Will the House Republicans blink on spending cuts?

It’s looking more and more likely.  But it’s still early, and the choice for the GOP is clear:

Congressional Democrats are holding out against substantive spending cuts, confident that they and the liberal mainstream media have so spooked Republicans with fear of “another government shutdown” that the GOP eventually will cave and settle either for minimal cuts or promises of a political fig leaf like a vote on a balanced budget amendment. […]

Congressional Republicans have a choice to make. On the one hand, they can do what many of their leaders expect, which is to continue business as usual on Capitol Hill by agreeing to such a sham. That course will keep the country stumbling toward the fiscal disaster, economic ruin and national humiliation that inevitably result from such political irresponsibility.

But then I read stories about GOP leaders looking to cut deals with Blue Dog Democrats on bogus spending “cuts”, and I feel like pulling my hair out.

Elections have consequences for members of both parties.  If the message of the 2010 midterms wasn’t made clear to establishment Republicans (as well as Democrats), if the Tea Party didn’t give them a political smack upside the head, then I’m not sure what would.

Governor Walker does the right thing

Here’s what Governor Walker thinks about polls:

“Polls are nice, if they are on your side,” he said. “But in the end, you’ve got to govern based upon what you think is the right thing.”

Yesterday, Scott Walker and Wisconsin Senate Republicans did the right thing and scored a bold victory and took a huge step towards relinquishing the stranglehold that public unions have on the state budget and on Wisconsin taxpayers:

Bypassing Democrats hiding out in Illinois, Wisconsin Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Republicans voted 18-1 to pass the stripped-down budget bill in a hastily arranged meeting. None of the Senate Democrats were present.

The State Assembly is expected to vote on the bill Thursday.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “budget repair bill” — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.. 

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

Daniel Foster:

Thanks to this bill — which doesn’t touch any of the civil service protections afforded public workers, nor any private-sector unions — public sector workers will have a choice over whether to join a union. Thanks to this bill, public workers who elect not to join a union won’t be forced to pay dues anyway. Thanks to this bill, elected officials won’t be negotiating away taxpayer dollars the people who finance their campaigns. So, naturally, the Democrats call it the the undoing of fifty years of “civil rights.”

The blowback will be brutal–from the media, the unions, the professional left, etc–and as enormous as this victory is, the work continues.  And it will be rough.  Efforts to recall the governor and the state senators have been underway for over a week now and this will only help to accelerate them. 

The governor and senators made a gutsy move, as they’re risking their political careers over their actions, but that should suit voters just fine.  Isn’t that what Americans want?  Elected officials who do the right thing, in spite of the risk to their careers? 

We can only hope that what Governor Walker has done will inspire conservatives throughout the country and do the right thing for their own constituents. 

And let’s not forget–this is a blow to President Obama, the Democratic Party and their enablers in the public sector unions, which fund it all.  The President needs the unions, or more specifically, needs their cash. 

Speaking of which, here’s an interesting take:

Barack Obama paid for, organized, and is putting on this riot.

Repeat ad nauseam. This is what Barack Obama wants. This is what Barack Obama believes. Barack Obama thinks that, if laws don’t go your way, you form a violent mob and riot.

Look very closely, America. The pictures you see from Madison tonight are of Barack Obama’s worldview.

[Hat Tip: Ann Althouse via Ace]

Pro-abortionists rally in solidarity, infanticide continues with a smirk

Gabriel Malor posts some interesting photos taken at the Wisconsin communist socialist teachers’ protests.  One of them was this:

“Abortion without apology” reads the sign.

The one benefit you can get from liberals marching in the streets is that if one looks hard enough, you get to see their true colors, what really gets them going.  Money is power, and the more money funneled to the endless array of government-funded programs, keeps them in control of their agenda. 

Take for example Planned Parenthood, which receives about a third of its financing from Federal dollars.  The organization is a veritable abortion mill:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America recently posted on its web site its so-called service numbers for 2009. This document, dated February 2011, shows that Planned Parenthood committed 332,278 surgical and medical abortions in 2009—more than in any previous year.

The document also shows that Planned Parenthood provided prenatal services to merely 7,021 women and referred 977 for adoption services. These numbers were a 25 percent drop in prenatal care clients and a whopping 59 percent decline in adoption referrals.

