ObamaCare Is The Issue Of Our Day, According To Cuccinelli

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by Smitty

Getting to hear my state’s rock star Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, at the Defending the American Dream Summit was every bit the treat that was expected.

cuccinelli is a rock star
moderator, Betsy McCaughey, Ken Cuccinelli, Congressman Andy Harris (MD)

Leading off and actually upstaging him slightly however, was former NY LT Governor, Betsy McCaughey (pronounced like ‘McCoy’) who had the finest blend of passion and wonkery I’ve ever seen. Also, she was substantially obscured by a copy of ObamaCare in a binder on the podium, and clearly knows the legislation better than most Congressmen.

She discussed the Dartmouth Hoax, which was news to me. She noted that the number of ObamaCare wavers sits at 1470. She finished: “The rule of law is king, not Mr. Obama!”

When Cuccinelli came up, he mentioned that Virginia’s separate case has been folded in with the other 28-state (!) package of cases. The Supreme Court is to be reviewing the cases starting on or around the 10th of November, with some sort of decision, notionally, in the June timeframe. That will afford time for #OccupyResoluteDesk to develop the “Workin’ hard, tryin’ ta overcome that sandbaggin’ GOP Congress narrative’. As a litmus test for whether somebody is competent to vote, such nonsense would work. The percentage of the American electorate that would fail that test would probably be depressing.

Representative Andy Harris (MD-1) rounded out the conference. He allowed that he was one of six medical doctors elected to repeal ObamaCare, which he called a proxy for the Tea Party/Socialism struggle. Considering his 30 years as a practicing physician, he said that he’d seen the emphasis shift over time from the patient to the paperwork. He said that the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a de facto “Death Panel”, and that Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are the HMO of the 21st century. He offered a laundry list of real reforms to health care management, in the spirit of the phrase “Patients and their doctor, not a bureaucrat.”

Also present and blogging: Josh Mesker.

Herman Cain Accuser’s Lawyer: ‘No Value of Revisiting the Matter … Now’

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“Lawyer ethics” — Hold a press conference to announce that you don’t want to discuss your smear-job against your client’s former boss:

Joel Bennett, whose client is one of two women that lodged written sexual harassment complaints against Cain during his three-year tenure leading the group, did not identify the woman. He said she felt “there is no value of revisiting the matter now or discussing it further publicly or privately. In fact, it is extremely painful to do so.”

Emphasis on “now.” As if to say, ABC News wants to wait until the week before the Iowa caucuses to have your client sit down for her hour-long prime-time interview with Dianne Sawyer. Right?

Update (Smitty): Da Tech Guy explores the situation at length. I agree with Pete that this has been a good acid test for the Cain campaign, and will curry sympathy with the base. Pete is having a fundraiser, which merits your attention. Pete, however, links Dave Weigel: “Cainaquiddick: Where Source-Based Journalism Goes to Die” Really, Dave, the -quiddick? Did a young woman die here? Did Herman Cain demonstrate a non-grasp of the difference between an automobile and a submarine? This piffle didn’t even rate a -gate, much less a -quiddick. At ease, young man.

UPDATE II (RSM): Jim Geraghty: “Despite all the drama of the week, we know about as much as we did Monday.” Which is the basic point I made this morning: “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Politico?”

UPDATE III (RSM): Professor William Jacobson catches both Politico and the New York Times spinning the lawyer’s ridiculous press conference — at which he announced his client would not speak to the media — as having “confirmed” the accusations. Is it any wonder that lawyers and journalists are the most hated professions in America?

Net Neutrality Or Poison In His Tea: Stacy Has To Ponder The Pros And Cons

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by Smitty

The Net Neutrality panel at the Defending the American Dream Summit was, oh, a little bit important, if you don’t want your country starting to resemble China, or Iran.

seton motely is a slightly more kempt version of andrew breitbart
Phil Kerpen, Congressman Marsha Blackburn (TN), Seton Motley, David Quinalty

What you need to know about Net Neutrality is that it is an un-Constitutional effort by the Executive branch to do Congress’ job. Congressman Marsha Blackburn (who expressedly disavows concern for Political Correctness in titles) is doing fabulous work to preserve the unfettered expression of capitalism that is the internet as we know it. She is sponsoring HR96, which would prevent the FCC from implementing Net Neutrality.

world's youngest blogger
The World's Youngest Blogger on an FCC-free computer this morning.

