No, I'm not referring to the ridiculous wall-to-wall coverage of St. Michael's death. I'm referring to the cap&tax boondoggle passed last night...you know, the huge outrage of a bill that has nothing to do with "climate change" and everything to do with higher taxes and more government control. I'm especially outraged that these so-called "Republicans" voted FOR this piece of crap legislation. Write to them. The bums need to be THROWN OUT next year. I'm furious right now...not a great way to start the day!

One can only hope this can be stopped in the Senate, but honestly, I'm losing faith in our party by the minute. This could have been stopped in the House, but no. These fools would rather do their Master's bidding any any cost, and I do mean ANY COST. Money. Freedom. Who cares? As long as the child King gets his way, all will be well with the world, right?

Wake me when it's over.

JASmius adds: Well, this is a first - Jen quoting Victor Creed.  The respective provocations are similar, though.

Remember when Red Barry insisted we had to pass Hogzilla RIGHT NOW or we were ALL ECONOMICALLY DOOMED!!!!!?  How'd that work out, hm?  I guess the Dems have dropped all pretense of stimulating anything except their own usurpations of power, 'cause Waxman-Markey will have the diametically opposite effect:

America’s biggest oil companies will probably cope with U.S. carbon legislation by closing fuel plants, cutting capital spending and increasing imports.

Under the Waxman-Markey climate bill that may be voted on today by the U.S. House, refiners would have to buy allowances for carbon dioxide spewed from their plants and from vehicles when motorists burn their fuel. Imports would need permits only for the latter, which ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said would create a competitive imbalance.

“It will lead to the opportunity for foreign sources to bring in transportation fuels at a lower cost, which will have an adverse impact to our industry, potential shutdown of refineries and investment and, ultimately, employment,” Mulva said in a June 16 interview in Detroit. Houston-based ConocoPhillips has the second-largest U.S. refining capacity.

The same amount of gasoline that would have $1 in carbon costs imposed if it were domestic would have 10 cents less added if it were imported, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie in Houston. Contrary to President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing dependence on overseas energy suppliers, the bill would incent U.S. refiners to import more fuel, said Clayton Mahaffey, an analyst at RedChip Cos. in Maitland, Florida.

“They’ll be searching the globe for refined products that don’t carry the same level of carbon costs,” said Mahaffey, a former Exxon Corp. refinery manager.

One in six U.S. refineries probably would close by 2020 as the cost of carbon allowances erases profits, according to the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington trade group known as API. Carbon permits would add 77 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline, said Russell Jones, the API’s senior economic adviser.

Maybe they should have called it "Tax Here, Tax Now, Tax More".  On the other hand, it might just create booms in the cave dwelling and hippity-hop markets.

But may I please make one request of my right-wing brethren?  Yes, I know that eight 'Pubbies - including my very own congressman - greened themselves.  And predictably, there's Double-M whipping up a frenzy of rage, not against America's domestic enemies, but in yet another effort to shrink the GOP remnant still further.  You'll have to forgive me if I can't help but notice how utterly god-awful her timing is.  The time for purity purges is when we've flipped the House partisan alignment and can afford to toss eight seats to the four winds, not now when we're under Donk occupation.  Sheesh, even the French waited until after they'd been liberated from the Germans after World War II to carry out their vengeance against collaborators.  "Not-one-centing" Dave Reichart & friends will accomplish nothing other than to replace him with Darcy F'ing Burner and fellow-travelers, and that would be an offense committed against me that I would consider unforgiveable.

Besides, do you really think that replacing eight Republican apostates with eight Democrat extremists will improve a blessed policy thing from a center-right perspective?  And, more to the immediate point, do you seriously believe that Crazy Nancy couldn't have camel-clutched a few more "Blue Dogs" into voting "yea" if a refreshing absence of "bipartisanship" had made it necessary?

Remember how we got into this perilous predicament in the first place: tighty-righties grown so complacent about the supposed effortlessness of shucking off and putting on political power like a suit jacket that they helped torpedo their own majorities in 2006 for the sin of [drumroll please] "overspending".  One would think that looking at the fiscal apocalypse they wrought, those same tighty-righties would be looking back fondly upon those days of frugal sanity and humbly at the horrific economic consequences of their own arrogance.

