Colorado senate race is a dead heat

A Rasmussen poll recently released show an extremely close senate race in Colorado. Incumbent Senator Mark Udall holds a 1 percentage point lead over his Tea Party backed challenger, Rep. Cory Gardner. Readers will remember that Colorado was viewed as a safe senate seat for Democrats until  the Obamacare rollout and Gardner's adroit maneuvering wherein he managed to clear the primary field while winning endorsements from most of his rivals. The poll gives Udall 43% to Gardner's 42% with 9 % undecided.
Tea Party favorite in the 2010 senate race Ken Buck was one of those who withdrew from the race in favor of Gardner. He quickly shifted to the race for the open seat in the state's 4th congressional where he should easily win.

No Country for Old Men

Even if it doesn't upset you it should surprise you. Congressman Charles Rangel lived to fight another day-no thanks to his erstwhile friends. The Harlem Congressman came through a political near death experience at the hands of state Sen. Adriano Espaillat. He received an endorsement from Governor Andrew Cuomo but none from Obama who thinks he should retire with dignity. That's politics but what about friendship and gratitude? The DCCC kicked in a whopping $36,000. In 2008 when he faced no opposition he transferred $1.2 million from his campaign to the DCCC and smaller sums to other Democrats Through his leadership PAC that cycle, he gave a total of $970,000 to 122 different Democratic candidates. And that was just one election cycle. He has donated millions to fellow Democrats over the course of his career. To add to the insult the Black Congressional Caucus, an organization he helped found, could not send one thin dime.

The next IRS bombshell?

There may be a historic day on the near horizon. On July 10 lawyers for the IRS must explain to a federal judge why his court was not notified of Lois Lerner's lost emails. The emails were part of the document request sought by Judicial Watch in a FOIA lawsuit. “The IRS is clearly in full cover-up mode,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is well past time for the Obama administration to answer to a federal court about its cover up and destruction of records.”
The mischief is, the trial judge, Judge Emmet Sullivan, may have the IRS lawyers praying for the reincarnation of Judge John Sirica. They probably don't want to echo their boss's sentiment that they don't owe anyone an apology. Judge Sullivan it seems is a stickler for the rule of law. He is so much of a stickler that he threw out the conviction of the late Senator Ted Stevens, skewered the prosecution and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Justice Department.

“In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case. . . . When the government does not meet its obligations to turn over evidence, the system falters.”

Sullivan, who was first appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by Ronald Reagan is not Ivy League. He is a product of the Washington public school system, a graduate of Howard University and Howard Law School and damned proud to be.
One wonders if the IRS could have drawn a worse pick in the DC circuit. He is the only judge in the DC circuit who has a history of appointing special prosecutors to help the government sort out its messes. Again, July 10 could be a big day!
Update: Chris Farrell appeared on Justice with Judge Jeanine with fill-in host Kimberly Guilfoyle. He explained the challenge facing the IRS.

Congressman will begin defunding the DOJ

One has to start someplace. Hats off to Congressman Frank Wolf. As chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Eric Holder’s Justice Department Rep. Wolf hopes to rein in the Justice Department by taking away its money. Wolf has sought dozens of documents from the DOJ as part of his committee's oversight responsibilities. To no one's surprise Eric Holder has not complied with the requests so Wolf will begin deducting $1million for each missing document.

“There are still 25 outstanding reports and briefings from the FY 2013 bill, and that doesn't’t include any of the additional reports directed in the FY 2014 bill, which was subsequently signed into law earlier this year. There are already 18 reports in the FY 2014 bill that are overdue to the committee.
“With a workforce of more than 100,000 employees, I know that the department certainly has the capacity to provide the directed reports. What is lacking is the will to be responsive to the Congress on the part of the department’s leadership. That is what I find particularly disappointing.
“Today, I am announcing a new policy that these overdue reports will no longer be tolerated by the committee. When our FY 2015 bill is marked up this spring, I intend to withhold $1 million for every overdue report from the FY 2013 and FY 2014 bills. The funds will be provided instead to agencies in this bill that comply with reporting requirements. With the current backlog of 43 reports, this could be a significant reduction in funds for the department. But you have now been given fair warning that these overdue reports will now be taken into account when the subcommittee determines your budget.
“For the record, I find it extremely unfortunate that I have to take this action, but I know no other way to encourage the department to follow through on its required obligations to this Committee.

Yes it is small potatoes. The DOJ has an annual budget in the neighborhood of $27 billion and the $43 million is probably not enough to keep the department in porn but it's a bold first step and more than any other House chair has done. Maybe Rep. Dave Camp at Ways and Means will follow suit. "Let's see Mr. Koskinen, that's $1 million dollars times 24,000 missing emails. As I figure it you should still have bus fare to Arlington."

EPA: new appliances & restricting energy use will save you money!

  Obama's EPA head Gina McCarthy is on the warpath.
  Perhaps you've heard that the EPA has a problem with its employees pooping in their hallways and intentionally clogging up their toilets. The EPA characteristically responded to these devastating acts by calling in a "workplace violence" expert who scolded employees that this was a "dangerous" act and people should just stop it right now.
  In fact, the EPA has some really weird things going on:

Contractors built secret man caves in an EPA warehouse, an employee pretended to work for the CIA to get unlimited vacations and one worker even spent most of his time on the clock looking at pornography.

  One might suspect there's a lot of empty time on the hands of these employees, particularly with no one watching.
  Gina McCarthy, who saw fit to do nothing to streamline the EPA, wasn't aware that John Beale didn't show up regularly to work for some 13 years, claiming he also worked for the CIA and, thus, was always on secret missions. Apparently no one sought to question this, even throwing a retirement party for him in 2012 even though he still showed up to work and collected a paycheck.
  Fortunately some dope figured out something was wrong and Beale now sits in jail.
  McCarthy was in charge of him since 2009, apparently clueless to the government waste.
  Now that she's in charge of all of us, though, McCarthy has big plans to hold us accountable for our use of electricity.
  In keeping with Obama's plan to skyrocket the cost of electricity, McCarthy is sweetening the idea by claiming we'll ultimately save money.
  How?

"It's actually about providing (Americans) more opportunities to reduce waste," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told Congress on Wednesday. Under the EPA's demand-reduction scenario, Americans can retrofit their homes and buy more energy-efficient appliances, she said.

This, in turn, will create jobs in government-approved industries.

  McCarthy is providing us with opportunities to reduce waste, by buying new appliances.
   Not only that, but because electricity rates will skyrocket and thus the peons will keep their energy usage down.
  McCarthy says this is not creating "scarcity" of electricity, even though they've scheduled numerous electricity plants to shut down in the Midwest by January. Instead she says this:

"We're not suggesting that we do regulate that. We are regulating pollution at the source," she said.

  Leftists and so-called "factcheckers" claim it's "fuzzy" how expensive it will be, that the whole "skyrocketing" thing is really not a fact.
  These types always claim there will be real job gains and boosts to the economy once their plans are in place, followed by glowing accounts of health benefits and dire warnings that, if we do not take this further action, bad, bad things will happen.
  Maybe something like the negative 3% "growth"? The millions who've dropped out of the work force? The increase in the cost of doing just about everything?
  Considering coal produces 40% of the energy in the country, there is concern that windmills will not produce the kind of energy the US needs, particularly in cold winters. (I gagged when I wrote that.)
  From the NY Post:

Already, the current rules are expected to force power companies to shut down 68 coal plants across 20 states between 2014 and 2017, according to Bentek Energy, a market analysis firm.
The Energy Department estimates coal plants with the output to supply 33 million homes will close by 2020.
“We haven’t operated at those low levels (of generation) for at least 30 years,” says MISO’s Clair Moeller.

