Category Archives: Republicans

TPA (Updated: 4/22/016): Republicans Cede Some More American Sovereignty

Barack Obama, Federalism, Labor, Outsourcing, Republicans, Trade

“Some” would call it treason. OK, I would call it treason. Republicans—who boast of their respect for the republican value of limited authority, and who vowed to keep Obama in his Constitutional place—banded together to give President Barack Obama yet MORE executive authority. “[T]he Senate voted 60-38 to grant final approval to the fast-track bill, reports the Washington Post.

… The trade promotion bill now heads to Obama’s desk for his signature. It gives the executive branch additional powers for six years and authorizes the president, and his successor, to present trade deals to Congress for a vote on a specified timeline without lawmakers being able to amend the terms.

What is the TPA? Also via the WaPo:

… Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA. This is also known as “fast-track” authority because it gives the president the ability to negotiate a deal that will receive only an up-or-down vote in Congress. Without fast track, Congress can amend the terms of the deal. You can remember that TPA is “fast track” because when you T.P. a house, you are on the “fast track” to juvenile delinquency. Or you can just call it fast track, which is easier.

Fast-track authority doesn’t apply to only one agreement. In the past, it has spanned presidencies, beginning in 1974 and lasting until the Clinton administration. It also existed during parts of both terms of George W. Bush’s presidency. From the president’s standpoint, fast-track authority is critical to negotiating agreements because he can negotiate in good faith — what he says to his negotiating partners he’s confident will be part of the final deal (if Congress approves it).

Broadcaster Mark Levin, who exulted in the Republicans’ mid-term victory only to find himself needing to trash these traitors daily—spoke to Sen. Ted Cruz on voting against the fast track deal.

“Enough is enough,” Cruz had written at Breitbart.com. “I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired. And, Congress must also pass the Cruz-Sessions amendments to TPA to ensure that no trade agreement can try to back-door changes to our immigration laws. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to vote no.”

As commendable as a Cruz vote against the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is—Levin failed to point out the following:

No bit of legislation should ever cede US sovereignty to signatory nations—not on immigration, not on self-defense, not on sentencing, not on anything.

UPDATE (4/22/016):

Coulter On Courting The Hispanic Vote

Ann Coulter, Democracy, IMMIGRATION, Republicans

It’s the Sailer Strategy that Ann Coulter articulates, and brilliantly so. No wonder she doesn’t have a television show: she outsmarts the other hosts and higher-ups. We can’t have that in the house.

Indeed, Bill O’Reilly looks decidedly unhappy, as Ann darts around him like Muhammad Ali around Joe Frazier:

“… The way Republicans win is by driving up the white vote. It’s not by appealing to women, to blacks, to Hispanics. How about for once appealing to your base? The Democrats don’t obsess on, ‘How do we get gun rights voters to support us a tiny bit more? How do we get pro-lifers to support us? Let’s get a slice of the evangelicals.’ The Republicans have been tricked into a suicidal electoral strategy,” said Coulter. “Had Romney won 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, he would still have lost. Had he got four points more of the white vote, he would have won. What should Republicans be going for?!”

Ms. Coulter added that “the strategy she favors led to a landslide victory for Ronald Reagan,” who got the smallest black vote of any president between LBJ and Obama, and WON.

About the polls stating that the country wants amnesty, Ms. Coulter, who analyzes this particular deception in “Adios!”, comments that “these polls are not meant to quantify opinion but to move it. Usually the questions present two options neither of which exists in the real world: shackling and deporting illegal aliens or rounding them up at gunpoint. Are you a nice person or are you mean. But the most important way polling gets the desired results is by polling ALL adults (Jessie Waters’ World), when you desired samples is likely voters. Not to mention oversampling Democrats.

As always, and before a smart Alec libertarian somehow infers from this post that I want Republicans elected:

1. Nowhere have I argued anything of the sort.
2. The conditions that would lead Republicans to lose elections FOREVER are the same set of conditions that would cause libertarians to potentially lose, too, were they the second party in the duopoly.

From Purges At #NationalReview To #Duggar Pedophilia

Celebrity, Conservatism, English, Ilana Mercer, Neoconservatism, Republicans

“From Purges At National Review To Duggar Pedophilia” is the latest column, and one “of the few chatty columns I’m likely to write.” On The Unz Review. An excerpt:

Fellow Canadian Kathy Shaidle sends her latest Taki’s Magazine column, “Beta Male Suckiness at National Review.” In it I learn that Kathy’s benevolence approaches the saintly; only recently has she terminated her subscription to National Review (NR). I did so about 15 years ago. The Alberta Report, a Canadian paleoconservative publication with libertarian leanings, soon became the subscription of choice in the home of this budget-conscious, coupon-clipping, immigrant. (Scientific American was another guilty pleasure.) …

… from whom I learn that a National Review editor has terminated Mark Steyn’s print-magazine column. I still recall searching frantically for Florence King’s back-page “Misanthrope’s Corner,” which was retired in 2002. That’s how long ago I bid “adios” to NR’s print version (I access Kevin D. Williamson online, as do I appreciate Josh Gelernter’s mention of my work on South Africa).

But why retire the Steyn byline? Steyn is a star. He also supports wars and is extremely talented. To wit, he managed to both defend and diss columnist John Derbyshire, who himself was dismissed from NR (where he freelanced), for writing “The Talk: Nonblack Version,” published, too, at Taki’s.

By the time the “girlie boys” of NR came for Ann Coulter, I was unaware the magazine still appeared in print. Ann’s column was expunged from National Review after 9/11. The reason? Most real people had a 9/11 moment. Miss Coulter’s cri de coeur was particularly memorable. For exhorting, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity,” she was given the boot. This was a puzzling purge, considering neoconservatives promptly adopted her recommendations, invaded Muslim countries and killed their leaders.

In fact, the neoconservatives at NR supported all Coulter’s recommendations save the peaceful one (Christian conversion). Still do. Clicking through the ENORMOUS icons on the new NR website reveals that Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s evil ideological twin, is touted alongside the Patriot Act, whose “expiration” is mourned. (Fear not, fearless ones, your metadata remains unsafe. The USA Freedom Act, to replace Section 215 of the Patriot Act, is a mere mutation. It privatizes the Patriot Act, by co-opting corporations into the service of the Surveillance State.) …

… Read the rest.“From Purges At National Review To Duggar Pedophilia” is the latest column, now on The Unz Review.

UPDATED (6/7/2017) Political Pimps Feathering Their Nest On The Public Dime

Democrats, Ethics, Politics, Republicans, Ron Paul

UPDATE (6/7/017):

The Post below is from 2015, but the problem is ongoing and undetected. Politicians arrive in DC and right away begin feathering the nest and flogging products, on the taxpayer’s dime. Conservatives detect nothing unethical. Sen Mike Lee is selling a book. AGAIN.

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What do you know? Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee were on Fox New today to flog their books, among other things. The problematic Patriot Act and its impending renewal seemed incidental to the job of promoting their products on our dime. So lax are the ethical standards that bind these politicians that they can move seamlessly between their roles as politicians, authors and all-round eternal self-promoters.

It sticks in one’s craw that we pay them to feather their nests. Ron Paul also used his celebrity to sell stuff (although I forgave him because of his outstanding service to liberty). To be honest, I’ve never read a book of his. He’s not a particularly good writer. I am sure the former congressman did not improve on Murray Rothbard when it comes to thinking about the Federal Reserve’s workings. I’ll stick with Rothbard. I have his books.