Is it a Tax or a Penalty?

Since the courts upheld the mandate on the basis that it is within the purview of Congress thanks to the power to tax, the Obama administration has a small problem on their hands. Yes, they got the win they wanted from the Supreme Court, but they got it in probably what was the worst possible outcome for them.

They now have to try to convince the American people that the Individual Mandate is still a penalty, even though the courts say the only way it is legal is if it is a tax.

What to do, what to do?

DOJ won't prosecute Holder

In a move to surprise no one. The DOJ has exerted it's privilege to not bring their boss before a Grand Jury and force him to face the charges of lying to Congress. Since Obama implemented Executive Privilege on the documents for Fast and Furious, Deputy Attorney General James Cole has said that no laws were broken.

An amazing letter to the GOP

This is exactly what should happen. We all know it won't as I said earlier the GOP is missing their... ummm.. spine.. but sure would be fun to watch Obama's face as the bill is presented and signed to repeal is legacy right there in front of him. In fact if they every do surprise me and actually repeal it they should invite Obama to the signing ceremony.

Here is the link to the letter at Ace of Spades.

Should we trust Romney, Boehner and McConnel?

The results are in, Romney is the winner from the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare, or at least his campaign war chest is. Romney and the RNC raised 4.6 million in the hours after the decision was announced from approximately 47,000 donors. That's a lot of extra cheddar to be hanging around all of a sudden to beat Obama over the head with.

I still believe that SCOTUS got it wrong on Obamacare. It was never sold, or supposedly intended to be a "tax" however that's what the government now has. The unfettered unlimited ability to do whatever they want and call it a penalty collected by the IRS and suddenly it's Constitutional.

Holder voted in Contempt what to do now

So I said last night that it was basically a foregone conclusion that Holder was going to be struck with a contempt citation from the House yesterday. Of course I also wrote about how happy I was going to be when I found out that SCOTUS did the only logical thing and stuck down Obamacare in its entirety.

So after SCOTUS crushed my dreams of reining in federal power I actually got a little nervous about the contempt proceedings. Not because I didn't think the votes were there, but because I didn't actually trust John Boehner to actually do something that took some kind of backbone.

Although having 17 Dems vote with him probably made it a little bit easier for his spineless soul to allow it to happen though.

CBC planning walk out during Holder's contempt vote.

In a move reminiscent of the weak minded union paid for idiots that were Democrat Reps in WI while Scott Walker tried to pass his budget reforms the Congressional Black Caucus is planning to walk out.

So the Black Caucus in a show of stupidity solidarity, will walk out to make sure the vote can't go through I assume. Of course their stated reasoning for doing this is well a bit absurd.

House Vote on Contempt Charges scheduled for 5 pm

Unfortunately since I am in England, and actually have to you know, work for a living, I will probably be asleep or close to it by the time that vote happens. Especially since votes in Congress rarely happen at their exact scheduled time.

We shall see though. It is almost a forgone conclusion that Holder will be found in Contempt this afternoon. That just raises the question of what exactly does that mean.

Someone has to bring the actual criminal charges against him in front of a Grand Jury. Since the District Attorney for D.C. Ronald Machen has to actually bring the charges. Problem is Holder is his boss. Fox News asks the question can Holder just use prosecutorial  discretion since technically the DOJ has to bring the charges against the head of the DOJ and not prosecute himself?

If he could/did do that how bad would the fallout be?

The portion of the Ruling on Obamacare that crushes your soul.

 After reading the decision to ruin our country and give the government unfettered access to every part and decision of our lives I thought I would show the actual part of the decision that basically crapped on the constitution.

Here ya go.. Thanks again there Robers.

Mandate Upheld, Government power now uncontrollable

I had a post all ready about how we had beaten back the leviathan and were one step closer to actually limiting the power of government. So much for that. Thanks there CJ Roberts. To think that he sided with the 4 liberal justices and that Kennedy wrote the dissenting opinion and actually made sure to state that this entire bill was a farce is well depressing.

We had a chance, we had a court that I was positive would see that this was a complete over reach of government and slap them back. So much for Obama Slap-Down Day™.

