This bit from PJTV via Western Rifle Shooters Association.

Think cap and trade is dead? Think again: Politico’s Mike Allen reports that Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership have a plan, a continuation and deepening of the disregard for the American public they so amply demonstrated through the process by which they passed the despised HCR bill:

Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4 break (and after the scheduled final passage of Wall Street reform). Kagan confirmation will follow, ahead of the summer break, scheduled to begin Aug. 9. The plan is to conference the new Senate bill with the already-passed House bill IN A LAME-DUCK SESSION AFTER THE ELECTION, so House members don’t have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.

The rest of the piece goes on to make it clear that this plan has the full support of President Obama, who himself does not face re-election until 2012 and wants cap and trade passed before the year is out.

This “fierce urgency of now” comes from the obvious political consideration that a lame duck Congress has nothing to lose. Once it’s been thrown under the bus and lies there bleeding (actually, you might say it threw itself in front of the bus, but let’s not quibble about the finer points), it might just as well enact a piece of legislation that will further bankrupt the country and please the left fringe and nobody else. Beware a group that’s still in power but has stopped fearing any consequences from the public.

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Be afraid, be very afraid.  via POLITICO:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is “the mother of health care,” Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed Monday.

Speaking at a campaign event in Philadelphia for congressional candidate Bryan Lentz, Biden reworked a line of praise from Rep. Allyson Schwartz, who said Pelosi was the most powerful woman in American politics. 

“I would rephrase that: the most powerful person in American politics with the exception of the President of the United States,” Biden said, according to the pool report. “The single most successful, the single most persuasive, the single most strategic leader I have ever worked with is Nancy Pelosi.”

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Seems that Biden doesn't put much stock in himself or his position.

This was submitted today at Sovereign Idaho and is something I have myself briefly mentioned before.  It is an important part of the political process, and is not mentioned often, if at all, in the courtroom.  The concept of jury nullification has been around for centuries.  It is a right and power that those performing their duty as jurors should know about and utilize.  When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. --Thomas Jefferson

“All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform or abolish the same whenever they may deem it necessary.” - Constitution of the State of Idaho, Article I, Section 2

Similar wording is found in most other state constitutions, in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence. However, similar wording is not found in most school “social studies” textbooks.

American jurisprudence is built on the foundation of common law and natural rights which are firmly established in our founding documents. Any acts of government which defy common law and violate natural rights are null and void.

Jury nullification is one of the important legal and peaceful processes by which the people can resist and nullify unjust laws. It is a de facto and traditional power of juries, even though modern textbooks and judges rarely, if ever, inform people of the jury's nullification power.

The power of jury nullification derives from an inherent quality of common law - a general unwillingness to inquire into jurors' motivations during or after deliberations. A jury's ability to nullify the law is further protected by two other common law precedents: the prohibition on punishing jury members for their verdict and the prohibition on retrying defendants after an acquittal.

First, C. Everett Koop chimes in and recommends a "no" vote due mainly to her involvement with the partial-birth abortion ban:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has written an extensive letter to members of the Senate calling for a no vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. The letter focuses attention on the Clinton administration memos Kagan authored showing her attempting to manipulate abortion opinion.

Specifically, Koop refers to the ways in which Kagan influenced the language of a 1997 statement by American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists on partial-birth abortions.

Whereas ACOG found no occasion in which the three-day-long abortion procedure is medically necessary for women, Kagan pressured ACOG to include language saying there may be instances where it is and the Supreme Court eventually relied on that language to overturn state bans on the abortion procedure.

That eventually kept partial-birth abortions legal for several years longer until the Supreme Court reversed itself when considering a national ban Congress approved with medical findings that partial-birth abortions are medically unnecessary.

In his letter, Koop calls "unethical" and "disgraceful" Kagan's effort to persuade the medical group to change its expert opinion to conform to her political demands.

"She was willing to replace a medical statement with a political statement that was not supported by any existing medical data," writes Koop.

"Kagan's political language, a direct result of the amendment she made to ACOG's Policy Statement, made its way into American jurisprudence and misled federal courts for the next decade," he said.

He condemns Kagan for having “manipulated the medical policy statement on partial-birth abortion of a major medical organization.”

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Second is her promotion of Shariah while at Harvard:

Many will wonder about this as the difference seems insignificant.  The thing is, it's not.  Worship, albeit a large part of what most consider a "religion", is still just one part.  By making this minute shift in his speeches, Obama is setting up a difference between the more encompassing sharing with others, dressing in particular clothes, participating (or not) in certain rituals, along with worship and the much more focused act of worship alone.  I'm reading too much into this you say?  Do you really think he says anything that isn't calculated?

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The change in language was barely noticeable to the average citizen but political observers are raising red flags at the use of a new term "freedom of worship" by President Obama and Secretary Clinton as a replacement for the term freedom of religion. This shift happened between the President's speech in Cairo where he showcased America's freedom of religion and his appearance in November at a memorial for the victims of Fort Hood, where he specifically used the term "freedom of worship." From that point on, it has become the term of choice for the president and Clinton.

In her article for "First Things" magazine, Ashley Samelson, International Programs Director for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, stated, "To anyone who closely follows prominent discussion of religious freedom in the diplomatic and political arena, this linguistic shift is troubling: "The reason is simple. Any person of faith knows that religious exercise is about a lot more than freedom of worship. It's about the right to dress according to one's religious dictates, to preach openly, to evangelize, to engage in the public square. Everyone knows that religious Jews keep kosher, religious Quakers don't go to war, and religious Muslim women wear headscarves-yet "freedom of worship" would protect none of these acts of faith."

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Yikes!  In order to help make up for a $32.5 million funding shortfall, the city has chosen to eliminate 80 police officers from the payroll.  An additional 122 may be canned by year end.  On top of that, there are 44 situations that the police will no longer respond to.  If you are a criminal, you now have a laundry list of crimes you can officially get away with.

I feel for those who live in or around Oakland, CA.  I used to live about 45 minutes from there and have driven through it many times.  At least the residents there can protect themselves and their possessions.  Oh wait, this is Oakland.  And California. Nevermind. 

Here's a partial list:

• burglary
• theft
• embezzlement
• grand theft
• grand theft:dog
• identity theft
• false information to peace officer
• required to register as sex or arson offender
• dump waste or offensive matter
• discard appliance with lock
• loud music
• possess forged notes
• pass fictitious check
• obtain money by false voucher
• fraudulent use of access cards
• stolen license plate
• embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)
• extortion
• attempted extortion
• false personification of other
• injure telephone/ power line
• interfere with power line
• unauthorized cable tv connection
• vandalism
• administer/expose poison to another's

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From LifeNews.  As if the grants that Planned Parenthood have received over the years was not enough, now we are all funding the practice via insurance programs made possible through the new health care legislation.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Obama administration has officially approved the first instance of taxpayer funded abortions under the new national government-run health care program. This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.

The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new "high-risk" insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March.

It has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of pro-abortion Governor Edward Rendell under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.

The high-risk pool program is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide.

"The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million in federal tax funds, which we've discovered will pay for insurance plans that cover any legal abortion," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee.

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