-By Warner Todd Huston
Main stage at CPAC
I have just arrived at the 2011 CPAC event. Not sure what I am going to attend or who I might see, yet, but just thought I’d post a note that I am here.
I want to thank RedCounty.com and RightPundits.com for sponsoring me at this year’s big bash.
More later…
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Warner Todd Huston at CPAC 2011″
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last weekend I attended the Ronald Reagan 100th birthday dinner held by the Illinois Republican Party. I filmed all the speeches given and I am finally done making the video for these speeches. I did not get Ill. GOP Chairman Pat Brady’s address, but I did get the others.
In order of appearance, the dinner featured Senator Mark Kirk, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Congressman Mike Pence, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, and finally Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford.
I do not have Santorum’s comments here because he went on so long YouTube won’t accept my video upload because it is too long. If I remember, next week I will split his video in half and try again. Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma also appeared, but their bit was fluff and I did not bother recoding it.
The sound isn’t the best in the world, but it is at least intelligible.
Senator Mark Kirk At The Illinois Reagan Dinner
VIDEO: Speeches Given at Illinois GOP Reagan Dinner Gingrich, Bolton, Kirk, Rutherford”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Virginia’s Junior Senator, Jim Webb, is already hanging up his senatorial career. One term was enough for the so-called moderate Virginia Democrat. He’s announced that he will not run for reelection. But the fact that he got elected at all shows the essential hypocrisy at the heart of the Democrat Party. Webb, you see, is what many might consider a “neo-confederate.”
If Jim Webb had run for the Senate from Virginia as a Republican in the modern era he could never, ever have gotten elected no matter which party the state is leaning toward at any given time. Yet Webb was given a pass for his neo-confederate sympathies and allowed to sail to election back in 2006.
What about all this “neo-confederate” business? Well, back in 2004 Webb published a book titled “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.” This book was very friendly to the old Confederacy of our Ciil War era.
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Senator Jim Webb: The Hypocrisy at the Core of the Democrat Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a perfect example of why unions are the biggest problem for government budget reform, John Gage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has just pronounced anyone that wants to cut the overly generous pay, benefits, and pensions of government employees are “mentally retarded.” This is the to-the-hilt fight that the unions will go to, not only to keep their cushy remuneration, but to enlarge it still more all on the backs of the working poor taxpayers that don’t have luxurious government jobs.
Gage made the statement during a Feb. 8 march on Washington, DC.
When people say well we just have to pay less in wages whether it’s private sector or public sector, I think they’re mentally retarded to say something like that.
Union Boss Says Advocates for Spending Cuts are ‘Mentally Retarded’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the race for the Chicago Mayor’s office we have seen quite a lot of evidence that Chicago’s union bosses are not big Rahm Emanuelites. This week we got another hint in that direction as several more unions came out in support of Emanuel’s most serious opponent, Gery Chico.
The Chico campaign added a group of Chicago unions to its previous announcement of endorsements from the Chicago Firefighters and Police unions, a growing coalition that Chico says shows that he has “growing momentum with working families.”
Labor organizations that endorsed Chico today include the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 9, Sheet Metal Workers Local 73, Ironworkers Local 1, Laborers’ District Council of Chicago & Vicinity, Painters District Council #14 and the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 11, together whose membership encompasses more than 60,000 hard working men and women in the Chicagoland area.
It is interesting to see the unions shy from the Emanuel campaign since Rahm is the presumed heir apparent to the Daley crown not to mention that Rahm has Barack Obama’s overt support. The air of a winner coupled with the favor of a Democrat president is usually more than enough to get unions to line up like good little lemmings. But this is clearly not the case with Rahm Emanuel.
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More of Rahm’s Union Troubles”
From the Re-Elect Mayor Jim Daley campaign…
Move to Foster Transparency in Village Government
HOMER GLEN, IL — Jim Daley, Mayor of Homer Glen, IL, today called for the Village check register to be posted on the Village Web site to provide openness and transparency to the taxpayers.
