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.
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Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy

January 27, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Energy, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Money, Oil, President, Senate, Taxes | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.

While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.

This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.
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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.
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Cut the Spending NOW, Washington

January 24, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Harry Reid, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Video, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

We are 1,000 without the Democrat controlled Senate authorizing a budget. Worse, the President’s party hasn’t ben offered a budget tis whole time, even back when they controlled the House, the Senate and the White House.

It’s long past time to stop the spending and get serious about our deficit, Washington.

Video courtesy of BankruptingAmerica.org.

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.
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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.
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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

Indiana Democrats Fleebagging Again, Abandoning Their Jobs

January 19, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Indiana, Jobs, Liberals, Mitch Daniels, Public Employees Unions, Republicans, Right To Work, Senate, Teachers Unions, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again Indiana Democrats are playing the fleebagger game. Because they don’t have enough votes in the Indiana Statehouse, Hoosier Democrats are abandoning their rightful duties and fleeing the Capitol over Indiana’s right-to-work bill currently under consideration in Indianapolis.

Indiana Senate Bill 269 and House Bill 1001 would make it illegal to require workers in Indiana to join a union as a condition of being allowed to have a job. Allowing workers a choice seems like an inherently American idea, doesn’t it?

After all, how could anyone tell you that you must belong to a union or you’re not allowed to have your job? That sort of forced association seems so contrary to the American character. But forcing people to join unions just so that they can have a job is precisely what Indiana Democrats are fighting to protect.
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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.
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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.

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.
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Illinois GOP Follies: Establishment vs Reform in Champagne County

January 11, 2012 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Illinois State Government, Liberals, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois is drowning in debt and corruption. The state ranks as the worst state in nearly every category vying only with California for the worst-of rankings. The biggest factor in its downfall is the corrupt Democrat Party. So one would think that the state GOP could make good headway against this corruption. Unfortunately, the establishment GOP is in utter disarray. Worse, the establishment GOP fights to deep six any candidate from its own ranks that might offer reform and we have yet another story illustrating this fact in the 52nd District State Senate race in Champaign County.

The primary race in the 52nd is between the early announced John Bambenek(photo left), a long-time reform advocate, and establishment GOP candidate Alan Nudo, both of Champaign.

Bambenek is a well-known reform advocate and even wrote a book titled, “Illinois Deserves Better.”

For his part, Mr. Nudo, a 63-year-old Champaign County Board member, has in the past supported local tax hikes. He also was keen on securing stimulus spending for big government-style construction projects in his district.

But that isn’t all. Mr. Nudo has also had a hand in donating the single largest non-PAC donation to the incumbent Democrat Senator in the 52nd District!
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Democrats Playing Politics With Judges Again

December 26, 2011 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Judges, Law, Liberals, Media, New York, RightPundits.com, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There was once a time when the courts were considered a place of staid scholarship and considered opinion. Those days have been gone for a long time as decades ago the courts became merely another avenue for Democrats to play politics not to mention a tool with which to install in America a left-wing agenda instead of a place to adjudicate the law. This week aged New Jersey Democrat Senator Frank Lautenberg gives us a prime example of the former that will inevitably lead to the latter.

In a move that surprised everyone in both New York and New Jersey, the decrepit Lautenberg submitted the name of New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer’s brother-in-law as his nominee for a federal judgeship in the Garden State. I say it came as a surprise because no one at all was aware that Schumer’s relative was even in the running until the nomination became public knowledge.

It smacks of backroom political deal making instead of a legitimate choice for the bench….

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.
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Contrasting World Views

December 5, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Budget, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Founders, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, House of Representatives, Liberals, Nancy Salvato, Republicans, Senate, Socialism, Taxes | Comments Off

-By Nancy Salvato

Thomas Jefferson outlined the philosophy of our nation’s government in the Declaration of Independence with the words,

“All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Make no mistake; this is the philosophy on which our fundamental law is based. The goals for our government, which are listed in the preamble to our constitution, are intended to secure these unalienable rights.

“In Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,…”

If the electors and elected officials of our country do not honor our covenant

“We the People…[who] do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America…”

And if they choose not to uphold the blessings of liberty, then

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government.”

What happens if the electorate and elected officials of our country do not understand the covenant, or what if they choose not to subscribe to the mission? What if the goals of our electorate are not aligned with the fundamental law set down by the Founders and Framers? What if the policy on which our representatives vote and implement is at odds with the philosophy on which our government was founded?

Remy: Missing You – The Incandescent Light Bulb Song

December 3, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Business, Capitalism, Climate Change, Communism, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Environment, Ethics, Global Warming, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Policy, President, Republicans, Senate, Socialism, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ode to the light bulb. You know. The one in its arrogance and un-Constitutional overreach that the creeps in Washington decided we are no longer “allowed” to have? Yeah that one.

