Hodge’s first article at Race42012:  “Giving the Temporary Majority Unlimited Authority to Increase Taxes and Debt Has Failed.”

To jump forward to today:  if the Republican Congress of the mid-1990s had merely passed a Constitutional amendment requiring a super-majority of Congress in order to increase the national debt, the Obama-Specter stimulus bill would not have passed, at least without first forcing Congress to increase taxes.

If one half of a marriage repeatedly spends money without permission, the marriage will not be a success.  And when one gives a limitless credit card to a 15-year-old, it should be no surprise when the privilege is abused.

Long-term, America will fail if 52% of the citizens continue to wildly spend the money owned by the other 48%, and if the cost of federal programs can continue to casually be passed down to future generations.  Rather than merely focusing on the individual programs to which we object, I find it more effective to focus on the total size of the purse.

When given a Constitutionally-instructed limit, Congress will be forced to prioritize, and we will begin to see permanent, meaningful reform with regard to the size and scope of the federal government.

Kavon (Kay’von) Nikrad of Minnesota operates a site formerly known as Race42008.com — now Race42012.com – and Nikrad Monday invited Benjamin Hodge to join the front-page writing team at the leading Republican Web site.

The Scorecard:

Manchester mayor Frank Guinta has filed paperwork to run against Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), and is expected to receive the blessing of the party establishment as he seeks to oust the second-term Democrat.

Guinta will be making a formal announcement of his candidacy next Wednesday.

The mayor of Manchester, the state’s largest city, Guinta has touted his success revitalizing the city while keeping taxes low. He served as a policy adviser for former Congressman Jeb Bradley before being elected mayor in 2005.

In a statement, Guinta said that he would be campaigning on his record of keeping taxes low in Manchester and his commitment to lower the deficit, if elected to Congress.

“While this has been a traditionally challenging state for Republicans in recent elections, an established community leader like Guinta has the ability to bridge party lines and once again give New Hampshire the representation it deserves,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Paul Lindsay.

People still aren’t becoming Republicans, but they’re increasingly less Democratic.  Rasmussen:

Since last August, the number of Republicans in the nation has stayed in a very narrow range from 32.6% to 33.8%. During that same period, the number of Democrats has ranged from 38.7% to 41.6%. (see history from January 2004 to present)

It’s worth noting that both parties are now at the low end of their recent range and the number not affiliated with either party is at the highest level since July. That’s a natural consequence of the election season driving people to make a choice in the fall and having them drift back following Election Day.

For most of 2006 and 2007, the number of unaffiliateds was at or above the 30% mark. However, during Election 2008, the number of unaffiliateds declined, primarily shifting to the Democratic column.
The Democrats now enjoy a 6.1 percentage point advantage over Republicans. During the first three months of 2009, the Democrats averaged a seven-point advantage.

While the partisan identification numbers shift little from month-to-month, the numbers document just how dramatically the political environment has changed over the past four years. In January 2005, as President Bush was inaugurated for his second term in office, the Democrats enjoyed just a one-percentage-point advantage over the GOP.

Rasmussen:

Forty-two percent (42%) of U.S. voters believe that Republican Senator Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party will have a significant impact on the laws passed by the Senate.

Twenty-five percent (25%) say the Pennsylvania senator’s change of parties will not have a major impact, and 33% are not sure, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Rasmussen:

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Republicans and a plurality of voters not affiliated with either major party (46%) say the president’s first high court pick will be too liberal. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Democratic voters expect his choice to be about right.

Forty percent (40%) of voters think Obama believes Supreme Court justices should decide cases on the basis of fairness and justice. Thirty-six percent (36%) say the president believes justices should rule based on what’s written in the U.S. Constitution. Twenty-four percent (24%) are undecided.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of all voters continue to say the justices should base their rulings on what is written in the Constitution. Thirty percent (30%) say they should be guided by perceptions of fairness and justice.

Four-out-of-five Republicans (80%) and 75% of unaffiliated voters say the Constitution should guide the justices’ decisions. Democrats are closely divided.

Ben Cunningham:

Link

Authorities uncovered what they describe is “a pervasive culture of political and familial entitlement” that included government employees accepting cash tips and gift cards while dishing out favors when registering motor vehicles.

