Thoughts on Amending The Constitution Through A Convention Of The States.

THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT REFORMING THE SUPREME COURT CONFIRMATION PROCESS, so here’s a proposal of mine from the 1990s.

Obama administration gets thrashed again: ON NON-CITIZEN VOTING, An “Extraordinary Beat-Down” for the DOJ.

Seriously, President Obama? Seriously, New York Times?  Moey graph: 

I’ll highlight the New York Times’s strange claim (in a news article about Obama’s post) that Senate Republicans

disagree with Mr. Obama’s assertion here that he has the power to appoint [a justice]. The power to appoint is shared, they say, meaning that it ultimately rests with the Senate.

No. All that Senate Republicans are noting is the simple reality that the Senate’s advice-and-consent role under the Constitution means that Obama may not appoint a justice to a lifetime position unless and until the Senate has confirmed (i.e., given its consent to) his nomination. That’s a proposition that no informed person can dispute.

GOOD THING WE’VE GOT AN IRS APPROVAL PROCESS TO KEEP PEOPLE SAFE — WAIT, WHAT? 6 Of 13 IRS-Approved Tax Preparers Fail Cybersecurity Test, Put Taxpayer Confidential Information At Risk.

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN “THE MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY:” A computer network at the Merit Systems Protection Board failed, causing the loss of data concerning civil service workers’ appeals in disciplinary cases. Think what you will of government employees but lost data means every one of those cases will either be dropped or restarted from the beginning, meaning thousands more lost hours of productivity.

But forget about finding out what caused the failure, who if anybody at MSPB was responsible or whether the fix being implemented will work. The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Ethan Barton reports that MSPB absolutely refuses to make public a report that would answer such questions for curious taxpayers. The agency’s justification is the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption Five. That’s the “pre-decisional” exemption that is the most frequently abused of the law’s nine exemptions.

IF THESE GUYS CAN’T MAKE HEADS OR TAILS OUT OF UNCLE SAM’S BOOKS: Then America is in far worse financial shape than most of us realize. “These guys” are the green-eyeshade types at the Government Accountability Office, the chief investigative arm of Congress. Katie Watson of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group says GAO just announced – for the 19th consecutive year – that the federal government’s accounting is so bad that it “did not render an opinion on the federal government’s consolidated financial statements.”

Think about that for a moment. If what GAO is saying is true – and if anything GAO is likely understating the problem – then the federal budget is a tissue of fantasies, the national debt is much higher than the official figure of $19 trillion, and it’s impossible to know how many tax dollars are lost every year to waste, fraud and abuse. And on that happy note, welcome to Super Tuesday 2016!

If an ELPH had said this ....HILLARY ON GUNS: THERE’S A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, TOO: “There is? Perhaps Hillary Clinton’s copy of the US Constitution has bleed-over from a page containing the Declaration of Independence.”

MUST-READ EMAILS from the latest Clinton Friday night document dump.

And Phil Kerpen has found some interesting stuff: Sid Blumenthal had satellite data.

And Barbara Mikulski sounds almost like Donald Trump in describing the plight of American workers.

Plus: “I didn’t even know this agency existed.”

Clinton on Libya: 'Too Soon to Tell'; Everyone Else: 'This Was a Disaster'

MEET THE WORST CLINTON ALLY THE MSM HAS NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT: Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss made at least 30 contributions to U.S. political campaigns over a nine-year period, according to FEC records cited by the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Richard Pollock.

Food Stamp Users Near Record High Despite Low Unemployment Rate.

Perhaps Bernie Sanders is onto something about the “real unemployment rate.”

Related: FDR’s policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate.

“SORRY, TRUMP, AMERICA CAN’T BE GREAT AGAIN — Our economy can no longer deliver the fast growth the candidates are promising. But that hasn’t stopped the demagoguery,” Michael Lind writes in the Politico.

