Sunday, December 11, 2011

Liberal Legal Expert: Kagan must recuse herself or "the integrity of the Supreme Court is at stake"

Professor Eric Segal is a widely published constitutional attorney who is a self-professed liberal. Therefore, when the subject of Elena Kagan's recusal is seen by most Democrats as a partisan issue -- rather than simply an issue of obvious, judicial integrity -- his Slate opinion piece ("A Liberal’s Lament on Kagan and Health Care") represents a breath of fresh air.

...Elena Kagan is a loyal Democrat who owes her Supreme Court appointment to President Barack Obama.* She is poised to review the constitutionality of Obama’s health care statute, which, if invalidated, might do serious damage to his re-election campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Even though it would be a hard decision to make, Elena Kagan should recuse herself from hearing challenges to the act.

So far it appears that only Republicans and conservatives want Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, while liberals and Democrats take the opposing view. I have been a liberal constitutional law professor for more than 20 years, and a loyal Democrat. I believe the Affordable Care Act is constitutional... That said, I believe that as a matter of both principle and law, Kagan should not hear the case.

...As many have pointed out, there are legitimate arguments that these rules point to recusal. Was Kagan a “counsel” or “adviser” on this issue? We know that she was on an e-mail exchange between her top deputy, Neal Katyal, and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, about a meeting to discuss the litigation strategy for the ACA litigation, and lawyers in her office would be present. We also know she attended at least one meeting where the litigation was discussed... We don’t know how fully Kagan was involved because the White House (perhaps for legitimate reasons unrelated to this controversy) has not released all of the relevant emails about the matter...

We also know that Kagan wrote an e-mail to Laurence Tribe, a famous Harvard constitutional law professor who was also working for the administration at the time the law passed, in which she said, “I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing.” The email's subject line was "fingers and toes crossed today!"

...She served as the solicitor general of the United States during the time that the ACA was furiously debated in Congress, discussed in town halls across the country, and enacted... [and] We know she celebrated the passage of the law.

...The Supreme Court is increasingly seen as a partisan political institution making political decisions instead of a true court deciding cases under the law. Justice Kagan has a golden moment to display that at least one Supreme Court justice has integrity and character that exceed her party loyalty and political past. If she sees herself as a political official who, because of the office she occupies, gets to cast an important vote on an issue that may decide an election, she should stay on the case. But, if she views herself as a judge of law who is obligated to approach legal issues objectively and open-mindedly without regard to partisan political outcomes, she ought to step aside. Nothing less than the integrity of the Supreme Court is at stake.

Thank you, professor, for demonstrating that at least one Democrat is capable of publicly advocating an ethical and intellectually honest course of action for Justice Kagan.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: It's Time to Impeach Holder for DOJ Lies

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

It's Time to Impeach Holder for DOJ Lies: Adams
let's be clear about my political persuasions...: Winter Soldier
The Left's Cult of Murder Groupies: PJM

The Osawatomie Speech: A Defining Moment In History: DailyCap
Ron Paul Is Despicable: Surber
Drunkblogging Tonight’s Debate in Iowa: VodkaPundit

Statist Delusions: Steyn
“Electable” Romney’s Actual Record in Elections: 5-17: C4P
CBS poll: 54% say Obama doesn’t deserve re-election: Hot Air

Economy

Bobblehead Blames Bush: MB
Obama: “I don’t control the weather.”: ProWis
The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!: Forbes

Corporate Greed versus Government Greed: AT
John Taylor: ECB Taking On Massive Risks: Insider
Allen West Apologizes For Congressional Failure: Hayward

Gunrunner & Energygate

Attorney General George Costanza: Sunshine State Sarah
Fast and Furious Stonewallings Call For Eric Holder's Impeachment: Forbes
Navy buys biofuel for $16 a gallon from company with... Obama fundraising ties: Greenroom

Climate & Energy

Tilting at Windmills: JPA
GM working on a fix for Chevy Volt battery: Bend Bulletin
America Has A 250 Year Supply Of Oil: SAB

Durban Wrapup: Landmark Deal To Do Something Later And Party Now: RWN
Science Boxes in Barbara Boxer: AT
$5B later, Obama's green car revolution finds little traction: Chron

Media

Kathleen Parker - If You Don't Support Mitt, You Are An Idiot: Wolf Howling
Hopey Change Hits the Fan: MB
Barry Does Hanukkah His Way…: Driscoll

Advertisers pull spots from “All American Muslim”: Hot Air
Obama's Trail of Broken Promises: AT
College Mate: Obama Was an “Ardent” “Marxist-Leninist”: NewAm

The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias: Western
MTV, Both Sleazy and Sour: RWN
ABC and CBS Eat Up Obama’s ‘Sharp’ and ‘Pointed’ Retorts: NB

World

Swiss, Germans Set To Unleash Capital Controls As European Companies Prepare For End of Euro: ZH
Gingrich Describes Palestinian People as 'Invented': Fox
Worries grow over IMF loans to Europe: Yahoo!

