That’s Why We Have a Bill of Rights, Dr. Paul

February 7, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Constitution, Daniel Clark, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals | No Comments

-By Daniel Clark

Do state governments have the right to legalize murder? According to Ron Paul, they do.

During a January 19th debate in Charleston, South Carolina, former senator Rick Santorum charged that Congressman Paul, in spite of his fervent advocacy of the anti-abortion cause, has only about a 50 percent pro-life voting record in Congress. Incredibly, Paul’s response was that the slaughter of innocent human beings — as he unambiguously recognizes abortion to be — is none of the federal government’s business. “All other violence is handled by the states,” he said. “That’s a state issue.”

While it’s true that murder and other violent acts are prosecuted at the state level, it does not follow that the states have the authority to legalize them. The Fifth Amendment says, “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” By taking the position that the systematic killing of millions of innocent people is a state issue, Paul must suppose that the Bill of Rights is a mere suggestion, from which the states may opt out.

If Paul insists on constantly warbling on about the Constitution, he really ought to go back and re-read it. He often cites the Tenth Amendment to support his libertarian philosophy of devolving power to the states, but that is not what it prescribes in all cases. What it says is, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” (emphasis added)
Read more

The New American Elite

February 6, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Anti-Americanism, Book Reviews, Budget, Business, Congress, Conservatives, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Ethics, Free Trade, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, President, Republicans, Socialism, Taxes, WWII | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

The only constant in the life of individuals and nations is change. Since the beginning of the last century, the process or rate of change has accelerated with the invention and availability of a myriad of machines, technologies that have altered the lifestyle of Americans as well as of millions around the world.

Let me put it in personal terms. When I was born in the late 1930s, my Mother washed the family laundry by hand and hung it out to dry on sunny days or in the basement of our home if it was raining. We were not poor. We were middle class. My Father was a Certified Public Accountant and we lived in a spacious suburban home in an upscale New Jersey community. Mass produced washers and dryers would arrive after the end of World War Two.

The differences between lower economic classes, the middle class, and upper classes were well defined back then. All, however, generally held the same values regarding societal institutions such as marriage, religion, national pride. Those values have eroded since the 1960s and Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, whose new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” ($27.00, Crown Forum) tells you how and why.
Read more

Obama Set to Cost Each of Us Hundreds a Year in Higher Electric Costs

January 31, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, EPA, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, President, Regulation, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama’s avalanche of needless regulations on coal-fueled power plants are going into effect and the net result will be the closing of hundreds of power plants all across the country just when our need for power is increasing. This will absolutely necessitate the cost of our power to skyrocket. But, this is exactly what he wants. He wants to rape us for our power. He said so from the beginning.

Well, now that he’s had the opportunity to put into place just some of the new rules and regulations he wants — and he’s only pushed through a tiny bit of what he really wants, indeed — we are already seeing the results of his attack on us.

Look to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland where six coal-fueled power plants are being shut down by FirstEnergy because the retrofitting the power plants will have to undergo to satisfy Obama’s whims is just too expensive to justify.
Read more

In Praise of a Do-nothing Congress

January 28, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, President, Republicans, Selwyn Duke, Senate, Taxes | No Comments

-By Selwyn Duke

Here’s a question: how can we expect to have small government if we condemn Congress for not growing it?

It’s always a disturbing experience when you’re accosted with a picture of Harry Reid, as I was upon logging on to Drudge last Monday afternoon. But at least his image bore a fitting caption: “MOST FUTILE EVER.” I then clicked the link and found myself at The Washington Times – normally a quite sane organ of the media – and learned the meaning of the caption: the Times was lamenting a do-nothing Congress and presented Reid as its poster boy. Writes the paper, “It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills – fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.”

Writes Duke, “It’s official: conservatives are completely confused about what begets big government.”

The paper then expanded on its theme, pointing out that Congress set a record for “legislative futility” according to something called the “futility index.”

I’ll tell you what’s futile: complaining about a loss of freedom while chastising legislators for not spawning enough bills.
Read more

Rep. Walsh Schools National Park Service Director About Occupy DC

January 25, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Joe Walsh, Liberals, Republicans, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why does the National Park Service think they should treat Occupy DC with kid gloves? Because they have “occupy” in their name… er… something. At least that is according to the head of the National Park Service, Jonathan B. Jarvis.

