-By Warner Todd Huston
During a hearing last week on middle class employment, Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Obama Administration’s policies are costing America good, middle class jobs.
VIDEO: Senator Enzi Says Boeing Complaint by NLRB ‘Not the Way to Encourage Jobs in U.S.’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a story by Jay Root for the Associated Press, the news wire service tries to tar the entire Tea Party movement with guilt by association claiming that it was somehow fathered or “grandfathered” by Texas Representative Ron Paul, the cranky uncle of the GOP. The fact is Ron Paul had nothing at all to do with the Tea Party movement. The claim that he did is a calumny, one that the AP hopes will discredit the Tea Party movement.
In the Story, the AP claims that Ron Paul is “both a spiritual father and actual father in the tea party movement.” It mentions that his son, Rand, is a “tea party darling” (that one is true, at least) and claims that since Paul had a 2007 event he called a “‘Tea Party Fundraiser’ aboard a shrimp boat near Galveston,” that must make him the father of the Tea Party movement.
Then AP finds some Paulbot to claim that, to him, “Ron Paul is the tea party.” Well, that settles it, huh? Because a Paulienut says it’s so, why it must be. At least that is what the AP wants its readers to believe.
Continue reading “
AP Tars Tea Party Movement as ‘Grandfathered’ By Ron Paul”
Duke Machado, one of central Texas’ leading Hispanic Republican activists, went to Austin Wednesday to testify in favor of a bill that would cut off taxpayer-funded financial aid to illegal aliens. He was shocked at what he saw when state Democratic Sen. Judity Zarririni brought in her Iillegal immigrant) witnesses against the bill…
…it’s obvious that the Democrats demonstrated their usual contempt for the rule of law, and time after time played the one card they always carry in their hand — the race card.
Read the rest at The PJ Tattler.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Barack Obama’s Executive Order that requires federal contractors to disclose the political contributions they have made is garnering bi-partisan opposition on the Hill this month.
The order would force contractors to reveal any political donations as a condition for being allowed to bid on a contract to work for the federal government. And the order doesn’t only require the company to disclose donations but would also force the directors or company officers to reveal their personal donations as well. Naturally, this same requirement is not forced on unions. (You can see a draft of Obama’s order HERE)
This forced disclosure, however, is not sitting well with either Democrats or Republicans.
Continue reading “
Obama’s Plan to Force Fed. Contractors to Disclose Political Donations Meeting Bi-Partisan Opposition”
-By Nancy Salvato
In Federalist 51, James Madison writes,
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
Madison’s concern is that, even though the people are sovereign, hold the ultimate authority over the government, there need be additional mechanisms to assist in preventing the possibility of power becoming consolidated within a particular faction of those charged with governing on our behalf. Should power become consolidated under one entity, and the faction abuse its authority, the people would be ruled through tyranny, denying them their ultimate sovereignty unless they take drastic measures to remove the authority from power.
Perhaps what Madison is saying here is better understood through an analogy of what can happen when those charged with looking after our best interests give greater concern to selfish motives. Until a child grows into an adult, he or she cannot make all the decisions associated with being grown up. In such a case, all power is vested in one or two parents who are expected to make decisions in the best interest of the child. Sometimes one or both parents make really bad decisions that can cause irreparable damage to a child. This might require a drastic measure, such as a child protective services agency stepping in to remove the child from the situation. James Madison feared that those in a position of power may not always put our rights first. This problem would become much worse, and more drastic measures would need to be taken, when all authority is vested in one entity that is in charge of all decision making, as in the situation of a child with abusive parents.
‘A Government of Laws, and Not of Men’: The Electoral College”
-By Selwyn Duke
At a gathering some years ago, I had a political conversation with a man who had recently arrived here from Denmark. He was advocating his home country’s socialist system, which, of course, led to profound disagreement. He was good natured and cordial, however, so the debate ended on a polite note. Yet it also ended on an ironic one: When asked if he wanted to return home, his answer was no.
This is a common phenomenon. We see it, for instance, in liberal northerners who move to the South for the lower taxes and cost of living and greater freedom but then continue to vote for the kind of politicians who made the Northeast a nice place to leave. And while this befuddles many, it’s simply man’s nature. Of course people want that which is good, such as a better lifestyle, but wanting and attaining are two different things. Everyone wants good health, for example, but many nevertheless are too attached to unhealthful foods and practices to relinquish them. Oh, they might move into your healthy body if they could, but they would likely do to it what a government–subsidized project does to a good neighborhood.