Alternate headline: lefty writer discovers that Obama’s seven years in office have been a disaster. Especially since in December of 2008, a month before Obama would take office with both houses of Congress under the control of his fellow Democrats, Lind was predicting a rosy quick-start go-go economic future in Salon.  That was before Salon decided it would be better to nationalize everything in America that wasn’t already socialized.

Another rube self-identifies — but he’s far from alone in that department on the left.

Woke up this morning and checked my news feed.  Saw that Bernie took two of the three Donk primaries last night.  Reported same to LWW GF.  She had no idea there even WERE any Donk primaries last night and her FB feed hadn't mentioned it.  Yet she had plety of dirt to dish on the Elph candidated.  I opined that the reason she hadn't heard about Bernie's wins was that it meant Hillary LOST two out of three and it didn't fit the narrative of her coronation, therefore the media and Donks in general were pretending it didn't happen.

 It's gonna be a long day.

Remember last week when The Bern demonstrated his ignorance of ... several things by observing that Romania has faster internet service than Kansas City? Well,the Romanians remember: Romanians Make Fun of Bernie Sanders Over Internet Tweet.

Another reason Bernie isn't getting much publicity (see opening graph above) Bernie Sanders blames Clinton for Michigan’s declining middle class.

And to complete this morning's three part edumacation of The Bern:

MEMO TO BERNIE SANDERS: Conservatives Also Oppose Corporate Welfare.  So do us Libertarians!

In my recent gig I've had ample opportunity to discuss educaton reform with actual labor union member teachers.  It's been fun talking them into agreeing with me and then pointing out that THEY are the ones who are keeping many of the reforms they agree with from happening.  But that's another story.

HUH – I THOUGHT THE TIMES WAS A PRO-CHOICE NEWSPAPER: New York Times can’t stand that charter schools succeed, so it must try to destroy them:

Lengthy but a good laugh: John Leo: Why Evelyn Waugh Became A Female. Heh.

My work tutoring the OGT would be SO much easer: Cultural evolution stories

TURNING JAPANESE? I REALLY THINK SO: U.S. Has Record 10th Straight Year Without 3% Growth in GDP.

For my leftist friends who actually think we had a free market under Regan and that's what's causing all of our problems: Monday Daily Monday: The Long History of Government Meddling in the American Marketplace

QUOTE OF THE DAY “’A couple of years ago, [socialist Venezuela’s] then-minister of education admitted that the aim of the regime’s policies was ‘not to take the people out of poverty so they become middle class and then turn into escuálidos’ (a derogatory term to denote opposition members). In other words, the government wanted grateful, dependent voters, not prosperous Venezuelans.’”

Or to put it another way, “They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please. . . .

Our Bern-ing days may be winding down, but until then:

DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY: DNC Vice chair Tulsi Gabbard resigns, endorses Sanders.  I've admired Tulsi Gabbard since she  she started stirring things up on the left a few months ago.

Do the leftists that worked on "The Big Short" know about this?   Bernie Sanders thanks hedge fund manager Alan Grayson for endorsement. “Rep. Alan Grayson is under House Ethics Committee investigation for a hedge fund he ran that was located in the Cayman Islands, but with Hillary Clinton’s lead widening, Bernie Sanders will apparently take any endorsement he can get.”

Bernie's lack of basic understanding and pro-bubmint blindness leads hi off the path: Bernie Sanders Meets Romanian Internet

Justice Felix Frankfurter: Temporarily having an eight-justice Supreme Court is not ‘sacrificing a single interest of importance.’ In 1945-1946, the Supreme Court functioned for a year with only eight justices.

SUPREME COURT STALEMATE NOT UNPRECEDENTED:

[Jonathan H. Adler] In election years, a (spotty) history of confirming court nominees

For those leftists screaming:

Rejiggered my ratings once again.  Much happier.  This week, from 1954 and Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window.

#437 on my list (up about 100 slots), #10 over-all and #37 on IMDB.  Oscar nomintions for Director, Screenplay, Color and Sound.  Awesome cast, well used: