I spent all day in bed on Wednesday which gave me plenty of time to ponder what went wrong.  It also gave me plenty of time to peruse The Twitter and observe all the Republican-on-conservative-on-Republican violence.  Don’t even get me started on Facebook.  I’ve never seen such finger-pointing—Romney was too conservative, Romney was too moderate, the social conservatives are too stubborn, evangelicals hate Mormons, Republicans have to accept amnesty, and KARL ROVE!

Ok, I kinda blame Karl Rove too so I’ll let that one slide.

By Thursday my husband, tired of my severe electoral-induced depression, forbade me to watch the news and read The Twitter and insisted that I get up, get dressed and GO SHOPPING!

*gleefully rubbing hands together*  I love it when a plan comes together—Muhwahahaha!

Actually, instead of shopping I downloaded Joel Rosenberg’s book, Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?  Let me tell you what, that’s a feel-good read right there.  I don’t think that’s what The Hubs had in mind for renewing my fortitude. But in all seriousness, it’s an excellent book so far and I would recommend it.  *Note: This is not a paid endorsement.  Although, Joel, if you read this, I accept donations.  You can just hit my tip jar up there in the right-hand corner. Thanks.

Anyway, as a result of my despondent ruminations I have some ideas about where this train left the rails.  I plan to discuss these ideas in future posts-many, MANY future posts.

But I’ll give you a hint of where I’m headed: I don’t blame Mitt.

P.S. I picked up a lot of new Twitter followers during and after the election.  If you’re one of those visiting for the first time, welcome! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back.

However, the disdainful tone was first set by the moderator, Martha Raddatz of ABC News. As Ms. Raddatz welcomed the two candidates to the stage and they exchanged greetings, Congressman Ryan gave a small wave, presumably to his kids who were in the audience.  As he was sitting down, Martha said to the Congressman in a mocking tone, “OK, you got your little wave to the families in. It’s great.”

Watch:

On a completely unrelated note, White House records have shown that Martha Raddatz visited Vice President Joe Biden at his official residence on March 26, 2012.  The Daily Caller has also revealed that Raddatz had attended President Barack Obama’s wedding in 1991 with her now ex-husband, Obama administration official Julius Genachowski.

I love a good snark as much as the next person, but there is a time and place for snarkiness.  While “impartially” moderating a nationally televised Vice Presidential debate is probably not one of them.

• “Folks, I can tell you I’ve known eight presidents, three of them intimately.”

–speaking at a Detroit high school on August 22, 2012

•  ”A three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.”

–at a campaign stop in Ohio on October 16, 2008

•  ”I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you.”

–citing Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick”

•  “My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, I could be, I could be Vice President!”

       –campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio, May 16, 2012

•  ’Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart.”

      –mistakenly referring to Justice John Paul Stevens, who swore him in as vice

      president, Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009

•  ”Look at what they [Republicans] value, and look at their budget. And look what they’re proposing. [Romney] said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules — unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

–speaking to a largely African-American audience in Danville, Va., Aug. 14, 2012

•  ”This is a big f**king deal!”

       –caught on an open mic congratulating President Barack Obama during the health

          care signing ceremony, Washington, D.C., March 23, 2010

•  I guess what I’m trying to say without boring you too long at breakfast–and you all look dull as hell, I might add. The dullest audience I have ever spoken to. Just sitting there, staring at me. Pretend you like me!”

–speaking to a group of Turkish-American and Azerbaijani-American donors, April

        27, 2012

•  If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30% chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

      –speaking to members of the House Democratic caucus who were gathered in

         Williamsburg, Va., for their annual retreat, Feb. 6, 2009

•  “‘When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.”

      — apparently unaware that FDR wasn’t president when the stock market crashed in

          1929 and that only experimental TV sets were in use at that time, interview with

          Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008

•  ”A man I’m proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!”

