Month: November 2010

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obamacare Waivers Prove Policy is a Jobs Killer, Unions Benefit Most

November 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

111 companies and organizations were granted waivers by Obama’s Dept. of Health and Human Services so that they could get out of having to comply with Obamacare and unions were particularly well rewarded by the HHS with these waivers.

Interestingly, there was no great announcement of these waivers issued to the press. The HHS buried the waiver announcement six layers deep on its webpage and posted them on Friday when they imagined no one would notice. It’s a typical Friday evening document dump so common when an administration wants to avoid the prying eyes of the people. So much for the “most transparent administration in history,” eh?

One thing is sure about these waivers. Obama rewarded his union pals quite well. Some 15 unions and union healthcare or financial fund and insurance providers fill the list of companies and groups that will not have to operate under Obamacare’s destructive rules.
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Obamacare Waivers Prove Policy is a Jobs Killer, Unions Benefit Most”

Elections - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

iPetitions for IL State Senate Appointments

November 15, 2010 by

From the Homer/Lockport Tea Party…

Below are links to iPetitions supporting two candidates seeking appointments to open IL state senator positions.

The two candidates are:

Rafael Rivadeneira for State Senator (to replace Dan Cronin – 21st District) – Petition to Support John Bambenek

Both of these gentlemen are true conservatives and have spoken at many tea party events.
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iPetitions for IL State Senate Appointments”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Dr. Don Boys - Earmarks - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes

Shut Down Government if Necessary!

November 15, 2010 by

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

Republicans are giddy with their recent success at the polls and have the opportunity to effect the greatest change in a hundred years. But don’t count on it. Like all politicians, they have a propensity to foul their own nest. When it comes to human nature, I expect people to act as they always have–with an exception now and then.

We have two parties to keep the U.S on an even keel, not going to excess in either direction. Need I remind anyone that we have seen both parties swinging to extremes in recent years? Bush spoke of “compassionate conservatism” that was neither compassionate nor conservative. We saw him proclaiming a desire to spread democracy all over the world, without any constitutional authority to do so. Moreover, he had no historical precedent to think that Muslims would be willing to live in a democracy. Evidently, neither Bush nor his advisors had ever read the Koran or Hadith. We saw a “conservative” implement a massive prescription drug bill that alone may destroy us.

His bipartisan law, No Child Left Behind, was a farce that had no basis in law or practical application. It is time to stop throwing dollars into the rat hole of public education. Isn’t it about time to realize that public education is a failure, a farce, and a fraud and we should let it fall like a rotten apple. The feds and the states should get out of the education business, a business that went bankrupt many years ago. I did not weep to see Bush ride off on “ole paint” into the western sunset.
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Shut Down Government if Necessary!”

Barack Obama - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nancy Pelosi - Policy - Republicans - Senate - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

What We Need to Say, And Say, And Say

November 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If leftists are good at one thing it is staying on message. Since 2006 when Nancy Pelosi was raised to the dizzying heights of Speaker of the House of Representatives the left has been chanting over and over that the voters wanted the country to take a hard left turn. This month’s election, however, proved that the left’s hoary claim is wrong. And we need to say so, over and over.

It isn’t that the leftists were wholly wrong in their claim that the country wanted to go left in the previous two national elections. Clearly the voters lost faith in the Republicans and just as clearly they wanted to give Democrats the opportunity of an iron clad majority to make some changes. It’s just that the left was very wrong in just how far left the voters wanted to veer — as this election proved.

One thing is sure. Democrats and their extremely left-wing money men — George Soros, the Rathkes, the MoveOnners, etc. — pushed the meme that the country wanted a quasi socialist, Euro-esque styled American government for all it was worth. They moved forward based on the assumption that the country thoroughly rejected the right and they made a mad dash for every hard left policy idea they could think of.
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What We Need to Say, And Say, And Say”

Budget - Capitalism - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Liberals - Medicaid - Medicare - Social Security - Taxes

The Truth about Social Security and the Federal Budget

November 14, 2010 by

-By Dan Scott

The coming federal budget debacle is one shrouded by lies wrapped in euphemisms, obfuscated by spin. Just as an example of the less than truthful statements coming from the Federal Government in it’s denial of the impending disaster to befall the nation I need only to point to the excerpt from the Trustee’s Report on Social Security.

