Sarah IS serious, Salena

November 8, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Conservatives, Economy/Finances, Energy, Health, Josh Painter, News | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Salena Zito has a Sunday opinion piece that left us scratching our heads after we read it. Don’t get us wrong. Ms. Zito has been more than fair to Sarah Palin in a number of her columns. And in this, her latest, it’s just the title and a single paragraph that lead us to wonder if the writer is keeping up with the Palin news. This column certainly starts off on the right foot:

First of all, Palin will not leave the Republican Party.

“As independent-minded and anti-establishment as she is,” says Villanova University political science professor Lara Brown, “she seems to understand well one of my favorite quotes from political scientist John Aldrich from Duke University: ‘The standard line that anyone can grow up to be president may be true, but it is true only if one grows up to be a major party nominee.’”

Palin is positioning herself to become the Republican presidential nominee, and getting involved in NY-23 was merely the first step. Her book and her “Oprah” interview later this month are her next major steps.

And we certainly have no disagreement with Ms. Zito and Professor Brown when they acknowledge that all politics is local, and Governor Palin’s support of Doug Hoffman in New York’s 23rd Congressional District helped the Republican running with the backing of the Conservative Party more than it hurt him.

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Last Thoughts on SPN 2009

November 5, 2009 | Filed Under Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Free Speech, Free Trade, GOP, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Republicans, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Some final thoughts on the State Policy Network’s 17th Annual Conference.

It was invigorating to be able to share a conference with so many folks of like mind, a conservative, free market, liberty-minded mien. And with nearly 500 participants, the biggest conference they’ve yet had, it was something very worth attending if you are interested in furthering these sorts of policies among the various states.

But I have to say one thing that this conference proved and it is something that is, in the end, detrimental for the country. This was a 500 person conference where each participant spent no less than $1,000 to attend, many spent far more. There we saw free market think tanks from every state all trying to find ways to defeat the extreme Obama left. We have all this effort, all this money, all this time spent to defeat liberalism all in evidence at the conference. While that is good because it needs to be done, the sad thing is that it has to be done in the first place. The fact that this conference gets bigger every year and that more and more people from across the country have created state policy organizations to fight the un-American left is sad, when you get right down to it.
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Kirk Suddenly a “No” on Cap and Tax?

September 16, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Energy, GOP, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Republicans, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Mark Kirk (R, IL) has been getting hammered by conservatives and moderate Republicans alike for his “yes” vote on the Cap and Trade bill. But at a recent appearance Kirk suddenly said he now intends to vote against the disastrous bill.

The Obama administration admits that the Cap and Trade legislation will cost every American family and additional $1,761 a year and likely that is on the low side. Conservatives have slammed Kirk for supporting this economy killing carbon emissions capping legislation.

On the 5th at a suburban rally, Kirk announced his switcheroo amidst many loud boos and catcalls. “About cap and trade: I voted for it because it was in the narrow interests of my congressional district. But as your representative, representing the entire state of Illinois, I will vote ‘No’ on that bill coming up.”

Well, this sure seems like an opportunistic flip flop, doesn’t it? Now that he’s running for Senate he’s found that his cap and tax “yes” vote is proving to be an impediment to his campaign and suddenly he finds his principles again?

I guess Kirk should be congratulated for finally coming to his senses and actually representing his constituents’ desires, but the fact that he thought he could make a dash for the cash (he voted cap and tax because of donations by enviro-nazi groups) without bothering with principle or representing his constituents in the first place marks him as an opportunist of the worst sort.

Kirk’s reversal is at the three minute, ten second mark in the video:


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Illinois Business Groups Schedule Anti-Cap and Trade Rally, Sept. 1st

September 1, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Free Trade, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, Socialism, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group called Energy Citizens made up of 23 Illinois business associations have scheduled a September 1st rally in order to protest the seriously damaging policies of the Cap and Trade bill. The rally will be held near the State Capitol in Springfield.

The event will start a noon and will be held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 3000 Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, Illinois.

A notice was posted at the Illinois Farm Bureau website.

A lunch will follow the roughly 45-minute event, one of 22 rallies nationwide sponsored by the group Energy Citizens to oppose House-approved legislation. IFB members are encouraged to attend, and may contact their county Farm Bureau for additional details.

