Today is August 14th. Today the Daily Links returns after a prolonged hiatus due to preparation for the RedState Gathering. • On this date in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Also on this date, in 2025, the whole thing went bankrupt and fell apart, probably. • On this date in 1945, President Harry Truman revealed Japan’s unconditional surrender and the end of World War II. When asked how it felt being able to deliver the news, Truman replied that “it was the bomb!” • On this date in 1980, PETA was formed. Little known fact, they originally wanted to call it PECA, or People for the Exposure of Celebrity Asses, but decided that was a little too “on the nose”. • And finally, today is National Creamsicle Day, or as Ben Howe likes to call it, “every day”. Consider this an Open Thread.

Biden on Romney: ‘They’re going to put y’all back in chains’ | Free Beacon
“Vice President Joe Biden told supporters that Republicans would ‘put y’all back in chains,’ during a campaign speech Tuesday in Danville, Va.”

Sununu to CNN host: ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’ | Washington Times
“‘I’ve got the CBO report right here,’ he continued. ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead when you do this.’”

The Unbearable Lightness of Being a ‘GOP Pro’ | Weekly Standard
“When ‘GOP pros’ are most full of fear and apprehension about Republican prospects—for example, Reagan in 1980, Gingrich in 1994, and the Tea Party in 2010—Republicans tend to do well.”

California’s Prop 37: A feast for lawyers | Daily Caller
“And even though health fears about GMO/GE products have been debunked by virtually every scientific authority to look into the matter — from the AMA to the World Health Organization, and including science reporting in such perhaps unexpected venues as Mother Jones and the Huffington Post — voters in a new Pepperdine poll still approve of the idea by a lopsided 69 to 22 percent.”

Citizens United Film Schedule for the RNC | Citizens United
“Citizens United is proud to present the Citizens United Theater at Liberty Plaza at this year’s Republican National Committee in Tampa, Florida.”

Josh Mandel for Ohio Senator! by spoasteph97

ex officio (EKS uh-FISH-ee-oh): adverb, adjective: By virtue of one’s official position. For example, the US Vice President is the ex officio president of the US Senate.
Via Wordsmith.org.

The Romney campaign has released a powerful new television ad contrasting the Romney/ Ryan plan, which strengthens Medicare and protects the commitments made to current seniors, against Obama’s $716 billion cuts from Medicare.

Watch the new ad, called “Paid In.”:

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One would think that one of the primary requirements of energy independence would be having the ability to collect the energy through which one becomes independent by using. Somehow, this logic escapes the Obama administration as evidenced by their “Five-Year Plan.” However, if their goal was to diminish opportunities for energy resources, they’ve done a magnificent job.

It is pretty well established that there is oil in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Arctic. We should drill there until it runs dry and the administration puts forth the appearance that they agree on this point as they have been kind enough to allow additional drilling there. Specifically, they’ve agreed to set up 12 lease auctions in the Gulf and 3 more in the Arctic. Very nice of them but these are known quantities and probably don’t qualify as the savior of energy independence at this point. For that, we’d need to explore new areas. However, true exploration is not on the agenda.

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Today, in Florida’s 7th Congressional District a primary battle between Rep. John Mica (R) and Rep. Sandy Adams (R) is culminating as voters go to the polls to decide which incumbent will represent the newly redrawn district. Mica, the entrenched powerful chairman of the House Transportation Committee, left his current district and a few hundred thousands constituents to move into the newly redrawn district of conservative freshman Rep. Sandy Adams.

Pledging to destroy Adams, Mica has run a tough and at times dishonest campaign, one that could be expected from a Washington insider who pretends he is a conservative but prefers to practice the politics of cronyism. Mica represents the failed governing style of people like former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who left Congress in disgrace after decades of cutting last minute backroom deals that benefited lobbyist pals like Jack Abramoff (who did jail time) and donors to his political causes. Mica’s ability to direct millions of taxpayer dollars to benefit his family and friends (and in return secure political contributions from the recipients) smacks of the old-style Washington that destroyed GOP majorities in 2006 and brought a premature halt to the vaunted ’94 Revolution.

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In the coming days, we will invariably be subjected to a barrage of lies about the “extreme” Ryan budget.  As such, it’s worthwhile to reexamine the latest version of his budget, and view it in its proper context.  Here are some talking points for Soledad O’Brien the next time she wants to grill a Democrat on the Ryan budget:

• The budget won’t balance until 2040, yet that is considered extreme for Democrats.  After all, their budget, which never balances even with massive tax increases, is mainstream.
• Spending will be reduced from 24% of GDP to 19.8% – roughly equal with the post-WWII average.  The debt held by the public would only decline from73.2% of GDP to 62.3% under this budget.
• Out of Obama’s $11.575 trillion in discretionary spending, Ryan’s budget cuts just $352 billion, a mere 3%.  Evidently, 2008 (Pelosi era) spending levels were extremely low.  Some of those cuts come from farm subsidies – cuts that Obama claims to support.
• Under Ryan’s plan, spending would still increase by about 3% a year after 2015.  Even after the full 10 years of Ryan’s “slash and burn budget,” outlays will reach $4.9 trillion by 2022, only 13% less than forecast in Obama’s budget.
• Not one penny of the projected $10.5 trillion in Social Security spending is cut or altered in any way.  It will remain insolvent for the entire 10-year budget frame.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Michael Warren to discuss Paul Ryan, his style as a campaigner, and the pros and cons of his addition to the Romney ticket.

