My latest at The Stir:

Apparently Los Angeles doesn’t like the immigration law in Arizona. Well, at least Mayor Villaraigosa and the city council don’t like it. Recently they voted 13-1 to boycott Arizona in protest over the state’s Constitutional right to enact laws that are supported by a majority of its citizens.

Um, ok.

Arizona is completely within its rights to enact a law that would enable local law enforcement to do the job that our federal government is slacking on — keeping our borders safe. The immigration law in Arizona is almost a carbon copy of the federal law. Let me sum it up — if you want to live and work in America, please do so legally.

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Yesterday President Felipe Calderon of Mexico visited President Obama in the White House. It is unclear whether or not he was required to show papers to gain entry to the United States. Not that it seems to be very difficult to crash state dinners these days. Even Michaele and Tareq Salahi almost put in an appearance.

Before the snazzy dinner sponsored by you and me, the taxpayers, the two heads of state addressed the controversial Arizona immigration law.

President Obama said:

“I want everyone, American and Mexican, to know my administration is taking a very close look at the Arizona law,” he said. “We’re examining any implications, especially for civil rights, because in the United States of America, no law-abiding person, be they an American citizen, a legal immigrant, or a visitor or tourist from Mexico, should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like.”

And President Calderon invited Americans to come to Mexico, take on a false identity, and take advantage of every public service available, from the education of our children (who of course will be taught by bilingual teachers) to food stamps (so we can have more children on Mexico’s dime). Oh, and of course free health care for everyone.

Ok, not really. But I’m sure that’s what he meant.

Jenny rants about the nanny-state .. Senator John Thune (R-SD) joins to talk about his stance on current events … and Smart Girl Politics President Stacy Mott comes on to give an SGP update.

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It’s been over two weeks since an explosion on an oil rig killed eleven people and started spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of 210,000 gallons per day.

Two weeks.

The information has been spotty, to say the least. First the fallen rig wasn’t leaking. Then it was.

Then safety procedures in place since 1994 to burn off the crude oil in its earlier, containable stages were not followed.

Then some terrorist guy that graduated terrorism school in Pakistan before moving to the United States and becoming a citizen tried to blow up an SUV in Times Square in New York City. He almost got away too, after purchasing an airplane ticket and boarding the plane despite being on the on No Fly List. I seem to remember that panty bomber being on that list too. Don’t worry, I’m sure the system is working just fine. Solid B+, I say.

President Obama has been very busy. Attending Nerd Prom. That’s in-the-know way to refer to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. I’ll spare you the embarrassment of having to ask like I did last week,”What the heck is Nerd Prom???”

Oh yeah, and Nashville’s quickly becoming the next Atlantis.

It’s time to do something, people.

Contact your Congressmen in Washington and tell them the answer to this slick disaster is not to bankrupt us by shutting off even more of our fuel.

Contact the FTA and let them know that if they’re going to have a no fly list, they might as well start actually enforcing it.

If you have the means, donate your time or money to help the mer-people of Nashville.

At least that’s what I’ll be doing. I refuse to feel helpless and sit back and twiddle my thumbs and hope everything turns out ok. Sometimes life throws you curve balls. Sometimes those stray balls smack you in the face. I’d rather be someone that gets back up to the plate, black eye and all, than someone that fears ball games for the rest of her life. Because if you never get back up to that plate, there’s no chance you’ll ever hit that home run.

Sorry for the baseball analogy. It was either that or American Idol, as both topics are dominating my tweet-stream at the moment…

I didn’t get a chance to post about this yesterday. I was busy. Writing a new article for CafeMom The Stir, recording The Smart Girl Report, and it’s Easter break for Thing 1, so I had twice as many children to parent yesterday as I normally do. Plus I got my Master Card bill and had a stroke. Right after I hid the offensive document in the bottom of the toy box. Maybe Barbie will pay it for me. That chick has a dream house and a Corvette. She can afford it.

Or maybe bad guys will blow us up and it won’t matter whether or not I actually paid my credit card bill.

From Yahoo News:

Kicking off a hectic week for Obama’s nuclear agenda, his administration rolled out a strategy review that renounced U.S. development of new atomic weapons and could herald further cuts in America’s stockpile.

“We are taking specific and concrete steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons while preserving our military superiority, deterring aggression and safeguarding the security of the American people,” Obama said in remarks issued by the White House.