8th District Congressman Joe Walsh (R, ILL) wonders why Park Service personnel are not just tolerating the OWSers but actively assisting them and giving them aid for their protests!

Are we paying our taxes so that the Park Service can become part of an anti-American protest movement? Apparently we are.

Congressman Walsh did a great job showing that these OWSers are not something to be coddled.

(H/T Marathon Pundit)

Chicago Sun-Times Shows White Flag: No More Political Endorsements

January 25, 2012 | Filed Under Chicago Sun-Times, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, House of Representatives, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, President, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Sun Times has received your message loud and clear, dear readers. As much as admitting that they are biased and they know it, the long-time Windy City staple has decided that hence forth it will no longer endorse candidates for political office.

In a Sunday editorial, the 71-year-old paper announced its new policy amusingly touting the Old Media’s party line that it engages in “unbiased news coverage” and that newspapers today wish to “appeal to the widest possible readership.”

“They want to inform you, not spin you,” the editorial avers. Yet, the editorial goes on to admit that it has heard from readers who seriously doubt that dedication to unbiased news coverage. And when you note that over the last several decades few national news papers have endorsed a Republican for President — most especially the left-leaning Chicago Sun-Times — it is easy to doubt that purported dedication to just-the-facts reporting.
Read more

Obama Weakens the Military

January 24, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Anti-Americanism, Anti-War, Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Military, President, Senate, Taxes | 1 Comment

-By Alan Caruba

“Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace, plan for war. The adage is attributed to the 4th or 5th century Latin author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus’s tract De Re Militari book 3. This fundamental wisdom is being ignored by President Obama, one of two recent Commanders-in-Chief who never spent a day in uniform, let alone under fire.

In a recent American Thinker commentary by Jim Yardley, he said, “It is apparent that the president, in developing his strategy, used the same extensive knowledge, his superior intellect, and worldly wealth of experience that he brought to his strategy for his $800-billion stimulus, his strategy for providing cost-free health care to millions of Americans, and his strategy for using ‘smart diplomacy’ to defuse not spots around the world.”

Perhaps receiving the Nobel Peace Prize barely months into his first year as President has convinced Obama that he is the man to get all our enemies to join hands and sing Kumbaya. Obama accepted the prize that has gone to other seekers of peace like Yassir Arafat, founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization or co-winners, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore. The IPCC and Gore have led the greatest hoax of the modern era, global warming, and Arafat rejected every effort at peace offered by Israel by going back on his word and using terrorism to achieve his goals.

There is no question that the announced cuts to the U.S. military budget are, in part, the result of the domestic run up of debt and borrowing the followed the financial crisis of 2008; itself the result of bad government policies regarding the wholesale granting of mortgages to people who could not afford homes, then bundling those bad mortgages and selling them as assets to the banks.
Read more

Restoring American Exceptionalism – Chicago Townhall

January 24, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Chicago, Children, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, President, Public Employees Unions, Radio, Republicans, Rights, School Choice, Senate, Talk Radio, Taxes, Teachers Unions, Unions, Vouchers, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I just got back from a wonderful evening taking school choice at the Restoring American Exceptionalism, Chicago Townhall. In attendance were radio talk show host Michael Medved, Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and Dr. Paul Worfel, Director of Education of Trinity International University. The discussion was moderated by John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The event was sponsored by National School Choice Week, an effort by Americans for Prosperity, and is one of many events being held across the country to encourage parents, legislators, and activists to work toward allowing parents a choice in their children’s education. Co-sponsors were Townhall.com, Salem Radio Networks, and Chicago’s WIND Radio, AM 560

Arriving at the sprawling campus of Trinity International University of Deerfield, Illinois, the biting cold outside was quickly forgotten by the warm reception all received by the event staff. The program started promptly with an introduction by local radio host Big John Howell of AM 560, WIND radio who turned the program over to John Tillman of the Illinois Policy Institute.

