In two weeks On January 16th, there will be a nullification rally in Austin at the Capitol building.  Details are here.  More on the movement is here.  Texas has passed a bill through the house reasserting our 10th amendment rights (not health-care specific).  I’m sure there will be more to come! 

Rasmussen is reporting (via Hot Air headlines) that 47% of those who oppose health care believe states should have the right to opt out.  There are plenty of us out there — we just need to keep the focus on the issue.

Kevin Baker, a disabled Navy veteran, died less than a week after starting his hand-powered bicycle journey from OK to DC.  His journey was to bring attention to H.R. 1034, a resolution to adopt the Honor and Remember flag he was carrying as a permanent symbol of service men and women who never made it home, similar to the POW/MIA flag for those whose fates are unknown.  The flag was designed by the father of a fallen soldier, and Kevin decided to embark upon his journey after hearing about the flag to bring attention to it.  He passed away after suffering a seizure. 

You can read about him and the petition to get the flag adopted nationwide at the link above.  R.I.P., Kevin.

As Redstate is reporting that Obama is gearing up his propaganda machine against the Republicans again, the GOP needs to get out in front of this mess — especially the House Republicans.  They need to start introducing Obama’s broken or forgotten conservative campaign promises as legislative alternatives.  Rep. Boehner and company need to introduce them one at a time and force Pelosi to show her hand when she doesn’t allow their bills on the calendar. 

The first one that comes to mind is ending capital gains taxes on small businesses.  When Obama introduced his plan today, I didn’t hear one word of it.  I did hear what sounds like him turing the Small Business Administration into another Fannie / Freddie.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t let them chop up the loans and sell derivatives Merrill Lynch who will get them insured by AIG.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, eh? 

Back to my original point, they also need to introduce legislation to keep the promise that Obama would remove income taxes from seniors who make less than $50,000.  There are also several pro-military promises Obama made that could easily be introduced, such as pay raises.

This way, they aren’t the party of no.  They can sell it as being supportive of Obama while keeping their principles.  The problem is they need to sell it — they had a great alternative to Porkulus, as Redstate points out, but no one knew about it.  To sell this, they need to be on every show, at every microphone, telling the country they have this legislation on the table that are promises Obama made and they are trying to help him keep them.  They can also blame Pelosi for keeping the legislation off the calendar.

The day after he signed the $787B monstrosity that is Porkulus, Obama spoke to America about the need to reduce this country’s deficit, promising to reduce it by half by the end of his first term.  Then he held a “fiscal responsibility summit.”

Obama kept telling us the end was near while Porkulus was still in the Senate waiting for a couple of turn-coat Republicans to help him out.  He kept putting on the pressure with his gloom and doom speeches, not even allowing for members to read the damn bill.  After the Senate finally passed it, Obama and his family took a weekend shopping trip to Chicago before he managed to get back to Colorado* to sign this “emergency” bill.

After touting that Porkulus was earmark-free (not entirely true) during his quasi State of the Union address, Obama then started pushing the $410B Spendibus bill, laden with 8,500 earmarks. 

About 30 minutes ago, just before signing the bill that the Senate passed last night, Obama extolled the virtues of earmarks then called for reform. 

Is this just a big joke to him?  He keeps signing all these “imperfect” bills, promising to get it right next time.  I keep waiting for the cameras to pop out and tell us it WAS all just a big joke, and we can get back to normal lives after a good laugh and a few curse words.

Update:  I’m not the only one who’s noticed. 

Update II: Hot Air offers an apt Gone with the Wind comparison.

* I corrected the location. I forgot he made a signing show in Colorado rather than go back to DC.  He had to tour the solar panel factory or something.

OK, well, Snowe just voted on principle I guess. 

Here they are:

Three Dems also crossed the aisle to vote against the bill — Evan Bayh (D-IN), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

Michelle has more on some of the amendments attempted, particularly the one on DC school choice program (vouchers).

Update: I just want to clarify the above numbers represent the total dollar amount of earmarks each Senator sponsored individually.

