Last Call

Back home in NC, with Republicans now controlling the state legislature and the Governor's mansion with the election last November of Pat McCrory, the Tarheel State's about to get a crash course in Austerian Hysteria. First up on the chopping block:  cutting unemployment benefits to the point where the state with the fifth-worst unemployment rate at 9.2% is all but eliminating jobless benefits.

North Carolina lawmakers approved deep cuts to benefits for the jobless on Wednesday, in a state that has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. 

In a debt-reducing effort, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to cut maximum weekly benefits to $350 from $535, a 35 percent drop; reduce the maximum number of weeks for collecting benefits to between 12 and 20 weeks from 26 weeks; and tighten requirements to qualify. The cuts would begin with new jobless claims on July 1. 

If the bill is signed by Gov. Pat McCrory, as expected, North Carolina would be the eighth state to roll back jobless benefits under the growing financial burden of the recession. 

The measure’s sponsors said it would spur job growth by paying down $2.5 billion in debt to the federal government. The bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 36 to 12. 

“North Carolina owes the federal government $2.5 billion because of a broken unemployment insurance system,” said Mr. McCrory, a Republican. “We’re going to pay down that debt, make the system solvent and provide an economic climate that allows businesses, large and small, to put people back to work. 

And if you think the billion or so a year this will save the state will end up back in the pocket of taxpayers, you're insane.  Once the debt is paid off,  there will of course be tax cuts for businesses.  Not workers, mind you.  Oh, and here's the best news:

The bill also disqualifies 170,000 unemployed people — 39 percent of the 438,000 jobless — from federal emergency extended benefits because it reduces the number of weeks people can receive benefits to below 26. The federal government has set 26 weeks as the national requirement for receiving federal funds. 

Better hope you don't get laid off if you live in NC, with $2.5 billion disappearing from the state's economy in a three year period, that's a hell of a contraction.  Max benefits cut by a third, max weeks cut in half, no federal benefits for anyone. Gotta stick it to those poor people, because we all know that the only reason anyone's ever unemployed is that they're too lazy to take a job that pays $7.25 an hour (or less, if you're waitstaff).

But somehow, this will create jobs, right?

Insanity Pays

NRA spokesloony Wayne LaPierre is still certifiable...certifiable like a banker's check, that is.  The crazier he gets, the more firearms and ammunition gets sold, and he's upping the dosage to max insanity this week with a new op-ed in the Daily Caller.

It has always been sensible for good citizens to own and carry firearms for lawful protection against violent criminals who prey on decent people.

During the second Obama term, however, additional threats are growing. Latin American drug gangs have invaded every city of significant size in the United States. Phoenix is already one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, and though the states on the U.S./Mexico border may be the first places in the nation to suffer from cartel violence, by no means are they the last.

The president flagrantly defies the 2006 federal law ordering the construction of a secure border fence along the entire Mexican border. So the border today remains porous not only to people seeking jobs in the U.S., but to criminals whose jobs are murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping. Ominously, the border also remains open to agents of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Numerous intelligence sources have confirmed that foreign terrorists have identified the southern U.S. border as their path of entry into the country.

When the next terrorist attack comes, the Obama administration won’t accept responsibility. Instead, it will do what it does every time: blame a scapegoat and count on Obama’s “mainstream” media enablers to go along.

Got it?  Gun control laws will kill your family because Scary Brown People will murder all of us in our sleep.  ONLY GUNS CAN SAVE YOU.  (PS, please ignore the fact that an AR-15 will have a really, really hard time stopping a 747 from flying into a building.)

Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face—not just maybe. It’s not paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival. It’s responsible behavior, and it’s time we encourage law-abiding Americans to do just that.

WHEN TORNADOES MADE OUT OF BROWN PEOPLE COME, SHOOT THEM.  Shoot them with the shiny new guns you just bought from the manufacturers the NRA represents.  Because otherwise, the brownadoes will kill your babies and your dog.

But you'll buy.  That's the point.  Wayne LaPierre is a genius at this.

Hold On To The Night

Sen. Rand Paul continues to make an ass of himself and my state by threatening to hold up the nomination of CIA Director John Brennan until he gets classified info.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday threatened to hold John Brennan's nomination for CIA director unless he receives more answers on the administration’s drone program.

“I have asked Mr. Brennan if he believed that the President has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and my question remains unanswered," Paul said in a statement. "I will not allow a vote on this nomination until Mr. Brennan openly responds to the questions and concerns my colleagues and I share.

"These issues must be discussed openly so that the American people can understand what constraints exist on the government’s power to use lethal force against its citizens," Paul continued. "Before confirming Mr. Brennan as the head of the CIA, it must be apparent that he understands and will honor the protections provided to every American by the Constitution."

To recap, Mr. "Obama is a dictator ruling by fiat" here has no problem imperiously using the power of bureaucracy to make petulant demands when it suits him.  And as with Huckleberry Graham's blocking of Chuck Hagel, it has nothing to do with the nominee's qualifications, and everything to do with the President they so despise.

Rand Paul will not allow a vote, you see.  He controls the country, apparently.

Arrogant little moron.  Remember this next time he accuses the President of being a fascist.

StupidiNews!

• US Airways and American Airlines have received the green light to form the world's largest airline, reducing the number of large US carriers to just four.
• The director of a documentary detailing the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church asserts the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is "inextricably linked" to the crisis.
• Senators Barbara Boxer and Bernie Sanders have introduced tough new climate change legislation that they admit will be a near-impossible sell even among Democrats.
• The EU recession continues, as now even Germany is facing economic contraction with the Eurozone 4th quarter 2012 seeing a -0.6% loss.
• EA executive Blake Jorgensen says he doesn't expect Sony or Microsoft to make their new consoles backwards compatible with the current generation.