Tanner’s Lie.

Congressman John Tanner finally got around to sending out his form letter to everyone who asked him to vote against the cap and trade bill. From said letter:

“…I have supported and will continue to support efforts to increase access to drilling for oil and gas off our coast and in Alaska…”

Thing is, last year he voted YES to PERMANENTLY ban access to 97% of the oil off of the California coast. He voted YES to continue the ban on drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. He voted YES to ban drilling within 50 miles of Alaska.

His roll call and the full bill HR 6899 is here.

The House Minority leader said at the time:

“We’re sitting here tonight in the midst of the biggest sham I’ve seen in my 18 years in Congress. It locks up 85% of the reserves on the OCS and removes incentives for states to allow drilling by denying them a share of the revenues.

John Tanner voted yes on HR 6899. He just told you that he supported drilling off of our coast and in Alaska. I don’t know how else to characterize that other than a lie.

Click here for the phone calls the day after this vote

Here is the same form letter everyone is getting:

Thank you for contacting our office to express your opposition to H.R. 2454, the “American Clean Energy and Security Act” also called the “cap and trade” bill.  I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with me on this important issue.

I voted against the “cap and trade” legislation, which ultimately passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 219 to 212.  While I believe that we must break our dependence on foreign sources of energy and that mankind has a responsibility to be a good steward of the environment, the “cap and trade” bill, in its current form, is not the right approach and comes at the wrong time.

H.R. 2454 is too complicated and could drive up energy costs for American households, businesses and farmers.  I was supportive of a small improvement to the bill that made the legislation better for the agricultural community; however, overall the final legislation was fatally flawed, in my opinion.  At a time when this country is still reeling from a severe economic downturn, I felt that passing H.R. 2454 was not the right way to move forward.

A responsible energy policy for America must center around three principles: responsible use of traditional resources, efforts to increase energy efficiency, and a real effort to diversify our energy portfolio.  To this end, I have supported and will continue to support efforts to increase access to drilling for oil and gas off our coast and in Alaska, better energy efficiency standards, and investments in nuclear and alternative energy technology.

Again, thank you for your comments.  Please do not hesitate to contact our office if I can be of any further assistance.

Drew Johnson In Utah On TennCare, etc.

Utah is in fact the Beehive State:

How Much Is “Such Sums”?

In the cap and trade bill that not only did no one read, but they didn’t even finish writing, it has the words “such sums” 21 times. “Such sums” as in:

AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as necessary to carry out this section.

Maybe there’s someone with some knowledge of the inner-workings on legalese and maybe this is how it usually works, but “such sums” doesn’t really cut it for me. Did Congress just vote to give themselves 21 blank checks?

Keep in mind, while John Tanner didn’t vote for the bill, he did vote yes to bring the bill to the floor for a final vote. He felt the bill was complete enough to vote on, even with the [Section Reserved] and 21 “such sums”.

Will Doctors And Nurses Go On Strike?

The best speech you can read to equip yourself on the healthcare debate is “Healthcare Is Not A Right” by Leonard Peikoff:

…if your mere desire for something, anything, imposes a duty on other people to satisfy you, then they have no choice in their lives, no say in what they do, they have no liberty, they cannot pursue their happiness. Your “right” to happiness at their expense means that they become rightless serfs, i.e., your slaves. Your right to anything at others’ expense means that they become rightless.

The Wizard called in to say that some in his profession are thinking of striking. Then more doctors called in. Here is the 7:30 segment:

Government Always Watching Out For Us – Raisin Bread Edition

***UPDATE***

Thanks to Andy Roth from the great Club for Growth for the link!

Here is the full 8:30 segment:

Thank goodness someone in Washington decided to regulate Raisin Bread. Rogue bakers across the country have been pawning unregulated bread on us for years. Joe from Jackson is the most grateful:

Amazingly, Joe is correct. Here is the website description for Sunmaid Raisin Bread: “This bread has 50% more raisins than the U.S. government requires for each loaf of raisin bread. Try toasted or for French toast, sandwiches and bread pudding.”

