Category Archives: Miscellaneous

LifeSiteNews: Josh Duggar has starred on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting for 11 years, but soon he’ll have a new role: at the helm of a pro-life, pro-family legislative action group in the nation’s capital. Josh Duggar, the oldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, will take over as executive director of FRC Action starting next week.

Harvard University Press: Sarah Igo tells the story, for the first time, of how opinion polls, man-in-the-street interviews, sex surveys, community studies, and consumer research transformed the United States public . . . With a bold and sophisticated analysis, Igo demonstrates the power of scientific surveys to shape Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals, members of communities, and citizens of a nation.

Courier Post Online: The Rev. John Jackson from Trinity United Church of Christ in Gary, Ind., who is a former Chicago police officer, said there has to be a better alternative to jail time for drug use. “God does not care if you smoke weed,” he said. “God is not that petty.”

AP: The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Neil Ferguson at WSJ: Tocqueville also foresaw exactly how this regulatory state would suffocate the spirit of free enterprise: “It rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces [the] nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd.” If that makes you bleat with frustration, there’s still hope.

Investors Business Daily: Yet while private companies are getting all this unwelcome and hostile attention, local governments across the country have been quietly doing exactly the same thing — cutting part-time hours specifically so they can skirt ObamaCare’s costly employer mandate, while complaining about the law in some of the harshest terms anyone has uttered in public.

US News and World Report: The percentage of Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers dropped to 23 percent this year from 25 percent last year, according to a report on the poll, which was released Monday.

The Hill: “This hole in federal statutory law allows non-citizens to register and thereby encourages voter fraud,” Cruz wrote on his Facebook page. “I will file a commonsense amendment to the immigration bill that permits states to require I.D. before registering voters.”

The Hill: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has endorsed the Ready for Hillary super-PAC, becoming the first lawmaker to back an effort aimed to push Hillary Clinton to run for president in 2016.

AL.com: According to a June 13 memo, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has ordered the Under Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps to conduct an inspection of all Navy workplaces to “ensure they are free from materials that create a degrading, hostile, or offensive work environment.” . . . Morality in Media, a faith-based group dedicated to raising awareness on the harmful impacts of pornography, named the Department of Defense to its “Dirty Dozen” list, for what it says is the military’s “serious pornography problem.”

Washington Post: The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver’s-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.

Rasmussen: Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe that groups like the Tea Party and Planned Parenthood should disclose all their donors.

Orrin Hatch at WSJ: The Internal Revenue Service has never been an agency much loved by the American people. With the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, its already bad reputation has now sunk to a new low. But the scandal raises a critical question: If the IRS can’t manage an increase of 1,700 applications for tax-exempt status that the agency said spurred its targeting of conservative groups, how will the IRS handle its massive new role in implementing ObamaCare?

Blog of the Legal Times: The court’s conclusion is in line with a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in May, which also struck down the rule. However, the Fourth Circuit went further, holding that the NLRB’s rulemaking powers are fundamentally limited.

The Hill: The House on Friday passed a new defense bill that that seeks to reverse an increase in sexual assaults in the military. The sweeping $638 billion bill strips commanders’ ability to overturn guilty verdicts in sexual assault cases, and establishes a minimum sentence of dismissal for sexual assault offenders. It would also expand legal counsel to victims of sexual abuse, and remove service members who have inappropriate relationships with the people they train.

The Hill: rizona’s state legislature approved ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion in two closely watched votes on Thursday, handing a victory to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer and a defeat to conservative lawmakers.

Peter J. Smyczek and Kenneth Artz at Public Discourse: If our military is to lower its rate of sex crimes, it must limit its members’ consumption of pornography and educate them about its risks.

Missouri Family Policy Council: Earlier this week we shared with you the new that the Federal Communications Commisson is considering relaxing indecency standards for broadcast television. These proposed changes would allow “isolated” episodes of nudity and obscene language to be included in network television programming, so long as they are not repetitive.

AP: The Arizona Senate has passed an $8.8 billion state budget Thursday that includes the Medicaid expansion sought by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as she embraces a signature part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law over the opposition of most GOP legislators.

Politico: Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.

Missouri Family Policy Council: The FCC is considering a change in broadcast indecency policies that would permit “isolated” expletives and “isolated” nudity to be aired on network television broadcasts.

Townhall carries the YouTube video.

Rasmussen: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 16% of Likely U.S. Voters believe most members of Congress care what their constituents think. Sixty-four percent (64%) feel they don’t care what their voters think

Boston Globe: The Rhode Island Senate has voted to require individuals arrested for a violent crime to submit a DNA sample.

The Hill: The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday said senators were informed of the administration’s sweeping surveillance practices, which they said have been going on since 2007.

