Ding. . . ding. . . ding — round 3!

Via Shark Tank:

I don’t know one Muslim who will denounce Sharia Law, and then say they can support the Constitution of the United States of America. So my assumption based on what I know about their belief system is that they are not going to give up Sharia Law. Anybody that takes the oath of office in a Herman Cain administration will put their hand on the Bible, not the Koran!

HT: Right Scoop

Round 1: Herman Cain: “I Would Not” Appoint A Muslim In My Administration

Round 2: Herman Cain Refuses to Back Down: “There Are Many Muslims Who Are Not Totally Dedicated to This Country”

Still holding a grudge from the time Obama threw him under the bus.

(CNS) — Following a closed briefing for members of the House on the U.S. military operation in Libya, Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) told CNSNews.com that President Obama did not have the constitutional authority to use military force in Libya without Congressional approval. Rangel added that he would “like to believe” members of Congress are looking into whether or not the President’s action is an impeachable offense.

“The Constitution is clear that when you say that their families back home is going to make this ultimate sacrifice, than you have to have a vote,” Rangel told CNSNews.com after attending a briefing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen.

“As it is now, it’s very difficult to know except what the president told us as to what authority does he have except other Presidents have done the same thing and I still think other Presidents are wrong for doing it.”

When asked if the President’s action is an impeachable offense, Rangel said that Congress would have to make that decision. However, he added that he would “like to believe” members of Congress will examine the issue.

Keep reading…

So unlike an Arab dictator to blame his problems on a sinister Jooooish plot.

(JPost) — Addressing his people for the first time since popular unrest erupted nearly two weeks ago, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday blamed a foreign conspiracy for the unrest and made no substantive pledges on implementing much-awaited reform.

“Our enemies work every day in an organized and public fashion to hurt Syria,” he told parliament. “Our enemies’ aim was to divide Syria as a country and force an Israeli agenda onto it, and they will continue to try and try again.”

Assad said Deraa, a southern city near the Golan Heights, where some of the bloodiest clashes with protesters have taken place, “is in the forefront in confronting the Israeli enemy and defending the nation.”

After the speech, hundreds took to the streets of the coastal city of Latakia — another hotbed of revolt in recent weeks — chanting “Freedom!” Several residents said they heard gunfire as security forces clashed with demonstrators.

This is who we hitched our wagon to?

(CNN) — During “In the Arena,” Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for The New Yorker reporting from Benghazi, Libya, tells Eliot Spitzer that the number of opposition fighters on the front lines are fewer than anyone would think and that they are poorly armed and badly trained. Anderson says, “Effective number of fighting men, well under 1,000. Actual soldiers, who are now in the fight, possibly in the very low hundreds on the opposition side.”

Judicial activism at its finest.

MADISON, Wis. — The contentious collective bargaining law that strips most public workers of nearly all collective bargaining rights and force them to contribute more to their pension and health plans is not in effect, according to an amended restraining order released on Thursday morning.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued the amended ruling at 8:15 a.m. on Thursday. She had already issued an emergency order blocking Wisconsin’s secretary of state from publishing the law, called Wisconsin Act 10. Sumi called a hearing Tuesday to weigh District Attorney Ismael Ozanne’s lawsuit alleging Republican legislative leaders violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law during debate on the proposal.

Sumi re-issued her order on Tuesday and this time, she has warned that anyone who violates it will face sanctions. She amended the ruling on Thursday to read, “Further, based on the briefs of counsel, the uncontroverted testimony, and the evidence received at the March 29 evidentiary hearing, it is hereby declared that 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 has not been published.”

Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Rep. Peter Barca welcomed Judge Sumi’s actions. In a statement Thursday he said, “The Judge made it abundantly clear on Tuesday that Gov. Walker that Gov. Walker and his administration, including DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch, should not be implenting Act 10. I believe she made it clear then with her order that stop means stop.”

HT: Ed M.

Lost cause.

(Daily Mail) — Japan has finally conceded defeat in the battle to contain radiation at four of its crippled reactors and they will be closed down.

Details of how this will be done are yet to be revealed, but officials said it would mean switching off all power and abandoning attempts to keep the nuclear fuel rods cool.

The final move would involve pouring tonnes of concrete on the reactors to seal them in tombs and ensure radiation does not leak out.

It comes after Japan’s nuclear safety agency revealed levels of radiation in the ocean near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant had surged to 4,385 times the regulatory limit.

The dramatic announcement that the four reactors are out of control and will have to be decommissioned was made yesterday by the chairman of the electric company operating the Fukushima plant.

More PC nonsense.

MUNSON, Ohio — A Northeast Ohio community is taking the “Easter” out of the egg hunt.

As the White House prepares for its annual Easter Egg Roll — a tradition dating back to 1878 — some in the community of Munson Township are asking if it’s okay in Washington, how could the word “Easter” offend someone in this small rural community?

Still, township trustees are opting to call this year’s Easter weekend event “The Spring Egg Hunt.”

Dance choreographer Matt Martsolf works with kids every day and has a few of his own. His opinion about what to call this year’s egg hunt is shared with dance clients.