Juarez copkiller may be a U.S. Army soldier: Borderland
Saudi Textbook: The Enmity between the Muslims and the Jews Is Everlasting: MEMRI
Raymond Ibrahim testifies about the plight of Egypt's Christians: JihadWatch

John Kerry Meeting With Muslim Brotherhood Officials In Egypt: WZ
Time for Jews to wake up and smell the stench of bigotry and hatred: PJM
Jail and Impeach Overspending European Leaders: RWN

Finally the Truth: Gingrich calls Palestinians an ‘invented’ people: Bruce
Newt Defends Israel: YouTube
Codrea: Georgia Gun Owners Going For Constitutional Carry – HB 679: Western Rifle

Sci-Tech

Renault Opens Up the ‘Car as Platform’: WSJ
Windows Phone 7.5: What will make it a winner?: CNet
Snowe rips Amazon for 'incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops': Hill

Cornucopia

Keep Safe in the Woods: Exurban
Death by, uhm, Male Enhancement: RSM
Hulk Hogan sues ex-wife Linda over abuse accusations: LAT

Image: @GayPatriot
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "I am concerned that Wall Street is becoming little more than a glorified crack house. Day after day, the sole focus of Wall Street is on more sugar, stronger sugar, Big Bazookas of sugar, unlimited sugar, and anything that will get somebody to deliver the sugar faster. This is like offering a lollipop to quiet down a 2-year old throwing a tantrum, and expecting that the result will be fewer tantrums.

What we have increasingly observed over the past decade is nothing but the gradual destruction of the ability of the financial markets to allocate capital for the benefit of future growth. By preventing the natural discipline of the markets to impose losses on poor stewards of capital, and to impose interest rates high enough to force debtors to allocate the capital usefully, the world's policy makers are increasingly wrecking the prospects for long-term economic growth. The world's standard of living (what we can consume for the work we do) is intimately tied to its productivity (what we can produce for the work we do). That productivity requires our scarce savings to be allocated to productive physical capital, and to productive human capital (primarily education)." --John Hussman

Saturday, December 10, 2011

More Bad News For the Climate Crooks™: U.S. Has Only 575 Years of Gas and 500 Years of Coal Left in Ground

But, gee, let's not drill. It could contribute to warmal colding. The Institute for Energy Research (PDF) has the bad news for the climate crime gang.

In 1980, official estimates of proved oil reserves in the United States stood at roughly 30 billion barrels.

Yet over the past 30 years, more than 77 billion barrels of oil have been produced here.

In other words, the green energy kooks underestimated supplies by about 150%... just the last time they tried to panic the public.

North Dakota, for example, was barely among the top ten oil producing states less than ten years ago. Today it is the fourth largest producer due to rapid growth in developing the massive oil resources in the Bakken formation in the western portion of the state. North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.5 percent, compared to a 9.1 percent unemployment rate for the United States.

But President Obama -- who is opposed to job creation -- continues to refuse to allow massive projects like Keystone XL to proceed.

...the Congressional Research Service... released a report showing that the United States’ combined recoverable oil, natural gas, and coal endowment is the largest on Earth. ...When combined with resources from Canada and Mexico, total recoverable oil in North America exceeds 1.7 trillion barrels... [which] is more than the world has used since the first oil well was drilled over 150 years ago in Titusville, Pennsylvania. To put this in context, Saudi Arabia has about 260 billion barrels of oil in proved reserves.

For comparative purposes, the technically recoverable oil in North America could fuel the present needs in the United States of seven billion barrels per year for around 250 years.

...Moreover, it is important to note that that “reserves” estimates are constantly in #ux. For example, in 1980, the U.S. had oil reserves of roughly 30 billion barrels. Yet from 1980 through 2010, we produced over 77 billion barrels of oil. In other words, over the last 30 years, we produced over 150 percent of our proved reserves.

...Restrictions in the form of federal bans and leasing combined with declining offerings of lease acreage mean only about 2.2 percent of America’s offshore acreage is currently leased for production...

...there is enough natural gas in North America to last the United States for over 175 years at current rates of consumption... [and its] coal supplies are even more staggering. The United States, Canada, and Mexico have over 497 billion short tons of recoverable coal, or nearly three times as much as Russia, which has the world’s second largest reserves... North American recoverable coal could provide enough electricity for the United States for about 500 years at current levels of consumption.

...While the United States and North America contain enormous energy wealth, U.S. policies have increasingly made exploration, development, production and consumption of that energy more difficult. Therefore, a scarcity of good policies, not a scarcity of energy, is responsible for U.S. energy insecurity.

Anyone who opposes the exploitation of America's massive energy treasures should be forced to live for a year without electricity and gasoline.

Of course, if they're like most limousine liberals (***cough*** Al Gore ***cough*** Barack Obama), it's only folks like us who are supposed to go without.


Hat tip: Say Anything Blog.

Citizen Obama Makes a Health Care Decision


What if Barack Obama were just a normal citizen? A normal, taxpaying schmoe like you and me. These are his stories. These are the travails of Citizen Obama.

Mr. Obama, I'm sorry to say that your wife's mother is suffering from some serious ailments.

We'll need to do an extensive battery of tests. Her white blood cell count is elevated, which could mean a variety of things.

Also, it appears she needs a hip replacement.

