Redstate

Posted at 9:11am on Jul. 2, 2008 Louisiana Dems: Jindal has lost all credibility!

He didn't keep his word. >>pout<<

By Mark Kilmer

Lawmakers in Louisiana wanted to lift their base salaries from $16,800 to $37,500, pegged to the salaries of the U.S. Congress. Governor Bobby Jindal had indicated that for the sake of comity and getting things done, he would not interfere with the legislature's money grab, least of all with a gubernatorial veto.

On Sunday, when CNN's Candy Crowley guest-hosted Late Edition, she asked Governor Jindal about this, indicating that his refusal to veto was not very conservative. The governor answered that he hoped that there were ways to talk to Louisiana legislature out of their pay hike, but if it came to it, the veto was not off the table. It was only 24-hours later that Governor Jindal vetoed the grab. And the affronted Louisiana legislators feel they've been affronted. It is, to them, a question of trust.

Senate President Joel Chaisson II, D-Destrehan, and House Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, said Jindal's sudden about-face on the pay raise will make it hard for some lawmakers to believe him in the future.

"He needs to rebuild trust and do a better job of articulating his position," said Chaisson, who promised he will continue to work with the governor on key issues for the state. "Just be honest with us."

So much whining.

Read On…

Posted in Archived | Democrats | jindal | Louisina | pay grab | Veto — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:48am on Jul. 1, 2008 When the Democrats get control the voters get Detroit

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

I was born and raised in Grand Rapids.  This is my home.  I love it here.  I've had opportunities to move to Lansing, to head out to Washington, D.C., but none of that excites me.  For years I'd commute 75 minutes each way to work (back when gas was under $2 a gallon, thank heavens) and when it came time to buy my first house I didn't look anywhere else.  

Posted in Breaking News | Democrats | Detroit | Michigan | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:36am on Jun. 25, 2008 (Re)Enter: The Nanny State-- OR --Click it or Ticket, Junior!

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Michigan moms and dads, are you ready for Tuesday?  Well, are you?  Or maybe more importantly, is your eight year old ready?  This coming Tuesday Michigan's fancy new booster seat regulation goes into effect and Junior had better be buckled up in a shiny new piece of vinyl or the Michigan State Police will hunt you down.  "Even at night."  Click it or ticket, kid.  You don't want to cost mom and dad $65 bucks, do you?

Posted in Andy Dillon | booster seats | Breaking News | Democrats | jennifer granholm | Michigan | Nanny State | Tax Hikes — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:28pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Democrats Skip Right Over Socialism; Land Squarely In The Land Of Karl And Hugo

..and we all settle in nicely to our bonny new Communist America

By haystack

Picking up where Mr. Hahn left off...

Elections DO matter folks. The lunatics we put in power in 2006 have rather nicely gone and outdone themselves with this little brainstorm... I swear I'm stuck in a really bad episode of the Twilight Zone:

House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.
[...]
We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

My head is exploding...they're doing SO well with all the other things they run, aren't they? These are the very same "geniuses" who, just a few days ago blocked efforts to make MORE of them, when they kicked H.R 3089 (No More Excuses Energy Act of 2007) out of Committee. The bill was submitted by Rep Mac Thornberry [TX-13] back in July 2007 [attaboy Mac-thanks for trying, at least].

These people on the left are freaking insane.

Watch as my hair spontaneously combusts below the fold..

Posted in absolute power corrupts absolutely | Congress | Democrats | Energy Policy | stick it to the little guy — Comments (55)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:00pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Democrat Strategy For America: "Slow Bleed 'Em"...One Useless Bill At A Time

By haystack

Man, talk about fiddling while Rome burns...guess what the House is taking up today for Legislative consideration? Can anyone help me understand how, exactly, honoring the life of Tim Russert, or allocating land in Montana for a cemetery, or fussing over the treatment of non-human primates helps us all stop BLEEDING from the current crisis on fuel prices? No? Yeah, me either...

