Obama’s Supreme Court Pick, Elena Kagan

Is Elena Kagan a good pick for the Supreme Court? She wouldn’t be my pick. My pick would be someone with judicial experience. Someone with experience in interpreting and deciding law. A supreme court nominee should be someone who advocates for the Constitution, not a lawyer whose experience is advocating for a client.

Having absolutely no track record to reference in terms of how she interprets law, we have to know what she thinks about the Constitution and her interpretation of it. Whether she thinks the Constitution is ‘the rule’ or ‘a guideline’ is paramount. And that will open up a lot of questions. Nothing against Elena Kagan, but considering who picked her and the track record of other Obama appointments, chances are that this choice is more political than judicial.

You don’t have to look any further than Eric Holder, Obama’s pick for Attorney General. Like Obama, Holder is in denial over the notion of who the enemy is in the war on terror. So he pics an AG with a career in defending them and who to this day, after halting the military tribunals in order to conduct the trials in the civilian court system, has not decided whether to try the Gitmo terrorists in New York City. Obama’s track record seems just as relevant in this pick as Kagan’s background and understanding of constitutional jurisprudence.

One thing getting buzz is the sexual orientation of Elena Kagan. Does it matter if she is a lesbian? As far as I’m concerned, that’s a non-issue for the position. But she will have to convince the Judiciary Committee and Congress that whatever her feelings are regarding homosexuality, that she will not let those feelings have sway in any decision before the court. Again, considering who picked her and with no judicial experience to examine, she has an uphill battle.

Is Elena Kagan the vehicle to assuage the gay community and to be used as such by the President, as ‘political’ as her pick seems to be? In all fairness and with all due respect to Ms. Kagan, the President should go against his own personal beliefs about the Constitution and pick an experienced jurist who Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa) would pick, an originalist.

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Links: Politico: Elena Kagan’s friends: She’s not gay |  h/t SodaHead

How Mexico Facilitates Illegal Immigration

In case you missed it four years ago . . .

A Mexican government agency is to issue some 70,000 maps marking main roads and water tanks for people wanting to cross illegally into the US. Previously, the Mexican government issued comic-book style pamphlets warning of the dangers of illegal migration, while also giving advice on how to stay safe. Launching the project in Mexico City, officials from Mexico’s Human Rights Commission (HRC) flatly denied they were trying to encourage greater migration.

There’s that word ‘migration’ again. Don’t be conditioned into the notion that there is no way to stop it, like that word and the Mexican government would suggest. People immigrate, animals migrate.

“The only thing we are trying to do is warn them of the risks they face and where to get water, so they don’t die,” said Mauricio Farah of the HRC.

What advice does Mexico have for Mexicans being shot by drug gangs within their borders, so they don’t die?

If Mexico wants to help their citizens, they should do a few things first. Eliminate the influence of drug smugglers from the government, including its police and military. Create an economic system that is not dependent on illegals in the US sending billions of dollars a year back to Mexico, and give them this map instead.

Meanwhile, we will do all we can to limit immigration to legal immigration, and make it impossible for an individual or business to hire illegals. Mexico has its own problems. Aside from the national security problem of an open border, we don’t need to worsen our economic and social problems (jobs, welfare, education, health care, anchor babies) by leaving the welcome mat out for illegals.

Links: BBC NEWS | Americas | Mexican migrants to get US maps.  |  Mexican Govt. Comic Book, Tips For IllegalsStill An Issue Of Trust For Obama Administration

Barack Hits A Hard Place, The United Nations

There comes a time when rhetoric just runs out of steam. Seems that is the case now over getting tough on Iran for its secret nuclear ambitions.

Permanent Security Council member China has joined Russia in opposing Washington’s plans to impose tough, wide-ranging sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activity and open up fully to U.N. nuclear inspections.

If there ever was a legitimate reason to walk away from the United Nations club and form a ‘new world order,’ this is it.

Seems that limiting alternatives, like the Russia and China are doing, is their game. When the alternatives are limited, if tougher sanctions are off the table, the choice then becomes to let Iran develop a nuclear arsenal or go the military route, including a blockade. Whatever other sanctions could be imposed would be ameliorated by Russia and China.

