CTA Sponsored Legislation Could Cripple Charter School Growth

February 8, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Larry Sand, Public Employees Unions, Taxes, Teachers Unions, Unions | No Comments

-By Larry Sand

The California Teachers Association can’t realistically unionize all charter schools, so it promotes laws that limit their numbers.

In Golden Missed Opportunity, recently published in City Journal, I examined the options that families in California have if they want to remove their children from failing public schools. The pickings in the Golden State are rather slim, and those options we do have — charter schools, homeschooling and the Parent Trigger — are constantly imperiled by a governor and state legislators who typically do the bidding of the California Teachers Association, the largest state affiliate of the National Education Association.

Charter schools are public schools which aren’t bound by the bloated union contracts that stifle so many traditional public schools. California has over 900 charter schools that currently educate about 400,000 students. To the union’s consternation, only about 15 percent of these schools are unionized. Of course, the union would like to see a 100 percent rate, but accomplishing that would take too much effort and money. Additionally, the flexibility that non-unionization offers is one of the attractions of charter schools for many teachers.

So instead of unionizing, CTA tries to eviscerate current charter laws or get caps on the allowable number of charters. At this time, there are three pieces of CTA sponsored legislation working their way around Sacramento. In fact, just last week the state assembly voted 45-28 to approve one of them, AB 1172. The bill, now in the Senate Rules Committee, was authored by State Assemblyman and former teacher and union activist Tony Mendoza. If AB 1172 becomes law, it would allow a school board to block the creation of a new charter school if it would have a “negative fiscal impact” on the school district. However, “negative fiscal impact” is never really defined, and California charter law already has clearly defined reasons why new petitions can be denied.
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VIDEO: Obama Hypocrisy

February 7, 2012 | Filed Under Campaign Finance, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals, President, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Candidate Barack Obama attacking John Edwards in 2007 about spending by outside groups. President Obama, tell your former senior staffer Bill Burton and Priorities USA, Thanks, But No Thanks.

Courtesy of http://citizensunited.org/.

PANAMA: Another Narcotics-Dictatorship Massacre

February 7, 2012 | Filed Under Crime, Government, Corruption, Mauro Zuñiga Arauz, Panama, Terrorism, War On Drugs | 1 Comment

-By Mauro Zuñiga Arauz

On February 5 in the early morning hours the narcotics-dictatorship that oppresses the Panamanians, led by the fascist Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, began a repression against indigenous Gnoble-Bugle groups, who keep the Interamerican road closed to protest against the approval of the law that allows mining and the construction of dams in the indigenous territory. These same groups were victims in July 2010 of another slaughter for the same reasons and by the same government. At the time of writing this article, two natives were known dead and hundreds were injured. The information is incomplete because the tyranny cut all communications with the provinces, such that we are only receiving fragmented news in the capital city. There are indigenous leaders who speak of eleven dead.

For several months I’ve been reporting the Martinelli administration’s dictatorial nature. Panama is a country of 3.5 million people. According to recent figures, foreign debt increased by three billion dollars, so that the much vaunted economic growth is nothing more than a mortgage on future generations as I have pointed out on another occasion. The cost of basic food items rises every day and with it, poverty rates. Crime and public insecurity are at the highest levels in our history. Insecurity is promoted by the government itself to justify hiring more soldiers with the corresponding expenses.
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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)
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Red Light Cameras: Government’s ‘It’s For Public Safety’ Lie

February 6, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Semitism, Budget, Cities, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Ohio, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Red light cameras are a mixed bag across the USA. Big cities love them, small cities increasingly less. But one thing is universal where ever they are tried. The whole thing is about revenue generation, not public safety. Most city administrations try desperately to hide their greed behind hoary claims of safeguarding the public, but at least Toledo, Ohio has dispensed with some of that subterfuge and is admitting straight out that making money is a main goal.

Last month Toledo’s finance director told the city council that they were installing 11 new red light cameras with the expectation that the project would “raise” $320,000. What did the city need that new revenue for? More government spending, of course.

Oh, and it’s for the children, too. Toledo Councilman Steve Steel was excited to get the new revenue. “It does restore the biggest thing we were looking for, which was giving kids something constructive to do in a positive atmosphere,” he crowed.

So, now officials will berate you if you stand against these useless devices that are just a means to give government more money to spend on pet projects because, darn it, it’s for the children! WHY do you hate kids, taxpayers?
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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.
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West Virginia Sheriff, Clerk Snared in Vote Fraud Investigation

February 4, 2012 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Regulation, Vote Fraud, Warner Todd Huston, West Virginia | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

A Lincoln County, West Virginia Sheriff and Clerk are to plead guilty to charges of vote fraud in the 2010 Democrat primary after the pair were arrested during an election fraud investigation conducted by state and federal authorities.

