Weekend Download (June 26–28) [UPDATE]:Clyburn payoff
The Weekend Download is a synopsis of the weekend’s major news events that the politicians tried to slip past you, as determined by the Seive of Knowledge.™ These weren’t the only stories this weekend, but they were the ones that were destined to come out on a weekend in the summer.
Hope-ocrisy Continues Unabated as Obama Drafts Order for Permanent Detention.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Obama administration is considering issuing an executive order authorizing indefinite detention for suspected terrorists, a policy in force under the Bush administration since 9/11 and one that Obama called criminal, unconstitutional and all sorts of words he has yet to use for Iranian leaders. The order, if ever signed by Obama, would allow the United Sates to permanently hold suspected terrorist until the end of hostilities, just as Bush did in Gitmo. The blatant flip flop on one of the primary justifications for Obama’s candidacy was yet one more in a continuing series of policy reversals in which President Obama has followed nearly in lockstep President Bush’s policies on the global war on terror.
House Democrats Enact Largest Tax Increase in History; Drag a Kennedy out of Rehab
All day Friday, the über-liberal House Democrats begged, borrowed and stole votes in order to push through the most fantastically idiotic piece of dog excrement ever to be vomited out of Henry Waxman’s mouth. The Democrats were so disorganized, and the bill was so haphazardly written,that a 300 page amendment had to be added literally in the dead of night, and the Democrats violated House rules by attempting to vote on the bill before it was officially presented.
The entire bill, totaling over 1300 pages, is longer than War and Peace and Atlas Shrugged, and no member of Congress who voted for it has actually read it. In fact, when Minority Leader Boehner attempted to read the 300 page amendment on the House floor, it was called a filibuster. (A filibuster, ironically, is when a member delays the business of Congress by reading a work that has no connection with the business of Congress). The bill, which Boehner later called a “pile of shit” ultimately passed, but the Democrats had to pull a Kennedy out of rehab to ensure passage.
Much like the failed stimulus bill, the massive tax legislation (it’s Double Speak name is “Cap & Trade”) passed by the House on Friday is complicated, self-contradictory and will ultimately be the source of massive, steaming piles of unintended consequences. For example, the bill taxes utility companies for their use of fossil fuels, but prohibits those utilities from passing the taxes or added costs on to the consumer. As the stated purpose of the bill is to reduce the use of fossil fuels, this is, at first nonsensical: passing along the cost would encourage “appropriate” consumer behavior by forcing customers to reduce their usage or face steeper utility bills. Secondly, if utilities are unable to pass along ever-increasing costs, the government has effectively fixed prices. Anyone who has lived through the 1970′s knows what that means: rationing of electricity and gasoline. Welcome to the Obamanation. The legislation is expected to die in the more rational Senate.
Speaking of. . .
. . .tax increases, Obama’s chief advisor said that Obama has not ruled out tax increases in order to pay for universal healthcare/socialized medicine/handouts to non-taxpayers/whatever it is we’re calling it now. This may not seem newsworthy, except that Obama has been running around saying, incredulously, that the entire cost of any new government healthcare program will be paid for by cost reductions. Stop laughing, he’s still president for at least three and a half more years.
. . . piles of dog excrement, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday that the Judiciary Committee will need more time to review the 300 boxes of new material regarding Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s time with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund that was “inadvertently” not disclosed earlier by the Obama administration. We are assured that Chairman Leahey will respond reasonably.
Chicago v. Detroit in Backscratching Olympiad
Let me play Rod Serling for a moment and tell you a story with one crucial piece missing: Picture a man . . . a politician, fiercely partisan. He’s from the sort of city where “Community Organizer” is a growth industry. And yet, in March of 2009, shortly after the first ever Community-Organizer-American is elected President, this man, John Conyers (D-Detroit, Michigan) threatens to investigate the mother of all Community Organizers: ACORN. Conyers, who is now chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, says he is troubled by the allegations of voter fraud, protests for hire, shakedowns and other potentially criminal conduct by the organization that is tied like a millstone-albatross mixed-metaphor around the new President’s neck.
The announcement that such a high-ranking House Democrat would challenge such a well-connected (and obviously corrupt) enterprise was shocking to many. But nonetheless, there it was, lingering for three months. The promise that ACORN would face an investigation at the hands of Sheriff John Conyers. Then came, the POWERS THAT BE. This past Friday, John Conyers announced that “the powers that be decided against” an investigation of ACORN. When it was pointed out that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee had the authority investigate anyone without getting a note from anyone, not even the principal’s office, Conyers’s spokesman, reflecting his years of training and countless hours spent honing his spokesperson skills in front of a mirror said that Conyers was referring to himself as “the powers that be.” (That must make for odd conversation: “Honey! The powers that be are home!” “Please pass the powers that be the salt and pepper.”)
So, there’s the mystery. A spark of outrage, followed by an “eh, I donwanna,” three months later. Did any thing of note happen in the intervening time? Anything that could explain a change of heart? Hmm, well, there was the small matter of Monica Conyers, the Congressman’s wife, pleading guilty in federal court to bribery charges and facing three to five years in federal prison.
To sum up, Conyers threatened to investigate ACORN, presumably knowing that his wife was or would be under investigation by the FBI for bribery and he could use an ACORN investigation as leverage with the Obama administration. Once his wife was indicted, she presumably struck a deal with federal prosecutors, and Conyers either spent his leverage for a better deal or (even more comically) Obama threatened a more harsh prosecution if Conyers didn’t relent. (We will see exactly how dirty Obama’s and ACORN’s laundry are when we see what happens to Mrs. Conyers at sentencing). He puts one of yours in committee hearings, you put one of his in Lompoc. THAT’s the Chicago way!
UPDATE [Hat tip HotAir] Speaking of Backscratching…
Just before Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination for President, influential Democrat James Clyburn surprised many people and endorsed Obama. On Friday, the bill was paid off as Clyburn’s daughter was nominated for a five year position as commisioner of the FCC. I’d tell you what I really think, but the FCC has standards. The full list of nominations is here.