The Illinois members of Energy Citizens includes the Southwestern Illinois Employers Association and Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative, the Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, Associated Builder and Contractors of Illinois (ABC), Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, Grain & Feed Association of Illinois, Growmark, Home Builders Association of Illinois, Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers, Illinois Coal Associations, Illinois Energy Forum, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois manufacturers Association, Illinois Petroleum Council, Illinois Pork Producers, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Trucking Association, MidAmerica Energy, Mid-West Truckers Association, Illinois Oil & Gas Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative and the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association.
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Column 666, about President Obama

August 16, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Communism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Free Trade, Freedom, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Health, John Armor, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, President, Science, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes | No Comments

-By John Armor

This is the 666th column in this weekly series. It had to be spent on an overarching subject. So it is.

President Barack Obama is the most accomplished liar I have ever encountered, and that includes several pathological liars I faced in court. The best of those I could not rattle even with a well-prepared and vigorous cross-examination. Only the weight of solid facts from other sources served to expose and defeat those people.

Pathological liars can give the impression that they are telling the truth because they are smooth, accomplished, and effective. But the most important reason is that they have learned to lie to themselves. When they tell a bald-faced lie, right to your face, they actually believe what they are saying.

I’ll use exactly one example. On the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly said that “no one earning less than $250,000 a year will pay any additional taxes.” This was his definition of the middle class, in his universal mantra of no new taxes for the bulk of Americans.
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Charlie Cook: Another Out of Touch Liberal

July 16, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know when a liberal has lost any capability to understand the common American when they completely miss the pain that liberal tax hikers cause the average citizen in this country. Charlie Cook recently showed this elitist attitude in a National Journal column on the outrageous costs of the Cap and Trade bill – better called the Cap and Tax bill. Of course, to him, the tax hike on the average American is not a big deal and he doesn’t understand how anyone could be upset over it all.

Cook is perplexed why Washington pols were “getting an earful” from constituents over the energy tax hikes that the Cap and Trade bill will force on the nation. He just couldn’t figure why adding “only” an additional $175 a year to the average citizen’s electric bill was such a big deal.

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‘Adios Chavez,’ Gas Station Owner Dumps Chavez Citgo Brand

June 28, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Foreign Policy, Liberals, Socialism, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A smart gas station owner from Wadsworth, Illinois has given up his Citgo franchise and re-opened as a Shell station. To celebrate he posted a sign that gives Hugo Chavez a wonderful sendoff. “Adios Chavez,” it reads.

For the last five years I have personally boycotted any Citgo gas station. Citgo, you see, is wholly owned by Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., which itself is wholly owned by Venezuela’s despotic President Hugo Chavez and his puppet government. I have written several times in the past about this fact (here, and here) and have wondered why more Americans haven’t talked about boycotting this foreign hatemonger’s gas stations?

After all, Hugo Chavez has called the U.S. any manner of names and has centered the U.S. as the chief villain of his paranoid delusions of persecution anyway, so why not let him stew by refusing to do business with this half-witted, half-pint dictator?

So, today I am happy to report that Randy Whitmore’s gas station at Delany and York House roads in Wadsworth, Illinois has done just that. He’s flipped the tin-potted Chavez the bird and gone back to being a Shell man.

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Obama: Nuclear Power OK For Enemies but Not For US?

June 2, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Environment, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Liberals, Media Bias, Nuclear Power, President, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nuclear power is the most environmentally friendly power of all, low on emissions, does not require destructive mining or drilling efforts to feed it, and is also one that creates a lot of jobs both in initial construction as well as to sustain its ongoing operation. Nuclear power is also a mainstay power source for such countries as France. It’s clean, safe, and extremely desirable. Its only drawback is what to do with its waste.

But to the U.S. enviro-racket, nuclear power is a bugabear that needs to be deep sixed forever and Barack Obama is a chief bugger of that bugabear. Unless, that is, you happen to be an enemy of the USA. If you are, say, Iran, why, nuclear power is a vital national interest that he is willing to stand behind in principle.

Outrageously the “president of the world” is willing to agree with Iran, one of our biggest international enemies, a nation that has sent its soldiers and trainers into combat against our own troops, a nation that exports acts of terror across the globe, a nation that claims it needs nuclear power for domestic energy… and Barack Obama is on their side.

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That Coal-Fired Furnace in the Sky

May 23, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Environment, Government, Corruption, Jobs, John Armor, Liberals, Media Bias, Socialism, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By John Armor

Did anybody else notice that the phrase “global warming” has largely disappeared from public discourse? All but the slowest environmentalists have dropped that phrase because for the last three years the globe as been cooling off. So, the new phrase is “climate change.”