It is diplomatic propaganda for Russia to characterize sanctions by the United States and the European Union and ‘other western nations’ as being unilateral if it does not include the United Nations. Clearly, they hang their hat on their puppet called the United Nations.

It’s crunch time for President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Their choices couldn’t be more clear. Does the United States stand with the EU and like-minded allies or will we find a face-saving way to leave the EU and the Middle East at risk and back down? I guess we will soon see exactly what Barack and Hillary mean when they speak of improving our image around the world.

Watch for yet another apology tour, while China and Russia are ROTFL.

Link: Russia warns U.S. against unilateral Iran sanctions – Yahoo! News.

Capitalism Pays For Socialism

What is happening to Greece, and soon to Spain, Portugal, and Italy is a snapshot of what we can look forward to right here in the United States unless we reverse the course of big government and expanded government control of our lives, higher taxes, and deficit spending amounting to generational theft, like the Obama administration has already done. And they have only just begun.  The picture painted in this post, The State of the Welfare State, demonstrates how socialism with all its good intentions is not sustainable.

Now Greece, with a total population roughly equal to the combined populations of New York City and Chicago, is looking for $146.2 billion for a bailout. The fact is, no amount of money will bail out Greece. Not unless and until Greece dismantles the socialist utopia it has built for itself.

Their utopia is currently running a national debt that is 115% of GDP, and is expected to rise to 149% of GDP by 2013. {actual for 2013 is 156.9% of GDP} By any measure, that is what bankrupt is. Pretty impressive debt, especially when you consider that Greece, like all of the EU, has a value added tax (VAT) in addition to all their other taxes.

Most European countries today operate under economic and labor policies crafted during the height of the post-war baby boom, featuring middle-class entitlements like generous pension systems that allow early retirement, liberal disability programs that exempt many laborers from work, and extended unemployment systems that make going on the dole and staying there easier than in the U.S.. Europeans designed these policies in an era when there were, in many European minds, too many people competing for jobs and a bulging work population to support those who were retired or on disability.

Now, this house of cards is falling down. The demographics are nothing today like they were 60 or 70 years ago. Now, not only are there less people working, but there are more people on the government dole collecting retirement pensions. Europe has their own baby boomers.  Governments, like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, have no money to sustain this welfare state and they and other countries face riots in the streets at the very thought of trying to reform (take away) the unsustainable benefits they have put in place.

So where are we today? Hopefully, we a learning the lesson that the socialist economic system is not sustainable. Like Margaret Thatcher said, ‘the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.’ Their socio-economic models need to change to a market driven capitalistic model. Much like the one President Obama is trying to dismantle.

By trying to be more like Europe, actually way worse than Europe, he is heading the country southbound in the northbound lane. And is taking advice from people telling him to ‘speed up,’ instead of ‘turn around.’

And before too long, this great country will be in the same shape as Greece, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and the rest of them.

Link: Eurozone approves massive Greece bail-out

aSide Order

The flooding in Tennessee has taken 30 lives so far. Nashville is under water. The inaction by the Obama administration is simply astounding.

And just why do you think that is?

The boys at Red State Update call for help from fellow Americans. Not from Washington.

A sure sign of spring is when the girls start showing their navels.

Still An Issue Of Trust For Obama Administration

Now that the dust from the terrorist car bombing attack in Manhattan has settled, and the oil spill talking points are down, all while the flooding in Tennessee is being ignored, what else has the media not been telling you about when it comes to the Obama administration?

Having removed all possibilities offered by giving the benefit of doubt to President Obama, let’s examine the actions of the community organizer-turned Commander in Chief since last month. Time has come to hold him accountable for the disparity between his words and his deeds.

Missed from the news pages and the evening ‘news’ was this little ditty.Our honest leadership and open government at work.

The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama’s health care “reform” law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius’s staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.

“The reason we were given was that they did not want to influence the vote,” says an HHS source. “

Which is actually the point of having a review like this.To put it another way, telling Americans and Congress the truth would be contrary to President Obama’s agenda. So the truth loses.

And today the Congressional Budget Office says President Barack Obama’s new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years.

