As NationalReviewOnline.com’s The Corner reports, Rep. John Carter (R-TX) released a presser on his new bill:

“Rangel Rule”

All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

Besides voting no, en masse, on the President’s stimulus bill in the House yesterday, the same Republican caucus managed to stop a delay on the conversion mandate to digital television…

No matter, the Senate agreed and passed a bill implementing [President Obama's] wishes [to delay the transition for a few months] unanimously. On it went to the House for another easy pass? Not so fast. Democrats got confident and tried to do a quick-and-easy passage according to the suspension of the rules procedure. That procedure bypasses the normal process but requires a supermajority vote.

The Obama delay bill did not get that supermajority vote. It got a majority, but to pass notwithstanding the rules it needed significant Republican support. 258-168 was the final vote, but 290 were needed for passage.

Let’s cheer the House Republican Caucus for a job well done. He won. He doesn’t need us, remember?

Remember, folks, if you already subscribe to cable or satellite television, nothing more on your part must be done for this transition to occur.

Gina Cobb presents a couple of great emails as well as a good survey of a backgrounder on why it’s important to always be questioning one’s theories, especially in the realm of science, as new discoveries can sometimes make old theories — say, on the true causes of global warming — obsolete.

-Phil