Two Constitutional Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: Why Conservatives Should Just Say “No” to Nullification

A number of states, including Missouri, Kansas, and Alaska either have passed or are considering state laws intended to invalidate federal statutes, most notably, federal gun laws. Many have modeled their bills on Montana’s “Firearms Freedom Act,” which was recently struck down by a federal appeals court. In so doing, they have drawn upon the political doctrine of nullification, according to which individual states have the right to pass legislation voiding any federal law that they believe to be unconstitutional.

Their inclination to do so is understandable since states are facing an increasingly overbearing federal government seemingly intent on infringing on state prerogatives and on the individual liberties of their citizens; however, this 

The History of Nullification

Historically, nullification has an ignominious lineage. Its chief architect was John C. Calhoun, former Vice President, Secretary of War and State, and U.S. Senator from South Carolina, who used the concept of nullification to defend states’ rights against federal tariffs and, ultimately, challenges to the institution of slavery.

The core premise behind Calhoun’s concept of nullification is that the states were, prior to the framing of the Constitution, independent sovereigns that consented to be bound by federal law only on certain conditions and that they retained enough of that sovereignty to “veto” unconstitutional federal laws. Yet the Constitution contemplates not a league of independent sovereigns but a federated republic. After 1787, the several states were not independent sovereigns in the same sense that Spain or France were independent sovereigns—for instance, they could not wage war, maintain diplomatic relations with foreign nations, or coin their own money. And, in the federated republic that was forged by the Constitution, duly enacted federal laws cannot be vetoed by individual states, even where they appear to encroach upon state prerogatives.

That is why James Madison, in opposing what he considered to be unconstitutional federal laws, did not press for legislation voiding those laws. The Virginia Resolution, which Madison drafted in 1798 in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, were intended as “a legislative declaration of opinion on a constitutional point.”[1].

Via: Heritage Foundation

Continue Reading....

Man Wearing Obama Mask Allegedly Robs NH Bank Of America

MERRIMACK, N.H. (CBS) — Police say a man wearing a President Barack Obama mask, a suit coat, tie and jeans, robbed a Bank of America Wednesday morning.

It happened around 10:30 a.m. on the Daniel Webster Highway.

Police were able to determine the direction the alleged bank robber traveled and arrested John Griffin, 52, of Newport, N.H.

Police found a loaded gun on Griffin when they arrested him.

Griffin is charged with robbery and is being held on $75,000 cash bail.

He’ll be back in court on Friday, Sept. 20.

Via: CBS Boston

Continue Reading....

Filner, Weiner, and Spitzer Are All Gone, but the "Democrat War on Women" Continues

A couple of months ago, Republicans found themselves tired of defending themselves on abortion/pay equity issues and eager to change the subject. The new subject: The "war on actual women." While Democrats were out calling any supporter of Texas' abortion law "anti-woman," they were insufficiently angry about the members of their party who couldn't take five steps without sexually harrassing someone or buying a prostitute. A sample, from a July NRSC press release:

[A]s Eliot Spitzer runs for Comptroller and Anthony Weiner for Mayor in New York City – [Sen. Kirsten] Gillibrand remains silent. 

Senator Jeanne Shaheen even proudly accepts campaign contributions from Bob Filner. Surely she must have something to say about his abuse? Nope. Silence.  

Alison Lundergan Grimes? One day the unprepared candidate is talking about empowering women, the next day her political team is empowering disgraced politician Anthony Weiner.

Funny thing: All of those jerks are now out of politics, probably for good. Filner resigned in disgrace last month. New York voters retired Spitzer and Weiner. I checked with NRSC spokesman Brad Dayspring to see whether the line would have to be retired.

"You still miss the point," he said. "It's not about Spitzer, Weiner or Filner – it's about the hypocrisy of a political party willing to accept them as they assault/harass/victimize/exploit women while at the same time claiming their political opponents are anti-women." As an example, he pointed me to the story of Lundergan Grimes failing to take a position on a sleazy state representative. Fair enough—you can use this attack in many forms—but this wasn't the story Republicans wanted this fall. They wanted to goad Democrats into rejecting-and-denouncing on the incredibly famous scandalized New York politicos. Seems like a wash for all sides, as there's absolutely no evidence that the attack was working.

Via: Slate

Continue Reading.....