Doctor, thank you. Even though this is family, I don't want you to go to extraordinary lengths.

You know what? We should cut costs.

It pains me to say this, but don't do any tests.

Don't give her that expensive drug. It treats a rare disease and is very expensive. The last thing I'd want to do is run up costs for other Americans.

No, she's getting up there in years, and according to Ezekiel Emanuel's "Complete Lives System", she's consumed enough of our precious community health care resources.

No, we're not going to go to the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins or some other top-notch facility.

Who am I to demand cutting-edge treatment? Those extra tests? Cutting-edge drugs? No, we don't want any of those.

And look. She's 79, for heaven's sake. Forget about the hip replacement.

She can handle it, she's tougher than nails.

Look, bottom line: just give her some painkillers.

It's just the progressive thing to do.

Enviro-scams, Episode LXXXIV: The next person to die from Radon will be the first

Responding to "The Radon Business is a Scam", an anonymous commenter observes:

...As an expert on radiation effects, and a research career that spans over 35 years, I can assert that Radon detectors (and the level set as "safe" by the EPA) are pseudo-science.

The human body contains enough potassium-40 (a radioactive isotope) to register more than 4 pCi! So far as I know, the K-40 in our bodies has never been linked to an increased rate of cancer. One only need sit or sleep beside one of the detectors for most of the "collection" period to register positive for Radon.

Meanwhile, how can a gas which is much, much heavier than air "rise" up through a home? Heck, Radon is even heavier than ALL commonly occurring metals, including Gold! It can only FALL out of the cracks in basement walls (if those walls contain or are near a high concentration of Uranium), where any Radon will turn to Lead within a few weeks. It must constantly be "replenished" by some source (that source is Uranium).

If you had a true Radon problem in your basement, you'd also have a problem with Lead on your basement floor, and Uranium in-or-behind your basement walls. There's no need for a Radon detector at all, and ventilation systems will do almost NOTHING to mitigate any problem with Radon -- it is too heavy to ventilate.

The entire Radon mitigation industry is a scam perpetrated by environmental activists pushing an agenda to grow the power of the federal government to control our environment, and who are ignorant about physical science.

Cancer is "linked" to a great number of factors using statistics. When I studied advanced probability & statistics, I was taught that figures don't lie, but that liars do it with figures. This is the case for "Radon"-induced cancer.

The EPA justifies the Radon scam by claiming that up to 21,000 people die annually from Radon-related lung cancer.

The problem is, the EPA's study failed to separate... wait for it... smokers from non-smokers.

Of course, anyone with an ounce of sense would ask: why do I have to spend $1,000 to "fix" a problem that no one can see, that no one can smell, has never hurt a single person, and apparently didn't exist until 1984?

Oh, right. It's for the children.


Telegraph: 'Eurozone banking system on the edge of collapse'

But no amount of facts, history, logic and reason can convince the Democrat Party that their Utopia, the European social welfare state, is dead.

The eurozone banking system is on the edge of collapse as major lenders begin to run out of the assets they need to keep vital funding lines open.

10:01PM GMT 09 Dec 2011

Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.

The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region's struggling banks, however City figures said a "collateral crunch" was looming.

"If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don't understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks," said one London-based executive at a major global bank.

Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding. [And] lenders are increasingly distrustful about funding one another.

... [Some] think the eurozone banks are heading for a catastrophe and the worry is growing that a major bank could collapse within weeks... Moody's on Friday downgraded France's three largest banks, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale in light of what the US rating agency said were "liquidity and funding constraints"... Two weeks ago, rumours abounded that it was the near failure of a major French lender that had been the trigger for a massive co-ordinated intervention by the world's largest central banks to shore up the banking system.

The delusional politiconomist Paul Krugman hardest hit.


"Follow me, into the futu --" ***Ka-Thwack-Bumpity-Bumpity-Splash-Ka-Shunk!!!!!!!!!***


Hat tips: Papa B and The Bad.

Why Barack Obama Chose Osawatomie For His Speech Attacking Capitalism

The reactions to Barack Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas this week were, if nothing else, consistent:

• It "sounded like what you'd expect to hear in Caracas or Buenos Aires."
• "Those who pride themselves on belonging to the party of smart people should be embarrassed."
• The speech "was deceitful, inaccurate, revisionist, and demagogic... a recreation, a fabrication if you will, of history, economics, and philosophy into a Pandoran construct of collectivist statism whereby society can demand the individual’s obedience and obeisance."
• The speech was "a thick coat of whitewash layered all over it, and the failure of the last three years lies underneath."
• The "elected president of the United States said in Osawatomie, Kansas, trying to be Teddy Roosevelt, that the United States of America has never worked. That is a quote, 'has never worked.'"
• A "Marxist attack on America."

Why did Obama choose, of all places, Osawatomie? One of the new media's living legends, Trevor Loudon, explains:

Why would Barack Obama choose to give a controversial speech attacking American capitalism in Osawatomie, Kansas? Hang on? Where have I heard that name before? Osawatomie? ...back in the ’70s? Weather Underground terrorists… Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn. Didn’t Obama used to hang out with those guys?

I remember! Osawatomie was the publication of the Weather Underground!