Long before the so-called health reform bill was voted on, I was willing to accept that Obama was just wrong in his assertion that his bill would reduce costs. I was even willing to believe him (well, not really) when he said that he wouldn’t sign a bill that wouldn’t reduce cost and increase care. But when put to the wall, this administration is all about the means justifying the end. Truth, openness, and accountability was the smokescreen used to usurp nearly 20 percent of the private sector economy and the health care decisions of all Americans, whether they like it or not.

We now know that none of what the President promised will happen. Ditto with the so-called ‘stimulus’ package of out-of-sight deficit spending keeping unemployment below eight percent. If the President was an honest man, he would hold a news conference and admit his ‘mistake’ and call for the revocation of The Affordable Care Act and hold true to his word that no bill of that magnitude will ever again pass on a simple majority, bribery notwithstanding.

Then there is the divider-in-chief’s comments on the new law in Arizona that gives state and local police the same powers of the federal government when it comes enforcing the law as relates to border crashers, aka illegal aliens.

Anyone who characterizes the Arizona law as an immigration law is mis-characterizing it. The federal government has immigration laws that cover how people immigrate to the United States legally. Arizona has given State authorities the same tools to identify those in the country illegally as those used by the federal government. Their law has nothing to do with immigration laws.

It was in late April at a campaign-style event in Iowa when Obama said, “Now, suddenly, if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to get harassed.” That simply and factually is not true. It is a deliberate prevarication of the facts, or more simply, a lie. Standard practice for a community organizer who looks at illegal aliens as undocumented democrats. But deplorable practice for the President of the United States.

The Arizona law prohibits profiling to ascertain citizenship, same as the federal law prohibits profiling. What the President knows, and is deliberately misleading to inflame emotions in the Latino community, is that (like the federal law) any interrogation such as asking for identification may only come AFTER a lawful contact with a person such as being stopped in the commission of a crime, a traffic stop, or some other reason that an officer may lawfully come in contact with an individual. It may not happen solely on the color of their skin.

And where is the President when it comes to responding to Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon who said . . .

Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomena, this way opens the door to intolerance, hate, and discrimination.” Calderon told a meeting with Mexican immigrant groups.

“My government cannot and will not remain indifferent when these kinds of policies go against human rights,” Calderon said, adding that he would bring up the new law when he meets with Obama next month during an official visit to Washington.

Like his predecessor Vicente Fox, Calderon often refers to illegal aliens who are Mexicans as a migration phenomenon. Breaking U.S. immigration laws is not a human right Mr. Calderon. Something else to ponder President Calderon, people immigrate, animals migrate.

I have no problem with people who want to come to America to live and prosper, when done legally. And if steps are not taken now to insure that America remains American, then I apologize to our future generations for the chaos they’ll be going through. There’s nothing wrong or un-American about this country being a so-called melting pot. What’s wrong is to let the pot melt.

Links:

Female Genital Mutilation Creeping To America

Women are losing the war against barbarism right here in the United States. Who knew that the American Academy of Pediatrics, ‘dedicated to the health of all children,’ would be a proponent of this?

You probably didn’t notice because we don’t have the streets filled with “Chop-Chop Squares” a la Saudi Arabia.

But don’t let your general vision crowd out the sub rosa nod and wink toward the disgusting disfigurement officially sanctioned by Muslims around the world . . . and now by the official association of America’s pediatricians, which has now given its own nod and wink toward  a “lesser” version of female genital mutilation.

Oh, and note the use of the words “Asian” and “African” as euphemisms for what it really means: Muslim

Links:

Boat Owners Join Oil Recovery Fight

Called the Vessels of Opportunity Program, boat captains everywhere can help to remedy the oil spill going on at Deepwater Horizon. Where Florida’s coast is concerned, the oil has not reached the shores yet. But it has already hit the charter boat and commercial fishing industries, including of course the seafood distributors, all over the Gulf coast.

The problem is simple, there is no fishing business for the fishing industry until the oil leak is fixed. And there are not enough BP and government vessels available for the extended use that is anticipated.

BP is offering $2000/day for captains in the program. It helps them with some income and helps to save the coast and Gulf waters from further oil pollution.

Participation requires specialized training. Information about participating is on their website at Deepwater Horizon Response. The list of training sessions all along the Gulf Coast is below.

