Something to keep in mind as the economy struggles and the government bungles.  ..bruce w..

…you’ve lost, period:

WE UNDERSTAND the administration’s sense of urgency on health-care reform. But what is intended as a final sprint threatens to turn into something unseemly and, more important, contrary to Democrats’ promises of transparency and time for deliberation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday that she is leaning toward a parliamentary maneuver under which the House would vote on a package of changes to the Senate-approved reform bill, and the underlying Senate bill would then be “deemed” to have passed, even though the House had never voted on it. That may help some House members dodge a politically difficult decision, but it strikes us as a dodgy way to reform the health-care system. Democrats who vote for the package will be tagged with supporting the Senate bill in any event. Why not be straightforward about it?

More worrying is that Congress and the country have yet to see the changes, for which Democrats hope to win quick House approval and which they then hope to speed through the Senate under a procedure that would bar filibusters. These changes — the so-called reconciliation bill — are not all minor “fixes”; some could have far-reaching consequences. Such changes deserve to be fully understood and debated before they are voted on. The speaker’s office says the week-long “conversation” that Nancy Pelosi promised to have with members is taking place and that they are waiting for the final word from the Congressional Budget Office before releasing the package; in any event, they say, lawmakers and the public will have 72 hours to consider the changes. But why be so secretive about it? Any number of measures — including versions of the health-care bill itself — have been unveiled without CBO scores.

The health-care debate has been going on longer than a year, and House members want to get it over with. They don’t want it hanging over them during the Easter recess. President Obama wants progress to have been made before he leaves for Indonesia on Sunday. These are understandable desires, but they don’t outweigh the need for a reasonable process on a matter of such importance.

No wonder the moonbats see the WaPo as a right-wing rag — something I find quite humorous, having subscribed to and read the WaPo print edition every morning for six years while living in DC.  ..bruce w..

Well, you've won my vote.

President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reid, and Speaker Pelosi seemed determined to bend, twist, and subvert the rules and procedures of government — and possibly the Constitution itself — in order to pass Obamacare, which they seem to see as more important than any of those things. Their “whatever is necessary, the ends justifies the means” approach brings to mind the following passage from one of my favorite plays, “A Man for All Seasons” by Robert Bolt:

Alice:   While you talk, he’s gone [referring to Richard Rich, who is a potential threat to Sir Thomas More].

More:   And go he should if he was the devil himself until he broke the law.

Roper:   So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law.

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper:   I’d cut down every law in England to do that.

More: Oh? And when the last law was down — and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws being all flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast — Man’s laws, not God’s — and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

Being in my mid-50s and an avid reader of history, I tend to take a long-term view on politics; I’ve seen the pendulum swing any number of times. But Reid and Pelosi’s plan, encouraged by Obama, to use reconciliation and the so-called Slaughter Solution to get health care through Congress and onto Obama’s desk, strikes me as a profoundly dangerous and unwise approach, with implications that could last for decades.  ..bruce w..

…the folks behind “DemonSheep 2010” have struck again. This is, I think, a better effort, though again overly long, and that image of Barbara Boxer’s floating head may haunt my dreams for a while (and not in a good way). Hat tip to Jim Geraghty’s “Morning Jolt” e-mail from the National Review Online. ..bruce w..

Remember Chris Christie, the Republican who defeated Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey last year? Well, here’s his address to a joint session of the New Jersey legislature about the budget crisis there. I can’t embed the video, so you’ll have to go over and watch it. I have to agree with Hunter Baker’s assessment (hat tip to him for the link to the speech) that this speech is “one of the most astounding speeches and demonstrations of leadership I have ever seen.” It really is worth the time to watch because it represents everything that we’re not seeing out of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress with regards to fiscal honesty and responsibility.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the problem in New Jersey, the annual state budget is currently around $17 billion. However, New Jersey has $90 billion in unfunded pension and medical benefit costs. Gov. Christie points out that New Jersey would have to spend $7 billion every year going forward — nearly half of its annual budget — to make those unfunded pension and medical costs good.  ..bruce..

You knew this was coming — at least, that was one of my first thoughts upon seeing the original “Demon Sheep” ad. However, much to my delight, they used a different sequence from “Downfall” than you usually see. Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit. ..bruce w..

This is a long (too long) political ad dealing with the California Senate race. But just hang in there until 2:20 or so, and you will witness something truly priceless. Initial hat tip to Ace of Spades, but you’re going to be stumbling across this thing all over the net for the next few days. Just remember two words: demon sheep.

Oh, and get the t-shirt before it sells out (or gets a DMCA take-down notice).

UPDATE

The Chuck DeVore campaign people (he’s the 3rd Republican candidate in this race), recognizing a golden opportunity when they see it, have jumped in with both feet. Heh.  ..bruce..

[Welcome to all and sundry coming over from Ace of Spades.]

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web daily mailing comes this posting from the DOJ Civil Rights Division for a Voting Section trial attorney:

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar in good standing (any jurisdiction), and have a minimum of three (3) years post-J.D. experience. Applicants must have substantial litigation experience, such as handling discovery, litigation strategy, motions practice, brief writing, interviewing witnesses, taking and defending depositions, trial preparation, trial practice, and negotiations. Applicants must have excellent interpersonal skills, be mature and self sufficient, communicate effectively orally and in writing, and possess excellent professional judgment.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

In addition, the following qualifications are preferred: (1) substantive knowledge of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and other statutes enforced by the section; (2) familiarity with the various analytical approaches utilized to review voting changes under Section 5 of the VRA; (3) experience investigating and/or litigating voting rights or civil rights cases; (4) federal judicial experience; (5) experience serving as the lead attorney in federal court cases; (6) familiarity with statistical methodologies used in civil rights cases; (6) and fluency in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, or vietnamese languages.

Sounds pretty stringent. But then a few paragraphs down is this (emphasis mine):

The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine. Applicants who meet the qualification requirements and are able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation are encouraged to identify targeted disabilities in response to the questions in the Avue application system seeking that information. For additional information for applicants with targeted disabilities, please contact the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Program Manager, Diane Petrie, at (202) 514-3934; see also http://www.jan.wvu.edu/LEAD/index.htm and http://www.opm.gov/disability/PeopleWithDisabilities.asp.

Isn’t there an inherent conflict between the required and preferred qualifications and those targeted disabilities? Then again, perhaps not in the current DOJ. ..bruce w..

[Here are two other recent ASIP posts you may want to check out: Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Obama as Zaphod Beeblebrox.]

A wonderful video with a big hat tip to Gerard Van der Leun over at American Digest.  ..bruce w..

In the fall of 2008, in a political discussion with a friend, she asked if I was worried about Obama being elected. I said no, for various reasons. First, I felt (wrongly, in retrospect) that Obama, like Bill Clinton, would largely govern from the center. Second, I had (and have) a lot of trust in the resiliency of American society and government. And third, I explained, I believe in the syrup-of-ipecac theory. “Ipecac?”, my friend replied. Yes — the stuff you take to induce vomiting in cases of poisoning. It is my observation that when leaders and legislators push too far in one direction, particularly the wrong direction, the public revolts, throwing up all they’ve been asked to swallow.

Well, it’s started. Between Scott Brown winning the Massachusetts race, Air America filing for bankruptcy, and the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. the FEC, America has been collectively bent over their toilet bowls this week, throwing up what the Left has been feeding them (or stuffing down their throats, like geese being force-fed for fois gras) for the last several years.

It remains to be seen if this week’s events are just a passing queasiness or merely the prelude to a massive technicolor yawn into the porcelain throne this coming fall.  ..bruce w..