A Small Judicial Victory for Common Sense

Mark Noonan6 Comments

A triumph of common sense over political correctness – from CNA:

An Illinois judge’s July 12 order will allow Catholic Charities to continue its foster care work in three dioceses, despite an attempt by state officials and the governor to end the partnership.

“This is a great win for the 2,000 children under the care of Catholic Charities, protecting these kids from the grave disruption that the state’s reckless decision to terminate would have caused,” said Peter Breen, Executive Director and Legal Counsel at the Thomas More Society.

Breen said that Catholic Charities, with the legal assistance of his organization, “will continue this fight” to continue “the high-quality foster and adoption care that the Catholic Church has provided for over a century to Illinois children.”…

As you might have guessed it, liberalism is at the bottom of this – Illinois passed a law last December entitled Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act which, its sponsors said, would allow for civil unions but would not in any way, shape or form interfere with those faith-based groups which were doing charitable work in Illinois.  It was specifically asked, in legislative debate, if this bill would prohibit faith-based institutions from dealing with foster care and adoption – and the answer was “no”.  It was this assertion which may have allowed enough Illinois legislators to swallow “civil unions” – as long as people of faith are protected, who can have an argument against anyone – gay or straight – having a civil union?  Presto, the law was done.  But that was without anyone reckoning on the ultimate desire of leftwing activists…whether or not gay people shall be married, civil-union’d or shot to the Moon is irrelevant…what is relevant is whether or not faith can be attacked…especially the Catholic Church part of it.

Because the Catholic Church will not place a child in a gay or cohabitating home (so, you see, it isn’t about gays for the Church…it is about the Church’s adherence to Christian sexual morality), someone in the Illinois government – clearly with an anti-Christian axe to grind – decided to terminate Illinois’ contracts with Catholic Charities regarding adoption (any gay person with a gripe would be a person just being a jerk – plenty of adoption agencies in Illinois will adopt out to a gay couple…and even Catholic Charities would refer a gay person to such agencies should a gay person happen to wander in to a Catholic adoption agency).  Didn’t matter that Illinois doesn’t have the facilities to take on the thousands of kids under Catholic Charities’ care; doesn’t matter that the Illinois government has proven routinely incompetent in dealing with such social issues, didn’t matter that kids lives would be disrupted…all that mattered was bashing the Church, bashing Christianity, bashing morality.

Fortunately, a judge has seen right through this and put, at least temporarily, a stop to it.  Hopefully now some wiser heads will prevail and some sort of accommodation can be worked out so as to ensure that the kids are taken care of.  But this this what is so wrong about our society – liberal ideology has so infected is that even something as common-place as a Church caring for orphans has become politicized, and the realm of lawsuits.  There is a sickness in liberalism – some sort of disease of the spirit which generates such mean spirited actions.  This should never have happened – in any decent society, it wouldn’t have happened.  A small victory for common sense – but common sense should not have had to take the field of battle; it should have been automatic that no sane person would ever dream of challenging the care of orphans.

Obamunism! Consumer Confidence Hits Two Year Low

Mark Noonan60 Comments

From Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell three points on Thursday to 67.8. That’s the lowest level in nearly two years, since July 24, 2009.  Consumer confidence is down four points from a week ago, down eleven points from a month ago and down ten points from three months ago…

There are a few polls out there purporting to show Obama and his Democrats as the winners in the budget debate…that the GOP will be blamed if there is a shut down or default.  These polls fly in the face of two facts:

1.  Its not like the Democrats are innocent bystanders with nothing to do with the issue.

2.  Poll after poll shows people just miserable about the state of the nation.

Given these two facts, I find it highly unlikely that a majority of Americans – or even a plurality – will heap blame primarily upon the GOP for whatever goes wrong.  To this day, probably not one in 20 Americans could correctly identify the Speaker of the House in a line up.  No, my friends, if things blow up, they blow up in Obama’s face…he’s the President, he’s the man who said that everything was going to get better with him in office, he’s the man who said he’d bring us all together.