No, surely it's a coincidence...

I'm certain Mr. Loudon wrote that sentence with a wink at the end. The choice of Osawatomie was a signal, a coded message, a symbolic flag-raising for the progressive Left.

The Marxist class-warfare rhetoric, which divides one American against the other and which is utterly foreign to this nation, is going full-bore for the Obama reelection campaign. 2012 is our last chance to save this Republic from the Fabian counter revolution.


Update: Osawatomie: the Weather Underground newspaper

Larwyn's Linx: Paging Rick Moran: unwashed VISIGOTH ALERT!

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Paging Rick Moran: unwashed VISIGOTH ALERT!: ProWis
Whitewashing History, Obama Style: Foundry
Internal DOJ Email: Kagan Consulted on Obamacare Complaint: CNS

Despicable, Fringe Kook Ron Paul Echoes More Truther Crap: WZ
Obama, Romney Change Tacks in Week of Political Risks: RWN
Whoa: Army slashes 8,700 jobs as budget cuts kick in: Hot Air

Economy

The National Discussion We Must Have: Denninger
Bailout Total: $29.616 Trillion Dollars: Ritholtz
Inadvertent irony from #Occupy Newark: WyBlog

What Scholastic is teaching your kids about the Occupiers: Malkin
OWS vs. Unions: Longshoremen Reject Port Blockade: Tatler
House GOP releases payroll-tax package under Obama veto threat: Hill

Food Stamp Fraud Costing Taxpayers Billions: Foundry
McKinsey: If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can't Keep It: DC
Obama's thin gruel at Osawatomie: Barone

Gunrunner & Energygate

Rep. Sandy Adams Tears Into Eric Holder: Shark Tank
Holder Testimony: Issa Attacks, Dems Push Gun-Control: PJM
Top 10 Inconvenient Truths about Global Warming: HE

Climate & Energy

Buy A Prius, Kill A Mexican: SHN
Climate changers game plan revealed: Surber
The Final Days of the Incandescent Light Bulb: EIB

Just In Time For Christmas, We Again Get The Debate On Which Tree Is More Globull Warming Compliant: RWN
Polar Bear Kills And Eats One Cub, Thereby Proving Globull Warming: RWN
Aptera Employees Destroy Futuristic Vehicles: ABC

Media

JournOlism 101: A Day In The Life Of Politico’s Ben Smith: BigJourn
Hobbit purist extremist fringe wingnut talk radio kook challenges “conservatives” in legacy media: ProWis
How Blago got whacked (and Obama got away): Times

Rush: Quit taking Ron Paul seriously: Scoop
Does it matter if Herman Cain was completely innocent?: LegalIns
Texas Gov. Rick Perry Is The Only Right Choice For The 2012 GOP Nomination: Riehl

Is Obama's Intellect Stunted by Epistemic Closure?: Ace
Santorum on Hannity: RSM
Santorum Says Campaign 'Hitting Our Stride' in Iowa: RSM

World

Mexican Senator Demands Answers from Government on DEA Money Laundering: Borderland
House Report: Islamists Targeting U.S. Military (On U.S. Soil): HyScience
The Economic Crisis in the Palestinian Authority: MEMRI

How the U.S. Can Help Europe: Just Say No: WSJ
Britain Rejects New Treaty to ‘Save’ Euro: BigPeace
Egypt: “They Called Us Christian Sons of Dogs”: BigPeace

Sci-Tech

NASA's latest stunning images of sun (photos): CNet
Mythbusters’ Cannonball Map: PerceptionBuilder
HP tosses WebOS out of frying pan into the open-source fire: CNet

Cornucopia

Photo Essay: Amazing Camouflage In Nature: TAB
Dreidle-Dee and Dreidle-Dumb: MOTUS
Fees Turn Teenager's $4.85 Savings Account Into A $229.10 Debt: Consumerist

Image: CNet
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Rick Santorum for President Campaign

QOTD: "There are no class distinctions in America. That’s why Steve Jobs could start an adopted child in a broken home, start Apple in a garage and become a billionaire eight times over. The real distinction here is caused by the rise of a new governing class of experts, bureaucrats and political elites who insist on ruling us to enforce “fairness” rather than letting us govern ourselves under the rule of law." --Matthew Spalding

Friday, December 09, 2011

Outrage: Planned South Korean Towers Will Resemble Planes Smashing Into World Trade Center

In what civilized country could this be considered acceptable?

The unveiling of pictures of planned luxury residential towers scheduled to be built in Seoul, South Korea, has sparked instant controversy. The reason is obvious. The towers, which include a so-called “cloud” feature connecting them around the 27th floors, clearly resemble the World Trade Towers in the process of collapsing following the 9/11 attacks.

The designers of the towers, Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, have responded to the controversy by quickly publishing an apology in English. “It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks,” the designers insist, “nor did we see the resemblance during the design process.”

They did not see the resemblance during the design process? The problem with this assertion – apart from its inherent implausibility – is that they have admitted the contrary in Dutch. Thus Jan Knikker of MVRDV told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “I have to admit that we also thought of the 9/11 attacks.”

