HALF-FULL REPORT 07/26/13

It isn’t often that House Speaker John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi are on the same side of a controversial issue – and against the rank and file in both parties – but strange bedfellows were everywhere in the House of Representatives Wednesday.

In the first genuinely bipartisan vote on a significant issue in many years., the House narrowly rejected, 205 – 217, Wednesday an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich, to remove the legal authority for the National Security Agency to collect "metadata" on U.S. citizens.

There are six reasons why we should worry about NSA surveillance, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, in a speech to a liberal think tank.  The most important is its secrecy:

"If Americans are not able to learn how their government is interpreting and executing the law, then we have effectively eliminated the most important bulwark of our democracy," Sen. Wyden said.

Mr. Amash’s amendment, which he offered to the defense reauthorization bill, would have amended Section 215 of the Patriot Act to permit surveillance only if the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) Court decides that individual business records are relevant to a specific investigation.

Republicans split, 94-134.  Despite strong opposition to the Amash amendment from the White House, Democrats voted for it, 111-83. 

The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich, and national security officials from the Bush Administration opposed the amendment.  The NSA program is "vitally important" to national security, they said.  Rogers and the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md, pledged to improve privacy protections when the defense authorization bill goes to a House-Senate conference committee.

For me narrow defeat was the optimal result.  The surveillance state must be curbed, but the Amash amendment went too far.

The closeness of the vote pretty much guarantees the conference committee will make reforms. Until then, we’ll have to rely on bureaucratic incompetence to protect our civil liberties. "Blueprints of  NSA’s ridiculously expensive data center in Utah suggest it holds less info than thought," Forbes reports.

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For most in the news media, more sexting by New York mayoral candidate, Anthony Weiner was a bigger story than the surveillance state’s close call.  You’da thunk he’d learned his lesson two years ago, when he was forced to resign from Congress after disclosures of his X-rated texts to various women.

Weiner is married to Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin who, like her mentor, is standing by her man.  This upsets some women.

Apparently to no avail.  Since the scandal erupted, Weiner’s poll numbers have gone "flaccid," giggled Allahpundit.  He should get out of the race, the New York Times said.

It’s one thing to risk your career for actual sex, as did Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York in 2008 after his patronizing of prostitutes was disclosed, but for cyber sex?

I think we’ve heard the last of Weiner, but probably not of Huma.  She’s bright and beautiful – which is another reason for thinking Weiner must be mentally ill…unless he hasn’t been getting any at home.  Huma is rumored to be very close to Hillary.

If Huma Abedin wants to run for public office herself, the sympathy vote for the woman scorned will work as well for her as it did for Hillary, Thomas Lifson thinks. 

Let’s hope not.  Huma has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and may be a little crooked.  In June of 2012, she changed her status at the State Department from Deputy Chief of Staff to "special government employee," which permitted her to take on private clients in addition to her government pay.  She made a pile of money in consulting fees.  Huma was being paid to gather political intelligence for her clients, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia, suspects.

Spitzer, is trying to make a political comeback, too. Weiner’s problems could cost him votes.  Spitzer’s wife Silda stood by her man in 2008, but is planning to divorce him after this election.

Weiner’s problems have diminished national attention to the multiple complaints of sexual harassment that have been made against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. He’s a Democrat too.  It was hard to remember this week that it’s Republicans who are supposed to be waging a "war on women."

* * * *

When anti-American would be dictator Mohamed Morsi was running Egypt, President Barack Obama wanted to give him F-16s.  Now that Morsi has been ousted, the White House wants to postpone delivery.

This is a "stupid mistake," Charles Krauthammer said. "This administration has no idea what it’s doing in Egypt.

I hesitate to disagree with Charles, who I think is the best conservative columnist.  But as I wrote in a column this week, we need to consider the possibility the administration knows exactly what it’s doing.

* * * *

Despite the efforts of the news media to hype them, the "nationwide" rallies last weekend for "justice" for Trayvon Martin fizzled.  George Zimmerman helped rescue a family Wednesday after their SUV overturned at an intersection.  The family cancelled a news conference set for the next day out of fear for their safety.  That probably was prudent.  An elderly pastor in Deland, Fla also named George Zimmerman has been getting death threats since the verdict.

* * * *

U.S. bankuptcy judge Steven Rhodes froze Wednesday all lawsuits challenging Detroit’s filing for bankruptcy.  Only he has the right to determine whether the bankruptcy filing is legal, Judge Rhodes said.  He hasn’t made up his mind about that, and will rule on the lawsuits in due course, he said.  So much for the quixotic effort of Ingham County Judge Rosemary Aquilina to prevent embarrassment for President Obama.

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For the 9^th time, according to the count of ABC News, the 19^th, according to Salena Zito’s, President Barack Obama has "pivoted" to the economy.

As in the past, this "pivot" consists of talk, not action.  It was kicked off by a speech Wednesday (7/24) at Knox College in Illinois.  It would be a very big deal, predicted White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer. Reporters tell him his economic ideas are great, the president said.

These journalists didn’t. The speech was "a dreadful, cliché-ridden piece of writing," said Jim Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. "There were no fresh ideas, just a tired rehash of earlier campaign rhetoric," said Nile Gardiner of the London Telegraph.  A "confession of impotence," said Megan McArdle.  "Even a reincarnated Steve Jobs would have trouble marketing this turkey," said Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank

Zero gave a lousy speech panned by liberals as well as conservatives, but Republicans shouldn’t get complacent, warns Matt Continetti:

"What the president is doing in this series of speeches on ‘the economy’ is softening the ground for the battle over budgets and the debt ceiling that will take place in September. Beginning this fight earlier than expected allows him freely to define the Republican position in his typical, ludicrous way: The GOP, not having any ideas, is willing to shut down the government and deny you Social Security out of loyalty to their millionaire corporate backers. Obama was going to make this case anyway, but starting the campaign now provides a way to escape the scandals and capture free summer media."

