Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., argue over a bill aimed at giving billions of dollars for 9/11 rescue workers:

This weekend, Members of Congress will leave Capitol Hill and go back to their districts as August’s district work period begins. This six week break from legislative duties in D.C. will provide representatives the opportunity to get out of the “Washington bubble” and experience life alongside their constituents.

I expect Members will see the effects of our faltering economy on small businesses. They also may witness families in a pinch due to high unemployment numbers. Auto dealership inventory may be sitting stagnant and home “for sale” signs may not have budged in months.

As families have balanced their budgets and kept a close eye on their own spending, Congress has put spending on the fast-track, racking up our country’s debt level to a whopping $13.2 trillion. Democrats have pushed through more and more bailouts, new bureaucratic regulations, and monstrous policies in this legislative session. During district work period, all voting is put on hold. Now is our time to listen.

This week I posed a question to my Facebook followers: “What topics do you think Members of Congress need to hear about?” I received a myriad of responses, but the underlying principles were the same – fiscal responsibility, limited government, and a strict adherence to the Constitution.

Americans weren’t afraid to answer with specific policy items including everything from more border security, repealing Obamacare, to an audit of the Federal Reserve. Americans clearly have a lot on their minds this summer.

Members of Congress, now is your time to utilize this break to visit with small business owners, farmers and stay-at-home moms. Learn from your constituents and take a moment to find out what they have on their minds. You might be surprised to learn it doesn’t line up with this Congress’ reckless agenda.

It seems as though illegal immigration advocates will never be satisfied. After Judge Susan Bolton blocked the most controversial parts of SB 1070, essentially taking out all real power from the bill, a group known as "Freedom for Arizona," spread out over 15 tires covered in tar, a banner, brown paint and shards of broken glass across I-19 in Arizona, a busy interstate with a 65 mph speed limit that covers approximatly 70 miles between Tucson and Nogales. This action not only stopped all traffic flow, but could have killed innocent people in the process.


The goal of the tires, glass and paint was to stop all deportations back to Mexico as well as stopping all capital flow to damage the economy. The banner placed across the interstate read, "Stop All Militarization! The Border is Illegal!"

The group took full responsibility for the closure on their blog, Resistance to SB1070: No Borders, No State No Papers:

Partial justice is no justice at all! Despite Judge ruling to block parts of SB 1070, racial-profiling, raids, deportations and the militarization of the border will continue unchallenged. This is why today we shut down Interstate 19 (I-19).

The group issued a statement on their blog the day before shutting down the freeway exposing their plan and claimed that land in Arizona is indiginous. 

The State of Arizona ruthlessly disrupts and terrorizes the lives of non-white communities on a daily basis. SB 1070 is yet another example of how migrants and people of color are criminalized. Today’s action is a declaration of resistance to the criminalization of affected communities and the militarization of indigenous land.

Neither SB 1070 nor the deployment of National Guard troops to the border do anything to address the root causes as to why people migrate. U.S. economic policies and wars have displaced and impoverished millions of people all over the world. Capital-driven policies, such as NAFTA, create poverty. These policies and laws not only consume and exploit land and people, but they also displace us from our homes, forcing us to migrate in order to survive. If policymakers were serious about stopping “illegal immigration,” they would end these capitalist exploitations and stop their military invasions abroad.

We want an end to the militarization of indigenous land, I.C.E. raids, deportations, the attacks on ethnic studies, violence against women and queer people, the expansion of prisons and immigration detention centers, empire, the border wall and the genocide at the Arizona-Sonora border that has claimed the lives of over 153 people during the first 8 months of this fiscal year alone.

Today we interrupt the flow of Arizona’s traffic to bring attention to the following points:

ABOLISH ALL OF SB 1070 AND OTHER ANTI-MIGRANT LAWS.

STOP ALL MILITARIZATION. NO NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ON INDIGENOUS LAND.

BORDERS AND THE ARIZONA GOVERNMENT ARE ILLEGITIMATE.