Update II: Hot Air has more, pointing out that not only did these 8 GOPers vote to preserve their own projects, but they also voted to give many federal agencies big, fat raises.  I’m afraid that when the next budget is being considered, these agencies will have spent every penny given to them through Porkulus and Spendibus in this fiscal year.  That way, they can require even more money in the next budget, claiming they ran out of money this year.  These “temporary” spending programs are going to leave a permanent mark.

Bill Adair, editor of Politifact.com and St. Petersburg Times Washington bureau chief, was on “America’s News HQ” with Chris Wallace this afternoon. The ObamaMeter is keeping track of Obama’s campaign promises — all 512 of them.  While all promises start off classified as “no action,” the site has classified several that have already come up during the administration thus far.  He highlighted five on the show.

Promise #37: Extend Bush tax cuts for people in lower incomes.  Politifact has classified this one as “in the works.”  Adair said the legislation is in the new budget, and he expects it to pass.

Promise #24: End income tax for seniors earning less than $50,000.  It is classified as “stalled” because it was not in his budget outline, and Adair does not expect it to reappear anytime soon.

Promise #505: Create $3,000 tax credit for companies that add jobs.  It is classified as “broken.”  Obama touted it as a part of his stimulus package in October after the initial crisis, but it didn’t show up in the Porkulus bill because many Democrats thought those big, nasty, greedy businesses would fire people then rehire them to get the break.

Promise #15: Created a foreclosure prevention fund.  It is classified as “kept,” because of his $275B plan ($75B for homeowners, $200B for Fannie / Freddie).  That one hasn’t passed yet, so I’m not sure why it is not classified as “in the works” instead.  He didn’t mention that on the show.

Promise #234: Allow five days of public comment before signing bills.  We all know that one is “broken.” 

The site keeps track of every little promise, not just the big ones.  They are tracking the promises about the dog (#502),  college playoffs (#306), and phasing out incandescent light bulbs (#492).

Promise #512 is his pledge to go “line-by-line” through the budget to make sure spending is not wasteful.  They called that one a “compromise” because Porkulus was “largely earmark-free” and Spendibus was full of earmarks.  Well, I dispute that.  Even though the Porkulus projects didn’t technically have earmarks, we have the lists of the projects that the states and cities (well, except Chicago) sent to Congress so they could get the right amount of money allocated.  I mean, c’mon, the $8B for “high-speed rail” only belongs to one project, and we all know it even if it isn’t spelled out in the bill.  Sen. Reid wanted it, and he shoved it in during the conference, and I consider that an earmark even though Politifact argues that other projects will compete for the money.

So while technicalities might be argued, at least someone is keeping track, and we can all watch Obama’s successes and failures virtually in real time.

The site also has a Truth-O-Meter, which rates the truthfulness of statements by politicians and staff.  There is a Flip-O-Meter as well, but it appears to be mostly campaign-related at the moment.

As a knee-jerk reaction to the lax regulation of Chinese toy imports, the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act will move the burden of testing imported items from the government, who dropped the ball, to the small business owners who can be fined or jailed for breaking this new law.   Even though the CPSC issued guidance that states thrift / resale shops are not REQUIRED to test, owners can still be jailed if they unknowingly sell an item that contains more than the legal limit of lead.  The only protection is testing, no matter what the guidance says.

As the mom of a two-year-old who grows out of clothes almost faster than I can buy them, this regulation scares me.  Especially since our income has been almost cut by half.  I visit a local Children’s Orchard often; I thought seriously about purchasing it when it went up for sale.  I sure am glad I didn’t.

A better solution is to require original manufacturers / importers to publish, through the CPSC, lists of all items they sold / imported that were found to have more than the legal limit of lead / phthalates or come from a company known to have these problems.  Then, resellers would have a single source to look to for guidance.  That due diligence should protect them — it requires a little more work, but those shops that do it can have some “best practices” cover that will allow them to remain in business without the fear of prosecution and allow customers to continue to buy items at a discount.