New Open Government and Spending Transparency Reforms Introduced

-By Warner Todd Huston

While the Obama administration plays its games with “czars,” more “boards,” and “committees” to implement government accountability policies, Representative Darrell Issa (R, Calif.) has introduced some measures that would do a far better job to meet those goals.

President Obama has touted a “Government Accountability and Transparency Board” (GATB) as well as the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) meant to bring more accountability to federal actions. But what real power will these “boards” and “committees” have? What real good will they do? Worse, how can we expect boards appointed by the president to shine the light of transparency on the Executive branch?

So, what will these new presidential projects be doing? The GATB “shall work with the RATB to apply the approaches developed by the RATB across Government spending.” Absurdly, these new boards won’t even be making a report for six more months.
Continue reading


New Open Government and Spending Transparency Reforms Introduced”


Chicago Teachers Losing Their Raises

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the Daley years wound down, Chicago’s public schools teachers were handed an automatic 4 percent raise across the board that was supposed to take effect next year. However, that largess from the taxpayers has just been rescinded by a unanimous vote of the Chicago Public Schools board.

Citing the $712 million budget deficit, the CPS announced that the automatic, meritless raise was simply unjustifiable.

In a statement, schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard said, “I have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers and all that they do for our children. But today’s board action was taken in response to the massive financial crisis facing our system. My team is now tasked with developing a balanced budget and presenting it to the Board and the public in August and our promise remains to minimize any impacts on the classroom and our kids.”
Continue reading


Chicago Teachers Losing Their Raises”


Did Rep. Weiner Really Thank His Parents for the ‘Values’ They ‘Instilled’ In Him?

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, someone really needs to have a nice long sit down with troubled New York Democrat Anthony Weiner. In his resignation speech he actually thanked his parents for the “values they instilled in me,” the ones that got him “this far”… which apparently is thrown out of Congress on his ear. Does he not understand that the entire mess he is currently wallowing in was because of the lack of values he displayed?

Here is the absurd line in question in his resignation speech:
Continue reading


Did Rep. Weiner Really Thank His Parents for the ‘Values’ They ‘Instilled’ In Him?”


Freedomist at RightOnLine 2011

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Collier brothers, William and Paul, have a great booth set up at RightOnLine 2011 to begin to build a network of interested citizens to affect conservative change.

The Colliers have a great site, too, called The Freedomist. Their tag line couldn’t be more true: “Government Costs Too Much, Let’s Stop the Progressive War on Freedom.”

The Freedomist is a great site of news, commentary, and political action items we should all pay attention to. Bookmark The Freedomist, won’t you?

Bill will be blogging about RightOnLine HERE
Continue reading


Freedomist at RightOnLine 2011″


RightOnLine 2011

-By Warner Todd Huston

This weekend I’ll be writing a few posts about the always great RightOnLine event, of which I am a part, here in beautiful downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Hilton Hotel. At this fourth annual RightOnLine conference, local citizens can come out to learn how to become involved in elections, to become citizen journalists, and to use the tool found on the Internet to affect change.

RightOnLine 2011 is sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, the premier grassroots conservative activist organization in the country.

Many great speakers and breakout sessions are going on as I write. Some of the speakers that will be in attendance will include former Minn. Governor Tim Pawlenty, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Andrew Breitbart, Michelle Malkin, Rep. Thad McCotter and others.

Also, tonight we will be screening the new documentary about Sarah Palin, The Undefeated.

So, as things occur, I’ll be posting about it all right here.
Continue reading


RightOnLine 2011″


What Economic Turnaround?

Obama and his cohorts want to sell the American people a bill of goods. DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz is telling the country that Democrats “own” the “recovery.” Only one problem. There ain’t one.

Don’t buy the lies, folks. Don’t do it.


Illinois So Broke They Want to Sell Ads on License Plates

-By Warner Todd Huston

You know things are bad when governments start selling things they “own.” The latest is the state of Illinois so over spent and in a budgetary hole that authorities are floating the idea of selling advertising space on its auto license plates.

The Democrat led general assembly has given the Secretary of State’s office a directive to begin researching the pros and cons of “corporate plates,” or sponsors for license plates (SB1360). The hope is that more money will be brought into the treasury and, perhaps, the state won’t have to raise taxes… as much.
Continue reading


Illinois So Broke They Want to Sell Ads on License Plates”


Right Nation 2011 Chosen as Location for Black Conservative Summit

WINFIELD, IL – URF announced today that Right Nation 2011, taking place November 3-5, will be the location for the first annual Black Conservative Summit (BCS) hosted by Freedom’s Journal Magazine.

