JOHN KING: Obama At Odds With Himself On Immigration.
Archive for 2014
February 2, 2014
BEST SUPER BOWL COMMENT, ON FACEBOOK: “At least Philip Seymour Hoffman didn’t have to watch this.”
MICKEY KAUS: Boehner’s Bad Date With Amnesty.
It sure looks like Speaker Boehner had a Bad Date with Amnesty on Thursday, according to Jonathan Strong’s reporting at Breitbart. (“[T]he dozens of GOP lawmakers who spoke were at least 80-20 against bringing a bill to the floor this year.”) But the WSJ is buying the claim of the GOP leadership and its aides that the immigration “principles” were “largely accepted.” … Do not disrupt the planned narrative! .. .
Meanwhile, Politico‘s Mike Allen is writing press releases for Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us. … Hope you get the ads, Mike! … Zuckerberg’s fake conservative front group, “Americans for a Conservative Direction,” says it has launched a $750,000 campaign to make it look like the House leadership’s legalization push is really tough, tough, tough. The Zuckerberg video implies, falsely, that the gist of the Boehner proposal is to legalize only “DREAMers” (“a chance at the American dream for those brought here as children”) as opposed to all the 11 million undocumented immigrants.** …
National Review ’s Eliana Johnson reports that mainstream GOP congressperson’s are mocking the GOP leadership legalization proposals in private emails. “[T]hese aren’t guys like Steve King but guys like (Raul) Labrador and (Tom) Cotton and (Mick) Mulvaney.”
Stay tuned.
THOUGHTS ON GROUNDHOG DAY: What made Rita worthy of Phil’s effort?
R.I.P., PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN.
I’ll always remember him as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous.
Plus, from Dave Swindle: Philip Seymour Hoffman’s 10 Immortal Film Performances.
THE MALE-FEMALE “WAGE GAP” AND the choice of college majors. “If working with people is considered a plus, such that job-seekers accept lower pay to have that kind of work, is there a problem? What if job-seekers tended to feel it was bad to have to work with others and avoided these jobs? The pay would go up. I think what we’re seeing is that working with people is more likely to be a plus among women, and there are a lot of female job-seekers bidding the price down. You might say this is acceptable because it’s not intentional discrimination against women; it’s just everyone making individual personal choices, and a neutral market producing this effect. Those who still see a problem and want us to care should find a way to say it still matters, because the skewed preferences of women are leading to a disparate impact. I just wish they’d say that clearly and be accurate about the facts and not continually prod people to feel that there are nefarious employers deliberately short-changing women.”
Well, without someone to demonize, it’s no use as a Democratic talking point.
VIDEO: The Ultimate Camp Lantern, at a corresponding price. The mini version is pretty cheap.
AT AMAZON, Deals on Top Valentine’s Day Gifts.
ED DRISCOLL: I Approve of this Krony Capitalism. More here.
LOW VITAMIN D: Dangerous In Pregnancy? “Using preserved blood samples of pregnant women, researchers have found that low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk for severe preeclampsia, a serious and sometimes fatal disorder of pregnancy.”
BRYAN PRESTON: Why Would Someone in Colorado Keep Buying Weed Illegally? “Big brother is watching, dude.”
BILL STRAUB ON MYRA: Obama’s ‘Action’ on Retirement Accounts Fails to Anger or Impress.
Republicans have had practically nothing to say about the initiative even though it was executed via executive order, a process that GOP lawmakers maintain Obama uses to excess in general defiance of the Constitution. But the new program has failed to draw objections from lawmakers.
Even without the Republican denouncement, myRA has attracted only tepid enthusiasm from organizations that might normally be expected to hail a new benefit for future retirees.
Not quite sure how Obama has the authority to do this.
YOU MAY NOT BE INTERESTED IN POP CULTURE, but pop culture is interested in you.
YOUR KNOWLEDGE IS NOT APPROVED BY THE STATE: California Cracks Down on Hacker Boot Camps.
A VICTORY AGAINST SEXISM: Responding to Critics, Gynecology Board Reverses Ban on Treating Male Patients.
A WHILE BACK, I mentioned Audra Coldiron’s book, Gallop-A-Doodle. I liked it. Here’s a blog-review.
FASTER, PLEASE: Novel stem cell technique shows promise for bone repair.
THOUGHTS ON auto racing and death.
TALKING WITH DEAN KAMEN ABOUT MOBILE ROBOTICS.
ROGER KIMBALL: Of motes & beams: Bridgegate edition.
What is it, exactly, that Christie is accused of? Creating a traffic jam. No, not quite. Ordering a traffic jam. No, that’s not quite right either. Being irritated with the Mayor of Fort Lee who declined to endorse his reelection bid and wishing to get back him somehow and then not minding when he was embarrassed with some really bad traffic over the George Washington Bridge.
That last comes pretty close to what the Governor of New Jersey is accused of.
Pretty heinous, eh? I mean, you never see bad traffic on the George Washington Bridge. And of course, no politicians ever indulge in political pay-back. . . .
Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, the President of the United States publicly declares he is willing to contravene the Constitution in order to achieve his agenda. He’s been on that jog for quite a while now, and his State of the Union Address last week reinforced his out-of-touch imperial ambitions. Some are joking — some joke! — that he appears to think of himself as a sort of secular Trinity, embodying in his own person the three branches of government.
Guess which one the press is excited about. But, then, they worship the same secular Trinity.
IN THE MAIL: From Rand Simberg, Safe Is Not an Option.
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 269.
YA THINK? Yes Rep. Pelosi, Congress has a revolving door.
“The revolving door is not so much Congress as the executive branch.”
That statement comes from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during her Thursday night appearance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The declaration may seem counterintuitive, given that Pelosi’s office is one of the largest incubators of revolving door talent on Capitol Hill. According to data from Open Secrets at least 28 current and former Pelosi staffers have represented (or currently represent) special interests.
During her appearance, Stewart pressed the congresswoman on the obstacles facing small IT contractors who wanted to compete for bids working on the Affordable Care Act’s website. Stewart questioned whether an overly burdensome procurement process was allowed to continue because it favored big government contractors with the resources to successfully navigate the regulations.
When Stewart broached the issue that corporations may have too much influence on members of Congress, Pelosi was apparently unaware that one of her former staffers now works for Boeing. “I don’t know that, well… who?”
“Is it possible that the people within the system don’t have enough distance from it to see that people in congressional offices end up going and becoming lobbyists in corporations, these corporations lobby to get all kinds of arcane things put in to the regulation… can our Congress, maybe, not see the corruption inherent in that?”
Just another argument for my revolving-door surtax proposal. And, clearly, Rep. Pelosi won’t mind it applying to Congress, since there’s so little of that sort of thing going on there, anyway. . . .
#FREEBLEEDING: 4Chan Trolls The Feminists Again. Though the pictures accompanying the #BikiniBridge hoax were better . . . .