“We owe it to the Homer Glen taxpayers to be fully open and transparent with their tax dollars,” said Mayor Daley. “Through our fiscal responsibility, we have protected their tax dollars and kept Homer Glen’s budget balanced. Now, the taxpayers will be able to see exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.”
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Homer Glen Mayor Jim Daley: Post Village Check Register Online”
From the Palatine Tea Party…
(Palatine, Illinois) – The Palatine Tea Party obtained details of the Village of Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz and Councilman Aaron Del Mar buying Apparel using taxpayer dollars. We have released the supporting details including: voided check, disbursement account details, check request, invoice, and several pictures.
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Mayor Buys Clothes With City $$: Needless Expense is why they Raised Taxes in Palatine”
-By Warner Todd Huston
John Kartch over at Americans for Tax Reform found President Obama’s claim that he hasn’t raised taxes a bit, shall we say, quixotic. At one point in the interview with Obama conducted by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and shown on Sunday, Obama stated bald faced that he didn’t do so. The truth seems to be a different animal, however.
Employing his best preacher’s alliterative mode by repeating it twice, Obama told O’Reilly, “I didn’t raise taxes once. I lowered taxes over the last two years. I lowered taxes for the last two years.”
But did he hold the line on taxes? Kartch shows that Obama’s claim does not hold water. In fact, “just sixteen days into his presidency,” Kartch reminds us, Obama raised taxes on tobacco by 156 percent! Then came Obamacare, little else but a defacto tax hike in at least a dozen areas.
And then there is the smoke and mirrors:
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Now THERE’S Chutzpah: Obama Claims He hasn’t Raised Taxes?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ben Smith of POLITICO is reporting that the Democrat leadership Council is on it’s last paws and about to go belly up. This is one more little hint that the centrist, the moderate, or the “Blue Dog” Democrat is truly an extinct animal in America today. The Donkey’s big tent is more like a birdcage cover any more and apparently that cage holds only the red crested, double fisted, lefty bird.
The Democratic Leadership Council was the “iconic” centrist Democrat political organization founded during the Clinton years that had quite a lot of influence at the time. Many styled the DLC as the rebirth of the Democrat Party after the failures of the liberal wing in the 60s and 70s. But as the years have worn onward, there have been fewer and fewer centrist Democrats to be had with few of them in any position of power in Washington. With the Pelosi/Reid/Obama wing of the Democrats gaining power the Democrat Party itself has marched quickly toward the far left leaving the small coterie of Blue Dogs on the outside looking in.
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More Evidence that Centrists Democrats Are Dead”
From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…
Chicago (November 29, 2010) Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released Alaska’s “Financial State of the State.” After an intensive review of the State’s 2010 audited financial report the Institute determined the State is in a precarious financial position because it does not have the funds available to pay $555 million of the State’s commitments as they come due. Each taxpayer’s share of this financial burden equals $1,900.
Alaska state law requires a balanced 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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Truth in Accounting Issues: Alaska’s ‘Financial State of the State’ – True Tax Burden $555 Million”
From the Gery Chico for Chicago Mayor campaign…
(CHICAGO) Campaigning today at Manny’s Deli on the near Southside, Gery Chico received the support of two former Chicago Bears, one of whom played a key role on the 1985 Super Bowl Championship team.
Steve McMichael and Bruce Herron- part of the Bears’ legendary defense for several years- both said they believe Gery Chico is the most qualified, honest candidate to lead Chicago in a new direction.
“If Gery Chico was an ’85 Bear, I would have wanted him by my side blitzing because he is one tough guy,” said Steve “Mongo” McMichael. “Just look at what he did for education in the 90s! He’d make a great mayor.”
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Former Chicago Bears support Chico for Mayor and Super Bowl plan McMichael: Chico is one tough guy (And introducing Chico iPhone App)”
-By Warner Todd Huston
As Superbowl XLV began a video celebrating the life of Ronald Reagan was played on the jumbo tron screen in the stadium for the sports fans there to enjoy. It was only fitting seeing as how the game was being played on Reagan’s 100th birthday. But the national audiences were never made aware that this video was played. For the millions of folks at home, Reagan’s birthday was ignored.