“We’re honored the BCS has chosen Right Nation 2011 as a location to showcase the diversity of conservatism throughout the Midwest. We’re delighted that Dr. Eric Wallace and a team of highly-respected black conservative leaders, along with Freedom’s Journal Magazine, have agreed to be an integral part of this year’s event,” said Dennis LaComb, URF Executive Director. “Their participation will add depth and breadth to this year’s gathering, and will showcase the richness of the conservative movement.”

Freedom’s Journal Magazine is the sponsor of the Black Conservative Summit (BCS). The purpose of the summit is to aggregate and engender Black conservative voices on issues facing America and the Black community, and to proffer solutions that positively impact the country’s future.

Several Black conservative leaders have already confirmed their participation, including national columnist Star Parker, radio show host Armstrong Williams, Rev. Wayne Perryman, and Raynard Jackson.
Continue reading


Right Nation 2011 Chosen as Location for Black Conservative Summit”


McConnell Wants Terror Suspects Held in Kentucky to be Sent to Gitmo

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why are a pair of foreign terrorists sitting in a jail in Kentucky? That’s what Senate GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to know. He wants them sent to the facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they belong.

Why is the Justice Department doing this? Why expose our heartland to these monsters?
Continue reading


McConnell Wants Terror Suspects Held in Kentucky to be Sent to Gitmo”


Herman Cain: Obama’s NLRB ‘A Direct Assault on the Free Market System’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Presidential candidate Herman Cain (R) recently spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Neil Cavuto about the dispute between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Boeing and its impact on the United States economy. Cain said what the NLRB is trying to do keeping Boeing out of Charleston is “a direct assault on the free market system” and he hopes Boeing will “fight it all the way to the Supreme Court if that’s what they have to do.” Cain went on to say it is “uncertainty” that is preventing the U.S. economy from adding jobs in the “private sector” which must be “the engine” for economic growth and it is issues like the NLRB/Boeing dispute that are “killing the engine.”

Cain says that the reason business aren’t hiring is because of the uncertainty that Obama’s policies have visited upon the nation. The “uncertainty about the impact of Obamacare” chief among them.

“We don’t know what the tax rates are going to be at the end of 2013. This economy is stalled. This economy is like a train stuck on the tracks. You have a boxcar full of 15 million people who don’t have jobs, you have a boxcar of businesses that are hanging on. You have a caboose and no engine. They keep feeding the caboose. The caboose can’t pull the train. The private sector has to be the engine. Everything that they are doing, including this National Labor Relations Board issue, is killing the engine.”
Continue reading


Herman Cain: Obama’s NLRB ‘A Direct Assault on the Free Market System’”


Against The Odds, Right Leads Online

(Ed’s note – I will be flying to Minneapolis to attend the RightOnline.com conference this year. If you have the time or are in the Minneapolis area, do come on out)

-By Erik Telford

Arianna Huffington’s recent mega-payday from AOL was powerful evidence of the tight connection between the hard-left netroots and the online establishment. And AOL isn’t the only web giant to provide apparently favorable treatment to the left. Google has been accused of blocking certain right-wing websites or lowering their standing in search results, and its YouTube subsidiary seems to remove files uploaded by conservatives far more often than offensive content posted by liberals.

The love affair between the tech giants and the big-government left can be traced not only to Silicon Valley’s geographical proximity to San Francisco but also to the two groups’ shared agenda. President Obama’s stated goal of having the FCC regulate the Internet will ensure that bandwidth-heavy websites will not have to pay for the billions of dollars in investments that private broadband companies made. Of course, money from the technology industry flows freely into Democratic coffers.

Yet somehow the right is more than holding its own in the online activism arena.
Continue reading


Against The Odds, Right Leads Online”


EPA’s Promise of Economic Growth a Sham

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is headed to The Hill to testify about the Obama Administration’s newest proposed environmental regulations. Obama’s EPA is claiming that the new rules will bring all sorts of economic growth, but a new report by the National Taxpayers Union puts the administration’s claims in question and shows that the EPA’s “benefits” have no basis in reality.

The new report features economist David Montgomery who reveals the very large net regulatory benefits touted by EPA rely on apples to orange comparisons, where the vast majority of the benefits have none of the financial reality that the costs do. (Click here for a .pdf of the report)…

Read the rest at RightPundit.com.