Conservatives float new plan to delay Obamacare by one year

House conservatives are coalescing around an alternative plan that would delay implementation of Obamacare by one year and use the money saved to restore the sequester-mandated spending cuts, in exchange for approving either a must-pass budget bill or legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

The concept was hatched by conservative House Republicans disappointed with a GOP leadership proposal that would send to theSenate a budget bill that funds the government beyond Sept. 30 but allows the Democratic chamber to approve that spending while simultaneously voting down an attached amendment stripping all funding for the Affordable Care Act. Conservative activists are pushing House Republicans to leverage a government shutdown as a means to defund Obamacare.

House conservatives are sympathetic to this strategy, which involves passing a budget that defunds Obamacare and attempts to pin the blame for the inevitable government shutdown on President Obama. But even these Republicans recognize the political risk of a government shutdown, and they are now trying to devise an alternative to the leadership proposal that would still cut Obamacare.

“My take is, a consensus is all beginning to build,” Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said Wednesday as he exited a closed-door meeting of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., attended the meeting, but did not address RSC members, those present said.

Republican leaders cancelled a vote on their Obamacare proposal this week, acknowledging that they didn't have the votes needed to clear the House.

RSC meetings can be raucous and emotive, with caucus members occasionally venting their unhappiness with leadership and its various plans. But members exiting Wednesday’s conclave described the discussion as constructive, an attempt to “thread the needle” between GOP leaders’ desire to avoid a politically risky government shutdown and conservative demands that the upcoming fiscal negotiations be used to block implementation of Obamacare, which will accelerate in October.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading....

A Lot to Answer For

Not just Hillary Clinton, but Rand Paul, on this anniversary of 9/11.

Consider the passage from an article that appeared here regarding my reflections on the attacks of September 11, 2001 exactly one year ago today:

Osama bin Laden will never write another fatwa again. But his words will continue to influence jihadists for years to come…. As I write this, Islamic terrorists are planning to carry out terrorist attacks against Americans on our soil and abroad and, one day, they will strike. 

As we all know, on September 11, 2012, jihadists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi killing four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In the days following the attack, the Obama Administration claimed the attacks were a spontaneous response to the Internet film The Innocence of Muslims. 

However, it quickly became apparent that this was no spontaneous response to a YouTube video or anything else. Rather, it was a well organized terrorist attack carried out by al-Qaeda on the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Despite the emergence of this fact and the fact that the State Departmentrejected requests for additional security in Benghazi, Republicans were unable to mobilize public sentiment against the White House and President Obama was easily re-elected.

Republicans also failed to effectively scrutinize then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last January. They were especially ineffective in challenging her infamous reply to Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson:

With all due respect, the fact is we have four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest? Was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?

Via: American Spectator

Continue Reading.... 

[VIDEO] College Students Chase Down David Petreaus, Barrage Him With Obscenties On Way To Class

by Andrew Kirell
Recent video shows former CIA director David Petraeus being chased down a New York City street by student activists at the City University of New York.

Petraeus was reportedly on the way to teaching his first class at CUNY’s honors college, entitled “Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade?” He took on the teaching gig as part of rehabilitating his image following an extramarital affair scandal that led to his resignation from the CIA.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

PPP admits hiding Colorado recall poll

A spokesman for Public Policy Polling admitted Wednesday towithholding a poll showing Colorado voters were going to recall State Sen. Angela Giron by a 12-point margin.

The reason, according to PPP pollster Tom Jensen, was that “in a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points, I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll.”

When the votes were counted in race, the poll turned out to be on target, as Giron lost by 12 points. “We should have had more faith in our numbers,” Jensen said.

Interestingly, the poll also found 68 percent supporting background checks and an evenly split on a law limiting high capacity ammunition magazines.

The poll also found 53 percent of voters approved of the National Rifle Association.

One might think that Giron's stances on gun control would produce a different result in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, but Jensen pointed to the factor that made the difference:

But the NRA won the messaging game and turned it into something bigger than it was — even if that wasn’t true — and Giron paid the price.

Via: Washington Examiner

Continue Reading.... 

Experts Highlight Secretive Obamacare Implementation, Lax Oversight

Medical industry experts criticized the Obama administration’s secret implementation of Obamacare’s “data hub” in a congressional oversight hearing Wednesday afternoon investigating the security of the law’s infrastructure.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee held the latest in a series of hearings on the security of the cyber infrastructure the Obama administration is building to undergird the law.