The night’s debate was nicely balanced from right, center and left with a panel featuring the conservative side of the debate on education represented by talk show host Michael Medved, the center represented by Fox News contributor Juan Williams, and the more traditional educrat’s position taken by Dr. Worfel.

I won’t repeat the whole discussion, but here are some of the more interesting (and some might say provocative) highlights.
Read more

VIDEO: ‘Change has come,’ Alright! But How Good Has it Been?

January 20, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Money, President, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced that change had come to America. After three years, the results of that change make many Americans ready to change it back.

And here is a great for-instance of how the Old Media establishment is covering for their Obammessiah. Let’s get in the way back machine and recall how the price of gas was used as a sledgehammer with which to beat George W. Bush about the head. Remember how it was front page news on a daily basis? Well now gas has lingered at highs that it never stayed at during the Bush years and now analysts are saying gas will reach to $4 a gallon this year — an all time high.

Where is the media on this story? Why isn’t it as big a deal as it was 5 and 6 years ago? Ah, yes. We have The One in office. Gosh. How could I forget that the Old Media doesn’t want negative stories about their messiah? Silly me.

Courtesy AllAmericanBlogger.com

Raiding of the Treasury to Bribe the Irresponsible

January 19, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Congress, Crony Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Frank Salvato, GOP, Government, Liberals, President, Taxes | No Comments

-By Frank Salvato

A little publicized political story, if played out to the satisfaction of California Democrats (read: Progressives), would not only set the stage for a politically motivated raid on the US Treasury, it would afford President Obama, his administration and political operatives plausible deniability in any “coincidental” benefit to Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign. And if you don’t think that has David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe salivating, you haven’t been paying attention for the past three years.

According to a report by TheHill.com:

“A long list of California Democrats is urging President Obama to name a new housing regulator using a controversial recess appointment.

“In a letter to the president, more than two dozen House members said the temporary head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Edward DeMarco, simply hasn’t done enough to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. The lawmakers are pushing the president to name a permanent director ‘immediately.’

“‘FHFA has consistently and erroneously interpreted its mandate far too narrowly and as such has failed to take adequate action to help homeowners,’ the lawmakers wrote. ‘Installing a permanent director of the FHFA will allow the FHFA to move forward to make key decisions that will help keep families in their homes and improve our economy.’”

Okay, let’s first examine the FHFA. According to their website:
Read more

Christmas Billboards Point In The Culture War’s Direction

January 14, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Frederick Meekins, Government, Government, Corruption, Holiday, Liberals, PCism, Society/Culture, Western Civilization | No Comments

-By Frederick Meekins

Christmas is the time of year when the thoughts of most Americans grow to be at their most devout. It is increasingly the time of year that the avowed despisers of the Almighty are at their most disrespectful.

Before now, the most culturally embarrassing thing to come out of the wastelands of the Garden State was likely Snooki and her Jersey Shore compatriots. However, it now seems even their debauched escapades have been surpassed in terms of deliberately thumbing one’s nose at God.

For decades, one municipality there has draped across a main street a banner reading that horrible bit of wordplay “Keep Christ In Christmas”. As has become customary, leftist subversives have stepped forward insisting that the banner be taken down to placate one or two discombobulated by the message.
Read more

Are You a Conservative? Welcome to the Majority!

January 13, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Libertarian, President, Republicans, Senate, Socialism, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There has been a lot of lament by the far left in America that the Tea Party has somehow driven the Republican Party to conservative extremes. This, however, is untrue. The truth is, the American public has been trending toward conservative views for more than a decade before the Tea Party even came about.

According to Gallup, for the last three years more Americans have self-proclaimed themselves as conservatives than have claimed the moniker of moderate.

Political ideology in the U.S. held steady in 2011, with 40% of Americans continuing to describe their views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This marks the third straight year that conservatives have outnumbered moderates, after more than a decade in which moderates mainly tied or outnumbered conservatives.

But think about this for a minute. This means that fully 75% of America is more conservative than the Democrat Party, a party that decades ago stopped being a party of centrism becoming instead a European-like, liberal party.