  From the individual in charge of our lives himself.
  Why, oh, why, America, would you vote this ignorant, pampered, narcissist a second devastating term? Why.

Obamacare's contribution to voodoo economics

I'm not backing off on the contention that I made in a previous post that the decline in health care spending that resulted in the decline in the first quarter GDP was the result of people not being able to afford to see a doctor after they pay their health insurance premiums. Not only are premiums higher in ACA mandated plans but the deductibles have sky rocketed. In some family plans the insured must shell out as much as $12,000 before they see the benefits of having insurance. For practical purposes they are being forced to buy outrageously priced catastrophic health plans.
The popular interpretation of the data is the decline in health care spending is the result of increased efficiencies in heath care delivery. Looking at line 17 in the GDP report reveals a 0.16 decline in health care spending. In the previous quarter health care spending had increased 0.62. This accounts in large part for the massive gap between the initial GDP estimate of a 0.1% decline and the actual 2.9% decline. It's a swing of 0.78%!
The White House and the media have hailed this as a stunning success. Obamacare has finally bent the health care cost curve. It has facilitated massive efficiencies in the health care market. Au contraire! The patient/consumer is staying home. Examine the BLS data. Employment in the health care sector increased from 14,609,000 in January to 14,650,000 in March which begs the question; how did the industry manage to reduce consumer costs by 0.78% while increasing employment by almost 1%? In every other industry lay offs accompany cost efficiencies but as if by magic in the health care sector they boost employment. Can you say voodoo economics?

Hillary, Obama's Third Term

  From the GOP, whom I yelled at the other day for asking for money after they've basically done nothing but kept RINOs in office and fought Tea Party attempts at fiscal responsibility. 
  Ok, I like this.

Lanny Davis calls for independent counsel in IRS scandal

Maybe Lanny thinks a special prosecutor for the IRS scandal will take the public's mind off the Benghazi investigation and Hillary's monumental incompetence to say nothing of her disregard for the truth. In any event the Clinton loyalist could endure the sight of Barack Obama twisting in the wind.

If this were a Republican administration I’d be saying when hard drives have been obliterated and this recent Lois Lerner—I think very inappropriate, maybe innocent but completely inappropriate—’maybe we should look at Mr. Grassley’ uh … there’s no Democrat that I know of that wouldn’t be asking a Republican administration to conduct an independent investigation

How much does a Clinton cost?

At the risk of confusing readers into thinking that this is a pro Elizabeth Warren blog let me add to my partner's post Sick of Hillary's old underwear. It is not so much the Clinton's wealth that we find disconcerting it's the source. This quote from the Washington Post sums it up.

The financial industry has been Clinton’s most frequent sponsor. The Post review showed that Wall Street banks and other financial services firms have hired Clinton for at least 102 appearances and paid him a total of $19.6 million.

Sorry, but when 10 to 20 percent of the Clinton's wealth comes from Wall Street everyone should be asking how much is just and generous compensation and how much is simple influence buying. The Tea Party is pro market not pro business. The kindest thing one can say for the Clintons is they are not cheap whores.

Gallup; Less immigration-not more

The immigration debate has revealed a bipartisan tone deafness on the part of Democrats and establishment Republicans. Tea Party turncoats Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake, and Kelly Ayotte who perceive the noblest duty of government as providing cheap labor to Silicon Valley, the Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce have stressed the need to to expand the Republican Party by attracting political independents who would presumably flock to the Republican Party in droves if only the House would pass the Obama backed Gang of 8 Senate bill that would result in the eventual legal migration of 30 million low skilled, frequently overweight, frequently drug gang affiliated immigrants from Mexico and Latin America.
But have they bothered to ask the independents how they feel about their glorious immigration reform? Of course not. They may want to ask Eric Cantor while he is still in town to expound upon the risks of talking when one should be listening. Gallup did ask the independents and the rest of America how they felt about immigration and only 23% of them want more immigration. Overall just 22% of voters would increase immigration while 41% would decrease it.


Even among Democrats there is more sympathy for cutting immigration than expanding it.

14 years of immigrant job gains

  So as Obama's plan to flood this country with illegal immigrants and build an automatic Democrat voter base and as Nancy Pelosi rushes to the border for a photo op with the illegals, we'll be watching to see if she actually shakes hands with any of the fat guys with scabies. 
  Or perhaps a double air kiss with confirmed swine flu immigrants.
  Hm. We'll see.
  It's not that I don't support immigration. It's just that there are laws that should be followed for the health of the country, laws that Obama rejects or refuses to see.
  We have laws for a reason, one of which is to keep out diseases and another of which is to bolster a currently fragile economy that Obama seems intent on ruining.
  With this in mind, the Washington Times notes today that all job gains since 2000 have benefited immigrants:

 Nearly 6 million more people are working in the U.S. now than in 2000, but the number of native-born Americans holding jobs has declined slightly, from 114.8 million to 114.7 million, according to census figures crunched by CIS. Instead, all of that job growth — a total of 5.7 million — has gone to immigrants.

  This is one reason the Chamber of Commerce is pushing hard for immigration reform: they want cheaper labor.
  But where are the unions? They've changed opinions, claiming now that immigration reform would flood their establishments with new members and that wages in general would go up. 
  One wonders at the "logic" of this "reasoning."
  
  
  

Sick of Hillary's old underwear

  It seems to me that those of us who follow politics are really, really sick of all the same characters.
  I wasn't a fan of Bill Clinton, but since he's been out of office he seems far more appealing politically, considering what we have in office now.
  But now old Bill has stepped up his game again and I'm pretty sick of him again.
  See, if you've been off enjoying your life, you might not know that Hillary Clinton has stepped into it during her magnificently unsuccessful book tour.
  Between hysterical cackles, Hillary first claimed she and the hubby were "dead broke" when they came out of the White House, considering that they had so many legal fees to pay, which undoubtedly is true. To lament this publicly, however, is absurd, considering that they quickly became millionaires as they entered the post presidency.
  Hillary's always had an issue with money: when she was First Lady of Arkansas, she wrote off donating used underwear to charity. Um. Specifically. So, yes, she's money grubbing.
  So anyway she's going around the country claiming she isn't rich-rich,which of course she is. Bill corroborates this, then puts his foot in it again by claiming Hillary's right, then goes on tv and cheerfully talks about buying 14 $600 watches to give away.
  Chelsea got into the picture by claiming she's tried really hard to care about money, but she can't. She just can't.
  How ridiculous is this whole mess. These Clinton remarks--and Obama's remarks that he's out there "fightin' for you" meaning Leftists and no one else--are made to make these pampered politicians seem more like us commoners.
  Why pretend? They're not like us. They're empty-headed celebrities, just like the Kardashians. 
  But don't air your dirty underwear to us. That's just too much.
  But beyond how stupid it is, it's interesting that these remarks have blown up, even in the liberal press.
  My theory is that people are sick of Hillary, sick of the Clinton and Obama machines and that Hillary either won't run or won't win. Jeb Bush? Ugh. Another family legacy to be fulfilled. No.
  A few fresh faces on the political stage would be nice, maybe someone we're not all cynical about. 
  And who would that be in the Democrat party. Elizabeth Warren, whose name is being touted frequently as a Hillary replacement? That's about it.
  The Republican bench, otoh, is loaded, particularly with non-RINO conservatives.
  We'll see. The next two years will be interesting. 
 

Vote for Darius Foster (I wish)

  If I lived in Birmingham, Alabama, House District 56, I'd vote for this guy, at least from the ad. 
  I suppose the dirt will be thrown at him, but Darius Foster looks like the real deal to me.
  I find this video inspirational.

Did Obamacare Tank the Economy?

