Before the link, let me say why this was such a bad move on Letterman's part, assuming he's still on Team Obama. If you don't want to read a lot of noodling, skip to the link and video at the end. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:34 AM | Comments (98)
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Evan Coyne Maloney digs into the dusty archives to reveal a world that existed just fourteen months ago.

Stick with it until the last soundbite. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Comments (179)
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10 days! The GOP can't even muster courage for two whole weeks before they start thinking that maybe, just maybe they are being too strident about the whole health care repeal thing.

Somewhere, but not the offices of AEI, David Frum is smiling.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the committee responsible for electing GOP senators this fall, said in an interview, "The focus really should be on the misplaced priorities of the administration" and Congress' Democratic leaders.

"The No. 1 concern of the public is jobs and people losing their homes," he said. "The administration has been obsessing on this health care bill."

Asked if he advises Republican Senate candidates to call for repealing the law, Cornyn said: "Candidates are going to test the winds in their own states. ... In some places, the health care bill is more popular than others."

On Tuesday, Cornyn issued a 1,280-word campaign memo that mentioned "repeal" only once. It did not advocate repeal but noted that in a recent poll, "46 percent of respondents support a full repeal" of the health law.

Three weeks ago, Cornyn told reporters he thought GOP Senate candidates would and should run on a platform of repealing the legislation.

Cornyn and others increasingly are focused on several corporations' claims that a provision of the new law that cancels a tax benefit will hurt profits and hiring. This approach places a greater premium on pivoting to the economy instead of dwelling on the legalistic process of trying to repeal the complex law.

"The health care debate provides a natural segue into talking about the economy and jobs," said Nicklaus Simpson, spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference, a policy group.

Now part of this is AP spin to protect their guy in the White House but let's not pretend there isn't a go along-get along reflex embedded in just about every politician. If the path of least resistance is to nibble at the edges of this law, that's what most Republicans will do. It's our job to keep them focused on the task and more afraid of what happens if they go wobbly than not.

That's not to say every Republican campaign this fall should be one word long, to the exclusion of every other issue. As I said last week, talk about whatever you want but always bring it back to the fact that health care and its impact on the economy are the issues that frame everything else. And at the bottom of that issue is one word, repeal. Sure the GOP will put something else in place (I wish we didn't have to, unfortunately that's not in the cards) but first and foremost we will repeal this nation killing health care law.

It might not be a winning formula for every election. That's ok, we don't need to win every election. We need to win enough on a clear mandate to start taking steps in 2011-2012 to repeal this law and build moment going into 2012 for the final push.

Repeal is going to be hard and it's going to be a long process. Look how long it took to get the damn thing in place. We have 3-4 years, not 100 so we need focus and determination because if we don't succeed, nothing else matters.

Man up GOP.

Added: The Club For Growth has a "Repeal It" pledge website. See if your candidate has taken it and if they haven't, ask them why.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:32 AM | Comments (455)
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Looks like the proverbial blind squirrel found a nut.

The Obama administration will approve significant oil and gas exploration off America's coasts, including a possible sale two years from now of leases off the Virginia shore, administration officials said Wednesday.

The move, which President Obama will announce Wednesday morning with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Andrews Air Force Base, ends a long-standing moratorium on oil and gas drilling along much of the East Coast, from Delaware to central Florida.

The new strategy also calls for oil and gas exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, more than 125 miles from Florida's coast, and in large areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Arctic Ocean, north of Alaska, after the government conducts detailed studies, an administration official said.

The administration will bar exploration in Alaska's Bristol Bay, officials said, which is home to critical wildlife habitat. Aides spoke of the plans on the condition of anonymity, to avoid preempting the president's announcement.

As always, there may well be a catch here. Will it be tied to a Cap and Trade bill? Or if there's not that explicit of a connection, it might be an effort to improve the atmosphere for getting one of the climate bills going.

With this group there's always reason for caution when they do something right. And as always, there's a promise that has reached it's expiration date.

Added: The Hill has a piece about five hurdles a climate bill faces. Number 3? Offshore drilling.

(Sierra Club chief Michael) Brune also pointed to another potential stumbling block: offshore drilling. “We will not be able to accept the dramatic giveaway that offshore oil drilling represents,” he said.

