Romney Shoves RoBamneyCare in Our Faces, Slickly Hiding Behind the 10th Amendment

November 17, 2011 | Filed Under 10th Amendment, Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Fox News, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Mitt Romney, Obamacare, Regulation, Republicans, RightPundits.com, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Romneycare was “the right thing,” proclaimed Mitt “the flip flopper” Romney on a recent Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto. Wouldn’t you know it, the only thing conservatives want him to flip flop on he refuses to do so.

I guess we can’t expect Romney to own up that Romneycare is a disaster for Massachusetts and that it was a major mistake, one that makes him look exactly live Obama any time soon. He’s steadfastly refused to say that Romneycare was a mistake in the past and today he’s doubled down on that insistence…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws

November 17, 2011 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Corruption, Guns, House of Representatives, Journalism, Law, Liberals, Media Bias, Politico, Regulation, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently Politico does not like the new concealed-carry reciprocity law recently passed in Congress. They must not like it. After all, aside from covering it in a negative light, the newser so badly misstated the law that it could easily turn its readers against the whole idea. But perhaps that’s the idea?

The law, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, would allow gun owners that have a concealed-carry license in their home state to carry their firearm in another state if that state also has a carry law in place. The law, however, does not allow someone to carry a firearm in a state that does not currently allow its own citizens to enjoy concealed-carry rights.

All this law does is standardize the lawful status of interstate gun carriers so that law-abiding citizens are not confused by and in fear of violating the many different state statutes concerning their firearms when traveling.
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Illinois CAT Dealer: Illinois’ Worst Business Climate Getting Worse

November 17, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Illinois State Government, Jobs, Kirk Dillard, Liberals, Regulation, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Wednesday I attended a “government day” event at Patten Industries, a 78-year-old Illinois Caterpillar dealer situated in Elmhurst, a northwest suburb of Chicago. The event, led by current General Manager Garrett Patten, featured a discussion on the severely unfavorable business climate in Illinois and why the state is lagging so horribly behind the leading economic indicators of every surrounding state.

Patten Industries has been guided by four generations of Pattens, the company having been founded by B. C. Patten, Sr. in 1933. But Illinois has not been good to the company or its employees over the last decade or so. Unfortunately, the company has gone from employing some 700 employees in 2006 to only about 400 today due to the harsh economic climate in the Land of Lincoln.

This contraction is most certainly not something the Patten family wanted to see happen to their long-standing Illinois-based company. Patten Industries has faced a whole host of negative forces causing them to scale downward. And Patten is just one of many Illinois businesses facing the same problems — problems faced in much less severity by businesses in other nearby states.

Even as many corporations are just starting to see an upturn in their fortunes, Illinois government has set up so many hurdles to growth that other states are either taking our customers or even welcoming Illinois businesses themselves as new residents.

Garrett Patten says that at least three major problems face Illinois businesses. Workman’s comp, labor unions, and corporate taxes.
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The Triangulation of the ‘Occupy’ Movement

November 17, 2011 | Filed Under Banks, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Frank Salvato, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, New York City, Taxes, Unions | Comments Off

-By Frank Salvato

Throughout the painful and paradoxical existence of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) we have been told by those in the mainstream media, as well as by sympathetic politicos, that at its root, at its genesis, the OWS Movement was both organic and legitimate. We were told that the movement was exclusively about a rebellion against high unemployment and crony Capitalism, even as those championing the cause disingenuously blurred the line between crony Capitalism and Capitalism. But, an honest examination of the underlying goal(s) of this movement – and who is serving to advance its agenda – exposes a nefarious, deceitful and dangerous reality.

The notion of “triangulation” is not new to American politics. Savvy politicians have triangulated messages and circumstances to their benefit ever since the creation of our country. One needs look no further than the debates that took place over the creation of the US Constitution to understand that even though our Framers and Founders were dedicated to their principles and positions, they were willing to employ rhetorical leverage to achieve their goals. Alexander Hamilton was a master at message triangulation.