AP: As candidates start lining up to run for the U.S. Senate seat that opened when Frank Lautenberg died Monday, Gov. Chris Christie appeared poised Thursday to name someone to fill the office temporarily.

NCPA Policy Digest: The central provisions of the Affordable Care Act require younger and healthier Americans to buy insurance policies that will, in essence, subsidize the health care of older and sicker Americans. But one of ObamaCare’s hidden taxes (a new limit on contributions to flexible spending accounts, or FSAs) will hit older and chronically ill individuals hardest, says Tom Miller, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The Guardian: The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

Baptist Press: We’re beginning a new sermon series that is scaring me to death,” pastor Jay Dennis said on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008, from the pulpit of First Baptist Church at the Mall.

National Monitor: Glassware that violates the policy won’t be able to appear on Glass, according to a company spokesperson.

National Journal: The New Jersey governor’s decision to hold the Senate race in October 2013 means it will be difficult for the GOP to contest the seat.

NRO: “This is what really rankles conservatives,” Armey said on CNN this afternoon. “I put it down as debilitating stupidity because the first rule of politics is ‘don’t lose the friends you already have for the friends you’re never going to get.’”

Salon: And now, with eight states handing down felony charges for prostitution — where non-violent, mostly female prostitution offenders are serving in state prison – a battle to lessen criminal penalties has been joined by an unlikely ally. Conservative lawmakers, looking at price tags, are also receptive to changing the way we see – and treat– people working in prostitution.

Fox News: He set the primary for Aug. 13 and the general election for Oct. 16.

CNSNews: The Social Security program faces $9.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 trillion, according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees.

The State: South Carolina this week could become the first state in the country to restrict the enactment of Obamacare since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that law last year. A proposed bill, on special order in the state Senate, would allow the state attorney general to take businesses, including health insurers, to court if he “has reasonable cause to believe” they are harming people by implementing the law. The bill already has passed the House.

Washington Post: Hours before the House Appropriations Committee held a hearing on political targeting at the Internal Revenue Service, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had a simple solution to the agency’s problems — get rid of it altogether.

AP: In the latest blow to the Obama administration’s claim to be the “openness administration,” word emerged today that the Department of Labor sought to charge a news organization more than $1 million for information.

The press release by Sen. Cruz is here.

CNSNews: In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.

CNBC: Nearly two-thirds of Americans who currently lack health insurance don’t know yet if they will purchase that coverage by the Jan. 1 deadline set by the ACA, a new survey revealed Monday.

 FRC Washington Update: The Brookings Institution’s Stuart Taylor turned up the heat on Sebelius this week by exposing where some of the so-called “Prevention and Public Health Fund” is going. According toTaylor, Health and Human Services is dipping into this $12.5 billion pool for everything from massage therapists to politically-motivated groups.

AP: The Internal Revenue Service, already under fire after officials disclosed that the agency targeted conservative groups, faces increased scrutiny because of an inspector general’s report that it spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.

CNSNews: A pre-existing condition health insurance program established by Obamacare is already straining its own budget and, to control costs, the administration’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has stopped enrolling any new people in the program, according to an audit by the General Accountability Office (GAO).

Rasmussen Reports: Perhaps the biggest news came last week when The Wall Street Journal reported that the mandates for comprehensive coverage apply to just 30 million out of 160 million Americans with private insurance: “A close reading of the rules makes it clear that those mandates affect only plans sponsored by insurers that are sold to small businesses and individuals, federal officials confirm.”

John W. Whitehead at the Rutherford Institute: We have indeed reached a crossroads. History may show that from this point forward, we will have left behind any semblance of constitutional government and entered into a militaristic state where all citizens are suspects and security trumps freedom. Certainly, this is a time when government officials operate off their own inscrutable, self-serving playbook with little in the way of checks and balances, while American citizens are subjected to all manner of indignities and violations with little hope of defending themselves. We have moved beyond the era of representative government and entered a new age, let’s call it the age of authoritarianism.

Forbes: One of the most serious flaws with Obamacare is that its blizzard of regulations and mandates drives up the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. This problem will be especially acute when the law’s main provisions kick in on January 1, 2014, leading many to worry about health insurance “rate shock.”

The Hill: Health insurance premiums could rise by as much as 40 percent as a result of President Obama’s healthcare law, according to a new study.

Walter Williams at Human Events: The bottom line is that members of Congress need such a ruthless tax collection agency as the IRS because of the charge we Americans have given them. We want what the IRS does — namely, to take the earnings of one American so Congress can create a benefit for some other American. Don’t get angry with IRS agents. They are just following orders.

How Appealing link to a report and the ruling.