Well, people can see that isn’t working and that is why Obama’s poll numbers are tanking…and if don’t get a budget deal, people aren’t going to suddenly say, “hey, that poor Obama!  Done in by the GOP so let’s re-elect Obama”.  That just isn’t going to happen.  The only way Obama and his Democrats can gain a 2012 advantage is if things get better – and so much better that people can clearly perceive that things are improving.  Can that happen?  Certainly – not too likely, but it can happen…but if it doesn’t happen then people will not give Obama four more years just because they’re mad at the House GOP leadership, even supposing they lay primary blame on them for the failure to get a budget deal.

Gunwalker: It Always Was About Gun Control

Mark Noonan22 Comments

From Katie Pavlich at Townhall:

Democrat Representatives Maloney, Cummings and McCarthy, all members of the Minority on the House Oversight Committee chaired by Republican Congressman Issa, plan to hold a press conference tomorrow to announce new gun control anti-gun trafficking legislation in light of Operation Fast and Furious. The “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” is designed to “keep high powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.”

It was back on June 17th, as the Gunwalker scandal really started to gain some traction, that I opined that the ultimate purpose might have been to justify a new round of gun control legislation.  The fact that the Democrats are advancing this new bit of gun-grabbing indicates that I was correct – the patent absurdity of enacting a law with “strengthen law enforcement” in the title is just an example of Democrat chutzpah.  My guess is that the attempt to do it right now is based upon a worry that they need something to deflect attention away from the scandal, or a conviction on their part that the scandal won’t catch on in the public mind.

Liberals are gun-grabbers, plain and simple.  They hate the fact that average Americans possess fire arms.  It flies right in the face of their ultimate desire to dictate every detail of our lives – from what sort of house we live in, to how we get around, to how the kids are raised, to whether or not we can worship God.  An armed population just gets in the way of all this – so, they seek by any means necessary to take away our weapons.  Do not be surprised that they cooked up a plan to provide guns to the cartels and then point to those weapons in cartel hands as a justification for gun control – this, to them, is just a clever tactic.  That people had to die because of it is no matter – certainly no matter to a party which has ruthlessly defended the murder of tens of millions via abortion.

Eternal vigilance will be the price of keeping ourselves armed – they’ll never give up.  The years will stretch on and issue after issue will come up, but our liberals will always, at some point or another, come back to an effort to disarm us.  Never let up for a minute in defense of gun rights – the slightest, momentary slip could cost us everything.

Congressman to Obama: Quit Talking

Mark Noonan4 Comments

Well, strictly speaking, he actually said Obama should “quit lying” – but it is a bit of same/same.

My view is that we should just ignore the President – pass a bill out of the House (and, actually, second and third looks at the McConnell plan are making it appear better), send it to the Senate and just leave it in their lap.  Let the Democrats argue amongst themselves – and when the blow it (because, as liberals, they can do no other), let them carry their disaster in to 2012.

Our bill should do the following:

1.  Have a mechanism to raise the debt ceiling incrementally – with the onus of each rise squarely on the President.

2.  Guarantee that available funds will be used for debt payment, Social Security/Medicare, Defense in that order, all other agencies getting whatever is left over.

3.  Cuts spending $1.5o for each $1.00 of debt ceiling increase.

4.  Imposes a 1% “wealth tax” on all wealth in excess of $5 million.

Pass it, throw it over to them, and then just sit back and watch.

 

Government Shut Down in Minnesota Enters Crisis Phase

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Seems that the liquor licenses are expiring – from Powerline:

Mark Dayton’s shutdown of Minnesota’s state government is now in its third week, and so far I’ve seen no sign of it. I mean that literally: if I hadn’t read about the shutdown in the newspapers, I would have no reason to be aware of it…

…This morning, however, the Strib pulled out the heavy artillery with the revelation that bars across the state of Minnesota are beginning to lose their ability to sell beer, wine and liquor:

Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes — a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown.