News that the first quarter's GDP had declined by 2.9% both alarmed and puzzled the television talking heads whose job is to explain to us simple folk the complexities of modern life. To be fair, trying to digest pages of arcane data while maintaining a pretense of intelligence is probably harder than it looks so quickly a consensus that bad weather was to blame spread from channel to channel. Oh yes, climate change did it again. Never mind the contradiction that a warming world is supposed to be bad for business as would be consumers and workers alike are drowned by rising sea levels or eaten by dislocated polar bears. Market analysts paused and stuttered and then remembered it was really good news as the Bernanke-Yellen quantitative easing, the federal funny money machine wherein savers subsidize borrowers and drive up stock and commodity prices, would continue even longer than they dreamed.
By mid afternoon after serious economists had time to drill down on the data two narratives emerged. Economist Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago gave credit where credit is due. He cited the implicit taxes in Obamacare as the cause. By implicit taxes Casey means the added cost of health insurance premiums caused by the mandates to buy coverage the insured would not normally purchase. For example, single men and older women usually do not bother to insure against the risk of pregnancy.
Josh Ernst, the greatest White House press secretary since Jay Carney, found the true culprit and guess what? It was good news! Health care spending dropped by its largest percentage in 32 years. It had fallen sharply in 2009 in the depths of the recession but this time when millions of Americans were now covered by Obamacare health care providers had become so much more efficient that costs were falling. Hats off to Kate Sebelius! Vox, the general interest news site for the 21st century agrees completely.

"But it's hard not to be optimistic..."It certainly has been good news up through the end of 2013," Roehrig said. "These other underlying indicators of health care — prices and employment — in the first quarter, they stayed low. In the big picture, the news is good."

Yes, break out the champaign! If one accepts the notion that the obvious answer is usually the correct answer Obamacare is in deep trouble. Mulligan is correct in that the implicit ( and explicit ) taxes in Obamacare are a drag on the economy but moving from macro to the microeconomics what factor most determines a consumer's decision to purchase a good or service? Price. And the huge, pay up front, deductibles found in all but the most expensive insurance plans sold on the Obamacare exchanges may be pricing the insured out of the market. They are insurance poor. Some will argue that the demand for health services is inelastic and that the sick will pay any price for wellness. Then they should explain why health care spending declined during the 2009 recession. Elective and minor surgeries are postponed, flu and common colds are treated with aspirin and endured and costly prescriptions are substituted with over the counter medications.
Aside from cost another complaint about the new policies is narrow networks. No one yet knows of the bottle necks that may be developing in some areas of the country. How many pediatricians are in the network? Ophthalmologists? Urologists? Is this health care rationing VA style?
It could be Josh Ernst is right and I am wrong but what efficiencies could have developed so quickly? In any event the economy must grow by 2.9% this quarter just to break even and that would mean a 5.8% quarter to quarter increase. Democrats should be very nervous.

Residents fight back against fat illegals coming to community

    Well, it's good to know we're winning some battles, if not the one against Lois Lerner's emails. (Ooops, she wrote a number of them from her Blackberry. Wonder what THAT will mean?)
  HHS is scouring the country looking for big empty buildings to dump a bunch of illegal fat asses from Central America.
  Watch these videos and chortle.
  And remember if they come here, this is the way to boot them out. The soft sell from the feds--the social workers--is that the illegal fat asses wouldn't be allowed to leave the empty campus of St. Paul.
  This is cold comfort considering many federal employees aren't held responsible for the havoc they wreak and can only lose their jobs by dying. From The Blaze:

Then there's this from the same meeting.

  The feds have admitted it will take years to hear all these illegal immigrant cases, as if the fat asses will show up in court when they finally get their court dates.
  This would mean folks like those in the town above would be subject to years and years of vandalism, theft and maybe worse, considering that a portion of them may be gang members.
  I know what you're thinking.
  You're thinking I"m being awfully mean to these poor children who have ridden Obama's Death Train to get here so they can vote themselves more government benefits. How dare I call the little dumplings fat asses?
  See, the feds are ordering under garments for the little dumplings. Breitbart:

The DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requires the following items, Purchase Description Determined by Line Item, to the following: 
LI 001: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: Medium Per Dozen, 600, DZ; 
LI 002: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: Large Per Dozen, 600, DZ; 
LI 003: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: X-Large Per Dozen, 600, DZ; 
LI 004: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: 2X-Large Per Dozen, 400, DZ; 
LI 005: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: 3X-Large Per Dozen, 400, DZ; 
LI 006: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: 4X-Large Per Dozen, 400, DZ; 
LI 007: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: 5X-Large Per Dozen, 300, DZ; 
LI 008: White 100% Cotton Men's Briefs Size: 6X-Large Per Dozen, 200, DZ; 

  See what I mean? Not too many mediums in there.
UPDATE: Dear God. 

Lois Lerner targeted Sen. Chuck Grassley for a tax audit

Whoops! Lois Lerner's tangled web just got stickier. It seems Ms. Lerner could not content herself just to push around Tea Party groups and 9/12 Libertarians. She went after a sitting Republican senator. Within the last hour House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp revealed Lerner flagged Senator Chuck Grassley for a tax audit after she mistakenly received an email invitation intended for Grassley.

“We have seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States Senator is shocking,” said Camp. “At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights. We may never know the full extent of the abuse since the IRS conveniently lost two years of Lerner emails, not to mention those of other key figures in this scandal. The fact that DOJ refuses to investigate the IRS’s abuses or appoint a special counsel demonstrates, yet again, this Administration’s unwillingness to uphold the rule of law.”

In conclusion;

The Committee was able to investigate this information through its authority under Section 6103 of the tax code. A waiver was signed by Senator Grassley and his wife in order to make this information public.

What is this? The Golden Age of Anarchy? A career bureaucrat has the brass to try to take down a sitting senator!

OMG they've lost Van Jones!

OMG they've lost Van Jones! I guess it follows that a 9/11 truther would be more receptive to a conspiracy theory than your typical loony leftist. “I am not going to sit here and try and defend all of the bureaucratic shenanigans at the IRS."

Presbyterian Church disses Israel, divests from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola

The American Presbyterian Church is desperately struggling to remain relevant. Like many venerable American institutions such as the American Girl Scouts and Levi Strauss the Church has been infiltrated by liberals. The Presbyterian's latest foray into silliness was the announcement that it was selling off its positions in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions not as part of an investment strategy but because the named companies make it possible for Israel to maintain secure borders.
The group did issue the usual pro forma cant about Israel's right to exist coupled with the goal of a two state solution "in which a secure and universally recognized State of Israel lives alongside a free, viable, and secure state for the Palestinian people."

Fox poll; 76% think Lois Lerner's emails deliberately lost

Who would have thought health care would be Obama's long suit after the disastrous rollout and the inescapable fact that he lied when he said Americans could keep the policies they liked? The latest Fox poll asked respondents to rate Obama in 3 areas; foreign policy, the economy, and health care. the respective ratings are:

	Approve	Disapprove	Don't know
Foreign policy	32	60	8
The economy	38	59	3
Health care	41	56	2

It a little like the joke about the pitcher who only had one pitch-a change up.
Overall Obama approval was 41% approve and 56% disapprove. In favorability he finishes behind Hillary and George W. Bush.

	Approve	Disapprove	Can't say
Hillary Clinton	51	47	3
George Bush	49	47	4
Barack Obama	45	53	2

The most stunning finding in the poll concerned Lois Lerner's lost email. A full 76% of respondents think the emails were deliberately destroyed while only 12% think it was accidental.

Who will pay Detroit's water bill?