There is no better example of why we need to be tearing down the power of government than this light bulb ban. None. It is totally emblematic of the arrogance of government and proof of how far astray America has gone from her founding principles.
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Direct Phone Numbers to Your U.S. Senators

December 2, 2011 | Filed Under Congress, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just a little resource I found on the web.If you’d like to know the direct phone number to your Senator, look for your state below and call away.

Alabama

Sen. Richard Shelby (R) (202) 224-5744; 224-3416
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) (202) 224-4124; 224-3149

Alaska

Sen. Mark Begich (D) (202) 224-3004; 224-2354
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) (202) 224-6665; 224-5301

Arizona

Sen. Jon Kyl (R) (202) 224-4521; 224-2207
Sen. John McCain (R) (202) 224-2235; 228-2862

Arkansas

Sen. John Boozman (R) (202) 224-4843; 228-1371
Sen. Mark Pryor (D) (202) 224-2353; 228-0908

California

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) (202) 224-3553; (202)228-2382
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) (202) 224-3841; 228-3954

Colorado

Sen. Mark Udall (D) (202) 224-5941; 224-6471
Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D) (202) 224-5852; 228-5036

Connecticut

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) (202) 224-2823; 224-1083
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I) (202) 224-4041; 224-9750

Delaware

Sen. Christopher Coons (D) (202) 224-5042; 224-0139
Sen. Thomas Carper (D) (202) 224-2441; 228-2190
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Chad Speaks: The Constitution is Just Like a Biscuit…

November 29, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Illinois blogger Chad Kent has a great video explaining why even little deviations from the Constitution is a bad thing.

The Constitution is just like a biscuit… just go with me…

Sour Mash, Bitter Man: or, Hit the road, Jack Daniel’s

November 28, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Constitution, Daniel Clark, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Jobs, Liberals, Massachusetts, President, Senate, Socialism, Taxes | Comments Off

-By Daniel Clark

If you read the label on a bottle of Jack Daniel’s (not that one happens to be handy), you’ll see that it’s made in “Lynchburg (Pop. 361).” Perhaps this should be updated to say, “at least one of whom is a raving Communist lunatic.” That person is Charles Rogers, a “concerned citizen” who has proposed a measure, passed by the Moore County Council (no relation to Michael), requesting permission from the Tennessee assembly for a referendum to impose a new “barrel tax” on the famous whiskey manufacturer.

Supposedly, Rogers wants the tax in order to pay for infrastructure projects, but he let the real reason slip when, according to an October 21st Fox News story, he explained, “We are entitled to more money from the only industry in the county. They created the image of this little old hamlet down here being the place where this fantastic whiskey is being made, and the people didn’t realize what was going on.” O, the exploitation!

Jack Daniel’s general manager Tommy Beam responded that the company is already heavily taxed, and that, being the county’s largest employer, it has expanded the tax base dramatically. The population of Lynchburg is now actually close to 6,000 (The 361 figure on the bottle is from the time that the label was trademarked, about 50 years ago). In addition, the distillery brings in an estimated 200,000 tourists every year. This demonstrates a point that ought to go without saying, which is that a successful industry is beneficial to the community in which it resides. Yet Rogers treats Jack Daniel’s as if it were a deadbeat, failing to pay its “fair share” to the local government.
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What Is Constitutional Conservatism?

November 27, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Federalism, Founders, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, Liberals, President, Republicans, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Yuval Levin, National Review

(ED: I don’t usually repost an entire article from another site but this article is too important to just excerpt. I apologize to Mr. Levin in advance, but his essay is one of the best definitions of what American conservatism truly is that I’ve seen for a long time. It is also a good explanation on why modern liberalism is as wrong as can be and anti-American to boot. It is a must read for anyone that wants a hint of the character of American conservatism and a good guide on how to think about what conservatives advocate. I just had to post it in it’s entirety, just had to have this chronicled on my site.)

This fall, liberals from the president on down have begun to grasp the scope of the political and intellectual disaster that the past three years have been for the Left. Their various responses to the calamity have tended to have one thing in common: immense frustration. But the different expressions of that frustration have been deeply revealing. They should help Americans better understand this complicated moment in our politics, and, in particular, help conservatives frame their responses.

Liberal frustration has fallen into two general categories that seem at first to flatly contradict each other: denunciations of democracy and appeals to populism. In September, Peter Orszag, President Obama’s former budget director, wrote an essay in The New Republic arguing that “we need less democracy.” To address our country’s daunting problems, Orszag suggested, we need to take some power away from Congress and give it to “automatic policies and depoliticized commissions” that will be shielded from public pressure. “Radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.” Two weeks later, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, made a less sophisticated stab at the same general point, proposing to suspend congressional elections for a few years so members of Congress could make the difficult decisions necessary to get our country out of its deep problems.

