Last Call

Just...really, Newt?

Newt Gingrich knows a thing or two about presidential impeachments. And after the Obama's administration's decision on the Defense of Marriage Act, Gingrich says the smell impeachment is in the air once again.

Speaking with Newsmax, the former House Speaker and oft-rumored 2012 presidential contender said that the Obama administration's decision to no longer defend DOMA in federal court is a "a violation" of President Obama's "Constitutional oath and clearly it is something which cannot be allowed to stand."

The host asked Gingrich "is what Obama's doing impeachable in your view?"

Gingrich: "I think that's something you get to much later."

Something about all this government shutdown and impeachment crap seems awfully familiar.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Wondering what $100 plus per barrel oil means to you?  Here's your chart of the day from Zero Hedge.




Bottom line, on average every $10 rise in the price of oil costs Americans $185 per year, per car.

The price of oil has jumped $15 a barrel since the unrest in Libya started late last week. For the average two-car family, that's about $50 in disposable income per month that will vanish starting now. If oil goes back up to the record nominal price of $135 a barrel where it was in July 2008, that $50 a month becomes $163 a month in additional gas expenses for a two car family (which would quickly make it a one-car family again.)

This is just the gasoline impact. This chart doesn't even begin to factor in the additional cost of items trucked into stores and food grown with petroleum-based pesticides. The total additional cost to the average family would be even higher.

If we saw $150 a barrel oil and $5 a gallon gas, you would see a massive social change in the country. If truckers went on strike to protest $5+ per gallon diesel, all bets would be off where you live.

A $10 to $15 per barrel spike in oil is not a good thing for our economy. Any higher than $100 and we're looking at a trip back into Recessionville. At $150 that becomes Depression City.

Food for thought.

All Oiled Up, Bend Over

As oil prices continue to rise and the Obama administration considers dropping subsidies to an industry that made tens of billions in profits in 2010, Big Oil would like to remind you just who the hell is in charge here:  the American Petroleum Institute.

API President and CEO Jack Gerard sharply criticized President Obama proposal to cut billions in subsidies to energy companies, saying it would eliminate thousands of new jobs.

"It’s no surprise the administration is proposing yet again to raise taxes on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry," he said. "But it’s still a bad idea and comes at one of the worst times in our economic history."

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for investments into clean energy, declaring they should be paid for in part by cutting federal subsidies and tax breaks for the oil industry.

Obama said the United States should get 80 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035, though he included nuclear power, "clean coal," and natural gas as part of that standard, in addition to wind and solar.

On Thursday, Richard Ranger, a senior policy adviser at API, called on President Obama to lift drilling restrictions on Alaska's outer continental shelf.

In July 2010, Greenpeace obtained an internal memo from the API that showed the institute funded and developed a fake grassroots campaign to attack environmental legislation.

"API will provide the up-front resources," the email said. "This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns."

Remember, Big Oil gets tax breaks of $4 billion plus a year. Exxon Mobil, by itself, made $30 billion in profit last year.

But ending these subsidies will cost "thousands of jobs".  Meanwhile, we have to cut teachers and firefighters and bridges and cops and public safety because "we can't afford it."

Insert StupidiFilter(tm)

(CNN) -- An Indiana deputy attorney general lost his job Wednesday after commenting online that authorities should use "live ammunition" to run off the throngs of protesters railing over union collective bargaining rights two states away in Wisconsin.

This isn't the worst thing I've heard all year.  But it's among the dumbest.  In the age of the Internet, where our stupidity can be captured and stored for eternity, don't Tweet or Facebook without thinking it over.  Seriously.

Iowa Wonder What The Hell Is In That Corn, Anyway

It so happens that in Northwood, Iowa, there is a major porn distributor hidden quietly above a flower shop.  What was thought to be an unused office is a mailing and storage house for adult films.  Considering Iowa is miles from tolerant, this is amusing.  But the best thing of all is the article itself.  And one hilarious quote.  Oh yes, I have to share this with you in full:

"Oh, Lordy," Hickle [the flower shop owner] said. "I had no idea. I am not OK with this. I don't believe in pornography, and, oh, my, I just don't see Northwood as the sex capital of the world. We have all these Norwegians here. Can you imagine that?"

You can't make up stuff like this. Coming soon: Iowa believe I'll stay the hell away from those crazy corn-loving folks.

The Real Deal On Repeal

We now see the fallout of the Village's coverage of the GOP efforts to repeal the bill and all the attention given to Florida federal judge Roger Vinson's decision.

In a new Kaiser Health poll, just 52% of Americans knew that the health care reform bill signed into law by President Obama is still in place. Meanwhile, one fifth -- 22% -- of all Americans believe that the law has been overturned, while another 26% aren't sure what's up with the law.

Barely half of Americans believe the PPACA is still in effect.  The other half thinks it's gone or aren't sure if it's still in effect.  The Village has made no effort to correct this misconception, either.

Boy, that liberal media sure does lean left.

Making A Killing In The Cornhusker State

Well, if you thought South Dakota's bill that could have potentially made killing an abortion provider justifiable homicide in defense of a fetus was a legal misunderstanding, please note the version of the bill put forth by Nebraska GOP state Sen. Mark Christensen removes the "potentially" part completely.

