Category: Government

Get it, or we’ll fine you.  To me, the worst part of this whole fiasco is this type of system is likely to pass in other states.  All thanks to that conservative of conservatives, Mitt Romney.

I may not always be a huge fan of Justice Kennedy’s juris prudence, but holy crap did we dodge a bullet when the Democrats in Congress rejected the nomination of Robert Bork.

Bruce talks about Satan’s Snowballs.  It’s good to hear that Massachusetts of all places is considering repealing their income tax.  Bitter has more on this.

The FBI raids the Office of US Special Counsel Scott Bloch:

Investigators say Bloch is suspected of hiring an outside company to scrub his computer amid a federal investigation of alleged misconduct in his office.

The inquiry has been under way for more than a year and is looking into charges of intimidation and retaliation against whistle-blowers among staff members working in Bloch’s agency.

The Office of Special Counsel is responsible protecting the rights of federal workers and ensuring that government whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals.

And the Democrats want to put these people in charge of my health care?  No thanks.

The meme is going around.  I have pretty good faith in our system, so I wouldn’t make very many changes, other than this:

1. Fire all existing supreme court justices, except for Justice Thomas.  He can stay.
2. Nominate Eugene Volokh to the Supreme Court
3. Nominate Randy Barnett to the Supreme Court
4. Nominate Glenn Reynolds to the Supreme Court
5. Nominate David Hardy to to the Supreme Court
6. Nominate Orin Kerr to the Supreme Court
7. Nominate Judge Alex Kozinski to the Supreme Court
8. Tell Congress they can stick it on the advice and consent, and order that we only need seven justices.
9. Consolidate all federal law enforcement under the US Marshals.
10. Put Radley Balko in charge of the USDOJ with a life time appointment.

I figure the rest will kind of sort itself out.

I’m not angry, nor am I a renter.  I’m a homeowner with a mortgage, but these guys are spot on.  Here’s their YouTube video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOaDrM3rMXs[/youtube]

Hat tip to Clayton Cramer.

From Egregious Charles:

One of the problems with the Supreme Court’s role in enforcing constitutional boundaries that they are a panel of firefighters nominated by a pyromaniac and approved by an arsonist’s convention.

Certainly true, but I’m not sure I can think of a better way to select judges.

In Montana:

The Labor Department says recent job losses are behind an increase in the state’s unemployment rate.

Ya think?

Tam has a great essay assessing the damage.  I am no fan of the 17th myself, but tend to believe the pesky progressives were bound to create leviathan with or without it.  If we didn’t have the 17th amendment, I still believe we’d have a large and expensive federal government, but it would likely have been more difficult for the federal government to amass the power that it’s managed, and it probably wouldn’t have been able to amass so much of it.

The real problem is that our culture worships at the altar of democratic governance.  Power to the people, and all that.  Not enough stop and think that maybe the people, when they act collectively through voting, are actually pretty collectively stupid.

A good article that details the problems with excessive government and corruption in The Garden State.  Something we Pennsylvanians have to watch out for, as our state government continues to grow as well.

Hat tip to the geek.