Ben Cunningham:

Link

An Australian politician has gone to extraordinary lengths to be taken seriously by her peers: she has had her legs broken and stretched to become 3in (8cm) taller.

“A lot of young females have insecurities about their weight or their nose; mine was my height,” said Hajnal Ban, 31, a councillor with Logan City council in Queensland.

After nine months of excruciating pain, the councillor became a “normal” 5ft 4in.

Ms Ban was taunted at school and feared that her height would damage her credibility as she entered the legal profession and later went into local politics.

Heritage:

In nearly all of these cases, more liberal members of the Supreme Court sought outcomes inconsistent with the Constitution and the rule of law. That block would find additional strength if President Obama appoints a liberal activist to the Court to replace Justice Souter, a center-left moderate, and many cases like those listed above would have had different outcomes. As a result:

• Violent criminals would be freed for minor blunders by police,
• Tough sentences for violent crimes would be struck down,
• Trial lawyers would have more opportunities than ever to launch frivolous, but expensive lawsuits, and
• Victims of crimes would be denied a role in the criminal justice system.

The bottom line: Justice Souter was no conservative and no originalist, but replacing him with a far-left activist would change the balance of the Court for the worse.

RCP:

Standing with his counterparts from Afghanistan and Pakistan, President Obama said the three leaders had “reaffirmed their commitment” to confronting the threat of terrorism, and move forward with “unprecedented cooperation.”

“We meet today as three sovereign nations joined by a common goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their ability to operate in either country in the future,” Obama said in the Grand Foyer of the White House.

Planet Gore:

Here’s a good piece from the Christian Science Monitor on electric cars and the bitter reality that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. An excerpt:

Advocates of these next-gen cars, however, often act like someone who takes for granted that a light will go on whenever they flip a switch. They fail to ask two critical questions:

Will electric utilities be able to build enough power plants for all these electron guzzlers? And, even if they can, will new plants simply burn coal or oil in the same old dirty way - negating to a degree the anticarbon benefits of hybrid-electric cars?

Only a handful of studies have looked at these questions. “It seems that general excitement with the idea of PHEVs springs from the perceived possibility of a ‘free lunch,’ ” states the latest study, done by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “There are some concerns, however, about whether this lunch is really ‘free.’ ”

The study says many electric-car owners will likely want to charge their vehicles in the evening during peak usage, rather than at night - even with lower rates. The result may be a rise in coal or oil burning by utilities. And all electricity consumers could see rates rise by 40 percent or more.

In Britain, a similar study by the Campaign for Better Transport found that a move to electric vehicles might require increasing the country’s electricity capacity by 2.4 to 3.5 times.

At The New Ledger:

The Chrysler arm-twisting story continues in full force this week. It’s being kicked up a notch by the left wing blogosphere and their response to the Perella Weinberg story. And that’s a very good thing, because from the business and economic perspective, this story is every bit as important as anything else that’s been reported so far in this eventful year. It deserves as much attention as can be given.

The President of the United States has already traveled around the world, apologizing for what he characterizes as the abusive behavior of his predecessors toward people whose interests differ from those of the United States. And he’s promised, in his smooth, utterly convincing way, to play nice in the sandbox with the world’s tyrants, megalomaniacs, and ideologues from now on.

I read this to mean, among other things, that Obama has committed himself quite explicitly not to wage war on any of the countries and foreign-based entities that have declared themselves to be our mortal enemies.

HT Pollster.com:

Dick Morris, goposaur, stupider than K-Lo, or tied for first place?

When the Obama administration crashes and burns, with approval ratings that fall through the floor, political scientists can trace its demise to its first hundred days. While Americans are careful not to consign a presidency they desperately need to succeed to the dustbin of history, the fact is that this president has moved - on issue after issue - in precisely the opposite direction of what the people want him to do.

Mackinac Center:

In an apparent bid to boost membership under the guise of “helping” school districts to save money, the Michigan Education Association union has proposed a 33 percent pension boost for school employees who retire before June 30, 2010. This self-serving measure does not save money, and should be summarily dismissed.

