“You absolutely cannot trust the United States Senate to live within its means.”

Say what you want about Senator Corker, but the guy is among an ever-dwindling group of  ”grown-ups” still walking the halls of the United States Senate when it comes to getting the country’s financial house in order.  He may not always represent the model conservative this Tennessee constituent longs for; but on fiscal matters, he rarely finds himself on the wrong side of things.

I’ve only loosely followed this debate the last few days, but I’ll try to limp through the basics.  Senate Republicans attempted to block a Harry Reid-driven postal reform bill from coming to the floor with a point of order challenge to the proposed legislation because they said S. 1789, would add to the deficit in violation of last year’s Budget Control Act; and add $34 billion to the nation’s debt.

That’s a Murderer’s Row of Moderates if I’ve ever seen one…

The Senate voted on 16 amendments to the reform bill (8 passed/8 did not) and the Body was set to pick up the rest on Wednesday.  Here’s a list of the proposed amendments.

Here’s the debate in a nutshell…

“Any new burden” on taxpayers… Now I understand.  Haven’t we heard that before?

Chief Justice Roberts: “It seems to me the federal government just doesn’t want to know who’s here illegally.”

If that’s all you heard about today’s Arizona Immigration Law (SB1070) oral arguments, I think you might be able to draw the conclusion it was not a good day for the Solicitor General before the Supreme Court.  Sadly, for Donald B. Verrilli Jr., resistance came from both ends of the ideological spectrum.

“I’m terribly confused by your answer”

“I’m terribly confused by your answer,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who went on to say that the federal government can always decline to pick up illegal immigrants when Arizona officials call.

It wasn’t all bad for the Obama administration’s top advocate.

The Court is expected to announce a decision on the AZ law before the end of its summer term.  Considering a ruling on the Affordable Care Act is also due out around that time, it could mean some extremely tense days around the White House – and the Halls of Congress for that matter.  If ObamaCare goes down and SB1070 is upheld, I’d expect a firestorm of “activist judge” rhetoric that could potentially factor in to November elections.

I’m off for a run and an afternoon away from the computer; but before I headed out, I figured I’d share a few links from the best and the brightest of the Daily Reads.  Hope everyone’s enjoying their Tuesday.  Be sure to set your DVR for Mitt Romney “A Better America Begins Tonight” victory speech in Blue State Country and the Jimmy Fallon – Questlove – President Obama – lovefest later on tonight.

Be sure to let me know how that goes.

RS McCain’s selling Mother’s Days Jewelry for Amazon… and college tuition for his kids.  Maybe he should hit up Michelle Obama.   He’s also got a post on Obama’s One Success.  (Here’s a hint.  It has something to do with Mexicans going the other way for a change.)

The Sun is shining in Adrienne’s world, so she’s got cats.  Yes, cats.  I don’t get it either; but I like her, so she gets a link.  She also has an incredibly heartfelt personal story that offers some perspective on the Zimmerman/Trayvon story… Zimmerman: “I didn’t know if he was armed”…

Chris at WyBlog’s got some good news for the 50% of college graduates that can’t find a job…

Lonely Conservative breaks the news that The War on Terror is Over?  Free beer for everyone.  There’s also a guest post by Mike Jones: The Life and Times of Sour Milk

Left Coast Rebel says “News of the Tea Party’s Death is Greatly Exaggerated.”  Thank God.  Where was I going to wear my “Don’t Tread on Me” T-Shirt?  Dean @LCR has “Obama Then and Now – Part 236”

Motor City Times has the “How To” video everyone’s been waiting for… Video: How to Weaponize Office Supplies

Ed Driscoll and Ace have a horribly under-reported story:  Third Racially-Motivated Attack in which ‘Justice for Trayvon’ Explicitly Cited

20 Blacks Beat White Interloper With Makeshift Bludgeons; Victim In Critical Condition; One Attacker Said, “Now That’s Justice For Trayvon”

The Gill Report has the video…

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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is the voice of the common man.  He represents the little guy against the big ugly machine that is Big Business.  He is the face of the modern American labor union.  And he’s lining his pockets every step along the way…

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t begrudge Trumpka for his earning a living.  I just laugh at the hypocrisy of people like him ranting and raving about CEO salaries and corporate profits.  I’m sure he “earns” every penny of his salary and bonuses.  He represents the union well.  I’m just not sure that union represents its members any longer.

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Linked at Lonely Conservative – thanks!

President Obama is in North Carolina today on the first leg of a three-state tour to promote his student loan rate-reduction proposal – a move most believe is a shallow attempt at reaching out to young voters which most believe will be crucial to his claiming a second term.  To further the effort, the President will make an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that will be taped on the campus of the University of North Carolina.  Critics are already screaming conduct unbecoming…

USA TODAY says President Obama’s just following a trail “blazed” by President Clinton; and that’s probably a fair point.  What the Bill Clinton/Arsenio Hall saxophone performance taught us was that “people” like to “know” the guy they’re going to vote for.  They long for a “humanizing” opportunity where they can see the candidate in a setting beyond his/her control.  Of course, we all know (and as Jay Leno recently told us) these late night appearances are anything but un-scripted; but I suppose it works for some, so what the heck?

I, for one, can’t wait to hear what house band The Roots plays as the president takes the stage.  Will Questlove opt for Hail to the Chief; or go the Bachmann welcome route and play something like Lyin Ass Bitch?

For what it’s worth, I tend to take the position that the “youth vote” is a bit of a fiction; wrapped in a dream; deep fried and smothered covered on a plate of naive optimism.  A series of speeches about interest rates on student loans will no more “get out the vote” among young people than the legal drinking age keeps them from drinking on Friday night at fraternity parties.

College students don’t care about student loan interest rates.

They care when they graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in ______ and the only job they can find is waiting tables or folding clothes.

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It appears tickets for both show(s) (the speech and the Fallon appearance) were in high demand…

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H/T US WEEKLY; Photo Credit Kevin Winter/NBCUniversal/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images

For much of this president’s first term, I’ve operated under the assumption that while growing government was a cornerstone of his underlying ideological aspirations, his true agenda would reveal itself if and when he was elected to a second term.  He’s already made it abundantly clear that re-election would afford him “flexibility” in foreign affairs.  Why would issues on the domestic front be any different?  Same Sex Marriage, Abortion, Amnesty for illegal aliens, you name it.  It’s coming.

The problem for President Obama is getting re-elected and still running away from every domestic issue that “Hope and Change” insinuated or implied would come with his historic election in 2008.  He may have every intention of making Same Sex Marriage / Gay Rights part of his second term agenda; he just can’t even begin to hint at it if he wants to carry states like North Carolina that helped him claim victory over John McCain.

The Washington Post says North Carolina is “More Evidence of His Delicate Approach to Gay Rights.”

So, what’s the call?  Tackle Gay Rights head on; or pitch lower interest rates to college students?  Does it really matter?  The fact that the president continues to punt on issues important to the Gay community inevitably costs him points with that demographic – and younger generations of Americans who care even less about government defining marriage than they do about interest rates on student loans.  But is either group really going to run to the Republican Party as a result – or even vote for that matter?

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Photo H/T NOMBlog

Came across this headline over at Drudge this morning.

63 SPY-PLANE LAUNCH SITES IN 20 STATES...

Can’t say I’m all that surprised to see that it’s the Daily Mail UK that is running the story; and not a domestic outlet.  How could the MSM possibly spin a story like this with a Democrat in the White House?

In full disclosure, I’m anything but a Little Black Helicopters fear-monger.  The use of drones to search for drug crop installations or to carry out unmanned missions for the purpose of tracking potential terrorists are perfectly justifiable from where I sit – regardless of the “privacy” fears they may elicit in some.  What makes this story extremely intriguing, to me, is that if President Bush was still living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the MSM and the Left would be apoplectic.

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Check out the map of drone sits over at Google Maps.  I guarantee you that there’s one closer to your house than you’d ever expect.

Yet “young” people as a group still disproportionally vote Democrat.  How’s Hope going with this group?

I suppose this is a reality that this class – and probably the next two that follow – will have to deal with for some time.  While employers are quick to “discriminate” against the chronically unemployed, they still prefer “experience” to fresh out of school.  With many having left the job market over the past few years; and some slow to return; I’d anticipate new college graduates to find it increasingly more difficult to find desirable work.  Maybe freshman orientation should be replaced with How to Take a Customer’s Order 101?