Here's a clever ploy. Elect inept and corrupt politicians for decades and when the price of city services such as sewer and water get to the point that half the population cannot afford them run to the United Nations, claim that access to drinking water is a human right and try to get the UN on your side to force out of town taxpayers to pay your water bill. This would free up cash in the family budget for cable TV and an essential data plan that isn't available with an Obama phone.
The City of Detroit is facing a major water crisis, gasps the Blue Planet Project in its report, Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Safe Drinking and Sanitation Regarding Water Cut-offs in the City of Detroit Michigan. The water crisis was brought about by Detroit's bankruptcy and the realization that Detroit's water and sewage departments only worked if customers paid their bills which has not been the case. When 90,000 delinquent accounts suddenly faced the decision to either pay up or get cut off water users were shocked. As cut-off notices went out complaints to Detroit People’s Water Board, (composed of AFSCME Local 207, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Detroit Green Party, East Michigan Environmental Action Council,Food & Water Watch, For Love Of Water (FLOW), Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit, Matrix Theater,Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute, Sierra Club and Voices for Earth Justice.) soared as did the hyperbole.

Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation

"The Detroit People’s Water Board fears that authorities see people’s unpaid water bills as a “bad debt” and want to sweeten the pot for a private investor by imposing even more of the costs of the system on those least able to bear them."

"Given the utility’s lack of interest in cutting costs or generating revenues by collecting on the arrears of business users, fixing leaking pipes, and cutting off services to abandoned homes, the organization sees the crackdown as a ploy to drive poor people of color out of the city to facilitate gentrification – what the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization refers to as a “land-grab.'"

"Sick people have been left without running water and working toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe and parents cannot cook."

Gentrification? It's hard to use that word in the same sentence with Detroit and keep a straight face.  The fact that activists are pleading their case to the UN rather than to the Michigan Assembly or the Obama administration is probably indicative of the city's lost political clout.

So....the divisions in the Progressive Left begin to reveal themselves

  It appears we are at the point in Obama's presidency where the truth begins to emerge through books, covert revelations and declarations of innocence where Obama's behavior is involved.
  Most revealing is the new book Blood Feud by Ed Klein which depicts the hatred the Obamas and the Clintons share of one another.
  This should not be surprising at all: the Clintons ruled the country and then the roost until Obama came along and, of course, Obama thinks he is the cleverest guy in the room, notwithstanding the truly inferior idiots with whom he surrounds himself.
  Undoubtedly the Hillary appointment to State was to salve the disappointment of Hillary fans and corral the party under his lasso.
  Clinton's presidency had many, many scandalous books written about him (not to write in the passive voice---how much of it was true we'll probably never know) but Obama really hasn't had that many, perhaps because often times blogs contain the inflammatory rhetoric that might have been published in a book during the Clinton years.
  Revelations include specific comments the 2 power couples have made about each other and the fact that Hillary Clinton has a bad heart and some serious health issues that could compromise her intent to run for POTUS.
  Apparently Obama thinks Michelle would make a good president. 
  The Obamas call Hillary names.
  Bill despises Obama and Hillary knew right from the start that Benghazi was a terrorist attack.
  Obama's teeny tiny little head is trying to find a successor just like him.
  Though the knives are out for Blood Feud, it's not hard to believe much if not all of it is true.
  Ha. Let 'em eat each other alive.
  Let's quit talking about the divisions in the Republican party and start talking about the divisions on the Progressive movement.

Issa's committee goes prime time

I guess the take away from John Koskinen's insolent demeanor before the House Ways and Means Committee is being IRS Commissioner means never having to say you're sorry. The Commish will get a prime time do over. Showing a media awareness almost never seen on the Republican side of the aisle Rep. Darrell Issa has scheduled a prime time hearing by his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to begin a 7 PM Eastern. Issa's committee has sent a detailed list of questions it expects to be answered down to the barcode(s) for IRS mobile phone(s) issued to Lois Lerner. You can see the entire list here.
Network television can ignore the scandal at it own risk. The public can do without its filters and spin and judge for itself as it watches the drama on C-SPAN. Set your DVR!

California's war on women

This sounds like something that happened in Mississippi in the first half of the last century but no. It happened in California and it is ongoing. The motivation of the prison doctors is not clear nevertheless they performed 144 of tubal ligations. In 39 of those cases it was done without the women's consent. Time, of all publication reports;

A report released on Thursday by the California State Auditor examined 144 cases of tubal ligations (more commonly referred to as having one’s “tubes tied”) performed on imprisoned women over the course of eight years.

“Some of the inmates were sterilized unlawfully, and there were certain safeguards that were designed to limit those occurrences, and those failed,” Margarita Fernández, the auditor’s chief of public affairs, tells TIME.

Among the 144 cases, 39 sterilizations were performed without the inmate’s lawful consent. In another 27 cases, the inmate’s physician did not sign the form that confirmed two key components of consent: first, that the patient was mentally competent and understood the lasting effects of the procedure, and second, that the required waiting period had been satisfied.

 

Navajo: Redskins' name is American

  Once you start banning names, you're on the road to speech control of all kinds. As Bradbury wrote in Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature at which books burn), one group gets offended so we stop something to appease them. Another group gets offended, so we stop doing something else to appease them. Eventually all that's left is stupid movies about farts and pooping.
  Fortunately there are some sensible people left in the world and not surprisingly, several of them happen to be WW2 veterans who saw a lot worse than this. Fox:

Still, he said he would endorse the name if asked, and the televised appearance in which three of the Indians wore Redskins jackets spoke for itself.

"We didn't have that in mind but that is undoubtedly what we did do," Hawthorne said when asked if he was intending to send a statement with the appearance. "My opinion is that's a name that not only the team should keep, but that's a name that's American."

  You'll note in the article, one aggrieved Indian woman claims the Code Talkers are being abused and are too uninformed to know they are, even though Native Americans first started using the name themselves.
  Imagine this woman--whatever she's been through in her life--condescending to a WW2 code talker who's served his country so admirably and fearlessly:

Jacqueline Pata, head of the National Congress of American Indians, called the appearance "a political play rather than a heartfelt recognition of the Code Talkers." Pata, a member of the Tlingit Tribe of Alaska, said she reveres the Code Talkers for the work they have done but added that people often fail to recognize that the origins of the term redskin date to a period when Indians faced efforts to annihilate their culture.

  But in today's hierarchy, since she's a squaw, I suppose she's entitled to disparage old Code Talkers. 
  Heh.

IRS employed email archiving company

  Hmmm. This would complicate things, wouldn't you say?
  Employing an email archiving company?
  Because it's the law and all that to keep records of official documents.
  And all.

White House: criminal syndicates engineering immigrant flood

  White House spokesman: Criminal syndicates are engineering flood of immigrants on our borders. 
  And we're going to put ankle monitors on 4 year old illegals who come here. Yeah.
  What makes Josh Earnest say that?
  Refer you to DHS.
  Of course, the White House was advertising for escort services for unaccompanied children...in January.

  There will be approximately 65,000 UAC in total: 25% local ground transport, 25% via ICE charter and 50% via commercial air. Escort services include, but are not limited to, assisting with: transferring physical custody of UAC from DHS to Health and Human Services (HHS) care via ground or air methods of transportation (charter or commercial carrier), property inventory, providing juveniles with meals, drafting reports, generating transport documents, maintaining/stocking daily supplies, providing and issuing clothing as needed, coordinating with DHS and HHS staff, travel coordination, limited stationary guard services to accommodate for trip disruptions due to inclement weather, faulty equipment, or other exigent circumstances.

