you will, probably came from my prior teaching career where I used similar techniques (though not as obviously formal) to get students to understand why certain mathematical and engineering tools were important to understand and use.

FEDERAL OBSTACLES hamper battle on wildfire. So what? It's only Nevada.

HARD WORK BE DAMNED: Obama Says It Is Government and Luck. Yeah, right.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. The reason for the Obama campaign's Bain Capital attacks and Elizabeth Warren defense (you can't be successful on you're own) is that the Obama administration has nothing left to campaign on. They have to destroy any vestige of the (capitalist) market in order to survive the 2012 election.

STEVEN PERLSTEIN: Help! He's drowning in rules. Perlstein discusses outsourcing and how it may be reshaping the economy. Which leads to an interesting question: can Obama (or any President) bring manufacturing back to the United States?

FIVE MYTHS about free enterprise. Give the Washington Post some credit here; occasionally they do let an intelligent (i.e., conservative) commentary slip in.

DANA MILBANK: Ruined by one-party rule.

It's not often that residents of the District of Columbia get to brag about our local government, but this is one of those moments when we are leading the nation. We in the capital are on the cutting edge of entropy.

Even perennial contenders such as Louisana and New Jersey can't compete with the record of dysfunction and corruption we have compiled in recent weeks.

Milbank does have occasional bouts of sanity when it's his ox being gored, but here's the rub: he won't vote to kick the bastards out because D.C. is a one-party town and Milbank refuses to vote in the Democrat primary (lest he be thought of as biased, you see). So rather that taking part in reforming his vaunted party, he whines that he's disenfranchised by ... the Tea Party and Republicans!

Kojo Nnamdi (D.C. resident and NPR radio talk show host) agrees D.C. is corrupt, but -- wait for it -- it's Congress' fault for not making the District of Columbia America's 51st state.

You have to read it to believe it.

GOVERNMENT ROADS. And government kids.

HA! EVEN THE CREW is abandoning the Titanic. Bill Whittle tries to encourage them to stay on board.

FRANK J. FLEMING: A short history of the progressive movement.

NO JOY: read the comments; you'll get the idea.

FROM MY EMAIL: some advice about 'punching back twice as hard' when spammers come calling:

1) Any time you see an email that says "forward this on to '10' (or however many) of your friends", "sign this petition", or "you'll get bad luck" or "you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other Spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you're not ashamed of God/Jesus --- that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These people don't care how they get your email addresses - just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease "how would you feel if that was your child" --- email tracking. Ignore them and don't participate!

2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and Spammers -- to validate active email accounts for their own profitable purposes.

3) Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress of any other organization - I.e. Social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a "signed signature"and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers.

Tips for Handling Telemarketers:

1) Say 'Hold On, Please...' while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately). Then go back and hang up when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone. This makes each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales will grind to a halt if they continue to call.

2) Those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end are a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home. After answering, immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system.

Junk Mail Help:

1) When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. For junk mail with postage-paid return envelopes, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

2) Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again.

Save your sanity and help these folks go out of business sooner rather than later.

DEREK HUNTER: Our Disgraceful President. Courtesy of the 'reality-based community'.

TAKE THAT, MR. PRESIDENT:

"WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY, President Obama wants us to use less and pay more. But the countries with the best human health and highest material wealth are those with high-energy consumption."

THEY'LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS 'CAUSE THEY'RE EASIER TO PLEASE: Deliberate Dismantling of Welfare Reform.

THE REAL OBAMA steps forward.

Update: as predicted by Ayn Rand.

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN CUCCINELLI "looks ahead" at ObamaCare's future in a "Cuccinelli Compass" newsletter. I posted an earlier Cuccinelli reaction to the Supreme Court decision; it can be found here.

Today, as we look ahead, there are two subjects for the states, including Virginia's Governor and legislature. And there's one issue left for us citizens - repeal.

For the States

This past week I briefed about 1/3 of all of our Virginia legislators - Republicans and Democrats - about the choices they have before them on two issues: 1) whether to expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare law; and 2) whether Virginia should set up its own healthcare exchange, or simply default to the federal exchange that will be set up if Virginia does not act.

My own position on both questions is that Virginia should NOT proceed with either undertaking. Once you decide, you should contact your Senator and Delegate to let them know what you think.

Medicaid

As of November, 2010, Virginia had approximately 850,000 Virginians receiving Medicaid. That's about 10% of all Virginians.

