Charles Grassley, the ranking republican on the Senate Finance Committee, called for hearings on the appointment of Dr. Berwick to head the federal medicare system two weeks ago.  Democratic Senator Max Baucus who heads the committee refused Grassley’s request.  (As usual Barack Obama and Robert Gibbs lied to the American public by claiming that the GOP blocked the confirmation process).

Now, Baucus is condemning the recess appointment of Berwick, while the GOP is upset that Berwick avoided embarassing confirmation hearings.  We have a solution for both.  Baucus should call Berwick before his committee to answer post appointment questions.

There is no reason why Baucus couldn’t require Berwick to come before his committee to answer questions.  Congress has routinely asserted it’s oversight role on virtually every topic under the sun.  We hope that GOP leadership will take up the fight, and demand post confirmation oversight hearings before this heath rationing, wealth redistributing socialist implements his death panels.

Read more here:  http://www.conservativeedge.com/Breaking-Baucus-balked-at-hearings-on-Berwick-shou

The title to Ann Coulter’s latest article on Townhall.com is entitled “Bill Kristol should Resign”.  In the article, Ms. Coulter advances the same arguments about Michael Steele and the problems in Afghanistan that I put forth here on Red State on July 2nd. 

For instance, Ms. Coulter agrees that Michael Steele was right.  She also asserts that we won in Afghanistan under Bush and turned our attention to Iraq.  But, the Democrats needed an issue to criticize Iraq so they made Iraq a “war of choice” and Afghanistan a “war of necessity”.

Now, Ms. Coulter argues, Obama is trapped in his own campaign rhetoric, and has no real interest in the outcome of the conflict.  I arggued that we were fighting in Afghanistan to vindicate Obama’s campaign rhetoric.

I took some pretty sharp criticsm for my Red State article.  It’s good to know that one of the foremost conservative commentators in the U.S. shares my views.  She just shares them five days later than I shared them here and about eighteen months after I first out forth the argument.  You can read a full story here:  http://www.conservativeedge.com/Does-Ann-Coulter-read-The-Conservative-Edge-makes-

The Conservative Edge began writing about the causes of what we now know as the Great Recession two years ago.  At the time, the argument fell of deaf ears because conservatives and Republicans were fooling themselves that there was no recession.  They continued deluding themselves until the great financial meltdown in September of 2008.  Then, they went into shell shock and could only respond to Barack Obama’s false assertion that Bush caused the economic meltdown (Bush was actually labled the lamest of lame ducks, who was irrelevant, following the liberal takeover of Congress in 2006) with “I am not George Bush, and I didn’t like his policies anyhow”.

Now, liberals are unwittingly compiling the proof that it was them, and not Bush and certainly not conservative economic principles that caused the Great recession.  Fareed Zacharias writing in the Washington Post about Barack Obama’s “CEO problem” had this to say on Monday:
“But government spending can only be a bridge to private-sector investment. The key to a sustainable recovery and robust economic growth is to get companies investing in America. So why are they reluctant, despite having mounds of cash? I put this question to a series of business leaders, all of whom were expansive on the topic yet did not want to be quoted by name, for fear of offending people in Washington.

Economic uncertainty was the primary cause of their caution. “We’ve just been through a tsunami and that produces caution,” one told me. But in addition to economics, they kept talking about politics, about the uncertainty surrounding regulations and taxes. Some have even begun to speak out publicly. Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, complained Friday that government was not in sync with entrepreneurs. The Business Roundtable, which had supported the Obama administration, has begun to complain about the myriad laws and regulations being cooked up in Washington.

One CEO told me, “Almost every agency we deal with has announced some expansion of its authority, which naturally makes me concerned about what’s in store for us for the future.” Another pointed out that between the health-care bill, financial reform and possibly cap-and-trade, his company had lawyers working day and night to figure out the implications of all these new regulations. Lobbyists have been delighted by all this activity. “[Obama] exaggerates our power, but he increases demand for our services,” superlobbyist Tony Podesta told the New York Times.” 

In my brilliant 2008 column  entitled “It’s Time for Conservatives to play to pin This Recession on the Donkeys“, written on July 3rd, 2008, I outlined how the liberal takeover of Congress, and other liberal policies brought about the shallow recession that eventually became the Great Recession.  Included in that outline were the liberal’s new proposed business regulations and taxes.  Those liberal economic policies along with the mandatory across the board wage increases triggered by higher minimum wage that the liberals pushed into law, caused the economy to fall into recession by late 2007.