Orszag and Perdue both seemed to channel a long and deeply held view of the Left — that the complexity of modern life and the intensity of modern politics should lead us to put more power in the hands of technical experts who have the knowledge to make objective, rational choices on our behalf. Leaving things to the political process will result only in delay and disorder. President Obama has frequently expressed this view himself — wistfully complaining to his aides earlier this year, for instance, that things would sure be easier if he were president of China.
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The House Kills the Senate’s $322 Million Climate Service

November 27, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Climate Change, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Environment, Global Warming, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the House killed a new Senate approved, bureaucratic boondoggle that according to the House Appropriations Committee would have cost taxpayers a minimum of $322 million buckaroos, and good on them for it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wanted to create a new division to be called the National Climate Service. Similar to its National Weather Service the new NCS would have “streamlined delivery” for requests on the agency’s climate and weather data.

Amusingly, the NOAA tried to claim that the new service would not cost the taxpayers anything at all. They didn’t even request money to fund the new division. But this no-cost claim was doubted by the House Appropriations Committee that estimated that its killing of the idea saved taxpayers $322 million.
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Did Ezra Klein Prove that Journalism Just Another Arm of the Democrat Party?

November 25, 2011 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Senate, Warner Todd Huston, Washington Post | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fishbowl DC has a startling report that seriously brings into doubt the independence and veracity of the journalistic arts. It seems that the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein appeared as a speaker at a closed door session of a gathering of Senate Democrat Chiefs of Staff last week, a move that, as Betsy Rothstein correctly notes, “blurs the lines between being a journalist and trying to sway politics.”

No one knows what Klein briefed the Democrat staffers about, but the whole episode raises eyebrows. How is it that a purported journalist is the one doing the briefing instead of the one getting briefed? As Rothstein notes, it is all very untoward.

Briefings for journalists covering Capitol Hill are usually the reverse of what transpired here. Lawmakers brief reporters. Aides brief reporters. Think tanks brief reporters. Think tanks brief aides. But reporters briefing aides? This is unheard of.
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There Isn’t More Political ‘Polarization,’ There’s More Government

November 23, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Congress, Conservatives, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Nanny State, President, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ron Fournier of the National Journal has committed the same mistake in political analysis that far too many others on both sides of the aisle make. He thinks, like many do, that there is somehow more “polarization” in Washington today than ever. Like all the others, he’s wrong. There isn’t any more than there’s ever been.

He then leaps to the claim that the political system is “broken.” It really isn’t.

Fournier goes on to make an even more egregious mistake assuming that this “polarization” will cause the rise of a third party.

All of this, he and others seem to think, is a result of the increased distance between Republicans and Democrats which, in turn, has caused out system to go off track. It is the extremist theory of the American political system, the idea that the far left and the far right (and by that people in the Old Media like Fournier only mean the far right) have caused Washington to self-destruct.
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Marines Over Medicaid

November 22, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Health, Liberals, Medicaid, Obamacare, President, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

To the great surprise of nobody, another blue-ribbon panel of Washington’s A-list nabobs has failed at its task: In this case, it is the so-called supercommittee charged with nudging the federal government away from the edge of the debt abyss. Investors despaired at the news, and there was talk of a second downgrade of U.S. Treasury debt.

The failure of the supercommittee is a testament to Democrats’ tax obsession. With the supercommittee having fizzled, the next step is the automatic sequestration process, which imposes 50 percent of the cuts on a program that accounts for only 20 percent of spending (national defense) while leaving the entitlements largely untouched. But the country needs the Marines more than it needs Medicaid.
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Democrats, Sen. Schumer Shut Down Citizen’s Forum

November 22, 2011 | Filed Under Budget, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, President, Republicans, Rights, Senate, Taxes, Tea Party, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know, it is unfortunate that the Democrat Party’s name has the word “democracy” as it root because the modern Democrat Party is 100% opposed to both democracy and our system of government. Senator Chuck “Hitman” Schumer just proved this to be true once again.

Last week Senator Mike Lee (R, Utah) had reserved a room in the Senate and invited a retinue of Tea Party representatives and the folks of Freedom Works to discuss the Tea Party Budget proposal drawn up by Freedom Works.

Dear American, Obama Says You Owe $160,545 of the Federal Debt

November 19, 2011 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, President, Senate, Taxes, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

With the U.S. debt now officially over $15 trillion, to pay it off each working American would now owe more to the federal debt than they make in a year according to a new report by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The debt has now reached $15,033,607,255,920.32 and Terence Jeffery did a few calculations to see what that would mean.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that there were 93,641,000 full-time private sector workers in the United States in 2010 (and 18,073,000 full-time workers in federal, state and local government). That means the $15.0336 trillion federal debt equals approximately 160,545 per full-time private sector worker.

Calculations also show that the “federal debt equals approximately $197,579 for each American family.”

Rep. Peter Roskam (R, ILL) was saddened to learn of the mounting debt crisis.
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