The logical thing to do here is to make liquor licenses last longer – or make them automatically renewed during a period of government shut down.  Of course, we can also debate whether or not the State should even be regulating the sale of things as common to humanity, for thousands upon thousands of years, as beer and wine (an argument can be made about hard liquor as it is a relatively new development…no more than 500 or so years; such newfangled things even we conservatives can wish to see regulated until we’re really sure how it works out).  Beer and wine are really just a sort of food – as common on the human lunch and dinner table as bread and milk.  And you can perfectly well keep it out of the hands of the kids without licensing the sale of it.  Away with this Puritan legacy of regulated beer…

Of lesser importance than beer (and I really mean this) is the effect this government shut down is having on attitudes in Minnesota.  The government is shut down and yet people are managing to live – this is a body blow Big Government.  The world didn’t end – it will take liberalism a long time to recover from this.  Meanwhile, with liberalism in disarray, we have an excellent opportunity to turn beer and wine back over to the complete control of the people by eliminating all government responsibility for its production, distribution and sale.  High time that the adults of America got to decide how much beer to drink, and when.

UPDATE:  The Democrat governor caves in and agrees to the GOP budget.  Let that sink in a little bit – in a blue State, with the entirety of the Ruling Class and the MSM on his side, the Democrat had to surrender when the GOP stood firm.  This can be repeated nationally.

Poll: “Generic” Republican Beats Obama by 5

Mark Noonan128 Comments

From Rasmussen:

…The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that the generic Republican picks 48% of the vote, while the president gets 43% support.  Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided…

It seems to me that as we have gotten deeper in to the budget and debt battle and have stood ever more firmly, we have been gaining an advantage over Obama and his Democrats. This is in keeping with the November results and with the general tenor of the American people – everyone is sick to death with business as usual.  This slowly discovered GOP backbone is giving people something to be hopeful about.

Stand up; stand firm – no fear and no worries.  We’ll win this fight if we just stick to our guns.

UPDATE:  Gallup has the generic Republican up by 8, and Obama only getting 39%!

Moody’s Tries to Scare Us

Mark Noonan14 Comments

From Market Watch:

Moody’s Investors Service said late Wednesday it placed the U.S. government’s triple-A bond rating on review for possible downgrade due to rising risk of default. “The review of the U.S. government’s bond rating is prompted by the possibility that the debt limit will not be raised in time to prevent a missed payment of interest or principal on outstanding bonds and notes. As such, there is a small but rising risk of a short-lived default,” Moody’s said…

This is the global Ruling Class circling the wagons – there is absolutely zero danger that a bondholder won’t get paid.  But they are fretful of the precedent – that is, they are worried that we, the people of the United States, will discover that the world won’t end if Uncle Sam stops spending money.  That would be pretty much game over for them…once we see it happen, we’ll probably start making all sorts of demands for spending cuts and that could lead just about anywhere – President Palin, balanced budgets, a revived American economy, bitter-clingers ruling the roost…it is all just too terrible to contemplate.  So, better try and frighten the yokels…Obama did his bit by claiming old people won’t get their SS, now Moody’s is doing it’s bit by claiming that disaster impends.

Don’t buy the scare tactics and the hype – there is no financial crisis for the United States government.  Not yet.  That will come some where in 2015 if we don’t cut spending, not in 2011 if we fail to go further in to debt.  To be sure, there is a danger of a complete economic melt down – but that will be triggered by China and/or Europe, not by us; and there is nothing we can do to stop any of that, though we could make matters much worse by having more debt than we should when the crash comes.  Republicans, conservatives, libertarians – remain calm:  stand firm on principal and all will be well.

ObAMATEUR’s Stimulus Worked??? (Bumped)

tiredoflibbs38 Comments

The Chosen One, The Rockstar, the sort of a god, the one who sends chills up Matthew’s leg, the obAMATEUR has come up with the latest dumbed down talking point for his drones.  Are you ready?  The reason of the state of the economy and the latest down turn, he claims that this is  “evidence” that his stimulus plan worked … because as the “stimulus” is phased out, local governments are shedding jobs.  When in reality, the jobless rate steadily rose after the spendulus plan was passed – so much for the “jobs saved” talking point.

Amazing!

  • We have the worst unemployment picture since the Great Depression because Obama’s stimulus worked!
  • Over two million fewer people are working in private sector jobs in our economy because Obama’s stimulus worked!
  • We are still seeing record levels of foreclosures because the stimulus worked!

