January 17, 2015
Highlights of the week…
Rep. Marsha Blackburn
We call attention to what has been a salvo of conservatism by Tennessee’s 7th District Representative Marsha Blackburn who has roared out of the gates of the 114th Congress and made us conservatives proud.
On Wednesday, her sponsored amendment to defund DACA (see below), which she says will cut off the magnet for future illegal immigration by Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC’s) to the United States, passed in the House of Representatives 218-209, though it faces a steep uphill battle in the Senate. Unfortunately, the vote on her amendment to rollback President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty, was too close for comfort due to a backlash from 26 GOP moderates who want the leadership to take a hard stance against conservative immigration hawks.
Also, Rep. Blackburn, alongside Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, introduced a bill last week to ban abortions after 20 weeks. Called the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act”, this bill will help eliminate the over 18,000 late term abortions that take place every year. The United States is one of seven countries in the world that allows late-term abortions. The sickening stories of these abortions that we were unfortunately exposed to during monster Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial should alarm every American regardless of what side of the abortion debate he or she is on.
And finally, Rep. Blackburn, alongside Rep. Steve King of Iowa, is spearheading a conservative movement at this weekend’s GOP retreat in Hershey, PA. They are advocating for a strong conservative agenda and we applaud their efforts that are sure to get some pushback from the establishment.
With the retirement of Michelle Bachmann, we are looking for a strong conservative woman to replace her and Ms. Blackburn is so far leading that charge.
GOP Congress
In recent posts on this blog, we have lamented how the GOP congressional leadership would have a permanent place on our weekly lowlights. But give the GOP-controlled House of Representatives some credit for their actions the first two weeks of the 114th Session of Congress. Hence, they reside in our weekly highlights.
In the first two weeks of the new session, the House of Representatives passed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill, passed a bill to roll back burdensome regulations in Dodd-Frank, and voted to defund the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as part of the Homeland Security Act bill.
This is definitely a good start and and reason enough for them to reside in our weekly highlights, at least temporarily.
We are too smart to be naive and think this honeymoon will last very long, but we are willing to be open-minded about that prospect. If not, we will hold their feet to the political fire in 2016.
And a quick note about…
Charlie Hebdo’s Latest Issue
We salute France’s satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo for not backing down to terrorism and censorship by being bold and brave with their latest issue with the prophet Muhammad on the cover that has been printed 5 million times this week due to high demand.
The magazine also did the right thing by not backing down to the pundits who felt that the magazine was provoking the enemy who couldn’t handle being made fun of. Awww, poor babies.
Religion, right wing politics, culture, and other subjects are all a part of the magazine’s satirical sphere.
Regardless of their views, we agree with their decision to continue on with their right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and for honoring those who paid the ultimate price for expressing those rights.
Lowlights of the Week…
Marco Rubio
Just a few weeks ago, we praised Florida Senator Marco Rubio on this blog for his strong opposition to normalizing relations with Cuba and for recovering from his horrible decision to be a part of the “Gang of Eight” which advocated for amnesty.
Now, unfortunately, Mr. Rubio is back on the blog but on the wrong end, disappointing us with the fact that he hasn’t quite learned his lesson from 2013 when it comes to immigration and what the conservative base expects from him.
As the great website Breitbart pointed out this week, Senator Rubio alongside Senators Hatch and Flake, along with three liberal Democrats, are proposing a bill that would nearly double the current number of H-1B Guest-Worker visas in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) sector. It will also allow companies to hire unlimited amount of foreign workers with STEM degrees from U.S. institutions.
But as Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions points out in the Breitbart article, nearly 3 of 4 Americans with STEM degrees do not even work in the STEM field! Why would the U.S. expand these worker visas to foreigners when we have millions upon millions of Americans who could do the job and do it well? We could not agree more.
Which leaves us perplexed about Senator Rubio.
Is he still the up and coming politician who excited the conservative base in 2010 and elevated his profile for possible future higher office?
Or has Senator Rubio not recovered from that harsh year of 2013 when the conservative base turned on him for his amnesty stance and vowed to primary him should he run for re-election in 2016?
It’s hard to know for sure but this proposal, which will hurt American workers, and the fact that Mr. Rubio is associating himself with conservative sellouts Hatch and Flake is certainly not going to please the base.
Senator, you haven’t declared your intentions for a possible 2016 presidential run yet but if you have any intentions of doing so, we sincerely hope you walk back your immigration positions and soon.
Obama’s French Debacle
President Obama was a no-show this past Sunday at a Paris unity rally after last week’s Islamic terrorist attacks (yes Mr. President, that’s what they were despite your resistance to call it that) that hit the French city last week. Even his media worshippers criticized him for not showing up.
The White House said that the president did not go due to security reasons. Well, over 40 heads of state went so apparently, the security was safe enough for them.
Instead of showing leadership and solidarity with the French people and to everyone else around the world, the president instead chose to stop by Washington’s French Embassy on Thursday to sign the guest book and pay his respects with his pen.
Weak.
Then on Friday, the French-looking Secretary of State John Kerry and singer James Taylor made a visit to Paris, the latter performing his signature “You’ve Got a Friend” song. Oh those lucky Parisians!
We shouldn’t be surprised at the president’s lack of leadership and lack of presidential protocol, but is this a new low for even him?
If a conservative president pulled a trick like this, we wouldn’t hesitate to call him or her out.
Fortunately, we won’t have to do so.