Legislation to enact it, however, has been introduced in both the House and Senate (Senate Bill 255, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland; and House Bill 4285, sponsored by Rep. Fred Miller, D-Mt. Clemens). Both would burden taxpayers with $3 billion in new unfunded school employee pension liabilities - a 52 percent increase according to the House Fiscal Agency. Taxpayers would be on the hook for an extra $232 million every year for the next 29 years, assuming the liability was amortized in the usual manner.

Politico:

While Washington was partying, Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell were back home in Kentucky, trying not to feud.

The two senators shared a banquet hall in Louisville on Saturday night for the state GOP’s annual Lincoln Dinner - where the Courier-Journal says the obstreperous and unpredictable Bunning reiterated his intention to seek reelection

Heritage:

A widespread assumption is taking root: President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 defense budget request is an increase from President Bush’s 2009 defense budget. This assumption raises the question: Is the defense budget really growing? The answer: maybe. Indeed, it is difficult to simply answer yes or no because, until the President’s detailed budget request reaches Capitol Hill, Congress has to compare apples and oranges.

For now, Congress may safely assume that President Obama has submitted a budget blueprint for 2010 that appears to allow marginal real growth in the Department of Defense budget; however, that growth may never occur once inflation numbers are known. In short, Obama’s defense budget increase is so small that it may more than likely turn out to be a flat or declining amount in 2010.

When the detailed request comes to Capitol Hill, Congress must focus on the where the real defense budget cuts will ultimately be made: the modernization accounts that buy the military’s next-generation equipment. Congress should also be concerned that President Obama’s long-term projections call for dramatic reductions in the defense budget and, consequently, should seek to restore those cuts beginning with the 2010 congressional budget resolution.

Heritage:

On April 16, the Justice Department released documents on terrorist interrogation tactics used by the CIA after 9/11. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has called on the Administration to declassify and release additional material that describes the full scope and context of the program, including the effectiveness of the CIA interrogations.

Since the Administration initially released the documents so that Americans would be informed on what and how their government has worked to protect them from transnational terrorist attacks, they should now feel obligated to provide all relevant documents (consistent with protecting national security of the United States).

Politically Motivated?

The documents released by the Justice Department included four memos dating from 2002 to 2005. The memos had few redactions (information blacked out for security purposes). While President Obama claimed that the memos were not released to create “political rancor,” media reports indicate they had precisely such an effect.

According to The Washington Post, intelligence experts believe “the documents could ignite calls in Congress and among international courts for a fresh, independent investigation of detainee treatment.”[1] Government statements are also unclear as to whether the Administration will propose or support an investigatory commission, a special prosecutor, or prosecutions of former government officials.

NY Times:

Ted Kulongoski, the governor of Oregon, thinks that Americans will need to scale back their consumerism because it is harming the environment.

“There’s a lifestyle issue involved in this, about our penchant for consumerism and consumption,” he said, while discussing his support for a state emissions cap-and-trade scheme during a recent interview in Portland.

Heritage:

The annual congressional budget debate is over, and the House and Senate have passed one-party budget resolutions. Once the bill emerges from conference, the defense budget for 2010 and beyond will remain inadequate. While House Republicans offered two alternate budget plans that exceeded the President’s proposed spending levels for the first year, they still fell short of what the military needs by generally only matching the White House blueprint thereafter.

While the budget resolution is not signed into law, it is essentially where the fight for a higher defense topline is won or lost for the rest of the year–long before the House Armed Services Committee or Defense Appropriations Subcommittee craft their annual military spending bills. Once the spending caps are set by the budget resolution, Members can really affect only marginal change within the defense budget. Further, they must shift funds around from one program to another if they need to buy more C-17s and fewer trucks, for example.

American Enterprise Institute:

Several media outlets, blogs, and political commentators recently announced the unofficial death of the cap-and-trade bill designed to regulate greenhouse gas emissions-and breathed a sigh of relief. In an April 1 Senate vote, 26 Democrats joined 41 Republicans to raise the bar for passage of the bill. Those senators included liberals from Wisconsin, Michigan, and West Virginia-all states with more than 60 percent of their electricity produced from coal. The Wall Street Journal interpreted this as a signal that “California and East Coast Democrats won’t be able to sock it to coal and manufacturing-heavy Midwestern states without a fight.”

