Never Let a Eucharist Go to Waste

Didn't ballerina and former chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel say something to that effect? Regardless, the president's Easter Egg Roll Festivities at the White House this year contained a lot of him, and as far as that other Messiah, well not so much. Okay, so they wanted a secular Easter Egg Roll. I don't have a problem with that per se. But when you branch off into yoga gardens, well, I think Easter at the White House has officially jumped the shark.

The theme of this year's festivities was "Let's Go, Let's Play, Let's Move," encouraging physical activity as part of Michelle Obama's war against obesity, which has literally led to an uptick in fat kids being bullied.

Eggs were decorated with images of Obama the Great, an idea he must have stolen from Kim Jong the Second. Oh, my bad. Not the eggs. The basketballs. Because who doesn't want to leave an Easter Egg hunt with a rubber souvenir of our new deity in tow? You can just imagine some eight year old growing up and hanging onto that basketball until one day he realizes, oh, that's what we went $5 trillion in the hole for. Rock me, Obamadeus!

This is what liberals do. Destroy traditional religious institutions that have proven their worth and replace them with false idols who have proven that they can only perform miracles with other people's money. And even then, they're left explaining failed stimulus bills, failed auto bailouts, failed economies, and mountains of debt.

Hat tip: The greatest coverage of this administration on the planet next to Mark Steyn, the excellent Pundit and Pundette.

Elizabeth Ames Jones's Failure to Stand Up for Texas

Elizabeth Ames Jones likes to brag about her success as Railroad Commissioner, but her record as an outspoken advocate fighting for Texas against the federal overreach of the Obama administration is overstated to say the least, a whisper few Texans have even noticed.

When the EPA threatened Texas jobs by suggesting strict carbon regulations, when the Obama administration issued a drilling moratorium in the Gulf, and even as the Keystone XL Pipeline (which some claim could boost the Texas economy by $2 billion) has been repeatedly rejected by President Obama, Commissioner Jones has either been the quietest spokesperson ever or just not that effective at championing state's rights.

While Governor Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott, Senator John Cornyn, and Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams have repeatedly made appearances at tea party rallies and openly criticized the Obama administration’s unconstitutional overreach, galvanizing conservatives and strengthening the cause for a stronger Texas, EAJ has mostly been MIA.

In fact, a google search of Elizabeth Ames Jones and “drilling moratorium” only produces 755 results.  That’s a pretty poor showing for one of the highest oil and gas officials in the state on a key issue affecting thousands of Texas jobs. By comparison, searching Greg Abbott and “drilling moratorium” produces 11,000 results and searching John Cornyn produces twice that amount or around 28,000.

Google “Railroad Commissioner” with “EPA” and you will be just as hard-pressed to find many stories about EAJ standing firm against Big Government. The majority of results instead mention Railroad Commissioners Barry Smitherman and Michael Williams, both more effective and vocal proponents than former commissioner Jones, despite her 7 year tenure.

Perhaps Jones has been too busy running for office recently to pay attention to the duties she was actually elected by taxpayers to do. She spent the better part of 2011 running for U.S. Senate, which was one of the few campaigns last year to rival the Chevy Volt for most underwhelming launch. Failing to gain traction in a crowded field and seeking to save her political career, EAJ shifted races at the last minute to Texas Senate, all the while collecting a government paycheck while she ran.

On February 13, 2012, Elizabeth Ames Jones reluctantly resigned from the Texas Railroad Commission to run full time for office without pay after her opponent, incumbent Sen. Jeff Wentworth, pointed out that she was in violation of the Texas Constitution for claiming two permanent residences. She has refused Senator Wentworth’s request to return $30,000 in “unqualified salary”, which he asserts she still owes Texas taxpayers.

One wonders why former commissioner Jones wouldn't stay put in a job that demands strong advocacy against Washington power grabs if that's really her priority in running. As a state senator, she will have fewer opportunities to do the poor job she's done vocalizing support for the tenth amendment.

