FBI Director Robert Mueller was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. The information that Director Mueller says he does NOT know about the IRS targeting of conservative groups is absolutely incredible.
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In an editorial today in The Herald-Sun, the chin-pullers on Pickett Road bemoan the fact that state legislators are considering measures that would kill the requirement that a citizen needs to obtain a permit from their local sheriff before purchasing a handgun, allow guns in cars on school grounds, and allow concealed carry in bars.
As one could have predicted, they reference the Sandy Hook murders in an effort to claim the high moral ground:
After the killing of 26 people – 20 of them 6- and 7-year-olds – at a Connecticut elementary school last year, it seemed possible we might see stricter regulations of guns and gun sales that would respect our Second-Amendment rights while reining in the proliferation of deadly weapons.
But national efforts failed in Congress, the frenzy of fear triumphing over even such limited propositions as extending background checks to sales at gun shows.
In North Carolina, not content to simply thwart efforts for stronger measures at control, legislators seem intent on opening yet more fissures in our defense against guns in the wrong hands and the wrong places.
They include the following quote from Gail Neely, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence:
“There is no credible evidence that this bill will make us safer in North Carolina,” she said. “We have tons of evidence to show it may not, in fact, make us safer.”
That quote, verbatim, easily could be used, and was, as a criticism of just the kind of legislation The Herald-Sun‘s editorial writers and Ms. Neely would like to see enacted in North Carolina and nationally. An assault-weapon ban, which Neely and liberal editorial writers slavishly support, was in effect in Connecticut at the time of the Sandy Hook shootings. This little complication in their logic seems never to faze them, however.
Herald-Sun and Ms. Neely, you need to understand that criminals don’t buy guns legally, criminals don’t get background checks, criminals don’t get concealed carry permits, and criminals don’t register their guns with the Durham County Sheriff’s office within 10 days of purchase, as law-abiding citizens do. There is “no credible evidence” that the legislation you desire would keep guns out of the hands of criminals. In fact, it’s patently obvious that it wouldn’t.
No CommentsToday we have two examples of caring and compassion from two icons of the Left.
First up, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi takes offense when asked to actually explain her view in a thoughtful way.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accused a reporter of pushing an “agenda” when he asked her to explain the “moral difference” between the murders that Kermit Gosnell was convicted of and elective abortions carried out beyond the 24th week of a pregnancy.
Since Pelosi won’t answer, I’ll do the honor: killing a child is killing a child. It is inhumane and barbaric.
Second, Bill Maher.
Sarah Palin attacked television host Bill Maher on Twitter Wednesday night, over reports he made a derogatory joke about her 5-year-old son Trig while performing at the Palms Pearl Concert in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a former local television host and “outspoken conservative” Ron Futrell said that during the live show that Maher described Palin’s son, who has Down syndrome, as “retarded.”
The story goes on to say the audience roared at Maher’s comment.
Despicable and sad at the same time.
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This time the story is from Michigan, where a restaurant chain is cutting back worker hours to avoid the crushing burden of ObamaCare. Here’s the comment from Grand Valley State University economics Professor Paul Isley.
Isely said he is already seeing more people working two or three jobs to make ends meet.
24 Hour News 8 asked how businesses can in good conscience cut part-time workers’ hours.
“The question is to stay in business, do they have any other choice?” Isley said.
And there you have it. Train wreck coming.
No CommentsProperty owners in Durham County will be hit with a 3-cent tax rate hike, thanks to Durham County commissioners. The only thing left is for the board to officially seal the deal for the 2013-14 budget, which contains the tax hike. The public school system faired quite well — ending up with $2.4 million more in funding than the county manager had recommended. As the Herald Sun reports, there was the predictable slap at the General Assembly from the board.
Page and Commissioner Wendy Jacobs also said they want the school board to feel free to ask the county for a mid-year supplement if public schools fare poorly in the N.C. General Assembly’s continuing deliberations about the state budget.
“The big thing I wanted to be sure of was that the progress we’re currently making in our schools will not be deterred,” added Commissioner Ellen Reckhow.
Ruffin had initially recommended “flat funding” for DPS, a request system leaders reckon would translate into a continuation of the $108.7 million in local subsidy the schools received from the county in fiscal 2012-13.
School officials contended they needed additional funds to cover, among other things, enrollment growth that’s largely projected to occur in Durham’s charter-school population. DPS by law has to share its local subsidy with charter schools.