Minority Whip Blunt asks the question "So Why Hasn’t Congress Acted to Lower Gas Prices?" and all I can come up with is they've been too busy on (as he calls them) "a few other higher priorities." For example:

Of the 244 laws that the Democrat Congress has enacted (thru June 6, 2008):

- 92 (38%) were to name government buildings or lands;

- 39 (16%) were to extend existing laws or make technical corrections to existing laws;

- of the remaining bills enacted into law, 87 (35%) were so uncontroversial that they passed either without a recorded vote in the House or with fewer than 10 votes in opposition.

But, heck-who am I to bellyache? At least the Democrat House gave us “Frank Sinatra Day,” “National Train Day,” “National Plumbing Industry Week,” and “National Passport Month” according to a recent Blunt presser. Feel all warm and fuzzy yet? No? There's more-"the Democrat House has been so busy naming months for various causes that they have now named 51 months...27 more than are actually on the calendar for a two year Congress."

Well done, Nance...well done. For the rest of us who are drowning in gas price-hell, give a peek at what President Bush said today about this nation's energy crisis:

For many Americans, there is no more pressing concern than the price of gasoline. Truckers and farmers and small business owners have been hit especially hard. Every American who drives to work, purchases food, or ships a product has felt the effect. And families across our country are looking to Washington for a response.

Still with me? Good...at least somebody in Washington understands the living hell we're being made to endure...

Let's go below the fold for MORE of what the "No Policy" Democrat policy is doing to America, m'kay?..

Posted in Congress | Democrats | High gas prices | pwning the taxpayer for fun | stick it to the little guy — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:05am on Jun. 18, 2008 MI Morning Commentary: MI Dems Abuse Power...Lansing Press Corps Complacent

By saul anuzis

MORNING UPDATE: 

139 Days until Election Day

June 18, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

HOUSE DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO ABUSE THEIR POWER...in over 350 specific cases, the state House Democrats have refused to consider Republican amendments and requests for record roll call votes. An unbelievable abuse of power...and the press just stands by??? So no reforms...no cuts...no debate...just Democrat power grab and partisan legislation.

Posted in Democrats | MI GOP | Michigan | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | State Politics — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:04am on Jun. 17, 2008 We've got people seeing $4.30 or so/gallon for gas, now.

This is such a *fun* graphic, we'd thought that we'd use it again.

By Moe Lane

[image via House Minority Whip regularly updated]

Nothing wrong with haystack's post, of course. Anyway: guess what? The problem's not going away, and you can't blame this one on the GOP. We like to drill for oil, remember? We like refineries. We probably all have little altars in our basements to the Great Dread God Krood. So talk to the Democrats.

And in keep this in mind: they're not sitting on oil production so that you can feel better about yourself. They're sitting on oil production so that they can feel better about you.

Moe Lane

Posted in Bad Energy Policy | Congress | Democrats | High gas prices | stick it to the little guy — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:27am on Jun. 17, 2008 The MSM and Michigan Dems suddenly OK with China? Since when?

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Now why couldn't that have been the Ivory Tower's take back during the fall of 2006?  Tom Walsh has a column in the FREEP this morning hot on the heels of yesterday's Michigan appearances by Senator Barack Obama.  He rakes him over the coals pretty good for his unhealthy disconnect on the whole "economy" thing and defends business people who are successfully selling their products overseas.  

Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | China | Democrats | Mark Brewer | Michigan | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:11pm on Jun. 16, 2008 Dear Democrats: Why Does The Saudi King Know What To Do About Gas Prices, And You Don't?

By haystack

[image via House Minority Whip regularly updated]

King Abdullah seems to GET IT about how to deal with the crisis at the pumps...while our friends in the majority on the Hill continue to have no freaking clue. From The Independent:

Next month, the Saudis will be pumping an extra half-a-million barrels of oil a day compared to last month, bringing total Saudi production to 9.7 million barrels a day, their highest ever level. But the world's biggest oil exporters are coupling the increase with an appeal to western Europe to cut fuel taxes to lower the price of petrol to consumers.