Perhaps the most contemporary politician to masterfully employ the art of message triangulation was former Pres. Bill Clinton. In pursuit of re-election in 1996, Clinton senior advisor Dick Morris advocated for a set of statements, a set of policies, that differed from those of his fellow elected Democrats. These policies, which pandered to the ideological Middle and Right, included deregulation and balanced budgets, culminating in the false declaration, included in Mr. Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union Address, that the “era of big government is over.”

Media Won’t Link White House Shooter to Occupy Wall Street

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The identity of the man responsible for loosing a few shots at the White House last week has been made public by the D.C. police but one little fact is being buried by every news report about this guy. He is linked to the Occupy movement. Yet the media refuses to make the connection explicit. Imagine how the media would be wailing if the guy was a Tea Partier! But that this shooter was part of the Occupy movement seems somehow unimportant to the Old Media.

In fact, there doesn’t even have to be any link to the Tea Party for the Old Media to immediately jump to blaming the Tea Party movement for a shooting. If you’ll remember the outrageous accusations that the media made that the nut that shot Gabrielle Giffords was a Tea Partier or was driven to his criminal act by the “violent rhetoric of the right,” you’ll remember that shooter Loughner ended up having no real political point of view and was not connected even tangentially with the Tea Party.

But with this White House shooter, 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho, we find that he was in Washington D.C. attending the Occupy protests there. But in every story I’ve seen that fact is only resides in the last paragraphs if it is mentioned at all.
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Diane Sawyer Again Links Tea Party and Sarah Palin to Rep. Giffords’ Shooting

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under ABC, Anti-Americanism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Obamacare, President, Regulation, Tea Party, TV, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In her exclusive interview with Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D, AZ), ABCs Diane Sawyer began with a retrospective of the terrible crime committed against the Congresswoman by a mentally disturbed, a-political gunman. But true to her left-wing agenda, Sawyer could not resist illicitly linking Tea Party activists, anti-Obamacare sentiment, and even Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to what was perpetrated against Rep. Giffords on that terrible day.

Yes, even though these calumnies against conservatives and Sarah Palin have been thoroughly discredited, Sawyer links them anyway to the shocking crime that took the lives of six people, injured others, and delivered a debilitating head wound to Representative Giffords.

It was only hours after the shooting occurred on January 8, 2011, that left-wing activists, purported journalists, and Democrat operatives alike began blaming the shooting of Rep. Giffords on “Tea Party hate” and the “violent rhetoric of the right.”

The false narrative was picked up by nearly every Old Media outlet and disgorged from their talking points sheets over and over again. It was days before everyone learned that the killer, one Jared Lee Loughner, had been stalking Giffords for several years before the Tea Party, Obamacare or Sarah Palin became national news.
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Grammy Nominee’s Occupy Wall Street Theme Song Features Bloodlust, Violent Imagery

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Banks, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Music, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

While denizens of Hollywood are running around praising the Occupy-Whatevers as an articulate, non-violent example of “democracy in action” and adopting the Occupy rhetoric, a new anthem of sorts has been unveiled to inspire these “non-violent” folks to greater activism.
But, for a “non-violent” movement, their new theme song (running nearly nine minutes long) is full of bloodlust and childish name-calling belying that claim to thoughtful democracy.

The song, “We Stand as One,” created by Grammy nominee Joseph Arthur, seems to fall short of the mythical claim that the Occupy movement is a non-violent, thoughtful “movement.” Filled with deep lyrics such as calling Occupy enemies “pigs,” warnings that their homes will burn and that the blood of Occupy enemies will be the Occupiers’ “paint,” this song sounds more like a call to violence than an appeal to the better angels of our nature.

Arthur has worked with such rock notables as Michael Stipe of REM and Peter Gabriel, and his 1999 EP “Vacancy” was nominated for a Grammy.
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Mississippi Still Burning – Consciences Seared

November 16, 2011 | Filed Under Abortion, Anti-Americanism, Bible, Christianity, Michael Bresciani‏, Morals/Sex, Religion | Comments Off

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

There is little doubt that this writer is convinced we are in the last days but just in case you don’t read long enough to read my usual scriptural addendum customarily placed at the end of my articles; I’ll put it first.