Now, there is a reason why I’m talking about how a change in location doesn’t equate to a change in ideology. In the Financial Times recently, Richard McGregor reported on the latest population data, writing:
Continue reading “
Importing Disaster: Demographic Changes Mean Democrat Future”
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the main forces behind the Tea Party movement and the disgust that many Americans have with the federal government is its supreme arrogance and its constant unwanted and unwarranted power grabs. This is one of the things that the American people really need to put their attention toward reversing.
Perhaps it is just beginning?
Alaska, for instance, has just thrown its weight behind the opposition to the federal government’s obscene persecution of an Alaskan citizen who was arrested for violating rules that the federal government has imposed on those Alaskan waterways flowing through national parks.
Continue reading “
Dear Federal Gov’t, Who Do You Think You Are?”
-By Frank Hyland
This is not an easy column to write. Normally the subject is a loon like Michael Moore and he has again done something that is easy to criticize. This one is about me, though, and — even more difficult — about you (the “You” writ large, that is). For this one, I had to spend considerable time in front of the mirror even after finishing shaving, and we all must do that to resolve this problem.
This is about being honest about ourselves to the point that it will hurt, at least in the pocketbook.
The biggest story, still ongoing, is about unionized state workers in Wisconsin. But other stories are related and need to be put in the same context. For one, a new poll says that almost two thirds of Americans think we’re on the wrong track; that figure will continue to rise along with gasoline prices. That many or more of us, though, want budget cutters to look elsewhere for the place to cut, as opposed to their own wallets. In truth, we are resurrecting that catchy jingle saying, “Don’t tax me. Don’t tax thee. Tax that man behind the tree.” It will not be easy, though, because another report to put in the same context is that more than one third of us receive our income from the US Government in one form or another. It is easy for me to say that I’m not on “welfare.” The trouble is that creative characterization of Federal Government programs over many decades has convinced many of us that we receive income from “entitlements” or because we show up at our desk every day in the public sector — the US Education Department, for example. We have come to believe, therefore, that we are entitled to the money. Less and less money will be available, though, as ten thousand or more people – read Baby Boomers – retire each and every day.
Continue reading “
We Are All Wisconsin Union Members”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Our fourth president, James Madison, has been called the father of the Constitution for not inconsiderable reasons. Madison was highly educated, widely read, and well thought of. He was also a prescient man. Madison was so prescient that in February of 1788 he was able to describe the precise reasons why his beloved Republic would be faring so badly 222 years later in 2010.
Madison’s far-reaching delineation of our current troubles appears in the Federalist Papers, a document that Thomas Jefferson proclaimed “the best commentary on the principles of government ever written.” There in Federalist 62 — his explanation of the senate — we find an amazingly clear prediction of how badly we’ve gone off track in Washington D.C., not to mention our state and local governments.
Student of history that he was, Madison understood that democratic governments often suffer from the malady of unfaithful elected officials. “It is a misfortune incident to republican government,” Madison wrote, “that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.”
Continue reading “
Federalist Papers Identified How Democrats Would Destroy Us”
-By Frank Salvato
The issue of eligibility where the federal government’s Executive Branch is concerned is not one of politics; it is not, in any way, shape or form related to the so-called “birther” issue. The issue of presidential eligibility is one that addresses the protection of our citizenry’s fidelity to the United States Constitution. Yet many disingenuous political operatives – who put the well-being of their political parties or special interests above honesty and good government – and many pundits, editors and producers – unwittingly or otherwise – have seen clear to blur the lines between the “birther” issue and an honest movement to affect the closing of a loophole unforeseen by our Founders and Framers.
With the stunning news that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had vetoed legislation that would have required a candidate for the Executive Branch of the federal government to provide first-source prerequisite materials proving his or her satisfaction of Article II, Section 1, of the United States Constitution, one of the more promising doors to protecting unqualified candidates from accessing the federal ballot slammed shut.
In her letter to Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams, she wrote:
“I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions…I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for President of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their ‘early baptismal or circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona Secretary of State. This is a bridge too far.”
Gov. Brewer then went on to tell FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren:
“…you know, bottom line is, is that I just have to call them as I see them. And it doesn’t help Arizona. This bill is a distraction, and we just simply need to get on with the state’s business.”