The only thing that the obAMATEUR’s stimulus plan is evidence of is that government spending does not induce a climate of economic prosperity, particularly in the private market.  The economy does not thrive when the government is making the economic choices, plus the federal government is taking $0.25 for every dollar the private sector generates.

But it was never obAMATEUR’s goal to boost the private sector but rather to keep unions, government workers and Democrat looters prosperous while non-unionites and the private sector individuals sweat it out.  So look around, America … this, what we are experiencing right now, is proof that the spendulus plan worked!  But which is it, two weeks ago he was saying that “the shovel ready jobs were not as shovel ready as he thought”.

Hmmmmmmm, it seems that the obAMATEUR is not sure himself or he needs new excuses for the coming election year.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  More Obama success -from Bloomberg:

The dollar weakened against all its most-traded counterparts as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said policy makers will provide economic stimulus if needed and investor demand for higher-yielding assets increased.

The greenback fell the most in six months versus the euro as Bernanke said central bank is prepared to take additional action, including buying more government bonds, if the economy appears to be in danger of stalling…

If Obamunism worked then the economy wouldn’t be in danger of tanking and the Bernanke wouldn’t be firing up the printing presses.  Hope you all enjoyed the drop in gasoline prices this past month…because that is going to reverse itself right quick if Bernanke carries out his threat.

Boehner: Obama is Like Jell-O

Mark Noonan5 Comments

From ABC:

In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations.

“Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,” Boehner said. “Some days it’s firmer than others. Sometimes it’s like they’ve left it out over night.”

Boehner explained that talks broke down over the weekend because, he said, the president backed off entitlement reforms so much from Friday to Saturday, “It was Jell-o; it was damn near liquid.”

Rather hard to negotiate with someone who’s position continually shifts.  We’ve seen this before – again and again Obama has refused to put his own ideas firmly on the table…meanwhile, however, the business of the country does need to be done, so men and women with more firmness come up with actual proposals, only to see them sink in the morass of Obama indecision.

I doubt there is much left in Obama outside a desire to be re-elected.  He seems to have resigned any semblance of leadership in domestic or foreign policy and is only interested in events in so far as he feels he can use them for personal, political advantage.

It is probably time for us to give up on Obama and negotiations:  pass a bill which raises the debt limit while cutting $1.50 for each additional dollar of new debt and just hand it off to the Senate.  Let them vote it up or down, or amend it and send it back to the House.  We can sit back and wait – we’ll have passed our plan and can reasonably state to the American people that we’re just waiting to see what Reid and Obama come up with in response.

At any rate, there is something wrong – and vaguely un-American – in seeing our Congressional leaders closeted with the President to work out a plan which, presumptively, would be passed through Congress with minimal debate and no real chance to amend…a sort of decree from on high which Congress is supposed to rubber stamp.  Better to just do it properly and let the political chips fall where they may – in the end, if we stand firm on principal while showing our willingness to do the job, we’ll reap the benefit, in my view.

The Effects of Applied Liberalism

Mark Noonan9 Comments

From CNN Money:

Buffeted by high taxes, strict regulations and uncertain state budgets, a growing number of California companies are seeking friendlier business environments outside of the Golden State…

…Companies are “disinvesting” in California at a rate five times greater than just two years ago, said Joseph Vranich, a business relocation expert based in Irvine. This includes leaving altogether, establishing divisions elsewhere or opting not to set up shop in California…

And this is also why, as a nation, we’re seeing a lot of businesses not just fleeing California, but fleeing the nation – when you have high taxes combined with capricious regulations and lawsuits, you just can’t do business.  Especially in a down economy when generating profits is hard, you seek every advantage you can…and if shifting from California to, say, Arizona will cut your costs by 20%, you do it.  You’d be insane not to.

Sorry, liberals, but you can’t successfully manage an economy…you can’t make a rule and a tax for every activity.  You have to, for the most part, just leave it be.  All government can do is prevent fraud and enforce some very basic health and safety regulations…and even in that area, local governing bodies should have vastly more authority than State or federal bodies.  If you are trying to make it fair and make it come out right – by your definition – all you’ll do is mess it up.  California is proof that liberalism is a complete failure – you liberals absolutely govern that State and pretty much have for the past 20 years.  It is your baby – and it is dying of liberalism.