“Despite its protestations that abortion is only a small part of its services,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, “Planned Parenthood has increased its number of abortions for 15 straight years. During that time, it has gone from committing 9.3 percent of all abortions in the United States to committing 27.5 percent.”

Sedlak also noted that Planned Parenthood now does 340 abortions for every one adoption referral and 47 abortions for every one prenatal care client.

“The records show that Planned Parenthood has committed 5,320,095 surgical and medical abortions from 1970 through the end of 2009,” Sedlak continued. “We estimate that the income from abortion accounts for 40 percent of its annual clinic income.”

Without apologies and on demand–this is what they refer to as “reproductive rights”.  Their attitude toward what amounts to infanticide is condescending and barbaric. 

[Via Memeorandum]

The Frankfurt killings were an act of terrorism, Mr. President

Earlier this week, Rajb Karim, a Muslim working in the IT department at British Airways, was found guilty for plotting to blow up airplanes en route to the United States.  Reports indicated that he was a disciple of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and that he supplied the cleric with information available from his job.

From the story reported in the Guardian:

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said of Karim: “He is … an Islamic extremist, with close association to, if not membership of Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, an organisation committed to the establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, responsible for terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, and with links to al-Qaida. The defendant … believes terrorism, including murder of civilians, is permissible to establish, as he views it, a true Islamic state. [He] was anxious himself to carry out such an attack and determined to seek martyrdom.”

In February last year Awlaki wrote to Karim: “Our highest priority is the US. Anything there, even on a smaller scale compared to what we may do in the UK would be our choice. So the question is with the people you have is it possible to get a package or a person with a package on board a flight heading to the US?”

I’m bringing this up in light of today’s killing of two United States airmen in a military bus in Frankfurt.  The troops were on their way to Afghanistan, and the killer had an interesting choice of words:

When he opened fire, the gunman, identified as a long-term resident of Germany, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” according to sources. He fired nine times, killling two and critically wounding two others before the gun jammed and he was subdued by other passengers. While being wrestled into submission, the suspect shouted either “Jihad Jihad” or “Allahu Akbar,” sources said

Let’s not jump to any conclusions as to what this man’s motives were, however.  

From the New York Times:

An American military official, speaking on ground rules of anonymity, said that the United States was not ruling out terrorism, although it was unclear if the suspect was acting alone or with partners. “I don’t know if he’s tied to a group,” said the official. “But there is enough information at this point to indicate that he identifies with Islamist terrorist ideology.”

As the first story points out quite clearly, these extremists want us dead because we’re Americans.  They make it quite clear, that this is their intent.  They. Want. To. Kill. Us. 

These are pure acts of terrorism.  There’s no difference between what happened in Frankfurt and what happened in Fort Hood.  And unfortunately, there probably won’t be any distinction in the Obama administration’s reaction to today’s events.

Ignoring the fact that radical Muslim extremists are a significant part of the problem, or playing nice with them by not using terms like “Islamic terrorism”, or giving grandiose speeches in Cairo, will not abate their hunger for American blood.  They are what they are.

Flipping the switch: cutting off the internet in Egypt

In the form of a graph:

James Cowie writes:

[I]n an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet. Critical European-Asian fiber-optic routes through Egypt appear to be unaffected for now.

But every Egyptian provider, every business, bank, Internet cafe, website, school, embassy, and government office that relied on the big four Egyptian ISPs for their Internet connectivity is now cut off from the rest of the world. […]

What happens when you disconnect a modern economy and 80,000,000 people from the Internet? What will happen tomorrow, on the streets and in the credit markets? This has never happened before, and the unknowns are piling up.

[Via Twitter]

Packers going to the Super Bowl!

Just went to the Packers website, and look what’s on the home page:

This is insane.  The Packers had so many injuries, going without four or five starters at a time earlier in the season.  What was really the Aaron Rodgers show for the first two rounds of the playoffs, became a defensive standoff for most of today’s game vs the Bears.  In the end, the Packers defense saved the day.  And now they’re four quarters away from another championship!