But expanding offshore drilling opportunities to lower dependence on foreign oil is one of the main reasons Sen. Graham is helping to craft a bill. The legislation is expected to have an opt-in, opt-out mechanism. State legislatures closer to shores will have to affirm they want drilling off their coasts.

Environmental groups are worried, though, that Democratic leaders are risking too much. Ten coastal-state Democrats wrote KGL last week warning against “unfettered” access to offshore areas.

Another potential hurdle is whether states should get a share of the royalties for oil and gas operations in federal waters off their coastlines. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said the royalties should go to federal coffers. But legislative fence-sitters, such as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), have pushed for states to take a greater share.

It will be interesting to see what Lindsey Graham (Rish-Really SC?) says after today's announcement.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:38 AM | Comments (197)
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Another day, another CEO likely getting called to the carpet for just doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Democrats think that accounting is a grand conspiracy to make them look bad.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:45 AM | Comments (122)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:21 AM | Comments (73)
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Good evening all M&Ms.
Don't forget about the job bank at the AoSHQ yahoo group.

Jamie "Mistress of Disaster" Gorelick now on her way to a 0-3 record of FAIL

Okay given the scale of her first two FAILs, she's more like 0 and 2.5. She's infamous for writing the "intelligence wall" memo that prevented the FBI from investigating Moussaoui and possibly unraveling the 9/11 plot and then later serving on the 9/11 Commission despite a clear conflict of interest.

Next she moved on to Fanny Mae where she made $26 million over 6 years despite Fanny Mae being hit with a $10 billion dollar scandal. Despite her claims that it was managed safely Fanny Mae's later insolvency would help take down AIG, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions.

After that she was hired by Duke as a defense attorney while the university was busy railroading the lacrosse team players accused of rape. And then after that she went to work as a lobbyist for Sallie Mae which has been a complete fail since her efforts got Sallie Mae exactly nada and then the recent health care bill completely nationalized student loans.

So it's worth googling her periodically to see what's going to fail next. And based on her track record I figure she'll soon be running ObamaCare.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:05 PM | Comments (911)
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Via Newsbusters, thanks to AdamSBaldwin aka Jayne Cobb.

Posted by: Ace at 04:15 PM | Comments (308)
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How did this help Michelle's kids?

Insurer Prudential Financial Inc. said Monday that it will take a $100 million charge in the first quarter in relation to the recent health care overhaul legislation.

The life insurance and annuities provider said in a regulatory filing that it will take the charge against earnings in the first quarter.

Prudential joins a growing list of companies that have said they will take accounting charges because of the health care bills. AT&T said last week it would take a $1 billion charge in the first quarter. AK Steel Corp., 3M Co., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy have also said they would take smaller charges.

Prudential said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the health bill signed into law by President Barack Obama last week and a companion measure he is expected to sign Tuesday will reduce its tax deduction for retiree health care costs beginning in 2013.

Companies that provide prescription drug benefits for retirees have been getting subsidies covering 28 percent of eligible costs but could deduct everything they spent on the benefits — including the federal money — from their taxable income.

That subsidy was to induce companies to keep retirees on their own corporate plans rather than dump them into taxpayer-funded Medicare. Now that they've cut the subsidy, not only is it costing these businesses money, but many are thinking of giving up the subsidy and dumping them into government health care.

Remember, if you like your insurance, you get to keep your insurance.

And Henry Waxman is going to drag these CEOs in front of his committee, to harass and threaten them, and badger them into answering why they're bound to accurately account for additional new tax costs.

In fact, Waxman doesn't want an answer to that; what he wants is for companies to hide these new, embarrassing costs illegally, so that Democrats don't have to answer questions about them. And he figures harassment and the threat of punitive legislative action should be enough to give other companies the hint.

Preemptive Strike? Rich Lowry says it's part of the Democrats' plan to claim that all negative consequences of this bill are due to a conspiracy between evil corporations.

Posted by: Ace at 01:59 PM | Comments (291)
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But the expert on Christojihadism hasn't quite identified the logo yet.

But someone else did.

Taken from the sidebar, posted by XTCBradXTC.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (191)
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