The STOCK Act – which is short for the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act; honestly, I wish that they’d stop coming up with cute names for these. This particular one is not really obnoxious, but some of them have really reached for the acronym – started to get really pushed through last year, once it came out that Members of Congress, including then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, were profiting unduly from legal insider trading* . I call it ‘legal’ not in the sense that there was nothing wrong with said insider trading; I call it ‘legal’ because Congress exempted itself from the rules that the rest of us have to follow. The distinction is important. It’s perfectly legal for, say, Senator Dianne Feinstein to buy into a biostock company just before the company picks up a fat government subsidy check, even if she knew about it ahead of time. That’s the problem . Anyway, one of the more egregious things being done – again, involving then-Speaker Pelosi in at least one case – was the practice of offering Members of Congress a favorable position from which to buy into an IPO. Pelosi in particular used this practice to buy into a Visa IPO , right before credit card legislation that hampered Visa g ot somehow sidetracked in Congress for a year ; she ended up making a killing on the (again, ‘LEGAL’) deal. And, naturally, the amendment that would ban this practice in the future has been named the ‘Pelosi Provision’ by Republicans. By all accounts, the former Speaker is unhappy about this; I am uncertain whether or not that she is as unhappy about this as I am that the woman made several million unfortunately-legal dollars off of her former position to manipulate and delay legislation, but I somehow doubt it. The bill is largely expected to pass, by the way: the real fireworks will be in conference. If the thing gets defanged, it will be there – so keep an eye out for that particular problem. It wouldn’t be the first time that a troublesomely reformist piece of legislation got revised out of existence, while out of camera range… Moe Lane ( crosspost ) PS: Politico reports that the STOCK Act’s original sponsors Louise Slaughter and Tim Walz are unhappy that the Republican majority has taken away their bill and are now busily reshaping it. Alas for Rep. Slaughter, it’s not exactly Eric Cantor’s fault that she was incapable of getting it passed in the first place…
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Proposed ‘Pelosi Provision’ of the STOCK Act unveiled yesterday.
Although the issue of “sustainability” has been around a while, recently it has grown in popularity and influence. The way it’s happening follows an all too familiar pattern. There are several common ingredients in how the left enlarges its control over our lives. The first is the selection of some aspect of reality — global warming, carbon footprints, population growth, inequality, diversity, for example. The second element involves designating the selected aspect of reality as a crisis. The third step is to explain that the only way to avoid Armageddon is by reducing everyone’s freedom and by giving more centralized power and control to those who understand the magnitude of the crisis. The rest of us are told that our freedoms are a luxury we simply can no longer afford. Another common element of the process is defining the crisis as ambiguously as possible. Ordinarily, a desirable characteristic of a definition is that it draws a bright line between what is included and what isn’t. Clarity, however, is contrary to the objectives of the crusaders — in regard to defining the problem, the slipperier the better. For example, climate change (or climate disruption) beats global warming. Global warming is too quantifiable in comparison to climate change. No one is quite sure what “climate change” is or isn’t or how it can be measured. Sustainability is even more ambiguous than climate change and thus has more sustainability as a ruse. Ideally the designated crisis is as expansive and open-ended as possible. A vague, loosely defined crisis provides politicians and bureaucrats with what amounts to a blank check or a no-limit credit card, a credit card where someone else gets sent the bill. A problem having no clear definition is a problem without borders. At Arizona State University you can get a B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in sustainability. ASU has an entire “School of Sustainability.” The school’s website offers several answers to the question, “What is sustainability?” Here are four of the answers they offer:
