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“Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.” Winston Churchill
“Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.” Inscription on the Liberty Bell
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Another likely Rubio whopper
Marco Rubio made another one of his seemingly endless appearances on Sean Hannity’s program to advocate amnesty legislation. Rubio told Hannity that he has opposed amendments by Republican Senators to improve the legislation’s enforcement provisions because a new enforcement provision will be proposed tomorrow that is tougher and more effective than what has been proposed so far. Rand Paul’s amendment, which Rubio voted against, would have given Congress, not the »How Obamacare Is Being Used to Create a Permanent Democratic Majority
To a remarkable degree, liberalism has been institutionalized as an official ideology, funded by your tax dollars. This editorial in Investors Business Daily explains, in shocking detail, how Obamacare is being used to fund Democratic Party operatives and drive Democratic Party enrollment: The Obama administration granted a whopping $910 million to California to set up its insurance exchange. That money is not for bandages, surgery, nurses and doctors to care »Americans Don’t Like the Federal Government…
…so why do we keep giving it more money and power? Scott Rasmussen asked 1,000 Americans a simple question, but one that I don’t recall seeing polled before: do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the federal government? (The question included “somewhat” and “very” options.) The result was 35% favorable, and 60% unfavorable. Therein lies one of the perennial mysteries of American politics. Most of us don’t think »The Weekly Winston: Syria Policy Drift
I’ve been lax lately in my Churchill posts, but the appalling spectacle last week of the Obama Administration’s tentative and pusillanimous decision about Syria brings to mind one of Churchill’s most famous beatdowns of appeasement, his 1936 “Locust Years,” speech, which includes this peroration that applies perfectly to Obama’s Syria policy (just swap out “Secretary of State Kerry” for First Lord of the Admiralty, and “President Obama” for “Prime Minister,” »Energy Geek Week (2): Greens Need to Take Their Brown Lumps
I sometimes wonder what would happen to Hollywood if their political inclinations were actually put into practice. Not many people would be able to drive to the theater to take in their latest films. How would that work out for them? This speculation was prompted by our pal Tom Pyle at the Institute for Energy Research, who writes this morning at RealClearEnergy about the colossally dishonest Gasland II, Josh Fox’s »The Iranian election — the foreign policy establishment’s take
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Subcommittee on the Middle East and Northern Africa) held a hearing yesterday on the Iranian elections. Wanting to know more about the subject, and to see our friend Tom Cotton in action, I attended. Tom delivered a strong opening statement in which he made it clear that in order to justify any change in U.S. policy toward Iran, the regime must do more than »Are Republican Politicians Really Stupid?
I have never thought so. On the contrary, the Republican politicians I know well are far smarter and much more hard-working than the public gives them credit for. Still, there are times when you wonder: are Republican politicians–not voters, but politicians–pathologically unable to learn from experience? The current immigration controversy is a case in point. Who could possibly consider it a good idea to bring in one-quarter to one-third of »CBO Analysis Confirms: Gang of Eight Bill Is a Disaster
The Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the Gang of Eight’s immigration proposal today, and spinning is in full swing. The fact is, however, that the basic facts can’t be spun: the bill is a disaster. As with Obamacare, the Gang structured its bill to make it “score” artificially well from a budget perspective. They did this by delaying the newly legalized immigrants’ eligibility for most federal welfare benefits »“Marco, There’s Somebody on Television Pretending To Be You!”
Today the Senate voted down amendments to the Gang of Eight’s bill that were proposed by Senators Thune and Vitter. Thune’s amendment would have required 350 miles of the 700-mile border fence that was mandated by the 2006 Secure Fence Act to be completed prior to any legalization of illegal aliens. The remaining 350 miles would have to be built thereafter. Thune’s amendment highlights what a joke the Gang’s promises »Energy Geek Week: Peak Oil RIP Edition
Commenter David Hill reminded us yesterday of Steve Martin’s excitement about new phone books (one of my favorite scenes, too), but my seriously analogous moment comes this week every year when BP releases it Annual Statistical Review of World Energy. For a data maven like me, it’s a total geekfest. (“The new BP Review is out! The new BP review is out!”) Since BP makes its data available on downloadable »Negotiating the terms of America’s humiliation
The U.S. has commenced negotiations with the Taliban. The Afghan government is excluded from the talks, which I consider a disgrace. The U.S. has proved to be a worse than feckless partner. Why any state or group would ever again cast its lot with America, where there are other options, is beyond me. Quite apart from the exclusion of the Afghan government, the negotiations strike me as a classic case »Open enrollment
In its second term the Obama administration continues to do great harm to the land of the free and the home of the brave, nowhere more so than in the preservation of Obamacare. The preservation of Obamacare appears to be its sole purpose. We really ought to be paying more attention to the subject. Open enrollment for Obamacare begins on October 1 for full implementation on January 1, 2014. The »Two Stories About Privacy: A Journalist and a Quisling
There is lots of talk, these days, about privacy: about cyber surveillance; about intrusive government; about whether we can feel secure on the telephone and on line. Amid all the noise, it is sometimes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. But one story that definitely deserves our attention is the hacking of CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s home and work computers. This is precisely the kind of totalitarian scenario »Let’s not go there [Updated]
Yesterday, I suggested that the most plausible scenario under which Congress enacts Schumer-Rubio style amnesty legislation is one in which: (1) the House passes very different legislation, but (2) relents in conference with the Senate, and (3) adopts the conference version with near unanimous Democrat support and a few dozen Republican votes. One way to avoid this scenario is for the House to pass no immigration reform legislation at all, »The cunning Mr. Cummings
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has posted a statement on the IRS investigation that responds to Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings’ announced intention to post the full investigative interview of IRS employee John Shafer online. Cummings has now posted the transcript here (part 1) and here (part 2), as the Washington Post reports. Here is Issa’s statement in its entirety: I am deeply disappointed that Ranking Member Cummings has decided »Boehner commits to Hastert Rule on immigration reform
I hear that at the weekly House GOP conference, Speaker Boehner firmly committed to the Hastert rule on immigration reform legislation, with no wiggle room. Boehner explained that he, Pelosi, and Hastert have violated the rule when they had no leverage and other options were worse, e.g., with fiscal-cliff legislation. But this is not the case with immigration reform, he said. Boehner’s view, from what I’m hearing, is that President »