Welcome to today’s edition of Watercooler: Last Week, RedState.   This WC is all about Posts, Reader’s Diaries, and comments at RedState

Hot Topics Last Week:

First and foremost, Streiff returned after a well-earned vacation. Welcome back Streiff, you were missed man!

Sometimes a Diary runs into, let’s just say, a bit of opposition against its main premise, this post by Jay Caruso titled: Ted Cruz Goes the Safe (Weasel) Route on Comey Firing led to a significant number of contrary comments and, I might add, a lot of up votes.  I guess it just goes to show that the RedState Front Page contributors and the RedState community are not just unthinking drones parroting the sites standard lines. As usual the comments were civil even when contrary opinions were being voiced.

A great read… When Clarence Thomas Talks, People Should Listen , this piece by smoosieq is well worth a read about one of the finest Constitutionalist in this country.

Tail Wags Dog:

In the aggregate, the number one topic seems to have been… the firing of James Comey, one of these is this piece by Caleb Howe, FBI Director James Comey FIRED, that generated more comments than the article (always a good thing!)

Recurring Topics at RS:

Global Warming: Global warming keeps popping up its ugly head, Methane Seeps Slowing Global Warming? ‘Settled Science’ Versus Unexpected Discovery   This subject will just not go away.

Congressional Review Act: According to some ‘experts’ we’re at the end of the window for repealing Obama-era regulations.  Maybe, maybe not.  I’ve written about this before, Kimberly Strassel over at the WSJ wrote this: A GOP Regulatory Game Changer Legal experts say that Congress can overrule Obama regulations going back to 2009.

According to one of the co-author of this act, if the form of the CRA wasn’t followed then any and all regulations going back to 1996 are fair game.  Now, we can continue debating this question in Posts, Reader’s Diaries, and comments but we could see if a few of the Constitutional conservatives in Congress, people like: Cruz, Lee, Sasse, Mark Meadows, Justin Amash, etc. are willing to weigh in on this topic.

My Representative and Senators aren’t one of the people I’d ask these questions but, if I was a constituent of one of the above I’d ask the following:

1. Is it correct that the Congressional Review Act requires the regulating agency to notify Congress via a notification letter of new regulatory actions?
2. Is it also correct that the 90 (Congressional business days) window is triggered only upon the receipt of these Notice of Regulatory Action?
3. Of the high-impact regulatory actions enacted over the last 9 years, how many of these regulations have the required Notification of Regulatory Action sent to Congress?
4. How many of these regulatory actions would every Republican love to get rid of if given a chance to vote on them?
5. If there are any high impact regulatory actions that have not had the mandated Notice of Regulatory Action, what plans are in place to bring Congress and the regulatory agencies into compliance with the CRA law’s mandates?

There are something like 40+ Constitutional conservatives in Congress, it’d be helpful if at least one of them were to be willing to go on the records with responses to these questions.  It would be even better if one of them chose to respond on the site.

If anyone were to happen to get an answer to these questions from any of them it would be great if the responses were shared with other RedStaters in the This Week, RedState Watercooler.

RS Gatekeeper:

I’ve asked this before but whatever happened to the Posting Rules?  It’s pretty hard for newcomers to RedState to know what rule they’re breaking if the Rules are available for reading.  Gate keeping is about making sure that everyone is welcomed and appreciated so, if you’ve read a great Reader’s Diary then let us know the status on getting these rules restored so they can be viewed?

Reader’s Diaries: Now, I promised to try but I’ve been busy and I didn’t get much of a chance to look at the Reader’s Diaries this week so, anyone that’s of a mind and have read a great Reader’s Diary that didn’t make it to the Front Page, please note that below and include the link. A brief summary wouldn’t hurt either.

Memorable RS One-Liners:

 “Perhaps for the first time, the travel executive order case was heard by a judge who didn’t get his law degree from a box of Cheerios.”  Streiff (Although, I would’ve used a Cracker Jacks rather than Cheerios!)

“I can’t imagine putting Cornyn in charge of my riding lawnmower much less the FBI”  Streiff2  Points for the visual imagery and for the fun afterwards!

Best Video or Picture Usage:

Please, post and great videos below, it never hurts to use one of the RedState Tips from below to show how much you’ve picked up!

RedState Tips:

From Joliphant here’s a tip on creating a well-formed table in a RedState Diary.  You will find the results on Joliphant’s WC page.  Now, I expected the HTML markup below to NOT show up in the Diary, rather I expected to see the actual table, maybe Joliphant can explain why it didn’t!

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Drink up, that’s it for the Watercooler today. Remember, this thread is all about RedState contributors from: the front page, Reader’s Diaries, or in the comments section.

Use the topics above or choose your own but, stop by, hang out, and drink up.