There are two fundamental and monumental flaws to Gov. Brewer’s rationale for making such a political decision where the well-being of the nation is concerned:
1) If, in fact, the legislation was to be a distraction, the “distraction” would have already taken place in the form of debate on the issue. The “distraction” – if you can call enacting legislation that would have simply asked candidates for the highest office in the land to prove their eligibility – had already passed. The noise surrounding her veto caused more of a distraction – and, incidentally, more animosity among the Republican base (allegedly Brewer’s base) – than if she would have simply signed the legislation into law.
2) The proposed law outlined a series of documents for certification as having been presented for satisfaction of USC Article II, Section 1 including either a long-form birth certificate or two or more other permitted documents, including an early baptismal certificate, circumcision certificate, hospital birth record, postpartum medical record signed by the person who delivered the child or an early census record. The Secretary of State would only be charged with certifying that the documents were real pursuant to criteria set forth by the issuing states. There is little if any discretion at all to float the charge of “gatekeeping.”
Truth be told, Governor Brewer, who many thought to have been above the fray of “oh please let me be re-elected” politics, especially in light of the stand she took against the dismal performance of the federal government regarding border security, has proven herself to be either just another cowardly politician or at an intellectual level that doesn’t allow for her to understand the “Little Nikita” constitutional crisis that currently exists.
Before and over the course of the 2008 presidential cycle, researchers from our organization, BasicsProject.org, came to the startling conclusion that while the prerequisites for holding the office of President of the United States are set forth in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution there is no mechanism for enforcing or verifying a candidate’s satisfaction of those requirements.
Article II, Section 1 specifically states:
“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Yet, nowhere in the US Constitution is there authorization for a mechanism to assure that Article II, Section 1 is satisfied; there is no constitutional mechanism in place — either in the original document of in any of the amendments — that requires a candidate for the office of President of the United States to file documents proving his eligibility to hold office.
This can be explained in part for the Framers intention to recognize the sanctity of the rights of the States to not only allocate their Electoral College votes in a manner they see fit, but to craft the process by which their ballot totals engage the federal election process. It is for this reason that each state’s election authority must certify elections before the federal electors are dispatched to cast their votes.
In addition to there being no mechanism in the US Constitution:
A law – state or federal – that creates an enforcement mechanism for Article II, Section 1 of the US Constitution is a protection that every American – and every elected official – should be able to agree upon. Yet, time and time again, elected officials in state after state, from both sides of the aisle, prove beyond doubt that they choose opportunistic politics and a healthy fear of the smear-mongering mainstream media and special interest groups over protecting the Constitution and the citizenry of the United States.
We the People have been told we have no standing to bring forth lawsuits on constitutional grounds regarding questions of eligibility. And our elected officials have routinely abandoned us, abdicating their responsibility to protect and serve not only the people but the very Constitution that empowers the basis for the American form of government. If our elected officials — at every level of government — refuse to stand up for the US Constitution (a founding document which each and every elected official has sworn an oath to uphold), then what, may I ask, is the citizen’s recourse? Where is the negative aspect of requiring a candidate for the highest office in this land to engage in satisfying requirements set forth by our nation’s Founding Documents?
It is irresponsible for the many disingenuous political operatives, pundits, editors and producers to skew the facts where the public’s perception of this issue is concerned. But more egregious is the reckless irresponsibility and political gamesmanship being displayed by those elected officials who have a rare opportunity to secure the sanctity of the United States Constitution.
It is time for the statesmen to emerge from the ranks of politicians. It is time for leadership and a devotion to good government over politics. It is time for each and every elected official to answer this question: Are you first a statesman or are you simply a miserable politician?
____________
Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal . He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative. His pieces are regularly featured in over 100 publications both nationally and internationally. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, and is a regular guest on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network, as well as an occasional guest on numerous radio shows coast to coast. He recently partnered in producing the first-ever symposium on the threat of radical Islamist terrorism in Washington, DC. His pieces have been recognized by the House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict. He can be contacted at oped@newmediajournal.us
-By Warner Todd Huston
News during this past week a story made the rounds that police in Michigan may be using a device in random traffic stops that instantly copies all the data on your cell phone and stores it for later use by police. It was said that this data copying is going on without consent and without a warrant. Michigan police are denying this claim, but the ACLU posted a letter warning them against this policy regardless. The fear here is, of course, that copying cell phone data without a warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s proscription against illegal search and seizure.
