Another Congressional Plan That Will Help Kill The Economy

I was listening to AFN radio yesterday when they annoucned that Congress plans on trying to give more authority to the FDA to regulate Tobacco.  the idea is that by regulating tobacco the FDA would be able to eliminate harmful products that people use ona day to day basis.

I see a multitude of problems that will stem from this kind of legislation other than the obvious “nanny state” mentality it brings.

The propsed plan would include a ban on menthal and cnady flavored cigars (i.e swisher sweets).  Both of these products are very popular amongst people from all walks of life.  By banning these two products I forsee at least three major issues.

First, by banning these products that sell quite well you will ultimately end up eliminating (not creating) a huge job market in the manufacturing sector.  Now these products wills till be able to be sold worldwide.  This could lead to the manufacturing plants being moved overseas which would also reduce the jobs manufactionring non-menthal cigarettes also.

Second, banning these products could very well lead to organized crime like the nation saw during the prohibition of alchol.

Thirdly, where is the lost tobacco tax revenue going to be made up?

I am a former smoker and I choose to quit on my own for reasons that were my own.  I do not need the government telling me what I can and can not do.  If we allow the government to start telling us how to live our lives where will it stop?  Will they come for our guns next under the guise that guns are too dangerous for the average citizen to carry, will they force us to eat a set government controlled diet to battle the obiseity problem in the US?  Once we allow the government to start to take control of our lives they will not be happen till they have complete control over our lives and this is precisely what our founding fathers fought valiantly to stop.

US House Democrats Preparing for Election Year Hearings

I am sure this is no surprise to anyone out there, but the US House Democrats (to include all of the Democrats from Washington State) have passed Kucinich’s Resolution (HR1345). 

This vote is to refer an article of impeachment resolutionto the House Judiciary Committee, but the Democrat House leadership has already stated in no way will they actually pursue impeachment of the President.  Instead; they have decide to hold an election year review where they will trot out witness, experts, moonbats and anyone else who has a bone to pick with the President during these so called hearings.  They may even televise it on C-SPAN.

At a minimum this is a waste of both time and money and worst it could be called an abuse of the party in power in Congress.  This stunt is nothing more than political posturing prior to a Presidential election. especially when we have much more pressing matters such as high fuel prices driving up costs on all goods and services which is a direct result from the lack of a viable energy plan.  Perhaps the Democrats are hoping that this side show event will deflect the public’s attention away from the lack of energy planning the Democrats have produced and at the same time pander to the B.D.S. suffers that they are counting on to vote for Obama in November.

I urge everyone to contact their Representatives and let them know how displeased they are with this waste of taxpayer money.  I have already contacted my Representative Brian Baird and let him know that this kind of political stunt is not what he was elected to do as our Representative.  I also feel that the more we can get the word out about these ridiculous upcoming hearings and how the time would be better spent working on a viable solution to on energy issues, which would seriously help the economy and keep the unemployment rates from skyrocketing (can anyone say economics) the more voters will realize what this spectacle is really about.

Congress’ Use of our Intelligence Assests

NRO has the story that Congressional Democrats have decided to use some intelligence assets to write up estimates about global warming.  You would think that after 9/11 that we would have learned from our intelligence failures and work harder on ensuring that our intelligence agents are used to track real threats to our nation, like terrorists, but once again the powers that be in Congress have decided that they will live in a 9/10 world instead and forget about reality.  Here is what they have:

Today marked a new low for the way congressional Democrats deal with national security. This morning, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a joint hearing on a “National Intelligence Assessment” on global climate change. This analysis was ordered by the Democratic Congress last year and was issued a few weeks ago. Some highlights (or low-lights) from the hearing:

1) In response to a question by Global Warming Committee member Greg Walden (R-OR), the Intelligence Community admitted they had “low to medium confidence” in the accuracy of this estimate because intelligence officers lack the expertise to write such an estimate (it was mostly contracted out to other organizations) and climate change science is so uncertain. As Walden started to ask about why an analysis of such low reliability was issued, Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), the Global Warming Committee Chairman, cut him off and told him he was out of time even though Markey let all the previous Democrats speak substantially past their time limits.

2) Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Peter asked what intelligence was used for this estimate and whether intelligence collection requirements were prepared. National Intelligence Council Chairman Thomas Fingar said no clandestine intelligence was used and that intelligence officers extrapolated what would happen if the “mid-level estimates” by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were correct. When Hoekstra asked why the U.S. Intelligence Community would write an major analysis of low to medium confidence that contained no intelligence, Fingar answered, “because you [Congress] told us to.” 

3) Hoekstra noted that intelligence assessments of high confidence have proven to be wrong and he wondered why an intelligence assessment of low to medium confidence would even be published. In an attempt to dispel the debate over confidence, Intelligence Committee member Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) responded by noting that the 2002 Iraq WMD NIE had high confidence in its findings. Some Republicans thought Rep. Eshoo’s statement actually made their case about the futility of issuing an intelligence assessment that intelligence officers cannot fully back.

With the Democrat controlled Congress at work on such tough issues like this doesn’t it just make you feel sooooo much safer?

/sarcasm