Jeremy found the exact bill that regulates raisin bread. Read the whole thing until your head starts spinning:

CHAPTER I–FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN

SERVICES (CONTINUED)

PART 136_BAKERY PRODUCTS–Table of Contents

Subpart B_Requirements for Specific Standardized Bakery Products

Sec. 136.160  Raisin bread, rolls, and buns.

(a) Each of the foods raisin bread, raisin rolls, and raisin buns conforms to the definition and standard of identity and is subject to the requirements for label statement of ingredients prescribed for bread, rolls or buns by Sec. 136.110, except that:

(1) Not less than 50 parts by weight of seeded or seedless raisins are used for each 100 parts by weight of flour used.

(2) Water extract of raisins may be used, but not to replace raisins.

(3) The baked units may bear icing or frosting.

(4) The limitation prescribed by Sec. 136.110(c)(6) on the quantity and composition of milk and/or other dairy products does not apply.

(5) The total solids are determined by the method prescribed in

Sec. 136.110

(d), except that section 14.091(b) of “Official Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists,” 13th Ed. (1980), which is incorporated by reference, will apply. Copies may be obtained from the Association of Official Analytical Chemists International, 481 North Frederick Ave., suite 500, Gaithersburg, MD 20877-2504, or may be examined at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call 202-741-6030, or go to: http://www.archives.gov/federal–register/code–of–federal–regulations/ibr–locations.html.

(b) The name of the food is “raisin bread”, “raisin rolls”,“raisin buns”, as applicable. When the food contains not less than 2.56 percent by weight of whole egg solids, the name of the food may be “raisin and egg bread”, “raisin and egg rolls”, or “raisin and egg buns”, as applicable, accompanied by the statement “Contains – medium-sized egg(s) per pound” in the manner prescribed by Sec. 102.5(c)(3) of this chapter, the blank to be filled in with the number which represents the whole egg content of the food expressed to the nearest one-fifth egg but not greater than the amount actually present. For purposes of this regulation, whole egg solids are the edible contents of eggs calculated on a moisture-free basis and exclusive of any nonegg solids which may be present in standardized and other commercial egg products. One medium-sized egg is equivalent to 0.41 ounce of whole egg solids.

If the regulations for RAISIN BREAD are this complicated, can you imagine what the regulations in the cap and trade bill must look like?

Oh, that's right, they haven't even written the entire cap and trade bill that the House has already voted on. There's an entire section of the bill that is just missing.


Pretty awesome, huh? 
Here is the 8:30 segment: 



***UPDATE 2*** 

I gave a speech last night and the following sign was placed next to the desserts:

"This is UNREGULATED Raisin Bread! Eating of this bread is in violation of Chapter 1 of the Food & Drug Administration Department of Health & Human Services Part 136, Subpart B, Sec. 136.160. It does not contain the proper amount of raisins. Is it not properly labeled, since it contains eggs. And it is well in excess of recommended sugar levels! Partaking of this noncompliant raisin bread can lead to a fine and/or imprisonment! WARNING!!"

Cavuto Take 2.

Hopefully Palin doesn’t make anymore news before 3:10 and we don’t get bumped again! 3:10 Fox News.

Coolidge On The Declaration

Calvin Coolidge 150 years after “one of the greatest days in history”:

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

SlaterRaiders On Cavuto

Today at 3:05 central.

Independence Day 2009

Some SlaterRaiders in Iraq.

John Adams, 1826:

If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle…Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard…Publish if from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling around it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy’s cannon…and the very walls will cry out in it’s support.

We may not live to see the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die colonists; die slaves…But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations.

On it’s annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and of joy.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready to stake upon it; and I leave off as I begun, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER.

Read this revolutionary and miraculous document here.

8:30 Segment

6:00 Hour:

Interview with Matthew Spalding from Heritage:

Independence now and independence forever.

Drew Johnson On MJ & Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame

Did Michael Jackson bring down the Berlin Wall? And what should Drew do with his MJ tickets?