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I suppose it could always be worse…  

The Right’s favorite Democrat/Independent made an appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace to discuss the GSA and Secret Service scandals this morning.  While an interview with Senator Lieberman rarely causes a my hear to race, it’s still a million times better than having to listen to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in the Am to appease those that still believe Fair and Balanced is a cause worth the sacrifice.

I often say that if Joe Lieberman was a Republican, he’d immediately assume the mantle of my least favorite Republican.   I like him.  It’s just that the only reason I like him is that he’s the most tolerable from that side of the aisle.  I guess what I’m saying here is being my favorite Democrat in the Senate is about like being Valedictorian of summer school.  It is what it is.

That said, Senator Lieberman actually hit on precisely what I see as the real issue of consequence as it relates to Secret Service agents drinking and paying for the services of call girls.

“History is full of cases where enemies have compromised people in security or in intelligence positions with sex.  And beyond that, in a much more practical way, I don’t think we want our Secret Service agents drinking bottles of vodka and carousing with women before they’re going on duty to protect the President.”

“If the Secret Service gets the reputation that when they’re off duty – not when they’re on – they’re going to be acting like a bunch of college students on ‘Spring Weekend’, then people who are hostile to the US; to people who may actually want to attack the President of the United States will begin to take advantage of that vulnerability.”

We’ll ignore that he called it “Spring Weekend”; rather than Spring Break.  It’s been a few years since he did a keg-stand or funneled a beer.  But he’s right.  Sex makes people stupid and do stupid things.  And smart people know that and use it against them.

I think that pretty much explains the relationship between men and women… and speaks to why these lapses in judgment are dangerous and troublesome.   The prostitution makes for good headlines.  A culture or an environment that allows it puts American security at risk and lives in jeopardy.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley…

Topic Du Jour:  Immigration

Will Mitt Romney do better in Florida among Hispanic voters than John McCain did in 2008?  (President Obama claimed 57% of that vote)

“I expect him to do better than how we did in 2008, but you have to work on it. … I think we just got out of a primary cycle and now that’s why we’re going to have a campaign where each side is going to tell and try to convince people to vote for them… They’re willing to vote for Republicans or Democrats on an election by election cycle. The number one issue in the Hispanic community, let’s be clear is economic empowerment.”

On the last line there, I do believe the senator is correct.  While I’m sure that President Obama’s minority status swayed a percentage of two toward his camp, I think the more plausible argument is one that says Hispanic voters were simply voting for “change.”  I don’t mean the Obama promise of “change”; I merely mean change as in anything is better than what they had.  I don’t mean that as a knock on GW Bush either.  I just happen to think the Hispanic community is the most under-represented and most discriminated community in the USA of 2012; and that status hasn’t improved since 57% of them voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

What I’m saying here is that promises are promises and change is the only wild card that could actually produce results.  They may very well get more of the same, but staying with the guy that’s done nothing for them for four years and expecting a different outcome is…well, crazy.

The interview continues to stay on immigration for the duration of the clip posted below.  Crowley, in her trademark awkward journalistic style, presses Rubio on whether the Republican Party can appeal to Hispanic voters with illegal immigration reform as one of its planks in November.

RUBIO:  This notion that somehow in order to appeal to Hispanic voters, you have to support illegal immigration is just not true.

CROWLEY:  This comes across, does it not, as anti-immigrant?

RUBIO:  Other than only just talking about what we’re against, you have to talk about what you’re for.  What I have said consistently is that the Republican Party is and must become the pro-legal immigration party.  We have to make very clear that we support legal immigration. The vast majority of American of Hispanic descent are legally here.

CROWLEY:  The problem isn’t legal immigration.  That’s part of the American Dream.

RUBIO:  It does matter how you talk about the issue.  It starts by recognizing that the vast majority of people that are in this country illegally didn’t come here to steal from the American government.  They are in search of jobs and opportunity.  They are doing what most people would do if their children were hungry and their family were suffering…

CROWLY:  Republicans haven’t been talking about guest worker programs really so much as they’ve been talking about fences and in-state tuition being denied to the children of illegals…

RUBIO:  You have to have immigration laws and they have to be enforced.  That doesn’t mean that because you support the laws that you don’t recognize the humanitarian aspect of the immigration problem.