Eh, Jan - may I suggest you try roasting yourself in a hot stove for, say, an hour -- so you can better empathize with the victims of the WTC attacks?


Kagan Busted: Must Recuse Herself or Face Impeachment

With each batch of documents exposed by new Freedom of Information requests, the case for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's recusal -- or perhaps even impeachment -- becomes more clear.

Internal Justice Department email communications made just days before the House of Representatives passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act show that then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan was brought into the loop as DOJ began preparing to respond to an anticipated legal complaint that Mark Levin and the Landmark Legal Foundation were planning to file against the act if the House used a procedural rule to “deem” the bill passed even if members never directly voted on it.

In another internal DOJ email communication that same week, Kagan alerted the chief of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel to the constitutional argument that a former U.S. Appeals Court judge was making against the use of this rule.

During her confirmation process four months later, Kagan asserted in writing that she had neither been asked her opinion nor offered any view or comments regarding "the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed health care legislation, including but not limited to [PPACA], or the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to potential litigation resulting from such legislation".

Kagan answered both questions: "No."

And the emails appear to prove that she lied under oath.

A federal law—28 U.S.C 455—says that a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or if he “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment.”

Even more troubling is the fact that the Holder Justice Department is redacting documents and even withholding critical evidence of Kagan's relationship with the defense of Obamacare.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s email to acting Office of Legal Counsel Chief David Barron carried this subject line: “Health care q” ... The text said: “Did you seee [sic] michael mcConnell piece in the wsj?”

Barron emailed back to Kagan: ‘YES—HE IS GETTING IT GOING.”

...[On] March 18, 2010, Katyal extended [another Obamacare] email chain by responding to Perrelli and carbon copying the messages to his own boss, Elena Kagan. This new email was all about the Levin-Landmark Legal Foundation draft complaint against the prospective health-care law. It noted some of Katyal’s initial analysis of the anticipated constitutional challenge.

The subject line was now: “RE: Health Care." ... “Tom, I was just looking at the draft complaint by Landmark Legal Foundation,” Katyal wrote to Perrelli and Kagan. “It is clearly written to be filed when the House approves the reconciliation bill and before the President signs it. See paras 15-17.”

...What was in the redacted text of this DOJ email?

In a document that the Justice Department provided to the federal court in response to the MRC-Judicial Watch FOIA suit, DOJ gave this general description of the material that had been redacted here: “The redacted information contains a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney’s thoughts, before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, on what categories of legal arguments may arise and should be prepared in the anticipated lawsuit referenced in the email exchange.”

Another email chain that DOJ has released to CNSNews.com as a result of the FOIA lawsuit was sent by Katyal to Kagan on June 15, 2010. That was thirteen day before Kagan appeared in the Senate Judiciary Committee for her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Approximately an entire page—apparently the text of another person's email that Katyal was forwarding to Kagan--has been redacted from this email chain.

The subject line on Katyal's email to Kagan is: “Fw: connecting you two” Here, Katyal describes for Kagan a conversation he had about her with Attorney General Eric Holder... “Fyi,” Katyal writes Kagan. ““Also AG just told me that he expects a big story out shortly about whether you are recused in health care litigation. I went over the timing and that you have been walled off from Day One.”

But was Kagan “walled off” from health-care litigation on March 16, 2010, the day she sent an email to acting OLC chief David Barron, alerting him to Michael McConnell’s op-ed challenging the Slaughter Rule?

Was she “walled off” on March 18, 2010, when Katyal carbon-copied her on an email outlining his preliminary analysis of the draft Levin-Landmark Legal Foundation complaint against Obamacare?

...Barron responded to CNSNews.com’s questions via email. “I do not have a comment,” he said... [and] Katyal did not respond to any of the emails or the voice mail message [sent by CNS].

...The Justice Deparment has thus far refused to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s request.

...In a statement to CNSNews.com, Mark Levin asked “where is the evidence” that Kagan was in fact “walled off” from health-care matters when she was solicitor general... “I served in the Justice Department, including as chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese,” Levin told CNSNews.com. “It simply is not credible to argue that Kagan, as the top litigator at Justice and for the nation, would not have been informed about and commented on the legal strategies involving the most important constitutional and policy issue not only in the Obama administration, but in several decades of American history.

“If she had been ‘walled off’ from the matter, where is the evidence for that?” said Levin. “Who was the gatekeeper? In fact, the emails demonstrate that her subordinates were ensuring that she was kept informed about events and potential legal issues, including Landmark's draft complaint, which was prepared to challenge the Slaughter rule and then-Speaker Pelosi's attempt (albeit abandoned) to bypass the Constitution's law-making requirements. At a minimum, it does not appear that Kagan was forthright during her confirmation testimony about the extent to which she was kept apprised of Obamacare.”

It is clear that Kagan was directly involved with Obamacare.

Should she not recuse herself, she should face an impeachment trial.

As should Eric Holder.

There has never been an administration as lawless as this one, and I'm including the Nixon and Harding presidencies in my analysis.


