No Taxation Without Reading the Legislation

Once again Democrats have distinguished themselves by voting to pass legislation that few of them have even read. They did the same thing, you'll recall, with the stimulus bill. Doesn't it just astound you that we Americans continue to elect to congress people who are so irresponsible that they vote for bills whose contents are unknown to them? And to think we pay these people a salary and benefits.

That no one who voted for this bill had read it is obvious from the fact that a 300 page amendment was incorporated into an already 1200 page bill at 3:00 a.m. this morning. Apparently, these illustrious personages don't much care what's in the darned thing, they just want to be told by their leadership which button to push so they can get back to their cocktail parties and golf games.

The bill is supposed to be an energy bill, but it's no more about increasing energy than the stimulus bill was about economic stimulus. According to most commentators this legislation will result in a net loss of both (relatively) cheap energy and jobs, will raise the cost of everything we buy, including energy, several thousand dollars per year, and cause hundreds of businesses to move overseas.

All is not lost, though. The bill still has to pass the senate where even Majority Leader Harry Reid said it hasn't got much of a chance. For once I hope Senator Reid is right. Meanwhile, who will deliver us from congresspersons determined to run the ship of state onto the shoals of socialism and sell our children into financial bondage? Where is the modern Patrick Henry who'll stand and demand of our congressional representation, "No taxation without reading the legislation!"?

I should mention that fifty brave Democrats weathered the ferocity of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's arm-twisting and voted against her bill, and eight Republicans apparently committed political hari kiri by voting for it. I suspect that those eight Republicans are going to have the fight of their political lives in 2010. At least one can hope.

RLC

Color Blind

Via Hot Air - a really amazing optical illusion. Check it out.

RLC

Go Ahead, Make My Day

There are reports out of Tehran that Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the man who was robbed in the recent election and whose de-election has sparked so much protest and carnage in Iran, may be arrested for his insolence and sedition. This would be a good thing for two reasons:

First, if Mousavi were to spend the rest of his life in an Iranian prison it would be a much-deserved fate. He approved the kidnapping of the embassy employees during the Carter administration and was instrumental in the deaths of hundreds of American marines and others in bombings in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Former CIA agent Robert Baer explains in Time magazine:

When Mousavi was Prime Minister, he oversaw an office that ran operatives abroad, from Lebanon to Kuwait to Iraq. This was the heyday of Khomeini's theocratic vision, when Iran thought it really could export its revolution across the Middle East, providing money and arms to anyone who claimed he could upend the old order. Mousavi was not only swept up into this delusion but also actively pursued it.

It was Mousavi who appointed Iran's ambassador to Damascus, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-pur, the Iranian caught red-handed planning the Marine-barracks bombing. Mohtashemi-pur also coordinated the hostage-taking in Lebanon. As a reward, Mousavi gave him the Interior Ministry, where Mohtashemi-pur went on to crack down on what was left of democracy in Iran.

And it is not as if Mousavi kept his support for Iran's secret war on the U.S. a secret. In a 1981 interview, he had this to say about the taking of American diplomats in Tehran in 1979: "It was the beginning of the second stage of our revolution. It was after that we discovered our true Islamic identity."

Mousavi is also an advocate of Iran's nuclear weapons program. His arrest and imprisonment is certainly not something that should be regretted.

Not only would having this man incarcerated in Iran's medieval prison gulag be a tiny glimmer of justice for the families of the Americans whose deaths he facilitated, it would also further inflame Iranian young people who see Mousavi not as someone who shares their aspirations of freedom and democracy, so much, but as a symbol of their hopes to be rid of the current regime. His arrest would further destabilize the mullahcracy in Tehran and that, too, would be a good thing.

Unfortunately, for both these reasons, the mullahs will doubtless refrain from arresting him as long as they can avoid it.

RLC

ACES and Jokers

The editors of National Review are decidedly unenthusiastic about ACES (American Clean Energy and Security act) that the Democrats are probably going to bring to a vote today. Here's the summation of the reservations they discuss in their column:

So here are the cards Democrats want to deal us: ACES would impose costs at least ten times as large as its benefits, would not reduce the deficit, and would not really cap emissions. It's a losing hand.

Go to the link to read the details. Also, if you didn't see our link to John Boehner's page that we posted Thursday, you should check it out to understand why this bill is going to result in a huge tax imposed on every American who buys or grows food and who uses gasoline and/or electricity, and why the promise of millions of new jobs is simply smoke blown in our eyes.

RLC