The Administrative State – as I’ve said for years, it is the end goal of Progressives and we see too many Republicans (right, Ovide?) supporting other Republicans in moving the Overton Window leftward in achieving it in diminishing the power of the Legislative Branch by the empowerment of the Executive Branch’s agencies.  The only way to forestall this is to lessen this “Fourth Branch of Government” which in a lot of ways is acting like a complete government on its own: it makes its own rules, enforces its own rules (legislature), its own law enforcement, has its own administrative courts and judges (judiciary) for fines and jail time, and increasingly, levying its own set of fines AND taxes.  And now this (and near the end, lets the BIG cat out of the bag) (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Senate Dem: ‘I fear for the Union’ if Congress limits bureaucratic power

A debate about whether Congress should pass a law that would restrain federal bureaucrats from taking action without clear legal authority provoked one senator to wonder if Congress would be able to handle the extra workload.

Well, isn’t that the ACTUAL problem – that bureaucrats do this BECAUSE

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For the want of a nail, a shoe was lost.  This is not a nail but a huge spike:

“The truth is that modern liberty depends on the power of the purse. All of the great battles in England in the 17th century between the Crown and Parliament turned ultimately on the power of the purse. The members of Parliament were elected at least in part with an eye to achieving a redress of grievances, and that redress was the price they exacted for funding the Crown. Our legislature has given up that power. Our congressional leaders claim – once the election is over – that they have no leverage. If that is really true, then elections do not matter, and a redress of grievances is now beyond the legislature’s power. Absent that capacity, however, the legislature is virtually useless. Absent that capacity, it is contemptible — and let’s face it: the President and those who work under him have showered it with contempt.” Which is why we have Trump.

Paul Rahe is correct – it is amongst the most powerful of the limited tools that the Legislature has over the Executive Branch.  But over the last 100 years, we have seen the Progressives use

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Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

Ayotte joins the GOP Senate majority

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) got it right when she walked back her open door to Obama’s Supreme Court nominee today stating that she supports Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) position to not consider the nominee and let the people decide.

The people of New Hampshire have one of the most important roles in the presidential nominating process, and New Hampshirites should have their votes count in determining the direction of the Supreme Court for the next twenty years.

Nothing less than the Second Amendment is at risk, as Obama’s nominee has proven in his current judicial role to be a certain vote against the Heller decision overturning this landmark assertion that law-abiding citizens have an individual right to keep and bear arms. Can any thinking person after watching the current president’s constant barrage against guns and gun ownership honestly doubt that repealing Heller would be at the top of his nominee’s agenda?

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Quickie roundup:

1. Garland is considered anti-Second Amendment. As the National Review noted last week: “Back in 2007, Judge Garland voted to undo a D.C. Circuit court decision striking down one of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation” and voted “to uphold an illegal Clinton-era regulation that created an improvised gun registration requirement.” Obama will use his pick to pursue a gun control agenda.

2. Garland has favored environmental regulations. As SCOTUSblog noted in 2010: “On environmental law, Judge Garland has in a number of cases favored contested EPA regulations and actions when challenged by industry, and in other cases he has accepted challenges brought by environmental groups.” That could be very important, with Obama’s Clean Power Plan in the balance.

3. Garland’s positions on abortion and social issues are murky. Some liberals are worried that Garland may not be unambiguously pro-choice. Richard Wolf of USA Today writes: “During 19 years at the D.C. Circuit, Garland has managed to keep a low profile. The court’s largely administrative docket has left him without known positions on issues such as abortion or the death penalty.”

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“In response to the expose by Project Veritas Action Fund of the Australian Labor Party sending and paying for citizens of that country to work for Bernie 2016 prior to the February 9, 2016 New Hampshire Presidential Primary, I have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.”

Rep. William O’Brien’s Statement on Filing a Complaint with the Federal Election Commission Against the Australian Labor Party and the Bernie 2016 Presidential Campaign

Release:

There is a long tradition in the Democrat Party of trading away American sovereignty for campaign contributions.

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Four out of ten Millennials can’t be bothered to eat cold cereal. Too much work (wait for it). My kids eat cold cereal. Tons of it. We go through so much milk we should have our own cow. Cows? Cows might be too much work. But washing a bowl and spoon?

The dream of all these (cereal) companies is to capture the all-powerful and elusive millennial eater, who just isn’t all that into cereal for breakfast. It’s just too much work, for one thing. Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.

So…?

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And they keep on saying that the TEA Party is dead and gone and that the Establishment Republicans have won.  Last laugh?

Shot: former US House Speaker Boehner endorses Paul Ryan

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner has endorsed current Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for president, in the event that no Republican candidate achieves a majority on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
Politico reports that Boehner, speaking at a conference in Boca Raton, Florida, said: “If we don’t have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I’m for none of the above. They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I’m for none of the above. I’m for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.”

Chaser: The TEA party swipes John Boehner’s seat

…Warren Davidson, a businessman and former Army Ranger, won a 15-way Republican primary Tuesday in the special election for Ohio’s 8th Congressional District. The tea party candidate rather easily bested more moderate candidates, including two state lawmakers, in a campaign that quickly became ground zero for the party’s ongoing identity struggle in the House that Boehner used to run. The winner of a June special election will serve out the rest of 2016 in Boehner’s seat, and in such a deep red congressional district, that winner is likely to be Davidson.

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Three:

“I believe strongly that the people of New Hampshire must have a say in this extraordinarily important debate. With so much on the line for the future of our country, the Senate should not proceed with a confirmation process until the American people have spoken by electing a new president in November.”

Two:

And what does now US District Court Judge, thanks to Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Wilhelmina Marie Wright hold on the Right to Personal Property?  Right out of the Critical Race Theory (that EVERYTHING, knowable and unknowable, always proves racism):

The practice of American racism is based on two principles: the sanctity of property and the belief in the hierarchy of races. The first of these principles is firmly protected by the words and action of the Constitution; the second is proscribed by the words of the instrument, but not by its effect. History shows that when these two principles are juxtaposed (which happens constantly), property rights are given absolute priority.

…And why would Kelly Ayotte give her consent if so?

One:

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The Bamster has finally picked a date for the SCOTUS nomination ball. Some Judge by the name of Merrick Garland. Here are some wild generalizations about Judge Garland I found on the internet.

• President Obama wants to move the Supreme Court dramatically to the left to cement his liberal legacy for decades into the future, and Merrick Garland has been called the ideal judge to do that.

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