Illinois Congressmen Help Tip in Big Labor Amendment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Monday I alerted you all to a jobs-killing, union-favoring amendment being considered in the House of Representatives in Washington, one that needed to be defeated. Unfortunately, the amendment was successful and now, in this dour economy, unions will be able to make matters worse just when we need a shot in the arm. (See previous post for particulars of the bill.)

Sadly, we lost this battle by one stinking vote and this example shows that even though we may have a GOP controlled House of Reps. they still don’t always support conservative measures — and they need to be carefully watched! Those supporting this jobs-killing amendment numbered 204 and those voting in favor of economic success only numbered 203. (25 representatives did not vote at all)

Now, seeing as how I am from Illinois — the most corrupt state in the union — I focused in my previous post on those of the Illinois Republican delegation that had in the past supported Big Labor bills similar to the one in question. So, this is a follow up to that report.
Continue reading


Illinois Congressmen Help Tip in Big Labor Amendment”


Obama Puts Unions Ahead of a Healthy Economy, Free Trade

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Obama claims that he wants to “create jobs,” and is happily touting several policies that he claims will create jobs in this jobless, non-recovery. Unfortunately, all his polices really do is shore up the high cost unions that kill job growth. As GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConell says, Obama has “relentlessly pursued an agenda that is radically opposed” to job growth.

Speaking on the floor last Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “For two and a half years, Democrats in Washington have paid lip service to the idea of job creation — even as they’ve relentlessly pursued an agenda that is radically opposed to it… Democrats don’t want to admit that the government-driven policies of the past two and a half years are part of the problem. And until they do, nothing will change. Unless Democrats change their priorities and their policies, the threats of a downgrade won’t go away. The debt won’t get any smaller. Businesses won’t create the kind of jobs we need to build prosperity.
Continue reading


Obama Puts Unions Ahead of a Healthy Economy, Free Trade”


Bambenek Announces for 52nd District Ill. State Senate

On Wednesday, 6/15/11, I will be announcing my run for the Republican nomination for the State Senate for the 52nd District currently held by Democrat Mike Frerichs. After having spoken with many of you and others around the district and state, I have been honored and humbled by the outpouring of support. Together, I know we can bring this seat back home to the Republican Party.

It goes without saying the level of harm that years of Democratic Party governing have caused this state. Many companies have left Illinois to never return, crushing tax increases, billions of unpaid bills, and the list goes on. The only way this changes is by changing the people in Springfield. The good news is, the 52nd State Senate district is one seat where we can replace a tax-and-spend Democrat with a conservative fiscal watchdog.

This race will be difficult, make no mistake. Several Republican groups have listed this as a Tier 1 target and you can bet the Democrats will defend it with everything they have. I am up to the challenge, but I will need your help. Here are a few things you can do to help now:
Continue reading


Bambenek Announces for 52nd District Ill. State Senate”


Jon Stewart: Moderate or Thinly Veiled, Hard-Core, Left-Winger, With a Thin Patina of Objectivity Spread on Top?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Crowder rips the false “patina” of objectivity off hard-core leftist Jon Stewart by revealing an email that team Stewart sent him telling him that they will never hire a conservative for the Stewart show.

Jon Stewart is just as biased as those he satirizes on his comedy show. And make no mistake, Stewart does not do news. He is nothing but a left-wing comedian.

Stewart is selling his gullible audience a bill of goods. Anyone that imagines that Stewart is selling “the unbiased truth” is a fool. You may like Stewart’s humor, you may like his show, but don’t fool yourself into believing that he is not selling a left-wing agenda.


Cal. Union Launches Effort to Recruit Republican Candidates

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is a novel approach. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the largest government employee unions in the nation, has decided that they’ve had enough of all those darn Republicans that are… well… acting like Republicans. So, the union has lighted on a new way to be rid of all those darn Republican-like Republicans. They are going to sponsor their own Republican candidates in upcoming elections in the land of fruits and nuts.

The SEIU has created a new “Republican” political action committee (PAC) meant to recruit purported moderate Republicans to run for office to replace the Republicans now sitting in Sacramento. SEIU is calling this PAC the “Golden California Committee.”