The proposed ObamaCare expansion of Medicaid would add somewhere between 270,000 & 420,000 new recipients to our Medicaid rolls. That's approximately a 40% increase!

Right now, Virginia spends about $3.7 billion of our state money on Medicaid, and the feds contribute about the same amount, for a total Medicaid expenditure in Virginia of about $7.4 billion.

One of the results of the Supreme Court's decision was to block the feds' threat to cut off Virginia's entire $3.7 billion of federal Medicaid money if we didn't enter into the massive Medicaid expansion. That threat didn't leave Virginia with much choice; however, now we can choose on the merits whether to undertake the Medicaid expansion.

The feds are still using a lot of bait to try and coax states to choose to undertake the expansion. For the first three years, 2014-16, the feds say they will cover 100% of the costs of providing Medicaid to the new additions. However, starting in 2015, we have to pay 50% of the administration costs.

In 2015, the admin costs will be approximately $10 million, then about $20 million in 2016 and gradually rising thereafter. Mind you, these promises are coming from a government - the federal government - that is broker than broke. If the federal government were a person, he'd have an annual salary of $22,000, be spending $38,000, and he'd have a credit card debt of about $162,000. Would you trust that guy to come through with promises to pay big bucks a few years down the road?

After 2016, Virginia picks up 5% of the cost of the new recipients rising to 10% by 2022, at which time, we'll be spending several hundred million more dollars every single year. So, the obvious question for those that want to the expansion is, "where is that money going to come from?" An already struggling transportation system? Higher taxes? Even President Obama says (well, he used to say...) that raising taxes on a struggling economy is a bad idea.

Looking backwards over time, it's important to know that Medicaid has exploded within the Virginia budget - from about 5% to nearly 20% today. And Virginia's experience is not unique in this regard. Medicaid has been eating out the other parts of the budget for years ... is this a part of the budget that we really want to voluntarily grow?

I hope not. Not if I were Governor.

There is no deadline (yet) for Virginia to make this decision. However, once we get in, we're at the mercy of the federal government. If we want to get out once we're in, we have to get their permission. What do you suppose are the odds of that?

Finally, ObamaCare was hoped by its proponents to cover 34 million Americans who are not now insured. Approximately 16 million of them were going to be covered under these Medicaid expansions. Of course, that doesn't "insure" them, rather it puts them on the welfare rolls. Nonetheless, ObamaCare was heavily reliant on this Medicaid expansion to achieve their purposes. Given that at least a half dozen Governors have already said their states won't participate, it's clear that this part of ObamaCare is not even going to achieve the goals of its proponents.

Healthcare Exchanges

A more complicated question is whether Virginia should set up its own healthcare exchange under ObamaCare. And there is a statutory deadline on this question: November 16th of this year - 10 days after election day. I said there's a "statutory deadline" because the law says one thing, but the administration is demonstrating their usual respect for laws - even their own laws - to suggest that the November 16th deadline may not be "final." They are looking at a regulation that would allow more time for states to decide to set up their own exchanges.

So, what are the issues to be considered?

For some federal laws that states administer, like the Clean Water Act, states have a lot of discretion about how to implement the law. That allows us to craft regulation that best fits Virginia. However, under ObamaCare, it is not clear that we would have much flexibility about how to implement an exchange. And if that's the case, why bother with a state exchange?

The current estimate for operating the exchanges is between $6-$25 million per year. And for what? To have the privilege of being the enforcement arm of a federal healthcare takeover that we don't agree with?

To add a VERY interesting wrinkle, there's a second consideration that's hard to get our arms around. It was first advanced by my friend, Michael Cannon, at the Cato Institute.

The text of ObamaCare has lots of mistakes in it, or at least they appear to be mistakes. One of them relates to the penalties that employers must pay if their employees end up in the healthcare exchange in their state.

Employers, you know, those folks that hire people and give them jobs? Yeah, those. Employers have to pay $2,000 or $3,000 penalties if their employees don't have health insurance that meets the federal standard and who end up in the healthcare exchanges.

Or maybe not ...

Warning: read slowly - double negative coming ...

The text of ObamaCare does not apply the penalties to employers whose states do not set up the healthcare exchanges.

Let me say that differently. Under the text of ObamaCare, for those states that do not set up their own healthcare exchanges and instead default to the federal exchanges, their employers will not have to pay the two or three thousand dollar penalties per employee.

Those employer penalties were expected to be the financing source for the folks that ended up in the healthcare exchanges. Whoops.