Guess not.  Instead, Pachyderm cannibalism will evidently grisle on until there's nothing left of the Grand Old Party but fond, fading memories.

Ironic indeed that it would save False Messiah a lot of the trouble.  Makes me wonder if there's ANYbody in this party who truly is on its side.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the U.S. House to vote at the end of this week on the Waxman-Markey National Energy Tax (House Bill 2454) and we need to defeat it. 

With gas prices climbing, the last thing we need is a new energy tax that will drive them even higher, nearly double the cost of electricity, and destroy millions of jobs every year for the next 25 years.

Right now, Al Gore and all the anti-energy interest groups are buying television ads and mobilizing their activists to pressure members of Congress to support this job-killing bill.

We must act now.  To fight back, we created this TV ad, and we need your help to get it on the air. Click here to watch the ad and then share it with your friends.

To get it on the air, we need to raise $150,000 in the next twenty-four hours.

Can you make a secure donation right now for $15, $25 or whatever you can afford?

With over 110,000 people signing our "Stop the Energy Tax" petition, we've already made a big impact towards defeating this massive energy tax--but it's time to take it to the next level.

With the vote just days away, your urgent contribution of $15, $25 or more will be directly used to put this ad on television and to keep the pressure on Congress.

Here's the link to contribute:

http://www.americansolutions.com/contribute/index.php?id=70180000000JMYv§ion=energytaxad

Thank you for your generous support.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich
General Chairman
American Solutions for Winning the Future

Aren't you glad the president has his priorities straight?

President Barack Obama is set to sign into law an anti-smoking bill that will give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.

Obama is scheduled to sign the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act during an event Monday in the Rose Garden. The law allows the FDA to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such "low tar" and "light." Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

I'm sorry, where in the Constitution does it give the government the right to do this? And won't the busybody small-minded liberals be happy?! You'll do as we want or we'll MAKE you, by golly! Meanwhile, in Iran, innocent people are dying because of their thirst for freedom, something which America should be supporting with everything we have. Obama seems to have no time for trivialities such as this. Why, there are smokers to punish! By the way, isn't Obama a smoker...? Never mind, he could be a pedophile and his sycophants would still love him.

Rest in peace, Neda.  

JASmius adds: Um, Jen, don't you mean Barry O could come out of the closet as a genuine evangelical Christian and start opposing abortion as what it is - pagan child sacrifice - and becoming an archfoe of homosexual special rights - which the lavender lobby is already convinced he is by not having reported for his sodomist baptism yet - and his bootlicking analinguilizers would still bow down to his metrosexual, "deer in the headlights as the 'New Cool'" self?  It's not as though pedofiles aren't a far higher caste than disciples of the True Messiah in False Messiah's Shamennial Kingdom, after all.

Pork, death, and dictators:

On cap & trade....

By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, forty-six Democrat defections would put Crazy Nancy and Nostrildamus six votes short of a majority, with this mutiny of sanity (i.e. Dems who want to stay on Capitol Hill past November 2010) still growing.  Can the shutting down of the shutting down of the American Dynamo actually become a reality?

John Shaddeg has a roundup on the beginning of the end of the Obamunist policy manifesto....

Gas prices are climbing - with a 20% jump in the past month alone. Unbelievably, the Left is pushing a bill that would drive energy prices higher.

They call it cap and trade, but it's just a new energy tax. They think tackling climate change requires regulating the energy use of every individual and business in America, and that if energy costs more, you'll use less. But that's not a solution, it's a recipe for another summer of $4 a gallon gas.

So we've started the "5 for 5: Stop the Energy Tax Challenge" to get the facts out.

Please read the 5 facts, sign the petition, and forward this to 5 friends, urging them to do the same.

Think about it - how would these added expenses affect you, and your family? This new energy tax would:

1. Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74%
2. Raise electricity rates 90% after adjusting for inflation
3. Raise the cost of living of a typical household by $1,600 a year
4. Raise residential natural gas prices by 55%
5. Destroy 1-3 million jobs per year, every year until 2035

This new energy tax is neither an energy nor an environmental solution. It's a tax. And nobody thinks they're under-taxed.

Roll Call is reporting that Nancy Pelosi wants this passed by the Fourth of July recess. So, we must move fast.

Please sign the Stop the Energy Tax petition, and then forward this email to 5 people, urging them to do the same. We also have a "Tell-a-Friend" tool at the bottom of the petition page that you can use.

