Let There Be Light(s)

Leave it to the state of Texas to tell the fascists in Washington to take their ban on the incandescent light bulb and stick it you-know-where.

State lawmakers have passed a bill that allows Texans to skirt federal efforts to promote more efficient light bulbs, which ultimately pushes the swirled, compact fluorescent bulbs over the 100-watt incandescent bulbs many grew up with.

The measure, sent to Gov. Rick Perry for consideration, lets any incandescent light bulb manufactured in Texas – and sold in that state – avoid the authority of the federal government or the repeal of the 2007 energy independence act that starts phasing out some incandescent light bulbs next year.

“Let there be light,” state Rep. George Lavender, R-Texarkana, wrote on Facebook after the bill passed. “It will allow the continued manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs in Texas, even after the federal ban goes into effect. … It’s a good day for Texas.”

It’s none of the federal government’s business to tell Americans what kind of light bulbs they must purchase. Nowhere in the Constitution does the government have that sort of authority. Yet we’ve ceded that authority to them over the years. It’s always for the good of something. Children. The Environment. Whatever.

This is a bipartisan trainwreck. Co-authored by Democrat Jane Harman of California and Republican Fred Upton of Michigan and signed by President Bush, the bill essentially bans the manufacture and sale of the traditional incandescent light bulb, killing numerous American jobs in the process.

Now Upton has seen the light, so to speak. He is supporting a pending bill in the House of Representatives repealing his original bill:

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., has finally agreed to support a bill this summer that means lights out on the looming 2012 ban on the common light bulb. Upton himself co-sponsored 2007 legislation making light bulbs illegal, a ban that has become a symbol of bipartisan Big Government run amok.

Upton has come under increased pressure in recent weeks, sources say, after failing to follow up on a promise he made after assuming the committee chairmanship that he would hold hearings on reversing the ban. After months of paralysis – and with the ban just six months from going into effect on January 1 – outrage was building among his own Republican committee colleagues and conservative activists, including a national petition campaign, FreeOurLight.org, sponsored by the influential Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“Freedom Action’s Free Our Light campaign has demonstrated that there is widespread public opposition to the light bulb ban,” says Myron Ebell, Director of Freedom Action at CEI. “We’re pleased that Chairman Upton has seen the light and congratulate him on his decision. We look forward to the House passing the bill to repeal the ban and its eventual enactment later this year.”

This bill was crony capitalism at its worst. Major corporations like Philips and GE were stuck with the “screwy” compact fluorescent light bulbs, overpriced with significant hazards, that consumers weren’t purchasing, no matter how much green propaganda was used to sell them. At least 85 percent of the market for light bulbs were for the traditional bulbs invented by Thomas Edison. So the big corporate lobbyists head to Capitol Hill, arm-twist and buy a few legislators, and presto! The competition becomes banned so consumers have no choice but to buy a product they don’t want.

It’s similar to the method that Big Ethanol uses to forces its inefficient and lousy product into American vehicles. Neither ethanol nor compact fluorescent light bulbs can compete or even survive on the free market without subsidies and/or mandates. More proof that the pinhead elites don’t trust the little people to buy the “right” product but believe they must force Americans to do what they think is right and subsidize the FAIL with tax dollars.

[T]he ban had been supported by big corporations like General Electric and Philips who saw a an opportunity to use government to monopolize a new, more expensive market while transferring jobs to China to earn higher margins.

As we noted, crony capitalism. Aided and abetted by the best politicians money can buy.

White House Punch Lines

Ed Morrissey’s Obamateurism of the Day is a quip that Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama made about creating over 2 million private sector jobs in a little over a year. From the actual (original) White House transcript:

As a consequence of that swift, decisive, and sometimes difficult period, we were able to take an economy that was shrinking by about 6 percent and create an economy that is now growing, and has grown steadily now over many consecutive quarters. Over the last 15 months we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector jobs. (Laughter.)

Of course, when it was brought to their attention that such an absurd claim wasn’t funny, the “Laughter” was changed to “Applause.”

There’s nothing funny about double-digit unemployment (counting those who are underemployed and those who have given up looking for work). There’s nothing funny about people losing their homes and lives because of the Obama Recession brought on and intensified by His economic policies.

This isn’t the first time that Dear Leader thought the lack of jobs in America was a laughing matter.

Maryland Community Declares War On Kids’ Lemonade Stand

Say “Sieg Heil!” to the nice people.

A bunch of bullying bureaucrats in a Maryland community tried shutting down a lemonade stand run by some local kids to raise money for pediatric cancer.

BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA) — You can make a fortune selling parking spots outside the US Open, but don’t even dream of setting up a lemonade stand.