Paul warning his young disciple Timothy of conditions in the last days said, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” (1Tim 4: 1, 2)

The phrase “doctrines of devils” is why much of the responses in Mississippi newspapers and journals are saying that Mississippians’ would not be subjected to the fears of some religious rhetoric or God lore concerning Initiative – 26 – Definition of Person – Ballot Issue.   I entered one blog only to say that the Bible’s message rather than being religious rhetoric is, life affirming, God given revelation, that when boiled down to its essence, says that God actually intended humans to live and not to occupy the buckets and waste containers of medical clinics to the tune of 53,000,000 to date. This is pragmatism not prophecy, but in either case it is a testimony against our refusal to see the obvious.
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Super Committee: Smoke And Mirrors Personified

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Republicans, RightPundits.com, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just as feared by conservatives, this “supercommittee” nonsense is turning into the absurd entity that was expected. The congressional group set up to decide the sticky issues of the budget has just announced a “savings” of $700 billion that is nothing but the smoke and mirrors of an accounting trick. There is NO savings.

The committee is suggesting that the $700 billion that was earmarked for the various wars in which we are engaged is a “savings” because we are not going to be spending it due to the ramping down of those military actions…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Tweet and Facebook Activism! Stop Congress From Destroying the Internet

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Blogging, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

The End of the Internet as We Know It

Tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee will hold their first hearing on E-PARASITE, a bill written by Hollywood lobbyists that could end the Internet as we know it. They’ve had their say, now it’s our turn.

Act now to protect Internet freedom by contacting the members of the House Judiciary Committee over the phone, and on Twitter and Facebook. Then, spread the word about Social Media #LobbyDay as we use the Internet to save the Internet.

What is PROTECT IP and E-PARASITE?

The PROTECT IP Act (S. 968) and the E-PARASITE Act (part of the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, H.R. 3261) would devastate job-creating American technology companies and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in the name of protecting Hollywood copyrights. These bills would create a “Great Firewall of America” by embracing the same Internet censorship tactics as the world’s worst human rights abusers, including regimes like communist China, Iran, Syria, and Burma. A number of technology experts have concluded that these bills would mean “the end of the Internet as we know it.”

What does it do?…
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Denver Protest Shows Incoherence of ‘Occupy’

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Colorado, Communism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Denver, Ethics, George Soros, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Socialism, Taxes, War On Drugs, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over this past weekend several hundred conservative bloggers, writers, political operatives, and Tea Patiers got together in Denver, Colorado to attend a conference aimed toward helping these activists be more effective n their efforts. But conservative activism wasn’t the only theme on the schedule when the event was crashed by denizens of Occupy Denver who came to protest. What they came to protest was a tad unclear, but isn’t that just of a piece with the whole Occupy “movement”?

The event, Blogcon 2011, was organized by Freedom Works and featured seminars on Website SEO, use of Youtube and Facebook, information on which candidates Freedom Works is supporting in the upcoming GOP primaries, panels of bloggers telling their story, and the like.

What it wasn’t was attended by Washington’s policy makers or catering to the rich and famous! The folks at these events are most assuredly not members of the so-called one percent. They are work-a-day folks that just happen to be interested in conservative ideas. Essentially the participants at Blogcon 2011 were similar to the Occunuts that invaded their event in that they are all citizen activists.

But that didn’t stop the Occupiers from attacking Blogcon 2011 hopeful of disrupting the event. Two separate times Occupiers came to Blogcon to yell their empty slogans, chant their prosaic chants, ply their “mic check” silliness, call names, threaten violence, and in general act like children.
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Rancho Cordova Blast Fine Too Low to Assure Future Public Safety

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Business, California, Capitalism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Energy, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Natural Gas, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 2008 a pipeline operated by Pacific Gas & Electric exploded destroying several homes and killing 72-year-old Wilbert Paana. Since that time authorities have been attempting to determine what sort of fines PG&E should face for its negligence. Recently administrative law judge John Wong proposed that a fine of $38 million — and an end to the whole matter — would be enough. But is this enough to assure the protection and safety of California’s ratepayers?

To his credit, Judge Wong rejected an even lower proposal of a $26 million fine noting that if found guilty the utility would face at least a $97 million if found guilty of all the charges and safety violations leveled against it. Yet, he’s willing to let PG&E get away with less than half of what it could face were it to go the distance in the courts.

