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Bringing the Constitutional Fight to Obama

February 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, January 4th, President Barack H. Obama said, “The American people deserve to have qualified public servants fighting for them every day …  We can’t wait to act to strengthen the economy and restore security for our middle class and those trying to get in it, and that’s why I am proud to appoint these fine individuals to get to work for the American people.”  With that statement, Obama announced recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The problem is that the U.S. Senate was not in recess, and had in fact passed a two-month extension of the payroll-tax holiday during period that the President claimed was a Senatorial recess.  Therefore, he no constitutional authority to make any recess appointments.  Obama trampled over the “separations of powers” and bypassed the U.S. Senate’s “advice and consent” regarding these appointments creating a constitutional crisis and another NLRB quagmire.

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American Manufacturing: It’s Not Labor Costs

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard points to this piece at Bloomberg on what’s holding back American manufacturing.

It’s not labor costs.

My host, a NASA engineer turned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has just conducted a fascinating tour of his new clean-energy bench-scale test facility. It’s one of the Valley’s hottest clean-technology startups. And he’s already thinking of going abroad.

“Wages?” I ask.

His dark eyebrows arch as if I were clueless, then he explains the reality of running a fab — an electronics fabrication factory. “Wages have nothing to do with it. The total wage burden in a fab is 10 percent. When I move a fab to Asia, I might lose 10 percent of my product just in theft.”

I’m startled. “So what is it?”

“Everything else. Taxes, infrastructure, workforce training, permits, health care. The last company that proposed a fab on Long Island went to Taiwan because they were told that in a drought their water supply would be in the queue after the golf courses.”

Liberal Fascism and Obama’s Sparta

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

First, read Jonah Goldberg’s groundbreaking Liberal Fascism.  It will change how you look at political rhetoric.

Now, go over to National Review Online, where  Goldberg takes apart last week’s State of Union.  It’s eye-opening.

He said of the military: “At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach.”

That is disgusting.

What Obama is saying, quite plainly, is that America would be better off if it wasn’t America any longer. He’s making the case not for American exceptionalism, but for Spartan exceptionalism.

It’s far worse than anything George W. Bush, the supposed warmonger, ever said. Bush, the alleged fascist, didn’t want to militarize our free country; he tried to use our military to make militarized countries free.

Indeed, Obama is upending the very point of a military in a free society. We have a military to keep our society free. We do not have a military to teach us the best way to give up our freedom. Our warriors surrender their liberties and risk their lives to protect ours. The promise of American life for Obama is that if we all try our best and work our hardest, we can be like a military unit striving for a single goal. I’ve seen pictures of that from North Korea. No thank you, Mr. President.

Read the whole thing.  (And the book.)

Miniter: Is Romney Actually Electable?

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Forbes contributor (and friend) Richard Miniter asks the question.

(By the way, be sure to check out Richard’s web site and pick up a copy of his groundbreaking book: “MASTERMIND: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.”)

Save Us From the Nannies

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Here’s John Stossel on Michelle Obama’s latest ($3.2 billion) plan to ‘reduce “fatty, salty, sugary foods” from public schools and replace them with mouthwatering items like “jicama,” and Rachael Ray’s “turkey tacos.”‘

As Stossel points out:

Sounds swell. Kids stripped of the freedom to make bad choices will have no choice but to shape up.

Of course, that’s an assumption based on feelings and good intentions. It’s not like there’s science behind it.

(It turns out that there’s no correlation between childhood obesity and the food served in public schools.)

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