The “data hub,” which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is building, will route information from multiple federal agencies to the state-based health insurance exchanges. Stephen Parente, a health information technology expert at the University of Minnesota, called the data hub “the largest personal data integration government project in the history of the Republic.”

“No one has said how the data hub will actually operate to ensure no privacy breaches as well as safeguard against identity fraud,” Parente said.

Subcommittee chairman Patrick Meehan (R., Pa.) warned against “very sophisticated actors, including state actors,” that might seek to penetrate the law’s infrastructure to steal the personal information of American citizens buying health insurance.

“The fact that only a handful of individuals know truly how this will operate may preserve some security … but it could also be viewed as a failure,” Parente said.

Via: WFB

Continue Reading.....

California mother reportedly shames daughter to hold sign after twerking at school dance

A California mother upset with her young daughter’s risqué dance moves reportedly made the girl stand at a busy intersection while holding a sign saying she disrespected her parents.

Frances Hena, of Bakersfield, forced her 11-year-old daughter, Jamie, to hold the sign for two hours on Monday after learning that the girl had been twerking at a school dance despite her mother’s warnings, KERO reports.

“I want her to realize that she is just a child and that she can’t do that,” Francis Hena told the ABC affiliate.

Twerking, a dance style involving rhythmic thrusts of the pelvis, has been thrust into the national spotlight following Miley Cyrus’ performance at the MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 25.

“That’s ridiculous to even think that’s OK at a school dance,” Hena told ABCNews.com. “When she’s 18, she can do whatever she wants. As of right now, that’s not something she’s going to be doing.”

Hena said she learned of her daughter’s behavior from a friend and blasted school officials for their inaction.

“I haven’t heard anything from the school still, and it’s just ridiculous to think that’s OK at a school dance,” she said. “I’m also not sure my daughter realizes how seriously I take this.”

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

Graham: Obama Must Act On Syria After Speech, With Or Without Congress

GLORIA BORGER: OK. But you say he's backed himself into a corner. So does he even have to go to Congress?

LINDSEY GRAHAM: You know, there's probably a reason 225 times presidents didn't come to Congress. I don't know if I'd come to talk with us. Quite frankly. The president has mismanaged this from day one about what we're trying to do, the goals we're trying to achieve. I think he made an unbelievably compelling case that we need to act here and compare that to the unbelievably small response we're going to give.

So at the end of the day, if I were the president I would act after this speech if diplomacy fell apart and I wouldn't come back to Congress.

JESSICA YELLIN: Do you think he --

GRAHAM: Because if he does his credibility as a world leader is completely shot. You can't address the world and talk to your enemies and your friends in the tone he did and do nothing.

YELLIN: But was it a mistake not to lay out a timeframe for diplomacy to work?

GRAHAM: Don't worry. The Congress will help him there. If two weeks from now we're still talking about how many -- what the inventory in Syria is like for the chemical weapons, nobody is going to be able to tolerate that.

YELLIN: Really? You don't think he's shown exceptional patience today?

GRAHAM: What I think is the president really is trying to do -- force does matter. I don't think we'd have this conversation without the threat of military force. I really believe the president's right about that when the Foreign Relations Committee passed the resolution. I think Assad and Russia took this a bit differently.

Via: Real Clear Politics

Continue Reading

‘2 Million Bikers’ roar into D.C. to honor 9/11, protest Muslim rally

Thousands of bikers from around the country roared into the D.C. area on Wednesday in a show of support for Sept. 11 victims and in solidarity against a controversial Muslim rally on the Mall.

The 2 Million Bikers to DC ride might have fallen short of 2 million strong, but the numbers were impressive. A line of shining chrome and steel bikes stretched about a third of a mile from the starting point at the Harley Davidson of Washington store just outside the District in Prince George’s County.

---

PHOTOS: A salute to America's warriors on the front lines of the war on terror

---

The bikers began departing from the store at about 10:30 in staggered groups of 50, stopped for traffic lights and taking an hour or so to get on the road.

The ride was complicated by the fact that federal and local authorities denied a permit that would have offered the riders a police escort through traffic — a sore spot with organizers who thought the denial was for political purposes.

“We’re here for 9-11,” said national ride coordinator Belinda Bee. “We are going to have a peaceful ride. … But there are people who are sick and tired of their rights and liberties being taken away.”

Via: Washington Times

Continue Reading....