IRS hearing reveals Leftist arrogance

  I listened to a good portion of the IRS hearing this morning on the c-Span app.
  I have to say there were quite a few jaw dropping moments.
  IRS employee Koskinen was repeatedly combative and condescending. One might have hoped Democrats would have tried to maintain the illusion of objectivity and concern about the IRS abuse of citizens but no.
  Considering that the formerly mainstream media has been reluctant to cover the IRS scandal, it's difficult to imagine that any Democrat--formerly mainstream media or politician--can be honest about anything without looking down their noses at their opposition and sustaining a slight smile of absolute contempt for anyone with whom they disagree.
  One thing is very clear here: the predominant theme aka talking points of the Democrats is that the IRS targeting of conservative groups is 1. politically motivated 2. the product of conservative "conspiracy theories" and 3. a waste of taxpayer money.
  Repeatedly, the guilty parties insist that thousands and thousand of documents have been submitted and how can anyone expect any more?
  We're so willing to work with Republicans on immigration and the IRS mess, White House spokesman Josh Earnest insists today at the press hearing, that we will actually meet with them, if we can wring some money out of them to pay for the mess we created at the borders created by criminal syndicates in Central American countries.
  Which is of course not true.
  What's happening is that the Obama people are trying to force the hands of those who oppose illegal immigration, regardless of the effect of our economy being overwhelmed by thousands and thousands and thousands of penniless dependents with their hands out demanding health care and a pension. Or worse, flooding our city's streets with even more gang members, all of whom have created an imbalance nationally in the number of "gun violence" victims.
  The arrogance with which these people deal with the messes they have made is breathtaking.
  Sometimes I feel like we're all hanging on by our fingernails because truly, Obama and his people are seeking to apply the Cloward Piven strategy of overwhelming the system and throwing so much crap at everyone at once that vigilant citizens give up, become beaten down and slink away into the night.
  Once again, however, I suspect the current messes will create a backlash unanticipated by the monsters currently overlording it over the rest of us.

ISIS jihadists specialize in crucifixions, beheadings, and slick graphics

The public knows very little about ISIS ( The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ) but the band of about 15,000 blood thirsty warriors exhibits a talent for public relations, something that neither the Maliki government in Iraq nor the Obama administration in Washington  cannot. Like a pr savvy western corporation it issued a 400 page progress report replete with charts and graphics. The group claims about 15,000 jihadists with about 2000 recruits coming from Europe.

The Mary Barra I would like to see

The spin on General Motors CEO Mary Barra is almost laughable. She supposedly is the new face of GM, a refreshing break from the institutionalized incompetence that permeated the auto maker forcing it into bankruptcy. A peek at her Wikipedia entry leaves one wondering if she would be called the "new face" if not for her gender.
Her father was a tool and die maker in the Pontiac division for 39 years. Mary began working at GM when she was 18 in a student co-op program. She studied electrical engineering at the General Motors Institute and upon graduation earned an MBA at Stanford University on a General Motors fellowship. She's a real outsider.

The Wall Street Journal has been favored by Barra with an advanced copy of the written testimony she will present to the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Congressman Tim Murphy.

"I know some of you are wondering about my commitment to solve the deep underlying cultural problems" detailed last week by an outside investigation of a troubled recall of a defective ignition switch, Ms. Barra will tell members of the House Energy and Commerce committee, according to written testimony released Tuesday ahead of her appearance on Wednesday.
"The answer is I will not rest until these problems are resolved," Ms. Barra says in her written remarks, adding "I am not afraid of the truth."

Don't worry Mary, Murphy can't handle the truth. He is playing the game he learned from House Democrats. His intention is to badger you for the entertainment of the folks back home and he hopes when he is finished you will offer up an act of perfect contrition with a firm purpose of amendment. Never again will General Motors willfully endanger the lives of innocent Americans. Thank you, Mary, go thy way and sin no more.
In my dreams the new face of GM would look the committee chairman in the eye and query, "How many of these goddam ignition switches have you built, Congressman? Electrical engineering is my game, Father Murphy, and I make no apologies for the our product. It worked as designed. Only when the dim witted began hanging junk on the key ring did it fail. It worked but not perfectly. The only places we find perfection in this world are in hypothetical designs created by personal injury lawyers."
She would then introduce a battery of statisticians and insurance actuaries and dare the committee to prove that GM built an unsafe car.
General Motors has now recalled more vehicles than it has manufactured since the bailout-17.7 million. Supposedly 13 deaths have been associated with the so called faulty ignition switch. The worst that can be said about the switch is that it may have contributed to accidents. With engine failure there is no power steering. The manual components of the braking system function but since there is no engine vacuum the power booster does not function. What is the acceptable level of performance? If nearly 18 million defective vehicles contributed to 13 deaths that means there is about a 1 in 1.3 million probably of death. What probability is acceptable? One in 5 million? One in 10 million? What is the life of the switch? Some of the cars recalled are 14 years old. GM must build a product that lasts in perpetuity despite owner misuse? If the switch is a design flaw what flaws in other auto makers' design contribute to accidents? Are there blind spots in the mirrors that must be overcome? Are all seats in all automobiles at optimal position for most drivers.
Barra should demand to be shown that the death rate in GM vehicles exceeds the industry average.
I would be critical of GM had it installed an outdated switch but it did not. Those switches were state of the art and they functioned except when they were misused by the consumers. Supposedly evil people in the company questioned as to whether there was a problem. Hell, I still do and I don't own a bolt in the business.
The aversion of risks and unrealistic expectations of safety that has befallen US society for the past 30 years probably is the result, partially, to deficiencies in mathematics on the part of the public, personal injury lawyers who seek settlements regardless of blame and government regulators and jackasses like Rep. Murphy who think only government can provide safety. What passes for unsafe by OSHA is ridiculous. Failure to wear a hard hat when working in an open field! Other regulatory agencies have their own institutionalized phobias. There is a food processing technique used throughout Europe called aseptic filling that was developed in 1961. Without going into great detail, the thermal process is applied prior to the liquid being pumped into a sterile container. In conventional thermal processing the food is pumped into the container, the container is sealed and then thermal process is applied. Because the FDA is worried about the risk of contaminated containers being filled and then never processed this method is scarcely used in food processing in the US. In Europe about 50% of milk sold is shelf stable, needing no refrigeration until opened. The FDA even allows drug manufactures to use aseptic filling but not the food industry, at least not without prohibitive regulation.
Increasingly Americans cannot differentiate risk from phobia. Electrical substations whose transformers emit a constant low hum are termed sinister. One is twice as likely to die from a fall than from a gunshot wound and 53 times more likely to die in a fire than from a bee sting but don't try reasoning with the dogmatic, perpetually endangered nitwits who always seem to make the local television news. Mrs. Barra would win my undying gratitude and  maybe even sell me a car if she would just prove that she is the new face at GM.

EPA chief declares "war on coal," that is, energy in Ohio

  As with natural gas and oil, the United States is blessed with abundant resources in coal, enough to last over 200 years. Coal is produced in 25 states, 90% of which is used to produce 39% of the electricity in the US. Unfortunately Ohio will be greatly affected Obama's EPA rules.
  There are other concerns as well. From  Forbes:

Eliminating coal from the power generation mix without replacing it with other baseload electricity sources would lead to blackouts during times of peak demand in summer and winter. Policies that cause Grandma to freeze to death usually don’t last long. In fact, there’s good reason to believe that now is the time to buy coal.

   This is part of Obama's strategy to appease his own and his followers' war on coal. While Leftists call citing this quote "scaremongering," the reality is that this is what Obama believes:

“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” Obama told the Chronicle. “Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

  Even Leftists are concerned about the effect on the power grid of EPA's war on coal.
  Here you can see two of the US's political grandees' laughing about getting rid of coal as a source of energy.