Totalitarian Wing of Democrat Party Proposes Constitutional Amendment to Censor Newspapers

Somewhere north of Pjongyang, Kim Jong-Il is chortling.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh runs down the free speech-crushing consequences of HJR 90, a proposed constitutional amendment backed by House Democrats including Reps. Theodore Deutch (Fla.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), and Alcee Hastings (Fla.), which would forbid “for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes” from “making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.” As Volokh explains, this would be bad news indeed at places like the New York Times Company:

Nearly all newspapers, TV stations, cable networks, and rations (except of course for nonprofits such as NPR) are organized as corporations or other entities established for business purposes.
Under section 3, they “shall be prohibited” from making expenditures “in any election of any candidate ... or the vote upon any ballot measure.” Since to write or print or broadcast anything, newspapers, networks, and broadcasters must spend money, this would ban — not just authorize Congress to ban, but itself ban —
editorials supporting or opposing a candidate or a ballot measure.

This proposed amendment is obviously just the latest feverish response to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C. (2010). That's sort of funny, because despite all the doom-and-gloom commentary about
Citizens United, it's the decision's critics who are now basically calling for the repeal of the First Amendment.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise. These are the same radical Leftists who re-proposed the ill-named "Fairness Doctrine" and, that having received a royal flushing, are now marketing "local community standards" for broadcasters.

It's just new branding for a very old idea: silence those who oppose an all-powerful, centralized, authoritarian government of the sort our nation's founders despised.


Hat tip: Reason.

Leading actuarial firm: health care premiums to rise up to 85% thanks to resurgence of deadly Bubonic Plague and Obamacare but mostly Obamacare

Milliman is one of the world's leading actuarial firms. One of its specialties is helping insurers appropriately and competitively price their products. And its latest report on the effects of Obamacare on health insurance premiums is decidedly problematic for "the middle class". And the rich. And, of course, the poor. That is, all Americans, irrespective of class, religion, race, creed or other arbitrary segments Democrats use to divide us.

The report, conducted by Milliman, Inc., projects the impacts of the federal health care reform law starting in 2014, when most of the law's provisions go into effect. The report shows significant changes that will increase premiums while expanding government programs.

Specifically, Milliman's report projects that individual premiums in Ohio could increase by as much as 55 to 85% in 2014, not including the current medical trend which has been an average increase of 7 to 8% nationwide each year. Moreover, some individuals may see their premiums increase by 90 to 130% depending on their current health status...

...In addition to significant changes to premium rates, more than one million Ohioans are expected to join the State's Medicaid rolls in 2014 and more than 500,000 are expected to join the government-subsidized individual exchange. Consequently, as many as half of all Ohioans could be enrolled in some type of government-subsidized health coverage, including Medicare, when the law is fully implemented.

...[Worse still,] small businesses offering health insurance to their employees will see their premiums increase 5% to 15% in 2014 with the Health Insurance Tax (HIT)... The HIT is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and will be levied on health insurance companies that operate in the fully-insured marketplace, where nearly all small businesses purchase their premiums. It will reduce take-home pay for the average employee with a family plan by $500 every year over the next decade, impacting the 12 million employees and self-employed who purchase insurance in the individual market and the 26 million employees who are covered by their employer.

I could have imagined it, but didn't the president promise that -- when Obamacare passed -- our health insurance premiums would immediately drop by an average of $2,500 a year?

Or was that only for union bosses?


Larwyn's Linx: Eric Holder’s definition of "lying"

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Eric Holder’s definition of “lying”: Toldjah
Holder, Blago and Richardson: Triangle of Sleaze: RWN
Santorum's Surge: Tells Palin Supporters, ‘I’m Your Guy’: RSM

Among Independents, Romney, Gingrich lead Obama in OH, FL: WS
A Square Deal in a Round Hole: NoisyRm
Every Word This Guy Writes Is A Perfect Valentine: Ace

Rhodes Cook: The Republican Field May Not Be Closed: Wizbang
Perry, Bachmann Latest to Decline Trump Debate: Malkin
Dem Staffers Tweet About On-the-Job Drinking: NWDM

Economy

Obama To Veto Payroll Tax Extension If Pipeline Comes With It: RS
Obama: Man on a Mission: Goldberg
Governors of CA and NY Encourage Employers to Kindly Leave: ATR

Obama’s economic plan? Back to the ’70s!: Peth
Special Michelle Hawaii Flight Would Cost Thousands: Dossier
Boeing Machinists Ask NLRB to End Complaint: BizWk

Gunrunner & Energygate

A Plot To Undermine The Right To Bear Arms: IBD
Issa vs. Holder: 'Have You No Shame?': Ace
More Video From Holder Hearing: The Mitchell/McCarthy Exchange: Ace

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations: Attkisson
Gunwalker Goes ‘Legal’: Obama Admin Massively Increased Gun Sales to Mexican Military: Owens
Finally: Holder debunks the “Bush lied” meme: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

Tim Barnett on the hockey stick -- team knew of problems with Mann’s "reconstruction": Watts
Ethics Group Says Government Suppressed Chevrolet Volt Evidence: Truth About Cars
Transportation Secretary: NHTSA didn't hide Chevy Volt fire information: Freep

UN Climate Text Demands 'International Climate Court' to compel reparations for 'climate debt': Depot
Climate Corruption 101: Rosett
EPA Links Shale Gas ‘Fracking’ To Wyoming Water Contamination: IBD