The outlook for Medicare has improved substantially because of program changes made in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Affordable Care Act” or ACA). Despite lower near-term revenues resulting from the economic recession, the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is now expected to remain solvent until 2029, 12 years longer than was projected last year, and the 75-year HI financial shortfall has been reduced to 0.66 percent of taxable payroll from 3.88 percent in last year’s report. Nearly all of this improvement in HI finances is due to the ACA. The ACA is also expected to substantially reduce costs for the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) program; projected program costs as a share of GDP over the next 75 years are down 23 percent relative to the costs projected for the 2009 report.
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The Truth about Social Security and the Federal Budget”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Environment - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Taxes

Greenwashing America

November 14, 2010 by

-By Alan Caruba

Every time you see some product being sold as “Green”, allegedly safer or beneficial for the environment, you can be sure that it is more expensive than a comparable product that does the same thing without making this claim.

Everything you eat, drink, wear or use begins as a “natural” product. It is absurd to think that calling it “Green” improves it in any fashion. Countless inspections before anything reaches the marketplace ensure product safety. To put it another way, a carrot is a carrot is a carrot.

Recently I received a news release from a public relations firm touting clients selling Green products such as “Parsley Plus All-Purpose Cleaner”, along with “stylish organic bed linens, “natural and organic clothing”, a “99.6% natural line” of shampoos, and, “100% Bamboo towels.”

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Greenwashing America”

Warner Todd Huston

My Newest Fedora…

November 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yeah, I usually don’t add items of a personal nature here on the blog (sticking with the issues, if you will), but I just had to share my new fedora with ya’all.

It is a Stetson, Open Road-style in the famous silverbelly color. It was made perhaps between 1970 and 1980 sometime, so it isn’t that old as fedoras go.

This one started out as a western hat. It was stained and pretty mistreated. Here is what it looked like when I bought it…

I re-creased the crown to un-westernize it (if that be a word) and it looked like this…

Then I took it down to the South Side of Chicago to one of the best haberdashers in the world, Optimo Hat Company, and had them add a few things to her, as seen above and…

I am very pleased with the final product.

For those interested in fine fedoras, Optimo was featured on Chicago’s Channel 7 News just this week. See it HERE.
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My Newest Fedora…”

Associated Press - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Virginia - Warner Todd Huston

Name That Party: Another Criminal Democrat Goes Unidentified by Old Media

November 13, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every now and again I like to play “name that party.” This is the fun parlor game where you read a story about a politician that has either been indicted, arrested, or imprisoned and try to guess by the story from which party he hails. If you read the story and no political party affiliation is mentioned, 99 out of 100 times you can be sure that the troubled pol is a Democrat. However, if it is a Republican that is going to jail or to court his party usually makes the first paragraph if not the headline itself.

Well, today we have yet another edition of “name that party” going on in the Old Line State where Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife Leslie have been arrested and charged with tampering with a witness in connection with a criminal offense and destruction of evidence in a federal investigation. Johnson is a Democrat, not that the news helps you learn that little factoid.

As this is breaking news, the story has popped up on the AP, the Washington Post, Reuters, and several other sources. The stories are filled with all sorts of details about the case, what the charges are, the particulars of the crime, the names and offices of those accused, their ages, where they live… all these things fill the various stories that announce the arrest. But one tiny little detail seems to have escaped many of the news stories: the fact that Johnson is a Democrat. It seems like they just plum forgot to mention his political party.

You are shocked, I am sure.
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Name That Party: Another Criminal Democrat Goes Unidentified by Old Media”

Congress - Dan Proft - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Liberals

Unions’ Preferred Rating for Teachers: NR

November 13, 2010 by

-By Dan Proft, for the Illinois Policy Institute

Amid the contentious debate as to how we improve public education in America, there is one reality to which all parties subscribe: there is no substitute for a quality teacher in the classroom.