Together, we'll make the politicians listen - and act.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich
General Chairman
American Solutions for Winning the Future

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is within days of making a landmark regulatory decision that could expose small businesses, farmers, and county and city governments to unfair, costly litigation.

If the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA are successful in imposing their new regulation as it's currently written, it would be devastating to our nation's already struggling economy.

That's why it is urgent that you contact the EPA and your elected leaders in Washington right now.

SEND A FREE E-MAIL TO PRESIDENT OBAMA, THE EPA AND YOUR MEMBERS IN CONGRESS DEMANDING THEY STOP HURTING AMERICA'S SMALL BUSINESSES, FARMERS AND FAMILIES!

Here's the full story..

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a proposed rule saying that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare.

Under this endangerment finding, the EPA could rule that carbon dioxide and five other so-called greenhouse gases are a threat to public health. Specifically, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson plans to use section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act to regulate these emissions. This, despite the fact that it's questionable whether the EPA even has the authority to pursue such a drastic regulation.

Even recent EPA leaders disagree with this approach. According to Stephen Johnson, former EPA administrator, "...the Clean Air Act, an outdated law originally enacted to control regional pollutants that cause direct health effects, is ill-suited for the task of regulating global greenhouse gases."

Make no mistake: This drastic regulation will cost jobs and raise the price of nearly all goods and services U.S. consumers purchase.

TAKE ACTION: CONTACT PRESIDENT OBAMA, THE EPA AND YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TODAY!

If the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA get their way, every sector of the U.S. economy could be blamed for a wide range of health problems. And, the new regulation will open a floodgate of unfair litigation aimed at small businesses, farmers, public utilities and nearly every other sector of our economy as opportunistic trial lawyers seek to pad their already deep pockets.

Moreover, the EPA is attempting to stifle public opinion by shortening the public comment period from 120 days - the typical comment period on EPA's work - to 60 days. Such drastic regulation surely deserves the most time possible so that everyone affected may respond.

Our leaders in Washington need to understand that the EPA's public health ruling will only further the economic hardship small businesses and hard-working Americans are currently facing.

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN. TAKE ACTION NOW!
CONTACT PRESIDENT OBAMA, THE EPA AND YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TODAY!

Tell them that Administrator Jackson should add an additional 60 days to the public comment period and not rule under a public health finding.

It's what America's businesses and consumers deserve.

Yours in Freedom,

Jeffrey Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom

 

---

I urge you to immediately sign our PETITION TO BARACK OBAMA. 

I’ll give you the link in a moment, but first I want to explain why it’s vital you respond today. 

From tax increases to new regulations on job providers, there are many "changes" Barack Obama hopes to impose early in his Presidency. But at the very top of his list are measures to vastly increase the money and forced-dues power of the hard left Big Labor Bosses. 

Why? Because Obama knows that pushing his far left agenda will be far easier with the money and manpower of Big Labor on his side. And because, quite frankly, as he himself said in his political memoir, "The Audacity of Hope," 

"I owe those unions... When their leaders call, I do my best to call them back right away. I don't mind feeling obligated." 

Well, Barack Obama may indeed owe the Big Labor Bosses. But his election did not give him a "mandate" to dramatically expand their forced unionism power...

... and your PETITION sends that message loud and clear to our new President! 

As a member of Congress, I can tell you that we now face OVERWHELMING challenges in stopping these forced unionism power grabs. Generating massive grassroots pressure is our only hope.

Your PETITION reminds Barack Obama that he was not in any way elected to push through policies that will: 

1) DENY workers the right to a secret ballot when voting on whether or not they want to be part of a union (this is at top of the agenda for Big Labor, because it would enable union organizers to forcibly unionize millions more workers into dues-paying union ranks);

2) BAN companies in effect from running their companies during a strike -- a right they have held for roughly 70 years;

3) ATTACK all 22 state Right to Work laws, which make union membership and union dues voluntary;

4) INSTALL hundreds of Big Labor cronies on the federal courts, throughout the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and other federal agencies;

5) EXPAND the definition of "employee" and narrow the definition of management, thereby placing more employees under union boss control; and

6) FORCE state and local governments under the monopoly control of union bosses as the monopoly bargaining agents for police, firefighters, and other first responders.