Whatever is fair or not, though, one thing must be noted. PG&E’s board recently rewarded CEO Peter Darbee with a $35 million severance package even though he presided over multiple violations of safety including that Rancho Cordova incident that took the life of Mr. Panna, not to mention eight more deaths in the San Bruno incident. He also headed up the utility as it wasted $46 million on the ballot initiative Prop 16 which was an attempt to enshrine in law PG&E’s California monopoly.
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Harrington Looking to Topple Debbie Wasserman Schultz

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, DNC, Elections, Florida, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Republicans, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

I was able to take a few minutes to interview Karen Harrington, a candidate for a Florida House seat. Oh, she’s not running for just any House seat. She’s running to topple the odious Debbie Wasserman-Schultz — mouth of the Democrat National Committee.

Harrington ran against Wasserman Schultz in the 20th District in 2010 and lost pretty handily. But her 40 percent vote total was one of the strongest showings of a Republican in a long time in that heavily Democrat leaning district. According to her polling she is doing even better this time now that the Obama economy has hurt so many.

Harrington also has a large dose of support from the Jewish community due to the failure of the Obama administration’s policy on Israel.

I found Harrington to be engaging, serious, and well informed. Let’s hope she can topple one of the worst Representatives in Congress in 2012.

Harrington’s website can be found at: www.karenforcongress.com. On Twitter she is: karen4congress.

Or, if you’d rather, you can connect with the Harrington campaign by going to www.firedebbie.com
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What We Have Here is a Failure to Negotiate

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Taxes | Comments Off

-By Alan Caruba

In the movie, “Cool Hand Luke” the warden of a prison camp utters the now famous line, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” The decision of the Democratic members of the Congressional Super Committee to refuse further discussion of revenue issues is a failure to negotiate.

I have a friend, Jim Camp, who is one of the world’s authorities on negotiation, a coach to international corporations and others that engage in multi-million dollar deals requiring major negotiation skills. When the news was reported on Wednesday that the Democratic members had walked away from the negotiation table, I picked up the phone to ask for his reaction.

“We live in an era when the conventional wisdom is that compromise is the goal,” said Camp. “The real goal is a valid mission and purpose. What’s missing is that the committee as a whole is not focused on the real mission which is the best result for the American people and the nation. Instead, their goal is political gamesmanship, a massive over-reach by both parties to the negotiation.”
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Every Generation, A Salute to America’s Veterans

November 14, 2011 | Filed Under Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Denver, Freedom Works, Marines, Military, National Guard, Navy, Veterans, Veterans Day, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

A thank you to our veterans for the sacrifices they’ve made in the name of freedom featuring comments from Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Don Stenberg, Dan Liljenquist, and Adam Hasner.

Freedom Works debuted this great video for Veteran’s Day while we were in Denver this past weekend. It is now up at Youtube and, even though the holiday is past, I thought I’d feature the video today.

ENOUGH of GOP ‘Debates’ Where Mediots Show Us How Tough They Are

November 14, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Elections, GOP, Government, Journalism, Media, Media Bias, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, President, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the upcoming Republican primary I am not voting for Brian Williams, Brett Baier, Scott Pelly, Wolf Blitzer or any other member of the Old Media. I am trying to figure out which Republican nominee for president I might want to support. So why has every so-called debate featured mediots trying to prove to their mediots pals how tough they can be on Republican candidates instead of the Republican candidates actually debating each other?

Lately every one has been harkening back to those Lincoln-Douglass-styled debates of yesteryear and there is a reason that the famous debates between GOP Senate candidate Abe Lincoln and incumbent Democrat Stephen Douglass held over 150 years ago come so easily to mind. It’s because we aren’t getting that these days!

What we are getting instead are media personalities trying to make reputations for themselves instead of debates that tell us what the GOP candidates know, if they can articulate it, and if they can defend same.