RedState Morning Briefing January 6, 2012 Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge. 1. From Governor Rick Perry: Stop Insider Trading Dead In Its Tracks 2. Nancy Pelosi: It Was Very Bold and Encouraging When Barack Obama Ran Roughshod Over My Branch of Government 3. ‘Leaner, Agile, and More Flexible’: Are Obama and Panetta Setting Out to Create the Military that Donald Rumsfeld Always Wanted? 4. The biggest news of the day for Mitt Romney 5. Another Awkward Rick Santorum Vote ———————————————————————- 1. From Governor Rick Perry: Stop Insider Trading Dead In Its Tracks Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune ran a little noted editorial on the insider trading scandal plaguing Congress, calling out phony efforts to reform the rules and demanding that we finally put a stop to this outrageous and unethical behavior. If you haven’t read the editorial yet, I recommend you do because while the professional political punditry class is more interested in superfluous items like the political horse race and candidate attire, the reality is that members of both parties in Washington, D.C., are abusing their positions and ordinary Americans have had enough. As the editorial notes, “’60 Minutes’ reported that Pelosi and her husband participated in an initial public offering from Visa in 2008, just as credit card legislation started moving through the House. The Pelosis bought 5,000 shares at the IPO price of $44 a share. Two days later, the shares traded at $64. The legislation, which was likely to cut credit card company profits, went nowhere that year. It passed two years later.” It’s not enough members of Congress make $174,000 a year, some are trading on inside information to use their public service to enrich themselves. Please click here for the rest of the post. 2. Nancy Pelosi: It Was Very Bold and Encouraging When Barack Obama Ran Roughshod Over My Branch of Government Democrats generally tend to operate on the hope that most American voters can’t remember anything that happened longer than about a month ago. Very often they can get away with it, especially on something as esoteric as recess appointments or filibusters. But it is worth noting the history of this particular sordid tale which culminated yesterday, in order to understand why, even in the normal give and take that is to be expected when two parties are battling for power, Obama’s action yesterday truly was an unprecedented abuse of power. Presidents have long used the recess appointment to fill vacancies caused by a racalcitrant Congress. Clinton used them very frequently when Republicans controlled the chamber. During the GWB administration, after the Republicans retook the Senate in 2002, the Democrats in the Senate – including one particular Democrat Senator named Barack Obama – upped the ante through the widespread use of the filibuster to block all manner of Bush appointments. It is quite rich for Obama to complain about Republican minority obstructionism when he participated in the inception of the program. In fact, in 2004, when the Senate was without question in an intra-session recess, Bush recess appointed William Pryor for a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of appeals. Senate Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, were so incensed that they unsuccessfully sued to prevent Pryor from being seated. Ultimately their suit was unsuccessful (although it never reached the Supreme Court) because a short recess is still a recess. Thus the Democrats were ultimately impotent to prevent Bush from thwarting their filibusters via recess appointment – until, that is, they took over Congress in 2006. Then the Congressional Democrats – again including Barack Obama – devised a scheme whereby the Senate never went into recess, thus preventing Bush from making further recess appointments. In other words, we are where we are today because of something the Democrats were doing themselves three short years ago. Against this backdrop, Barack Obama is making the claim that since he has made relatively few recess appointments during his tenure as compared to Bush, it is completely okay for him to violate the plain text of the Constitution and spit on the separation of powers. One point should be made here – the main reason Obama hasn’t had to make many recess appointments is that for the first two years of his three year Presidency his party controlled the House and also had a filibuster-proof rubber stamp majority in the Senate. The relatively small number of recess appointments is hardly evidence of any restraint on his part. Please click here for the rest of the post. 3. ‘Leaner, Agile, and More Flexible’: Are Obama and Panetta Setting Out to Create the Military that Donald Rumsfeld Always Wanted? President Obama, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dempsey gave a brief press conference this morning on America’s new defense strategy, crafted in the face of massive national debt and looming budget crises (actually, it would be more accurate to say that the latter two gave a press conference; the president gave a statement, and then departed without taking questions). Though the $487,000,000,000.00 in upcoming DoD budget cuts – which Panetta called “politically sensitive” – were repeatedly mentioned (particularly by Deputy SecDef Carter in the second part of the presser), the entire conference on America’s “strategic turning point” (a.k.a. America’s “historic shift to the