The name of their PAC reminds me of the phrase, “don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.” This golden shower that the SEIU is trying to pull off doesn’t fool anyone. The SEIU has no interest in helping Republicans. They have but one goal, to implement laws and government regulations that give to government employee unions payoffs, higher salaries, and outrageous benefits and pensions that exceed anything that the general public will ever see. They know that the only way to do this is to control government from both sides of the aisle.
Continue reading


Cal. Union Launches Effort to Recruit Republican Candidates”


Thoughts on the CNN Republican Debate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well the CNN debate of some of the GOP candidates for president is now in the history books and I thought I’d give my impression of those vying there.

Before I do that, I have to comment on John King’s constant guttural vocal tick. It sounded like he had Tourette Syndrome with the grunts and other noises. He was an utter failure as a moderator. His annoying grunts HAVE to go. It was also clear that his goal was not to hear what the candidates wanted to say, but that he wanted them to attack each other. He was constantly trying to pit them against each other. Fortunately, they did not take the bait for the most part. This was a civil debate, for sure. But if anyone failed tonight it was John King.

The debate format was rotten, too. This 30-second limit on answers for complex issues is absurd. I am glad that about halfway through the thing the time limit went by the wayside.

Now Let’s take the candidates as they appeared on the stage.
Continue reading


Thoughts on the CNN Republican Debate”


Now Obama Smacks A Weiner

-By Warner Todd Huston

The news just keeps getting worse for the Democratic Representative from New York, Anthony Weiner. Now even President Obama is saying if he were the embattled congressman, he’d resign. That’s gotta hurt.

Obama sat down with TODAY’s Ann Curry for a show that will air on Tuesday and Curry asked the president about the Weiner incident. “I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign,’’ Obama said.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Urge Congress to Vote ‘NO’ On Striking $$ Saving Section From Federal Construction Projects Bill (Illinois Especially)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today there may be a vote on striking a section of H.R. 2055 that will insure that federal construction projects for the military are fairly priced and will save money for the taxpayers. Some representatives want this advantageous section struck out and replaced with a union-favoring provision that will cost the tax payers millions and will cause even more job loss in an already failing economy.

The bill is the Military Construction (MilCon) and Veterans Affairs (VA) and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012 (H.R. 2055). The section the Democrats want to eliminate is section 415.

Section 415 removes the requirement for companies bidding for federal construction projects for the military to sign anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) that will force these companies to pay union dues, union benefits and adhere to union rules regardless if the companies themselves are staffed by union members of not.
Continue reading


Urge Congress to Vote ‘NO’ On Striking $$ Saving Section From Federal Construction Projects Bill (Illinois Especially)”


Soros Funded MoveOn.Org Lies About Hacking Fox News Ticker

-By Warner Todd Huston

What’s the best way to counter what you think are the lies coming from your opponents? Is it to make up lies of your own? Apparently MoveOn.org thinks so. On June 9, MoveOn admitted using lies, subterfuge and fraud to “counter” what they maintain is the wrong-headed thinking of Fox News. I guess to a left-winger, lies are just the ticket to get people to trust them! In fact, this whole story is just downright silly as MoveOn.org not only perpetrated a fraud, they made a big production of it all in the process.

Not long ago an emailer calling himself “Babi Gumm” began to inform various news sites and bloggers that he had “hacked into the Fox News ticker on 6th Avenue in New York.”

This “Babi Gumm” claimed that he had replaced the Fox ticker message with his own anti-capitalist message one screaming to America that “we are being lied to” by “Right wingers” who are “destroying the middle class and trying to kill our unions.” His supposed ticker hack also told viewers that “the country is not broke.”
Continue reading


Soros Funded MoveOn.Org Lies About Hacking Fox News Ticker”


Unionists Next Target for Destruction: Apple, Inc.

-By Warner Todd Huston

A four-year Apple store employee in San Francisco wants to unionize the low wage workers that help customers in Apple Stores across America. Should he succeed, this will, of course, take one of the few successful companies we have left in America, hobble it with jobs-killing union rules, and destroy its jobs like the rest of them.

Cory Moll, 30, has a plan to take a bite out of Apple, it seems. He is claiming that the minimum wage, retail jobs of the floor helpers at Apple stores are beset with “unfair practices.” So, he wants to organize the 30,000 retail employees in Apple’s 325 brick-and-mortar stores.

Using Twitter and Facebook, Moll is trying to get the rest of the country’s Apple store employees on his jobs killing bandwagon. Fortunately, he has yet to gain much support from them.
Continue reading


Unionists Next Target for Destruction: Apple, Inc.”