NO HUMAN BEING IS ILLEGAL—THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS TO BLAME.

WE WANT RESPECT AND JUSTICE FOR ALL PEOPLE.

We affirm our dignity and promote the well-being of all people. We stand for solidarity, peace, self-determination and autonomy. We assert the rights of all people everywhere to feel safe and live free of oppression and state violence.

On top of that, according to the Arizona Daily Star, 13 people were arrested in downtown Tucson for blocking local streets. In Phoenix the Arizona Republic has reported at least 50 people were arrested for civil disobediance which included chaining themselves to one of the jails where Sheriff Joe Arpaio operates. 

But don't worry, the main stream media and people with their head in the sand are calling the protests "mostly peaceful." Open border groups and immigration protestors are showing their true colors and proving this had nothing to do with SB 1070 and everything to do with these groups not wanting any enforcement of immigration policy whatsoever.

I was intrigued by this headline from the Associated Press this morning:

GOP Gets Wish: Rangel Case in Campaign Season

As you may or may not have heard, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., is now facing 13 separate ethics violations charges from a bipartisan panel.  However, the AP views this very serious situation purely through partisan lenses:

Republicans wanted an election-season ethics case against Democratic powerhouse Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. And now, it looks like they have one.

If Rangel is indeed found guilty on these charges, isn't this a victory for both Republicans and the Democrats' "most ethical" Congress? 

If nothing else, I'd certainly call weeding out bad apples like Charlie Rangel from the bunch a victory for the American people.  But for whatever reason, this idea is lost on the AP who seem to only feel bad that Rangel wasn't able to weasel his way out of this situation.  Nice.

I'm seriously beginning to wonder who in the world is in charge of screening White House guests and those who get close to the president? 

Party crashers are one thing, but in the latest example of incredibly lax security, President Obama used Leslie Macko to exemplify America's unemployed struggling to find work.  Macko joined two other unemployed people and Obama behind the White House podium for remarks designed to encourage lawmakers to extend jobless benefits.

Turns out Ms. Macko may have been unemployed and struggling to find work for a reason other than a lousy economy; she was dismissed from her job as an aesthetician about one month after being charged with prescription drug fraud. 

In addition, a little digging from the local news media has found that Macko has had more than one run-in with the law. In June of 2007, she was charged with grand larceny. The charge was reduced in court to petit larceny, and she was sentenced to two years probation. 

Drug fraud and larceny?  Sounds JUST LIKE the type of employee I'd be looking for! 

And because she can't find someone dumb enough to hire her, Barack Obama demands that the taxpayers support her...

We need to extend unemployment compensation benefits for women like Leslie Macko, who lost her job at a fitness center last year, and has been looking for work ever since. Because she’s eligible for only a few more weeks of unemployment, she’s doing what she never thought she’d have to do. Not at this point, anyway. She’s turning to her father for financial support.

The White House is responding with their usual line of ignorance:

In his daily press briefing Thursday afternoon, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House would have never invited Leslie Macko to pose with President Obama had they known about her criminal past.

Does a basic White House background check no longer show felonies or was Macko never even vetted before standing side-by-side with the president of the United States?

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) poses a devastating threat that is not science fiction but a real danger to our security that exists in the here and now.

In the August issue of Townhall Magazine, Peter Brookes examines the EMP threat, how it works and what we can do to prepare. Below is an excerpt from his piece, "Electromagnetic Pulse Threat."


Just imagine that one bright, sunny day everything electrical just stopped working. The lights go out in your home or office. There is no cell phone or Internet service and, tragedy of tragedies, the coffee maker won’t work.

All the modern electrical conveniences we take for granted on a day-to-day basis in the 21st century go kaput -- without an obvious explanation. And as a result, modern life as we know it comes to a virtual standstill.

Sure, it could be a power outage. That happens when the weather is bad, which it’s not on this particular day. The power company could be working on the lines, but they aren’t. And even if they were, that might not account for your cell phone outage or the fact your car -- and the others on the road -- all died at once.