The scholarship on teacher quality is clear. It is the most important school-related factor in student achievement. Some studies suggest the difference between having a good teacher and having a bad one can exceed one grade-level equivalent in annual achievement growth.

Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Success Academy charter school in New York City, has said a great teacher is like a great artist and should be recognized as such.

So why are the teachers’ unions fighting that recognition?
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Unions’ Preferred Rating for Teachers: NR”

Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Financial Reform - Jobs - Money - Stimulus - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

The Deflation Bogeyman

November 13, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Declining prices are not necessarily bad.

The Fed plans to add massively to the supply of phony money by monetizing the Federal debt with QE2, its latest multi-trillion dollar intervention to manipulate the financial system and to control business production and employment decisions.

The effect, in the short run, is to inflate further the developing stock market bubble, preparing the way for our next inflation-induced recession. In the long run, we the people are to be robbed of the purchasing power of our salaries, wages, and retirement incomes by the disguised tax of inflation.

Fed chairman Bernanke’s Keynesian, socialist rationale for this crime against society is his fear of deflation, a fear belied by prices of commodities that are increasing at an accelerating rate.
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The Deflation Bogeyman”

Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Shady Political Cash

November 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Marc Theissen recently asked some very important questions about where the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is getting the mountains of cash that it spends on Democrat political campaigns. He finds that it is coming from foreign sources, but the SEIU is refusing to yield to requests for transparency.

If the SEIU is getting the millions of dollars it is spending on Democrats from foreign sources, this should put a major dent in the alarmist claims that Obama has been making about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supposedly getting its money from outside the country — a charge that was resoundingly refuted. After all, if one of Obama’s biggest left-wing campaign supporters is suffused with foreign cash, why should it be such a big deal if anyone else is?

Sadly, the Old Media will never play up this aspect of Obama’s hypocrisy, but that is another subject.
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SEIU’s Shady Political Cash”

ACORN - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Regulation - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Former ACORN Worker Takes Plea Deal for Vote Fraud

November 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just prior to the election we discovered that in the state of Nevada the former chief of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now’s (ACORN) affiliated Project Vote organization was under indictment for voter fraud. This week we learn that Amy Busefink has coped a plea deal on charges of illegally paying “bonus” payments to workers registering voters during the 2008 election.

Busefink entered a plea on two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensating people for registering voters and faced 13 felony counts for the same. The fact that Busefink accepted this plea deal means that she as much as admitted that the state had the evidence to convict her.

Busefink will soon be sentenced.
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Former ACORN Worker Takes Plea Deal for Vote Fraud”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Montana - Nanny State - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The True Burden for Montana’s Tapayers is $753 Million

November 12, 2010 by 1 Comment

From The Truth in Accounting Institute…

Montana’s “Financial State of the State”

Chicago (November 11, 2010) — Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released Montana’s “Financial State of the State.” After an intensive review of the state’s 2009 audited financial report the Institute determined the state is in a precarious financial position because it does not have the funds available to pay more than $753 million of the state’s commitments as they come due. Each taxpayer’s share of this financial burden equals $2,400.

Montana law requires a balanced state budget. “If governors and legislatures had truly balanced the state’s budget, no taxpayer’s financial burden would exist,” said Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). She continued, “A state budget is not balanced if past costs, including those for employees’ retirement benefits, are pushed into the future.”
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The True Burden for Montana’s Tapayers is $753 Million”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Humor - Liberals - Paul A. Ibbetson - TV

Stewart and Colbert: Laughing With the Left Until it Hurts

November 12, 2010 by

Paul A. Ibbetson

There is just something about humor that makes it inviting in almost every situation. We love to have our funny bone tickled in so many ways, and it is both the joke and its creative delivery that keeps us coming back for more. Good comedy has the power to transcend many a strong grievance and many a harsh battleground. Take politics for instance. There is seldom found a more divisive subject that can be broached between two individuals. Politics has the power to set lifelong friends to physical blows at a high school reunion, or deacons to highly charged whispers of anger while passing the collection plate in church. I think you know what I am saying, and I bet you have been there before. If you haven’t, you will be, as assuredly as death and taxes, but there I go talking politics again.