As a public service, I’d like to explain this phrase by reference to a pair of coal-fired furnaces, one in Birmingham, Alabama, the other one in Baltimore, Maryland. My mother grew up in Birmingham almost a century ago, in a rambling, wood-framed house on Warsaw Street. It had sleeping porches for summer heat, and a coal furnace for winter cold.
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Harry Reid Proposes Power Grid Take Over By Feds

March 7, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, Liberals, News, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) has just proposed that the federal government should take over the power grid in the country so that it might string power lines all across the land. At least that would be the outcome if his new proposal comes to fruition.

Reid wants created by federal fiat new “special power lines to carry renewable energy.” Further, he proposes that these “special power lines” be placed where the federal government says they should be placed. He says that to do this the Federal government would “be able override states” in the placement of these power lines.

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The Greenpocrisy of Congress: Canceling ‘Carbon Offset’ Buys for Congress’ Power Plant

March 3, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Liberals, News, Publius Contributor, Science, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Go “green” or go out of business. That is the message Congress wants to send to America’s power plants run by coal — and any and every other power facility for that matter. Congressmen after Congressmen have waddled forth onto TV and into print to wag a green finger at our power grid scolding it for being “too dirty” and not environmentally friendly. These politicians, you see, know better and they must be listened to. After all, they are trying to save the planet!

And to show how the folks walking the marbled halls of the nation’s capitol care about the environment they are canceling the buying of so-called “carbon offsets” and announcing that they are abandoning efforts to further “green” the aging coal powered power plant that keeps the lights on, cools its halls, and heats Congress in the summer.

Yes, while they are attempting to force the lowly, great-unwashed people of the country to “go green,” they themselves are abandoning their own efforts to do so. The folks of the Democrat controlled Congress are nothing short of green hypocrites, see them at their greenpocrisy.

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Stop Illinois from Adopting California’s Destructive Fuel Standards

March 1, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Liberals, News, Publius Contributor, Science, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

California has always been a destructive force in American politics. All too often the worst ideas from the farthest Euro-left spectrum have leaked out of the Golden State to blight the rest of America. Just one of those currently destructive ideas is the absurdly stringent fuel economy standards that California has foolishly enacted. Several western states have pegged their standards to California’s and many other states are attempting to do the same. The current effort in Illinois is one of those attempts.

Illinois H.B. 422 (see .pdf of legislation), sponsored by Karen May (D, Highland Park) creates the Illinois Clean Air Act establishing new motor vehicle emission standards based on California’s Low Emission Vehicle Program requirements.

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Retiree Makes Own Electric Car — Becomes Tax Cheat and Enviro Criminal

February 18, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Science, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A retiree from NASA who resides in Texas tinkering around with spare parts, a friend’s junked VW Beetle, with the sponsorship of a battery maker, invented his own electric car. It’s that ol’ American ingenuity at work (I won’t say Yankee ingenuity since the fellow is in Texas). We should applaud him, right? Not so fast.

Like you, I celebrate the garage inventor, the sort of creature that makes Apple computer a household name. I love the fact that as an American one can come up with an idea, build it, and maybe even get rich from it. But, let’s think about this story a bit, shall we? It becomes one of every good deed not going unpunished.

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NY Rep. Eric Massa, From Fuel Cell to Fool Sell

January 9, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Energy, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Science, Society/Culture, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The newly sworn-in Democratic Representative from New York’s 29th District, Eric Massa, has apparently made a fuel of himself… and of those that elected him. And the amusing thing is he did it on the way to his swearing in ceremony. No waiting to actually take office for Massa. No, this man thinks BIG!

With great fanfare from local and regional media, Massa announced that he would drive a GM Hydrogen fuel cell car to Washington to “highlight new industries” and green fuel technologies. It was supposed to be a feels good move to garner the new Congressman some face time on TV and the golly-gee-wows of the country.

Then reality came a’knockin.’

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‘Dear Mr. Obama,’ Why are our Kids so Brainwashed?

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Energy, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has launched a wonderful little feature that will run until Barack Obama takes the oath of office next month. They are calling it “Dear Mr. Obama” and it is a heartwarming exercise in child indoctrination and brainwashing. The Post-Gazette will be publishing letters from local students to Obama asking him for all sorts of global warming fixes, Iraq war enders, and big government programs.

