Another Reason To Look Forward to Obamacare.

This CNN story about patients being exposed to infectious diseases at Veterans' hospitals deserves attention for two reasons.  First, as foreshadowing to government controlled healthcare.  Second, due to the absolutely poor quality of the article itself, which does not fully articulate how exactly anyone was put at risk.   The article merely describes an extra step of cleaning.  If something was skipped or left out of the cleaning process, CNN does not make that clear. 

 

 

An Interesting Horizon.

The next Senate should be like none other before.

We will talk about some of the more conservative and libertarian possible new comers in the future, but today we focus on the man who will most likely be the next Senator from Delaware: Mike Castle.

Castle is a Republican House Member and seems poised to fill Joe Biden's old seat. Up until now he had come across as a run-of-the-mill mid-Atlantic Republican. But then he became one of only two Republicans to cross party lines on the shameful and corrupt "Disclosure" campaign finance bill. Gaining a Senate seat anywhere, especially in Delaware, is a big win for the GOP. It is just too bad that Castle does not have more of a backbone.

One Thing Is Certain About The Bank Bill: Uncertainty.

"Empty Fritos bags and plastic Diet Coke bottles littered the room, along with reams of paper -- old amendments, new amendments, handwritten amendments, amendments to amendments."

-The Washington Post, June 25, 2010.

GraysonGate

As we previously wrote about back in April, there is something suspicious going on with the registered Florida "Tea Party" political party.  The political party was formed almost a year ago and at that time claimed it was planning on challenging big government, entrenched Republicans in the Florida legislature.  Instead, the first candidate fielded was a challenger to Democratic U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson.  Soon links between the Tea Party political party and Grayson started to emerge and many suspected that the real purpose of the Tea Party was to dilute conservative votes. 

 

The Orlando CBS affiliate recently blew the story wide open. It would appear that Grayson has enlisted the help of a few disgruntled conservative gadflies to do his bidding against the GOP.

 

However, there is more to this issue.  If Grayson is indeed involved, is this legal?  In the very least it would appear that he is spending money in support of his election without adhering to McCain-Feingold disclosure rules.  

 

 

 

White House Humor Underscores Their Own Incompetence.

Today a White House spokesperson joked that BP CEO Tony Hayward, who was seen yachting over the weekend, should "put a skimmer on that yacht and bring it down to the Gulf, we'd be happy to have his help." But there is one big problem: Obama's refusal (due to pressure from Big Labor) to suspend or waive the "Jones Act" would make it illegal for the British CEO's boat to work in the Gulf:

Five years ago, in the midst of another crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bush administration waived the Jones Act, easing the way for foreign vessels to move in U.S. waters and between ports. The decision came with the administration under duress for its handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Today the Obama administration faces a different set of challenges with the Gulf oil spill cleanup. But unlike his predecessor, President Obama has declined to suspend the law, even temporarily.Obama's decision has turned into a public relations headache for an administration already reeling from its oversight of the oil spill. European allies, longtime opponents of the Jones Act, have asserted they were turned away when making offers of assistance. The State Department acknowledges it has had 21 aid offers from 17 countries. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/06/21/robert-bluey-gulf-spill-katrina-jones-act-waive-obama/

Question For The Night.

The White House has used "making those in the gulf whole again" as the theme in promoting attacks against BP, including the forced creation of a $20 billion escrow account.

Regardless of BP's culpability or your own feelings on the spill as a whole: Does anyone actually think that this fund will end up going to people in the gulf? Is there anyone who doesn't see this as a political ploy at best and precedent for future, similar revenue raisers at worst?

On The NRA And Campaign Finance

Recently, the NRA made a deal with the Dems to exempt themselves from the new campaign finance bill. As a result, the NRA agreed not to oppose the liberal bill. As it stands, this deal may fall through due to other pressures from the left, but the right has also revolted against the NRA's unprincipled stance. In years gone by such a move would have avoided scrutiny from rank and file Republicans. This year, it has not. This is a testament to the revival of true conservatism this year.