The point is that humor serves as a “pressure relief valve” that allows us all to laugh at ourselves as well as those on the other side of the aisle. Being able to do both is important. Knowing when to do it is a step toward the divine. Everyone seems to have the ability to laugh at their adversaries; however, many do it in ways that demean themselves and the comedic process. When liberals laugh in a red-eyed, frothing frenzy during Michael Moore films they are not paying homage to comedic flair, but instead are simply wallowing in the filth of partisan anger. This is because Michael Moore films are not funny, but are sad in that “I just ran over your puppy and I think I will blame it on your neighbor because he is a successful capitalist” kind of way. To applaud poor comedic attempts, or just plain acts of political sniping, is attacking one’s own sense of where true comedy resides.
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Stewart and Colbert: Laughing With the Left Until it Hurts”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Illinois - Jan Schakowsky - Liberals - Warner Todd Huston

Ill. Rep Shakowsky’s Next Interference in Insurance Industry

November 11, 2010 by

Ill. Rep Shakowsky’s

The National Tax Payer’s Union has looked into the health care insurance regulation bill introduced by Illinois Congressional District 9 Representative Jan Schakowsky and they find the whole thing wanting…. AND expensive.

The Bill: S. 3078/H.R. 4757, Health Insurance Rate Authority Act of 2010

Annualized Cost: $255 million (first year cost)

Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (IL-9) sponsored the Health Insurance Rate Authority Act to help “ensure that people in all states have access to a meaningful [health insurance] rate review process to protect them from unfair increases.” The bill would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to block increases in health insurance premiums. While 25 states have their own Insurance Commissioners to review and approve or block proposed rate increases, S. 3078 would add a federal level of decision-making to “provide unprecedented authority to block unreasonable premium increases before they are allowed to take effect.”

The bill also establishes a Medical Insurance Rate Authority — a seven member advisory group — charged with prioritizing potentially unreasonable rate increases for review by the Secretary, producing an annual report detailing insurance market behavior, and assigning regulators to each state to review rate increases.

Debate over the bill pits health care reform advocates against state regulators. Consumers Union calls for Congress to pass the Health Insurance Rate Authority Act because “[t]oo often, consumers are left at the mercy of health insurance companies, as many states allow companies to increase rates with little or no oversight.” However, in a recent Politico article, Robert Zirkelbach of America’s Health Insurance Plans says “states have the infrastructure, experience[,] and expertise to review premiums.”

Check out NTU.org for a lot of other great analysis and info about what’s going on in our nation’s capitol.

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Entertainment - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Humor - Liberals - Race - Republicans - Video - Warner Todd Huston

VIDEO: A Typical Debate Between a Democrat and a Republican

November 11, 2010 by

Here we have a typical encounter between an all caring, more civilized, smarter, and more loving Democrat and one of those eeeevil Republicans. As soon as politics is brought up, hilarity ensues.

Allen West - Anti-Americanism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Florida - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Says Florida’s Allen West Will Become the Alan Grayson of the Right?

November 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lt. Col. Allen West is one of the most stand up guys you’ll ever meet. He first came to the public eye when his interrogation of an Iraqi yielded lifesaving results even as it was a bit unorthodox. His professional handling of that incident put him on a track to run for Florida’s 22nd District House seat, a race he won handily despite the left’s unhinged attacks upon him.

West ran a clean campaign in Florida’s 22nd. He avoided over-the-top attacks on his opponent and did not indulge fits of name-calling. This is not to say that he soft-pedaled his opinions on just how wrong the Democrats were as he sought to delineate the policy differences between himself and the left he was battling. But West did campaign with a serious tone and an even-tempered demeanor. He was not an arm waver, he did not indulge flights of fantastic conspiracies, nor did he employ vile attack ads in his race. Pointed rhetoric? Yes. Obscene, wild-eyed, foaming at the mouth attacks? Not at all.

