links for 2009-01-30

At a recent debate, the candidates to become chairman of the Republican National Committee were asked — after rattling off how many guns they own — whether they have any "followers" on Twitter, the popular online social network for short messages.

They didn't miss a beat.

"Yes, the number is growing last time I checked — 300 to 400," replied candidate Michael Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland. Users of the site keep track of posts, or "tweets," from other users by becoming their followers.

The 168-member Republican National Committee will gather tomorrow morning to choose its next chairman and yet even those closest to this most insider of votes acknowledge they have little idea who will emerge victorious.

The deal here is that none of this language is new. Republicans have been saying these things for years. Back to the Gallup data: voters identify with the Democrats precisely because of what Republicans stood for; because of the choices their party made in the early part of this decade. Who in the party will make the modest suggestion that maybe it's time the party stood for something different?
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Answer – BOTH

A military judge in Guantanamo Bay today denied the Obama administration's request to delay proceedings for 120 days in the case of a detainee accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others.

The decision throws into some disarray the administration's efforts to buy time to review individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the U.S. military prison at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. The Pentagon may now be forced to temporarily withdraw the charges against Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi citizen of Yemeni descent.

Nashiri is facing arraignment on capital charges on Feb. 9, and Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, said the case would go ahead.

During his first week as commander in chief, President Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay and terminated the CIA's special authority to interrogate terrorists.
While these actions will certainly please his base — gone are the cries of an "imperial presidency" — they will also seriously handicap our intelligence agencies from preventing future terrorist attacks. In issuing these executive orders, Mr. Obama is returning America to the failed law enforcement approach to fighting terrorism that prevailed before Sept. 11, 2001. He's also drying up the most valuable sources of intelligence on al Qaeda, which, according to CIA Director Michael Hayden, has come largely out of the tough interrogation of high-level operatives during the early years of the war.

When you run for president as a community organizer, and a writer, or even a professor of constitutional law, perhaps it's politic to hide a few salient details about your actual lifestyle that might mess up the "savior of the downtrodden" narrative. It's important to keep up the fiction that only spoiled, indifferent, wealthy Republicans have personal servants.

The DontGo Movement is teaming up with RedState to launch the new “Send a Pair” campaign. The campaign is in place to help Mitch McConnell obtain some much needed “boldness”. Apparently, Mitch McConnell isn’t able to locate a pair of his own, so we’re going to give him some assistance.

Mission: Locate any items that could resemble a “pair” if you catch the drift, and ship them to Mitch McConnell with a your opinion about the apparent lack of will to take a serious stand on issues important to the movement.

A top Republican congressional aide says the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus measure could steer government checks to illegal immigrants.

Republican officials are concerned that the Democratic-written legislation makes people who came to the United States illegally eligible for tax credits of $500 per worker and $1,000 per couple.

A House-passed version of the bill and one making its way through the Senate both disqualify nonresident aliens from receiving the credits. But neither requires a worker to have a Social Security number to get the credits.

An economic aid measure enacted in February 2008 that sent rebates to most wage earners required that people have valid Social Security numbers in order to get checks.

Americans may be able to rest a little easier this April if Congressman John Carter, R-Texas gets his way.

Rep. Carter introduced a bill Wednesday to eliminate all IRS penalties and interest for paying taxes past due.

The legislation calls for the creation of what he calls the, "Rangel Rule," — drawing attention to the recent legal issues of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., enabling citizens who fail to pay taxes on time to do so later with no additional fees.

Rangel, who writes the country's tax policies, acknowledged last fall that he failed to pay thousands in real estate taxes for rental income he earned from..

As of September 2008 the Harlem Democrat reportedly paid back more than $10,000 in taxes but that did not include any IRS penalties.

"Your citizens back home should have the same rights and benefits that come to you as a member of congress. You shouldn't be treated any differently under the law than your citizens back home," Carter said.

By contrast, the stimulus now under consideration would suffer from the usual problems of government spending. The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation have calculated that only $170 billion, or about one-fifth of the $816 billion package will be spent in fiscal 2009. An additional $356 billion will be spent in 2010. That leaves $290 billion to be spent when even the most pessimistic forecasters think the economy will be in recovery mode.

Obama engaged in an all-out lobbying push for the bill, which is among the most expensive pieces of legislation ever to move through Congress, and marked a big victory for his presidency a little more than a week into his term. He will now turn his attention to the Senate, where Democrats are scheduled to begin debate on the measure on Monday and the price tag is likely to reach $900 billion.

Larger than the combined total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, the two-year stimulus plan would provide up to $1,000 per year in tax relief for most families, dramatically increase funding for alternative energy production, and direct more than $300 billion in aid to states to help rebuild schools, provide health care to the poor and reconstruct highways and bridges.

The argument is, "Your priorities are expensive and increase the deficit; my priorities are reasonable investments."

Can the Obama administration be anymore tone deaf? After pushing his $1.1 trillion Generational Theft Act of 2009 through the House last night, the White House apparently decided to throw itself a swank cocktail party. According to ABC’s Jake Tapper, the menu included alcoholic beverages (vodka martinis are an Obama favorite, reportedly) and wagyu steak.

Yeah, “wagyu steak.” $100 per serving delicacy. I had to look it up, too.

On the heels of the most expensive inaugural celebration in American history and passage of a trillion-dollar spending binge that will saddle future generations with unprecedented debt, perhaps President Obama might consider cutting back on such indulgences.

Or is the White House exempt from “shared sacrifice,” Mr. President?

There's a serious debate in this country as to how best to end the recession. The average recession will last five to 11 months; the average recovery will last six years. Recessions will end on their own if they're left alone. What can make the recession worse is the wrong kind of government intervention.

I believe the wrong kind is precisely what President Barack Obama has proposed. I don't believe his is a "stimulus plan" at all — I don't think it stimulates anything but the Democratic Party. This "porkulus" bill is designed to repair the Democratic Party's power losses from the 1990s forward, and to cement the party's majority power for decades.

Federal authorities are investigating the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to see whether top church officials tried to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by priests, said a person familiar with the matter.

A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas and begun calling witnesses in the probe, which began late last year, said this person. The investigation is still in its early, fact-gathering stage, and it isn't known whether any criminal charges will result.