Patients First goes after President Obama’s broken promises of transparency in the health care reform process:

Presidential candidate Obama promised time and again not to negotiate health care reform behind closed doors, to bring all parties together and to broadcast health care reform negotiations on C-SPAN.

It is truly unfortunate that President Obama did not keep those promises, but instead, chose to meet privately with health care executives, cut a deal with drug firms in secret, and outsourced the drafting of the Obamacare legislation to the extremely partisan, Democrat-controlled Congress.

Rush Limbaugh drives over Al Gore. Twice.

Which is a sign of professionalism, actually. As Hot Air’s own commenters note, most of us would have spent a considerably longer time running over the Cubslayer’s cardboard cutout. This makes more thematic sense: hit it once, back up and hit it again to make clear that this was deliberate, then go back to the race. And then wait for the gallant defenders of the helpless cutout start up… and never mind that 3/4ths of the complainers have watched Death Race 2000, cheering.

Although it occurs to me that they might not. After all, they have a clip now of Rush Limbaugh liking an electric car. Based on past experience, I believe that this earns him an indulgence from the Online Left on anything up to barratry (naval definition).

Moe Lane

PS: I’ll take electric car advocates seriously when they start talking about how it’s a matter of vital national energy security to muzzle the anti-nuclear power fanatics.

*Stolen from Allahpundit. I think.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

From the diaries by Erick

The official policy of the Democrat Judiciary Committee Chair is NOT to read legislation before voting on it.  Worse, he says even his staff lawyers lack the time to read the proposed legislation - so they can tell him what it says - before he votes on it.

Watch this incredible video clip.

While Conyers (D-Mich) may not be directly involved in the health care debate, surely he has an obligation  to know what is in a bill before he votes.  Has he read any of the supporting material regarding Judge Sotomayor?  Did he read the stimulus legislation?  How about Cap and Trade?  Rather than spending time speaking at the National Press Club, should he not be reading the things on which he is voting?

Granted, I’ve never given much credence to Legislative History - I’ve always doubted whether most members read most bills.  But openly admitting that even the staff lawyers neglect to read the bills . . . well, that is just amazing . . . and I’m rarely amazed at anything anymore.

I agree with Rep. Conyers that it may take at least two days to plow through 1000 pages.  But that would seem to be his job and the job of his staff members.  So start reading already.

The good news: Pat Toomey’s (R Cand, PA) campaign (donate here) is reporting that he raised 1.6 million dollars in the second quarter of 2009.

Mr. Toomey’s strong first campaign quarter fundraising compares favorably with those of successful U.S. Senate challengers in the last election. In fact, he has raised more than every successful 2008 challenger. In his first quarter as a Senate candidate, Mr. Toomey has raised more than candidates Al Franken (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagen (D-NC), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Mark Begich (D-AK), all of whom went on to defeat incumbent U.S. senators

The other good news: Joe Sestak’s (D Cand, PA) primary campaign against Arlen Specter (Arlen Specter, PA) is being reasonably well funded.

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From the diaries by Erick

Couer, a Canadian mining firm - no American firm is much interested in trying to do business in Alaska - just prevailed today before the USSC in its appeal of the 9th Circuit’s order stopping work on the Kensington Mine, a gold prospect, near Juneau.  This project is a graphic demonstration of the bad faith exhibited by various environmental groups in dealing with mine permitting.  Couer worked with the Greenies and secured what was thought to be an agreement that its “dry-stack” tailings disposal scheme.  Of course, as soon as Couer began permitting and development, the Greenies just used another guise to sue to stop the project.  The umbrella group that is funded by a regular who’s who of greenie groups is called the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, SEACC.  Vehicles with stickers in their window showing a little boy urinating on the letters SEACC are fairly common even in this lefty town.