Gallup’s several decades of polling finds that “moderates” have been in slow decline since 1992 with Americans calling themselves “liberal” now only measuring at 21 percent. With this we see a nation that is not just center-right as many political pundits have for years claimed, but is actually trending conservative.
Read more

Obama Chic: Now Selling Campaign Gear for the One Percent

January 13, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals, President, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama? Why, he’s the middle class warrior, isn’t he? He’s the veritable man of the people, darn it. He has beer summits and he chows down on burgers and fries just like us reg’lar folks. Gone are the arugula days, the million-dollar vacations and secret Hollywood star-studded Halloween parties…. one out of three ain’t bad, anyway. On the other hand, perhaps all those claims of Obama’s middle class appeal are a bit of a show. If Obama’s new high-end, très chic campaign gear is any indication, he’s driving right for the vaunted One Percent.

With such famous haute couture designers as Vera Wang and Diane Von Furstenberg, team Obama is offering designer tote bags at $85, t-shirts with the hefty rice tag of $55, and a “Thakoon-designed silk scarf” that will set you back $95. With all that you’ve hardly got the sort of gear you might wear to a beer summit.

It’s all part of the Democrat Party’s “Runway To Win” campaign to raise cash for the cause.

As to the Republicans, t-shirts on Mitt Romney’s website cost no higher than $30, Newt’s t-shirts are only $20 — or you can get an embroidered polo for $40 — and Ron Paul charges even less offering his Ts for the low, low, dime-store prices of $17 and $18.
Read more

VIDEO: The Story of Broke Response, Why Annie Leonard is Wrong… AGAIN!

January 13, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Senate, Socialism, Stimulus, Taxes, Unemployment, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Extremist “progressive” Annie Leonard recently perpetrated another video attempting to “explain” why capitalism and the United States is evil. Well, LearnLiberty.org couldn’t let her lies and left-wing propaganda go by unaddressed. So, they made this excellent video…

Prof. Art Carden responds to “The Story of Broke”, a recent video by the creators of “The Story of Stuff.” In “The Story of Broke,” Annie Leonard claims that the government isn’t actually broke. Rather, the government just wastes resources on the wrong things like subsidies to the dinosaur economy and war. She claims that the government should change its ways, and instead, subsidize firms that will bring us the future we really want.

Art Carden agrees with Leonard that war and subsidies are wasteful, but is skeptical of notion that there is one unified vision for the future. To Carden, everyone has a different vision for the future. Our path to the future, he argues, is determined by the interactions of billions of unique individuals pursuing their own objectives.

Additionally, Carden questions Leonard’s distinction between bad subsidies and good subsidies. Every subsidy, deemed good or bad, must be allocated through the political process. Lobbyists and special interests exert a large degree of influence on political decisions, and they use this power to direct subsidies in their own favor at everyone else’s expense.

Carden concludes that government spending won’t buy a brighter future. A brighter future will emerge when people are allowed to spend money on things they care about. Put another way, positive change will come from billions of people cooperating freely and voluntarily with one another, not from pushing trillions of dollars through a broken political process.

Barack Machiavelli

January 13, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Money, President, Taxes | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

The Founding Fathers, authors of the Constitution, were obsessed with any form of government that could become too powerful, too willing to use force to oppress citizens. They had cause. They had fought a long war against the greatest power of their age, ruled by a king with nearly absolute power. They fashioned an instrument designed to ensure that the President could not rule by edict and defused power among three branches of government.

We have a President currently running for reelection against Congress, Wall Street, Republicans, and the right of citizens to be free of an overly intrusive government.

Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution says: All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in the Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

All appointments of the President must be approved by the Senate while it is in session and the Senate, even over the Christmas and New Year’s vacation has remained in session, if only in a pro forma, technical manner. Every three days it has been convened to assert its powers.

Even so, President Obama has announced several “recess” appointments, all clearly a challenge to the Senate and all clearly a tyrannical power grab. He appointed Richard Cordray as the first director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new function that puts government between the lender and the citizen. In theory, all loans in the future will be subject to government approval. This is Communism, not Capitalism.

