Via Ed Morrissey:

The Federal Communications Commission's plan to impose Net neutrality regulations just became much more difficult to pull off.

A bipartisan group of politicians on Monday told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in no uncertain terms, to abandon his plans to impose controversial new rules on broadband providers until the U.S. Congress changes the law.

Seventy-four House Democrats sent Genachowski, an Obama appointee and fellow Democrat, a letter saying his ideas will "jeopardize jobs" and "should not be done without additional direction from Congress."

A separate letter from 37 Senate Republicans, also sent Monday, was more pointed. It accused Genachowski of pushing "heavy-handed 19th century regulations" that are "inconceivable" as well as illegal.

This amounts to approximately the last thing that any FCC chairman, at least one concerned with his future political prospects, wants to happen on his watch. Not only do Monday's letters inject a new element of uncertainty into whether the FCC will try to repurpose analog telephone-era rules to target broadband providers, but they also sharply increase the likelihood of the process taking not many months but many years.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20005834-38.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-PoliticsandLaw

Exclusive: FBI details surge in death threats against lawmakers

By ERIKA LOVLEY | 5/25/10 4:43 AM EDT

I voted for you,” the caller said in a voice mail to Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler’s district office. “If you vote for that stimulus package, I’m gonna kill you. Simple as that.”

The FBI says the caller was a 70-year-old resident of Shuler’s North Carolina district with a history of mental illness and a cache of guns. In the weeks before calling Shuler’s office, the FBI says, the caller beat and choked his wife. She told the FBI that she’d tried to clear her home of guns — and that she went to bed at night with a can of mace tucked under her pillow.

When agents showed up at the man’s door, they asked him why he’d threatened to kill Shuler.

“I was trying to work the political scene,” he said.

The threat against Shuler is one of several detailed in 2009 FBI documents provided to POLITICO pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) were threatened with assassination. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) were threatened with bodily harm. Someone told Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that her throat would be cut. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) was told someone would physically “f—- her up” if she held a town hall meeting in her district, according to the FBI files.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37726.html

Durbin: Sestak needs to explain job offer

Majority Whip Di*k Durbin says Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) should come clean about exactly what he was offered to drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary.

"At some point, I think Congressman Sestak needs to make it clear what happened," Durbin said.

Durbin, a close Obama ally, would not specify whether the administration should make a stronger case in denying Sestak's charge that the White House offered the congressman a job in order to end his primary bid against sitting Sen. Arlen Specter. Sestak ended up winning the primary last week.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0510/Durbin_Sestak_needs_to_explain_job_offer.html

Justice Department declines to appoint independent counsel for Sestak case

A 26-Page Brownie Recipe? Only At The Pentagon

Obama to Inspect Gulf Oil Spill

By HELENE COOPER

President Obama will travel back to the Gulf Coast this week — his second trip in a month — to assess firsthand the growing environmental damage from the spreading oil spill, White House officials said.

Mr. Obama will travel to Louisiana from Chicago, where he will be spending Memorial Day weekend, on Friday for a day trip, the officials said. As the oil spill enters its second month unabated, the administration is coming under increased criticism for its oversight of the oil leak.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/obama-to-inspect-gulf-oil-spill/?partner=rss&emc=rss

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates are also available on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, 42% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. That is the lowest level of approval yet measured for this president. Fifty-six percent (56%) now disapprove of his performance.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Sen. Brown to Vote No on DADT Repeal 

By Advocate.com Editors

Massachusetts senator Scott Brown says he plans to vote against repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” when the matter comes up for a vote Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to The Boston Globe.

Brown’s announcement is a blow to repeal advocates who were hoping the freshman senator would support efforts to end the policy.

Brown has previously said he was undecided on overturning the military’s gay ban but announced he would not support repeal efforts after the White House issued a statement supporting a compromise that would lead to a vote this week.

http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/05/25/Sen_Brown_to_Vote_No_on_DADT_Repeal/

Obama to Deploy Up to 1,200 National Guard Troops to U.S.-Mexico Border

FOXNews.com

President Obama told Senate Republicans Tuesday that he's read the controversial Arizona immigration law and is concerned it would allow for discrimination -- but is planning to deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to allay security concerns.

