Morning Edition

Drugs

HHS: Law does not prohibit pot purchases with welfare - Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell says the federal government does not have the power to stop states from allowing people to use welfare benefits to buy marijuana.

Economics

The minimum wage, economics and dishonest studies - The minimum wage, economics and dishonest studies - Nottrampis made comments about my post on wages and the fallacy behind union bargaining. My thesis, as he called it, is an economic law. To wit: if you price the services of any good above its market clearing price you will get a surplus. And that also goes for labour. The Great Depression testifies to that fact…….Last March the Centre for American Progress (Soros-funded leftwing ‘think tank’ that loathes free markets) sponsored and published The Effects of Minimum Wages on SNAP Enrollments and Expenditures by Rachel West and Michael Reich. According to this pair of alleged economists, raising the minimum wage would cut federal “spending by $4.6 billion” per annum. So not only would raising the minimum wage reduce poverty and promote economic growth it would also eliminate the deficit and perhaps even reduce federal spending. I have not read anything this stupid on economics since Nancy Pelosi claimed that raising dole payments would generate economic growth……

Politics

Issa: Holder spokesman caught red-handed - The administration official calling House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) office last week had an odd request.    Could the Justice Department get some help leaking information about the IRS’s scrutiny of conservative groups? asked Brian Fallon, a top spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder.  Apparently thinking he had reached the office of Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Fallon said the department wanted congressional staffers to get documents to selected reporters so that officials could comment on them “before the majority” did.  After Issa spokesman Frederick Hill replied that Oversight Committee staffers would have to examine those documents first, the line went silent, and Fallon placed the call on hold for three minutes.  When he returned to the line, Fallon was “audibly shaken,” according to an account of the conversation that Issa recounts in a letter sent to Holder……The Democratic staffer on Oversight said it was rich of Issa to complain about selective leaks. “The larger problem is that Chairman Issa’s staff routinely exclude Democratic staff from calls and meetings with federal officials,” the aide said. “Chairman Issa also routinely leaks documents — or portions of them — out of context and without any committee vote or debate.”

• IG says Justice Department caused 'significant delays' in investigations

My Take - Washington is such a pit of vipers I marvel anyone willingly works there.  However – I put the response to all this by the “Democratic staffer on Oversight” from the last paragraphs in the article because this reponse a logical fallacy.  Why is it a logical fallacy?  It's a "see everyone does it" fallacy, with a twist. 

 

The issue isn't about leaks from the committee.  Congressional committees leak like a sieve, and that has long as there have been Congressional committees.  During WWII a Congressman leaked classified information as to why American subs were safe from Japanese depth charges.  The Japanese changed what they were doing and they were no longer safe.  The real issue here is a conspiracy between Democratic members of the committee and their staffers conspiring with the Justice Department to thwart the committee's efforts.  I would have to believe that certainly has to be far more illegal than mere leaking.  Somehow that would appear to me to be obstruction of justice.  Don't you think?

 

Senate Dems Whine When GOP Calls Their Bluff on Show Vote - The Politico story quoted extensively below is a gem, on several levels. By way of background, Senate Democrats are hopping mad because Republicans have complicated their game plan to stage a series of quixotic, poll-tested, pre-election show votes. The GOP's specific sin? Agreeing to proceed to a debate on the first proposed measure -- which just happens to be a Constitutional Amendment imposing unprecedented new federal limits on political speech.........within minutes of the upper chamber being gaveled back into session after the August recess, Harry Reid resumed his deranged muttering about the sinister Koch brothers. ......Now that the GOP has agreed not to obstruct the amendment by foreclosing debate, Democrats have resorted to a creative alternate line of attack: Accusing Republicans of, well, obstruction. Vote against triggering debate? Obstruction! Vote in favor of triggering that precise debate? Cynical obstruction! They're frustrated because Republicans have fiendishly assented to a lengthy debate, the existence of which denies Democrats the opportunity to cram in a boatload of theater-style votes on items that have no chance of passing....... 

Race

 

If White-Privilege Is Real Why Do Asians Do So Well?  - With the usual kind of help from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the events in Ferguson, Missouri got people talking once again about white privilege in America. White privilege has become one of the favorite arguments of politically-correct, pandering liberals who like to make excuses for the fact that black Americans do not, as a rule, fare as well as white Americans on standard of socio-economic indicators. The concept of white privilege is also a favorite weapon for those who make their living stirring up racial discord because it is based on the supposition that being white in America offers special advantages that people of other races do not enjoy. Said another way, white privilege means that to be anything but white in America is to be economically and politically handicapped. For those who wish to exploit envy and greed for political benefit, the rhetoric of white privilege has great appeal……. People of any race can succeed in America is they emulate the approach of Asian Americans: take education seriously, develop a positive work ethic, obey the rules, respect the laws of the land, and stay together as families. Consequently, the next time some pandering liberal raises the issue of white privilege in America, ask him why Asian Americans do so well—better, in fact, than whites….