A Promise Kept

In 2021 Marjorie Taylor Greene was removed from her committee assignments, an unprecedented step to discipline a member over past incendiary remarks. The vote was mostly along party lines. Incendiary remarks made by other Congressmen were conveniently ignored and no penalty paid. Well, what goes around comes around.

On January 10th, Townhall reported the following:

Newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is making good on his promise to strip Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of their committee assignments. 

“Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government security clearance. Schiff has lied to the American public,” McCarthy told reporters late Monday night. “We will not allow him to be on the Intel Committee either.”

The move is especially damaging for Schiff, who abused his position as House Intelligence Committee Chairman to investigate President Donald Trump over bogus “Russian collusion” during the 2016 presidential election. For years Schiff claimed evidence was “hiding in plain site” that would lead to an indictment of Trump. After years of what Trump called a witch hunt, in addition to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s lengthy and expensive investigation, the politically charged allegations never came true. 

…Meanwhile, the case to strip Swalwell of his assignments is simple: he slept with a Chinese spy. For Omar, there is plenty of evidence to suggest she committed immigration fraud by marrying and then divorcing her brother. She’s also advocated for terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas, to be treated more fairly.

There are many precedents that Nancy Pelosi set as Speaker in recent years that the Democrats are going to regret. However, the Republicans have made some positive changes to the rules that I believe are a good thing. I am concerned that the vote of no confidence in the Speaker rule will be abused by the Democrats to block legislation they don’t like.

 

I’m Not Holding My Breath

During her reign as Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi established a number of precedents. Some of them were highly partisan should have been undone by the Republicans. However, they were not. So here we are, waiting for Karma.

On Wednesday PJ Media posted an article about some of the actions of Speaker Pelosi and some of the promises made by Kevin McCarthy.

The article notes:

Last year Pelosi and the Democrats stripped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee assignments over past comments she made, and later censured and removed Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from his committee assignments over a video he tweeted.

Republicans argued at the time that Democrats were establishing a “dangerous” precedent whereby the “majority party can punish a member of the minority party by removing their committee assignments.”

In a sense, they were warned that they would “rue the day” they established this precedent, and that day is hopefully coming soon. It took long enough, but the Republican Party finally secured the House Majority on Tuesday evening, which also means that Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will be Speaker of the House.

McCarthy has repeatedly promised that he would remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from their respective committees. There are more legitimate reasons to remove all four of them from their committee assignments than there were to remove Greene and Gosar. Waters infamously incited violence by urging people to confront Trump officials in public, Omar has a habit of making blatantly anti-Semitic statements, Swalwell had an affair with a Chinese spy, and Schiff lied about seeing intelligence proving Trump colluded with Russia.

If the Republicans ever want to win another election, Kevin McCarthy needs to keep this promise. Many of us are tired of being perpetual wimps. I know it’s good to be the ‘nice guy,’ but sometimes you have to stand up for yourself. Mealy-mouthed Republicans who do nothing will not get re-elected. The MAGA crowd that the establishment fears will primary them and win.

 

Sharia Law In America

There are many aspects of Sharia Law that are different from American Constitutional law. One of the more obvious is the conflict between the concept of free speech and the penalty for blasphemy. On Tuesday, The American Thinker posted an article about a bill that was recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives that will move America in the direction of Sharia Law.

Congress.gov (you have to go to the site and put in the bill number as the specific link expires) describes HR 5665 as follows:

Passed House (12/14/2021)

Combating International Islamophobia Act

This bill establishes within the Department of State the Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia and addresses related issues.

The office shall monitor and combat acts of Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement in foreign countries. The bill establishes the position of Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Islamophobia, who shall head the office.

The bill also requires certain existing annual reports to Congress about human rights and religious freedom in foreign countries to include information about Islamophobia, such as information about (1) acts of physical violence or harassment of Muslim people, (2) instances of propaganda in government and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or promote hatred or incite violence against Muslim people, and (3) actions taken by a country’s government to respond to such acts. The office shall coordinate and assist in preparing these portions of the reports.

No funds made available pursuant to the bill may be used to promote or endorse a boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement ideology (i.e., economic measures against Israel or Israel-related individuals or organizations) or used to promote or endorse a Muslim ban.

It is no surprise that the bill is sponsored by Ilhan Omar.

The American Thinker reports:

The actual text of the bill not only seeks to eradicate blasphemy against Islam around the world – and solely against Islam at that – but even requires the federal government to reorganize some portions of the State Department along the lines of an Islamic religious institution which will be responsible for interpreting the Quran.  For example, the text of the bill mandates that “[t]he Secretary of State shall establish within the Department of State an Office” and the “purpose” of the office is described as “[m]onitoring and combating acts of Islamophobia and Islamophobic incitement that occur in foreign countries.”  That is, the State Department is required to create an office that is a cross between George Orwell’s Big Brother and the Taliban.

The word ‘combat’ in the text of the law is problematic but fits in perfectly with the concept of waging violent jihad against the countries deemed to have committed blasphemy against Islam.  Almost every dictionary defines the word primarily as an action pertaining to war.  While the internet firm Google’s dictionary defines ‘combat’ as “fighting between armed forces,” Cambridge Dictionary defines the word as “a fight, especially during a war.”  According to Collins Dictionary, “combat is fighting that takes place in a war.”  This is no hyperbole as the State Department has a long history of supporting Islamic terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS.  Former Assistant Secretary of State, Robin Raphel, ran her office as though it were an outpost of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and she lost her security clearance when she was investigated for counterintelligence activities.  Little wonder then that Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, used the term “Rogue State Department” and President Donald Trump described the State Department as the “Deep State Department.

This law is not consistent with our Constitution.