–at his first campaign rally with Barack Obama after being announced as his

          running mate, Springfield, Ill., Aug. 23, 2008

•  ‘His mom lived in Long Island for ten years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she’s- wait- your mom’s still- your mom’s still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul.’

–on the mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is very much alive,

         Washington, D.C., March 17, 2010

•  “By the way, those dependent people he refers to, those 47 percent, they include the 650,000 troops still left in Afghanistan…”

      –dramatically misstating the number of troops in Afghanistan which was actually

         68,000.

•  ”The middle class has been buried the last four years.”

        –at a campaign stop in Charlotte, NC on October 2, 2012.

 And a drumroll please for my number one favorite Joe Bidenism…which can only be done justice with a video clip:

• “Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see ya.”

        –to wheelchair-bound state Senator Chuck Graham

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2mzbuRgnI4

My family and I went to Chick-Fil-A on August 1.  We did not go because we hate gay people or because we are anti-gay marriage.  We did not go to support “family values” or the traditional definition of marriage.  The reason we went was simply this:

We HATE bullies! And boycotts are stupid.

Chick-Fil-A’s CEO, Dan Cathy, has every right to voice his own personal  religious views.  I do not have to agree with the personal views of all employees of a business in order to buy their product. Mr. Cathy has every right to use the profits from the business HIS FAMILY BUILT (yes, Dear Leader, they DID build that!) any way he sees fit and if he chooses to give money to organizations that support his personal religious views then so be it.

In fact, should the Christian community decide to boycott Starbucks because of their political views and donations to pro-gay marriage organizations you’ll likely find my family in line for a mocha latte.  With whipped cream, yes, please.

And to all the Christians out there crowing about what a victory this was for traditional “family values” and marriage, please SHUT. IT.  You are making the rest of us look bad.  Some of us believe we won’t convince the world of God’s love by clubbing them on the head with our Bibles while calling them perverts. How ’bout we try loving our neighbors instead, m’kay?

• The AR-15-style rifle is an assault weapon.

In fact, the term “assault weapon” is typically used to describe fully-automatic weapons (firing multiple bullets with each trigger pull) which are used by the military and law enforcement. The AR-15 is semi-automatic (firing one bullet with each pull of the trigger) as are a lot of guns designed for civilian use.  However, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., outrageously referred to the AR-15 as a “weapon of war” and went on to express concern on Fox News Sunday about Colorado gunman James Holmes’ use of large magazines and assault weapons. “These are weapons that you’re only going to be using to kill people in close combat.”

The so-called Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) that Clinton signed into legislation in 1994  didn’t actually ban true assault weapons. Instead the legislation banned semi-automatic weapons that were considered “military-style.” Fully automatic weapons or true assault weapons have been regulated in the US since the 1930s.

• The AR-15 rifle has features that make it more deadly than a regular rifle.

The AWB identified certain features which were used to generically classify these “military style” weapons in broad terms. These features, such as plastic pistol grips, barrel shrouds, and bayonet lugs have absolutely nothing to do with the firearms potential lethality in the real world and are merely cosmetic features.  Police are not commenting on what types of features the Colorado shooter’s rifle may have had but it is improbable that any of these features contributed significantly to the lethality of the weapon.

• No one needs an AR-15-style rifle.

The semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle is useful for hunting small nuisance animals like coyotes, foxes and prairie dogs. In fact, it uses a smaller caliber bullet than a typical deer hunting rifle. It is also quite popular with gun enthusiasts involved in shooting competitions.

• The AR-15 fires bullets that can go through two people at once.

Business Insider’s Brett LoGiurato breathlessly points out this statement made to CNN by Steven Howard, a former Border Patrol agent.  However, this fact is not unique to the AR-15 and could be said of most guns depending on shot placement and bullet caliber.