The United States for the first time is forswearing use of atomic weapons against non-nuclear countries, a break with a Bush-era threat of nuclear retaliation in the event of a biological or chemical attack.

But this comes with a major condition. Those countries would be spared a U.S. nuclear response only if they are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran and North Korea would thus not be protected.

So the only regimes we’ll actually consider nuking are ones that have or are developing nuclear weapons themselves? Ugh. Maybe President Obama should take a clue from President Teddy Roosevelt: Walk softly and carry a big stick. Ever since we developed nuclear weapons, we’ve had the biggest and the baddest. As it should be. We should always be a step ahead of everyone else.

Why is that a bad thing?

We don’t have to use them, but it’s good to know we could if we needed to. And guess what? It’s good for the bad guys to know that too. It sends a message to them: Don’t mess with us. You’ll regret it. We need a big stick so that we can wallop anyone that tries to knock us down.

It’s a difficult concept, I know. Almost as challenging as trying to understand that when you charge something, you eventually get the bill. Geez this administration is having a hard time adding two and two together. Must be that new math.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fold six loads of laundry. That or nuke it. I haven’t decided yet.

I seriously think the media is punking us. Here are some of today’s news stories:

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) is worried that the tiny island nation of Guam is going to tip over into the sea if the population becomes too dense.

In a discussion regarding a planned military buildup on the Pacific island, Johnson expressed some concerns about the plans to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific fleet.

“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,” Johnson said. Willard paused and replied, “We don’t anticipate that.”

The President of the United States is selling t-shirts, which is sort of weird on it’s own, but I could totally see if it were to raise money for Haiti or something. The money’s not going to Haiti though. It’s going to Barack Obama. Oh yeah, the shirts say “BFD” in big bold letters. Yup. Ladies and gents, the leaders of the free world are selling t-shirts that glamorize swearing. To me, that’s a Big F***ing Deal.

Meredith Vierra tried to stretch a story so far that I think she may have pulled a hamstring. On today’s Today show, she asked Senator Jim DeMint if he would condemn the atrocious language of the tea partiers that want to burn Nancy Pelosi at the stake. Huh? Ok, here’s the thinking. Someone at a tea party waved a broom at Ms. Pelosi and said, “Sweep the bums out of Washington!” So obviously he’s calling Nancy Pelosi a witch. And witches must be burned at the stake.

A woman got evicted from her apartment over some peeps.

The Enron scandal has been made into a Broadway musical.

Ronald McDonald has been called upon to retire, because “he is no friend to our children our their health.”

I don’t know about you, but I keep hoping to see Ashton Kutcher. Because if all the above stories are accurate, then we’ve got bigger problems than being punked.

[podcast]http://www.candidconservative.com/thesmartgirlreport/TheSmartGirlReport%2020100331.mp3[/podcast]

Jason Mattera discusses his new book Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation.

Tom Reed talks about his run for Congress in New York’s 29th district — the seat previously held by Eric Massa.

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This morning I came across one of the more delusional articles I’ve read recently. Aside from anything on the Daily Kos, that is. Written by Brent Budowsky, the piece attacked Matt Drudge as being a propagandist and anyone that reads his site as being fed biased opinions.

Here are some of my favorite lines:

Drudge only reports the polls he likes, which gives a warped view of the state of the nation.

It is true that countless lazy individuals in media just read Drudge, patronize his propaganda, and parrot his party line like robots. His influence is unquestioned and immense.

Drudge may not report it, but the healthcare bill passing has put the president on the upswing, Democrats lead Republicans in the Gallup poll, the negatives of the healthcare bill are starting to recede, independents are alienated by right-wing extremism, the jobs picture I predict will soon brighten, and the Democratic base is finally being motivated.

Drudge only reports on the stories he likes, but NBC, CBS, and ABC report on everything, fairly and squarely? Mmm-hmmm. Yup, and they parrot Drudge all the time. Right. (You can’t see me, but I’m rolling my eyes as I write this.) If you believe that major media outlets didn’t (and still do!) have a slobbering love affair with Obama, then I can’t help you. Seriously. Move along. Come back when you start to realize that hard work and integrity built our country, not entitlement and handouts.