So, if Virginia does NOT set up a healthcare exchange under ObamaCare, then Virginia's employers that do not conform their insurance to the "minimum requirements" of ObamaCare will have a defense against paying the stiff penalties.

Naturally, the Obama administration is trying to counter this. They are passing an IRS regulation that purports to "fix" this problem. However, it is basic law that statutes trump regulations ... of course, that assumes that courts uphold the laws as written. What a concept.

Last, But Definitely Not Least - Repeal

I'll be blunt (something new for me).

One "advantage" of how the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare is this: because they upheld the law as a tax, it only takes 50 Senators and a Vice-President to repeal ObamaCare, not 60.

Why? Because a bill to repeal a tax (ObamaCare is now a tax) is a revenue bill, it is not subject to filibuster. Thus, a simple majority will do the trick.

Wow. This means it's in our hands now.

Governor Romney has long been saying he'd repeal ObamaCare, but to do that a repeal bill would have to get through the Congress and to his Presidential desk.

Under any ordinary ruling by the Supreme Court, that would have taken 60 votes to get by a Senate filibuster. However, because the Supreme Court only upheld ObamaCare as a tax, we don't need to get to 60!

I don't think it was ever reasonable to think we could get to 60 votes for repeal even with a great year in the 2012 Senate races. But 50! We can get to 50!

Virginia is going to be a big part of that 50, with a hot race between George Allen and Tim Kaine that can help us get one of the small number of votes we need to get to repeal! And Tim Kaine was ObamaCare's biggest cheerleader and he hasn't backed away from it even as we've all learned that it's much worse than it even appeared when it passed.

Needless to say, George Allen has been hammering away about repealing the law.

So, here in Virginia, we're a swing state in the Presidential race AND we have one of a small number of Senate races that will help decide repeal.

It's in our hands folks! So don't sit on the couch between now and November.

If you're interested, you can subscribe to the Cuccinelli Compass here.

THE FIVE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT: Fraud, Waste, Abuse, Duplication, and Stupidity.

OH GREAT, yet another new EPA regulation making things more expensive for everyone.

IF A CONSERVATIVE SPEAKS IN THE FOREST ... no one will listen. PJ Media's Sarah Hoyt on nationalized healthcare.

DEMAND FOR nearly half a million new airline pilots over the next 20 years raises concerns that pilot quality could suffer.

It looks like I was overly pessimistic last year.

A CLOWN SHOW on voter identification laws. The Department of Justice may win in a court of law, but they will surely lose in the court of public opinion.

YEP, IT'S BETTER TO LET THE HOMELESS STARVE than risk them getting sick or being embarrassed.

Or being freed from government slavery?

THEY'LL TURN US ALL INTO BEGGARS 'CAUSE THEY'RE EASIER TO PLEASE: Government wants more people on food stamps.

UPDATE: USDA moves to end questionable food stamp ads.

For those who are truly in need, I'm all for encouraging them to apply. But let's face it, the Obama administration is only interested in the poor to the extent that they can be coerced to vote Democrat.

SHARK SIGHTINGS INCREASE. Quick, blame those Republican seals.

IF YOU READ/WATCH THE LIBERAL MEDIA, you'd think Mitt Romney intentionally insulted the NAACP Convention audience at every opportunity.

Here's the actual transcript of his speech.

THOMAS SOWELL: Invincible Lies, Part I and Part II.

JAY NORDLINGER on the Supreme Court, the separation of powers, and political pressure.

MICHAEL BARONE: Obamacare survives, but the political playing field has changed. This is an older commentary, dating back to the Supreme Court decision, but I think it illustrates that the times, they are a'changin. My sense is that political power is clearly shifting in favor of the Tenth Amendment and State's rights.

KATIE KIEFFER: "With the Obama administration’s drone policy, I believe we risk asymmetric blowback, defy foreign sovereignty, and—most alarmingly—violate our own Constitution." Overblown? Perhaps so, but there's certainly room for discussion, although that won't happen as long as the current administration is in power.

REPEAT AFTER ME: "It's the spending, stupid." Then repeat is necessary.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS ON REMEDIAL ECONOMICS: "[W]e need to think with our brains, not with our hearts."

SPACE TECHNOLOGY is taking off. Many, if not most, of these efforts are doomed to failure, but enough will survive to make commercial spaceflight a certainty.

OUTSOURCING. If there's anything in this post that remotely makes sense, I couldn't find it. I hope Coplien 'grows up' soon.