Sadly, it appears that the government schools these kids have been subjected to have failed to teach their charges about anything like the American system, federalism, even science seems neglected. But they SURE taught their kiddies that government is there to spend, spend, spend, that government is to be treated like our collective parents, and that the war in Iraq is obviously an evil venture. Obviously.

And, yes little kiddies, The One, your very own Obamessiah, is flying to the rescue like a super hero. Cue the theme music — I’d suggest the theme to 2001, like Elvis used, is appropriate for the sentiment here. The Obamessiah has entered the building!

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Unions to Organize for Jobs That Don’t Yet Exist?

December 18, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Technology, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent AP piece lauded the fact that the envirosocialist movement and American labor unions are at long last beginning to walk hand in hand. At the “climate talks” in Poland, several American union groups sent representatives to announce common cause on going green.

The AP report noted that the Sierra Club, a longtime environmentalist group, announced support for the inaptly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that features the undemocratic card check provision.

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Raising Federal Gas Taxes Raised to… Stop Terrorism?

December 13, 2008 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Post is directing a December 8 plea to the incoming Obama administration. The Post wants to raise the federal gas tax so high that it will stop people from driving. The Post thinks this will serve our national security purposes and add more money to rebuild our nation’s roads. Apparently, the Washington Post has the foolishly mistaken notion that federal gas tax receipts actually go where our Congress initially claimed it was going to go; our nation’s roads. In fact, nearly half of the federal gas tax receipts go to pork instead of roads and infrastructure.

But, despite the waste by government, here is the Washington Post trying to soak America’s drivers even more by suggesting Congress raise the federal gas tax by 46 cents a gallon. The Post thinks that recently falling gas prices offers a “golden opportunity” for the government to emulate Europe and pile taxes high on each gallon purchased. The Post is obviously unaware that the US did not become the greatest nation on earth by emulating Europe!

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LA’s Water and Power Board Allowing Union to Program ‘Green ‘ Spending W/O Public Participation?

November 20, 2008 | Filed Under Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

According to the website CityWatchLA.com, it looks like the Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners seems to be so cozy with its public employees union that it is planning massive new “Green” programs without taking them before the public for approval.

In a piece on a proposed Rate Payers Advocate position to monitor the DWP, Jack Humphreville gave us this interesting tidbit:

The DWP Board of Commissioners claims to be our Watch Dog, and to some degree it may have been when Nick Patsaouras was there. But now, where is the Board on the multibillion dollar Green Initiative? What public outreach has been held? Indeed, the City Council is asking questions that DWP won’t even report back on for months. Who is watching out for the Rate Payers when its main union has a stranglehold not only on labor, but on management too?

And isn’t this same City Council that recently approved, without a dissenting vote, the multibillion dollar Green Initiative without the benefit of DWP’s analysis, a thorough vetting by the Energy and Environment Committee, or even informing the Rate Payers and Neighborhood Councils, despite the fact that the monopoly elements of the initiative could easily cost Rate Payer hundreds of millions of dollars?

The union has so much cash to disseminate amongst politicians in LA that anything it wants it gets, apparently. And it gets it whether the voters are told about it or not.

This is just one more reason that unions are anathema to good government.

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President Obama: How Bad Will It Be?

November 8, 2008 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Energy, Europe, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, John Armor, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By John Armor

Let us take two sources – the statements made by Barack Obama as a candidate and the lessons of history – combine them and make some predictions. The results are not pretty.

These three results — a new World War, a new Great Depression, and permanent damage to the Constitution – are given in decreasing order of damage to the United States. That happens to be the reverse of their odds of happening. Though to me, as a student of the US Constitution, the last item is still critically bad.

Based on his repeated comments about Iran and Pakistan, Obama will coddle our sworn enemy, Iran, and will invade and antagonize our shaky but critical ally, Pakistan. Yes, I know we have done cross-border raids into Pakistan’s lawless border territory. But we have kept those in the lowest possible profile to avoid antagonizing a critical ally whose population is mostly Muslim and who possesses working nuclear weapons.
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Obama’s Flips Head to Head With His Flops

November 3, 2008 | Filed Under Business, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Energy, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

What the Lord Sayeth He then taketh Away… sometimes the very next day!

Great job as always, Mary Katherine Ham.

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