Don’t forget, we have Senator Orrin Hatch because Representative Jason Chaffetz took Tom Donohue’s 2011 Chamber of Commerce bribery money and agreed not to challenge Hatch in Utah’s 2012 primary (state delegate convention, not election). In addition to significant amounts of cash, Chaffetz was also promised establishment perks, a House GOP leadership position, and key chairmanship in exchange for his collaboration.  

All these historical Decepticon (establishment Republican) maneuvers are achieving their intended goals.  It’s very frustrating to watch play out against the backdrop of us being called wing-nuts by other “conservatives” for the past 8 years, for predicting it..  Nuts !

WASHINGTON DC – Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Thursday praised Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as a “remarkable” and “tremendous” jurist who wrote a “clever” opinion upholding a key provision of ObamaCare.

“All I can say is that the chief justice is a remarkable judge. He’s a tremendous human being. I have a tremendous confidence in him and I believe in him. I differ with him on this opinion,” Hatch said from the Senate floor. “On the other hand, it is a very clever opinion, and I have to say only a clever judge could have written it as well.”

Roberts authored the 6-3 decision handed down earlier Thursday that upheld federal healthcare insurance subsides under the Affordable Care Act. The ruling is a major victory for the Obama administration. (more…)

“Disparate Impact” is a social justice legal theorem which measures outcomes to standards and practices and determines racial legality.

Example – Under legal interpretation rules of “Disparate Impact” it is unlawful not to hire illegal aliens. If a company uses eligible (legal) work authorization status as a requirement on employment applications (when making hiring decisions), and if the use of legal work eligibility is used as a qualifier, and the eligibility (qualification) standards disqualify a protected class (ethnicity) at a disparate rate, then it is unlawful not to hire illegal aliens.

The civil rights act(s) guaranteed -through law- equality in opportunity. Disparate Impact guarantees -through legal interpretation- equality in outcome.

Today the Supreme Court upheld (5-4) the application of “Disparate Impact Rules” within housing: regulations, loans, credits, locations and subsidies.  Justice Kennedy was the determining factor.  Thomas Lifson at American Thinker accurately outlines: (more…)

(Via The Hill) The Senate voted Wednesday to approve fast-track authority, securing a big second-term legislative win for President Obama after a months-long struggle.

The 60-38 Senate vote capped weeks of fighting over the trade bill, which pitted Obama against most of his party — including Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

[…] Fast-track, or trade promotion authority (TPA), will allow the White House to send trade deals to Congress for up-or-down votes. The Senate will not be able to filibuster them, and lawmakers will not have the power to amend them.

The expedited process, which lasts until 2018 and can be extended until 2021, greatly increases Obama’s chances of concluding negotiations on the TPP, which is a key goal of the president’s. (more…)

Before reading the rather extensive FBI files on the communist family of Valerie Jarrett, it’s much more valuable to review this backstory first. Please watch the following video from Bill Whittle before reviewing the FBI files:

Judicial Watch filed for, and received, the FBI investigative files of Valerie Jarrett:

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

Jarrett’s dad, pathologist and geneticist Dr. James Bowman, had extensive ties to Communist associations and individuals, his lengthy FBI file shows. In 1950 Bowman was in communication with a paid Soviet agent named Alfred Stern, who fled to Prague after getting charged with espionage. Bowman was also a member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and Medical Students. After his discharge from the Army Medical Corps in 1955, Bowman moved to Iran to work, the FBI records show. (more…)

20,000 emails between Gruber and the White House prove the Obama administration was massively lying about Jonathan Gruber’s involvement with their construction of the ObamaCare fraud. And what happens when the emails are exposed?….

(Via Real Clear Politics) What happens when the news media catch the White House in a demonstrable lie? That depends entirely on whether they like the administration. If they loathe the administration, it’s front-page news. If they like it, they spike the story. As Momma used to remind us, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. What a great motto for reporters.

That is exactly what the national media have done to an important story about the White House’s intimate working relationship with MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, who helped craft the Affordable Care Act. You may remember Gruber from his infamous videotapes, the ones in which he called the American public too stupid to understand the law. He added their stupidity was helpful to Obama, Pelosi, and Reid in passing the law. (more…)

The case was Horne v. U.S. Dept of Agriculture (full embed pdf below).  Essentially a raisin farmer was fined (and the price of his crop similarly assessed) for not forfeiting their harvest to the USDA in a program where the government regulates supply and demand through production controls.

SCOTUS ruled 8-1 (Sotomayor dissent) the U.S. government cannot “take”, or force destroyed, farming crops without compensation to the farmer under the fifth amendment “takings” clause.

The most consequential aspect of the ruling stems from 8 justices affirming that “personal property” is afforded the same constitutional protection as “real property.  Specifically, in this case,  if  crops “taken” (or rendered removed from the market) for the public good, there must be compensation for the owner/farmer.   (more…)

Consider this a MUST READ if you are concerned about abusive government and the absolute elimination of free speech and personal liberty.

(Reason) For the past two weeks, Reason, a magazine dedicated to “Free Minds and Free Markets,” has been barred by an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from speaking publicly about a grand jury subpoena that court sent to Reason.com.

The subpoena demanded the records of six people who left hyperbolic comments at the website about the federal judge who oversaw the controversial conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the government issued a gag order prohibiting Reason not only from discussing the matter but even acknowledging the existence of the subpoena or the gag order itself. As a wide variety of media outlets have noted, such actions on the part of the government are not only fundamentally misguided and misdirected, they have a tangible chilling effect on free expression by commenters and publications alike.

Yesterday, after preparing an extensive legal brief, Reason asked the US Attorney’s Office to join with it in asking that the gag order – now moot and clearly an unconstitutional prior restraint – be lifted. This morning, the US Attorney’s Office asked the Court to vacate the order, which it did. We are free to tell the story for the first time.  (read more)

…. but, but what about the Sand Smelts?  All’s fair in rules and regulations until those rules, regulations and laws circle back to impact the rule making advocates. 

(Via Washington Post) Drought or no drought, Steve Yuhas resents the idea that it is somehow shameful to be a water hog. If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.

People “should not be forced to live on property with brown lawns, golf on brown courses or apologize for wanting their gardens to be beautiful,” Yuhas fumed recently on social media. “We pay significant property taxes based on where we live,” he added in an interview. “And, no, we’re not all equal when it comes to water.”

Yuhas lives in the ultra-wealthy enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, a bucolic Southern California hamlet of ranches, gated communities and country clubs that guzzles five times more water per capita than the statewide average. In April, after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) called for a 25 percent reduction in water use, consumption in Rancho Santa Fe went up by 9 percent. (more…)

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June 6th, the anniversary of D-Day, the allied landing to free Europe from Nazi occupation.  June 6th 1944, Operation Overlord began.

One might think a passing notation from our president would be appropriate for an anniversary where 6,500 allies, mostly American, died every single day, from the beginning of D-Day to the end of the Normandy Campaign on August 21st 1944, when the tide turned in our favor and Nazi Germany began their retreat.
One might think, but you’d also be wrong.
No, instead President Obama choses to focus his weekly address today on his pledge to continue allowing illegal immigration to undermine the very essence of American Exceptionalism.  After all, it is prudent to remember, President Obama has priorities.

But even in his self-appreciative ego-driven proclamations of his own magnanimity, he still hides the underlying truth.  His “executive action” was far more than he pontificates in the message above.  (prompted to 02:08 through 02:35 so you can see for yourself)
President Obama declares his November 2014 actions; he describes them: (more…)