REASSERTING the 10th amendment?

PAUL GREENBERG: Educanto marches on.

LIBERALS need to stop lying about divorce. Committment is not the liberals' strong suit.

AT FIRST, I thought it was about boobs. And then I realized, it was. Follow the link; and then read the comments.

COMMENT OF THE DAY: "[W]hen you need somebody to do nothing, you can’t find a much better team of crack troopers than the United States Congress. God help us all."

Taken from this post.

WHY IS OBAMA granting amnesty to a Wall Street felon?

Random thought. Why is it that all we hear from the Obama administration is about taxing the 'evil' fat cats on Wall Street and never about taxing the Hollywood moguls, nor sports and entertainment stars?

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY: he didn't talk enough. There's an old rule from my systems engineering days that stability is achieved when you spend all your time reporting on the things you didn't do. There's no stability, so obviously President Obama hasn't talked enough.

LIBERAL LOGIC 101: Helping those of us with brains understand how Liberal Logic works. A daily delight. Bookmark it.

SO MUCH FOR ROMNEY'S FOREIGN INCOME: Over 30% of President Obama’s 2009-2011 Gross Income Came From Foreign Sources.

CARBON TAXES are still alive and well in La-La Land. Unfortunately stupidity is not the exclusive property of liberals.

GLOBAL INVESTORS sending giant signal to U.S.: please borrow money!

Even remedial economics is too much for progressives.

IF A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM actually works to reduce dependency, it must be stopped.

IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE HEAT: Almost 2 dozen reportedly faint during Obama speech.

OBAMA CHANNELS ELIZABETH WARREN: "You didn't build that...."

No, I built it despite your best efforts.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the road to Texas. As we start our vacation trip back to Texas, we're beginning to note the appearance of 2012 bumper stickers. There aren't many, but it's running 2:1 in favor of Romney with 400 miles down and 2,600 to go.

WORST. RECESSION. JOBS. RECOVERY. EVER.


Need one say more?

DANA PERINO: Some advice for new graduates. And everyone else, for that matter.

SCOTT RASMUSSEN: Why Obama's Still in the Race Despite the Bad Economy.

I'm reminded of Eddie Chiles' "I'm mad too, Eddie!" bumper stickers and radio commentaries from the 1970's. He was also widely quoted as saying "The government should protect our shores and leave us alone" but I haven't been able (yet) to find any references to that popular sentiment.

STEPHEN HAYES: A tax is a tax is a tax is a penalty is a ... ?? (whatever). I think the correct term should be 'tax penalty'; that is, a penalty for not following tax law (as in I pay a penalty for not filing on time).

Michelle Malkin has more. And Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has some additional thoughts.

SHADOW'S WORLD blogging will be light and intermittent for the next two weeks while I'm on 'vacation.' Shadow and Daisy are lousy typists and I can't rely on them to keep the blog going....

PEGGY NOONAN: Ennui the People.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING PRESIDENT.

TALKEETNA, ALASKA'S long-time mayor is a cat named Stubbs. So why shouldn't Diamond be elected President?

CHRIS MUIR: RahmboCop. A girly man.

DANG! I missed all the good stuff! Many more photos here.

IF YOU WANT TO PROVE AN AIRCRAFT IS IDIOT-PROOF, let a journalist fly it.

THE NEXT BEST THING to concealed carry.

ISN'T SUGAR supposed to be bad for you?

FAST AND FURIOUS is not a D.C. law firm.

"IF CLASS WARFARE RHETORIC about taxes leads to more votes for him [Obama], that is his bottom line, whether the government gets a dime more revenue or not. So long as his lies go unchallenged, a second term will be the end result for him and a lasting calamity for the country."

Read it all.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: "Who would have thought that a few fracking innovators in Texas would change the world's carbon footprint far more than did Nobel laureate Al Gore...."

Read it all.

FEDS BACK DOWN: Florida gets access to the Homeland Security SAVE database. That 'punch back twice as hard' thing works both ways, doesn't it?

UNION BENEFITS: Average teacher makes $44G while their top union bosses pull in nearly $500G.

PAUL GREENBERG on judicial restraint: "The essence of this latest instance of judicial restraint is that We the People have a right to our own mistakes. And the right to correct them."

IT TAKES A VILLAGE [IDIOT] to raise a family. Not even Hillary Clinton would approve.

SOLAR STORM ARRIVES TODAY, Earth not expected to boil away. More here and here.