Cleta Mitchell questions the IRS about Lois Lerner's "lost emails"

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive"

That's Sir Walter Scott's way of saying "the chickens will come home to roost". No one believes the IRS lost Lois Lerner's emails. On June 23, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will have an opportunity to either recant that story or to perjure himself. Presumably he could also elect to invoke the fifth but since he was not at the IRS when crimes occurred that possibility is pretty remote. One suspects the IRS and the White House are playing for time. They know they can ignore congressional subpoenas with impunity because this Congress refuses to enforce them. Darrell Issa has drawn more red lines than Barack Obama. The mischief is there are smarter people than Rep. Issa on the trail. Washington lawyer Cleta Mitchell -who is a damn site smarter than Issa- represents Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote in a lawsuit against the IRS and employees of the IRS specifically Steven Grodnitzky, Lois Lerner, Steven Miller, Holly Paz, Michael Seto, Douglas Shulman, Cindy Thomas, William Wilkins, Susan Maloney, Ronald Bell, Janine L. Estes, and Faye Ng.

In a blistering letter to Justice Department lawyers which you may read here or here Mitchell cites federal statutes and case law that demand that evidence be preserved. She produces a copy a letter to Brigida Benitez who represents the defendants who are being sued in their personal as well as their professional capacities. The upshot of the letter is once a litigation hold letter was received by the DOJ losing emails was not an option. Destruction of evidence is a felony. Mitchell's letter asks:

We are deeply troubled by this news and are concerned about the spoliation of information and documents pertaining to this case and the apparent failure on your part to (a) protect and preserve all potentially relevant information and (b) to advise us of such failure and spoliation when you first learned of it. We are even more concerned after receiving your assurances that you would “abide by your legal and ethical obligations.”
Accordingly, we hereby request that you advise us of the following:
1. What steps did each of you, as counsel for the Defendants, each of them, take to ensure that any and all documents as described in the litigation hold letter and as required by federal law were, in fact, preserved?
2. When did you learn that the destruction, loss or spoliation of emails of Defendant Lois Lerner had occurred?
3. What steps have you, each of you, taken to restore Ms. Lerner’s “lost” emails?
4. Were the “lost” emails from Ms. Lerner’s computer at the IRS or her home computer?
5. Are there documents or records, as described in the Litigation Hold letter or the subpoenas issued to the IRS from any of the Committees, belonging to other defendants that have been “lost”?
We are most disturbed to learn this information from media reports and, in particular, after being chastised by Ms. Benitez regarding the fact that she “will abide by her legal and ethical obligations.” To Ms. Benitez in particular, were you aware of and/or did you participate in, authorize or otherwise sanction the destruction or “loss” of the Lois Lerner emails?
 

What if Lerner's emails cannot be produced? It may let Lerner off the hook but don't try telling congress or Mitchell that all the defendants lost their emails too. Issa can, if he has not, begin subpoenaing the email of the other defendants. Steven Miller-Lois Lerner's boss, Holly Paz-another attorney at the tax exempt division, Douglas Shulman-former IRS Commissioner who visited the White House 157 times, William Wilkins-Chief Counsel of the IRS who defended Jeremiah Wright pro bono in a tax dispute.
The puported loss of Lois Lerner's emails does not kill the investigation but it should renew pressure for a special prosecutor. Cleta Mitchell can't do it all.

Update: Until Speaker Boehner mans up and slaps someone in the House's holding cell for contempt of congress someone else will have to do the heavy lifting. Fortunately Judicial Watch is coming to the aid of Cleta Mitchell, doing the work that your paid representatives cannot. It has filed a FOIA suit against the IRS asking the court to compel the IRS to furnish:

• Any and all records concerning, regarding or related to the number of applications received from organization seeking tax exempt status under 501(c)(4).
• Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to communications between the IRS and members of the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate regarding the review process for organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(4);
• Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to communications between the IRS and any other government agency regarding the review process for organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(4);
• Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to communications between the IRS and any office of the Executive Branch regarding the review process for organizations applying for tax exempt status under 501(c)(4).
•  Any and all records concerning, regarded, or related to the preparation of questionnaires sent to organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status;
• Copies of any questionnaires sent to organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status.

Unions overreach in Uber strike

  If you haven't heard of Lyft, Uber or Sidecare, you're behind the times. These ride-sharing services are conducted through an app or Facebook. I have used Lyft myself in Chicago.
  With payment through Paypal, a rider places a request for a ride for the nearest car, guided by GPS. Drivers' cars are clean and personally owned; drivers take courses and are in contact with the company during rides.
  A few minutes after the request, the car arrives at your door, sometimes with a pink mustache on the dashboard. You hop in, introduce yourselves and you're off. Both drivers and passengers get to rate each other.
  Convenient. Reasonably priced. Prompt.
  What could go wrong?
  I happened to be in Paris last Wednesday when the taxi drivers went on strike over these ride sharing services. Our hotel concierge was particularly contemptuous of the striking taxi drivers, complaining that they were the lowest "cockroaches" of a violent nature who treated their customers abominably. The concierge said that two independent driver cars had been completely destroyed at Charles DeGaulle airport by the drivers, who also demanded the passengers get out of the car and walk. If you've been to CDG, you know that can be quite a distance.
  So last Wednesday was international protest day; our concierge assured us that protest strikes in Paris usually only lasted 24 hours but nothing was guaranteed through traditional taxi services since they weren't answering phones or scheduling rides. As it turned out for us, we hired an independent and everything was fine.
  In the US, unions have been protesting ride sharing apps for quite some time, hand in hand with Leftist mayors and governors in Chicago, DC, NYC, Seattle...who naturally oblige by handing out restrictions, lawsuits, taxes, fees, fines, limitations.
  Taxi unions are a racket. To drive a yellow taxi in New York City requires a medallion, which costs $1 million.
  So the people who supposedly are champions of the little guy support those costs. What's an immigrant to do?
  Interestingly, the strike had the opposite effect on Londoners, many of whom apparently had no idea such services exist.
  Why do I say this?
  Because Uber reported an 850% increase in business.
  Unions and Leftists don't appear to like entrepreneurs or the little guy.

Pelosi: Mean Republicans attack science of potatoes

  Nancy "we have to pass the bill to see what's in it" Pelosi again enters the theater of the absurd.
  On Republican attempts to allow women to eat potatoes even though Michelle Obama does not want women to have that choice:

“Republicans are even going after the nutrition for pregnant women and children, the WIC program. Mandating the WIC program include more white potatoes. You know, were talking about fruits, vegetables, whole grains and the rest, and they have an amendment that says more white potatoes than nutritionists recommend,” Pelosi said during her Thursday press conference.

“These assaults on essential nutritional standards are really hard to explain to anybody but we do know they reject science, they ignore clear cut facts and evidence, betray the best interest of America’s families while protecting special interest.”
“We have to do what’s right for our children and our families,” Pelosi said.

  And Lord knows Nancy and Michelle know "what's right for our children and our families."

As he opens borders, what about "they want us dead" does Obama not understand?

  This past week's shocking developments continue to unfold: While Iraq burns and beheads, Obama announces he might do something at some point to stop the ongoing slaughter.
  We've now lifted out Saigon style US Baghdad officials.
  After jetting around the country burning fuel, Obama ridicules Republicans at a university graduation for not believing in global warming.
  Then he went golfing in the desert and to a DNC fundraiser.
  The IRS makes an equally shocking statement that they have "lost" the emails of Lois Lerner, who was legally required to keep hard copies and to back up her correspondence on internal servers. 
  This, in spite of the long established Echelon spy network, the new NSA storage facility in Utah for citizens' electronic communications, the constant and warrantless harassment of Americans' privacy and the federal intrusion into personal health records in the guise of public safety.
  Meanwhile concerns grow about the number of stinger missiles left in Iraq that could be utilized to bring down a domestic plane.
  And during a war, Obama has released five enemy terrorists whose main goal is to wound this country in any way possible. The Weekly Standard reveals that the five are far worse--five four star generals--than we've understood so far. In fact, they are high leadership in terrorist circles:

The Taliban Five may not plan any direct attacks against the United States in the future. But they have already strengthened the hand of al Qaeda terrorists who have planned such attacks in the past. Why should we assume, as the Obama administration asks us to, that they will not do so again in the future?

