Friday, May 27, 2011

Texas Backs Down From Criminalizing TSA Searches; Republicans Fight Back over Punishment of Right to Work States; Members of Congress May Do Insider Trading; Herman Cain Wins Zogby Poll; Wisconsin Legislation for Collective Bargaining Repeal is Frozen; Kagen Weighed in on Healthcare; No Recess Appts. by President

The Tenth Amendment Center wrote: The U.S. Department of Justice upped the ante in a high-stakes political game of chicken. Lobbying against pending legislation in the Texas legislature which would criminalize any searches conducted without probable cause, U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy sent a letter to a few high-ranking members of Texas’ government warning against promoting the bill and threatening a complete closure of all flights to and from the state.
“If HR [sic] 1937 were enacted, the federal government would likely seek an emergency stay of the statute,” Murphy wrote. “Unless or until such a stay were granted, TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.”  http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/05/24/feds-issue-threat-no-fly-zone-for-texas/
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Statesman.com wrote: Shouting “treason” and “cowards” and carrying signs and placards, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber.
There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which would have made it a crime for security checkpoint screeners to handle the private parts of anyone they screened.  http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2011/05/25/protestors_try_to_storm_senate.html
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The Hill reports: "I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down," Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia) said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal."

"Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?"  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/05/25/congressman_on_recent_flight_tsa_patted_down_child_little_old_lady_ignored_man_in_arab_garb.html
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The Washington Times writes: House Republicans are fighting back against President Obama’s misuse of administrative power to punish right-to-work states. On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Scott introduced legislation to protect a Boeing 787 Dreamliner production plant in his South Carolina district from the outrageous complaint filed by pro-union thugs at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The agency wants to force the airline manufacturer to close up operations in Charleston and move the jobs to Puget Sound, where the labor bosses reign, because setting up in South Carolina was allegedly an example of “unfair labor practices.”
The Job Protection Act would, if enacted, clarify that federal law gives the NLRB no power to decide where any U.S. company should or should not do business. “For the NLRB to punish a company for locating in a right-to-work state is an abuse of federal executive power,” Mr. Scott explained to The Washington Times’ Emily Miller. “This administration has clearly overstepped its bounds through the inappropriate actions of an unelected regulatory board.”  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/25/obama-versus-boeing/
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The Washington Times writes: It’s no secret that members of Congress qualify as political insiders, but a new report strongly suggests that they also may be insiders when it comes to trading stocks.
Strict laws ban corporate executives from trading on their insider knowledge, but no restrictions exist for members of Congress. Lawmakers are permitted to keep their holdings and trade shares on the market, as well as vote on legislation that could affect their portfolio values.
Even so, concerns about members of Congress enriching themselves based on inside information has prompted at least one House bill, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which would limit the ability of lawmakers to buy and sell stock shares.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/25/house-members-stock-market-success-questioned/?page=all#pagebreak
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The Washington Times writes: Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain star meter is rising among the field of GOP presidential primary candidates undeclared Republicans. According to the latest Zogby Poll, Mr. Cain has passed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:
Herman Cain leads Chris Christie as the top choice of Republican primary voters in the race for the 2012 Presidential nomination. Among all voters, no one in a list of 13 possible GOP candidates leads President Barack Obama. However, less than half of voters (42%) say Obama deserves re-election.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/may/24/zogby-cain-overtakes-romney-and-leads-gop-primary-/
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The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes: A Dane County judge has struck down Gov. Scott Walker's legislation repealing most collective bargaining for public employees.
In a 33-page decision issued Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would freeze the legislation because GOP lawmakers on a committee broke the state's open meetings law in passing it March 9. The legislation limits collective bargaining to wages for all public employees in Wisconsin except for police and firefighters.
"It's what we were looking for," said Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat.
Ozanne sued to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) filed a complaint saying that GOP legislative leaders had not given proper notice to the public in convening a conference committee of lawmakers from both houses to approve Walker's budget-repair bill. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/122657299.html
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The NY Post reports: Judicial Watch, a public-interest watch dog group, just unearthed a cache of e- mails showing that Elena Kagan participated in preparing the government's defense of ObamaCare during her time as President Obama's solicitor general. By all precedent -- and her promise to the Senate Judiciary Committee she'd abide by "letter and spirit" of the law -- this should oblige Justice Kagan to recuse herself when the ObamaCare cases come before the Supreme Court.
Before joining the court, Kagan said she was not involved in the Justice Deparment's preparations for the inevitable legal challenges to the health-care "reform." But the e-mails suggest otherwise:
Kaytal forwarded Kagan his e-mail to Schmaler telling her: "This is what I told Tracy about Health Care."
Kagan herself then e-mailed Schmaler: "This needs to be coordinated. Tracy you should not say anything about this before talking to me."
This is highly suspicious. Why would Kaytal have felt the need to tell Kagan "this" is what he'd told Schmaler, and Kagan to tell Schmaler "this needs to be coordinated," if they were telling the unvarnished truth?
The Justice Department withheld other relevant e-mails -- but was forced to prepare a log describing them. The log shows that Kagan was a recipient and author on e-mail chains under the subject "health care," discussing "what categories of legal arguments may arise."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/supreme_conflict_of_interest_BAPvXxWVs8hNxVvvPHlaRL#ixzz1NY6jirkT
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The Wall St. Journal reports: Senate Republicans late Thursday declared victory in their effort to use a procedural maneuver to thwart President Barack Obama from making any recess appointments during Congress’s Memorial Day break.
Congressional aides said the Senate will not go on a formal recess but instead will technically stay in session, making it highly unlikely the president would use his constitutional power to make appointments. The so-called recess appointments are usually reserved for longer congressional vacations that occur after the Senate has officially adjourned.  http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/05/26/senate-republicans-no-recess-appointments-over-holiday-break/
 

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