David Quinalty called Net Neutrality ‘a solution in search of a problem’, noting that no single marketplace problem justifies the FCC’s attempted over-reach. The FCC has granted itself unlimited power to regulate communication, according to Quinalty. On the other hand, the Congressional Review Act offers some hope of getting a Net Neutrality Appeal out of Congress, if not actually signed into law by #OccupyResoluteDesk.

Net Neutrality is evil for two reasons:

  • It inevitably will lead to a direct assault on the Constitution, the First Amendment in particular. If you think this is a slippery slope argument, you’re ignoring history.
  • It, in the spirit of ObamaCare, will be used as a precedent, in unforeseeable ways, to put further restrictions on liberty.

Net Neutrality is one of the issues we should be spamming our Senators about, telling them, under no uncertain terms, to boil the Net Neutrality horse down for glue.

Herman Cain: The Third Koch Brother?

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WASHINGTON, D.C.
An accusation to which he’s proud to plead guilty:

After a tough week of media scrutiny, Herman Cain retreated to friendly turf Friday with an address to a conference sponsored by Americans for Prosperity . . .
Liberals have criticized Cain for his connection to the group, funded in part by Charles and David Koch, energy moguls who own one of the largest privately owned companies in the country. The Kochs bankroll many conservative and libertarian causes. But on Friday, Cain was anything but apologetic.
“I’m very proud to know the Koch brothers,” Cain told the crowd. “Just so I can clarify this for the media. This may be a breaking news announcement. I am the Koch Brothers’ brother from another mother. Yes. I’m their brother from another mother! And proud of it!”

MITT TO CHINA: DROP DEAD

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WASHINGTON, D.C.
OK, maybe the NY Post-style headline slightly overstates Mitt Romney’s tough talk on China here at the “Defending the American Dream” summit. Instead the former Massachusetts governor promised that, as president, he would evaluate federal programs in terms of deficit spending financed by borrowing from China.

“For each program we have in the government, I’m going to look at them one by one, and I’m going to ask this question: ‘Is this program so critical, so essential, that we should borrow money from China to pay for it?” said Romney, who is neck-and-neck with Atlanta businessman Herman Cain in the race for the GOP 2012 nomination.

“Now, for example, I like Amtrak, but I’m not willing to borrow $1.6 billion a year from China to pay for it,” Romney said, drawing applause from the crowd in the D.C. Convention Center ballroom. “I really like the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but I will not borrow almost a billion dollars a year from China to pay for them.

“And then there’s foreign aid. Do you know that we give $27 million a year — guess to which country? To China. . . . I will stop sending money to any country that can take care of itself, and no foreign aid will go to countries that oppose American interests.”

That line produced a standing ovation.

Our ruthless Chinese overlords have yet to issue a statement on this unexpected outbreak of Sinophobia from Romney.

A Post Which Tries To Capture The Absurdity Of The Cain Situation In A Way That Some May Find Sacrilegious

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by Smitty

15. Now at that Election Cycle, the Media was wont to release unto the #OWS people a prisoner, whom they would.
16. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.
17. Therefore when they were gathered together in Zuccotti Park, the Media said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Herman which is called Cain?
18. For he knew that for envy they had delivered him, pulling rumors like rabbits out of a turban so fast that no sane person could track them all, much less formulate a response for why he is labeled by some a Wookie from planet Endor.
19. When the Media was set down on the judgment seat, its conscience sent unto it, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
20. But the chief consultants and donors persuaded the #OWS multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Herman, who had been known to speak to women on Endor, and was rumored to have appeared as Chewbacca at a Halloween party, some said.
21. The Media answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.
22. The Media saith unto them, What shall I do then with Herman which is called Cain? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified, for we fear he is a Wookie.
23. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified, for who would accuse an innocent man of hanging around Endor?
24. When the Media saw that it could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made by #OWS, it took water, and washed its hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it, and blame Bush.

It’s Almost As If The US Is Involved In Domestic Low-Intensity Conflict

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by Smitty

Sure, it’s people engaged in political expression, right?

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York — operating as New York Communities for Change — have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.
NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said.
“They’re doing serious damage control right now,” said an NYCC source.

The good news about the Information Age is that you can find out just how important treating politics as a participatory sport has become.

The bad news, as I keep trying to tell my father, is that sitting at home doing the ‘yelly at the telly’ routine, Archie Bunker style, is no longer good enough. This is the Information Age: you now enjoy a tax against your time to stay engaged, and hold the feet of your elected officials to the fire.

The alternative is that somebody who doesn’t mind doing a little flexing is going to take, slowly, and gradually, all you hold dear.

via Instapundit