On November 9th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments challenging the constitutionality of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences. In preparation for oral arguments, JLWOP: Faces & Cases will be an on-going series on The Foundry that will tell real stories about juvenile offenders who are currently serving LWOP sentences. Defendant: Ralph David Cruz, Jr., 16. Victims: Lucila Bojorquez, Brandon Esquer and Jenny Bojorquez. Crimes: Three counts, first degree murder and Armed robbery. Crime date: August 4, 2001 in Tucson, Ariz. Summary Ralph Cruz, Jr., shot and killed …
Members of Congress like to play games and they like to spend money. What better analogy to use to describe Congress’s proposed green energy policies than the Price is Right? As Congress seeks to implement policy that would create green jobs by mandating renewable energy projects, three cautionary European tales suggest the U.S. should take a second look at cap and trade and renewable energy mandates. We’ll take you through a Price Is Right showcase style tour of three failed renewable energy initiative. Our first stop takes us to Germany …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPlzV8BZdlw[/youtube] A poll released today by the Washington Post appears to indicate support for a public option is rising. They claim a 2% bump in the last month means the public option has therefore “rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.” Inventive headlines aside, this poll actually indicates that disapproval for Obamacare has solidified. Two months ago Obama began this huge blitz. He spoke to congress, [held] a primetime press conference, [he did] all five Sunday shows and he has not moved public opinion one bit. That’s the big story. …
As you read this, the Environmental Protection Agency is modeling the economic impacts of a semi-draft form of the Boxer-Kerry cap and trade legislation. “Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer said a bill EPA is analyzing should be marked up in her panel by the second week in November. An EPA official said the agency has pledged to deliver the cost analysis Friday, in time for a three-day set of hearings starting Oct. 27.” We’d do it too. But we can’t. According to Congressional Quarterly, the senators “produced a …
The Washington Time’s lead story today is about the Justice Department’s objection to a change of elections in Kinston, North Carolina. Why is this an important story? Because it is another worrisome sign of how the Holder Civil Rights Division is using the Voting Rights Act to benefit a political party instead of to protect voters. Kinston is a majority black town, and in November of 2008 its citizens voted 2 to 1 to change their city council elections from partisan to nonpartisan. It is also a one party town …
Yesterday Iran, France, the US, and Russia held the first day of nuclear talks. The issue concerns what to with Iran’s stockpile enriched uranium, material that can reprocessed to fuel nuclear power plants or refined into nuclear weapons. The US wants Iran to ship the material abroad. The chief UN representative at the talks said they got off to a “good start.” According most reports, however, nothing substantive got done. In fact, the New York Times reported Iran negotiators started out threatening they first wanted new supplies of nuclear fuel. …
Politicians have always been great at two things (1) making promises that cannot be kept and (2) spending taxpayer money. Health care reform is no different. In fact, every health care bill proposed by Congress thus far will cost over $1 trillion dollars, expand the size of government and will create a new entitlement. As the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, the House Ways and Means Committee originally estimated that Medicaid’s “first-year costs would be $238 million. Instead it hit more than $1 billion, and costs have kept climbing.” …
The Washington Post published a poll today finding that Americans oppose the Obama administration’s health care plan 48% to 45%. But the headline above, is not the headline the Post ran with. Instead they went with this: Public Option Gains Support: Clear Majority Now Backs Plan. This headline is fundamentally misleading. By claiming that a “majority now backs plan” the Post makes it seem like there was some point in time when their polling suggested otherwise. That is simply not true. Looking at the poll results over the past six …
As the secret Obamacare negotiations enter Day 7, word has leaked from the meeting that the White House and Senate leaders have ordered Congress to pass a $247 billion dollar payoff to doctors groups for their support of comprehensive health care reform. The Fix is in – Doc Fix that is. The Hill Reports: The White House and Democratic leaders are offering doctors a deal: They’ll freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors’ support of health care reform. As a result of the order, the Senate …
“It’s very telling that the first vote that we’re going to make on health care, Neil, is to add a quarter of a trillion dollars to the federal debt.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSP28MjkeAI[/youtube]