Sheriff Jerry Bowman and Clerk Donald Whitten were caught in a scheme to file fraudulent absentee ballots in an effort to get Whitten elected Circuit Clerk. Whitten will also pled guilty to lying to an FBI agent hired by WV Secretary of State Natalie Tennant to investigate the false absentee ballots.

Sheriff Bowman, who is at the tail end of a second term and is term-limited from running again, conspired with Whitten and a thus far unidentified candidate for county commissioner to help Whitten win a close election with the fraudulent absentee ballot scheme.
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Does Obama Want to Lose? Yes!

February 4, 2012 | Filed Under Alan Caruba, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, President | No Comments

-By Alan Caruba

It seems like a bizarre notion, but does Barack Obama want to lose the election in November?

I think he does!

One is struck by the way Obama has visibly aged in the job. He may well have grown weary being POTUS.

By any rational standard, one would say he wants a second term, but Obama has always operated in a fantasy world where mere words are supposed to translate into reality. And he has repeatedly talked about being a one-term president.

He is, after all, his own invention; the author of two memoirs of a life that had little achievement to point to other than getting elected first to the Illinois legislature and then to the Senate where he lingered a bare two years before running for president.

I raise the question because Obama seems to be deliberately irritating the very people who are supposed to be his “base”; the hard core liberals, the Hollywood crowd, youth, and unions, among others. His partisanship has put Congress into total gridlock.
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America After Obama

February 2, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jeff Lukens, Liberals, President | No Comments

-By Jeff Lukens

Barack Obama has gone from the “one we’ve been waiting for” to the one we can’t wait to kick out. No one ever thought one man could bring the nation to its knees, but here he is living in the White House. And on our knees we have been praying for the day that he leaves.

The audacity of a president hell-bent on destroying our great nation has truly been a stunning spectacle to observe. No lie is too ridiculous to tell about anyone who opposes him. With a compliant media behind him, the smears this Demagogue-in-Chief promises to unleash on his opponent this fall could divide the county so badly that it becomes ungovernable.

The societal tensions Obama promised to ease have worsened by his politics of envy. The racial healing he promised has been made worse. Despite overwhelming opposition, he forced a health plan on the people that few want. He has trampled on the Constitution, and infringed on powers granted to Congress. He has bailed out auto companies, investment bankers and insurance companies. He has given Constitutional rights to terrorists.
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Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins

February 1, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, California, Children, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Larry Sand, Liberals, Los Angeles, Taxes, Teachers Unions | No Comments

-By Larry Sand

Children in the Golden State will get a better education when teacher quality becomes a priority

In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)

The only caveat from the authors is that using test scores in teachers’ evaluations could lead to “teaching to the test or cheating.” Nothing new here. Some people, when involved in any kind of competition, will try to gain unfair advantage or cheat outright. Typically, it’s a small part of the population and those who do should lose their jobs and face criminal charges.

The lesson is clear: test scores can give us a great deal of information about who the really good teachers are. But California Governor Jerry Brown, unfazed by the blockbuster study, actually called for less testing in his recent State of the State address.
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OCCUPY GENIUSES (The Constitution vs. Southern Occupiers)

January 31, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston, Washington D.C. | No Comments

Van Jones promised back in November that the Occupy gang will put up over 2,000 candidates for election in 2012. After AIM’s Ben Johnson did some man-on-the-street pop quizzes in the south this past week, we sure hope they come through on Jones’ promise. Ladies and gentlemen: we present to you the fruits of public school social studies programs.

In the meantime, is the Silliness Coming to an End? Occupy DC gets its eviction notice…

… naturally they are communists and anarchists.

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.
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After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?

January 30, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Capitalism, Communism, Crony Capitalism, Democrats/Leftists, Detroit, Economy/Finances, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Regulation, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

How much bailing out does one company need? (The correct answer is none, of course) After receiving some $50 billion in tax dollars from us courtesy of Obama’s “cash stash,” GM is claiming success with a “Obama claimed that GM was “back on top as the world’s number one automaker.” But true or not, if all is coming up roses for GM why is the company now lobbying the individual states for mini bailouts?

That is exactly what is happening. The new “big success” automaker is spending millions hiring lobbyists to squeeze more millions out of state legislatures. As Justin Owen notes, GM has “turned to another, smaller government teat,” by putting its hand out to the states. GM, Owen says, “has received another $1.7 billion in taxpayer-funded grants and tax abatements.”

This is no accident of timing, either. GM admitted to the Tennessee Watchdog that begging to the states for tax dollars is a concerted effort.
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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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Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

January 28, 2012 | Filed Under Budget, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Larry Sand, Liberals, Los Angeles, Public Employees Unions, School Choice, Taxes, Teachers Unions, Unions | No Comments

-By Larry Sand

Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California.