A county inspector ordered the Marriott and Augustine kids to shut down the stand they set up on Persimmon Tree Rd., right next to Congressional. And after they allegedly ignored a couple of warnings, the inspector fined their parents $500.

“This gentleman from the county is now telling us because we don’t have a vendors license, the kids won’t be allowed to sell their lemonade,” Carrie Marriott told us, her voice trembling.

The kids can’t seem to understand it. “I don’t agree, I think the county is wrong.” ”We’re sending the money to charity.”

These guys must either have been the school bullies and never outgrew it or were picked on and bullied all the way through school and are just itching for a chance to use their power to bully others.

We’ve seen the same attitude of bullying bureaucrats in Villa Rica, Ga. and Hazelwood, Mo. toward Girl Scouts doing nothing more threatening that selling Tagalongs and Thin Mints without saying “Mother, may I?” to the bureaucrats. Apparently, in some communities it’s illegal to exist without a government permit. This type of fascist state is brought to you by the same people who brought us federal regulation of garage sales. We saw Portland, Ore., bureaucrats inform a 7-year-old girl she needed a $120 permit to operate a lemonade stand.

Here’s the head bullying bureaucrat:

Jennifer Hughes, the director of permitting for the county, says it’s technically illegal to run even the smallest lemonade stand in the county, but inspectors usually don’t go looking for them. She said this one was unusually large. Hughes also says they’ve warned all kinds of other vendors they couldn’t operate near the US Open because of concerns about traffic and safety.

I bet she’d look right at home with a Hitler mustache. It’s always concerns about the safety of the little people over whom they feel they have the right to rule. Someone needs to remind Hughes that she is a public servant, not a ruler.

Here’s the real stupidity: the county allowed people to sell parking spaces on their lawns for fans attending the U.S. Open but chose to bully some little kids. Why? Because. They. Could.

Eventually the bullying bureaucrats relented but still not without admitting what they did was wrong.

It’s about time to take this country back from the fascist tyrants working for government at all levels who believe they’ve been awarded the divine right of kings to rule over us.

Jimmy Carter 2.0

Worst economy since the Carter era. Worst. Jobs. President. Ever. Generally speaking … Worst. President. Ever.

A phrase not heard since the dark days of Jimmy Carter, the misery index has made its way back big time under Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama.

The latest “Misery Index” shows that Americans are more miserable than they’ve been in the past 28 years, economically speaking.

The monthly index, an unofficial measurement created by economist Arthur Okun back in the 1970s using the simple premise to total the inflation and unemployment rates, is now 62 percent higher than when President Barack Obama first took office in 2009.

The May index is at 12.7 (9.1 percent unemployment and 3.6 percent annualized inflation). That compares to an all-time high of 21.98 in June 1980, and a historical low of 2.97 in July 1953. In 2011, it has inched up every month since January’s reading of 10.63.

June 1980 was still under Jimmy Carter. 28 years ago, we were still coming out of the Carter recession, and the Reagan era tax rate reductions, although passed, hadn’t taken effect yet.

Yes, the economy seems to be in full wreckovery. It’s becoming apparent to even the casual observer — in fact, everyone but the Hope & Change Kool-Aid drinking Obamabot that the destruction of the American economy is the end goal of the Regime. No one can be this incompetent; it has to be deliberate.

Before long, we may see this bulletin board appear:

Or this one that actually was put up and paid for by a small business owner targeted for extinction by the Obama Regime:

Frontier Airlines Boots Quadriplegic Man From Flight

It’s no longer the Best Care In The Air, since it’s no longer Midwest/Midwest Express Airlines.

The airline that absorbed Midwest created a public relations disaster by removing a paralyzed man from a return flight Dallas to Denver, citing a safety hazard and the pilot’s refusal to take off as long as the man was on board.

Yes, you read that right: a return flight, which means Frontier Airlines had no problems with the man flying from Denver to Dallas.

DENVER — A quadriplegic man from Fort Collins was forced off a Frontier Airlines plane because a pilot said it wasn’t safe for him to fly.

His mother, Kathleen Morris, said there was no problem two days earlier when her son flew Frontier from Denver International Airport to Dallas to attend a family wedding.

But Sunday afternoon, when he boarded in Dallas to come home, John Morris and his family said they were humiliated.

“When a flight attendant saw John strapped in, they said they would have to clear it with the captain,” said Kathleen Morris.

She said that her son is a quadriplegic with limited upper body control.

Morris has flown Frontier Airlines in the past, using an airline seat-belt extension to secure his chest and legs to the seat. The extension is normally used by larger passengers who need a longer seat belt to secure their waist.

“But this time, the pilot refused to take off,” she said. “So, I said that we wouldn’t get off the plane until they figured it out.”

The airline even called the police to have the man removed, and even the law enforcement officers sympathized with the man, saying that it wasn’t a law enforcement matter.