We're all wrong on Fast and Furious

That's right ladies and gentlemen, after a year and a half of investigating we finally learned the truth about Fast and Furious. Turns out, there was nothing evil there, it was just ATF agents that were hamstrung by gun fanatical prosecutors that refused to prosecute straw purchasers. Why? Because the penalties weren't harsh enough and it wasn't worth the time.

Bloomberg has a very sensitive.. ummm... body.

In order to not violate his own law that he passed to save the world from whatever it is libs are trying to save us from this week Mayor Bloomberg has come up with a very ingenious way of making sure he never has to get into a hot car.

Another Dem crosses the aisle against Holder. Updated

Its slow out there today. Nothing much going on, everything and everybody waiting until tomorrow for Obama Slap-Down Day™. But on that note I did find something that will make Obama's night that much worse. How much Tums do you think he's chewing right now?

Anyway after Jim Matheson (D) of Utah said publicly that he was going to vote in favor of contempt for Eric Holder, comes another blow to Obama and his band of criminal lackies.

Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) has now come out publicly with intent to make history.

Issa to Obama: You're a Liar or a Criminal, which one is it?

So according to the letter that Darrel Issa sent to Barack Obama, Obama is either a liar or a criminal. Issa notes that either Obama is lying about no one in the upper echelons of the Executive branch being part of Fast and Furious or he is obstructing a Congressional investigation. Either way it would appear that they will not be trading Christmas cards this year.

Contempt vote for Holder on Thurs?

Apparently according to some Republican aides. Right now the vote is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, which could mean a couple things. Allapundit at Hot Air thinks that John Boehner and his spineless friends are trying to lessen the impact of the vote against Holder.

I can see that. But I also have another idea.

Mother gets bill for cleanup after illegal immigrant kill her son.

Anna Gonzalez an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT living in this country for 12 years decided that since she was already violating federal law by being here, and presumably working, would go ahead and up the ante. So she decided to get liquored up and kill someone while she was driving.

But wait it gets better.

Obamacare to be struck down on Thursday

Best part is that SCOTUSBlog the opinion is being written by Chief Justice Roberts and possibly co-authored by Justice Kennedy. This is a good sign. This means at a minimum the mandate went down. Personally I don't see any of the law standing but stranger things have happened.

As most of you know I am currently in England because of that I get to actually see a single payer healthcare system in operation. I also get to hear opinions on these things from the Brits who actually have to live this.

Issa Finally Understand the point of Fast and Furious

For months now we have heard about how Fast and Furious was nothing more than a botched attempt at continuing a program that was started and subsequently shut down by the Bush Administration in Operation Wide Receiver. The biggest difference in the two was that Wide Receiver was done with Mexican co-operation and actually, you know, interdicted the guns before they could get lost.

Fast and Furious on the other hand was nothing more than pure political theater and they know it.

New reason to challenge your 2nd amendment rights.. Wildfires

According to the Governor of Utah people shooting guns has been responsible for 20 of the wildfires in Utah this year and were responsible for 24 wildfires last year. This causes problems for the Governor because he is restricted by Federal and State laws along with recent rulings from SCOTUS that he can't issue an emergency ban on people using firearms.

There is also that pesky thing called the Constitution, but he never mentions that.

White House preparing to be slapped down by SCOTUS.

Valerie Jarret told the National Association of Black Journalists in New Orleans Saturday that the White House is prepared for the ruling from SCOTUS. Then went on to prove that they know they are about to get smacked down by blaming the GOP for having the policy of "NO".

So we're still going to use that slogan uhn? I mean the constant budgets that were passed by the house, controlled by the GOP, made you think it is the party of no? The constant bills coming out of the House that actually push things that would create jobs, such as Keystone XL are the reason that we still have unemployment above 8% and a 16 trillion dollar debt right?

TSA = The Stupidest Available

In a development that will surprise absolutely nobody, the TSA managed to screw up again. This time Alija Abdul Majed, a TSA screener at JFK worked most of his morning shift and never got a single hit on his metal detector. Not once did he wonder about the odds that it would take for thousands of people to stream through his terminal and never miss anything in their pockets. Turns out the odds were not in his favor, the problem was his metal detector wasn't turned on.

Why wasn't it turned on you ask? Because it wasn't even plugged in. Still feel safe?