You were not aware of it, but American military, intelligence and homeland security forces had been tracking a foreign merchant vessel, operating off the East Coast of the United States. In fact, just before everything went dark, the ship opened the large cargo doors on its deck and launched a ballistic missile into the sky in the direction of the American shoreline.

Aware of the launch from high-tech, spy-in-the-sky satellites, but unable to take out the missile due the lack of a comprehensive missile defense system, the U.S. military attempts to conduct a counter-strike on the freighter before it launches another missile.

That is until the missile’s warhead explodes high in the atmosphere over the central United States, releasing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) -- and destroying unprotected electrical and computer capacity within its effective radius.

As a result, the country’s three main -- and interconnected -- electrical grids are rendered useless due to the EMP, possibly leaving the entire country without service within seconds, according to experts.

Moreover, in the blink of an eye, U.S. military forces within line-of-sight of the EMP -- up until this moment the world’s most potent, computerized, and capable force -- is now practically out of business.

And that’s not all.


With electrical circuits fried, hospital equipment stops; nuclear power plants are in jeopardy; and there are no emergency services to respond to your calls for help. In fact, you can’t even call for help -- 911 is gone.

It gets worse.

Depending on the size and number of EMP bursts over America, this is only the beginning of our woes. With the destruction of America’s electrical and computer systems, there will be severe water, food and medicine shortages, some experts believe.

One estimate suggests a major EMP attack would push American society back 100 years technologically and could lead to the death of a large portion of the population in a relatively short period due to an evolving inability to deal with such things as the spread of illness, among other problems. Indeed, a U.S. government-sponsored study by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack (a.k.a. the EMP Commission) concluded that within just one year of such an attack 70 to 90 percent of Americans could be dead from starvation or disease.

While this sounds like something out of “The Twilight Zone,” it’s not. The possibility is real -- and the threat of EMP is here and now.

Read the entire piece in the August issue of Townhall magazine.

An internal memo addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Aljandro Mayorkas seems to reveal how the Obama administration is considering using a "back door" method to stop the deportation of many illegal immigrants through a "non-legislative version of amnesty." 

The Washington Times reports:

"In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations, exercising discretion with regard to parole-in-place, deferred action and the issuance of Notices to Appear," the staffers wrote in the memo, which was obtained by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

The memo suggests that in-depth discussions have occurred on how to keep many illegal immigrants in the country, which would be at least a temporary alternative to the proposals Democrats in Congress have made to legalize illegal immigrants.

In a predictable response, the USCIS says that drafting the memo doesn't necessarily mean the agency has embraced the policy, saying, "nobody should mistake deliberation and exchange of ideas for final decisions." 

Fair enough, but why would back door amnesty even be discussed if they weren't seriously considering it?  I'd hope we don't just employ federal bureaucrats to sit around and draft memos on every idea... oh, wait:

"As a matter of good government, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will discuss just about every issue that comes within the purview of the immigration system," he said in an e-mail statement. "We continue to maintain that comprehensive bipartisan legislation, coupled with smart, effective enforcement, is the only solution to our nation's immigration challenges."

He said the Homeland Security Department "will not grant deferred action or humanitarian parole to the nation's entire illegal immigrant population."

The memo does talk about targeting specific groups of illegal immigrants.

And thank God we're not the only ones who see a big problem with this power grab:

Mr. Grassley said it confirms his fears that the administration is trying an end-run around Congress.

"This memo gives credence to our concerns that the administration will go to great lengths to circumvent Congress and unilaterally execute a backdoor amnesty plan," Mr. Grassley said.

It is no secret Nancy Pelosi and most democrats support card check, which would remove the right to cast a private vote from union members. Pelosi is masking this initiative by calling it "The Employer Free Choice Act," but really, card check leaves no choice at all. Keep your eye on the lame duck session.