This device copies everything that is on your phone. Your contacts, your emails, your texts, other instant messages, what aps you use, web bookmarks and usage, GPS location info… every bit of data stored on your phone is instantly copied into the device and into the data base maintained by police.
Famed blogger Glenn Reynolds, a lawyer by trade, seems to think that it is obviously a violation of the Fourth and that current law can even be used as precedent to assure that fact. Others are not so sure.
Continue reading “
Warrantless Searches By Police of Your Cell Phone”
-By Chris Slavens
At age 75, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is the oldest of a crowd of potential Republican presidential challengers, if only by a few years. If elected in 2012, he would be the oldest president in U.S. history; the record-holder, Reagan, assumed office at age 69. The uninformed reader might jump to the incorrect conclusion that Paul, who is old enough to be President Obama’s father, is hopelessly out of touch with the young voters who turned out in 2008 and ignorantly propelled a dangerous radical into the highest office of the land, but as anyone who pays attention to political chatter knows, Paul is wildly popular with the under-thirty crowd.
Paul won a GOP presidential straw poll on April 16 in South Carolina, easily beating Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, who tied for second place. Paul has been winning such polls left and right since the libertarian-rooted Tea Party became a political force in 2009, but his popularity among Republicans continues to be underemphasized by mainstream media outlets, which frequently (and probably intentionally) identify him as a libertarian rather than a Republican.
According to the talking heads, Romney, Huckabee, Palin, and Gingrich are the Republicans worth paying attention to as the 2012 election cycle approaches. Hesitant to take Trump’s candidacy seriously, they laughingly praise his ability to generate publicity, and might or might not remember to mention Paul, Bachmann, Pawlenty, and a handful of others. The fixation on Romney and Huckabee is somewhat understandable, as they hold impressive leads in most of the polls, but might prove to be unjustified as the race heats up.
Continue reading “
Like Him or Not, Ron Paul is Relevant”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It wasn’t long ago that Indiana Democrats fled the Hoosier state so that they could avoid doing their job in the state legislature. These Democrats self-righteously claimed that they were doing this “for the people” and insisted that they should be considered as heroes. One Indiana Democrat even claimed that his running off to Illinois to luxuriate in a resort hotel was somehow just like being a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Well, after weeks and weeks of patting themselves on the back as working “for the people” we now see just who these fleebagging Democrats were really working for… and it sure as heck wasn’t “the people.”
A recent campaign finance report was released that shows that the entire $84,953.70 hotel bill at the Comfort Suites Urbana was paid for by unions. That’s right, unions.
Continue reading “
Indiana Democrat Fleebagger’s Hotel Bill Completely Paid for by Unions”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Making it easier every day to assert that Democrats hate the U.S. Constitution, once again we find a Democrat in Congress expressing disgust with the law of the land. This time extremist, left-wing Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D, CA) was heard complaining to a lefty radio host that many of her new colleagues are just too darned concerned with whether or not the actions of Congress are Constitutional.
Last week Sanchez was on the low-rated Stephanie Miller radio show complaining that many of the 87 new freshman congressmen were too worried if what they were voting on passed muster with the supreme law of the land.
“Everything to them is unconstitutional,” she whined. “It’s unconstitutional, it’s unconstitutional, it’s unconstitutional.”
Continue reading “
Another Democrat That Hates the US Constitution”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Chicago area Congressman Luis Gutierrez has been harping on the immigration issue for many years and since Obama was elected he has stepped up that activism. Gutierrez wants complete amnesty and an open border and he’s been unhappy with the Obama Administration for its lack of movement on the issue. Now he’s threatening not to support Obama’s 2012 reelection bid over his stymied immigration bill.
Gutierrez has been desperate to get an amnesty bill through Congress but has been stonewalled even by other Democrats. In 2009 he tried it. At that time I interviewed Rep. Brian Billbray who said that Gutierrez was merely setting up the next major wave of illegal immigration with his bill.
Last year Gutierrez even tried to shoehorn gay issues into an immigration bill in order to get his failed ideas passed. He pushed hard for the DREAM Act but that failed, too.