future“) was an exercise in generalities, with Panetta continually referring reporters to Obama’s forthcoming budget for specifics. Whether he was asked about weapons systems or military health care, Panetta never strayed far from his standard line that “everything was on the table” and “the President’s budget will have more specifics.” A key message that Panetta and Dempsey repeatedly hammered was that the overall force (particularly the Army and Marine Corps) would be undergoing a “resizing” that, while made necessary by budget imperatives, would ostensibly be prevented from leading to a reduction in overall capability by the accompanying defense strategy. While the “unique global leadership role of the United States in today’s world” would continue to be recognized and acted on, Panetta said, a necessary part of this will be a stronger reliance on “alliances” and an effort to “find innovative ways to sustain US presence” abroad. Given the resource problems that have been demonstrated by our effort to engage in combat and nation-building efforts in two countries at once over the last decade (not to mention the contingency operations being conducted in several other locations worldwide), it’s clear such deep cuts will have an effect on defense capability, even if America’s military is reorganized and its strategy rewritten with the new budgetary reality squarely in mind. Please click here for the rest of the post. 4. The biggest news of the day for Mitt Romney With Iowa now under his belt there is some monumentally big news for Mitt Romney that no one has really noted yet today. Allow me to congratulate him. For the first time since November of 2010, Mitt Romney has broken through the 25.5% ceiling that has been his maximum share of support in the Real Clear Politics polling average. This is pretty significant as he has been on an upward trend since early December. But this is the first time he’s gone above 25.5%. He is now at 26.6%. Please click here for the rest of the post. 5. Another Awkward Rick Santorum Vote On February 14, 2002, Democratic Senators Joe Biden, John Edwards, Diane Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Robert Torricelli, and Chris Dodd amongs joined with every single Republican in the Senate including Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Lincoln Chaffee, and the rest to kill a measure that would have given felons, including rapists, drug traffickers, and arsonists, the right to vote. The measure failed 63 to 31. But while Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein were siding with the Republicans in the United States Senate, there were actually three Republicans joining 28 Democrats to support giving these felons the right to vote. One was Senator DeWine of Ohio who the voters would thereafter throw out of office. The other two Republicans were Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Please click here for the rest of the post.
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Morning Briefing for January 6, 2012
Wednesday Here we are in Chicago. It has been an eventful day. Both Alex and I felt dazed when we got up. I could barely drag my fat old fleshy carcass downstairs and into my pool. But once I did, I felt a lot better. Swimming is like flying, as my smart nephew, Paul Landau, pointed out. Then breakfast, shower, get dressed, rush to bank. “Qui dit ‘banco’?” as the croupiers used to say at the Nassau casino when it was right out of a James Bond movie and I went there in 1966 with Alex in black tie. At the bank, I was notified of a breathtaking overdraft caused by some mischief scam from the Bank of America. Luckily, I could cover it but to think that B of A stoops to cheating good customers like us is really depressing. Then off to LAX with our trusty driver, Mr. Yakubov, from Uzbekistan. Then through security with all of my pals from TSA. They are the nicest guys and gals on the planet. Then, rush, rush, rush over to the gate and onto the plane. It was all going fine except that I had idiotically bought Alex a huge iced tea at Starbucks. She opened the top to put in Sweet-n-lo exactly as I opened my briefcase. She took off her coat with a huge swish and knocked the whole iced tea into my briefcase. Twenty ounces of iced tea and ice cubes on my speech, my anti-colitis meds, my Bose headphones, my passport. I went into shock. The attendants helped but it took a long time to get the water and ice cubes out and I was hysterical. “I guess it would have been worse if I had had a heart attack and died,” Alex said helpfully. My gift from Pop — I just closed my eyes and soon I was asleep just as he used to do when stressed. Next thing I knew, I was having a fabulous cheese enchilada and rice and beans. Then more sleep. Then, I read an article about President Obama blaming the lingering unemployment and problems for the middle class on rich people. That sneaking politician. There is just no necessary causal link between some people being rich and other people being poor in our society. It’s just