With that said, why does Politico seem to think that Allen West is on track to become the right’s version of the despicable Alan Grayson, also a Floridian?
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Politico Says Florida’s Allen West Will Become the Alan Grayson of the Right?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Dr. Don Boys - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Stimulus - Taxes

Obama is not my President: He Promised the Moon and is Bringing us Doom!

November 11, 2010 by

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

I never thought that I would make such a remark but then I never thought I would see the day that we would have an incompetent and socialist in the White House—even for a visit! Heaven help the U.S. if he is there more than four years.

I wrote during the primary, “The thought that such an ‘empty suit’ could even become a U.S. Senator is itself appalling and atrocious but a tribute to the effectiveness of the corrupt political system in Chicago. However, for him to think he is qualified to take the gargantuan step to the Oval Office is arrogant, asinine, and audacious. Have Americans lost their minds to think this phony savior can actually fill the shoes of former Presidents such as Ronald Reagan or Harry Truman?”

Well, he did get elected mainly because American citizens are lazy, busy, and a little crazy. Non-thinking Whites voted for him to prove they are not racists and Blacks voted for him proving they are racists. (Some voted for him because they are ready to drink the Kool Aid.) Surely, no thinking person asserts that both groups did not consider his race when voting. Frankly, I don’t care if a candidate is white, black, or polka dot. His color doesn’t matter; his character and convictions do matter.
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Obama is not my President: He Promised the Moon and is Bringing us Doom!”

AFSCME - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pennsylvania - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

We Need More of This: County May Break Union Picket Line

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Officials of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania may be about to indulge some union busting. A proposed strike by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 86, Local 2016, prompted officials to seek bids from private companies to replace the recalcitrant public employees union members threatening a walkout.

County Chief Commissioner Vinny Clausi is unrepentant about pushing the plan to bust the union.

“If they go on strike, we want to make sure we have service,” he said. “The union will not put the government out of business.”

AFSCME union members recently rejected the County’s contract offer of a three-year contract. Naturally, the reason these greedy union thugs wanted to strike is because the county offered a smaller package rather than all the perks and raises the unionistas wanted.
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We Need More of This: County May Break Union Picket Line”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Minimum Wage - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Minimum Wage-Pushing Democrats Don’t Pay Congressional Interns

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Hypocrisy, they name is Democrat. Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy has laid bare another example of the hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats. In this case while those representatives that are all hot and bothered to push an ever rising minimum wage law are making noise about how inequities exist in the workplace, these same congressmen are sponsoring unpaid internships in their own offices.

How can one be all for the control of wages from Washington D.C. and feel that business should not be allowed to set its own pay rates, yet at the same time offer only unpaid internships in your own offices> It is a hypocrisy that is at once galling and awe inspiring for its brazenness. Yet this is where our out-of-touch, arrogant Congress has come to.

There is nothing wrong with an unpaid or a low paid internship, to be sure. Back in 1981 I served as a $50 a week intern at Chicago Magazine as a way to get some experience in the publishing industry. The money was sort of pointless, really. It wasn’t even enough to buy lunch for the week! But it made sense to me to do this and it makes sense for those with political leanings to get their young feet wet in a congressman’s office to see how it all works and to make contacts for the future.
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Minimum Wage-Pushing Democrats Don’t Pay Congressional Interns”

Business - Capitalism - Card Check - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Secret Ballot Protection Wins Big in Four States

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is card check dead? Not completely, but if the recent votes on various state ballot initiatives of four states is any indication it sure seems to be on its last legs.

Little noticed by the Old Media, the ballot initiatives of these four states is an important bellwether of how little support Big Labor’s favorite law will have going forward. On November 2 four states voted by great margins to protect the secret ballot and these reasserted protections would tend to deliver a blow to one of the Democrat’s important provisions of card check, a provision that would eliminate the secret ballot for prospective union members.