The administration once recognized the true nature of the Taliban-al Qaeda alliance. In December 2009, President Obama announced a surge of forces in Afghanistan to reverse the Taliban’s “momentum” and “defeat” al Qaeda. “We must deny al Qaeda a safe haven,” Obama said. And he reminded his listeners that prior to 9/11, “al Qaeda’s base of operations was in Afghanistan, where they were harbored by the Taliban—a ruthless, repressive, and radical movement that seized control of that country after it was ravaged by years of Soviet occupation and civil war, and after the attention of America and our friends had turned elsewhere.”

  Violent Islamists have made it clear their goals are to obliterate this nation's economy, to establish a caliphate and to behead citizens who do not agree with their beliefs such as amputations as punishment, sexual mutilations, imprisonment of women and gays.
  Yet down on our borders, the Obama administration has opened the floodgates, suspected of actually encouraging illegal immigrants to utilize a rehearsed excuse to demand citizenship. 
  Some illegals have even claimed they heard it on the news in their native countries that the American borders are open until the end of June. Get there fast while you can, they believe, to the extent of busload after busload of individuals jamming the borders and preventing Border Control agents from even doing their jobs of protecting this country from a horde of undesirables besieging this country, not to mention jamming military bases.
  Obama appears blissfully unconcerned about the influx of unemployed, non-English speaking, uneducated and dependent drains on the economy rushing to our cities.
  In fact, Democrats smugly say, if you want to fix this problem of thousands of illegals swamping Arizona and Texas (Republican governors), then Republicans ought to come up with a good immigration bill. "If you don't like what is happening at the border, pass comprehensive immigration reform."
  How despicable the Democrat party has become. 
  Will it take a stinger missile exploding a domestic airplane on our shores for so-called "Democrats" to finally renounce this man, who is not struggling at all with appearances any more.
  In the cloistered world of Obama and his allies in both the Democrat and Republican parties, there appears to be very little understanding or concern about the impact hundreds of thousands of dependents will have not only on our economy, but on the long term health of this country. 
  Does Obama not care that any one or more of these individuals, some of whom are violent Mexican gang members, can also be Islamic extremists planning violence in cities that are already decaying.
  Obama declares the world has never been so peaceful, so healthy, kind of like the oceans' waters that have been rolled back by Obama's presence.
  Is he incompetent? Is he evil?
  How about both.

OEA consultant arrested for soliciting prostitution?

  As we mentioned yesterday, a Perrysburg resident named Michael McEachern has been arrested for solicitation of prostitution in Bowling Green, Ohio.
  Third Base Politics has used voting and political contribution records that appear to show that this is the same individual who is a highly paid labor relations consultant for the Ohio Education Association.
  Though politically some Leftists do not believe people should be prosecuted for soliciting prostitution, one has to put such an arrest in context: Northwest Ohio has a serious problem with the sexual trafficking of young girls who are caught in a cycle of sexual abuse and violence.
  The Daughter Project exists to free these adolescent girls of the trap in which they are caught.
  If this individual is indeed an OEA employee which appears to be true at this writing, it is not just a matter of teachers' union dollars being spent to employ persons who participate in sexual trafficking. 
  The problem is that when a union employee is caught in a such a sting, he represents the antithesis of what Ohio educators hope to achieve in the lives of young Ohioans.
  The Bowling Green Sentinel Tribune adds that this operation involved several offices:

Eight people were arrested in a prostitution operation at a Bowling Green hotel Tuesday.
The incident, termed a Human Trafficking Enforcement Operation, was undertaken by the Wood, Ottawa and Wyandot County Sheriff's offices, the Bowling Green Police Division, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
The operation reportedly took place at the Victory Inn and Suites, 1630 E. Wooster St.

  H/T to a local reader and thanks to Third Base for doing the leg work.

Susan B. Anthony List wins 9-0 Supreme Court decision

Cincinnati cry baby, former Rep. Steve Driehaus now has something to cry about. It's not every plaintiff who manages to lose in the Supreme Court 9-0. It was clearly an open and shut free speech case. After losing his election in 2010 Driehaus sued the pro life Susan B. Anthony List. During the 2010 election which Driehaus lost by 7 points, SBAL erected billboards stating that a vote for Obamacare was a vote for abortion. Driehaus sued under an Ohio law that bars “false statements” in political campaigns as if everything else said in the state that year was the gospel truth. It is important to note that all 5 of the justices that support Roe v Wade voted against Driehaus.

How lame can the Tea Party be?

Excuse me while I speak hearsay. It is said that the Tea Party is a grassroots organization that derives its power directly from the electorate. That was the case in the beginning. It was bold, clumsy, outraged and outrageous and it was fun! Now it seems to have had the life sucked out of it by the two national organization, Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Express. It no longer takes to the streets which was a great recruiting tool. It's run by a relatively small number outside insiders who see themselves a visionaries and who view public demonstrations as too plebeian. Never mind our differences just keep the donations coming. And what differences! Sal Russo, the co-founder and chief strategist of Tea Party Express penned an editorial in favor of amnesty even as the Congressional Budget Office determined it  would lower the wages of American workers. Where were the Patriots and the Express when David Brat needed them? To his credit Brat didn't need them that badly but the excuses offered by Mary Beth Martin were unconvincing. We are totally committed to and focused on Chris McDaniels' race in Mississippi was the lame excuse. She can only focus on one race?
This stinks. First of all the Richmond Tea Party which was not to damn busy to help Brat, is currently suing the IRS for violating its political rights by selective targeting. Where has Eric Cantor been in the fight to bring the IRS to account. Well, he penned a guest op in the Richmond Times Dispatch. "Following the IRS scandal, I worked tirelessly to bring Lois Lerner to justice for targeting conservative groups based on their political beliefs, including the Richmond Tea Party." You all remember how tirelessly he worked? I sort of missed it. The point is Richmond is ground zero in the IRS scandal and the Tea Party Patriots and Express would rather look toward Mississippi. I suspect they had an "understanding" with Cantor. Cantor aside, if I controlled either of those organizations there would be informational pickets on every IRS office in the country 5 days a week.
So resources are too scarce to help Dave Brat but not too scarce to back a snake oil salesman and cock fighting aficionado with a phony Linkedin resume against Sen. Mitch McConnell? The University of Louisville was good enough McConnell. He never tried to lie his way into the MIT alumni. Let's look at McConnell's record. The juxtaposition of his to Cantor's is jaw dropping.
On the trendy subject of immigration McConnell voted to the build the border fence, voted to deny illegal immigrants food stamps, voted to block federal funds from being sent to "sanctuary cities" and voted to make English the official language of the United States. Cantor on the other hand advocated for amnesty.
Minority leader McConnell forced Obama into the sequester budget cuts. Even Ronald Reagan never cut federal spending. Tea Party heartthrob and fierce budget hawk Paul Ryan bargained the cuts away to Patty Murray and majority leader Eric Cantor supported the new budget resolution.
Ann Coulter points out that " McConnell was the Ted Cruz of campaign finance laws, leading filibusters to block these outrageous infringements on free speech, writing op-eds and giving speeches denouncing them, and directly suing to have McCain-Feingold declared unconstitutional in McConnell v. FEC."
Cantor was able to comply with campaign laws and raise $7.5 million for his campaign. His biggest contributor was the Blackstone Group of midtown Manhattan. He lost to Dave Brat whose largest contributor was Baugh's Auto Body of midtown Richmond.
There is so much the Tea Party could do in the fall elections beyond what passes for acceptable activism. Everyone knows which seats are safe and need little if any outside help. Those districts contain millions of would be volunteers just looking for a fight. With only a little expense Tea Parties could match volunteers in safe districts to aid in get out the vote efforts in competitive districts. It could be a million man ( and woman ) phone bank. Everyone has spare cell phone minutes to burn. If a Tea Party volunteer called a list of Republican voters and was candid that he was from out of district or out of state he would get a polite reply most of the time. The volunteer would be armed with the pertinent opposition research on the opponent and the proper attributes of the supported candidate. He could exchange email addresses and furnish links to key online resources and make the voter promise to vote. The battle for the hearts and minds of the electorate is over; all the Republican Party must do this next election is to show up.
That is one suggestion but were the national organizations as creative as the hearty souls who gave birth to the movement there would be more and better suggestions. The leadership has lost its way so quickly. It cannot even define friend or foe. Maybe Martin and Russo should get real jobs.