Whatever you think of Elizabeth Ames Jones, her claim to be a strong vocal advocate for state’s rights who has tirelessly stood up against the Obama regime just doesn’t pass the test. It is, I’m afraid, mostly a myth of her campaign’s own creation.

In the interest of disclosure, I volunteered for Dr. Donna Campbell's campaign when she was narrowly defeated by Rep. Lloyd Doggett for U.S. Congress in 2010, and I am happy to support her again for Texas Senator. I encourage you to take a look at the candidate’s records in this race and the special interests groups backing them before making up your own mind.

The Contraception Mandate: Debbie Does D.C.

First, we were told to focus on the 99%, as evidenced by the people with "I am the 99%" painted in shoe polish on the windshields of their BMWs parked in the garages of their downtown lofts, where they snuggled up to watch Rachel Maddow on their 60" plasma TVs. If only Rachel's demographics looked anything like the 99%, she might have more than a fraction of the viewers. But there's a reason you don't see MSNBC piped into the TVs on display at Wal-Mart or Sears. MSNBC targets a much, much narrower audience who can afford to advocate for costlier energy, plastic bag bans, and $6 per gallon gas.

But the 99% is yesterday's news. Now, it's the 98% we are supposed to get worked up about, at least according to the Obama apologists who insist contraception is a right and its time for employers and insurers to provide it free of charge, nevermind your deeply held beliefs and religious freedom. Apparently, a survey of Catholic women commissioned by Planned Parenthood claims 98% of Catholic women who aren't trying to have children have used birth control at least once during their lifetimes.

What does this mean exactly? Well, apparently birth control use is common, so common in fact that 98% of the women polled had no problem gaining access to it. This is not news. Nor is it news that there are plenty of organizations and even government assistance to help the women who can't afford birth control. No, what's new is that the federal government under ObamaCare thinks that we should subsidize every women's birth control, regardless of how much she makes, even if she's in the top 1%. Nary a soul is begging to limit contraception, but this administration is so extreme they are willing to impose a mandate that tells nuns and priests who have sworn vows of celibacy to pay up for other's recreational sex.

As for feminists, well, this is hardly an empowering message. We are now supposed to believe that women don't have the capacity to be in charge of their decision-making when it comes to procreating, as if there's sex-crazed, feverish lasses wandering the streets (sadly not in my neighborhood) who need a Nanny State to control their urges for them. Wonderful. So now Debbie not only does Dallas, she does D.C. with the help of D.C.

It's hard to believe that in a little under 250 years we have traded our dearest liberties protected under the first amendment for simple, er, protection. We have ditched our freedom for the promise of freebies and quickies  - and hopefully lots of em. If only we didn't treat our rights as casually as we treated sex, we could have avoided this position in the first place. And other contorted, more compromising positions that are sure to follow as Democrats toss out the Constitution like a used prophylactic.

Meanwhile, the more easily and accessible birth control has become, the more women that are having children out of wedlock. We are now at a point where the majority of moms under 30 are single. And so the men really do come and go with no intention of getting any closer to a relationship or responsibility than the fifteen minutes they need to get their pants off, making traditional families a relic of the past.

America minus family. Minus God. Minus responsibility and morality. Who knew feminists were such cheap dates?

Oh Big Brother, Where Aren't Thou? ObamaCare Turns Two

This week marks two years since the passage of ObamaCare. According to Wikipedia, the suggested gift for second anniversaries is china. I guess we're all socialists now.

Let's do everything we can to make sure there isn't a third anniversary.

Apologizing to Extremists, Not Apologizing to Americans

Today, President Obama apologized for the extremely hostile act of inadvertently offending the Religion of Peace by disposing of their holy book in an insensitive manner, thereby insulting many of the biggest murderers, rapists, and pedophiles on the planet, crucial voices of the moderate Taliban every one. Peace negotiations for a secure Afghanistan may now be in jeopardy. If you are trying to wrap your head around why peace negotiations would even be necessary when dealing with the Religion of Peace, well you're obviously not paying attention to our politically correct masters.