Vessels of Opportunity Orientation and Training Sessions Schedule

City Date Place Start Time
Houma, LA Monday,

May 10

Houma Civic Center

346 Civic Center Boulevard Houma, Louisiana 70360

9:00 AM
Houma, LA Monday,

May 10

Houma Municipal Auditorium

880 Verret Street

Houma, LA 70360-4636

9:00 AM
Chauvin, LA Monday,

May 10

5248 Bayouside Dr.

Chauvin, LA 70344

2:00 PM
Houma, LA Monday,

May 10

Houma Civic Center

346 Civic Center Boulevard Houma, Louisiana 70360

2:00 PM
Bayou La Batre, AL Monday,

May 10

Church of God Gym

1136 Argyle Road

Irvington, AL

3:00 PM
Panama City, FL Monday, May 10 Gulf World Marine Park

15412 Front Beach Road

Tropical Garden Theatre

Panama City Beach, FL 32413

5:00 PM
Apalachicola, FL Tuesday, May 11 66 Fourth St.

Apalachicola, FL 32320

1:00 PM
Lafitte, LA Tuesday, May 11 Lafitte Civic Center

4953 City Park Dr. 70067

1:00 PM
New Orleans East, LA

(Vietnamese)

Tuesday, May 11 TBD TBD
Grand Isle, LA Tuesday, May 11 3811 Highway One

Grand Isle, LA 70358

3:00 PM
Pensacola, FL Tuesday,

May 11

Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, 12 Via de Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach, Fl 32561 5:00 pm
Slidell, La Wednesday, May 12 TBD 9:00 AM
TBD, Jackson Co., MS Wednesday, May 12 TBD 10:00 AM
Bon Secour,  AL Wednesday, May 12 Friendship Baptist Church Community Hall,

7159 Bon Secour Highway

Bon Secour, AL 36511

1:00 PM
Chauvin, LA

(Vietnamese)

Wednesday,

May 12

5248 Bayouside Dr.

Chauvin, LA 70344

1:00 PM
Slidell, LA Wednesday, May 12 TBD 2:00 PM
TBD, Jackson Co., MS Wednesday, May 12 TBD 3:00 PM
Dauphin Island, AL Thursday, May 13 TBD 9 AM

h/t Chasidy Fisher Hobbs, Emerald Coastkeepers

Cape Wind, Nation’s First Wind Energy Project

After only 10 years (only?) of obstructing from politically connected democrats in the State of Massachusetts like the Kennedys past and present, the Cape Wind project met its last hurdle when on April 28, 2010, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced his approval of Cape Wind with a favorable Record of Decision for the project to be constructed on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts.

This marks not only a first for wind energy in the United States, but real progress in green energy and green energy jobs. The project’s approval also means a boost for Pensacola’s GE who will be manufacturing hundreds of turbine generators for Cape Wind.

Link: CAPE WIND APPROVED by Federal Government as America’s First Offshore Wind Farm; Project will Add Clean Energy Jobs for RegionWind Energy? N.I.M.B.Y.

Times Square Car Bomber

Like the Christmas day airline bomber, we have another successful attack and unsuccessful detonation.  Counting the shootings at an Army recruiting office, the Ft. Hood shootings, and the Christmas Day airline bomber, we now have 4 successful attacks on our homeland in the last 12 months. Lucky for us, two bombs failed to detonate.

Screen capture from a Times Square web cam below. The suspect vehicle is the black SUV at the bottom of the picture.

Illustrating the level of denial of the war on terror and just who the enemy is, and/or the extent to which some in the administration and progressives are quick to seek political advantage at the expense of Americans in Times Square by positing the notion that the perpetrator was likely a tea party person or some right winger who doesn’t like Obamacare.

According to Bloomberg . . .

“If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that: homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything,” Bloomberg told Couric. “There is no evidence here of a conspiracy, there is no evidence that it’s tied into anything else. It looks like an amateurish job done by at least one person,” he said.

And just to make you feel safe,   Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary — described it as a “one-off” saying ‘there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.’  That’s good news. What? Did bin Ladin and alQaeda give up? New Yorkers no longer have to worry about another attack?

What are your anonymous thoughts? Here’s a totally politically incorrect poll. On this poll you can check more than one box.  May want to keep it handy the next time we are attacked.

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Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.