• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 19th on 09:57

    These are my links for April 19th from 09:57 to 12:34:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 11th on 12:16

    These are my links for April 11th from 12:16 to 12:23:

    • The 9th Circuit strikes down Arizona’s immigration law – I examine the concurring opinion in some detail for two reasons. First, preemption doctrine requires a close reading of the statute and analysis of its purpose. Objections to a state statute cannot be brushed off because the federal government is “not doing its job.” That may be true, but this is a political and not a legal argument. Second, if immigration exclusionists think they are going to get a more satisfactory analysis from judges than the one rendered by Judge Noonan they are, I would suggest, kidding themselves. Noonan’s decision made Swiss cheese of the state’s law, an indication of how difficult it is to skirt the federal government’s dominance in the field of foreign policy and border control.

      A final observation: Conservatives are making a principled argument regarding Obamacare on the Constitution’s commerce clause in support of the federal system of government. That same structure that limits federal power also limits state power. They should be faithful to the words and intent of the Constitution in both situations.

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      If Americans are serious about illegal immigration here are the remedies:

      1. Enforce existing immigration laws, including enhanced employer's raids.

      2. Pass and implement E-Verify for employment.

      3. Secure the southern border with Mexico.

      The states should forget about Arizona type laws and Americans should hold their poltician's feet to the fire on the above 3.

    • What Tim Pawlenty’s hiring of Nick Ayers means? – Chris Cillizza reports that presidential contender Tim Pawlenty has hired the former executive director of the Republican Governors Association as his campaign manager.

      Pawlenty has been courting Nick Ayers for months. I am told by those involved in the process that Ayers, who served alongside Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour at the RGA, was waiting for Barbour, the candidate with whom he is closest, to make up his mind on whether to run. Now that Ayers has accepted a spot with Pawlenty, the chances of a Barbour presidential race have plunged. It may also be that Barbour’s extremely rocky start, overshadowed by his views on race, persuaded Ayers not to join him.

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      Probably not much.

      Tim Pawlenty may be a nice guy and all but is not very exciting. I would say about as exciting as Romney but without the personal fortune.

      If the GOP is going to throw a "Bob Dole" type candidate out there it will be Romney and not Pawlenty.

      Pawlenty for VP would really bore the GOP base.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 17th on 12:53

    These are my links for March 17th from 12:53 to 15:00:

    • Sen. Rand Paul Unveils 5-Year Budget Plan: Eliminates Four Federal Agencies – Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., unveiled today his five-year path to a balanced budget, leaving several federal agencies behind. Among the items on the cutting room floor are the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development.

      “There’s a lot of things in here that everybody could agree to, Republicans and Democrats, but nobody’s leading on the president’s side and on our side we felt we needed to put this forward to get the debate started, at the very least,” the freshman Senator explained at a Capitol Hill press conference this afternoon.

      The proposal also calls for the repeal of “Obamacare,” but leaves entitlements untouched.

      ======

      Hard to argue with this plan.

    • OH, HILL NO – WWW.THEDAILY.COM – OH, HILL NO – Obama's indecision on Libya has pushed Clinton over the edge
    • OH, HILL NO – Obama’s indecision on Libya has pushed Clinton over the edge – Fed up with a president “who can’t make his mind up” as Libyan rebels are on the brink of defeat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking to the exits.

      At the tail end of her mission to bolster the Libyan opposition, which has suffered days of losses to Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, Clinton announced that she’s done with Obama after 2012 — even if he wins again.

      “Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,” a Clinton insider told The Daily. “She’s exhausted, tired.”

      He went on, “If you take a look at what’s on her plate as compared with what’s on the plates of previous Secretaries of State — there’s more going on now at this particular moment, and it’s like playing sports with a bunch of amateurs. And she doesn’t have any power. She’s trying to do what she can to keep things from imploding.”

      Clinton is said to be especially peeved with the president’s waffling over how to encourage the kinds of Arab uprisings that have recently toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, and in particular his refusal to back a no-fly zone over Libya.

      In the past week, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton’s former top adviser Anne-Marie Slaughter lashed out at Obama for the same reason.

      The tension has even spilled over into her dealings with European diplomats, with whom she met early this week.

      When French president Nicolas Sarkozy urged her to press the White House to take more aggressive action in Libya, Clinton repeatedly replied only, “There are difficulties,” according to Foreign Policy magazine.

      “Frankly we are just completely puzzled,” one of the diplomats told Foreign Policy magazine. “We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States.”

      Or as the insider described Obama’s foreign policy shop: “It’s amateur night.”

      =======

      If the GOP can just nominate a decent candidate, they will have Obama for lunch in 2012.

      A big if though.

    • President 2012 Video: Is Mitch Daniels Being Unfairly Attacked from the Right? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Video: Is Mitch Daniels Being Unfairly Attacked from the Right? #tcot #catcot
    • T-Paw v. Hee-Haw | The Weekly Standard – President 2012: T-Paw v. Hee-Haw
    • Glenn Reynolds Interviews Mickey Kaus | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Glenn Reynolds Interviews Mickey Kaus #tcot #catcot
    • President 2012: T-Paw v. Hee-Haw – The skirmish between Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty on defense spending and Afghanistan is more enlightening for what it says about GOP 2012 politics than for what it says about the substance of foreign and defense policy.

      Barbour's comments, at a GOP dinner in Iowa, were … comments—and certainly didn't constitute any kind of serious presentation of a foreign policy agenda. His case for cutting defense spending was more political than substantive—"We can save money on defense and if we Republicans don't propose saving money on defense, we'll have no credibility on anything else,"—and not very smart politics, either. What's more, according to Kasie Hunt's report, "After the speech, Barbour told reporters that he couldn't identify specific programs that should be cut from the Pentagon budget." Barbour's only substantive argument seemed to be this: "Anybody who says you can't save money at the Pentagon has never been to the Pentagon." This is a) childish, b) slightly offensive, and c) raises the question of how much time Barbour has spent at the Pentagon—apart from time spent lobbying for defense contractors or foreign governments.

      =====

      Does anyone really consider Haley Barbour besides Haley Barbour a serious candidate for President?