Continue reading “
Rep. Gutierrez Threatens Not to Support Obama Re-election Over Immigration”
-By Dan Proft
Snow in Chicago in April. Some might view this as simply the unpredictability of Chicago weather. Others might attribute it to climate change. I, however, believe this to be a prophecy foretold: Rahm Emanuel has been elected Mayor of Chicago and Hell is freezing over.
Welcome tea partiers. To paraphrase our President, you are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration and the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, two Illinois sons who forever changed the world and our understanding of it with their simple but unyielding commitment to the idea that liberty is the birthright of every human being.
The leadership emanating from Illinois more recently hasn’t been quite to that standard. This is also the year we take note of House Speaker Mike Madigan’s 40th year of driving business and jobs out of Illinois. And this year is the 14th anniversary of Barack Obama’s first “present” vote in the Illinois State Senate.
But I have hope for change.
Continue reading “
Remarks from the 2011 Chicago Tea Party Tax Day Rally”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Yes, it’s that new age of Democrat political civility rearing its ugly head yet again. During an April 12 debate on gun control Pennsylvania State Representative Margo Davidson of Philadelphia wondered aloud on the House floor if it might be OK for her to blow the brains out of one of Pennsylvania’s Republican Representatives.
Before we even go on with this story, imagine if a white, male, and Republican politician had asked during a debate on policy if it would be OK if he blew the brains out of a black, female, Democrat. Just imagine what would be happening to such a man should he have done this. Certainly his name would be on the lips of every TV newscaster for at least a week after he said such an outrageous thing. Movements would be born to oust him from his elected position. Colleagues would be condemning him. Race-baiters would be flocking to the state for vigils. Further his own party would be denouncing him in no uncertain terms.
But what we have here is a black female, a Democrat from a big city, and no one is paying any attention at all. Obviously it is not a big deal. Apparently we are expected to just move on as if there is nothing wrong with a black woman expressing the desire to kill her political opponent.
Double standard is the nicest thing I can say about it.
Continue reading “
Democrat New Tone: Penn. Pol. Asks if She Can Kill a Colleague, ‘Blow His Brains Out’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the United States of America it is illegal in some places to fly a U.S. flag. What, you ask? How is this possible, you cry? Well, it’s true… to an extent. Oh, there aren’t many city, county, state or federal statutes where this is codified in law, of course. But where this is happening all the time — and all over the country regardless of region — is in rules created by homeowner’s associations.
What happens is nosy, busybody condo or homeowner’s association chiefs write these idiotic rules where you can’t do this and you can’t do that on your own property. These sort of oppressive restrictions are common in homeowners association rules. One of the most common rules across the country in these fascist organizations is that you cannot fly a U.S. flag on your own property. As it happens, New Hampshire is trying to make this sort of rule illegal with HB 132…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obamacare will destroy our healthcare system and our economy both while giving unprecedented and unconstitutional powers to unelected, unaccountable federal regulators. It’s just that simple. Further proof of this was reported by US News and World Report on April 7 where we see that out of just six pages of the Obamacare law, federal regulators have written 429 pages of new regulations!
As it happens, that 429 pages of new federal regulations amounts to 45 more pages than Barack Obama’s autobiography, The Audacity of Hope.
Section 3022 of the law, which is about the Medicare shared savings program, take up just six pages in the 907-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But HHS has turned that into 429 pages of new regulations and that’s too much, says Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, a practicing doctor.
Brasso is correct to say that these thousands of new regulations will “increase the cost of doing business,” too.
Continue reading “
429 Pages of New Regulations Wrought from 6 Pages of Obamacare”
-By Warner Todd Huston
For decades (and not just since Obama became president, either) the office of the president has slowly been taking on more and more power unto itself. By a constant flurry of Executive Orders (the wide use of which starting chiefly during FDR’s term) to making war without much bothering with Congress, presidents have been grabbing power from our legislative branch with both fists. The Senate had a chance today to reassert its own power but sadly it has allowed that opportunity to pass unrealized.
Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) proposed an amendment to a small business bill that would reaffirm the constitutional authority of Congress to declare war. This amendment would have taken away some measure of assumed presidential power to return that power to Congress…
Sadly, Paul couldn’t even get his own party to join his quest to right the ship and the amendment failed 9-10.