1) Keep Barack Obama from advancing the power and reach of the corrupt labor union kingpins -- fighting his illegal forced unionism policies in the courts. 

2) Prosecute union activists who illegally seize and spend forced-dues money to lobby Congress and state legislatures for bigger government, higher taxes, or more forced unionism. 

3) Protect popular state Right to Work laws from attempts to limit or abolish the legal rights that workers in 22 states enjoy under those laws. Union Bosses are mounting end runs around these laws and may now mount a full frontal assault. 

4) Expose Big Labor's misdeeds. Every time Foundation attorneys file charges against union bosses for breaking the law, misappropriating union dues, or instigating violence against independent workers, the Foundation hammers the union bosses in the press for their ugly abuses. 

This program could not be more needed as we enter the radical Obama era. And none of the Foundation’s planned precedent-setting legal battles for 2009 will be more crucial than its Supreme Court legal program. 

For example, not long ago, Foundation attorneys scored another major victory at the United States Supreme Court in the case of Davenport v. Washington Education Association (WEA). 

This pivotal case appealed a Washington State Supreme Court ruling granting union bosses the right to spend on politics the confiscated dues of nonmembers without obtaining their consent. 

The lower court's decision even threatened Right to Work laws banning forced union dues in all 22 states where they now apply. 

And, if it had been upheld, it would have been a disaster for hard-working Americans everywhere -- and a major, historic boost for the union bosses. 

But the Foundation fought it. And won. 

And this is just one example of why the Foundation's Supreme Court litigation program is crucial. But, regardless of which way the Foundation's Supreme Court cases go (including one pending right now)... 

... winning in the court of public opinion is going to be just as important as winning in a court of law. 

It's also vital that we keep the heat on politicians to ensure they do not trample the constitutional rights of America's workforce. 

And with the recent election of the most extreme President and Congress this nation has seen in a generation... 

... the Foundation’s mission has never been more needed! 

But -- while the Foundation is expert at taking on the Big Labor Bosses and their forced unionism, leftist agenda in both the court of law and the court of public opinion -- it cannot succeed on its own. 

It urgently needs both the grassroots AND financial support of like-minded, freedom-loving Americans like you.

Which is why, in addition to your signed PETITION TO BARACK OBAMA... 

... I also hope you will make a generous and urgently needed donation of $20, $25, $35, $50, $75, $100, or more to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation once you have signed your petition here.

Your PETITION will serve as an official "welcome" to Barack Obama and official notification that, while the national news media may cover for him whenever they can... 

... when it comes to his appeasing the leftist Big Labor Bosses and their pathological lust for power, 

... the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation will be fighting him every step of the way! 

But to ensure that this "welcome" (and warning) is a big and continuous one, the Foundation wants to distribute as many as 10 million additional Petitions over Obama's first several months in office... 

... which is why it also needs your tax-deductible donation of $20, $25, $35, $50, $75, $100, or more. 

Your much-needed generous gift will help fund the substantial amount this grassroots Petition campaign may require when all is said and done. 

Your special tax-deductible gift will also help our ongoing operating and legal costs which are -- believe me -- significant. 

The bottom line is, it costs a lot of money to keep attorneys available to help workers fight back, carry out legal research, hire security to guard workers who are threatened, conduct depositions, and pay for court costs. 

But that's what is needed to mount strong cases and see them through to victory. 

To raise these funds, the Foundation relies entirely on voluntary donations from patriots like you. 

And believe me, it has a long history of using these resources for maximum benefit. 

I hope you understand -- and that you will respond without delay. 

So again, please, sign the PETITION TO BARACK OBAMA by clicking here.

Then please make a most generous and much-needed donation of $20, $25, $35, $50, $75, $100, or more to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. 

Since your donation is fully tax deductible, I am hopeful you may even consider making a larger donation of $250, $500, $1000, or more. 

But please, try to give at least $20 along with your signed PETITION TO BARACK OBAMA. 

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is fighting to give rank-and-file workers a choice. 

And nothing would cripple Big Labor's agenda faster than ending forced union dues for politics. 

But with Barack Obama and the most pro-forced-unionism Congress in at least a generation now in charge in Washington, this mission has never been more difficult -- or more urgent. 

I hope you agree. And that I hear back from you without delay. 

Thank you. 

Sincerely, 


Steve King (R-IA)
United States Congressman