What went to the USSC was the question of whether the rock taken out of the mine and from which ore is extracted is “fill” to be regulated by the Corps of Engineers or a pollutant to be regulated by the EPA.  The court concluded that since is was the same stuff that came out of the ground that was being put back in and onto the ground, it was fill rather than pollution so, reversing the 9th Soviet, a 6-3 Court re-instated the Corps’ permit.

For those of you who don’t live in mining areas, this is how wierd it gets: the very stuff taken out of the ground when put back in is held to be a pollutant by the EPA.  Interestingly, Couer played the politics of the Democrat/Greenie world pretty hardball; Alaska Natives are a pretty solidly Democrat constituency.  Couer worked with the Native Corps to mount most of their recruitment in the Native villages, most of which suffer chronically high unemployment.  Consequently, the Ds, usually opposed to anything like a mine in order to satisfy their greenie friends had to choose who they would alienate - good move.  Now we can celebrate for a few days until the envirowhackos think up a new cause of action or get some Democrat in DC to outlaw the mine without regard to the USSC.

The Connecticut Office of State Ethics (OSE) is poised to investigate and penalize the Diocese of Bridgeport for having the temerity to exercise at least four of the five sections of the First Amendment (religion, speech, assembly, petition).

The story begins earlier this year when Connecticut State Senator Andrew McDonald proposed legislation (S. 1098) that would have forced the Catholic Church, contrary to the church’s doctrine, to relinquish control of parish finances (for those from congregationalist traditions who may not be aware of the organization of Catholic Churches, the Catholic Church, by doctrine, is very hierarchical, with Bishops responsible for all the parishes within the bishopric, and those Bishops reporting on up the line, ultimately to the Vatican.  Unlike most protestant demoninations, local parishes exercise little governing control.  This is not merely an issue of secular control but one of theological doctrine deeply entwined in the Catholic Church’s views on the role of clergy, the papacy and the church in fulfilling God’s mission).  Naturally the church opposed this incursion into its governance and doctrine, with the Bishop urging Catholics to contact their legislators and the Church supporting a mass rally in the state capital.

So the state struck back.  From the American Spectator story by Lisa Fabrizio:

It seems that our Diocese of Bridgeport — which in March was forced to marshal the faithful to defend itself from unconstitutional government interference — was notified by the Connecticut Office of State Ethics that it is under investigation for possible violations of the state’s lobbying laws.

Bishop William Lori sent a letter to the OSE challenging the investigation. He describes the activity that led to the investigation:

Following the surprise introduction of Bill 1098, a proposal that singled out Catholic parishes and would have forced them to reorganize contrary to Church law and the First Amendment, our Diocese responded in the most natural, spontaneous, and frankly, American, of ways: we alerted our membership - in person and through our website; we encouraged them to exercise their free speech by contacting their elected representatives; and, we organized a rally at the State Capitol…

On April 23, 2009, the Diocese received a letter from Thomas K. Jones, Ethics Enforcement Officer for the OSE, stating that it was “the subject of an Office of State Ethics evaluation,” which was “being conducted to ascertain whether the Diocese had violated [Connecticut General Statutes Sections] 1-94, 1-95 and 1-96 by failing to register as a lobbyist in Connecticut, by failing to submit all other appropriate lobbyist filings, and by failing to follow all applicable registration procedures.”

The OSE claims the Diocese acted as a “lobbyist” by: participating in a March 11, 2009, State Capitol rally against Raised Bill 1098 (the unconstitutional attempt to reorganize Catholic parishes contrary to Catholic teaching and tradition); making statements on its website urging its members to contact their elected representatives to oppose Raised Bill 1098; and making statements on its website urging its members to contact their legislators to oppose another bill, Raised Bill 899 (regarding same-sex marriage).

The subtext to all this is that the underlying legislation itself appears to be retaliation for the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage (Sen. McDonald and lead Connecticut House sponsor Rep. Michael Lawler are both gay). 