IF YOU WERE IN TEXAS, you’d be rich.

IF IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it must be a government program.

FRIEND OR FOE? A mind-reading machine.

PAUL GREENBERG: A Primer on Obamanomics. "[I]t's really a branch of electioneering rather than economics."

IS IT TIME to quit defending RomnyCare?

SAVE THE ECONOMY, put more people on public charity (welfare).

U.S. NAVY to back out of Joint Strike Fighter program? Unlikely, but possible, I suppose.

INSANITY, thy name is government. The only reason things like this exist is that the bureaucratic insanity is kept beneath the public radar.

OVER THE YEARS, the real minimum wage in this country has never budged. It is $0.00/hour.

Technically, that's true, but the problem is that the actual minimum wage is the hourly equivalent of welfare, unemployment benefits, and tax credits for the poor.

ONLY IN AMERICA ...

... can politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $45,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

... can people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black, while only 12% of the population is black.

... can we have the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who were in favor of higher taxes.

... can we have terrorists kill women and children in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be upset by the backlash.

... can we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.

... can the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."

... can you need to present a driver's license to cash a check, get a library card or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

... can people demand governments who take $.45 tax on a gallon of gas investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes in China (Nike).

... can the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

... can the rich people who pay 86% of all income tax dollars be accused of not paying their "fair share" by the 51% of the population who don't pay any income taxes at all.

From my email.

IT HAS A MIND? The Mind of Your Basic Hollywood Liberal.

I'D BUY ONE if it could fire live ammunition.

WELL, WELL, WELL: Democrat Attack Poodle Debbie Blabbermouth-Schultz Invested in Swiss Banks and Foreign Drug Companies.

DENIAL ISN'T A RIVER IN EGYPT; it's a swamp in ObamaLand. Apologies to real swamps.

OBAMA: I regret not speaking slower and using smaller words. If I had, you'd realize how lucky you are that I allowed you to be my citizens let you have me as your President.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY PRINCIPLES, then you won't have to stand on them.

IT'S BEST to take government health advice with a [large] pinch of salt.

IT'S BETTER TO FLY THE AIRCRAFT than it is to manage its flight.

WE LOSE A LITTLE ON EACH TRANSACTION, but we make up for it in volume.

THOMAS SOWELL writes that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch [TANSTAAFL].

AWW.... HARRY REID'S JEALOUS: Romney’s ‘Got So Much Money He Doesn’t Even Know Where All of It Is’.

RI-I-I-IGHT: "Everything bad that's ever happened under [Romney] ... he blames on other people, and that just isn't very Presidential."

2012: IT'S 1984 AGAIN. In 1984 Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale 59%-41%, carrying 49 of the 50 states.

My trend analysis of the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index predicts that on election day 2012, only 17% of the electorate will 'strongly approve' Obama's performance; 46% will strongly disapprove, and 37% will neither strongly approve nor strongly disapprove.

If that middle third of the electorate breaks 2:1 for Obama (as the prior trending suggests it might), the election will be 58-42 for Romney.

MORE NONSENSE ABOUT VOTER ID: DOJ Witness Can Fly to Washington, But Can’t Get Voter ID. So how did she manage to board the aircraft?

CLEARLY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER wanted to keep minorities out of his NAACP speech yesterday. The family was in Washington D.C. today; the DOJ still requires a photo ID to enter (as do most other federal offices around the National Mall).

CALIFORNIA PREFERS trains to nowhere over rockets to somewhere. And the Lone Star State wins another business from California.

THE LONE STAR STATE named top U.S. state for business in 2012.

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES BOLDEN: "I think you heard some of my predecessors talk about they don't know where [NASA is] going. That's their problem, not mine. I know where the agency is going. I know where I want it to go."

He might want to tell the rest of us.

BUT WILL IT FLY? Rolls-Royce unveils Lego replica of Trent 1000 jet engine.

SURMOUNTABLE BARRIERS? Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., identifies four major hurdles Obamacare still must overcome. I don't think so.

THE BENEFITS OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION: Students report school is too easy.

ALMOST ALL BLUE: The 10 Worst-Rated States for Retirement.

JOHN GALT is alive and well: In Maryland, Higher Taxes Chase Out Rich.

HAS OBAMA PEAKED? My sense is that it is more of a speed bump in the road to decline.

INVERSE MIDAS EFFECT: Everyting Obama touches ....

THE CHIEF JUSTICE 'done good'. I think we'll have to wait and see, but I'm inclined to agree.