Check out that last paragraph excerpted above. The implication is that somehow charter schools are taking something away from the community. That’s ridiculous and, of course, false. The school system has to “by law” provide funding to charter schools because charter schools are PUBLIC schools. How long do we have to wait for public officials and reporters to accept that fact? How long do we have to wait for them to acknowledge that parents are demanding choices that best meet their needs? What’s clear is that empowering parents is seen as a problem by the Big Education status quo.
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While defenders of North Carolina’s status quo moan, groan, complain, and sign up to be arrested, legislative reformers are keeping their noses to the grindstone on a tax reform package that will provide relief to millions in our state. JLF’s John Hood writes about the status of the plans – and their impact – as legislators near a deal to provide true tax relief to North Carolina families.
The House tax bill is a good first step towards a simpler, fairer, pro-growth tax code. It cuts marginal tax rates on work, savings, and capital formation, and provides net tax relief to most North Carolina households. As a net tax cut, it has a fiscal impact equal to about 1 percent of the state’s General Fund revenue in the short run and about 2 percent in the long run.
The Senate’s new tax bill is an even bigger step towards a kind of tax code North Carolina needs. It establishes a 5.25 percent flat tax on personal income and eventually eliminates the corporate income tax, which is responsible for a disproportionate share of the complexity and economic damage imposed by the state’s entire tax code. If the Senate tax bill became law, North Carolina would go from having one of the nation’s worst tax climates for business to having one of the nation’s best.
The entrenched beneficiaries of taxpayer dollars will always fight reformers. Thank goodness the GOP-led reformers are willing to take the arrows and insults in order to help put the state back on a path toward prosperity and competitiveness.
No CommentsMore Americans understand the ObamaCare train wreck is coming – as the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows.
President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform law remains unpopular with the American public just months before it fully goes into effect, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
The poll shows 49 percent of Americans say they believe the Affordable Care Act is a bad idea. That’s the highest number recorded on this question since the poll began measuring it in 2009. Just 37 percent say the plan is a good idea.
What’s in store? Higher premiums for many, as we learn in this piece by Daniel Kessler, professor of business and law at Stanford and a Hoover Institution senior fellow.
Today, a 25-year-old male who lives in Portland can purchase an “Oregon KP 2000/20%/HSA/Rx” policy from Kaiser that has 20% copayments, a $2,000 deductible and a $5,000 out-of-pocket maximum. It costs $129 per month. The most comparable exchange plan, a “silver” plan, has 25% copayments, a $1,750 deductible, and a $5,000 out-of-pocket maximum. It costs $229 per month—78% higher.
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This is an inspirational story about the trials of a young man from Afghanistan who faced incredible obstacles head-on, never complaining, never waiting for others to help him. In fact, he helped his sisters. And now, he’s being rewarded for his character and self-reliance with a college scholarship.
“Our family economy suffered from many factors, like lack of employment in the country, my father’s illiteracy, ethnic discrimination, insecurity, et cetera,” Shahidy told FoxNews.com from his home in Kabul. “As a result, my four sisters and I started home-based carpet weaving in order to support the family.”
While his family struggled to get by, Shahidy found a way to excel at school. He fashioned notebooks out of posters and flyers from political campaigns. When electricity to their home was shut down every night at 10 p.m., he literally burned the midnight oil – doing homework by the light of a lamp. When he became the first member of his family to graduate high school, he was near the top of his class.
There’s a lesson for Americans in this young man’s story.
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CBNC reports on efforts by makers of electric vehicles to sell the cars that very few people are willing to pay for — at least at their current price. In response to incredibly low demand, the auto companies are cutting prices and offering special lease deals. So where are the greenies who think EVs are so terrific and so worthy of taxpayer subsidies? Why aren’t they shelling out their own cash?
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Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky discusses the Obama administration’s sweeping dragnet of phone data of U.S. citizens.
We fought a revolution over issues like generalized warrants, where soldiers would go from house to house, searching anything they liked. Our lives are now so digitized that the government going from computer to computer or phone to phone is the modern equivalent of the same type of tyranny that our Founders rebelled against.
I also believe that trolling through millions of phone records hampers the legitimate protection of our security. The government sifts through mountains of data yet still didn’t notice, or did not notice enough, that one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was traveling to Chechnya. Perhaps instead of treating every American as a potential terror suspect the government should concentrate on more targeted analysis.
I expect our nation’s leaders to investigate suspected threats to the nation. A sweeping dragnet that ensnares everyone with a phone isn’t the way to go about it.
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