I wish the candidates would stop going to these worthless excuses for debates forthwith. We need real debates and that means substance. The candidates should stop worrying that they might look “afraid” to debate and demand some format changes for any future outings before they show up again.
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Fake Teacher Evaluation Racket is Busted in Los Angeles

November 14, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, California, Children, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Larry Sand, Liberals, Los Angeles, Public Employees Unions, Teachers Unions, Unions | Comments Off

-By Larry Sand

Parents sue the LA school board and teachers union, forcing them to obey a law that they have ignored for 40 years.

There is nothing new about unions bullying weak-kneed school districts, but this may be the mother of all abuses– for forty years, school districts and unions have collaborated to break the law in California. According to the Stull Act (Section 44660 of the state’s education code), part of a teacher’s evaluation is required to include a student achievement component, but this has not happened anywhere in the state. Last week, after consulting with EdVoice, a reform advocacy group in Sacramento, parents of some students in Los Angeles Unified School District sued the school district and teachers union for what amounts to a dereliction of duty. While the lawsuit is aimed at LA, it will have state-wide ramifications.

Originally enacted in 1971, the Stull Act, named after State Senator John Stull, was amended in 1999 to include,

“The governing board of each school district shall evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to:

The progress of pupils toward the standards established pursuant to subdivision (a) and, if applicable, the state adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted criterion referenced assessments….”

In other words, a part of a teacher’s evaluation is supposed to be contingent on how well his students do on state mandated tests. This is hardly a radical notion, as half the states in the rest of the country now evaluate teachers in part by student performance on these tests.
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Time to Rid the Streets of the ‘Occupy’ Movement

November 13, 2011 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Socialism, Taxes | Comments Off

-By Alan Caruba

Is there any doubt left in the minds of observers of the Occupy Wall Street movement tends toward violence and is in need of control? The mayors of the cities—some seventy at last count—that are being occupied need to crack down on it.

Not all agree, of course. Among the list of the Occupy movement are the following organizations and individuals that have expressed support or sympathy:

Communist Party, USA
American Nazi Party
Revolutionary Communist Party
Industrial Workers of the World
International Bolshevik Tendency
International Socialist Organization
Marxist Student Union
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Party for Socialism and Liberation
President Barack Obama
Vice President Joe Biden
Former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi
The Revolutionary Guards of Iran
Communist Party of China
Louis Farrakhan, National of Islam
Black Panthers

There are others but they all have commonalities, not the least of which is a belief in Communism, they are representative of the American Far Left, and have an affinity for class and racial warfare.
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Freedom Works Picks Walsh Over Hultgren for 14th District Primary

November 12, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Conservatives, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Illinois, Joe Walsh, Randy Hultgren, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Denver, Colorado- Max Pappas, Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs at Freedom Works, has announced that the FW candidate evaluation committee has chosen to support Congressman Joe Walsh in the upcoming 14th District GOP primary.

Pappas appeared at Blogcon 2011 as a member of a discussion panel focused on the suitability of the various 2012 primary candidates when the discussion turned to the Illinois 14th District.

Pappas said that in a survey of 80 votes, Joe Walsh only voted badly on one. “Walsh is with us 99.9% of the time. Hultgren only 60%,” Pappas said.

The only vote that Freedom Works disagreed with Walsh on was his vote favorable to Big Labor. Walsh voted against a right-to-work measure making that the only strike against his record.

Going solely on voting record, then, Freedom Works is supporting Joe Walsh for the 14th District primary.
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An Ex-Soviet Reports from Occupy LA

November 12, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Capitalism, Communism, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Los Angeles, Russia, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

On the 94th anniversary of the Russian Revolution (November 7) Leon Weinstein, an ex-Soviet, visits Occupy LA to videotape & report to his Russian friends if Americans started their own Socialist Revolution.

‘Swag Industry’ Whines About Obama Cutoff

November 12, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Government, Corruption, President, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Warning, here you will see me praise President Barack Obama. Last week the President issued a directive for his various agencies to cut down department spending and one of those ways he targeted to achieve that was to cut out “swag” — items such as coffee mugs, pens, or other items with department logos that are given away for free, items we are paying for with our tax money.

Obama thought that a good way to stop wasteful government spending would be to cut out the T-Shirts, coffee mugs, pens, and the like that federal agencies pay to have made for them have made every year. I can’t say I disagree.