And LoGiurato fails to mention that according to Steven Howard a shotgun would do more damage among a tightly packed theater audience because its ammunition comes out of the weapon in a reverse funnel shape and would disperse across a wider area.  In a theater scenario, he said, “so many people’s heads are lined up next to each other that if you fire down these rows of people … one blast is going to kill or seriously injure 10 or 15 people, depending on a number of variables.” It is worth noting that the shooter may have been aware of this since police are reporting based on witness accounts that he began his rampage with the shotgun rather than the AR-15.

While the events in Colorado were beyond tragic, do not be deceived by the media into believing that if the shooter had been unable to legally obtain an AR-15 rifle the shooting would not have occurred or would have killed far fewer people. The Colorado shooter possessed and used other guns and was, after all, skilled at bomb-making.  A madman hell-bent on a killing spree will find a way to kill.

We know very little of James Holmes’ background or family life.  His only brush with the law appears to be a single traffic violation. He doesn’t seem to have had any close friends and his family has been understandably silent.

Perhaps his family was unaware of his sliding into darkness. Perhaps they simply gave up and callously washed their hands of him. Or perhaps they caught glimpses of a depraved mind but could not reconcile that reality with the memories of the baby they rocked to sleep or the small boy they read bed time stories to and so they simply dismissed it.  After all, they might have reassured themselves, he’s a good student and he’s never been in trouble.

But perhaps those closest to him were all too aware that something wasn’t right with James Holmes.  Maybe they watched helplessly as he slipped into a world they couldn’t comprehend.  Did they beg him to get professional help only to be rebuffed by the young man who was convinced in his own mind that he was okay?  Did they beg authorities to intervene only to be told that he hadn’t committed any crime yet?  Did they plead with psychiatrists for help only to be told that HIPAA privacy laws prevented them from discussing his mental status, a frustrating situation all too familiar to his mother, a nurse?  Did they beg James to give them medical power of attorney so they could get him treatment only to be refused by the adult young man who foolishly believed he was in control of his own mind? Did they beg attorneys to help them have James declared mentally incompetent to care for himself only to be told that he didn’t meet the legal definition of ‘incompetent’? Were the Holmes’ family’s efforts to stop James’ decline into madness thwarted at every turn by a broken mental health system?

We may never know the answer to any of these questions.  And like the rest of the world, I don’t sympathize with James Holmes on any level.  And like the rest of the world, I grieve for the lives of his victims needlessly taken way too soon.  But I also grieve for James’ family whose lives too have been permanently altered by the crazed acts of a madman—a madman they call ‘son’ and ‘brother’.

There are at least three reasons I am encouraged by the Court’s ruling:

1.  The Court rejected the Obama administration’s claim that the individual mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause (and the “Good and Plenty Clause”, I guess,  if you’re Representative John Conyers (D-Mich)). One of the main arguments against using the Commerce Clause was that it opened the door for Congress to intrude on every aspect of individual’s lives.  The Court put a nail in that with this ruling.  That’s good precedent for liberty.

2.  The Court concluded that the mandate is actually a tax which the Obama administration has long argued is not the case.  Politically, this is good for the Romney campaign and will reinvigorate the Tea Party and conservatives.  Obama is now responsible for the largest tax increase on the middle class in history.

3.  Since the mandate is legally considered a tax, noncompliance by individuals will result in aggressive collection procedures by the IRS.  If any group is less popular than Congress it’s the IRS.  This bodes well for the movement to repeal the Health Care Act.

Also, since bills concerning the raising of revenues (taxes) are supposed to originate in the House of Representatives and the Health Care Act was first passed by the Senate, I wonder if we will now see cases being brought that the Act is unconstitutional on those grounds?  That would be interesting.

In the meantime, the Court has provided Republicans with a very useful campaign tool.

A lot has happened in the past month since hundreds of conservative bloggers took to the internet to expose the shenanigans of convicted Indiana Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin.  The online harrassment of conservatives on Twitter and the blogosphere by people sympathetic to Kimberlin reached a fevered pitch.  The frivolous legal maneuvers by Kimberlin against blogger Aaron Walker got completely out of hand.  As a result of a fraudulent peace order filed by Kimberlin and a retired judge who didn’t understand all this internet gobbledygook and who had a blatant disregard for the Brandenburg case, Walker wound up in jail and with his First Amendment right to free speech squelched.