Here's an opposing view.

DOES ROBERT GIBBS embezzle money from orphanages? No one knows.

RULES? Rules are for other people.

NOTHING ELSE WORKS, so let's try class warfare again.

FAT CHANCE: The United Nations wants to tax you. Follow the link.

RECOVERY? What recovery?

TAX (NOUN): Giving money you don't have to people you don't know for a program you don't believe in.

GET FAT, live longer. The only additional risk overweight people suffer is that they have a harder time outrunning the bear chasing them.

THE WORLD would be better off without performance reviews. At least that's my experience.

YES, LET'S TAX THE RICH: Top 400 taxpayers paid almost as much in federal income taxes in 2009 as the entire bottom 50%.

So make 'em pay more.

TEXAS REJECTS OBAMACARE: Gov. Perry does not mince words.

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: The Democrat Party is no longer the 'tax and spend' party; it's now the tax and invest (poorly) party.

THE WAR ON BABY BOOMERS. Hint: don't invest in the government.

IT SMELLS LIKE DESPERATION.

THE NEW meaning of 'outspent.'

A SPACEPORT in Midland, Texas?



ADDED: Bill Whittle on XCOR and the state of business in California and Texas.

THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA'S IMMIGRATION SYSTEM isn't that too many people are breaking the rules. It's that the rules themselves are irrational, illiberal, and counterproductive.

MAKING GOVERNMENT (LESS DIS)HONEST. It might work; power and money are powerful incentives.

YOU'RE MORE LIKELY TO BE EMPLOYED if your state has a Republican Governor.

WHY I GET UP AT 5:30 AM:

OBAMA: Most people would “acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard.” His golf score hasn't improved either.

HYPHENS CAN'T GOVERN … in the national interest.

THE BEGINNING OF COMMON SENSE: Health Contract with America. Add to that tort reform, the ability to purchase insurance across state lines, an end to mandates for minimum coverage, the ability to purchase insurance through associations, and you've got a pretty good package of useful reforms.

THE REPUBLICANS' WEEKLY ADDRESS TO THE NATION.



Linked from Speaker Boehner's office.

THE W100, or why I like George W. Bush.

BUT WE ALL KNEW THAT ... DIDN'T WE? The tax man cometh to police you on health care.

JUST IN CASE you don't like Mitt Romney:

[For those] who may ... hesitate [to support Romney], keep four things in mind:

1. Justice Scalia just turned 76.
2. Justice Kennedy will be 76 later this month.
3. Justice Breyer will be 76 in August.
4. Justice Ginsburg turned 80 last March.

Whomever we elect as president in November is almost certainly going to choose at least one and maybe more new members of the Supreme Court — in addition to hundreds of other life-tenured federal judges, all of whom will be making momentous decisions about our lives for decades to come. If you don’t think it matters whether the guy making those calls is Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, you're not of this world.

So for any you who may be thinking of not voting because your favorite didn’t get nominated -- or writing in a candidate who can't win -- just imagine this possibility: 'Supreme Court Justice Eric Holder'.

From my email.

WHAT A SURPRISE: Study shows Palin treated differently by media as vice presidential candidate than Biden. Another glaring case of obvious discovered by 'experts'.

CONGRESSMAN JESSE JACKSON, JR.’S ailments ‘more serious’ than first believed. I thought insanity was only an ailment for non-Democrats.

CHRIS MUIR may be a bit harsh on Chief Justice Roberts (time will tell) but he certainly captured the essence of ObamaCare writ large.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY: Donors Pledge $16B in Afghan Aid. It's easy to give away money that doesn't belong to you....

OBAMA SATURDAY ADDRESS: We need to rebuild this economy… again. Again? Did I miss some rebuilding in the last three years?

POOR BABY. Has she thought about 'buying down' her health insurance from Cadillac quality? Oh, that's right, President Obama wouldn't approve, would he?

SOOO ... What do we call it?

GOOD: Big trouble for Big Labor.

WE'RE DROWNING, but it is important not to read too much into our cries for help....

SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER blames Fox News for class warfare rhetoric. Yes, they wouldn't have to resort to class warfare if Fox would just quit reporting the news.

FINANCING OBAMACARE by sacrificing the American dream. Quick question: When we're all on the dole, who's going to pay the bill?

CALIFORNIA APPROVES FUNDING for 130 mile stretch of high-speed rail line bike path between Madera to Bakersfield.