With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the country. In states like New Jersey and Louisiana, governors are taking the lead in proposing ways to break the devastating monopoly that government run schools – their educrat leaders, corrupt and/or inept school boards and the powerful teachers unions — have held for far too long.

As an example of Big Education gone bad, I write in City Journal about a crime that has been perpetrated on the children of California for 40 years and the lawsuit that addresses it:
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Wisconsin School Punishes Christian Kid for Being a… Christian Kid

January 27, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Christianity, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom, Government, Government, Corruption, Hate Crimes, Liberals, Liberty, Regulation, Religion, Warner Todd Huston, Wisconsin | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Superintendent Todd Carlson of Shawano High School in Shawano, Wisconsin is sorry a student observed his First Amendment rights and had his article published in the school newspaper that denounces homosexuals adopting children. And so Superintendent Carlson is making amends by punishing this Christian kid for being so darn Christian. Superintendent Carlson has also decided in his infinite wisdom to censure this article by having it sent down the memory hole so that no one else will be confronted with this evil Christian’s views.

That’ll show that darn Christian kid, won’t it?

The article, “Should Homosexual Partners Be Bale to Adopt?,” was written by Brandon Wegner who was assigned the task of writing a counter-point to another student’s pro-homosexual adoption article. The piece was then published as an insert in the school newspaper, the Shawano Leader.

Shortly after the newspapers containing the insert were distributed, Superintendent Carlson issued a formal apology to the school and parents, removed the insert from surplus issues of the paper, and censured young Mr. Wegner claiming his article violated the school’s “anti-bullying” policy.
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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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A Visit to Title 18

January 27, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Free Speech, Government, Corruption, Judges, Missouri, Paleo-Skeptic, Rights, The Law | 4 Comments

by Paleo-Skeptic

I plan on making good on every one of the claims that I made in my letter to the Senator.

For now, I want to take a look at the number of violations of federal law that 501 (c) (3) groups are allowed to get away with, simply on the basis that they happen to be “charitable organizations.”

In that letter to the Senator, I stated that there was:

• A government funding an NGO which operates to squelch constitutionally-protected political speech.

These would be some of the applicable federal laws:

§ 245. Federally protected activities

(b) Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, by force or threat of force willfully injures, intimidates or interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with—
   (1) any person because he is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from—
      (B) participating in or enjoying any benefit, service, privilege, program, facility, or activity provided or administered by the United States;

   (5) any citizen because he is or has been, or in order to intimidate such citizen or any other citizen from lawfully aiding or encouraging other persons to participate, without discrimination on account of race, color, religion or national origin, in any of the benefits or activities described in subparagraphs (1)(A) through (1)(E) or subparagraphs (2)(A) through (2)(F), or participating lawfully in speech or peaceful assembly opposing any denial of the opportunity to so participate—

This has to do with a man who had previously worked as a volunteer for two campaigns, one for governor and one for Congress, trying in vain to show the letters that he had received from those campaigns to a judge. The judge in this case was under the undue influence of an attorney from the 501 (c) (3) group, Ms. Katherine “Evidence Tampering” Wessling, who asserted on various occasions during the course of this same proceeding that this campaign volunteer was prohibited from engaging in Constitutionally-protected political speech.

Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din

January 26, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, New York City, President, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The gauzy puffery that the Old Media slathers upon the Occupy Wall Street movement has helped keep most Americans in the dark about how nasty, how violent, how outrageous, and even how incredibly lacking in integrity this movement is. On the conservative blogs the truth is well known, of course, but the fact that few Americans seem to know how bad the OWSers are shows that as conservatives we are not effectively getting our message out there.

For the initial two years of its existence the Old Media spent its every waking moment destroying, maligning, and out right lying about the Tea Party movement. Even today you’ll see an occasional swipe at the Tea Patiers made by some hater from the left and the Old Media is happy to “report” the slander, naturally.

You might remember when Obama operative Anna Park tried to start a counter movement that she prosaically called “the Coffee Party” during the heyday of the Tea Party. You may also recall that those Old Media mavens, while daily lying and lambasting the Tea Partiers, fell all over themselves to play up the silly and quickly failed and forgotten “Coffee Party” effort.
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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)

SOTU Speech: Same Old, Same Old Obama Failure

January 25, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Education, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

If you thought the 2012 State of the Union was very similar to President Obama’s past State of the Union speeches, you were right…

Video courtesy of www.gop.com/

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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Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans

January 23, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Politico, President, Republicans, Scott Walker, The New York Times, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week two political operatives were arrested in separate incidents, one Democrat and one Republican. It certainly isn’t news that political operatives sometimes break the law, but how the different incidents were reported is typical of how the Old Media establishment uses guilt by association to tar Republicans but rarely does the same thing to take swipes at Democrats.