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Obama wants to bait Republicans into shutting down the government.  That would be foolish to do over the debt ceiling, which is what did in Newt Gingrich and the GOP Congress in 1995.  But Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, thinks Republicans should be willing to shut down the government over Obamacare.

 I’m sympathetic to his argument, both because of the grave threat to liberty posed by Obamacare, and because the program is so unpopular.  But it’s a fight Republicans can’t win, because most Obamacare spending is an entitlement not subject to annual appropriations, says Byron York.  The House alone can’t shut it off:

"There’s a difference between killing proposed legislation and stopping a law that is already in effect. And Republicans have run out of ways to stop Obamacare. The only way that will happen now is if the law proves to be a disaster that even its supporters abandon. Like everyone else, Republicans will just have to wait to see what happens."

Waging a hopeless fight against Obamacare would be political suicide, says Rick Moran.  Shutting down the government over it would be "madness," says former Congressional Budget office head Douglas Holtz-Eakin, one of Obamacare’s most articulate critics:

"There is no exit strategy. It’ll go on for a while, people will say Republicans shut down the government again, Republicans will cave, fund the government, and go on weakened and divided."

Which is exactly what happened in the debt ceiling fight in 1995. But I’m still (nervously) inclined to think a strong effort should be made to defund Obamacare. Conn Carroll agrees:

Republicans would seem to have a very firm good government case to stand on: no subsidization without verification. If Obama wants to shutdown the rest of the government just so he can get fraudulent Obamacare payments out the door as fast as possible, let him make that argument.

* * * *

We don’t like Obamacare either, says the union representing IRS employees.  A GOP effort to defund it could find allies in unlikely places.

* * * *

President Obama has nominated Alejandro Mayorkas, currently the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, to be Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security.  He’d run DHS until a replacement for Big Sis is confirmed.

Mr. Mayorkas is being investigated by the Inspector General for Homeland Security for intervening improperly to obtain a visa for a Chinese businessman.  His intervention reportedly benefited a company run by Hillary Clinton’s youngest brother. Guy Benson has details.

* * * *

His opponent was a Hispanic woman in a district that is 60 percent Hispanic, in which Democrats have a 22 point advantage in voter registration.  But Republican Andy Vidak won comfortably Tuesday in a special election for a state senate seat in California.

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Dr. Ben Carson offers some sensible, but imaginative, out-of-the-box solutions to electoral reform in this op-ed. Please click on the link and read them.

The reforms he proposes would make it easier to detect vote fraud.  But once vote fraud is detected, it must be punished, Dr. Carson said:

In Saudi Arabia, the incentive to engage in thievery is dampened significantly by a judicial system that imposes a penalty of loss of digits on the thief. I am not suggesting the same penalty in this country, but the concept of severe punishment likely would deter such acts if imposed in a consistent way.

So-called comedian Bill Maher has called this renowned neurosurgeon a "drooling idiot."  That’s because Dr. Carson "eloquently refuses to stay on liberalism’s black plantation," Investors Business Daily said in this admiring editorial.

I hope Dr. Carson will be on the GOP ticket in 2016.  Just who he is speaks volumes, and his out of the box thinking and his skill in articulating it could break through traditional left/right lines.

* * * *

House Republicans aren’t getting the respect they deserve from conservatives, Bill Kristol writes in the Rodney Dangerfield Republicans.  They’re doing much better than we’re giving them credit for.

Republicans have done an excellent job in frustrating Obama’s efforts to bait them into a government shutdown, Matt Continetti said.

"The process has been messy, conservatives have screamed, taxes have been raised, and defense has been cut dangerously, but at each point Congress has found a way to keep the government running and American creditors paid. This is an achievement-substantively, of course, but also politically." 

Conn Carroll thinks so, too:

"It is no accident that Republicans have chosen to make the continuing resolution, and not the debt limit, as the hill on which they most want to fight Obamacare funding. A debt limit showdown would threaten to end payments for popular entitlement programs and face opposition from establishment, big business Republicans.

"The stakes, however, are smaller during a government shutdown fight since Social Security and Medicare payments are guaranteed to go out on time and the nation’s credit rating is not involved.

But Republicans must proceed with great care. And whether you think this is the hill to die on or not, recognize that it’s a tough call.

Many conservatives have bitched about the House Republican leaders because they didn’t race headlong into the traps Democrats and the news media set for them.  I call them Gerard de Ridefort Republicans, after the Grand Master of the Knights Templar whose confusion of rashness with courage caused the destruction of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Horns of Hattin.

Republican Congressmen, like dogs and small children, require discipline from time to time. When they make mistakes, they should be reproved.

But gently. Like dogs and small children, Republican Congressmen respond better to encouragement and support than they do to disdain and neglect.  The fate of the republic may hinge on the outcome of the fight over Obamacare funding.  We should be doing all we can to help out those will fight on our behalf.  Sniping at them constantly aids only the enemy.

* * * *

This week as last, the fascists have suffered embarrassment, but keep plodding along.  So I should say as I did last week that the glass is exactly half full.  But because of the scare thrown into the surveillance state, I’m going to say its more than half full.  I’m off to fill my glass with an IPA at the neat little beer bar in the Whole Foods store in my neighborhood.  Stay safe, and enjoy yourselves while you can.  The really big fights loom on the horizon.