You hear that Democrats?

Cut the freaking taxes and increase the freaking production. It's just not that hard, kids.

More below the stinking fold...

Posted in Bad Energy Policy | Congress | Democrats | High gas prices | stick it to the little guy — Comments (41)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:03am on Jun. 15, 2008 MI Morning Update: Happy Father's Day - Obama in MI on Mon. - Obama Policies Will Fail - Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less

By saul anuzis

142 Days until Election Day

June 15, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY...thanks to all who have given so much for the next generation.  Few people in life have a greater influence on their children...take a minute to say thanks or say a prayer in their memory.

Posted in Barack Obama | Democrats | Domestic Drilling | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | RNC Training | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:57am on Jun. 14, 2008 *Ahem*

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Kevin Drum says that "filling the amendment tree"--a method by which Senate floor leaders got to control the content of amendments to a bill and locked their opponents out of offering what those floor leaders considered objectionable amendments to the bill--fell out of favor as a Senate practice "until the mid-90s, when Bob Dole rediscovered it and made it into a standard tool of GOP governance."

Um . . . no:

Robert Byrd, the crafty and theatrical chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been at the center of the fight over President Clinton's proposal to spend $16.3 billion to stimulate the economy this year.

As floor manager for the Clinton legislation, Byrd has confronted hostile Republicans and reluctant Democrats with moves that confirmed his reputation as a master of parliamentary finagling and oratory.

His rhetoric has entertained, but his tactics have infuriated minority Republicans who are threatening to delay Clinton's bill with a filibuster.

Almost single-handedly, Byrd has used his detailed knowledge of the Senate rules to shepherd Clinton's economic-stimulus package through the mine-filled territory of the Senate. Using Senate rules to do a maneuver called "filling up the amendment tree," Byrd has all but precluded major modifications to Clinton's $16 billion package.

(Emphasis mine.) This fight occurred in 1993, during Clinton's first year and preceded Dole's use of amendment tree-filling--by Drum's own account, since Dole didn't start using the tactic himself "until the mid-90s"--and it was this tactic, employed in the fight over the Clinton stimulus package, that prompted Senate Republicans to successfully filibuster the package and kill it in the Senate. Anyone who has read Bob Woodward's The Agenda is aware of this. According to Woodward, when Byrd finished enthusiastically telling Clinton about his parliamentary scheme to pass the stimulus package, Clinton responded not by decrying the fact that the Byrd tactic "prevents anyone else from offering amendments," but by saying approvingly "Thank you Mr. Chairman. Let's pass the bill."

On another matter, Drum contends that "the Senate's decline began long ago, and mostly under Republican rule" because "[t]he GOP has perfected the art of filibustering, withholding consent, abusing the markup procedure, and just generally obstructing virtually everything that comes before the Senate, regardless of how important it is. The normal give-and-take of legislative compromise isn't in their playbook these days." Indeed. How dare the Republicans argue against and take a stand against Democratic agenda items they find objectionable? You would almost think that the GOP was an opposition party, or something.

Posted in Congress | Democrats | Obstructionism | Republicans — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:32am on Jun. 13, 2008 A "Destructive Path" Indeed

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Good on the Vice President for raising the alarm concerning America's increased and worrisome slide towards protectionism. I continue to be befuddled over the fact that we are not embracing free trade more fully as a way of enhancing prosperity for lower and middle income individuals and families and as a way of diminishing the power and intensity of recessions when the business cycle goes south. If ever there was a case of shooting oneself in the foot, the embrace of protectionism would constitute it.

It is, by the way, incumbent on McCain to push the free trade message as much as possible during the election campaign and to find a way to do it that will make clear the harm that will come to the United States if it continues to go down the protectionist path--not to mention the many benefits that we would enjoy if we actually embraced free trade. Elections have consequences and we have to choose whether we want to face the consequences of educating ourselves about the benefits of free trade and being in a better position to make the right policy choices as a consequence, or whether we will countenance having free traders avoid making the arguments against protectionism altogether, thus letting the protectionists own the debate and sabotage good policymaking in the process.