The Muslim outcry started earlier this week when several Korans were reportedly placed in an incinerator after it was discovered detained members of the Religion of Peace had been defacing them with inscriptions promoting violent extremism and using them to facilitate communication in the detainee library, where the holy books were graciously provided by American forces - those pigs. In protest, members of the Religion of Peace retaliated against the violence committed against their sacred words on paper by killing two American soldiers, rioting in the streets, attacking forces in charge of Afghan security, and beheading at least four fellow civilians... peacefully, of course.

No word yet on whether President Obama will also be apologizing for forcing Catholics to provide abortions and pay for contraception against their deepest held convictions. I suspect the answer is no.

Yes, It's Socialized Medicine

Lost in the debate over the contraception mandate and how it infringes upon religious liberty protected by the first amendment (and it does) is that even for the non-religious individual, a health care choice has been stripped completely from their hands and placed in the hands of one authoritarian master, the HHS Secretary. I can think of a number of people who have no need for contraception besides the family-planning Catholic, either because they are celibate, sterile, a monogamous gay couple, or seniors past their child-bearing years. And yet the government has asked them to subsidize everybody else's frisky urge (and STD) from the promiscuous teenager to the common street prostitute.

If every health insurance plan is required to cover "free" contraception by government fiat, there is in fact only one plan and no choice. The Left can act all they want like health insurance still operates in a free market, but twenty companies offering five different plans with 85% of coverage mandated by the HHS Secretary doesn't leave much room for choice. It's really a front for socialized medicine with the option to buy from several different intermediaries.

The appearance of choice is not choice at all, and it's certainly not freedom. It's the worst kind of tyranny in many ways, because the government lies about the citizen's alternatives to keep them from revolting, disguising their motives because they know that it's not the will of a free people. This is the matrix Obama and the Democrats have created around us, and I'm afraid the contraception controversy is just the beginning. Of course it's unconstitutional, but it's also a very intentional transformation of the relationship between the individual and the state in favor of the state.

Another power grab orchestrated by the Left. Let history judge those who went along with it harshly.

The Statist State of the Union Lecture Tonight!

One thousand days without a budget, $4 trillion of new debt and counting, 100 rounds of golf, lavish vacations, axing thousands of jobs with the Keystone XL Pipeline in the hopes that it will secure his, and this president wants to lecture us on shared sacrifice and living within our means? No thanks.

Which is why I'll be at the movies. The Academy (elite snobs, really, but who can resist?) announced their ten nominees for Best Picture today and I've only seen two of them. Truthfully, I think Rango should have been up for more than just Best Animated Feature, in which case I could say I've seen three. Either way, you're likely to get a truer version of reality out of Hollywood than Hollywood's Favorite Orator. Besides, the president's lecture, er, speech, will be posted online and you can probably find the entire text on twitter to read during the previews.Why put yourself through the agony of the agitprop, the rehearsed standing Os for "O", and the gushing commentary from tingly-leg types trying to sell four more years of faux recovery? Heck, that could be a new Democratic slogan... Faux More Years! Faux More Years!

Screw the sanctimony. Do yourself a favor and go see a flick! The Left can't complain, because as much as they love Obama, they love it even more when you go to their movies. However, if having a dishonest narcissist whisper sweet nothings in your ear is your cup of tea, and you already divorced Newt, well, by all means don't miss the Statist State of the Union tonight at 8 pm. As one astute blog commenter put it, what's twinkles for "you lie"?

Tyranny's Friend

The greatest enemy that exists to freedom is tyranny. Tyranny is above the law, ignores the law, makes up its own rules, steals power from others, and defends the actions of lawless men. President Obama has increasingly shown himself to be a lawless man, whether its failing to enforce laws he doesn't approve of (see DOMA, immigration) or making up his own rules. We are either a nation of laws or a nation of men. We can't be both.