The Hill: The rules allow employer health plans to offer rewards to workers who meet certain fitness goals — some as broad as joining a gym, others pegged to specific outcomes, such as losing weight or quitting smoking.

The Hill: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) — the conservative firebrand and Tea Party favorite who was briefly a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination — announced Wednesday that she would not seek reelection to Congress in 2014.

Ars Technica: A federal judge who had previously declined to force a Wisconsin suspect to decrypt several hard drives believed to contain child pornography has now changed his mind. After considering new evidence, the judge wrote in an order last week (PDF) that the Milwaukee-area man now must either enter the passwords for the drives without being observed by law enforcement or government counsel or must provide an unencrypted copy of the data.

Samuel Gregg at Public Discourse: Natural law does not demand capitalism, but we can deduce from natural law that some institutions that are key to market economies are normally just, while practices key to socialist arrangements are usually unjust.

World Net Daily: The Internal Revenue Service, charged with implementing the biggest change in tax laws in 20 years due to Obamacare, has created eight offices and special “teams” to handle the chore, way more than initially revealed.

CNSNews: The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender smokers,” the NIH grant description said.

AP: But some unions leaders have grown frustrated and angry about what they say are unexpected consequences of the new law – problems that they say could jeopardize the health benefits offered to millions of their members.

AP: Choosing future Navy and Marine leaders as his audience, President Barack Obama issued a pointed call Friday for an end to sexual assaults in the military, appealing to graduating midshipmen to display honor and moral courage to contain what has become a growing epidemic.

Las Vegas Sun: David Cooper sued Clark County in U.S. District Court in 2010 after he was denied a license to run a “high-end” swingers club, dubbed Sextasy, at the Commercial Center shopping mall on Sahara Avenue near Maryland Parkway. | Cooper v. Clark County Nevada, No. 11-16900 (9th Cir. May 21, 2013)

The Hill: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged college graduates Wednesday to remember the insurance benefits available to them through ObamaCare.

The Hill: “I am not interested in debating what is not debatable,” Moniz said in his remarks at the Tuesday ceremony. “There is plenty to debate as we try and move forward on our climate agenda.”

NCPA Policy Digest: Two provisions in particular will require thousands of new IRS agents, and billions in funding, to enforce: the law’s individual mandate, forcing most Americans to buy government-approved health insurance; and its employer mandate, forcing most employers to take money out of workers’ paychecks to purchase costly health insurance on their behalf.

The Hill: Republican Sen. John Thune (S.D.) is demanding that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) refrain from implementing ObamaCare while investigators probe the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

NY Times: The Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to defend its net neutrality rules against a court challenge got major support on Monday from the Supreme Court, which ruled in a separate case that regulatory agencies should usually be granted deference in interpreting their own jurisdictions.

AP: Members of the Cincinnati tea party will gather at noon Tuesday at the city’s Fountain Square, then march to the nearby federal building to continue the rally.

The Hill: “He thought the opposition to it would lessen after the [2010] election. I said, ‘It’s just the beginning.’ I said, ‘It’s going to grow because I can tell you it’s not going to go away and it’s going to get worse,’” Snowe said in a radio interview moderated by Julie Mason, host of SiriusXM’s Press Pool.

Washington Times: But by Monday, Mr. Jackson, the first black candidate Republicans have chosen to run statewide since 1988, was being slammed by critics for statements he’s made in the past likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and that gays and lesbians are “very sick people psychologically, mentally, and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality.”

The Hill: White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough and other senior officials knew of the general nature of the report but decided to keep the president in the dark about the report’s finding that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny.

World Net Daily: The faux stone columns from his Denver acceptance speech are crumbling, the fireworks have fizzled and the unadulterated adulation of Barack Obama is a sour feeling of disillusion, as a new poll reveals half of Americans wants him impeached, including a stunning one in four Democrats.

Wall Street Journal: What to make of the political scandals that are dominating the headlines and forcing the Obama administration into Nixonian damage control? Technology is finally doing to big government what it has done to big business, big media and other institutions that once could operate with nearly full control over information. The government is losing the ability to manipulate information to avoid accountability.

Robert P. George at Public Discourse: Is the fundamental and essential point of forming the polity the polity itself, or is the polity primarily a means of protecting and achieving many other valuable ends?

Weekly Standard: “[I]f this fact came out in September 2012, in the middle of a presidential election? The terrain would have looked very different.”

Washington Examiner: Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.

Catholic Culture: The Diocese of Kansas City, Missouri, has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from child-pornography charges against a priest of the diocese.

Michael W. Hannon at Public Discourse: Our arguments for limited government should recognize political community as an intrinsic good, not mistake it for a merely instrumental one.