On the Two Party System

Stephen Mauzy at American Thinker presents an argument against the Libertarian Party. It’s kind of an interesting argument, because it highlights the fact that big-L Libertarians are often not willing to compromise on their issues, and because of that, frequently suffer political defeat.

Obamacare, Slaughter, and Stupak

The vote on Obamacare draws neigh, and the blogosphere is abuzz with analysis, commentary, and rebuttals of all the latest developments as the Democrats make a final bribes bid push for the votes they need, and the Republicans intensify their opposition.

John Campbell at Townhall outlines some of the tax increases embedded in the Obamacare bill.

Reconciliation, Deem-and-Pass, the CBO, and Obamacare Smackdown

There’s just so much juicy stuff on Obamacare out there, I don’t know where to begin.

Let’s start by looking at that CBO report on Obamacare, and what Obamacare will actually cost. Kevin Glass at Townhall brings up some of the budgetary manipulations that were used in the CBO report to make Obamacare look better than it is:

Public Health Workforce Corps

Michael Geer at American Thinker highlights a provision hidden in the monstrosity that is the Reconciliation bill (.pdf, and very, very huge) which would create a National Public Health Workforce Corps. (I wonder if it’s supposed to be pronounced like “corpse”?)

It speaks of regular and reserve Officers, scholarships, loans, obligated service, individual contracts, training centers, the traditional income redistribution scheme of grants and grant proposals, etc. The debt repayment provisions are especially attractive to certain sectors of our population. It appears to be an indentured servitude gig. You sign up, do your part for nationalizing health care and the Corps will get the American taxpayer to foot the bill for your training and educational costs and retire your debts. Of course, if pinned down, I’m sure this will be characterized as a draft, a proposal, need to modify, hasn’t been reconciled yet or any of a number of ways to weasel the simple truth that until Nancy Pelosi votes on it she won’t have any idea what’s in this ‘Bill’.

The provision starts on page 911, section 2231.

Of course, the Reconciliation bill isn’t the real bill, but just a 2300-page placeholder, so we don’t know what will be in a finalized version. But I’m sure it will be for our own good, since we don’t know better, so we should move forward and embrace it! Sure, whatever.

On the Coffee Party (Updated)

Much ado has been generated by this new political phenomenon known as the “Coffee Party.” The Coffee Party is presenting itself as some kind of grassroots, genuine , common-sense response to the hatred, venom, and racism that form the core of liberals attempt to find in the Tea Party. In reality, it is an astroturf pseudo-movement created by an Obama supporter, dedicated to, well, supporting Obama, which has very little real participation but lots and lots of media hype.

The Reconciliation Reform Bill

Compliments of Rick Moran at American Thinker, I present to you the full text of the Reconciliation Reform Bill. Be cautious in downloading it: it’s a 2309 page .pdf file. And it’s still not done, of course — it needs to be tweaked and amended first. But just in case you want to look through it, you’re more than welcome to, you know, in the light of transparency and all.

Just for the record, if you can manage to read a page a minute, it will take you almost two days straight to read through it. And that’s assuming you can comprehend the dense legalese. Good luck, intrepid readers!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Department of Education Requisitions Shotguns

There seem to have been several government agencies that have been buying up guns. Now the department of education is getting in on the action, rquisitioning 27 new shotguns. Why does the Department of Education need any guns at all? Aren’t schools gun-free zones?

From the American Thinker:

Now I don’t know what’s scarier:  The fact that the DoE feels it is necessary to purchase these shotguns or the fact that the type of shotguns DoE wants have been chosen “based on compatibility with ED (Department of Education) existing shotgun inventory…”  This raises more questions than it answers.

Since when did the DoE become an agency that needed firepower?  How do the Dems and Libs justify this purchase while passionately protesting for gun-free schools?  Is there some sort of enforcement arm of DoE that we don’t know about?  Or is this just in preparation for the enforcement/expansion of the liberal agenda in our nation’s school systems?

Read about it here.

KC Schools and Government Fail

Randall Hoven at American Thinker has a piece on the dismal Kansas City school district, which is preparing to close amost half of its schools due to budget shortfalls. The AP report blames white flight and poor economic condition in the Kansas City city core for the failure of the school system. Hoven points to another explanation.

A report by the Cato Institute in 1998 highlighted the financial and performance problems of the Kansas City School District, and traced it back to 1985, when a federal judge essentially took over the school district, dictating how much money should be spent and how. The results? By 2000, the district had lost its accreditation due to its abysmal performance.

Spending does not equal performance. Nor does control by fiat of the federal government. Given the liberal demographics of Kansas City, I’m not sure how much better the district would have performed without federal control, but it’s pretty apparent from the Cato analysis that liberal policies caused more problems than they solved.

Jihad Jane Arrested in Murder Plot (Updated)

A radical Muslim agitator and propagandist known on the internet as Jihad Jane was arrested and charged with recruiting terrorists and plotting the murder of a Swedish cartoonist known for drawing the head of Mohammed on the body of a dog (Muslims regard dogs as unclean).

From Fox News:

A Pennsylvania woman known to authorities as “JihadJane” has been charged in federal court with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters to carry out murders and violent attacks overseas.

The woman, Colleen R. LaRose, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft, according to the indictment, unsealed Monday.

Obamacare and Home Visits

Ken Blackwell at American Thinker looks at the allegedly “voluntary” home visits and inspections hidden in the monstrosity of legislation that is Obamacare. Sure, governmental mandates for home inspections on behalf of politically motivated social services couldn’t possibly be abused.

Is your family being “targeted” for such home visitations? Let’s see if you fit into one of these very broad categories:

• Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or not.)
• Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia! Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?)
• Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities.