America tosses the word "hero" around much too cavalierly. A 45 yard touchdown run or a clutch double into the gap may be impressive, but certainly not heroic.

These two deserve the word. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 11:15 AM | Comments (414)
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Today the House will vote on two bills designed to avert both components of the fiscal cliff. It's a smart play by Speaker Boehner and his caucus to pass this legislation and then head home for the holidays as it looks increasingly likely that President Obama has no intention of negotiating.

The first bill, the Spending Reduction Act of 2012 (PDF: H.R. 6684), replaces the automatic sequestration cuts with alternative spending cuts and reforms, mainly to avoid the nasty defense cuts in the original sequester. It also cuts the Obamacare slush fund, the failed HAMP mortgage reform effort, and reforms food stamps and the child refundable tax credit. The bill reduces the deficit by an additional $242 billion over the original sequester.

The second bill, the Permanent Tax Relief for Families and Small Businesses Act of 2012 (PDF: H.J. Res. 66), is what we've been calling 'Plan B.' It permanently extends current tax rates for everyone making less than $1 million, so no more of having to re-fight the same battles over and over every time the tax rates expire. It has a permanent AMT fix, which conservative have been seeking since time out of mind. The Joint Committee on Taxation says that Plan B amounts to about a $3.9 trillion tax cut.

The House GOP should pass these bills and go home. We're not going to get anything from President Obama, despite a good-faith effort to avert economic disaster. Let him own a decision to raise taxes on 99.81% of Americans.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:44 AM | Comments (214)
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• The National "Discussion" On Guns Begins
  
• Wrong Answers For Mass Shootings
  
• Going Out With A Bang
  
• Media Watchdogs Upset Obama Not Getting Enough Gun Control Questions From The WH Press Corps
  
• IntercontinentalExchange Buys NYSE
  
• It Appears Scott Brown Will Be Running For Kerry's Soon To Be Vacated Seat
  
• Obama Sidelines Gun Control
  
• More Americans Favor School Officials Having Guns Than Weapon Ban
  
• Sen. Feinstein Has A Concealed Carry Permit
  
• NRA Sees Huge Spike In Membership
  
• Rob Parker Apologizes For His "Cornball Brother" Statement
  
• Piers Morgan: Of Course I'm Gleeful The Sandy Hook Tragedy Happened
  
• We Need To Have A National Conversation On Feces Filled Sock Assaults
  
• Dog And Horse Best Friends
  
• Norquist Blesses Boehner's Plan B
  
• Spain On Track For Major Crisis In 2014
  
• New Japanese Prime Minister Talks Tough On China
  
• Do-Gooders Ruining Lives In The Congo
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:03 AM | Comments (91)
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That's what the left always says they want. Because who could be against "common sense", right?

They say they want an "assault weapons ban" yet Connecticut already has one (and good luck getting them to define "assault weapon"). They say they want "waiting periods" yet Connecticut already has those, too. They say they want to ban high-capacity magazines, even though the low-capacity ones take only seconds to change.

Background checks? We already have those nationwide. But we must "close the gun show loophole", by which I think they mean requiring background checks for all private sales between individuals because just applying them to private sales that take place at gun shows would be stupid.

Oh, wait, it's gun laws we're talking about here.

The crime that provoked all this babbling occurred in a state that's ranked by the Brady Campaign as having the 5th-strongest gun laws in the US. Most of the "common sense" proposals you're hearing in the media amount to a call to apply Connecticut's gun laws to the entire nation so the crime that happened there can never happen again.

Wait. What?

In reality, the left just wants what it has always wanted: a complete ban on guns. Deep down, they know their "common sense" gun laws are ineffectual, but they also know there's no way the public will eat the whole meal in one sitting. So they're doing what they always have ... proposing to incrementally strip away gun rights and use each failure of their own proposals as a call for even tighter restrictions on people's fundamental right to self-defense.

And even if they were to reach their promised land of a complete ban, they'd soon learn that they can't de-invent the technology that it takes to make a relatively simple machine. Next on the list would be waiting periods and permits to buy lathes and CNC milling machines, I guess.

After 9/11/01, there were two responses that actually made sense and would prevent a repeat of the incident: strengthening airliner cockpit doors and requiring the door to remain locked during flight. However, all the changes in the security line, from federalizing screeners to making you surrender your nail clippers and take off your shoes are just security theatre designed to make you feel safer at the high price of stripping away some of your liberties.

Gun control laws are no different, and the policies that proved ineffective in Connecticut are security theatre too. If we're truly interested in preventing these types of incidents in the future, here's where we should focus our efforts:

With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.

You want common sense gun control? Eliminate gun-free zones and allow people to freely exercise their fundamental right to defend themselves, their families and their communities.

Posted by: andy at 07:13 AM | Comments (236)
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Only 370 shopping days 'til next Christmas.

Posted by: andy at 03:13 AM | Comments (238)
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Do you feel like youÂ’re living in a nightmare right now?

Most of us thought that all we had to do was get to the beginning of the New Year and weÂ’d finally see the end of the most treacherous and destructive presidency of our lifetimes.

And yet here we are in this unthinkable place, wondering how in the hell we got here—how our friends and neighbors could betray us this way … how such a fiercely proud, prosperous and inherently decent nation could become so mean, petty and small.

I am not here to analyze this past election. I admit I donÂ’t have the answers. I donÂ’t relate to or understand an electorate that willingly loots from its fellow countrymen and, when that isnÂ’t enough to satisfy its insatiably greed and snotty, self-righteous entitlement, smashes open the piggy banks of future generations and helps itself to the spoils.

HereÂ’s what I do know: Economic calamity is inevitable. This past election was our last dim hope of avoiding it. We failed. The moment has slipped our grasp and with it the die is cast.

I donÂ’t know how these next few years will unfold. One thing I am certain of: they will test our individual character greatly.

Are you scared yet? DonÂ’t be. Many of us will arrive on the other side of this mess happier and more spiritually content than weÂ’d ever imagined. Because this moment is an opportunity for those who see it in the correct light.

HereÂ’s something I want you to internalize: All that anger, turmoil and hopelessness youÂ’re experiencing comes from a feeling of helplessness.

But that’s all it is—a feeling. You’re not helpless at all. You only think you are.

HereÂ’s how I know:
more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:46 PM | Comments (453)
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For those of you with even a small refractor telescope, the next few nights present a once in a blue moon opportunity to spot all seven planets in the same evening.
Five of them are visible without even binoculars, while the other two will require you to reference the charts below. While Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will "move" faster in the sky, Uranus and Neptune will stay relatively fixed in their positions in Pisces and Aquarius for some time.

The closest five planets all yield some features through a small amateur telescope, the largest, Saturn and Jupiter, even reveal their moons through simple binoculars, all this regardless of light pollution so even city dwellers can get a good view. Don't expect anything more than a colored disk on the outer gas giants, even with my 8" reflector Uranus is mostly featureless and dull. Anyway, charts below, and the weather tonight is perfect in all but middle fifth of the country, so it makes a perfect time to look up! more...

Posted by: CAC at 03:37 PM | Comments (96)
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Here's my post from earlier today on the Accountability Review Board charged with investigating the Benghazi attack. While the board was prohibited from fixing individual blame absent near criminal negligence, they made it pretty clear where they thought the fault belonged.

Three State officials took the hint and walked the plank.

Doesn't anybody get fired any more? You know, kicked out the door in disgrace.

Eric Boswell, assistant secretary of diplomatic security, and Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary of state for international programs, submitted their resignations, a senior official said. A third official in the Near East Affairs bureau also resigned, the official said.

Boswell and Lamb oversaw security for the Benghazi mission. Lamb testified before Congress about the security precautions. Documents show Lamb denied repeated requests for additional security in Libya.

Veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering, who chaired the review board, said the members placed primary blame "at the assistant secretary level, which is in our view the appropriate place to look, where the decision making in fact takes place. Where, if you like, the rubber hits the road."

In the meantime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promises to testify before Congress by mid January.

So, the highest level person to pay for Benghazi seems to be Susan Rice. In reality her, um, contribution, to the debacle was after the fact and probably tied more to Senators wanting to see their buddy John Kerry get the State gig.

Hillary will ride off into glorious, big book advance retirement and Obama will continue trying to piece together a second term national security team not filled with losers.

Beyond the politics, hopefully State will have learned from this very costly and realize that they will be doing more expeditionary diplomacy in the future and the need to figure out how to minimize the risks as much as possible. Our enemies are tireless and ruthless, we need to be the same.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:39 PM | Comments (175)
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Governor Christie at Beltway Republican Retreat

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:06 PM | Comments (176)
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A very strong statement from Speaker Boehner:

"Tomorrow the House will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every American -- 99.81% of the American people. Then the President will have a decision to make. He can call on the Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history."

I think the Speaker has been disatisfied with the media coverage of Plan B thus far. By keeping his statement to 56 seconds, he basically gets to choose the content of the clip used by the broadcast evening newscasts this evening. Yesterday, Boehner said he was still open to negotiations with President Obama. This is a direct rebuke to Obama's noon presser wherein he said he would not negotiate over many aspects of the fiscall cliff.

House GOP has been whipping Plan B since yesterday. Americans for Tax Reform (Norquist's outfit) is for it, Heritage Action* is against it. I'd say Boehner's got the votes.

*I originally posted that Heritage Action is Senator DeMint's soon-to-be-outfit. A helpful reader reminded me that Heritage Action is kept separate from Heritage for tax purposes. DeMint will be at the later, not the former.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:43 AM | Comments (256)
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