From there it was just a liberal “global warming” scare and the liberals much desired $4.00 a gallon gasoline, to the economic hard landing in the spring of 2008 that triggered the “liberal government mandatory lending policy” created financial meltdown.  Since then, the  liberals have only made things worse.

In time, GOP candidates for office may gravitate to The Conservative Edge when it comes to pinning the Great Recesion on the Donkeys.   Until then, the liberals appear to be unwitting accomplises to their own political funeral.

The Obama Administration launched a legal attack against the citizens of Arizona over its recently enacted immigration law that makes illegal immigration illegal.  According to the Obama Admininstration, the law would conceivably create a patchwork of local immigration policy that would be detrimental to the federal framework.  Here is a key portion of a story about the lawsuit from The Hill:

The government’s court complaint claims the law threatens the federal government’s responsibility to create immigration policy, saying that it is an attempt to create “local” immigration standards. 

 “Although states may exercise their police power in a manner that has an incidental or indirect effect on aliens, a state may not establish its own immigration policy or enforce state laws in a manner that interferes with the federal immigration laws,” the complaint reads. “The Constitution and the federal immigration laws do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country.”

If the Obama Administration’s lawsuit is correct, it could directly impact the patchwork of current local immigration policies known as sanctuary cities.  In effect, the Obama Administration is asserting that cities do not have the constitutional authority to establish any immigration policies.  That impact could be far reaching.  Not only do sanctuary cities exist, but some communities have taken additional legal action to provide benefits to illegals, and various states have established policies that favor illegal immigrants for state benefits.

In essence, the Obama Administration has opened a can of worms.  The only issue is whether or not conservatives will take the initative to launch lawsuits across the country, citing Obama’s own language.  And since Obama is asking for an immediate injunction, if one is granted lawsuits could spring up all over the country.  (www.conservativeedge.com)

For the past eighteen months, I have been arguing that we are fighting a second war in Afghanistan to vindicate Barack Obama’s campaign rhetoric.  In case my fellow conservatives have short memories, let me refresh them.

We won the first war in Afghanistan.  We deposed the Taliban and established a democratically elected government.  Then, we left the peace keeping to NATO.  But, Barack Obama and the democrats needed a campaign issue, so they began arguing that we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan when we went into Iraq.  The rhetoric was complete bs, but apparently even some conservatives now believe it.

The Taliban did not attack the U.S., and Al-Queada is not in that country.  Our troops should come home immediately because they are fighting an unwinnable war as defined by Obama, and are dying to vindicate his campaign rhetoric.

Unfortunately, Obama and the GOP leadership are in a pissing contest to see who can pretend to be stronger on national defense.  It’s a contest where the losers have no say in the outcome.

General McChrystal and his staff probably figured this out, Europe certainly has.  We are virtually going it alone over there.  None of our allies, save the British, heeded Obama’s call to send more troops for his “surge”.  One european government was actually toppled because of its support for Obama’s war. Several are bringing their troops home in the very near future.

Conservatives need to get in the game.  If we started demanding that our troops come home, like Michael Steele did today, we could help save their lives.  And, if the Taliban returned to power, and again posed a threat, we could simply return and kick their behinds all over again.  It would cost far less money, and take far less time.

The Conservative Edge (www.conservativeedge.com) has put together reports from Bloomberg News and Rolling Stone magazine, and discovered that the Obama Administration received reports directly from BP about serious issues with the Deep Water Horizon in February and March of 2010.  An incident which occurred on March 10th, 2010 was called a “show stopper” by an Interior Department drilling expert who told Bloomberg News that BP “damn near blew up the rig”.  The Conservative Edge has sent inquires to MMS seeking comment.  You can read CE’s letter by clicking this link- http://www.conservativeedge.com/Hey-press-do-your-da-job-CE-sends-letter-to-MMS-lo.  MMS sent our letter to Ken Salazar’s office, and his press secretary responded with an evasive anwer.  CE has now sent a letter directly to Mr. Salazar demanding to know why he didn’t shut down the Deep Water Horizon in March when BP “damn near blew up the rig”.  Had Salazar done so, Oil Spill Katrina would likely never have occurred.  This is an explosive story, and would be the subject of impeachment hearings had George Bush still been president.  Check out www.conservativeede.comfor all the latest on Oil Spill Katrina, and the Obama Administration’s stonewall.