We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at bjackson[at]coffeeandmarkets.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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A few weeks ago I wrote about how the government is doubling up on the ever important Catfish inspection duties by having the USDA inspect catfish at an even greater cost than currently spent by the FDA to do the same thing.

Either way, it seems that the Agriculture Committee found it too important to America to allow us tone limited to only one gigantic bureaucratic monstrosity regulating catfish. Dammit, we gotta keep on top of these things! The fate of our catfish supply is at stake!

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., proposed an amendment to leave catfish inspection with the FDA saying that USDA inspection was duplicative and threatened a trade war. Hartzler noted that the $15 million price tag far surpassed the $700,000 that FDA spends annually on inspection of all fish.

Yes, fifteen times the cost the FDA is currently spending to do the same thing. This is what Republicans and Democrats agreed was too important to slash from their pork riddled Farm Bill. Meanwhile, even the Senate recognized how silly the duplicative spending would be and voted to repeal the USDA Catfish Inspection Office (I can’t believe I had to type those words) giving the House the chance to finalize the savings. But the House just couldn’t pull it off.

Ideally the authority to inspect catfish is supposed to be transferred as opposed to done simultaneously, however, that law has not been fully implemented and as a result both agencies are still on the job.

Well, on the job might be a bit generous given that some reports are now saying that the USDA has spent $20 million tax payer dollars to inspect zero fish and is on track to spend a jaw dropping $150 million over the next ten years.

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I admit, I’m no expert on the politics of the Evergreen State, but its races deserve more attention than we on the Right usually get it. After all, it was the 2004 gubernatorial election pitting Republican Dino Rossi against Democrat Christine Gregoire that was the textbook definition of a stolen election until the 2008 Minnesota Senate race came along. This year, for example, the gubernatorial election is very close. Real Clear Politics has Democrat Jay Inslee (formerly of Washington’s 1st Congressional District) up by only 0.7% over Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna in their polling average.

But it’s not just the governor’s race that deserves our attention. There’s a race for a state Supreme Court seat that we need to look at as well, where right-leaning Richard Sanders is trying to regain his seat on the court. Columnist Rachel Alexander has an excellent column up on Townhall.com explaining the race and the stakes:

One of only two right-leaning justices who has served on the Washington Supreme Court in recent years is in the battle of his life to regain his seat. As a result of his freedom of religion, sanctity of marriage, gun rights, and the unborn, former Justice Richard Sanders has been a lightening rod for attacks from the left and the biased media. Those attacks finally cost him reelection in 2010, after serving on the high court for three terms since 1995.

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Georgia’s 9th Congressional District runoff presents the two faces of the Republican Party and asks voters to choose.

On one hand is Doug Collins. Collins would fit right in with the Congressional Republicans who raised the debt ceiling on the promise of spending cuts and then weaseled out of the cuts. He’d fit right in with a GOP that gives lip to repealing Obamacare, but is actually too scared of picking a fight on defunding it.

Doug Collins was an inconsequential legislator in the Georgia General Assembly whose only question when asked by Republican Leaders to jump was “how high?” He supported the largest tax increase in Georgia history, the T-SPLOST, but, like Lee Anderson running in Georgia’s 12th Congressional District, lacked the testicular fortitude to actually vote for the tax increase himself. Instead, he sent it off to voters telling them the legislature would punish them if they didn’t vote to raise their own taxes.

This is the second time Collins did this. The first time was with trauma funding. Doug Collins is not afraid to be a big spender or a big taxer, but is too chicken to man up and take responsibility himself for the consequences of his policy choices.

Then there is Martha Zoller. Martha is supported by Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, various tea party groups, and me. She’s been a talk radio host in North Georgia who, like me, has been just as willing to take on Republicans as she has Democrats.

Doug Collins is beating the stew out of Martha, taking her words out of context, and distorting her record as a way to distract from his. I want you to support Martha Zoller because, unlike Doug Collins, we won’t ever have to worry about lobbying Martha to be with us once she gets to Congress.

The runoff election in Georgia is August 21st and Martha is seriously going to need our help. Make a donation as soon as you can.

It’s time Wisconsin. Heck, it has been a long time coming.

Today, please go vote for Mark Neumann for the United States Senate. Polls in Wisconsin have the race incredibly close.

There is a real chance for Wisconsin to send a man to the Senate who will join Ted Cruz, Richard Mourdock, Deb Fischer, and the conservatives already there to bring back fiscal sanity to Washington.

Eric Hovde would not be going to Washington, he would be returning home. No man goes home and storms his own castle. Eric Hovde would protect the same policies Washington has churned out that have helped make him a very rich man.

Tommy Thompson still holds on the glory days of school reform, but has, out of office and in the Bush Administration, been a proponent of big government, Obamacare, and fiscal insanity.

Only Mark Neumann will go to Washington to make Washington as inconsequential as possible in all our lives. Go vote for him today.

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Time to defend Google: It’s unfair to attack them for excluding Youtube from its “anti-piracy” penalties, when they’re also excluding every other popular site driven by user-generated content. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Youtube are four sites that, whether Google-owned or not, need to be indexed and valued to a degree. The point of the penalty is to punish illegitimate sites, not legitimate sites with some illegitimate users. So, yeah, lay off this time.

However I see I’m not the only one who thought Google got off easy over the Safari privacy hack perpetrated at Google, that led to the paltry $22 million fine of Google by the FTC. I still wonder if somebody should have gone to jail over it. Who was responsible? Where was the oversight that leads up to Larry Page and Eric Schmidt? Google should have named names.

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