Obama Excuses Over 500,000 Union Members From Obamacare

January 12, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Liberals, Obamacare, President, Public Employees Unions, Senate, Socialism, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember back in the days of the debate over Obamacare when unions were the biggest voices screaming in support of the legislation? Many labor union bosses said that nationalized healthcare was exactly what they wanted. Further they said it was what was good for the country. Yet now we learn that Obama has given waivers to some 550,000 union members so that they don;t have to suffer under Obamacare.

Paul Connor reports that a classic Friday evening document dump from the White House shows that unions employing up to 543,812 members have received waivers fro the Obama administration.

Fridays are often the one day of the week when government agencies satisfy transparency rules and release documents that show what they’ve been up to. They release them on Friday in the early evening because they understand that reporters are already headed home for the weekend and TV news departments have already programed their evening newscasts. These agencies also understand that news agencies don’t often cover heavy news on weekends. Further, by the time Monday rolls around the document will be “old news” and many of them will simply escape attention.
Read more

What Conservatives and the GOP Dare Not Say about Immigration

January 12, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Conservatives, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Immigration/Immigrants, Republicans, Selwyn Duke | 1 Comment

-By Selwyn Duke

In a recent election piece, pundit Ann Coulter identified illegal migration as one of the two most important issues of our time. She writes that if we fail at halting it, “the country will be changed permanently.” She continues:

Taxes can be raised and lowered. Regulations can be removed (though they rarely are). Attorneys general and Cabinet members can be fired. Laws can be repealed. Even Supreme Court justices eventually die.

But capitulate on illegal immigration, and the entire country will have the electorate of California. There will be no turning back.

She expands on this later in the piece:
Read more

NPR: Again Falsely Blaming Giffords’ Shooting on Uncivil Political Rhetoric

January 10, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Arizona, Congress, Conservatives, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Guns, House of Representatives, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, NPR, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I suppose we couldn’t get past the one-year anniversary of the crime against Democrat Representative Gabrielle Giffords without some Old Media outlet blaming the supposed “heated” political rhetoric of the day for her shooting. On Sunday we saw NPR doing just that. The fact is, no matter how many times they say it, politics and the “heated rhetoric” thereof had absolutely nothing at all to do with Giffords’ shooting. The linking of the crime to politics is just not legitimate.

On this one-year anniversary, NPR’s Linton Weeks was all about the improvement of our “civil discourse,” and full of lament that it just isn’t happening. Perhaps it is a noble sentiment, but he marred that nobility by beginning his piece with a false allusion once again tying the Giffords shooting to the “political atmosphere” of the day.

“When a gunman opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords,” Linton wrote, “some people were quick to blame the episode on the overheated political climate.”

With that false allusion we also know what NPR meant to do. It meant to blame conservatives for Giffords’ shooting.

He went on to say:
Read more

Obama’s Electronic Medical Records Requirements Already Causing Job Loss

January 9, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Health, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Money, Obamacare, President, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

While the Old Media has been ecstatic over recent job numbers, claiming that some 200,000 jobs have been added to the economy, we should note that while Obama giveth Obama also taketh away. The media may be trying to claim the President has “created or saved” jobs (the latest weasel word is he’s created job opportunity) but his policies have also cost jobs. In particular his policies are costing jobs in the medical field.

Last week, layoffs were announced in Mississippi at the University of Mississippi Medical Center due in part to the 80 million dollars that it will cost to implement a new computer system named EPIC Systems, Obama’s newly mandated electronic medical records system.

Naturally, the system Obama is forcing on an entire nation of medical professionals and hospitals is the same system owned and operated by Judith Faulkner, one of his own big donors. Faulkner is also a big donor to the Democrat Party. Not surprisingly, besides affording her the lucrative, crony capitalist business deal, Obama also put Faulkner in a key role on the Health Information Technology Policy Committee, the committee responsible for implementing the President’s e-records policy. She has become known as Obama’s medical records czar.

As hospitals and doctors are forced to launch their own EPIC Systems portals, the costs are forcing hard choices for administrators. All to implement what many call a flawed system.
Read more

EPA’s Killer MACT

January 9, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, EPA, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Taxes | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

To understand how the Environmental Protection Agency operates, one must first understand that it lies all the time. Its “estimates” are bogus. Its claims of lives saved are bogus.

