The Boston Boneheads II – Things That Make Me Lose Faith In Most of Humanity

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  April 19th at 12:07 PM  | 

Good morning, @davidaxelrod. Could you tell us some more about your “tax day” theory? #BostonMarathon #Watertown
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) April 19, 2013

(Ht: Daily Caller)

I wasn’t quite sure how I’d go about taking NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston’s advice and celebrate Hitler’s Birthday this year. I thought about baking cupcakes and holding a polka-dance. It’s suitably outdated for a humble right-wing reactionary like moi’ – but somehow it just wouldn’t work. And then a funny thing happened on the way to the media-circus.

It seems David Sirota should be jubilant this morning. He wanted and I mean really wanted the Boston Marathon Bombers to be Caucasian – and boy did he get his wish!* They’re from Chechnya even, and boy are they into that old-time religion. Oh, wait…wrong one as you can see in the film below.

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Here are Some Dynamic Scoring Ideas for the Immigration Deform Bill

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 19th at 11:18 AM  | 

The coalition of leftists, big labor, big business, and big GOP consultants who are pushing this immigration bill, which is antithetical to reform, are terrified of the upcoming cost study from the Heritage Foundation.  That’s why Marco Rubio is asking them to employ “dynamic scoring.”  In the minds of his supporters, we should focus on the alleged benefits from the bill with regards to the | Read More »

Should We Go Back to a Gold Standard?

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  April 19th at 10:52 AM  | 

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the argument for a gold standard, the perils that it would bring and living in a Ben Bernanke world.

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Myth v. Fact: H.R. 624, The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 18th at 05:30 PM  | 

Previously, we had a guest post criticizing CISPA and calling for amendment. That amendment was not passed, and CISPA passed the House today anyway.

So let’s hear a defense of CISPA today, from Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His words follow:

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MYTH: This legislation creates a wide-ranging government surveillance program.

FACT: The bill has nothing to do with government surveillance; rather it simply provides narrow authority to share anonymous cyber threat information between the government and the private sector so they can protect their networks and their customers’ private information.

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When Will Republicans Understand Free Market Healthcare?

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 18th at 04:47 PM  | 

Healthcare is one of the most complex policy issues.  The lack of free market healthcare, engendered by endless government interventions (and secondary interventions to fix the original interventions), has made policy solutions even more cumbersome.  But the overarching principle of any reform must begin with the understanding that federal intervention in the healthcare industry has inexorably driven up the cost of healthcare and health insurance.  | Read More »

AUDIO: NPR says April “big” month for right wing terrorism

By: Ben Howe (Diary)  |  April 18th at 03:02 PM  | 

Revealing Politics has posted audio of NPR correspondent Dina Temple-Raston who claims that investigators are leaning towards a domestic terrorism because of the “timing.” Specifically that April is big for right-wing terrorism because of things like Columbine & Hitler’s birthday. I can’t remember the last time I was invited to a Hitler get-together but apparently she can. Follow @BenHowe

Maryland GOP cracks down on Bloggers

By: Jeff Quinton (Diary)  |  April 18th at 02:30 PM  | 

Michael Dresser of The Baltimore Sun (who is greatly missed from his days as a transit/transportation writer for them before he went to the government beat) writes about new rules from the Maryland Republican Party related to media credentials (which I’ve excerpted at the bottom of this post.) There are several questionable things in there, but the thing that stood out to me, besides Dresser’s headline, | Read More »

GM: A Bad Investment

By: Breeanne Howe (Diary)  |  April 18th at 01:30 PM  | 

It’s been nearly four years since General Motors (GM) declared bankruptcy and was bailed out by American taxpayers. So what has $50 billion bought us? Working Mother magazine recently released their list of the dozen “Best Companies for Hourly Workers” for 2013. Among those listed was GM who, in their own press release, described the honor as “recognition of employers that have the best policies | Read More »

The Obamacare-Style Waiver Authority of Immigration Bill Nullifies Talking Points

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 18th at 12:41 PM  | 

Do you want to know why this country is going to hell in a handbasket?  Do you want to know why we have a constitutional crisis with the executive branch disregarding many of our laws, particularly our immigration laws?  It’s because of those who construct the legislation. I’ve spent the past 24 hours combing through the legislation, and have only successfully grasped a few parts | Read More »

We, the citizens of the United States

By: John Hayward  |  April 18th at 12:35 PM  | 

Ann Coulter tears into Marco Rubio today, and it’s not pretty… but speaking as a longtime fan of the Senator from Florida, I have to admit I’ve been having similar thoughts lately. Here is how Rubio explained the powerful border-enforcing mechanism in his bill on “Fox News Sunday,” which he denied was merely a meaningless goal: “Basically, Homeland Security will have five years to meet | Read More »

Birfers, Truffers and Boston Boneheads

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  April 18th at 12:00 PM  | 

There are people on the Internet who become utterly convinced of their own awesome powers of observation. They read “Red Pill Blogs” and see the real world for how it really is. To these folks, it’s all a big conspiracy* and if they nose through the right Government Documents, they’ll discover the real X-Files. The Kenyan Birth Certificate, Tom Fife’s evening in Moscow, the Metallurgical | Read More »

Jim DeMint Talks Immigration

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  April 18th at 10:00 AM  | 

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by former Senator Jim DeMint to discuss the balance of liberty and security, the Gang of Eight immigration plan and how to make the immigration system work.

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The most important thing about yesterday’s vote: national reciprocal concealed-carry is doable.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  April 18th at 09:30 AM  | 

Senator John Cornyn’s (R, Texas) common-sense proposal that states with concealed-carry permits recognize other states’ concealed-carry permits was up for a vote yesterday as an amendment to Reid’s otherwise-useless “gun control” bill; and it came close to passing. Pretty freaking close, in fact (57/43). Flip South Dakota, New Hampshire, and West Virginia next year, and that’s sixty for cloture and let’s-see-what-bill-Obama-won’t-dare-veto. Here’s Sen. Cornyn’s description | Read More »

Legal Waivers Will Defang Enforcement in Gang Bill

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 18th at 06:35 AM  | 

We’ve noted many times that the lack of immigration enforcement is not a legislative problem, it’s an executive problem.  That’s why we need the administration to show us the enforcement before commencing any legalization process for those already here.  Additionally, there is also a judiciary problem that could completely gut any enforcement measures – to the extent they are ever implemented – thereby ensuring more | Read More »

Tech at Night: CISPA gets amended but not quite as I wanted. FISMA reform quietly passes.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 18th at 03:30 AM  | 

So the House did not pass the amendment to CISPA that they probably should have passed, but the House did act to find a compromise that would ensure our needs are met, while addressing the privacy issues some have.

While the above-linked criticisms are legitimate, it is the case that not that all privacy criticisms of CISPA are legitimate. “Privacy” has become the vague catch-all for left-libertarian positions that “for the children” has become for progressives. All too often there’s no actual meat to the criticisms. Heck, half the people complaining about privacy would tell you that CISPA is the new SOPA, when the two bills are entirely unrelated. It’s baseless scaremongering designed to defeat Republican efforts and clear the field for Jay Rockefeller and Barack Obama to act.

I do plan to say more very soon on CISPA, explaining why we should pass the bill. Watch RedState.

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