See the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Did you know that there are no laws to prevent government agencies from raiding your computer’s remotely hosted back up files, your third party emails, your cloud computing files, or your cell phone GPS location records? Well, there aren’t. As the law stands today government can go into your private computer files or trace your cell phone location without a warrant.
As a result of this lapse in protection form unlawful search and seizure a new group of concerned parties intends to change the law with the Digital Fourth Amendment campaign. (http://www.digitalfourthamendment.org/)
The problem is not necessarily that government is out to steal all our computing information, but that the laws have simply not caught up to today’s technology. The laws that cover how policing agencies and governments can access your emails, computer files, and cell phone GPS records are currently governed by rules that are decades out of date. These rules were written in the 1980s, long before the Internet came along, before cloud computing was invented, before email, and well before cell phones that could track your whereabouts became pervasive.
Continue reading “
Does Government Own Your Remotely Backed Up Computer Files, Your Emails, or Your Cell Phone GPS Info?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Illinois State Senate will soon be considering State Resolution 92. This resolution would have the state recognize the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and force Illinois to observe its wholly un-American provisions. This move would, in fact, be illegal, but State Senator Kimberly Lightford (D, Westchester) thinks she has the power to obviate the Constitution anyway.
Lightford’s conceit is a perfect example of the arrogance of the left. This woman imagines that not only can she go around the president of the United States and deal with a foreign power of her own volition, but she thinks she can deal with this foreign power in violation of the law of the land. Imagine the arrogance.
Continue reading “
Illinois Legislature Violates U.S. Constitution to Implement U.N. Treaty”
-By Chris Slavens
It’s not every day that state employees are caught on video threatening, lying to, and blatantly stealing from innocent citizens—but that’s exactly what happened on March 25 in a quiet neighborhood in Claymont, Delaware.
With the help of the Delaware State Police, a horde of Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) workers rumbled through two subdivisions early Friday morning, uprooting street-side basketball hoops with a front-end loader and roughly piling them into a dump truck. Operation March Sadness, as it has been nicknamed by outraged locals, was the state’s response to the complaints of a neighborhood grouch, who felt that games of street ball were hazardous to children and drivers alike.
Melissa McCafferty, who lives in a peaceful cul-de-sac, scrambled up her kids’ basketball pole to protest its removal. After unsuccessfully trying to persuade her to come down, and, she claims, threatening to tear the pole down with her on it, the crew moved on. But as her husband, John, was being interviewed by a reporter for the News Journal, the posse returned. The video of the resulting confrontation, posted on YouTube.com, immediately went viral.
Continue reading “
Operation March Sadness”
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is the nanny state we’ve built. In Delaware you are not allowed to own a basketball hoop in front of your home and if you have the gall to erect one anyway, why the state’s stormtroopers will come to your home with thousands of dollars worth of cops, trucks, and personnel to steal your poll and backboard. I suppose the kindly state overlords of Delaware would rather kids be sitting in their homes playing video games where they belong, eh?
The video depicts Delaware Department of Transportation crews escorted by state police tearing down basketball hoops in the early morning in two neighborhoods in Claymont. One family engaged in a bit of civil disobedience and stood in the way of the dark overlords of Delaware, the “First State.”
Delaware used to be called “The Blue Hen” state, too. Perhaps that should be changed to the “Mother Hen State.”
In this case the hoop “violated” Chapter 5 of the highways, roads and bridges statutes. Because, you know, basketball hoops are dire threats to the safety of the good people of Delaware.
I have two words for the good folks of Delaware: Second Amendment.
Continue reading “
Delaware Stormtroopers Steal Citizen’s Basketball Hoops”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Any more being on the left is little different than being a flat earther or a true believer in UFOs. One may as well accept that sprites infest the woodlands and leprechauns have cornered the gold market as believe in the fantastic conspiracies the left indulges in. The left’s latest flight of fantasy has been its anti-Koch brothers zealotry.
Matthew Continetti has done a great job in a recent issue of the Weekly Standard tearing apart the left’s edge-of-earth theories that the eeeevil Koch brothers are funding the entire right-wing smear machine across the country.
We can liken the left’s wild-eyed Koch conspiracies to the way the Old Media (and this time I mean really old media) reported the exploits of the western outlaw, Jesse James and his gang of bank robbers back in the late 1800s. If one were to believe newspaper reports of the 1870s, the James gang were seen in nearly every southern, midwestern, and near western state for a decade and usually all at the same time — which was a pretty good trick in the days when it took at least a week to get from Chicago to San Francisco.