This video was part of the Superbowl programing, certainly as official as Christina Aguilera’s mangling of the National Anthem and the Black Eyed Peas’… well, whatever it was the Black Eyed Peas were doing. Yet the folks at home were left ignorant of the airing of the Reagan video.
It couldn’t have been a squeamishness about politics. After all, the Black Eyed Peas were allowed to stick a plea to Obama to institute more socialism in one of their “songs” during the half time segment (I hesitate to call it a “show”). So why was Reagan’s birthday video ignored?
In any case the video is a great compilation of Reagan moments and is but a few minutes long. It was sponsored by The Reagan Foundation.
Superbowl Fail: Superbowl’s Ronald Reagan Video All But Ignored”
Do you need a visual representation to help you understand the budget mess and the inadequate cuts being discussed? Well here it is. And you can couple it with a drinking game, too, apparently…
You can see other great videos like this at the 1,000 Pennies YouTube page.
-By Warner Todd Huston
On February 5, 2011, I attended the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Diner and there I had the opportunity to have a quick few minutes with Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady. I asked him about how the Ill. GOP intends to capitalize on the GOP gains in the rest of the country. I also threw him a curve ball and asked about a Quinn recall over the tax issue to see what he’d say.
I also spoke with a few other GOP notables that night. Unfortunately, I only got a scant few minutes with them all.
VIDEO: Short Interview With Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On February 5, 2011, I attended the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Diner and there I had the opportunity to have a quick few minutes with Illinois Senator Mark Kirk. I asked him about some of the issues of the day, chiefly the Egypt question.
I also spoke with a few other GOP notables that night. Unfortunately, I only got a scant few minutes with them all.
VIDEO: Short Interview With Illinois Senator Mark Kirk”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On February 5, 2011, I attended the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Diner and there I had the opportunity to have a quick few minutes with former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton. I asked him about his aspirations for running for president and about the Egypt question.
I also spoke with a few other GOP notables that night. Unfortunately, I only got a scant few minutes with them all.
VIDEO: Short Interview With Presidential Candidate John Bolton”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On February 5, 2011, I attended the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday Diner and there I had the opportunity to have a quick few minutes with former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum. I asked him about his aspirations for running for president and about the Egypt question.
I also spoke with a few other GOP notables that night. Unfortunately, I only got a scant few minutes with them all.
VIDEO: Short Interview With Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum”
-By Warner Todd Huston
WGN AM 720 radio is one of the biggest radio stations in the country. It is traditionally one of Chicago’s most listened to radio stations and commonly tunes in as Chicago’s number one station. At least for the past few decades, WGN radio has also been the leading liberal station in the city. One thing WGN is not, however, is either edgy or independent of thought where it concerns Chicago’s ruling class. As a rule WGN is soldout all down the line to whomever is “the” Chicago guy.
This weekend Dean Richards, one of WGN’s weekend guys, employed the sort of “analysis” of Chicago’s mayoral election that tends to speak of what the station evidently feels must be the outcome of the election It was a not-so-subtle hint that Rahm Emanuel is the choice to take City Hall.
Richards took a segment of his weekend radio program to discuss the mayor’s race and the specific topic centered around candidate Gery Chico’s first major TV ad against Emanuel.
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WGN’s Dean Richards: An Example of Chicago’s Rahm-Devoted Media”
-By Warner Todd Huston
We are still living in Ronald Reagan’s era, despite the constant refrains from Democrats and the left that Reaganism is long dead. As we observe his 100th birthday, it is also beneficial to point out that in many ways Reagan is the father of the Tea Party Movement. It was his great success, his sunny optimism that gave the Tea Partiers the grounding and confidence that they could, indeed, make a difference.
Like many politically active people today, Ronald Reagan is my favorite president in my lifetime. For me, he was also the first president for whom I could vote and I did so with glee.