Marxist nonsense to say there is such a link. People getting rich make other people employed and better off in general. (There are exceptions.) However, attacking the rich as causes of poverty just shows extreme ignorance and a malicious wish to make trouble. It’s the kind of nonsense we expect from dopey college kids — not from the President. Plus, what a HYPOCRITE!!! Mr. O gets a ton of money from rich Wall Street tycoons and always has done so. How dare he pretend that he’s fighting them (and why would he want to?). Plus, if you’re passing out blame for the recession, how about Tim Geithner, who was President of the NY Fed and agreed with every wrong move by Treasury Secretary Paulson that caused the crash? Why is he your Treasury Secretary when he had a huge hand in killing Lehman Brothers, which really started the downhill slide? (And how about the U.S. giving the Europeans advice on how to cut their deficits? That’s actually funny.) Well, bad on you, Mr. Obama, for taking money from the rich as fast as you can and also stirring up the crazies with your class warfare nonsense rhetoric. I really, truly thought Mr. Obama was better than that. Shows how stupid I am. Stupid and insanely trusting. That’s me. In Chicago, we checked into our hotel and went rushing out for dinner at Coco Pazzo. The chicken livers were amazingly good. Then on the way back to the hotel, my wife’s shoe lost its high heel. I took it to the concierge to get it fixed. As I talked to him, an astonishingly beautiful standard poodle, black with a large white collar, came in with a woman wearing a similar outfit. Like an old New Yorker cartoon. Then a malicious e-mail from some psycho about my wife and me. I wrote back, “We have been together for 45 years and we’ll still be together when you are rotting in hell all alone.” Toast and herbal tea, and now it’s time to sleep. Good night, moon. Tomorrow I am speaking in Lake Forest, where my dear friend John Hughes sleeps for all eternity. Talk about a genius. He wrote Ferris Bueller in one 48-hour stretch. I miss him. Thursday A mixed day. I got up at the Peninsula in Chicago, ate my stale toast, dressed, and my wife and I went downstairs to join my pal John R. Coyne, Jr., for lunch in the hotel lobby. John was his usual lively and insightful self. The food was so-so, but the service was just a cruel mockery. That place is beautiful but needs a manager who will get it running right. We talked about politics mostly. Plus lots of reminiscences of the Nixon days, when John, Aram Bakshian, Ken Khachigian, Dave Gergen, Ann Morgan, Jon Hoornstra and many others and I worked shoulder to shoulder to save the Peacemaker. It didn’t work. He was just on the wrong side. Jon, if you’re there, I love your e-mails. What a great President RN was — ending the war in Vietnam, opening up China, setting up serious environmental protection, the first nuclear arms reduction treaty with the Soviet, saving Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and trying to get universal health care through. All with the vicious leftists attacking him night and day. I love him. We talked about the brilliant Lee Atwater and how much he is missed. Then, after much struggle trying to get my wife her food, we left. Long nap, then out to Lake Forest to speak to a delightful group of physicians. Lovely men and women. Intelligent. Thoughtful. Caring. One of them, though, made a point that saddened me immensely. She said that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were coming back from the wars with disabilities. She said that the money burden would be enormous. “However bad it is now,” she added, “it will be worse.” Suddenly it dawned on me. It will be worse about EVERYTHING. Too much of the younger generation has minimal education. Minimal decent work attitudes (generally, not always). Minimal ability to get along with others. The nation’s intellectual capital, self-discipline capital, is vanishing. That’s a catastrophe. That’s it for the USA. Gar-nicht, as my sister would say. When the middle aged who have decent abilities leave the scene, good night nurse. Too sad to dwell upon. My audience was fantastic and I stayed for a long time with them. The great joy of speaking is meeting the audience. I hated to leave. They were literally locking up the room when I left. Then my driver took me back to my hotel. On the way, he told me how his kids had talked him into spending the last of his savings on a cruise to Belize with them and it was so expensive he also had to put some of it on his credit card. A cruise to Belize? Is he kidding? Why not just drive to a really nice neighborhood and park his car there and go for a walk? Putting a cruise on a credit card? Well, I should not throw stones. I make every kind of mistake there is. Every kind.
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Bad On You, Mr. Obama
When delegates to the Democratic National Convention arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, next September, they may find the streets occupied by the