Quinn’s Tax Hikes Chasing Away Chicago Merc?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and his profligate Democrat Party cohorts have been racking up the loss of one business after another since they decided to wildly raise the state’s taxes. Quinn’s and the Democrat’s next target seems to be the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, an ongoing Chicago tradition since 1898.

Chicago has the third highest corporate tax rate in the country and CME’s Chairman, Terence Duffy, and its Chief Financial Officer, James Parisi, say it is a burden with which they don’t think they need to contend.
Continue reading


Quinn’s Tax Hikes Chasing Away Chicago Merc?”


Class Of 2011 Faces Highest Unemployment Rate In History

From BankruptingAmerica.org…

Graduates Face 21.1 Applicants Per Job

Arlington, VA – Today, BankruptingAmerica.org (an awareness campaign by Public Notice) released a new Web video titled “Is Washington Creating Our Job Crisis?” As the 1.7 million college students of the class of 2011 graduate, they face one of the highest unemployment rates for college graduates in U.S. history.

This video (runtime 1:01) launches just days after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy produced just over 50,000 jobs in May, the lowest number of jobs created in 2011 and the fewest jobs in eight months.

With unemployment rising to 9.1 percent, college graduates aren’t the only ones worrying about their economic future. A recent poll conducted by the Daily Beast/Newsweek found that by almost four to one, Americans say our economy is not delivering the jobs we need. Americans are even losing sleep over the economic crisis: 56 percent are so angry about their personal economic situation that they have lost sleep.
Continue reading


Class Of 2011 Faces Highest Unemployment Rate In History”


Getting Muddy: Tim Pawlenty Attacks ‘ObamneyCare’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tim Pawlenty is one of only two GOP contenders that have a nation-wide ground game and it looks like he’s starting to go on the attack against Mitt Romney, the other Republican with a nation-wide organization. On Fox News Sunday today he attacked Romney’s disastrous healthcare bill that he signed when Governor of Massachusetts head on calling the legislation “ObamneyCare.”

With one phrase he was able to link Romney’s healthcare law directly to the hated Obamacare legislation. It was clever, but it shows that Pawlenty feels that Romney is not only the guy to beat, he’s vulnerable as well.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Obama’s Plan To Make Your Electric Bills Jump 60 Percent

-By Warner Todd Huston

Only a few days ago I wrote about how Obama’s new EPA rules would force Americans to pay up to 60% more on their electric bills. This weekend, the Chicago Tribune said the same thing.

Leading off saying, “Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years,” the Trib went on to highlight the same destructive EPA rules I wrote about on Friday.

Coal-fired plants historically have been one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity, but operating costs are expected to increase significantly because of upgrades needed on older plants to meet new environmental regulations. The Illinois Power Agency estimates that by 2017 the energy portion of bills could jump 65 percent from today’s rates.

But one thing the Tribune did not mention. Obama campaigned on forcing us to pay that 60% more on our electric bills. Obama wants to bankrupt the electric industry, he wants us to lose jobs, he wants us to be soaked to pay more for our energy. He wants this because he feels America should be taken down a notch or two He wants to hobble this country. It’s what he’s said since day one… (See the following video)
Continue reading


Obama’s Plan To Make Your Electric Bills Jump 60 Percent”


Weekly Republican Address: Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Delivering the Weekly Republican Address, U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) highlights “Pledge to America with measures designed to remove government obstacles to private-sector job growth – the kind of growth the ‘stimulus’ promised but failed to deliver. Republicans have urged President Obama to change course and work together to enact this job creation plan, an invitation Rep. Kinzinger renews here. A member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Kinzinger is in his first term representing Illinois’ 11th Congressional District.

http://kinzinger.house.gov/

Transcript
Continue reading


Weekly Republican Address: Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP’s Plan for America’s Job Creators”


More Arts Funding Boondoggles in Age of Obama Economic Meltdown

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yes, it’s time for another tale of millions of your tax dollars wasted by the NEA on “art” in America.

Supporters of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) like to puff themselves up as saviors of high “art” in lowbrow America. They love to imagine that without their advocacy for spending millions of our tax dollars to support dubious art projects, why, “art” in America would vanish. After all, you people are all uncultured, Neanderthals, you know?

Bruce E. Walker recently alerted us of the newest boondoggle to come out of the NEA. This time the NEA is sponsoring hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to video game makers.

Yes, video games. Apparently the NEA thinks we have a dearth of video games in America and they need to rescue this important and neglected “art” from somehow disappearing.
Continue reading


More Arts Funding Boondoggles in Age of Obama Economic Meltdown”