One of the most dangerous developments was the use of a tactic known as SWAT-ting in which a caller typically places a 911 call using a spoofed phone number with the goal of tricking emergency authorities into responding to an address with a SWAT team to an emergency that doesn’t exist. Shortly after the blogburst on May 25th, RedState blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson and his family were the victims of this hoax.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the first time this kind of crime had been used against conservatives.  Patrick Frey, the blogger known as Patterico, was a victim as was Twitterer Mike Stack who first exposed the infamous lewd pictures posted by Rep.  Anthony Weiner (D) which ultimately led to the Congressman’s resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives.

On the same day that Aaron Walker won a free speech victory in court against Kimberlin, he too was a victim of SWAT-ting.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Last night the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity held a webinar regarding the fight for the First Amendment.  Aaron Walker was a panelist as well as Mandy Nagy aka Liberty Chick who writes for Breitbart.com and who has herself been a victim of vile abuse by anonymous leftists online.  Another panelist, Lee Stranahan, pointed out that the danger here is that these abuses will give some politicians an excuse to try to establish a “no anonymous users on the internet law”.  We don’t need more regulation of speech.  As blogger Ken at Popehat stated, “More speech is a better remedy.”

And so, conservative bloggers will continue take up the call and speak the truth in spite of vile intimidation, abuse of the legal system and stupid judges.

Today the Supreme Court issued its opinion on the AZ immigration law known as S.B. 1070.  Depending on which news source you rely on, the opinion was either a triumph for the Obama Administration or vindication for Arizona.

There were four sections of S.B. 1070 that were being challenged by the Federal Government:

1. Section 3 makes failure to comply with federal alien-registration requirements a state misdemeanor;
2. §5(C)makes it a misdemeanor for an unauthorized alien to seek or engage in work in the State;
3. §6 authorizes state and local officers to arrest without a warrant a person “the officer has probable cause to believe . . . has committed any public offense that makes the person remova­ble from the United States”; and
4. §2(B) requires officers conducting a stop, detention, or arrest to make efforts, in some circumstances, to verify the person’s immigration status with the Federal Government.

The Court struck down Sections 3, 5(C) and 6, ruling that these sections are pre-empted by federal law.  However, the Court upheld the controversial Section 2(B), at least temporarily, holding that the state courts should have an opportunity to construe it and there should be some showing that §2(B)’s en­forcement in fact conflicts with federal immigration law and its objec­tives.

I won’t bother to express my agreement or dissatisfaction with the decision made by far greater legal scholars than I.  I think what we need to take away from this ruling today is that:

1.  AZ still has a tremendous illegal immigration problem;
2. The Federal Government’s immigration policies are still broken;
3. The Federal Government refuses to help Arizona enforce existing immigration laws, as evidenced by President Obama’s Executive Order; and
4. The real losers today are you and me.

The message today is clear:  law-abiding legal immigrants and American citizens, it sucks to be you.

You read that right.  Fuels which do not yet exist.

Congress, in its infinite wisdom, requires the EPA to mandate that US refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel fuel blend an imaginary biofuel with petroleum products or purchase imaginary “waiver credits” which amount to nothing more than a hidden tax which is ultimately passed on to consumers.

Now Congress at least had the foresight to give authority to the EPA to modify the amount of biofuel mandated based on commercial availability.  However, the EPA inexplicably denied a January petition filed by AFPM, WSPA and the American Petroleum Institute for a waiver of the 2011 cellulosic fuel requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standards. This petition was filed after EPA’s own data showed that no cellulosic fuel was commercially available and refiners would be forced to purchase credits representing a fuel that did not exist.

You can’t make this stuff up.