It thrives on scare-mongering to a public that is science-challenged, but the science remains and the EPA must be challenged to save the nation from the loss of the energy it needs to function. It must be challenged to unleash the huge economic benefits of energy resources—coal, oil, and natural gas—that can reverse our present economic decline.

The latest outrage is the MACT rule—an acronym for “maximum achievable control technology” intended to reduce mercury emissions and other trace gases. The rule is 1,117 pages long. Its purpose is to shut down coal-fired power plants that generate over fifty percent of all the electricity used daily in the United States of America.

The value of the total benefits asserted by the EPA is alleged to be $6 million. Not billion, but million. The MACT rule would force 14.7 gigawatts—enough power for more than eleven million households—to be “retired” from the power grip in the 2014-15 period when the rules take effect.

How Not to Go Crazy in 2012

January 6, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Republicans, Senate | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

Election years tend to create a level of frenzy concerning the selection of the nominees and the outcome. The media feed this in order to keep readers reading and viewers viewing. The history of American elections has always been one of vituperation between the parties, so there is nothing new about this. Indeed, since so much depends on it, the political free-for-all is a healthy exercise.

It can, however, make for a difficult environment in which to go about one’s life; the air filled with charge and counter-charge, polls going up and down, and a general sense that something is very wrong with the way the government functions.

On the bright side, a gridlocked Congress may bring a measure of relief to everyone. Writing about gridlock in January 2011, Marcus E. Ethridge, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, noted that “By fostering gridlock, the U.S. Constitution increases the likelihood that policies will reflect broad, unorganized interests instead of the interests of narrow, organized groups.” In 2011, we saw what happens when advocates of “renewable energy”, wind and solar power, or electric cars, get priority over the needs of most Americans for reliable energy and transportation.
Read more

A Democrat Dream Ticket for 2012: Weiner-Holder

January 5, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Humor, Liberals, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

This ticket is Barney Frank endorsed.

Sen. Roy Blunt— A Champion of the People

January 5, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Democracy, Government, Missouri, Paleo-Skeptic, Republicans, Society/Culture | 1 Comment

by Paleo-Skeptic

First of all, a bit of disclosure:

I used to live in Tom Delay’s district.

And people there loved that man— loved him— and for good reason.

Anyone there could call Delay’s office concerning any matter of unresolveable conflict; and in most cases, with one phone call from that office, the matter would be taken care of.

I never contacted him myself— I had no need to. But I’ve known a number of others who have. These are real life instances:

• A woman caring for her elderly mother was concerned that the apartment complex where she lived was maintaining unsafe conditions. One call to Delay, and the matter was taken care of.

• A man borrowed money from his parents to have a new transmission put in his car, so that he could make it to work, and the new transmission went out. He felt the mechanic cheated him. One call to Delay’s office, and the matter was taken care of.

Now, I don’t know the details of those contacts or what arrangements were made; but from what I understand, all it took was, “I just got a complaint from one of my constituents about this. Is this true? … I don’t want to hear another complaint from any of my constituents about this, or I’m going to have to look into it further.”

And that was all it took.

No matter how high he rose in the Congressional leadership, Tom Delay always remained accessible to his people back home.

And they knew that, with a confidence.

And they loved him for it.

Rightfully so.

So, What Actually Came of the ‘Shellacking’ of 2010?

January 4, 2012 | Filed Under Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Frank Salvato, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, Republicans, Senate | No Comments

-By Frank Salvato

We were so full of “hope” for “change.” No, I am not talking about the election of Barack Obama, one of the most effective Progressive presidents in American history. I am speaking of the excitement felt within the Conservative, Libertarian and Center Right and Left political communities after the 2010 election delivered the House and a non-filibuster proof Senate to the American people. Finally, most of us thought, some balance in the federal government. Maybe, just maybe, the Progressives and Liberal Democrats in federal government would be forced to the ingenuous table of true and honest compromise; compromise fitting of a truly free people. But, as we look back over the year, what did we really get for all that so-called “compromise?”