How is a T-Shirt made by the Department of Energy a good use of my tax dollars?
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We Must Put an End to Medicare Fraud

November 12, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Conservatives, GOP, Government, Corruption, Health, Illinois, Medicare, Peter Roskam, Republicans, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

From the office of Rep. Peter Roskam (R, Illinois 6th District)…

America’s elderly are victims of a crime spree so expansive that on an annual basis exceeds the value of all the cocaine smuggled in to North America. The crime is Medicare fraud, and it is conservatively considered to be a $50 billion industry.
While the federal government intercepts almost 40% of cocaine shipments to the United States, it stands virtually idle in apprehending Medicare fraudsters, recovering just $2.5 billion in fraudulent transactions and improper payments in 2009. Originating disproportionately from the Miami area, according to the FBI in September, “South Florida remains ground zero for healthcare fraud.” The unfortunate reality is that Medicare not only needs significant fiscal reforms to be around for future generations – like through the House Republican Budget: The Path to Prosperity – but its mechanics are also in dire need of substantive reform.

Fortunately, the solution to this crime problem is not to create another “taskforce” or “war on” anything; in part it takes adapting the proven fraud prevention mechanisms of the credit card industry – an industry suffering just .044 percent fraud out of $17 trillion in annual transactions.

This is not a failure of our law enforcement community. It is the product of Medicare’s broken “pay-and-chase” system for reimbursing claims. Medicare does not effectively guard against fraud on the front end — cutting checks without thorough fraud-check measures – so law enforcement officials must pursue fraudulent claims after reimbursement. It is the equivalent of a retail store processing a customer’s credit card approval long after the clothes have left the store. It’s nonsensical.
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Herman Cain and the Experience Factor

November 12, 2011 | Filed Under Elections, GOP, Government, Herman Cain, President, Republicans, Selwyn Duke | Comments Off

-By Selwyn Duke

People use many words today without fully knowing what they mean – or should mean. “Tolerance,” “gender” and “truth” come to mind. But then there is one that rears its head every campaign season: “experience.”

We’ve heard this word a lot lately during discussion of latest GOP frontrunner Herman Cain. Many have warned that while he may be appealing and engaging, he lacks the experience to take the helm of the world’s only superpower. Some of these critics say that Cain’s supporters are making the same mistake Barack Obama’s did in 2008: they’re choosing a greenhorn based only on a cult of personality. But the mistake is on the critics’ part. Because whatever Cain may or may not be, inexperience is not his problem. In fact, I’m going to shock you.

It never was Obama’s.
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Coke Heads Protest Koch Heads at Blogcon 2011

November 11, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Denver, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Republicans, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, here we are we conservative bloggers gathered together at Blogcon 2011 (sponsored by Freedom Works) in downtown Denver, Colorado and what do we find? You guessed it, the Occupy-Whatevers, ever present Guy Fawkes masks in hand, came to disrupt our little conference.

Just after 3PM the Occupiers tried to Occupy Blogcon yelling out epithets at their favorite boogiemen, the Koch Brothers (pronounced coke, like the famous American soft drink). Of course no one at this conference is funded by the Koch Brothers, but, hey, let’s not ruin a good chant.

Small handful of Occupy protesters disrupt conservative conference

The Occupiers infested the lobby here at the Crowne Plaza and immediately raised a ruckus. It seemed that the protesters numbered somewhere about 30 or so and were heavily outnumbered by the conservative bloggers huddling around them with cameras and microphones to record their theatrics for prosperity.

Some of these young people were brought by a Denver school teacher who was ashamed to tell us her name.
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Happy Veterans Day and thanks again for your support of Cooking with the Troops

November 11, 2011 | Filed Under Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Military, National Guard, Navy, Veterans, Veterans Day, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

The idea for Cooking With the Troops grew out of a joint event between Bob Miller and C. Blake Powers. Bob Miller began doing barbecues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2005, and Blake Powers began doing food events as a result of his first embed in Iraq in 2007, working through the charity Soldiers’ Angels. Bob suggested doing a joint event at Malogne House at Walter Reed, with Bob and his volunteers doing a barbecue and to be followed by a dessert bar afterwards.
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Thank You Veterans