Of course, it’s safe to say that the man won’t be lacking for money after the inevitable lawsuit is settled.

What are the chances that Frontier Airlines would have made such a fuss about five guys  carrying their Korans and insisting on their prayer rituals and saying “Allahu Akbar”? Or if they were changing seats and making other unusual movements within the cabin?

They Warned Us

Found this on the Internet yesterday. It’s what the Founding Fathers likely would be saying if they were alive to see what the American people have allowed their experiment in liberty to become:

Reminds me of the exchange between Benjamin Franklin and a Philadelphia woman after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention. The woman asked Franklin: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

To listen to idiot unionistas chanting in Madison “This is what democracy looks like!” leaves anyone who really knows and understands American history shaking his or her head. Actually, the ignorant unionistas are correct, and in the process, prove the Founding Fathers to be the wise visionaries we all know they were. They feared democracy, which amounts to mob rule. Whoever can yell the loudest and amass the largest number of protesters prevails. We have a representative republic with traditions of democracy in that we elect our leaders, but even that is in jeopardy because both political parties are beholden to the Ruling Class in the political establishment, more concerned with obtaining and maintaining power than governing. As Dear Leader bragged, he was ready to rule on Day One. Problem is that under the Constitution, the President is not a ruler, like a dictator or monarch; he’s an elected public servant. He governs, not rules.

The media? Make that the state-run media, much like in the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany or any other totalitarian state. They report basically what the Ruling Class wants it to report the way they want it reported. Journalists — or make that JournoLists — conspire with each other in private forums as to how to best help the candidates and causes they support and hurt those with which they disagree. Joseph Goebbels would be so proud.

The American people? More concerned with who’s winning American Idol and Dancing With The Stars than politicians encroaching on their freedoms and liberties. And yes, a massive debt which will result in an effective tax rate of 90 percent in the near future directly affects our freedoms and liberties. When you are forced to turn over 90 cents out of every dollar to government, you have very little freedom or liberty.

Freedoms and liberties lost are rarely if ever regained.

Obama Speech FAIL In Florida

From Jake Tapper’s The Political Punch blog comes word of Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama playing to a crowd at a political fundraiser in Florida with a significant number of the crowd disguised as empty seats.

MIAMI, Fla. — As the Republican 2012 presidential candidates faced off in their first debate, the president spent tonight in Miami trying to recapture some of the excitement, and fundraising power, of his 2008 campaign. However, it was hard not to notice a lack of the famous enthusiasm that propelled Obama into office.

“I know the conversation you guys are having. ‘I’m not feeling as hopeful as I was.’ And I understand that. There have been frustrations, and I’ve got some dings to show for it over the last two and half years,” Obama told supporters in the second of three DNC fundraisers tonight in Miami. “But I never said this was going to be easy. … But what I hope all of you still feel is that for all the frustrations, for all the setbacks, for all the occasional stumbles, that what motivates us, what we most deeply cherish, that that’s still within reach. That it’s still possible to bring about extraordinary change.”

While Obama attempted to excite the crowd, there were rows of empty seats starring back at him and an underwhelming response from the crowd. Roughly 900 people were expected to attend the low-dollar fundraiser at the 2,200-seat Adrienne Arsht Center, with tickets starting at $44.

The Era of Hope and Change is over. Fool me once, shame on you. It’s beginning to look like, in the words of The Who, the American people won’t get fooled again. Keep in mind, even if the attendance were what Der Fuhrer’s minions had expected, it still would be less than half full. And the ticket prices were affordable, as compared to two other fundraisers The Messiah held with his filthy rich supporters:

The first event, at the home of former Samsonite CEO and Ambassador to Singapore Steve Green cost $10,000 to attend, with the first $5,000 going directly to the campaign. The final DNC event for 40 people giving the maximum amount of $35,800 was held at the home of JP and Maggie Austin.

So this event was for the little people, the Great Unwashed, the very people whom Obama’s economic policies are devastating. Faced with $5 a gallon gasoline, necessarily skyrocketing energy costs, soaring food costs, general all-around price increases, higher taxes and a higher cost of living — not to mention people losing their homes and jobs — all resulting from the man who was appearing, is it any wonder people tuned Him out? Let’s see … do I put the $44 in my gas tank get half a tank of gas or do I give it to the guy who made those high gas prices possible?

Worst. President. Ever.

I can see November 2012 from my house.

About Those Shovel-Ready Jobs

What a kneeslapper.

Because, of course, double-digit unemployment is a laughing matter to Americans, Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama joked about the lack of real jobs at a summit in North Carolina today.