The similarity in the two stories is that both of the accused are former staffers of high profile politicians. The Democrat was an Obama campaign staffer while the Republican was a staffer of the Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Neither currently works for those high profile pols, but only the Republican was linked to his former boss. The Democrat’s link to Obama was mostly ignored by the media.

Story One: Some Guy Arrested

We’ll begin with the tale of Iowa Democrat operative Zachary Edwards who tried to steal the identity of a rival Republican in order to use that identity to get the Republican in trouble.

Edwards tried to use the identity of Iowa Secretary of State, Republican Matt Schulz (and/or Schultz’s brother) to illegally obtain some sort of state benefits so that he could then claim that the Republicans were illegally obtaining state benefits. This Edwards fellow hoped he could smear the GOP Sec. of State as engaging in some sort of unethical behavior. (The Iowa Republican blog has more on the fight between Schultz and Iowa Democrats)

Now, as it happens Edwards is not only a member of a politically connected Democrat consulting firm, Link Strategies — a company with long-standing ties to powerful Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin — but Edwards was also a member of Obama’s Iowa team in 2007/08. Edwards’ bio has since been scrubbed from the Link Strategies page but read in part, “In September 2007, Zach joined the Obama New Media department as co-director of the Nevada New Media team and then moved on to direct New Media operations in five other primary states (New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and South Dakota).”

For a screen shot of Edwards memory-holed bio from the Link Strategy site, see the Iowa Grounds blog.

So, how was Edwards’ arrest reported? For one thing, it was hard to find Edwards’ Democrat affiliation and his past role as a top Obama campaign staffer in stories of this incident.
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Katherine “Evidence Tampering” Wessling and Legal Advocates for Witness Intimidation — Special Identity Theft Edition (with Wire Fraud Bonus)

January 22, 2012 | Filed Under Computers, Feminism, Government, Corruption, Missouri, Paleo-Skeptic, Society/Culture, The Law | No Comments

-By Paleo-Skeptic

Note: I am not an attorney. I just offer this exposition as the product of my personal research.

Today, I would like to talk a little bit about wire fraud and identity theft, and how they relate to the Federal statutes. In my own particular circumstance, I was a victim of witness intimidation (Title 18 § 1512, U.S.C.), being a party (a creditor) to a bankruptcy, where there were numerous efforts to impede any manner of lawful investigation of assets. This manner of fraudulent enterprise culminated in an abusive order of protection filing, which itself invoked Federal jurisdiction with the words, “Is a creditor in my bankruptcy,” contained in the original petition.

Why it is that the Family Law Courts would openly embrace and assist in the commission of Federal crimes is beyond me. I have no reasonable explanation for it.

So, let’s take a look at this, shall we?

Bubba Takes The Cake: At last, the Clinton Legacy

January 21, 2012 | Filed Under Bill Clinton, Daniel Clark, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Liberals | No Comments

-By Daniel Clark

Former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier likes Bill Clinton, so there’s no reason he would have made up the story he told at the Katzen Center for the Arts, as cited by an article in Washingtonian magazine’s Capital Comment Blog. Not that there would be any reason to doubt him, since his anecdote is so quintessentially Clintonian as to practically corroborate itself.

Describing the 42nd president’s appetite as “scary,” Mesnier told the story of how Clinton gobbled up half a strawberry cake in one evening, and then awoke the next morning expecting more. “No one could find the cake,” the story goes, perhaps because someone had gotten the crazy idea that it had been intended for more than one person. “Clinton was pounding on the table and shouting, ‘I want my goddamned cake!’”

What an epitaph for the most spoiled, overindulgent, quick-tempered, self-absorbed glutton ever to serve in the Oval Office. If almost anyone else had, for whatever reason, devoured that much in one sitting, that person wouldn’t want to look at another piece of cake for weeks. In Clinton’s case, having consumed half a strawberry cake only served to remind him of half a strawberry cake. Therefore, he did what to him was only natural, and angrily demanded half a strawberry cake.
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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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Independent and Undecided Voters are now Cleared for Landing

January 18, 2012 | Filed Under Christianity, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Michael Bresciani‏, Religion, Republicans | No Comments

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

Estimates run around 40 percent for independent voters in this election cycle. Many answers are offered for why this phenomenon is so prevalent right now in the nation, but few are viewing it as a possibility of a growing sense of confusion and uncertainty.

Barack Obama has been castigated in the media for proclaiming that Americans may have gotten “lazy” in the last few years, so, where would someone come in who calls us wishy washy and confused? Unlike Barack Obama, I am sure that I love America, I will salute the flag and I don’t think we were ever a Muslim nation, nor do we want to be. I’ll take my chances with the people of this nation.

The Iowa caucuses may be the quintessential example of what happens when voters are uncertain. That may be completely understandable, unless for some reason, there is cause to believe, that it is more than uncertainty, but confusion itself, which may have caused the voters to flip from one front runner to the next in a matter of days in some cases.
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