FEDERAL STUDENT AID and the Law of Unintended Consequences. Where the federal government is concerned, I'm of the mind to argue that it should be called the "Law of Intended Consequences".

LEAVE? What To Do If There’s A Mountain Lion In Your Office.

RIGHTING A WRONG.


"What the Supreme Court declared as constitutional voters can declare as history come November."

NOT IN MY RECOLLECTION: Are Any of the Green Energy Projects Backed by the Obama Administration Solvent?

A SKEPTIC LOOKS AT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: It takes several lifetimes to put a new energy system into place, and wishful thinking can’t speed things along.

BAN those "Christian" tomatoes.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Symptoms of a sick culture.

CALIFORNIA BILL could create sanctuary state for non-felon illegal immigrants. And Arizona and the other states could offer free (one-way) bus rides to California for those willing to self-identify. Plus cash bonuses to encourage self-identification.

IS OBAMA replacing Biden as the Democrats' gaffe machine?

COMING SOON: A Butane Recharger for Your Cellphone.

ARE SHOOTERS To Blame for Western Wildfires? No. The environmentalists are.

INSTAPUNDIT looks at the current economic news. There's too much to excerpt, so go look for yourself. Good news it ain't.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Live Free -- And Uninsured. That's pretty much my plan. Since I'm retired and taking Social Security, Medicare Part A (which is mandatory, by the way -- and free) pretty well satisfies my requirement for high-limit catastrophic-care health insurance and the rest (Parts B, C, D, and whatever else comes along) I'll just skip.

Thanks, Mr. President.

GOVERNMENT CHEESE.



They'll turn us all into beggars 'cause they're easier to please.

Hat tip Instapundit.

THOMAS SOWELL: Judicial Betrayal. Betrayal? Or an affirmation of faith in the American citizens to right a Congressional wrong? It's not often I disagree with Sowell, so his thoughts are worthy of careful consideration.

IT APPEARS Gizmo is ready for toilet training.

THEY WOULD CERTAINLY DESERVE EACH OTHER: Is New York City ready for Mayor Alec Baldwin?

APES WITH APPS. Read it, then read it again, substituting 'progressive' for 'bonobo'. Is there any discernable difference?

I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING FOR SUNDAY BRUNCH: Restaurant Faces Investigation For Offering Church Discount.

What truly angers me about this story is that the discrimination charge was filed by a 'retired electrical engineer' who was annoyed by the discount. First, because this twerp is an embarrassment to my chosen profession, and second, because he seems to think he has a right to not be annoyed.

Can I sue him because his mere existence (now that I know about it) annoys hell out of me? If he has a right not to be annoyed, then so do I.

INSTAPUNDIT: "Let me be clear: All you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush, but who aren’t screaming just as loud now — which is pretty much all of you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush — were and are miserable lying hacks. And I thank Obama for making that perfectly clear, at least."

When you've lost Instapundit, ... you've lost.

DREAMS FROM MY FATHER was just that - dreams.

MATT BARBER: The Awakened Giant Likes Tea.

PAUL GREENBERG: "What we have here is not just a failed immigration system but a failure of national leadership. A failure of political competence. And a lack of courage."

A decent analysis, but the problem with Mr. Greenberg's conclusion is that the word 'comprehensive' does not mean all at once. It means to have a plan, start somewhere, and then finish the job. Houses are not built 'comprehensively'; they start with a foundation and end with the decorator details.

WELCOME TO BIZARRO WORLD: 'Free Stuff' now includes cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, and travel on cruise ships.

THE RAPIDLY DWINDLING CITY OF NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., has found a new way to attract people ... by helping recent college graduates pay off their student loans. Let's just hope none of them are Harvard grads in 'victim studies' or law.

I'VE HEARD of safe sex, but safe farting?

THE QUICKER TO COLLIDE WITH SOMETHING: Supersonic Mini-Drone Being Built for Military and Civilian Use.

SOME LOCAL NEWS: President of the Muslim Association of Virginia and a leader at the Dar AlNoor Islamic Community Center found dead in Occoquan River.

That night we were eating dinner on the terrace at Madigan's on the Occoquan, watching the police search and rescue boat searching the river under the bridge. At the time, we didn't know what was happening; only when we left to find our car parked inside a police quarantine zone did we find out that it was a recovery mission.

Interestingly, the Dar AlNoor Islamic Community Center is less than 1/4 mile from the elementary school where my wife teaches.

HEH: EU's Emissions Trading Scheme Could Cancel A330 Production Hike. No airplanes, no climate change. Good idea....