In fact, if it weren’t for Ronald Reagan I may well have entered my voting age with too much cynicism to overcome in order to make me feel invested in the system. I’d posit that this is true for most Tea Party patriots older than 40, too. I would also argue that the Reagan effect is responsible for giving Tea Partiers the feeling that they could affect government like Reagan did and that without Reagan there’d be no Tea Party movement at all.
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Ronald Reagan: Father of the Tea Party”
From Congressman Peter Roskam (Ill., 6th District)…
This Sunday, February 6, marks the late President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. Particularly given our country’s current economic challenges, it is fitting we take some time to reflect on the legacy of this great American.
When President Reagan took office in January of 1981, our country was experiencing great hardships – not unlike today, he faced an economic recession and record unemployment. However, unlike the current Administration, President Reagan approached these challenges with a conviction that the American people could pick themselves up – as long as government stayed out of the way.
Take a minute to watch this video from the Heritage Foundation:
Reagan’s years in the White House were marked by a determined drive to shrink the size and cost of government and make America strong again. As a result, he ushered in one of the greatest periods of prosperity in the history of the United States.
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Celebrating Reagan’s Legacy”
From the office of Cook County Commissioner Timothy O. Schneider…
2011 Forest Preserve Calendars
Still looking for a 2011 calendar? We have free calendars provided by the Cook County Forest Preserve available at our district office. Call our district office for a calendar (847) 640-1632
Hanover Township Property Tax Reassessments
Hanover township reassessment notices where mailed out on January 10, 2011. Reassessment notices contain proposed values that will be reflected on second-installment tax bills, which will be due in the fall of 2011. However, the time to file appeals on these proposed assessments is now. The deadline to file appeals for properties located in Hanover Township is February 10, 2011.
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Cook County Property Tax Information”
-By Warner Todd Huston
I just got home from the Illinois GOP Ronald Reagan 100th Birthday dinner and before I turn info the night I wanted to give a quick account of some of the folks I ran into this evening.
Seen tonight was 6th District Representative Peter Roskam, the Chief Deputy Whip. I also saw Adam Andrzejewski, chief of For The Good of Illinois and former Illinois Gubernatorial candidate, John Garrido candidate for 45th Ward Alderman, Dave Dierson of the famous GOPUSA daily email report, former candidate for Attny General Steve Kim, former 59th District candidate Dan Sugrue, activist John Bambeneck, John Tillman and the folks from the Illinois Policy Institute, Fran Eaton and the folks at the United Republican Fund as well as Illinois Review and many others (as I remember more, I’ll add them later).
A few old blogger friends were also in attendance…
From left to right: Paul Miller, Myself, John Ruberry of MarathonPundit, and Paul Mitchell of Thoughts of a Regular Guy
Adam Andrzejewski (center) and John Garrido and his lovely wife
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Seen at the Illinois Reagan Dinner…”
-By Warner Todd Huston
I am here tonight at the Illinois Republican Party celebration of Ronald Reagan’s 100 birthday. The event is being held at the Hilton on the Mag Mile, Michigan Avenue, downtown Chicago. Tonight we’ll be seeing a small retinue of stars in the GOP firmament. Senator Mark Kirk, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, Congressman Mike Pence (Indiana), former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum, former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton, with closing remarks by Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford.
It is a packed house with over 600 diners enjoying the evening.
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Illinois Celebrates Ronald Reagan’s 100th”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now this is more like it. Back in October of 2010 the Summer County, Tennessee School Board decertified the Sumner County Education Association (SCEA), the union for county teachers, because it no longer satisfied the law by counting as members fifty percent plus one of the total number of employees requiring a teaching certificate. This, school board officials said, means that the SCEA can no longer engage in collective bargaining for teachers.
The school board has used this opportunity to immediately begin rewriting the relationship between teachers and schools.
Naturally, the union is running straight to what is usually the last bastion of mindless obeisance to union obstructionism, the courts, and is suing to force the school board to accede to union demands regardless of the law.