With Republicans in control of the US House of Representatives, the body where – by the mandate of the US Constitution – all legislation relating to revenue is to begin, many on the Right and in the Center believed that the reckless and spendthrift fiscal actions of the 111th Congress would be constrained if not reversed. With a sizable number of new members identifying with the oft demonized TEA Party, there was high hope for a glimmer of fiscal sanity to emerge from the halls of Congress. And while the TEA Party members of Congress are to be congratulated for doing exactly what their constituents sent them to Washington to do, in the end, they were thwarted by establishment, inside the beltway Republicans and the despotic obstructionism foisted upon them by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-NV, (to be fair, Reid was aided by a less than reform-minded Republican leadership in the senate, led by Mitch McConnell, R-KY).
Read more

Wash. Post Plays Hate-The-Rich-Republicans With Graphic Chart

December 30, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Money, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston, Washington Post | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Wednesday morning the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake posted an infographic that was a perfect example of how one can use a graphic chart to influence the public in subtle ways, ways that we of the center right better start employing in our own efforts if we want to win over the public.

Blake’s post, “Why People Hate Congress,” fits in well with President Obama’s class warfare rhetoric as employed in his campaign to set different economic classes against each other in a desperate and cynically populist bid to get reelected next year. There is little of substance to Blake’s post other than to fan the flames of the sort of hatred that he wants to see grow in order to aid Obama in 2012.

The Post’s Blake also ended up having to pull the graphic off his The Fix blog post because it simply did not illustrate what he claimed it did in his story — but that is another issue that we’ll deal with at the end of this report.

Blake begins his piece asking, “Want to know why Americans hate Congress?” He then goes on to claim it is in part because our elected representatives in Washington D.C. are members of the eeeevil rich.

The fact that members of Congress are getting richer (and 57 members come from the top 1 percent, according to USA Today) confirms what Americans suspect about the people who are running this country: that they don’t empathize with normal people.

Of course, with a dispassionate application of logic, having a few dollars more than the next guy does not ipso facto make the richer guy so out of touch that he cannot empathize with anyone in a lower salary range. Only those filled with hate make this assumption. Empathy has nothing to do with class, money, or politics. It has to do with one’s character.

Further there are plenty of members of Congress with the character to understand and have empathy with others. Then there are some that don’t. People are people, rich or poor.

It is also telling that even Blake admits that Congress has always been filled with “the rich.” The founders were not groveling in poverty, after all. It often takes a person that has achieved a certain place in society to become elected. I mean, should they be elected, how can anyone expect “the poor” or even the lower middle class to afford to fund homes both in D.C. and back in their district? Who can afford to leave their family and business if half the year off more to fly off the D.C. to attend to government business? And with the costs of elections and the Byzantine election laws these days causing many candidates to self fund, it will only be natural that “the rich” end up being our representatives in Congress.

But special attention has to be paid to the graphic Blake used to illustrate his story. And what a masterwork of subtlety it is. Blake claimed that the illustration made by a well-known hate-the-rich researcher from California showed in graphic form the distribution of wealth among both chambers of Congress. The graphic depicts the “top 1%” and the “next 9%” in the color red. Then it uses blue to show the “following 10%” and the “bottom 80%.” Notice what is going on? That’s right, this graphic uses the color red to depict the eeevil rich. And what is the color red in politics these days? None other than the color the Old Media has assigned to the Republican Party.
Read more

The 2012 Check List for America’s Survival

December 29, 2011 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Republicans, Taxes | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

Many people make resolutions to start the year, but I think a list of things that must be done to protect and preserve the Republic should be tallied.

1. President Obama must be defeated in 2012 and the obstructionist Democratic Party must lose power in the Senate to ensure both houses of Congress will be Republican and in a position to initiate real change.

2. The Environmental Protection Agency must be reined in with increased Congressional oversight and legislative limits on its rule-making capacity. Having fulfilled its 1970 mandate to clean the nation’s air and water, it should be scaled back to the maintenance of these functions.

3. Americans, despite the administration’s efforts to redefine and distract us, must keep clearly in mind the threat of Islam to the nation and the world. A Middle East in turmoil lays ahead for 2012.