HOW TO repeal ObamaCare on 'day zero'. But Republicans have to take both houses of Congress to do it.

WILL MORE DOCTORS ‘GO GALT’ BECAUSE OF OBAMACARE? I did, but then I'm only a lowly Ph.D.

HOW 'PAYGO' really should work.

U.S. ADDS FORCES IN PERSIAN GULF to deter the Iranian military from any possible attempt to shut the Strait of Hormuz.

MORE: Iran declared Wednesday that it can destroy nearby U.S. military bases and strike Israel within minutes of an attack on the Islamic Republic.

I would suggest that the U.S. respond by simply mooring an old barge painted with a target on its top a few miles offshore from Iran and then firing a single unarmed ICBM at it from U.S. soil. At that point, a simple note stating that 'we know where you are' should suffice.

HEH: Corporate greed is all the liberals' fault.

WHAT'S BEHIND THE RECORD HEAT? A 'Rocky Mountain High' (pun intended).

NAH. He'd never settle for mere nobility.

INDEPENDENCE DAY FINALE

JEFF JACOBY: Celebrating, royal-free. Only that's not in President Obama's plan.

HERE'S TO THE SPIRIT OF '76


Text of Boehner's comments here.

REP. ALLEN B. WEST: The Balkanized States of America, a reflection on Independence Day.

JULY 4, 2012


From my house to yours.

FIREWORKS


We'll find out on the Mall tonight.

"HOW TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY," by Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College:

Two hundred thirty-six years ago this Fourth of July, 57 men signed the document that created the American republic. They represented a people of about 3 million grouped in a series of 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard of the United States. They were all wanted men, sought by the commander of the British forces in North America for sedition and treason. He had behind him the resources of the greatest military power on earth. They had behind them the bare beginnings of a government, hardly anything of an army, but something mighty in the way of an idea.

This nation had therefore a desperate beginning. Who but the boldest could believe that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were laying the foundation of the greatest constitutional republic in history? Now that republic has spread across the continent, and its influence reaches around the world. Its population has increased a hundredfold. Its Constitution has provided government to a free people constantly growing in size and territory, each new state joining the union as an equal, its citizens never subjects, its people ever free. There is no story close to it in the history of man.

Statesmen and thinkers have attributed the strength and goodness of the nation to the principles in the Declaration. Many others have denied this. Statesmen and thinkers have proclaimed the Constitution a just and beautiful implementation of the principles of the Declaration. Many others have denied this. These denials are more common in times of crisis in our country. They are very common now.

It is a sign of our time that the sitting chief executive of our country eschews the permanent meaning of the Declaration and the idea of fixity in the Constitution. In the "Audacity of Hope," Barack Obama writes: "Implicit in [the Constitution's] structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or "ism," any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course. …"

Obama has stuck to this theme during his presidency. This May at Barnard College, he proclaimed the great virtue of the Constitution to be its openness to change: "It allowed for protests, movements, and the assimilation of new ideas that would repeatedly, decade after decade, change the world—a constant forward movement that continues to this day." There is neither form nor firmness. All is fluid, according to Obama, and this liberates us to do whatever we will.

America has gone very far down the trail that Obama is blazing. Right now, the expenditures of all government—state, local and federal—exceed 40 percent of the gross domestic product. If trends continue, the public sector will soon grow larger than the private sector, and then the government will have more resources than those it governs. ...

Just as the Founders did, so may anyone look for his rights under these "laws of nature and of nature's God." Anyone whose rights are denied will feel their weight. The Jew rounded up by the Nazis, the black slave held in Mississippi in 1840, may both look to this document as the charter by which he can advance. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, was aware of this and wrote that indeed, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." These principles place every man and woman deprived of their rights in the same place that the Founders occupied on July 4, 1776: they may appeal to an absolute truth, written in the nature of man and in the nature of things, against any power that will offend their rights. Perhaps they cannot find the strength to overcome their oppression. Never mind: their cause is still the just one. They will see, and even in moments of clarity their oppressors will see, that the great self-evident truth that all men are created equal means nothing more nor less than that all men are men. It means nothing less than that no one may rightly govern another except by his consent. It means that the purpose of government is to "secure these rights": "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

These are the principles of the United States. The fact that they were announced at the onset of its revolution, and the fact that the revolution proceeded in their name, seals them in the blood and the history of this land.

Excerpted from the July issue of Townhall Magazine.