Media

Newt Was Found Innocent Nearly 13 Years Ago – Networks Have Yet To Report It: NB
The Second Coming: That Would Be Carter, Not Jesus: Regan
The RJC 2012 Presidential Candidates Forum--Paulbots need not apply: Times

Chicago Tribune Federal Wiretap Leaker Stands By Blago: Cary
Credit Where It’s Due: Politico’s Ben Smith Exposes Media Matters, CAP as Anti-Israel Democrat Orgs: BigJourn
Obama’s Kansas speech:Three Pinocchios: WaPo

WaPo Super Genius Ezra Klein Figures Out U.S. Deficit Crisis: We Have An “Insufficiently Large Welfare State”: WZ
Anti-Jihad Blogger Announces Official Endorsement for President of the United States of America: Zilla
Republican Experts Need to Get With The Program: Glob

World

Obama's Dream for Iran Becoming a Nuclear Nightmare: Kahlili
"Core institutions" of the president's party turn against Israel.: Taranto
Saudi Prince Calls for Kingdom to Acquire WMDs: OilPrice

L.A. Man to Plead Guilty in Fort Hood Inspired Plot - Non-Terrorist "Workplace Violence" on Rise: Jawa
Indicted Yet Somehow Still Free Terrorist in Norway Calls for Attacks Against US: Jawa
Exclusive: EU bank capital hole deepens to 115 billion euros: Reuters

Moody's Downgrades French Banks Again Citing Significant Deterioration in Liquidity and Funding Conditions: Mish
China's Pollution Data Shrouded in Official Fog: Fox
Saudi Arabia: Australian man faces 500 lashes for blasphemy: News AU

Sci-Tech

Four Romanians Indicted for Hacking Subway, Other Retailers: Wired
AT&T throttles speeds for heavy data users: CNet
Why Twitter is becoming more like Facebook: CNet

Cornucopia

Roads to Leesburg: Mudville
Yikes! MythBusters Misfire Sends Cannonball Bounding Into Neighborhood: Marfdrat
Pardon Me Waiter, There’s a Fly in My Soup: MOTUS

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "Also we have applied a completely artificial adjustment to the data after 1960, so they look closer to observed temperatures than the tree-ring data actually were." --Climate 'scientist' Tim Osborne

Thursday, December 08, 2011

The Two Funniest Quotes From Climategate 2.0

HAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH... HAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHA... HAHAHAHAHHAHAH *cough* HAHHAHAH *gasp* (need oxygen... can't breathe...)

Oh, my:

Tim Osborne 4007

Also we have applied a completely artificial adjustment to the data after 1960, so they look closer to observed temperatures than the tree-ring data actually were


Tim Osborne #2347

Also, we set all post-1960 values to missing in the MXD data set (due to decline), and the method will infill these, estimating them from the real temperatures – another way of “correcting” for the decline, though may be not defensible!


After these revelations, any member of the Leftist media that refers to a climate "denier" needs to do a mandatory, eight-hour documentary on the science of Alchemy.


Hat tip: Soylent Green (NSFW)

It's another Obama record! Feds run deficit for 38th straight month

Of course, when you blow $840 billion on a "Stimulus" package -- and then never pass another budget -- this news really can't come as much of a surprise.

The federal government ran a $139 billion deficit in November, marking the 38th straight month in the red, according to a preliminary estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday.

...That suggests the deals President Obama and Congress struck in April and again over the summer to limit spending are not having much effect in actually reducing outlays.

Interest payments on the debt continue to rise at the fastest rate of any category of spending, jumping 12.4 percent this year. Social Security and Medicare spending were also up.

Meanwhile, defense spending is down nearly 7 percent, driven by lower procurement. And spending on unemployment benefits is down markedly, nearly 26 percent lower at this point than it was last year. Education spending also has declined after the expiration of parts of Mr. Obama’s 2009 stimulus.

...The government hasn’t run a surplus since September 2008 [Bush!], just before the Wall Street collapse near the end of the Bush administration. That is by far the longest streak in records dating back to the 1980s. Before the current streak, the government had never gone an entire year without running a surplus in at least one month.

I have a few questions for John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and our other feckless GOP leaders.

How freaking hard is it for you to share the above chart, which depicts the Democrats' calamitous spending plans?

How hard is it to mention a shocking, double-digit rise in interest payments -- a sure recipe for disaster -- every time you open your mouths?

How hard is it for you to discuss this outrageous monthly deficit record in every single press conference?

Folks, if we don't elect the most conservative candidates possible in 2012, men and women who believe in and honor the Constitution, I fear the grand American experiment may be at its end. Not from Nazism, Communism, Islamism or any other external enemy, but from within -- at the hands of insidious counter-revolutionaries dedicated to dividing us by race, income, religion and class.


Investment Tip: Make 343% On Your Money With Easy-to-Buy, Low-Risk Greek Bonds*

*Of course, I'm not an investment professional, so your mileage may vary.

Word from Europe is that its central bank (the ECB) is prohibited from buying the massive amounts of PIIGS debt that will soon need refinancing, the latest rumour-o-the-week (gratuitous limey spelling) that had ramped equity prices.