Sweet…

More leftist vitriol and anger

Today was a good day for the Republic.  A grassroots revolt took place among the citizenry over the better part of the last two years.  Conservatives mobilized, organized and made change happen.  The changing of the guard as it were, from one political party to another, in a chamber of Congress.  Peaceably, without a nasty coup, violence or bloodshed.   Breathe that all in.  For the most part, the system works.

But that doesn’t stop the bitter, partisan and very, very angry left.   See, they don’t like what happened today.  In their eyes, this wasn’t supposed to happen.  But who to blame for Republicans taking a sizable majority in the House of Representatives? 

Why it’s you, you f***ing rubes!

I am still in mourning for not only the results and losing my favorite girl, Pelosi, but i am ALSO in mourning for my realization of the sheer stupidity of all these American voters.

How ironic is it for the typical rust belt white blue collar worker to lose patience in mere months and then vote in someone who gets turned-on by wanting to ELIMINATE that same voters’ unemployment benefits?

Stupid macabre, masochistic, dumbfuck voters!!! And, ya know what? I say, let ’em lose their benefits if they’re that stupid to NOT realize who is FOR them and who is AGAINST them. Serves them right. No sympathy anymore here!!! Cuz with it, went MY issues like gay rights cuz Boner won’t do shit for GLBTs.

That’s right.  Don’t you idiots get it?  See, four years of Democrat Party rule has brought us endless reams of ruinous economic policies, helped raise the unemployment rate to near 10%, and initiated the government takeover of healthcare.  You morons don’t understand how great you have it, and don’t even have the decency to re-elect the same corruptocrats that brought us to this glorious liberal utopia called the United States, circa 2010.  And who’s gonna look out for teh gheys?  Priorities, you idiots!

This is a microcosm of how the Left sees the United States.  The politics of adolescence.  The politics of hate and anger, of bitterness and jealousy.  The majority of Americans be damned.

More like Congressman Allen West please

Happy New Year to all my loyal readers anyone who’s reading this!

The 112th Congress will be sworn in in three days, and although I try never to put too much faith in any politician, there are glimmers of hope and optimism in this class, Tea Party conservatives and all.

Primary among them has to be Allen West, who was interviewed by the New York Times Magazine, which ran it this morning.  This is what I’m talking about:

Do you consider President Obama a good leader?
Not really.

[…]

Even though you’re a Republican, did you feel a sense of pride when President Obama was elected?
I don’t look to a man to get pride in myself. It’s not about having a black president, it’s about having a good president, and I think that’s the most important thing. This country needs a good leader, and I don’t care if he’s purple or green but yes, there are some people that saw in him a sense of pride.

You don’t necessarily hear a lot about people like Alan West in the media and such, because people like him scare the bejeezus out of the left.  See, in their world, African-Americans are only supposed to be mindless Democrats.

Read the whole interview, it’s short and sweet.  Very sweet.  We need more Republicans like Allen West. Period.

Time for House Republicans to put up or shut up

With less than a week until Republicans take over the House, their mission couldn’t be any more clear:

With Republicans in control of the House and Democrats in charge of the Senate, not much is likely to get done on the congressional front. But over at the executive branch, the race is on to control whatever isn’t already federally nailed down.

Last year, congressional Democrats gave us Obamacare against our will.

Last week, the executive branch’s elves tacked on an end-of-life planning mandate. (But no death panels here, folks. Nothing to see. Healthy people to the right; elderly and infirm to the left. Move along.)

Also last week, the Federal Communications Commission made its second lunge for the Internet, promulgating a slew of rules it clearly has no authority to make.

The Republican response to each of those massive federal power grabs has been a united and resounding, “No.” That was the correct answer.

As this coming congressional session unfolds, they’re going to have to continue giving that answer, continue telling the people why and offer wiser alternatives. That’s especially true of the House, where the Republican proposals will actually see the light of day. The House must build a record of freedom-promoting alternatives to the incremental lockdown on the public that the Obama administration is doggedly pursuing.

That’s it in a nutshell.  The campaign is over–no more ads, no more sound bites.  Time to act accordingly.  The 112th Congress is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the Republican party to redeem itself.

Packers’ playoff hopes

It’s looking extremely tight, but the Packers have destiny in their own hands.  This is why I don’t take “expert” predictions in June/July for a four-month season that begins in September.

The game plan is simple for Green Bay for later today and next week–don’t lose. 

Go Pack!