Card check is one of the main parts of Big Labor’s Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The provision would eliminate a secret ballot for prospective union members as they decide on representation. Under the EFCA, votes for union representation would be an open issue. Every employee’s vote would be clearly known by all involved. This open voting (or the public checking of a vote card or ballot) would clearly leave employees open for harassment by union officials who would be fully aware of each employees individual votes, if they voted for or against the union. For that matter, even the employer would have knowledge of who voted for what under the EFCA.
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Secret Ballot Protection Wins Big in Four States”

ACORN - Budget - Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Warner Todd Huston

Another Reminder: ACORN Isn’t Dead

November 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The New York Post reminds us of an important fact: ACORN isn’t dead. It is merely attempting to morph into a new group with a different name in order to shed its ruined reputation. It has no intention, though, of disappearing entirely like it should.

I’ve also mentioned before that this assumption that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is defunct is not a good assumption to make. These hardcore leftists won’t give up easily.

Interestingly, the new ACORN will also launch in an effort to skip out on the old ACORN’s creditors. That’s typical, isn’t it? So, to skip out on creditors and to get out from under it’s ruined reputation and name, ACORN plans to rebrand itself.
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Another Reminder: ACORN Isn’t Dead”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Keynesian - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Regulation - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes - The New York Times - Thomas Brewton

The Business Cycle: Krugman vs. Austrian Economic Theory

November 10, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The Keynesian black-box doesn’t work, because the reality of independent actions by millions of individuals is ignored in order to achieve a simplistic representation of the economy in computer models.

Keynesian economics, as expounded by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, is essentially a black box theory. Stand on the outside of the economic box and dump into it endless baskets of inflationary fiat money, and things supposedly just happen automatically inside the black box to produce permanent prosperity and near zero unemployment.

Read David Gordon’s commentary on THE HANGOVER THEORY by Paul Krugman.
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The Business Cycle: Krugman vs. Austrian Economic Theory”

1st Amendment - Budget - Campaign Finance - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Financial Reform - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Mark Kirk - Nanny State - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Senator Kirk Already on Track to Vote Against GOP Interests

November 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I said it during the primary, Mark Kirk is a 45 percenter. His record in the House pretty much shows that he will only vote with Republicans 45 percent of the time if left to his druthers. True to my worst fears, Kirk seems to be right on track with my predictions. The man hasn’t even taken his seat yet and many are assuming he’ll support one of the Democrat’s favorite issues: the DISCLOSE Act.

The Hill is reporting that Kirk is coming under pressure by the left to vote “yes” on a watered down version of the DISCLOSE Act, ostensibly a campaign finance reform law. The Hill also correctly points out that Kirk has in the past been a proponent of changes in campaign finance rules even as he voted against the Democrat’s DISCLOSE Act in the run up to the election.
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Senator Kirk Already on Track to Vote Against GOP Interests”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - India - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Military - Pakistan - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Obama’s Disastrous Visit to India

November 9, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Barack Obama’s now concluding trip to India seems to have turned out to be a failed or at the very least unhelpful effort. His false starts, unhelpful comments and bad policy moves mark this visit as a bit of a mess.

Obama made multiple gaffes not only for India but for his own party back home not to mention his nation. As his political party was delivered a severe blow and his agenda was cut off at the knees on election day he was seen dancing happily all across the continent with a lavish visit paid for at the taxpayer’s expense even as those same taxpayers were enraged at wild government spending sprees. As the Indians worried over Obama’s foreign policy he refused to call the those that attacked them in Mumbai terrorists and finally on his exit from the country he delivered yet another one of his digs at his own country saying that America is a nation in decline.

Things began going wrong for The One even as he first arrived in one of the most vibrant nations on earth. For one thing he arrived a lesser president than when he originally set up the trip. His party was delivered a stunning and historic blow as the GOP picked up over 60 seats in the federal seat of power and hundreds more in the state legislatures in the Nov. 2 election, a feat that hasn’t been repeated since WWII. So Obama arrived with his mandate splintered and his power diminished. He is a president with less power to help his Indian hosts do anything.
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Obama’s Disastrous Visit to India”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Massachusetts - Media - Media Bias - PCism - Race - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Harvard Sick of All Those Old White Guys

November 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Boston Globe is all aflutter that Harvard University is adding “diversity” to its portraits of celebrated professors, teachers, and associates. The paper is pleased to report that instead of only having upon its walls all those boring, evil, dead white men, now Harvard will be adding black men, black women, and Asians to the display.

