Morning Briefing for February 1, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing
For February 1, 2011

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1. Obamacare Meets Its Death Panel

I am not, with this post, going to attempt a detailed exposition on Judge Vinson’s ruling that declared the individual mandate unconstitutional and, due to the lack of a severability clause, struck the whole law as unconstitutional. But I will give you a brief overview and direct you to other good sources.Here are the basics you will need to start your day.. . . .Judge Vinson’s ruling ultimately tells a group of people used to saying ‘yes we can’ that, in fact, ‘no, you can’t.’Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Susan Collins, Queen of Denial

I want to be very clear about the Internet Kill Switch plan. The plan by Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman has now passed the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee claims to be a grand venture for “Cybersecurity,” but the plain fact is the plan as written is unworkable as a security venture, but only works as a tool to let the government control or even destroy the internet.Yes, just like in Egypt.Susan Collins, Queen of Denial, claims her plan is nothing like what’s going on in Egypt because her motives are pure. I believe her motives are pure, but I also believe she simply doesn’t understand the issues at hand.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The Debt Ceiling Spin Begins From the Democrats

As I noted earlier, if we reach the debt ceiling, the United States does not automatically default on its loans. The issue, however, is priority of payment. We will bring in more each month in tax revenue to the U.S. Treasury than we will need to pay out to our lenders.It requires Tim Geithner (why is he still on the job anyway?) to prioritize and pay our debt obligations first. But there is no law requiring him to do so. Senator Pat Toomey is proposing legislation that would require Geithner pay our debt obligations before all other obligations if we hit the debt ceiling.The left, naturally, is crying foul.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Hollywood’s Green Screen, Take 1 Kabillion

We all know what a green screen is. It’s that solid-color screen actors stand in front of while being filmed, in order that a scene may be digitally added behind them later. James Cameron uses them quite a bit in his films. But there’s another “green screen” that’s just as ubiquitous in Hollywood.For example, we’ve discussed here before James Cameron’s environmental hypocrisy; a “green screen” covering his lavish lifestyle. It’s something altogether common in the “movement.”For today’s episode, we’re talking about so-called environmental “superhero” Robert Redford. Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. YouCut Can’t Cut a $100 Billion?

I’m going to be honest. I never liked the Republican Pledge to America. It wasn’t much of a governing document and completely lacked the sort of boldness needed to give a new Republican Congress a real mandate to fix the massive problems facing the nation. But the argument at the time was one of deliverables. House Republicans wanted to promise less and deliver more. Or so they said.One of their key pledges was to shed a mere $100 billion “in the first year alone” to return non-security discretionary spending to the FY 2008 levels. Unfortunately (or conveniently), they did not specify whether they were talking about fiscal year 2011 or 2012 as the first year. This distinction is relevant because the Democrats failed to complete the spending bills for the current fiscal year (2011), and passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government operating until March, leaving decisions to still be made for fiscal year 2011. House Leaders are saying that because the fiscal year is already four months in that the $100 billion should be construed as “an annualized” or “prorated” figure and only half should be done now. (The distinction about the number of months into the fiscal year is also not particularly meaningful—just because the money has been appropriated to the agencies doesn’t mean that it can’t be rescinded.)Thankfully 89 members of the conservative Republican Study Committee are arguing that the “first year” means exactly that.Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Morrissey interviews Breitbart about Pigford story

From Hot Air, an update from Andrew Breitbart on the developing Pigford story, which is a sordid tale of fraud and scandal. This story has been investigated chiefly by Lee Stranahan, a liberal Huffington Post contributor who hasn’t been afraid to find the truth, or timid about posting his findings at BigJournalism and BigGovernment.Please click here for the rest of the post.

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