The president's recent appointment of questionable candidates to head bureaucratic agencies with broad regulatory authority without seeking the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate is just the latest example that he is turning us from a nation of laws into a nation of men. This skirting of the Constitution is not only unprecedented in our history, but it fits the very type of executive fiat that is almost exclusive to banana republics.

Liberals, leftists, and apologists for the Democratic Party have tried to downplay the concern by confusing the issue and slyly spinning the president's non-recess "recess appointments" as some ambiguous legal matter open to broad interpretation. It's not. The arguments they have mounted are weak and ill-advised. They are made not out of a desire to defend America's Constitution or the Republic for which it stands, but to defend one single ruler with which they sympathize. President Obama's actions and their successful defense of them could be the downfall of our representative democracy, bringing an end to the checks and balances that keep our government from abusing power.

The left's first inclination is to compare anything President Obama does to George W. Bush, because of course Barack Obama ran on four more years of governing exactly like Bush. But any comparison to President Bush's appointments falls flat. President Bush never made a recess appointment during a pro forma session. In fact, the pro forma sessions were started by Harry Reid to prevent President Bush from making recess appointments. Even Harry Reid won't dispute this.

The left has also attempted to justify Obama's actions by blaming Republicans. The argument goes something like, "well, he tried to do it the right way, but Republicans are too much of obstructionists, so he had to bend the law." Okay, first off, either you have principles or you don't. You don't just have principles when its convenient. Secondly, Democrats used the same tactics to bottle up President Bush's appointments, and yet the conservative leader most vilified and despised by the left in the last 30 years, called everything from "illegitimate" to "Hitler", never felt compelled to make such an overreach.

More importantly, two of the appointments President Obama made to the NLRB were new names that have not had a chance to be interviewed by the U.S. Senate. In other words, their appointments hadn't stalled anywhere.

While recess appointments have been ruled constitutional, that doesn't mean they aren't ripe for abuse. It's true that both President Clinton and Bush made over 100 of them, but none occurred while the U.S. Senate was actually in session (pro forma or not).  Further, it has been generally agreed by legal advisors to the last three presidents, including Obama's own Justice Department, that a recess must last longer than three days for a president to enact his recess appointment authority.

Frighteningly, President Obama has thrown all the rules out the window and challenged the Senate's power to approve any presidential appointment at all. Based on this new logic, he could make an appointment while the Senate adjourns to lunch. Not needing any votes of confirmation, one supposes he could even appoint whomever his leftist heart desires to the Supreme Court. Sure, it all sounds like fun and games to clowns like Jon Stewart, but some of us take this kind of fundamental shift in power seriously.

The left has never been a big fan of the Constitution, seeing it as an obstacle to all the Big Government they are sure we deserve, but let's take a look at it anyways. Article 1, Section 2 is very clear:

"He (the President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law."

Since the nation's founding, the U.S. Senate has had the power to reject poorly vetted presidential appointees. Even the great George Washington's nominees faced scrutiny, proving no one is above reproach.

By skirting the U.S. Senate, President Obama has challenged the very core of our system of government, and it was not by accident. If he had acted just one day sooner, the president could have tempered this crisis by at least making an intersession appointment. While still shorter than the usually agreed-upon three day recess, he would have at least had Teddy Roosevelt's precedent from 1908 to stand on, albeit under completely different circumstances. Instead, the president waited to make an intrasession appointment during the shortest of short recesses. There's only one logical reason for this, and that's to permanently seize power from a legislative branch that has repeatedly been a roadblock to much of his socialist-progressive agenda.

If Obama's actions are allowed to stand, it opens the door for him or any future president (should we be so lucky) to appoint whomever he wants to any bureaucratic or judicial position without the consent of any other elected representatives. Congress, the closest government body we have to the voice of the people, will be weakened to a whisper, and the president will be more empowered to act like a monarch or despot. The decisions of 1 man will be greater than the voices of 535 members of Congress, greater than the voices of 50 states, and yes, greater than the people. Tyranny has a friend in the Oval Office and his name is Barack Obama.