Morning Briefing
For February 15, 2013
1. Peddling Tolerance
Twenty years after I arrived and sixteen years after I graduated, I returned to my alma mater,Mercer University, to deliver their Founders Day address yesterday. It was a wonderful experience.
Founders Day started in 1891, twenty years at Mercer moved its campus from Penfield, GA to Macon, GA. During the 1960′s the event declined in prominence until it stopped altogether. The year I started Mercer the Student Government Association restarted Founders Day, which made it kind of cool that I was the speaker on the twentieth anniversary of the restart.
The Student Government Association at Mercer is an exceptional organization that has long had the respect of the faculty and administration. I spent three years as Parliamentarian of the student government and two as the University’s Chief Justice. As always, the SGA hosted another excellent event.
As exhaustively reported in the local media, my presence caused some controversy, though clearly the press was disappointed the expected protests and walk outs did not happen at the event. Southern manners typically override everything else.
Nonetheless, an event designed to be about the University became about those upset with me speaking about my time at the University. They made it about themselves and about me.
In response to the controversy, the students asked me to participate in a forum on civility in politics. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Urge Your Senator to Filibuster Chuck Hagel’s Nomination
Senate Republicans currently have the votes to filibuster Chuck Hagel, but John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and others are going wobbly. There is no reason for Hagel to be Secretary of Defense and it is not just Republicans who should filibuster him, but Senators Pryor, Landrieu, and Senate Democrats from red states. . . . please click here for the rest of the post→
3. Audacity of a Provocateur: Obama Re-Nominates Unconstitutional ‘Recess’ Appointees to the NLRB
Over a year ago, Barack Obama declared the United States Senate to be in recess then, without advice and consent, abruptly ‘recess’ appointed three members to fill vacancies at his union-dominated National Labor Relations Board.
Over a year later, after one of the three “recess” appointments resigned, on January 25th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that Barack Obama’s imperial decisions were, in fact, unconstitutional.
Since the Circuit Court’s ruling three weeks ago, Obama’s NLRB chairman, union attorney Mark Pearce, declared that the unconstitutionally-appointed labor board would forge ahead, undeterred by its illegitimacy.
In addition, 40 senators have urged the unconstitutional appointees to step down–to no avail. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. The GOP Waterloo
The time for equivocation over defunding Obamacare is over. The time for recalcitrance to fulfill the budgetary is long overdue. Now is the time for action.
Over the past two years, we’ve heard a variety of excuses in defense of Republicans for failing to cut spending in any consequential way. Well, come March 1 those excuses are obsolete. The sequester is something that Republicans agreed to implement back in 2011. It is also something that will go into effect as long as Republicans do absolutely nothing. The fact that they only control one-third of government will be no excuse for them to abrogate their promise.
As part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, the 10-year sequestration, which would cut all discretionary accounts across-the board, is slated to take effect on March 1. The sequester will cut roughly $1 trillion in mainly discretionary spending, with 50 percent of the cuts coming from Defense, even though it only comprises 20 percent of the federal budget. It is important to remember that a good amount of these cuts are only baseline cuts, especially on the non-defense side. For 2013, the sequester was originally going to be $109 billion, but due to the cancellation of the first two months, the cuts will total $85 billion. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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