The legislation, LB 232, was introduced by state Sen. Mark Christensen, a devout Christian and die-hard abortion foe who is opposed to the prodedure even in the case of rape. Unlike its South Dakota counterpart, which would have allowed only a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents, or her children to commit "justifiable homicide" in defense of her fetus, the Nebraska bill would apply to any third party.

"In short, this bill authorizes and protects vigilantes, and that's something that's unprecedented in our society," Melissa Grant of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland told the Nebraska legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday. Specifically, she warned, it could be used to target Planned Parenthood's patients and personnel. Also testifying in oppostion to the bill was David Baker, the deputy chief executive officer of the Omaha police department, who said, "We share the same fears...that this could be used to incite violence against abortion providers."

Baker's concern is well-grounded: Abortion providers are frequent targets of violent attacks. Eight doctors have been murdered by anti-abortion extremists since 1993, and another 17 have been victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes, including Scott Roeder, the murderer of Wichita, Kansas, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, have attempted to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials. Several of the witnesses at Wednesday's hearing cited Tiller's murder as a case where a law like the one Christensen introduced could have come into play.

For his part, Christensen insisted that his measure is not intended to target abortion providers. Like Jensen, Christensen claimed that his bill is merely meant to allow pregnant women to defend their unborn children without fear of prosecution. "LB 232," he said, "is really nothing more than an attempt to make sure a pregnant woman is not unnecessarily charged with a crime for using force to protect her unborn child from someone who means to bring harm to her unborn children."

But, as other lawmakers pointed out during the hearing, Christensen's bill, as currently written, would not only apply to pregnant women but to anyone who attempted to prevent harm to a fetus. "I think it opens the door to something unintended," said state Sen. Steve Lathrop. "I don't think you came in here intending to make those who provide abortions a target of the use of force," he told Christensen, "but I think it may unintentionally do that or at least provide somebody with an argument that they were justified in that."

All pretense has been removed of self-defense in this bill, and Republicans in the state know it.   None of this "but a crime has to be committed" crap either, the bill is specifically written to give anyone a "put a bullet in the abortionist free" card to stop anyone who "causes harm to a fetus".

Best part?

"I don't know how anyone knows my intent," Christensen fired back in an interview with Mother Jones.

Yeah, nobody can possibly know what the intent of this bill is.

Dead Bang Situation

What, you thought with Libya and Egypt and post-Tuscon that this kind of crap went away in America?

At Rep. Paul Broun’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question.

We couldn’t hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe County Commission chamber, but whatever it was, it got a big laugh.

Oh?  What's so funny there?

According to an outraged commenter on the article, the question was, when is someone going to shoot Obama?

Yeah, that's hysterically funny, especially since the Giffords shooting.  That couldn't have actually happened, right?

Broun’s press secretary, Jessica Morris, confirmed that the question was indeed, who is going to shoot Obama? “Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on,” she said.

But everyone had a good laugh over it.

[UPDATE]  Anyone still think the guy wasn't deadly serious with insanity like this flying around the internets?

Fortunately, this diabolical plan has been exposed by an American-born Israeli named Avi Lipkin, who says he once was a translator for the Israeli government, and an outfit called Special Guests, which books conservative commentators and advocates on popular television and radio talk shows. Lipkin's website claims that since 1990 he has lectured on various topics—including the threat of Islam and Israel—in over 1000 churches and synagogues in the United Sates, Canada, England, Greece, Israel, and other countries. His bio notes that he heads the Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc party in Israel. (The party's Facebook page listed 103 members yesterday.)

This week, Lipkin and Special Guests sent an email to television and radio bookers pitching the biggest story of all time:

According to Arabic language broadcasts intercepted and interpreted by Lipkin and his team, "The Moslem world is saying that President Obama wants amnesty for the current Hispanic 12 million illegal immigrants in the US in order to pave the way for the next wave of tens of millions of illegals from the Middle East to the United States, leading to 50 to 100 million Muslims living in the US before the end of Obama’s second term, which will be brought forth by these new US citizens voting for their savior, Obama."

Lipkin, who also goes by the name Victor Mordechai, claims to have "a source with a senior United Nations official" (whatever that means) who says that the United States "will be a Muslim country by the end of Obama's second term." This grand plan is so organized that it even has three parts. Phase One: Obama foments unrest in "each Middle East country" so that these regimes are toppled and replaced by "fanatic" Sunni Mulsims, who go on to "overthrow the competing Shiite regime in Iran without involving American troops." Phase Two: A massive exodus of Muslims heads toward Europe, Canada, and the Unites States, turning all of these Western nations into Muslim countries. Phase Three: The nations now controlled by Islamic extremists "march on Israel in an effort to destroy it" and Obama "keeps his promise…to destroy Israel."

But everyone had a good laugh over it.

StupidiNews!

• The UN Human Rights Council has condemned the bloodshed in Libya as the civil war continues between Qaddafi loyalists and rebels in the east.
• Wisconsin's GOP-controlled State Assembly has passed Gov. Scott Walker's bill to strip state workers of most collective bargaining rights, the battle now heads to the State Senate.
• Boeing has finally beat out European manufacturer EADS for the contract for the Air Force's new tanker plane.
• Irish voters are expected to overwhelming approve a new government in elections today as the ruling Fianna Fail party will almost certainly suffer massive defeat.
• Scientists say nowhere near enough Helium-3 is being produced for science purposes as it's all going to detect radiation in national security applications.