Continue reading “
The Left’s Koch and Bull Story”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Note I am leaving for Texas on Thursday morning to attend this event. Just thought I’d repost it from earlier in the month…
Patriots and activists from 23 states are about to gather together on March 25 and 26 in Houston, Texas to attend the True The Vote Summit, an effort to make “true” the electoral system in every polling place in the country, to stop voter fraud, and to quash the intimidation of voters. Organizers hope to make sure that we again have free and fair elections.
A local Harris County activist group named The The King Street Patriots built the True The Vote Summit upon their experiences of attempting to “true” the 2010 election in Harris County, Texas.
Back before the recent election, the KSP got together to try and find out what sort of shape the voting rolls were in Harris County, Texas were. What they found was shocking. Due to its investigation, an ACORN organizer was exposed for having registered over 23,000 fake voters in the county. The story made national news.
Continue reading “
Activists in 23 States Coming Together in Texas to ‘True The Vote’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Bobby Unser is famous for having won the Indy 500 three times and only one of two drivers that won that great race in three separate decades (’68, ’75, ’81).
Unser has a long list of achievements in motor sports starting back in the early 1960s. But there is one achievement, dubious though it may be, that the federal government is happiest he achieved. He is officially a federal criminal and the U.S. Forest Service couldn’t be happier.
Criminal? Oh, you bet. At least according to our despotic federal government he sure is….
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
Bobby Unser: Race Car Driver, Celebrity… Criminal?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Newsweek has published another one of those aren’t-Americans-Stupid articles wherein we find that few Americans know anything about either our history or our political system. People have no idea who our current vice president is, they don’t know when the Declaration of Independence was adopted, and they haven’t a clue who takes the office of president if the prez and the VP are incapacitated. But what is more interesting in Newsweek’s article is the reason the news magazine thinks that we are so stupid. Absurdly Newsweek thinks it’s because government doesn’t spend enough money on education.
First of all, I have to agree that Americans are as ignorant as can be on our history and our system o government. You can see it just about everywhere. In fact, you can see it in voting patterns. Illinois is a perfect example. The corruption has been endemic in the Democrat Party in Illinois for decades, yet voters repeatedly pull that donkey lever. It is clear they are ignorant of why things are so bad in the Land of Lincoln and they send the same crooks back to the state house over and over again.
Certainly it is impossible to dispute Newsweek’s central claim that Americans display an appallingly high level of civic ignorance. But Newsweek doesn’t just report its findings, it goes on to opine on just why we as a nation are so ignorant of our civics and history.
Newsweek thinks it’s because we don’t spend enough money on education: (my bold)
Continue reading “
Newsweek: Americans are Stupid Because We Don’t Spend Enough on Education?”
From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…
(Chicago, March 18, 2011) — State Representative Mike Tryon (IL-64th District) has introduced the Long-Term Accounting Act into the Illinois legislature. The Act calls for increased timeliness, transparency and accountability during the state budgeting process.
“Not knowing the long term consequences of the Illinois budget has put our state $100 billion in the hole,” said Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, which assisted in the drafting of the bill. “We can’t determine the best plan to get us out until we are honest about how big the hole is.”
Continue reading “
Legislation Calls for More Transparency and Accountability During the Illinois Budget Process”
From The Institute for Truth in Accounting…
(Chicago, March 17, 2011) – On every third Wednesday in March Illinois’ House and Senate are required to adopt a joint resolution that is equivalent to a family deciding how much it will have available to spend in next year’s budget. The day was yesterday, March 16, and just like the past three years the legislators blatantly ignored the law.
“This law is in place because only after understanding your funds available can you decide how much to spend,” asserted Sheila Weinberg, founder & CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting. “This is the first step in budgeting. Our legislators need to follow this law and take Budgeting 101.”
The Illinois Constitution provides that the general assembly can only spend the “funds estimated to be available” for the budget year. State statute 25ILCS 155/4 requires the Commission on Government Finance and Accountability (CGFA) to submit to the legislature an estimate of that amount. The House and Senate may debate the accuracy of the CGFA figure, but the legislators must adopt some estimate of the funds available to be spend in the fiscal year 2012.
Continue reading “
Illinois Legislative Leaders Fail To Obey Budget Law”