Yesterday, the Demorats passed a bill in a manner I’d been assuming they’d perpetrate all along: they attached a rider to an otherwise remarkably popular bill in order to get the smaller bill approved. From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays.

How was this bill passed, you ask? Very simple. It was attached to a $680 billion defense authorization policy bill, HR 2647. The House passed the bill 281-146, with 15 Demorats and 131 Republicans in opposition.

This bill duplicates — imagine that — what already exists in 45 states. So now federal prosecutors could find themselves picking up what the the FBI says are roughly 8,000 hate crimes reported around the country in a given year. More than half of those are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias at around 18 percent and sexual orientation at 16 percent — the lesser percentile.

If I were a state or local prosecutor? I’d step back from all of my so-called “hate crimes” and let the fed handle. Because, after all:

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre turns 40 this coming Saturday.

This past Sunday, he turned football upside down and set benchmark records all around.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast on October 5th, featuring Favre’s Vikings vs his long-time former team, the Green Bay Packers, garnered 21.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched cable television program in history. Ever.

Further, the game also trumped the ratings of every other major network that night, as well.

Once again, proving that old age and guile beat youth and inexperience every time. Aaron Rodgers performed well, but he’s no Brett Favre. And the Vikings walked away with a 30 to 23 win over the Pack — essentially, my favorite team.

Until now. Apparently I’m an acolyte of Favre. Because I only wish him to continue on to the Super Bowl. The Vikings won’t make it, of course, but I’ll still watch.

So fine, I can hear it now: yeah yeah yeah, Favre retired then unretired then retired then unretired. He’s a flake.

No. He’s a fine football player who still, at his advanced age (for football, at least), has the enthusiasm of someone in their twenties.

And THAT’S what attracts viewers to Brett Favre. And me as well.

People can tell fake from real; a genuine love of an avocation vs a tolerance or a false front. And Brett Favre still retains a youthful exuberance and enthusiasm that is still frothy, catchy, naive and immature all at once. He still — my God, can I say this? — loves the game of football. He plays for the love of the game.

And people sense his honesty.

Green Bay discarded him. So it goes. I submit that Brett has been renewed under the right team at the right time. The Jets didn’t do it. I believe the Vikings do.

You know what? He still has fun playing the game.

And that’s why people want to watch him.

Then why are the Demorats fighting transparency?

The Sunlight Foundation has started an effort to get Congress to post bills online 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them.

Additionally, Representatives. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.

From The Washington Examiner:

Nearly every Republican has signed on (to this petition), but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition. Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.

Hasn’t Mr Obama, Our Hero, learned anything from the prior administration that he so excoriated? Wasn’t it His idea to demand transparency during His tenure? Wasn’t this idea also mirrored by Speaker Pelosi?

» $700 billion financial sector rescue package, passed Oct. 3, 2008. 169 pages. Available online 29 hours before vote.
» USA Patriot domestic surveillance bill, passed Oct. 23, 2001. Unavailable to the public before debate.

» House energy and global warming bill, passed June 26, 2009. 1,200 pages. Available online 15 hours before vote.
» $789 billion stimulus bill, passed Feb. 14, 2009. 1,100 pages. Available online 13 hours before debate.

All Demorats are urged to stifle this “transparency.”

So: why?

Because Mr Obama wants what He wants when He wants it. Any manner of close examination, rumination and inspection reveals all the dirty little secrets, the dirty little lies that He and His minions do not want exposed to the light of day.

It’s that simple.

“Transparency”?

Hardly.

As I’ve said before many times: federal spending has got to stop.

President Bush never met a spending bill he didn’t embrace. His utilization of the presidential veto? Damned near non-existent. He signed off on the first TARP.

But Our Hero, Mr Obama, has taken spending to absolutely unprecedented levels. And I truly believe that He has completely no concept as to the number of zeroes behind any given bill. To Him, they’re just wild-assed numbers that mean little if anything.

They hold no real significance or reality in His World.

Mr Obama already admitted that energy prices will “skyrocket” under his Cap and Trade plan. His words are plain and immured in video:

He said:

Our Hero wants to introduce these bills during an actual Recession.

Are you insane?

When has it been shown in any portion of economic history that any nation has been able to spend itself out of a recession?

When has it ever been an excellent idea to craft and pass bills that would require billions and billions of dollars to complete?

Iran will either acquire nukes or you will be paying a minimum of $50 a gallon for refined gasoline. That is, if you can get it. How did I conclude this? Do what I call the Logical Extension.

From The UK Independent:

The demise of the dollar
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

If this is true, then every aspect of your daily world is about to change negatively. I cannot even begin to predict the tumult that will result for Americans should this come to pass. Those denigrating America are about to have their wishes come to fruition. China, India, are the two most desperate countries to locate and lock in oil sourcing. Europe is fearful it will be cut off from Russian and Venezuelan oil sources. They’ll do any deal with oil producing states. Couple this with the dollar’s instability —

In an oil-based economy like ours, why hasn’t this possibility been screamed — above the fold — in every national newspaper for days? Oh, that’s right. Because we no longer have investigative journalists. We only have Media Sycophants.