Month: December 2010

#rsrh Boat missed on DC Representation.

Timothy Carney lays it out: the idea was to increase the number of Congressional seats to 437 and trade creating a full Congressional seat for DC (effectively guaranteed Democratic) for an extra one for Utah (effectively guaranteed Republican, and Utah was next in line to get an extra seat because of the 2000 census). The deal never came together, but it was definitely an offer. Only now, because of the Census, Utah gets an extra seat anyway and the state that would next in line for an extra seat would be North Carolina.

North Carolina’s Congressional map is enough of a disaster area as it is already: the last thing that the legislature needs is more complications while it tries to fix the gerrymandering caused by a century of Democratic malfeasance. No deal.

#rsrh Congress Keeping it Constitutional.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) David Weigel got a copy of the new guidelines for establishing the Constitutionality of all new laws in the 112th Congress, and I suspect that the Democrats have not yet grasped the magnitude of how nasty this is going to be for their side’s operating methodology.  What is particularly entertaining is how the Republican House leadership gave a comprehensive glove to the Left’s Constitutional scholar community: they recommended that those looking for help use the Federalist Papers; the Congressional Research Service; the Heritage Foundation; a site run by the Liberty Fund; CATO; and the Federalist Society… with the American Constitutional Society clearly tacked on as an afterthought, or possibly to cut down on the whining*.  I’d call this ideological grouping ‘lopsided,’ except that if we could trust Democratic legislators to create Constitution-friendly legislation then we wouldn’t have this new rule in the first place.

I would seriously recommend, by the way, that Congressional staffers take this new requirement seriously, for the most practical of reasons: whether or not you agree with this rule, it exists – and it puts the official writers of legislation on the record… and on the spot.  Anyone inclined to treat this like a joke would be well advised to remember that most jokes do not age well, and that no Member of Congress wants to appear to be not taking his or her job seriously.  Particularly when there’s an election coming up – and in the House, there’s always an election coming up.

Moe Lane

*They also included the Brookings Institution, but nobody can reliably predict what side those guys are on any given day.

Obama administration caves on indefinite detention.

They’re readying an executive order right now that will confirm that certain detainees – read: the murderous, terrorist scum that we already weren’t releasing – can be continued to be held indefinitely without trial.  The fig leaf here is that the new proceedings (unlike those of the wicked, wicked Bush administration!) will be ‘more adversarial’ – which means whatever you want it to mean, of course – and that lawyers for the murderous, terrorist scum can ask again after the administration refuses to let said murderous, terrorist scum go the first time.  Maybe even every year.

What’s going on here is, of course, that Congress is on the verge of passing legislation that would effectively make it impossible to transfer the cases of murderous, terrorist scum to regular American courts.  Congress is doing this, earlier Democratic rhetoric to the contrary, because there are actual limits to legislative stupidity, and it’s pretty stupid to put murderous, terrorist scum into a civilian court system not particularly designed to handle it.  For that matter, the Obama administration itself is unlikely to have really believed any of the nonsense that it spouted off on the subject in years past… but they have to do something, seeing as progressives are already fairly livid with them over the tax issue.

Continue reading Obama administration caves on indefinite detention.

Today is the Winter Solstice.

I hate the Winter Solstice, mostly because it is the shortest day in the year and is the start of winter, which is easily my least favorite season. So it’s cold, and it’s dark, and sometimes there’s snow – which may be tame enough today, but until quite recently it was a vicious killer of men – and everything seems to be harder to do, and the world outside seems hostile and unhappy, and hearing the keening winds at night makes me feel alone, and old.

Which is why I love June: for that month is none of these things.

Harvard’s disingenuous Solomon Amendment statement.

With the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell almost certain now to be passed into law*, there has been some discussion of one thing that conservatives and Republicans will absolutely require to have happen: to wit, the ending of the Ivy League’s continuing campaign against the military by forbidding ROTC programs on their campuses.  Said campaign absolutely flaunts the intent of Congress (as per the ‘Solomon Amendment’), but has been generally tacitly tolerated by the government while the larger issue of gays serving openly in the military was still an open question.  Which, again, it no longer is.

But, – various articles to the contrary – the Ivy League’s response to news that the Senate has voted to repeal is not in fact acceptable.  For example, Harvard President Drew Faust responded with “I look forward to pursuing discussions with military officials and others to achieve Harvard’s full and formal recognition of ROTC.”  To which the only reply can be: no, that’s the wrong answer.  The correct answer would have been “Upon formal signing of this law into place, Harvard University will immediately cease and desist all aspects of its civil disobedience campaign and put itself in full compliance with 10 U.S.C. § 983 (the Solomon Amendment).”  That is not negotiable, and I would remind President Faust – and the rest of the Ivy League – of the following facts: Continue reading Harvard’s disingenuous Solomon Amendment statement.

#rsrh DHS on the job 24/7, 364 days a year!

At least, DHS is on the job 24/7/364 according to Secretary Janet Napolitano, who did not mention what happens on the other day. Hot Air and Mediate have both speculated on which day is apparently the mulligan:

On the one hand: a meaningless mistake. On the other hand: a highly symbolic and distressingly familiar type of mistake. On the gripping hand: live by the hyper-critical word parsing, die by the hyper-critical word parsing, ye Left. As you can imagine, my sympathies are… muted.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh DHS on the job 24/7, 364 days a year!