It’s hard to imagine that in a country with the First Amendment protections we are supposed to enjoy, it should even be a matter of discussion whether it is legal, without government approval in advance, to hold a rally at the Statehouse and encourage fellow citizens to contact their elected officials. Such is the state of “reform” and “ethics” that we do in fact have to have these discussions.

(This post adopted w/ permission from a post by Sean Parnell at the Center for Competitive Politics.

If you’ve used put gasoline in your tank recently, you’ve noticed the per gallon price steadily rising:

The national average pump price increased nearly 3 cents overnight to $2.391 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline prices ticked higher every day this month.

A good part of the reason for the escalation is seasonal in nature. Pump prices always rise just before the Memorial Day weekend which marks the start of the summer “driving season.”

But there’s more to it than that. Various factors are at play, including recent refinery fires, optimism in the equities markets and the strength of the dollar. A new report from the U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday said crude-oil stockpiles dropped by 2.1 million barrels for the week that ended Friday. One factor keeping prices lower was the glut of oil sitting in storage tanks around the nation. As those supplies get drained down, we should expect to see gasoline above two dollars for quite a while.

With oil above $60 per barrel and climbing, the oil companies are talking about ramping up exploration and production activities again. Once the price moves into the $70 to $80 range, they move beyond just talking and start doing. But they will be looking for and extracting oil in pretty much the same places where they left off when oil prices dropped through the floor.

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Arlen Specter told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday Morning that the GOP has become too conservative:

“The Republican Party has gone far to the right since I joined it under Reagan’s big tent.”

Meghan Mccain says the GOP needs to become more moderate:

“I just wish that moderates like myself — more moderate Republicans and more socially liberal Republicans — weren’t looked at as, ‘Get rid of the dirty moderates. Get rid of them.’”

We hear similar statements from Kathleen Parker, David Brooks, Peggy Noonan and David Frum. I must have missed something here. In what way exactly has the Republican Party moved to the right since Ronald Reagan’s presidency?

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Now, meet your likely primary challengers:

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Completely drowned out by all the hoopla over news of Arlen Specter’s return to the Democrat Party he abandoned so many years ago, was this little item from top pollster Scott Rasmussen:

For just the second time in more than five years of daily or weekly tracking, Republicans now lead Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38% would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent (31%) of conservative Democrats said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate.

Overall, the GOP gained two points this week, while the Democrats lost a point in support.

Lest Republicans have any notions to uncork the champagne, Rasmussen cautions that the GOP’s gains are not from anything Congressional Republicans have done, but rather are an indication of sinking support for Democrats. Still, the Dems are now at their nadir of support in the past year, while Republicans have reached their zenith. This is significant, because it hints at an opportunity for the GOP.

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NRA members, keep an eye out for your copy of May’s American Rifleman, if it hasn’t already arrived. According to the latest edition of the magazine, Bob Reynolds, gunsmith and owner of Templar Consulting LLC, will make a special presentation at the NRA Foundation Banquet on May 14.

It’s a modified AR-15 (civilian version of the milspec M16 rifle), specially customized in honor of Gov. Sarah Palin and dubbed “The Alaskan Hunter”:

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After two weeks on the job our new president’s inexperience is painfully obvious. The words of his political rivals from the primaries and the general election seem almost prophetic in retrospect.

Hillary Clinton, warned on the campaign trail in Knoxville, TN in November of 2007:

“There is one job we can’t afford: on-the-job training for our next president. That could be the costliest job training in history. Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families… It’s easy to make up a program to address every economic problem. But it’s hard to figure out how to pay for it.”

Joe Biden, when he was still a U.S. Senator and challenging Obama for the Democrat presidential nomination in the August, 2007 debate:

Stephanopoulos: “You were asked is he ready. You said ‘I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.’”

Sen. Biden: “I think that I stand by the statement.”

Both of these former rivals have been bought off with high-level jobs in Obama’s administration. There will never be heard a discouraging word about the president from these two again. Well, with Biden’s brain-to-mouth wiring, one can never be sure:

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

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