4. To jump-start the economy, taxes and spending must be reduced across the board. A tax on consumption, rather than income would be a good start. Only 49% of Americans currently pay income taxes, the lowest in decades.
Read more

Now 91 Congressmen Have ‘No Confidence’ In AG Holder

December 23, 2011 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Congress, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Eric Holder, Ethics, GOP, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Mexico, President, RightPundits.com, War On Drugs, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fully 91 members of Congress have signed onto a resolution of no confidence in U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the man that bears the most responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious — an Obama administration policy that allowed thousands of American guns to get into the hands of Mexican narco-terrorists, guns that were later used to kill hundreds of Mexican citizens and several American law enforcement officials.

As Matthew Boyle reports, “it’s not directly a call for Holder to step down, the resolution alleges that the nation’s top law enforcement official’s actions have proven he is not ‘competent, trustworthy and beyond reproach,’ and that he has sought to ‘cover up’ mistakes rather than cooperate with Congress ‘in disclosing the events and circumstances and transparently addressing the issues.’”

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Senator Dick Durbin: Pants on Fire

December 23, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Dick Durbin, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Senior Senator, Democrat Dickie Durbin wants you to know that the fact that the Democrats have not passed a full, working budget in over 900 days is all because of those wascally Republicans.

Never mind that the Democrats have had the majority for over three years in the Senate, never mind that before the 2010 midterm elections they had 100% control of both Congress and the White House… it’s all them gosh darn Republican’s fault.

Never mind that they passed the boondoggle healthcare bill that will cause the U.S. to go bankrupt, never mind that Obama has gotten all his little sops to Big Labor to spite the faltering economy, never mind…. well, never mid all the things the Democrats seemed to have no problem getting done, they just can’t get that danged ld budget passed.

The fact is, Democrats are playing politics with one of the only real Constitutional duties they have, creating and passing a federal budget. Yet, the Old Media allows Obama to stand before the American people and pretend that he and his party are the ones interested in fiscal sanity? This is why our politics is so messed up. The Democrats operate on bald faced lies and the Old Media allows them get away with it.
Read more

Ron Paul’s Dissembling About His Newsletters

December 22, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Anti-Semitism, Congress, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, House of Representatives, President, Race, Republicans, Ron Paul, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Famed opposition researcher Andrew Kaczynksi has dug up the ultimate video proof that Ron Paul is a liar with his current claims that he had no knowledge about those racist newsletters that carried his name for so many decades.

Ron Paul has lately claimed that he had no idea that his newsletters were filled with anti-Jew, anti-black, even anti-Asian sentiment, not to mention more conspiracy theories than a season of a TV series hosted by Jesse Ventura. He has explained that he just never had much to do with those newsletters, he didn’t write them, and he doesn’t know who did so no one should hold the contents of them against him. He’s even getting testy over this issue as is evident from his storming off an interview with CNN just yesterday.

Yet in 1995 he was happily hawking his newsletters to C-SPAN audiences (at about 1:50 into video):

But along with that, I also put out a political type of business investment newsletter that sort of covered all these areas. And it covered a lot about what was going on in Washington, and financial events, and especially some of the monetary events. Since I had been especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking committee, and still very interested in, in that subject, that this newsletter dealt with it. This had to do with the value of the dollar, the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue to do.

Are we expected to believe Ron Paul when he claims he never paid much mind to these newsletters, even after we see him hawking them on C-SPAN in 1995? Are we expected to believe that the millions of dollars he made from these newsletters deposited into his coffers came without his slightest interest in where it was all coming from?
Read more

Just Who The Heck IS A Ron Paul Voter?

December 21, 2011 | Filed Under Congress, Elections, GOP, House of Representatives, President, Republicans, RightPundits.com, Ron Paul, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Aaron Blake made a great comment on Twitter about Ron Paul’s support. Blake noted that Ron Paul has a big percentage of younger voters in Iowa, but a paltry number of those over 45.

Ron Paul wins more than 50 percent of 18-29 and 30-44 year olds, but less than 12% of 45-64 and 65+.

This age breakdown of Iowa supporters for Paul causes Paul’s opponents to doubt that this young demographic will bother to turn out at the Iowa caucuses when push comes to shove….

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.

Tags: Publius+Forum, Warner+Todd+Huston, Right+Pundits