Hooray for John Kasich-sort of

It's indeed seldom this blog finds much reason to praise Gov. John Kasich so savor the moment. Without comment Kasich signed senate bill 310 into law, a bold move that will put Ohio on track to ending the renewable energy boondoggle. Ohio just signed its terrible anti-renewable energy bill into law sobbed Salon. The bill freezes the mandates until 2017 and creates a committee that can euthanize the comatose mandates without further legislative action.
Former Governor Ted Strickland who presided over Ohio's deindustrialization moaned at Think Progress "Let me be clear, this vote does not represent a compromise, it represents a giveaway to utility companies and the end of Ohio’s leadership in the renewable energy industries.” He added. “When I signed SB 221 into law it put consumers on a level playing field with the utility companies.'"
Consumers and level playing fields? That is code talk for rigged markets. The Public Utilities Commission is tasked with setting utility rates. Evidently the former governor overlooked this while he was in office. Electricity is electricity and forcing rate payers to pay up for green energy offers little to those outside the cartel of energy producers who can only sell their products through coercion.
So how does the courageous John Kasich handle this victory for free markets and lower utility rates? He handles like a 12 year old boy caught masturbating. He doesn't want to talk about. It wasn't his idea. The devil made him do it. Good God John, grow a pair.
Lest courageous John think the worst of the blowback to the green energy caliphate is behind him, Ohio legislators added an amendment to the House budget bill, H.B. 483, which would greatly increase the distance between wind turbines and private property thus greatly reducing available sites for windmills. Tilting with windmills is not Quixotic, John, it's good economics.

Who is Michael McEachern?

  Local rumors are swirling tonight over yet another police arrest for sexual trafficking arrests in Bowling Green, Ohio.
  This man is one of the eight arrested; human trafficking is a serious problem in this country, with Northwest Ohio one of the top in the nation.
  Michael McEachern is one of the accused:

51 year old Michael McEachern, Perrysburg

  Northwestohio.com has the article, which is very short, but an extensive Google search reveals a few names that are significant contributors to the NWO work force. This man is the accused.
  H/T to a reader.

Please, Congressman Jordan, Your country needs you.

Selecting the right majority leader is essential to preventing John Boehner from ramming through immigration legislation during the lame duck session. It would be sad irony to gain the senate and lose the fight on immigration, voted into law by many outgoing congressmen. Kevin McCarthy is a California pragmatist, a mind set which the Republican Party has in long supply. It was disappointing to see Rep. Jeb Hensarling withdraw from consideration and heartening to see Pete Sessions to follow suit. It's not to much to ask that the majority leader have paid the bank rate for his mortgage, like the electorate, rather than a sweetheart rate from Countrywide Financial. He was also tangentially tied to the Abramoff scandal. The last thing the Republican Party needs is another Texas embarrassment in the mold to Tom DeLay.
Presently McCarthy is the only representative to announce for the leadership post. The National Journal reports that Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho is considering a run but why not the best?



The seat is probably Jim Jordan's for the asking yet Congressman from Ohio's12th congressional district seems reluctant to commit. Speaking of Jordan, Rep. Steve King of Iowa laid out his case. “He commands the respect of the whole conference; he’d be an ideal candidate for majority leader; he’s never advocated for amnesty.”
Enough said! A look at his track record as a state legislator reveals the 4 time high school state wrestling champion is a superior legislator and a true conservative. He was a Tea Party candidate before there was a Tea Party. From his Wikipedia entry;
Jordan was named Watchdog of the Treasury (1996, 2000, 2004), Outstanding Legislator (2004), Outstanding Freshman Legislator (1996), Friend of the Taxpayer (1997), and Pro-Life Legislator of the Year (1998) by the United Conservatives of Ohio, the Defender of Life award from the Ohio Right to Life Society, and the 2001 Leadership in Government Award from the Ohio Roundtable and Freedom Forum.
Come on Congressman, You're the one we have been waiting for.

Video: Pro amnesty mob storms Cantor's headquarters-Kick while they're down

One can't blame Cantor's supporters for being a bit perturbed. A few hours earlier they showed up anticipating a victory gala. BTW Cantor's organization spent $40,000 in steakhouses over the course of the campaign compared to David Brat's total outlays of $120,000. Anyway as if they were not depressed enough the wake was stormed by a mob of immigration activists. Luckily Cantor won't be able to do much to help them in another 6 months.

Congratulations Richmond Tea Party

I think the base has made it clear how it feels about immigration. Perhaps Cantor can now pimp for Mark Zuckerberg and the Chamber of Commerce.  Brat's victory over Cantor in the primary marked the first defeat of an incumbent House Majority Leader since the position's creation in 1899!
This was the Tea Party working as it was intended-from the bottom up. David Brat enjoyed tremendous support from the Richmond Tea Party. They are the ones who rang the doorbells and drove the voters to the polls and they are the people who should be taking the bows with David Brat. According to Laura Ingraham Brat could not get Mary Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots on the phone. Tea Party Express was MIA as were the usual big donors such as the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity. Brat raised only about $200,000 while being outspent by a 20 to 1 ratio. Again the Tea Party worked as we always thought it should!

Did anyone ask Sgt. Bergdahl if he wanted to come home?

It has been accepted as a given that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl wanted to come home but upon reflection there is no reason to jump to that conclusion. What is known is that he has been kept under wraps since his release and held incommunicado. Usually by this time one would expect to hear at least some gushy story as to how he likes his eggs or his need to catch up on his favorite sports team or how cleverly he thinks the president makes his NCAA bracket choices but no. There has been nothing but silence. He is in fairly good health and does not wish to speak to his parents. End of story.
There is the possibility that Bergdahl was perfectly content to roam about the Afghan countryside with his buds, plinking with his AK-47 and planning his promised tryst with 72 virgins. Without diving headlong into a sticky concoction of Stockholm syndromes, oedipus complexes, psychological repressions, suppressions and regressions could we just posit the theory that he is a chip off the old block? Are there any members of his family that you can think of who speak Pashto and offer up Islamic incantations in the White House Rose Garden? Does the adjective squirrely fit one or more members of the Bergdahl family? As in straight from the top of the tree?
What little bit is that known about the Bergdahl's suggests that they are unconventional, to say the least. They left California for remote Idaho to live for years without phone service and many modern convinces. They seem long on the theological aspects of religion but one might guess short on faith. Is their religion more than an intellectual exercise? That is between them and God but they are a pair of odd ducks and I have always been suspicious of those who display so much piety.


If Bowe Bergdahl has had an honest conversion to Islam Obama is in a hell of a mess. Yes, the country knows not all Muslims are extremists but would he have picked up a pacifist brand of Islam from extremist Muslims? Suppose his first news conference concludes with Allahu Akbar? What if he states he wants to go back. What if he tries to go back? To date his career his been short on the honor and long on the distinction. Will he suddenly strike the proper balance? Again, there is no reason to believe he wanted to come home and the longer he is isolated from the public only confirms that in my mind. Would anyone have thought that an Army major who had served with honor and distinction would gun down 45 American soldiers?