Posted in Democrats | Economic Ignorance | Economy | Free Trade | Protectionism — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:12am on Jun. 12, 2008 Child poverty skyrocketing in Dem Controlled Michigan

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

A couple of days back we were talking about the total job loss numbers since the Democrats took control of the State of Michigan.  Over a quarter-of-a-million jobs killed in the years that followed that fateful election in the fall of 2002.  And that number sounds horrible and imposing and dirty and rotten but at some level it still sort of bounces off a lot of folks.  It's a big number, for one, and the bigger they are the tougher they are to relate to.  But more than that, numbers are abstracts.  OK, we lost 250,000+ jobs.  What does that mean?  Where does that sort of regress show up on in every day life?  

Take a look at MLIVE this morning.  They're carrying an AP story about the heartbreaking rise in the state's child poverty rates.

Michigan's rate of children without a parent working full-time and year-round in the home rose about 13 percent between 2000 and 2006, the report says. In all, 35 percent of state children were in such households in 2006, up from 31 percent six years earlier...

The report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Michigan League for Human Services says Michigan ranked 37th in that category, as well as in infant mortality, which dropped by 4 percent between 2000 and 2005. Both were Michigan's worst rankings.

Immediately my mind jumps back to the Governor's proclamation last year that without a massive tax increase children would be out on the street and "people will die."  Check and check.  Even despite the fact she got that tax hike.  The report doesn't gauge what happened in 2007, a year in which we lost just about as many jobs as any other year on record.  Which means that 35% child poverty rate, that didn't exactly go down over the last seventeen months.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the back and forth of campaigns and politics, especially this time of this year.  But the policies that come about through elections... they have consequences.  So when you go to the polls this year remember... it's all about the children.

Sorry, always wanted to say that. But it's true!  The failed policies of Jennifer Granholm, John Cherry, Mark Schauer and the House Democrats aren't exactly lowering the poverty rate, you know?  Then again, it isn't any secret that most liberal electeds across the state owe their jobs to Big Labor.  And with an example like the one their benefactors are setting in metro Detroit this week...

The Detroit News opines that what the Teamsters are doing to the hundreds of non-union employees at Performance Transportation Services, actively, openly and admittedly killing their jobs, isn't fair.  Sort of like what the Democrats at the Capitol are doing to struggling families?  Manny Lopez continues:

Don't take that as anti-union; take it as a reminder of Michigan's economic reality. Solidarity isn't as strong these days, as evidenced by the fact that other non-union car haulers and reportedly, even some union operations, have picked up PTS' business.

But it's symptomatic of the problem that persists here: Do it our way or we'll bring down the house.

Wait, scratch that Manny.  I think you meant "Do it our way AND we'll bring down the house."  Easy mistake to make.

Take current gas prices... we've got a federal government that lambastes the oil companies for making excessive profit (4% to 9% depending on how you do the math) then turns around actually pulls in 15% via their gas tax.  Anybody struggling to fill up the tank these days?  

Posted in Breaking News | Democrats | Michigan | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:01am on Jun. 7, 2008 The Age of Scrutiny.

Welcome to the Fishbowl.

By Moe Lane

Let us start with this clip:

...which is undoubtedly going to be brought up quite often, in light of Senator Clinton's anticipated concession speech tonight. As Ed Morrissey noted: "Has Obama become safely complex since February?"

The problem for Hillary is that these statements stick because they have a great deal of truth in them. The RNC has a library of these comments ready for ads in the fall. Every time she hits the road for Obama, the Republicans will remind voters of Hillary’s real opinions of Barack Obama. She’ll either have to say she was lying then or come up with ridiculous rationales to pretend that Obama has overcome these gaping liabilities — and with Obama making gaffe after gaffe, those rationales will look very weak.

But that's not actually what this post is about. This post is about what Neal Stephenson called "the Age of Scrutiny," back in 1995.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democrats | John McCain | Republicans — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »