June 19, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Energy Geek Week (2): Greens Need to Take Their Brown Lumps

Featured image 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 »
June 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Negotiating the terms of America’s humiliation

Featured imageThe 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 »
June 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Open enrollment

Featured imageIn 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 »
June 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

The Iranian election — the foreign policy establishment’s take

Featured imageThe 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 »
June 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Are Republican Politicians Really Stupid?

Featured imageI 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 »
June 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Two Stories About Privacy: A Journalist and a Quisling

Featured imageThere 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 »
June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Let’s not go there [Updated]

Featured imageYesterday, 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, »
June 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson

The cunning Mr. Cummings

Featured imageHouse 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 »
June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Boehner commits to Hastert Rule on immigration reform

Featured imageI 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 »
June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Tom Perez foiled, we hope

Featured imageWe have written about the lengths to which Tom Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, went to induce the City of St. Paul into withdrawing its appeal of a fair housing lawsuit that raised the viability of claims based on disparate impact. In exchange for dropping its case, the U.S. government, spurred by Perez, agreed not to intervene in an unrelated False Claims Act case that had the »
June 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Tell Dems: Stop scamming voters

Featured imageThe Democrats of the (Democratic) House Majority PAC are out with a seemingly ubiquitous Internet ad that blares: DON’T LET STUDENT LOAN RATES SKYROCKET! TELL REP. KLINE: STOP SCAMMING STUDENTS! Usage note: “Ubiquitous” is an adjective that does not admit of comparison. It means present everywhere at once. Something is not “very” ubiquitous, or “relatively” ubiquitous. In this context, when I use the adjective, I am describing a stupid left-wing »
June 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker

CBO Analysis Confirms: Gang of Eight Bill Is a Disaster

Featured imageThe 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 »
June 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker

“Marco, There’s Somebody on Television Pretending To Be You!”

Featured imageToday 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 »
June 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Energy Geek Week: Peak Oil RIP Edition

Featured imageCommenter 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 »
June 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Green Weenie of the Week: Jerry Brown

Featured imageNow I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t California Governor Jerry Brown deserve a coveted Power Line Green Weenie lifetime achievement award for some of the things he did 35 years ago, when he was governor first time around?  Goes without saying.  It was back during Brown’s “Moonbeam” years that California embarked on its dirigisme energy policy, with some of the first major subsidies for wind and solar power that gave »
June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

The Gang that couldn’t talk straight

Featured imageYesterday, it was revealed that an aide to Sen. Rubio made the following statement to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it. There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss »
June 17, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Miss Utah vs. Barack Obama and Jay Carney

Featured imageThe Miss USA pageant was last night; it was won by Erin Brady, Miss Connecticut: There is an interesting trend toward the Northeast in Miss USA, as last year’s winner (and this year’s Miss Universe) was Olivia Culpo, Miss Rhode Island. But today’s news about the pageant focused less on Miss Brady than on Marissa Powell, Miss Utah. Miss Powell was the third runner-up, but she was deemed to have »