An administration official confirmed to Fox News that Obama plans to request $500 million for "enhanced border protection and law enforcement" and deploy the National Guard troops as needed. 

The official said the National Guard would be used to "provide intelligence; surveillance and reconnaissance support; intelligence analysis; immediate support to counternarcotics enforcement; and training capacity until Customs and Border Patrol can recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the border."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/25/obama-deploy-national-guard-troops-mexico-border/

That name is what Keith Hennessey is calling it. Mr. Kennessey has analysis of the Hypocrisy Act of 2010 or Stimulus 4 on his website.

The Daily Caller has the details of the bill:

Democrats set to consider $197 billion in unpaid-for ‘emergency spending’

Via Ed Morrissey:


http://house.gov/budget_republicans/press/cutspendingnow.pdf

State Rep. in accident with suspected illegal immigrant

Updated: Sunday, 23 May 2010, 2:38 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 21 May 2010, 7:04 PM EDT

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - A serious car crash involving a local lawmaker and a suspected illegal immigrant is threatening to reignite already heated debates about immigration on Beacon Hill, according to police reports obtained by FOX25.

State Rep. Mike Moran of Brighton was rear-ended by a suspected illegal immigrant this week. The suspect was wearing a Mexican costume at the time of the crash where he slammed into Moran at 60 mph.

The suspect, 27-year-old Isaias Naranjo, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a valid license. According to the report, when told of the serious charges he would be facing, he just laughed.

But because of action taken by Gov. Deval Patrick, state police were unable to notify immigration authorities that Naranjo might be illegal.

House Republicans plan online community, to find a voice and set the tone

By Perry Bacon Jr. and Paul Kane

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

House Republicans will unveil on Tuesday a Web site they will use to solicit policy ideas from the public, the first step in the development of a platform that they will present to voters this fall.

Called "America Speaking Out," the site borrows from the approaches of popular Web sites such as Wikipedia and Amazon.com. Starting this week, people will be able to go to http://www.americaspeakingout.com, submit ideas, rate those of others, and post their comments on Facebook and Twitter through the site.

The most prominent users will earn "badges," though the GOP has not yet determined what rewards people could get. House Republicans also will go on the site and interact with users. Up to a dozen staff members will be monitoring the Web site, party aides said, both to keep it running properly and to filter out inappropriate messages.

The Web site formally starts the GOP's process of touting its own vision and policies to voters, after spending most of the last 16 months bashing President Obama and congressional Democrats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052403970.html

White House Asks Va. to Drop Health Care Lawsuit

Sebelius Files to Have State's Legal Challenge to Mandatory Insurance Dismissed, Defends Law's Constitutionality

(AP)  President Obama's administration on Monday asked a federal judge in Virginia to dismiss the state's lawsuit alleging Congress overstepped its constitutional bounds with the new health care reform law.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued in a motion filed hours before a midnight deadline that the law is well within the scope of the Constitution's Commerce Clause.

Virginia's Republican attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond less than eight hours after Congress enacted the law. It argues that requiring people to buy health coverage or pay a fee exceeds federal powers limited by the Constitution's 10th Amendment.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/25/politics/main6516256.shtml

America's new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control

By Arthur C. Brooks

Sunday, May 23, 2010

America faces a new culture war.

This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country's future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise -- limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.

It is not at all clear which side will prevail. The forces of big government are entrenched and enjoy the full arsenal of the administration's money and influence. Our leaders in Washington, aided by the unprecedented economic crisis of recent years and the panic it induced, have seized the moment to introduce breathtaking expansions of state power in huge swaths of the economy, from the health-care takeover to the financial regulatory bill that the Senate approved Thursday. If these forces continue to prevail, America will cease to be a free enterprise nation.

I call this a culture war because free enterprise has been integral to American culture from the beginning, and it still lies at the core of our history and character. "A wise and frugal government," Thomas Jefferson declared in his first inaugural address in 1801, "which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." He later warned: "To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." In other words, beware government's economic control, and woe betide the redistributors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/21/AR2010052101854.html