“Stop the headache. Just let the kids have their day,” Martsolf said.

“It’s traditionally been called an Easter egg hunt for years and years and people are little bit too touchy,” client Michelle Nelson said.

Munson homebuilder Enzo Perfetto is putting up the $600 to put the sponsorship in private hands and the Easter back in the egg hunt.

The decision to have the egg hunt privately sponsored is under review by the county prosecutor.

Insightful as ever.

(The Hill) — Even though budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans have resumed on Capitol Hill, the war of words between the two parties is alive and well.

Perhaps no better example has come than what was on offer Wednesday night, when sharp-tongued Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) accused Republican lawmakers of being in “cloud cuckoo land” for their maneuvers in the spending debate.

Of course they are, it would deprive them of the race card.

Via Shark Tank

And who can blame him? — You can tell from his previous fopperies that he never learned America’s pastime when he grew up in Pakistan or Indonesia or wherever else the undocumented poser may have been preened.

(POLITICO) — Stephen Strasburg isn’t the only pitcher who will be missing from the mound when the Washington Nationals host the Atlanta Braves this afternoon to open the 2011 Major League Baseball season. President Barack Obama won’t be on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch either.

Like Strasburg, the 22-year-old phenom who underwent Tommy John surgery in September to repair ligament damage in his right elbow, Obama may be letting his wounds heal. The president got a PR pummeling earlier this month for taking time away from world affairs to appear on ESPN to reveal his March Madness basketball picks.

Or perhaps the president is still sensitive after the national chortling he set off when he appeared in his high-waisted “dad jeans” at an earlier All-Star Game — although he seemed to make up for that fashion flub at last year’s home opener when he sported khaki trousers, a red Nats jacket and a Chicago White Sox cap as he launched a high toss in the direction of Ryan Zimmerman.

Another possibility is that Obama’s absence could be calculated to avoid a possible boo beatdown from fans unhappy with . . . well, pick your gripe. It wouldn’t be the first time a baseball crowd heckled a president: As the Great Depression and Prohibition dragged on in the early ’30s, Herbert Hoover was verbally roughed up at a World Series game in Philadelphia by a crowd that chanted “We want beer!”

(more…)

Fantastic!

Washington (AP) — House Republicans are trying to use the tax code to curb abortions by limiting tax breaks for insurance policies that cover the procedure.

The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill that would prevent taxpayers from deducting the cost of an abortion from their taxable income. It would also prevent small businesses and taxpayers from using tax credits in the new health care law to provide or pay for insurance policies that cover the procedure.

If women pay for an abortion using tax-free income that had been set aside in a heath savings account, the money would have to be reported as taxable income. There would be exceptions for cases of rape or incest, or if a physician certifies that a woman’s life would be in danger if she doesn’t terminate her pregnancy.

Federal law already prohibits federal funding for abortion, with the same exceptions listed in the bill. The new health care law, which was nearly derailed by the highly charged issue, creates state marketplaces for insurance called exchanges. The law allows plans in the exchanges to cover abortions, as long as they collect a separate premium from policy holders and that money is kept apart from federal subsidies.

Republicans were united in opposing the new health care law. Now, with their efforts to repeal it stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate, they are attacking it piece-by-piece. House GOP leaders support the effort to limit tax breaks that help fund abortions, but the bill faces strong opposition in the Senate.

“We’re just trying to have a very clear line of demarcation on where our taxpayer funds may be used for abortion,” said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “It’s really using the tax code and taxpayer dollars to assist with the procurement of abortion, and we’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

So predictable.

“I don’t like this, because I think this promotes hate and this brings us back and I thought we had gotten past this. I really do, and I don’t care how serious he feels about it, there are more important things we need to be talking about. He had a chance. Everybody wanted to hear what he had to say, because of exactly where we are in this country. And people were beginning to look at him and I’m sorry this is a bad call.”

HT: Mediaite

Hmmm, where have we seen this before? Now I remember, Nazi Germany.

(NTZ) — We’ve seen that kind of thinking before. Authoritarianism.

Forget democracy, human freedom and free markets. These concepts, which have made today’s human prosperity and long lifespans a reality for humans, wherever and whenever they are given the chance to work, are upsetting a small but very elitist group of individuals who view these concepts as a disruption and a threat to their world view.

The English edition of Der Spiegel has a recent interview with Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. In this interview Schellnhuber announced that he would unveil his “Master Plan” for transforming society — one no doubt that suits his world view. In Schellhuber’s view, human society needs to be scaled back and managed by an elite group of “wise men” who know what is best for the rest.

Schellnhuber’s contempt for today’s organisation of western soctety is illustrated by his statements. For example Der Spiegel stumps Schellnhuber with a simple question: “Why is it that your messages haven’t been all that well received until now?” Schellnhuber responds:

“I’m neither a psychologist nor a sociologist. But my life experiences have shown that the love of convenience and ignorance are man’s biggest character flaws. It’s a potentially deadly mixture.”