One of the Council’s recommendations to Obama was to streamline the federal permit process for construction and infrastructure projects. It was explained to Obama that the permitting process can delay projects for “months to years … and in many cases even cause projects to be abandoned … I’m sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act your staff briefed you on many of these challenges.” At this point, Obama smiled and interjected, “Shovel-ready was not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected.” The Council, led by GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter.

The Obama administration promised the Recovery Act (“the stimulus”) would prevent the jobless rate from going over 8%. It now stands at 9.1%.

That unemployment rate does not count those who are underemployed — not working full-time, for those of you who graduated from Racine Unified — and who have given up looking for work. That rate is closer to 20 percent. And neither figure counts people working well below their training, skill and normal salary level just to have any type of income.

Thank you to President Food Stamps for making this possible and then laughing at the expense of the people suffering under your policies.

I can see November 2012 from my house.

The Buckley Rule And The 2012 Election

We heard over and over again about the Buckley Rule and Republican politics in several 2010 campaigns. Named for the late William F. Buckley, it goes like this: Elect the most conservative candidate who can win.

Of course, that rule has been interpreted by the RINO Wing of the GOP, those blueblood countryclubbers that couldn’t win an election if their lives depended on it, to mean that the Republicans need to nominate the least conservative candidate. The RINO Wing of the GOP, which we call Judge Smails Republicans, labors under the delusion created by the Beltway media and its culture that America is no longer a center-right country and as such, nominating conservative candidates puts the Republican Party out of the mainstream with American voters and as such, that candidate cannot defeat a Democrat in the general election.

Of course, Ronald Reagan proved them wrong — twice — but in the most important election in our lifetimes and arguably since the election of 1860, the Judge Smails Republicans are at it again. The same folks who gave us Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008 want to make sure that a true conservative does not win the Republican nomination to oppose Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama.

Ken Gardner has a better way to apply the Buckley Rule in 2012:

First, nominate candidates who are consistently conservative in both word and deed.

In other words, has this candidate consistently been conservative, as opposed to talking a great game but then moving to the left when the rubber meets the road? In the projected Republican primary field, we have a number of candidates who talk the talk but have failed to walk the walk. I’m looking at you, Mitt Romney. By contrast, Rep. Ron Paul has been consistently conservative on fiscal matters, but for a number of reasons, Ron Paul cannot be elected the 45th President of the United States.

Second, be very wary of candidates who seem too eager to appear bipartisan with opponents or the mainstream media, or to cut political deals with progressives and leftists on their terms.

Those are the RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only. See McCain, John for proof of that. McCain spent 10 years selling out Reagan conservative principles to garnish favoritism from the Beltway media and become their favorite maverick. There wasn’t a Democray “my friend across the aisle” that McCain wouldn’t reach out to — Russ Feingold, Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy, to name two — in order to help advance the progressive agenda in the name of bipartisanship. Bipartisanship, in case you missed it, translates to Republicans agreeing with Democrats and caving on principles to help the Left move the ball along. Would be like the Packers taking their defense off the field to allow the other team’s offense to move the ball.

As Winston Churchill said about appeasement: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.”

Third, find candidates who know how to define opposite basic principles openly and clearly.

No one did that better than Reagan. Just because people like Obama does not mean they approve of his job performance. And unlike 2008, this will not be an American Idol election. The Hopeychangey thing won’t work again. Not with $5 a gallon gas, double-digit unemployment, skyrocketing food and energy prices and everything else the Community Organizer in Chief has brought forth onto the American people.

People want a clear choice; they do not want a fuzzy, muddled picture with various shades of gray. The Republicans do best when they offer a clear-cut choice from the Democrats and have candidates who can enunciate those differences. An unabashed, unashamed conservative wins every time.

This polling (via Gary Jackson at A Time For Choosing) in swing states should have the White House up nights pacing the floor: Obama is dead even with You-Know-Who in five key states that Dear Leader needs to hold on to in order to win. This analysis is even more insightful:

“Personally” people like Barack Obama, but they think he is doing a crappy job. “Personally” people dislike Sarah Palin, or at least the portrayal of Sarah Palin, but rarely complain about her policy stances, probably because they are popular with the American voting public. Looking at all of this information, it is easy to see why so many are still gunning for Sarah Palin, even as the taunt her as irrelevant and unelectable. She is this close today, and she hasn’t even begun campaigning, her image has been destroyed, and no one knows who she really is.

In other words, Sarah Palin is within the margin of error despite all the smears, despite all the lies, despite the misogynistic campaign run against her by all sectors of the Beltway Establishment (state-run media, Hate Left, countryclub Republicans and establishment conservatives like Charles Krauthammer and George Will) and despite the fact that she hasn’t even announced let alone begun to campaign.

Be afraid, Little Black Man-Child. Be very afraid. The Mama Grizzly is coming for you.

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