The main news in today's European roundup is the reiteration by ECB president Mario Draghi EU Treaty Prohibits "Monetary Financing":

At a news conference in Frankfurt, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that the European Union treaty prohibits "monetary financing." He was responding to a reporter's question about why the central bank doesn't ramp up its bond-buying program...

...The market has rallied for weeks on expectation the ECB would eventually get around to a massive bond buying program. The irony is Draghi personally fueled rumors the CEB would step up purchases...

So Draghi got out of this what he wanted: A big plunge in Italian and Spanish debt yields, by doing nothing more than yapping.

The second irony is that Draghi is in essence a liar. He cannot come out and say the ECB is providing "monetary financing" with its bond purchases, even though that is exactly what the ECB is doing.

The bond market is saying that the PIIGS' debt -- incurred by the massive social welfare states that the Obama Democrats are duplicating here -- will never be paid back.

The equity markets have yet to admit defeat.

One is wrong and one is right. I leave that choice as an exercise for the reader.


Tragedy for Legacy Media: 'Income Inequality' Straw-man Transformed Into Smoldering Pile of Ashes By Cato's Alan Reynolds

Over the past few months, you've probably read a series of propaganda pieces articles describing America's increased 'income inequality'. You know the template: the rich keep getting richer at the expense of everyone else; America has a static class structure in which no one moves up or down; and zero-sum economics idiocy promoted by the likes of the execrable Paul Krugman. A series of propagandists, including Krugman, have used this chart to illustrate how the top 1% are ripping everyone off.

But the Cato Institute's Alan Reynolds wondered, "Why did the report stop at 2007?"

A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office says, "The share of income received by the top 1% grew from about 8% in 1979 to over 17% in 2007."

This news caused quite a stir, feeding the left's obsession with inequality. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, for example, said this "jaw-dropping report" shows "why the Occupy Wall Street protests have struck such a nerve." The New York Times opined that the study is "likely to have a major impact on the debate in Congress over the fairness of federal tax and spending policies."

But here's a question: Why did the report stop at 2007? The CBO didn't say, although its report briefly acknowledged—in a footnote—that "high income taxpayers had especially large declines in adjusted gross income between 2007 and 2009."

No kidding. Once these two years are brought into the picture, the share of after-tax income of the top 1% by my estimate fell to 11.3% in 2009 from the 17.3% that the CBO reported for 2007.

The larger truth is that recessions always destroy wealth and small business incomes at the top. Perhaps those who obsess over income shares should welcome stock market crashes and deep recessions because such calamities invariably reduce "inequality." Of course, the same recessions also increase poverty and unemployment.

The only thing I can conclude is that crackpots like Paul Krugman want more stock market crashes and deep recessions. Which perhaps explains his affection for Barack Obama.

And why he must believe that countries with the least income inequality -- like North Korea -- are just swell.


Hat tips: TaxProf and Mark Levin.

Naughty or Nice: Administration Hands Iran a Christmas Gift [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

After reading this story, and watching the embedded video, you’ll be asked to participate in a brief survey and asked a few simple questions. 1) Do you smell something fishy? 2) Based on President Obama’s decision in this case, do you still think there’s a chance in Hell he’d ever attack Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons?

December 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Official Confirms Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing Lost U.S. Drone


A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.

With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.

Among the options the U.S. considered were sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.

NATO initially said the drone may have been one that was flying a mission over western Afghanistan before operators "lost control" of it. Officials have since acknowledged that the drone was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance mission.

One official told Fox News on Thursday that the incident is a huge loss and makes the top-secret helicopter tail lost during the Usama bin Laden raid in Pakistan "look like a pittance." The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

There's a good reason that the Democrat Party has, since the days of James Earl Carter, been known as The Party of Weakness™.


Good News: Saudi Prince Calls for Six Additional Arab Countries to Acquire Nukes

More evidence of 'the Arab Spring':

On 5 December Prince bin Turki al Faisal, speaking at the “The Gulf and the Globe” conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh urged the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to become a powerful regional bloc by establishing a unified armed force and defense structure.

While bin Turki’s call for the GCC to pool its military resources is nothing new, his idea of supporting Gulf countries acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if Israel and Iran do not constrain their nuclear programs represents the edge of a precipitously slippery slope.

Bin Turki told his audience, "Why shouldn't we commence the building of a unified military force, with a clear chain of command. But, if our efforts and the efforts of the world community fail to bring about the dismantling of the Israeli arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and preventing Iran from acquiring the same, then why shouldn't we at least study seriously all available options, including acquiring WMDs, so that our future generations will not blame us for neglecting any courses of action that will keep looming dangers away from us."

...Bin Turki’s comments should not be dismissed lightly... [he is] the son of the late King Faisal, is a grandson of the late King Abdul-Azizz, brother of Foreign Minister Prince Saud and Prince Khalid, Governor of Mecca province and a nephew of the current King Abdullah... Bin Turki is currently a co-chair of the C100 Group, an organization set up to foster understanding between Islamic countries and the West and is head of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

All praise due to Obama.