1. (202) 225-2815

2. NRA Issues Gag Order to Its Board Members on Elena Kagan

3. Stop the Dodd-Frank Financial Overhaul

4. VP Biden to shopkeeper: Stop being a ’smartass’

5. A Little Perspective on the BP Spill

6. Jane Norton’s Own Polling Has Her Losing

1. (202) 225-2815

It is not enough for either us or our Republican congressmen to sit on the sidelines with Obamacare’s mandates ever approaching.It is time to take action.As I explained last week, Rep. Steve King has filed a discharge petition on legislation to repeal Obamacare. If he gets 218 signatures on his petition, Nancy Pelosi is forced to have a vote on the legislation whether she wants to or not.The petition and accompanying legislation are not muddied down with the “repeal and replace” nonsense — just plain and simple repeal. You know, exactly what the American people say they want in poll after poll after poll after poll.In the Republican leadership, Congressman Mike Pence has already signed the petition. House Minority Leader John Boehner will be signing it this week.That means we need to all call Congressman Eric Cantor at (202) 225-2815 and politely ask him to sign it this week too.There is no excuse for the Republican leadership to not sign this petition.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. NRA Issues Gag Order to Its Board Members on Elena Kagan

Internal Senate emails confirmed by NRA Board Members are highlighting just how far the National Rifle Association has fallen.The organization recently collaborated with the left to obtain a carve out of the DISCLOSE Act, legislation designed to silence bloggers and outside interest groups like tea party activists. This was a first amendment issue and the NRA gladly took a position and campaigned for its members to take a position on the DISCLOSE Act.One of the NRA’s chief arguments was that it needed the carve out to be effective in its advocacy of Second Amendment issues. But here’s the problem: these internal Senate emails confirmed by NRA Board Members show that the National Rifle Association’s management team has explicitly and directly told the NRA’s board they are prohibited from testifying about second amendment issues during the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings.That’s right: the foremost gun rights lobby in the nation is prohibiting its board from testifying in the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings about the second amendment.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Stop the Dodd-Frank Financial Overhaul

Early on Friday morning, after a 20-hour long conference, House and Senate negotiators agreed on a consensus version of their Wall Street overhaul. It’s nominally intended to address the problems exposed by the 2008 near collapse, which gave birth to our current bailout culture. But instead of addressing the problems of Fannie and Freddie, this bill does nothing to reform those GSEs. Faced with a political system that decided some companies were ‘too big to fail,’ this bill expands the power of the Treasury to take over failing firms when they believe it’s in the public interest. And even if a firm is not failing, it can be taken over if the Treasury decides it’s ‘at risk’ of failure.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. VP Biden to shopkeeper: Stop being a ’smartass’

Vice President Joe Biden was caught on camera calling a Glendale, Wisconsin custard shop manager a “smartass” after the man asked the White House lower his taxes.Biden visited Kopps Frozen Custard, a popular Milwaukee-area restaurant the vice president mistook for an ice cream parlor, to chat with employees and patrons. Biden’s rebuke, which was captured on film by a local ABS News affiliate, came after he asked the manager what he owed.“Don’t worry, it’s on us,” the store’s manager replied to the vice president. “Lower our taxes and we’ll call it even.”Minutes later Biden is heard chiding the employee, saying: “Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?”Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. A Little Perspective on the BP Spill

The New Orleans Superdome is pretty big. According to an article this week in the Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, LA), the amount of oil spilled from the BP Macondo well so far would fill up one-seventh (1/7th) of the volume of the Superdome.Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Jane Norton’s Own Polling Has Her Losing

Let’s get this straight: SurveyUSA, an independent polling company, has Ken Buck leading by 16 points in Colorado.So Jane Norton hires a pollster for her campaign and finds that . . . well that Jane Norton is losing by 4 points.Now, of course Jane Norton is spinning this as a six point lead. Why? Well, her pollster asks people if they are likely to vote and says she leads with likely voters.However, objectively, likely voters tend to factor in voters who actually are likely to vote, i.e. voters who have voted in past Republican primaries. After all, if the best indicator of future performance is past action, you tend to want to know if someone has voted in a primary before.Among voters who have voted in a Republican primary before, Jane is losing by 4.Please click here for the rest of the post.