As for the passage of the health care bill raising President Obama’s approval rating… all I can say is duh. All the people that were upset with him because he hadn’t passed the bill yet are soothed by his rhetoric once again. That doesn’t mean much. Just because a picture is worth a thousand words:

One more thing. If independents are alienated by right-wing extremism, how does Mr. Budowsky explain Scott Brown? Bob Mcdonnell? Chris Christi? Shall I go on? I’m sure the list will be quite extensive come November.

But who knows? Maybe I’m just a deluded Republican. At least I’m in good company. I’ll take Matt Drudge any day of the week over Keith Olbermann.

Remember Bart Stupak? He was the “pro-life” House Democrat that caved to peer-pressure and voted for the health care bill along with ten of his cronies. The next day, the bill was signed into law by President Obama. But don’t worry, President Obama signed an executive order that would outlaw federally funded abortions. Except for the fact that that order isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Why would they cave, I wonder? What could be the cost of 11 votes that would tip the scale on the health care bill that has nothing to do with health care? Apparently it costs $3.4 billion.

The 11 House Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak who dropped their opposition to health care reform legislation mere hours before the final vote have requested $3.4 billion in earmarks — and one watchdog group wants to know whether the money represents business as usual or political payoffs.

Stupak’s office said there’s absolutely no link between the earmarks and the health care bill’s passage.

Sure. There’s absolutely no link between my happy hubby and my new pair of shoes either. Give and take. Making deals. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. It’s part of being human. But we’re not playing with other people’s money. Democrats are.

The Democrats have been doing a victory lap this week over their defeat of the Republicans in the battle for health care reform.  So weird, I thought the parties were supposed to work together, not duke it out until the bitter end. But I guess all things are fair in love and war, and politics is a bit (or a lot) of both. So a battle it was.

Have I mentioned that the Democrats passed the bill without the majority support of their constituents?  Or that not a single Republican voted for it? Or that they resorted to deceitful trickery in the worst ends-justifying-the-means scheme I’ve ever personally witnessed?  That’s bipartisanship at it’s best, all right.

But the funny thing about facts — they’re stubborn things.  President Obama can say “this bill will reduce the deficit” until the unicorns come home, but it won’t make it any less untrue.  The bill is full of twice counted money, doesn’t include the thousands and thousands of government employees that will need to be hired to enforce the darn thing, and it assumes that revenue will continue to increase in the worst economy in a generation just as a massive health care tax is levied upon employers.

The mostly glaringly obvious discrepency is the fact that it includes 10 years of revenue, but only six years of pay outs.  What happens in 2020? Do we only get health care in years ending 4-9? So many questions, never any answers.

Congressman John Dingell (D-NY) was on a radio show in Chicago this week, and host Paul Smith asked him why the coverage wouldn’t be implemented until 2014. You know, in light of the urgency with which it was forced upon us unwilling tax-payers.

The telling response (emphasis mine):

“We’re not ready to be doing it. This has been going on for years…The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re passing legislation that will cover 300 million American people in different ways, it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

Not sure about the rest of you, but I don’t relish the idea of being controlled. Seriously. Ask my husband. Or my dad. I believe his exact words to my new husband at our wedding were, “She’s yours now!”

One of my favorite movie lines ever is from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when Toula’s mom is explaining to her why being the head of the house isn’t everything: “The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.”

Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that on a blog that feeds into my hubby’s RSS feeder. Oh well, it’s not like it’s a humongous secret. But my point is that I don’t like other people trying to control me. I don’t want them limiting my choices on what kind of food to buy, where to send my kids to school, or whether or not I need a certain kind of health insurance.

Rep. Dingell went on to say:

“Our Republicans have spent a long time not participating, not helping, carping and delaying.”

I don’t know about you, but that makes me proud to be a Republican. They won’t be able to blame us one bit when this ship goes down in flames. And for the record, Dingell-berry, Republicans were shut out of the entire process, aside from a one day *Health Summit* in which the GOP pretty much shredded the bill and wiped the Liberals off the floor with it.

Which reminds me — I need to write another love letter, uh, I mean letter of support to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). He broke down the financial impact so well that President Obama looked absolutely confused. As in, “Huh. That actually made sense. But I wonder if he’s including the money from the cash tree out back? Do I tell him about that or keep it a secret? I better ask Rahm.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a glass of wine. Before the government takes that away too, for my own good.