But even coastal Democrats would be in for a rude shock if cap-and-trade legislation does come to pass. Their viewing the politics of cap-and-trade as a regional issue that will not affect prices in their states is based on shortsightedness and ignorance of both the nation’s regulatory regime and the program’s true costs.

Washington Post:

Iranian media said the executed man was 30 years old.

According to Iran’s Islamic penal code, men convicted of adultery should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests for stoning. Stones used should not be large enough to kill the person immediately.

In January, Jamshidi said two men convicted of adultery were stoned to death the previous month in the city of Mashhad, but a third man escaped while the punishment was being carried out.

According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a non-governmental group based outside Iran, someone who was convicted on the basis of another’s testimony and who escaped the stoning pit may have their life spared.

Iran’s judiciary, which ordered a moratorium on stoning in 2002, last year said the lives of four people sentenced to stoning had been spared and the implementation of other sentences had been halted pending a review of their cases.

Iran has implemented sharia law since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Manhattan Institute:

At least since the energy crisis of the early 1970s, the United States has wrestled with the difficult question of how best to ensure an adequate energy supply while protecting the environment. Today, this question continues to play a role in our political debates. Whether and how public policy might reduce reliance on imported oil, encourage lower-emission vehicles, and spur the development of new or cleaner sources of power are all regular matters of public discussion and concern. Believing that prudent policies require a well-informed citizenry-one well versed in the facts-we sought, with the help of survey research conducted by Zogby Associates, to determine what Americans believe about energy and environmental issues and the extent of their knowledge. Building on similar research from 2006, we report here on the January 2009 responses of 1,000 Americans, chosen to be representative of public opinion generally, on matters such as the sources of U.S. energy, the extent of the oil supply, the rate of global warming, the safety of nuclear power, and the promise of renewable energy sources.

AZcentral.com:

Lexis Preparatory School is a new kindergarten through eighth-grade college-prep private school serving students in Maricopa County. The school will provide a customized, high-quality learning experience for children with ADHD, ADD and other learning differences, said Dana Herzberg, head of the school.

There are schools in Arizona that serve kids with learning disabilities, but they are therapeutic models, Herzberg said. Educators at Lexis hope to work with students who lack functions such as planning, organizing, strategizing and paying attention and provide them with a core college-prep curriculum.

“Lexis is unique,” Herzberg said. “We want our students to go on and achieve a college education. Our goal is to teach students so that they can go on to whatever school they want to go to. Arizona has needed this for a long time and I think parents will be pleased with what their kids will receive from Lexis.”

Around 10 percent of children have ADD or ADHD, with a small percentage of those kids requiring highly specialized placement, said Rick Lavoie, who holds three degrees in special education and has served as an adjunct professor and visiting lecturer at numerous universities.

The UK Sun:

IT worker Sammi, 39, walked down the aisle to John Williams’ famous score.

And Duncan, 41, pledged in his vows: “I promise to protect you from the Dark Side, through hyperspace and into the far reaches of the galaxy.”

They then walked under a lightsaber guard of honour in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight.

The local couple decided on the ceremony as their first date was to see final film Revenge Of The Sith in 2005.

They invited original Han Harrison Ford and Leia actress Carrie Fisher. Director George Lucas sent his apologies.

Duncan said: “We wanted to do something different and they’re just great films.”

Pal Matt Archer, 32 - droid C-3PO - said: “You really believed you were watching Han and Leia getting married.”

HT Jonah Goldberg at NRO.  San Francisco paper:

A farm worker in Canada has infected a herd of pigs with swine flu, the first documented case of the virus being passed from human beings to animals.

The herd of pigs tested positive for the H1N1 virus after the worker returned from Mexico with the disease. The herd has been quarantined.

Brian Evans, a senior official from Canada’s food safety agency, said that up to 200 pigs had been infected at the Alberta Farm, and that both the man and pigs are recovering, adding that the virus did not seem to have spread.

He emphasised that there was no food safety concern related to this finding. “The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote,” he said.

The case adds to growing international concern about the safety of eating pork products, with Russia, China, Indonesia, Ukraine, Philippines and Serbia introducting partial or total import bans of pork from the US.

The UN and World Trade Organisation said on Saturday that there is no justification for such anti-pork trade measures as a result of the swine flu epidemic.