November 11, 2011 | Filed Under Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Government, Marines, Military, National Guard, Navy, Veterans, Veterans Day, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.
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NYPD Police Union: Another Example of Why Public Employee Unions Need to be Outlawed

November 11, 2011 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, New York, New York City, Police, Public Employees Unions, Regulation, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week 16 dirty New York cops went on trial for all sorts of criminal behavior. From dealing drugs, to assault and grand larceny, and “unrelated corruption,” these cops are proving to be some very crooked characters. But fellow officers don’t care about that. They have ginned themselves up to act like the punks and scumbags they are supposed to be putting behind bars all due to their police union and its agitation over the trials.

Even The New York Times seemed shocked by the venomous treatment these union thugs cops were delivering to the District Attorneys handling the case. Certainly these crooked cops are innocent until the prosecution proves its case, but these union toughs don’t care to let the law take its course. They want to storm the gates like the barbarians they are.

These so-called police officers even began to accost the media as the defendants left the courtroom. Says the Times, “The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.”
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A 2012 World View: What is the End Game?

November 11, 2011 | Filed Under Constitution, Democracy, Elections, Ethics, Founders, Government, Corruption, Nancy Salvato | Comments Off

-By Nancy Salvato

Having a world view and understanding how that perception influences our choices is important to knowing ourselves, being able to take or defend a position, and set goals and work to meet them. Sharing perspective helps us to understand and communicate with those who do not share the same belief systems but allows us to get along if we can find some commonalities or on what we can agree to disagree. When people holding a world view do not have the awareness to understand why they hold their position or are unable to comprehend that different experiences allow for a different outlook, this is when conflict can occur. This holds relevance for the 2012 election cycle.

Conflict is not confined between strangers. It can arise within family units; it can happen in the workplace, on the playing field, or even at a party. On such a smaller scale, it might be considered a personality conflict. A person can even be conflicted inside one’s own head. It is how potential conflict is addressed that makes all the difference in the world.

Within our own country, the Founders and Framers understood that there has to be a balance between individual rights and the rights of the community. They were under no illusions that in a country this large that everyone could hold the same beliefs and goals. They wanted to create a place where to the largest extent possible, people could be free without imposing on others. You could say their end goal was freedom. In creating the U.S. Constitution, they created a document that would maximize freedom and minimize conflict. For example, rather than elevate one religion over others by sponsoring it by the state, they included the First Amendment, which reads:
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An Example of Why Radio Host Michael Medved is No Conservative

November 10, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Conservatives, Entertainment, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Republicans, Talk Radio, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Medved is touted as a “conservative” radio host from the Salem Radio Network. But just how conservative is he? One has to wonder with his constant dismissive attacks against any and every conservative politician. But this week he revealed another reason why he is less conservative than he pretends.

Medved started his political life working for the Kennedy’s in the 60s, so like many young people he started out as a liberal. But from his radio show yesterday it seems pretty plain that he never really turned the corner from a big government liberal to a true conservative. He obviously still has a ton of far left beliefs in the wondermentatudenousness that is government.

The subject of Obama’s tax on the Christian Christmas icon, the Christmas tree came up on his Tuesday radio program. Obama floated the idea that a 15 cents per tree federal tax should be put on Christmas trees this year to fund another bloated boondoggle government agency.
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Video: Walsh Gets a Bit Testy With Constituent

November 10, 2011 | Filed Under Banks, Budget, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Illinois, Joe Walsh, Republicans, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Internet tubuals have been heating up with a video showing 8th District Republican Congressman Joe Walsh getting — shall we say — a bit testy with a constituent at a recent townhall.

The townhall was held in North Suburban Gurnee at Uno Bar and Grill and Walsh was being grilled about a lack of banking regulations by at least one voter.

Walsh was having none of it, as you saw. He’s exactly right about his point, too. It was Congress that was the problem, not any lack of banking regulations. I stand with Joe on the idea of getting government out of the economy not, as the voters on the video was trying to urge, get government more involved in the economy.

However, I feel Joe’s comportment was over the top and inappropriate. I support his passion on that issue, but he was simply too harsh in reply.
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