Boston Globe clucks disapprovingly that of the some 750 oil portraits in Harvard’s collection of celebrated alumnus only two are of “minorities,” and only just over 50 are of white women. The Globe thinks that Harvard needs some “diversity” and these terrible portraits of evil white men presents an “incomplete picture of Harvard that the university is seeking to change.”

“There’s a significance to portraiture, in demonstrating to people of all backgrounds that their presence and contribution are appreciated,’’ said Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, which for eight years has been quietly commissioning portraits of distinguished minorities and women to hang in Harvard’s hallowed halls.

Of course, what we have here is not in keeping with what Harvard once stood for: excellence. Instead of a proud tradition of the best and brightest, now Harvard’s portraiture will genuflect toward “diversity,” racebaiting, and “multiculturalism.”
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Harvard Sick of All Those Old White Guys”

Al Gore - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Environment - Government - Liberals - Nanny State - PCism - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Al Gore’s Climate Exchange Scheme Utterly Fails… Media Ignores It All

November 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Al Gore’s much ballyhooed Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) has recently announced that it will no longer be engaging in carbon trading, an activity that was the sole purpose that it was created. This is an utter failure of purpose in global warming hysteria yet the Old Media is almost completely silent on this colossal failure.

Why has the media remained utterly quite on this abject failure after unleashing on the public an avalanche of stories that touted the creation of the CCX back in 2000 — and since for that matter? Roger L. Simon and David Thomson wonder just that.

The CCX was the brainchild of Northwestern University business professor Richard Sandor, who used $1.1 million in grants from the Chicago-based left-wing Joyce Foundation to launch the CCX. For his efforts, Time named Sandor as one of its Heroes of the Planet in 2002 and one of its Heroes of the Environment in 2007.

But as of the October 21 announcement that carbon trading would end, the Old Media is nowhere to be seen on the story.
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Al Gore’s Climate Exchange Scheme Utterly Fails… Media Ignores It All”

Business - Economy/Finances - Environment - Michigan - Nanny State - Warner Todd Huston

Nanny State Republican Upton Wants House Energy Committee Chair?

November 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Light bulb banning Republican Fred Upton (R, Mich) is angling to become the new GOP chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee as the House begins to look to adjusting to reflect the Republican’s tidal wave election. Upton is a perfect example of the sort of representative that the new GOP congress needs to think about very carefully before elevating them to higher positions.

Upton has the seniority to take the position, it is true, but his past nanny state-styled votes for banning the light bulb in favor of CFLs makes his bid troubling taking into consideration the conservative direction voters went on November 2 — and Upton didn’t just vote for the bill, he co-sponsored it with the left leaning Dem. Jane Harmon of California.

Upton’s voting record is quite a mixed bag where it concerns proving his conservative credentials. Along with the nanny-state light bulb ban vote, Upton also voted against extending the Bush tax cuts, he was in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), as well as the first stimulus bill.
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Nanny State Republican Upton Wants House Energy Committee Chair?”

Budget - Capitalism - Dan Proft - Illinois - Jobs - The Heartland Institute - Warner Todd Huston

My Nominee for Pay Czar: David Stern

November 9, 2010 by

-By Dan Proft, for the Illinois Policy Institute

I do not think government functionaries should set private sector salaries or that U.S. policymakers should be adorned with the appellation properly reserved for Russian autocrats.

But, if I did not believe in free markets and free minds, NBA Commissioner David Stern would be my choice for “Pay Czar.”

Stern is in the midst of a negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the four hundred some odd millionaires in the NBA. Stern’s position is that the league needs to reduce player salaries by one third (some $750 million) and consider contraction, which would close down a franchise or two in order for the NBA to be a self-sustaining business model.
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My Nominee for Pay Czar: David Stern”