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Tennessee County School Board Fires Teachers Union”
From Congressman Peter Roskam (Ill., 6th District)…
Washington, DC – Congressman Peter Roskam (R-IL), Majority Chief Deputy Whip, issued the following statement after the Department of Labor released their January jobs report:
“President Obama and Democrats promised that if we just spent a trillion dollars on the ‘stimulus’, unemployment would stay below eight percent. Two years later, unemployment remains at nine percent, and our economy is still feeling the effects of the Democrats’ spending binge that brought trillions in debt, but not jobs. The 21st consecutive month of unemployment levels at nine percent or more is proof enough that it’s time to enact Republican plans to cut spending and regulation to grow jobs.
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Roskam Statement on January Jobs Report”
From the Gery Chico for Chicago Mayor campaign…
(CHICAGO) Mayoral candidate Gery Chico began airing a new TV ad today warning Chicagoans about the Rahm Tax, Rahm Emanuel’s latest scheme to raise taxes on a whole new range of services that working families depend on every day.
Chico’s New TV Ad: ‘Voters, pay the Rahm Tax’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is one of Obama’s biggest donors. Curiously enough, the SEIU is also one of the more than 700 unions and corporations that have gotten waivers from the Obama administration to get out from under some of the oppressive rules of Obamacare. Yet, even as they have been allowed to escape Obamacare’s rules, the SEIU is lobbying hard to make sure the rest of us don’t have as much luck.
The Hill reported that the SEIU lobbied hard against the repeal measure that Senate Minority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell helped bring to the Senate floor earlier this week.
The SEIU sent around a flurry of emails to senate offices.
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Union Fights to Force You into Obamacre While Getting Waivers for Itself”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Remember when you were a kid and you got caught doing something you shouldn’t have been doing? Remember when you were confronted with your wrong doing that your first response was to blame everyone else? Well, that is very common for a child… or for a liberal, apparently. At least it is for MSNBC’s left-wing demagogue Rachel Maddow, anyway.
Earlier this week, Maddow featured some important news about Sarah Palin. Palin, Maddow breathlessly told us, was being urged to support the launch of a military attack on Egypt as it boiled over in turmoil. Maddow was indignant that the Christian website called ChristWire.org was telling Palin to “forcibly” support “an American-led invasion of Egypt to protect our interest in North Africa.” This was an outrage, Maddow insisted. It was proof that Christians and conservatives were dangerous lunatics she hinted.
But there was one problem with Maddow’s “analysis”: ChristWire.org is a satire site, not a serious, advocacy site. Maddow was taken by satire but treated it as serious news from a site offering serious policy recommendations.
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Rachel Maddow’s Reason For Being Duped by Satire Website: It’s Conservatives Fault”
From the United Republican Fund of Illinois…
CHICAGO, IL – The United Republican Fund (URF) calls on Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Governor Pat Quinn to join the 26 other states that have banded together to resist the federal government takeover of our states’ health care system. With the Florida federal judge’s decision deeming the health care reform law “void,” Illinois must move to protect our citizens from the law’s unconstitutional individual mandates.
“It is the duty of Governor Quinn and Attorney General Madigan to protect the state’s citizens from federal intrusions and unconstitutional mandates. Illinois cannot afford our current expenditures, so it is absurd for those in Washington to force these new expensive mandates on our broke government and over-taxed citizens,” URF Executive Director Dennis LaComb said Wednesday.
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URF Calls on Lisa Madigan to Join 26 States in Federal Healthcare Lawsuit”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Obama Administration is quickly becoming the most corrupt administration in American history. Recently we reported about the mounting number of waivers that Obama is giving his union pals and union supporters so that they can get away from having to suffer under his Obamacare law and now the president’s jobs-killing greenhouse gas rules levied upon the nation using his fiat EPA powers are also being set aside for his best buddies. Naturally, all those getting these big waivers were big donors to Obama’s campaign.
At this point we are up to over 700 Obamacare waivers given to his union pals and other campaign donors and now the EPA has announced the first waiver for the new greenhouse gas rules that really haven’t even been implemented exactly yet.
Timothy Carney reports that General Electric has been the lucky, lucky recipient of a waiver for Obama’s EPA rules. Yes, very lucky, indeed.
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First Obamacare Waivers Now EPA Rules Waivers”