Oh the contempt. So we are all too comfortable and ignorant. It’s time for “wiser men” to think for the rest of us. Your message, Mr Schellnhuber, has not been well received because it is anti-democratic and authoritarian. Your kind of thinking is a threat to the principles of Germany’s Constitution and so belongs under government observation.

Schellnhuber indeed has a very poor understanding of history. History teaches us a different lesson — that it is not the combination of love for convenience and ignorance that is man’s greatest flaw, rather it is the combination of towering arrogance and ignorance that is man’s greatest flaw, and so that is the real threat to society. Schellnhuber also denies climate history and concocts his own fraudulent version to warrant an authoritative intervention.

The belief that the planet needs to be dictated by a higher authority is what makes people like Schellnhuber so dangerous. Their impatience and frustration with democracy, and their claim to have superior knowledge, remind us of others who have led us us down very dark paths back in the 20th century.

These people are convinced they are all-knowing. Der Spiegel asks: “Do you feel that the government’s abrupt change of course in relation to its energy policy is adequate?” Schellnhuber replies:

No. It can only be the beginning of a deep-seated shift. The German Advisory Council on Global Change, which I chair, will soon unveil a master plan for a transformation of society. Precisely because of Fukushima, we believe that a new basis of our coexistence is needed.”

A master plan for transforming society drafted by a climate scientist, a person who admits having no background in sociology. This plan no doubt will be asserted by authority, and not democracy. Schellnhuber has indicated many times that democracy is flawed and is a nuisance. It’s getting in the way of solving the “world’s crises” (like zero temperature growth over the last 15 years).

Keep reading…

Obama reported to be ecstatic.

(Politico) — After taking flak from Planned Parenthood during the health care debate last year, President Barack Obama has returned to its good graces, garnering praise from a group whose federal funding is at stake in the heated budget debate with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Obama has said he does not want a federal budget that includes provisions to slash funding for several organizations that social conservatives, including many Republicans, oppose. Members of the Obama administration have also had low-profile meetings with abortion rights advocates, according to sources who have knowledge of the talks. And groups like Planned Parenthood that have been targeted by conservatives largely feel reassured by the positive signals the White House has thus far shown on protecting their funding.

“We have a positive relationship with the Obama administration, and we applaud its strong commitment to reproductive health, family planning and preventive health care,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of public policy and advocacy for Planned Parenthood, said in a statement to POLITICO. “President Obama has reinforced this commitment by calling for an increased investment in an essential women’s health care program” in his latest budget.

The statement, issued Tuesday, is a reversal of fortune for Obama: Though he won Planned Parenthood’s endorsement for president in early 2008, the group has been frustrated with some of his decisions since taking office.

Guess they missed Obama’s anti-bullying conference.

(JS Online) — Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.”

Jim Parrett, a field representative of Council 24 for Southeast Wisconsin, confirmed the contents of the letter, which carries his signature. But he added that the union was also circulating letters to businesses thanking them for supporting workers’ rights.

(more…)

Bravo.

(WSJ) — The Ohio Legislature voted Wednesday to severely limit the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers, sending a bill that sparked weeks of pro-labor protests to Republican Gov. John Kasich, who is expected to sign it by the end of the week.

The full House had passed the measure on a 53-44 vote Wednesday after it cleared committee, and the Senate followed with a 17-16 vote of approval.

Mr. Kasich has said his $55.5 billion, two-year state budget counts on unspecified savings from lifting union protections to fill an $8 billion hole. The first-term governor and his GOP colleagues argue the bill would help city officials and superintendents better control their costs at a time when they too are feeling budget woes.

Well done.

(CNS News) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law on Tuesday legislation that prohibits abortions sought or performed on the basis of race or gender.

House Bill 2443, or the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011″ makes it a felony for a physician to “knowingly or intentionally” perform an abortion because of the race or gender of an unborn child or the parent of that child.

The law bars anyone from performing an abortion if they know the abortion is being sought because of sex or race of the child or the race of a parent of that child.

It specifically requires abortionists to sign an affidavit saying they have no knowledge that the abortion is being performed because of the baby’s sex or race. And it allows the father of the unborn child — or in some cases, the maternal grandparents of the unborn child — to file civil suits against doctors who violate the law.

Asswipe.

In a new interview with the BBC, Ron Reagan, Jr., son of the late president, called his father “a fetish object for the far right.” Expanding on his point, the younger Reagan calls President Ronald Reagan “sort of the rubber bustier of the far right.”

Reagan Jr.’s remarks came when the BBC’s Matt Frei asked him, “Are you happy the way [Ronald Reagan] is remembered in this country, especially by the conservatives?”

“Oh, I just think it’s inevitable,” Reagan Jr. responded. “Who else are they going to remember that way? Richard Nixon? I don’t think so. Warren Harding? Maybe. But he is a fetish object for the far right, he’s sort of the rubber bustier of the far right — you know, they all have to go and touch him, as it were.”

Keep reading…

I’m having flashbacks of the far left calling jihadists in Iraq “freedom fighters.”

HT: RCP