Big Donor to Democrats Appointed to Obamacare Policy Panel

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve seen it over and over with the Obama administration. All one need do to become a “czar” or get a plum appointment to yet another Obama regulatory board is to donate big money to Obama’s campaigns specifically or the Democrats in general. Now it’s happened again.

The Washington Examiner’s Lachlan Markay reports that Judith Faulkner, founder and CEO of Epic Systems Corp., has been awarded a seat on the 13-member Health Information Technology Policy Committee, an Obamacare board charged with recommending how $19 billion in stimulus money gets spent on healthcare IT systems.

Faulkner and her employees have been big donors to Democrats having donated over $30,000 to Democrats since 2006.
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Big Donor to Democrats Appointed to Obamacare Policy Panel”


Obama Blames Job Loss on Technology, Internet and Efficiency

-By Warner Todd Huston

During his Midwest Misery Tour, President Obama was back to blaming technology, the Internet, and ATMs again for America’s job loss.

At a stop in Atkinson, Illinois Obama spoke about the need for education at an agricultural company named Wyffels Hybrids, Inc. He said that America is no longer a place where you can just “work hard” and find a good job doing so. Those days are gone he told his audience.

Obama lamented that bank tellers and travel agents have been replaced by automation. This is, apparently, why we have high unemployment.

Excerpt
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Obama Blames Job Loss on Technology, Internet and Efficiency”


AFP: Another Union Power Grab‏

From Americans for Prosperity

Obama’s union boss buddies poured hundreds of millions into getting him and his Democratic allies elected in 2008, but they were unable to pass their signature legislation stripping workers of private ballot rights. And in last year’s midterm election, they were wiped out.

But Obama’s union buddies at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) won’t take no for an answer.

The board is packed with radical union lawyers that Obama installed by the back door – so-called recess appointments to sidestep the Senate. Consider the words of Craig Becker, the former SEIU lawyer Obama put on the NLRB without Senate approval:
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AFP: Another Union Power Grab‏”


Government Waste: Real or Fake, Which Spending Example is Real?

Last year Bankrupting America released a video called “Real or Fake” that quizzed citizens on whether crazy-sounding government spending examples were, well, real or fake. The answers, unfortunately, weren’t good news for taxpayers.

Since that video, the federal government has continued to spend at a rapid and clearly unsustainable rate. And as it turns out, the government is still funding some pretty ridiculous projects. So we decided to make a sequel.

Watch Real or Fake, part 2 below. Play along with the participants, the answers may surprise you.

http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/


New York Times Columnist Attacks Perry With Twitter, Gives Biden/ Demos A Pass

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if we needed another example of the utter hypocrisy of the Old Media, we get New York Times screed-maker Binyamin Appelbaum who used his Twitter feed to smear Gov. Rick Perry over his Bernanke comments while giving V.P. Joe “Tea Partiers are Terrorists” Biden a complete pass.

Once again, Twitter catches the unhinged left revealing itself as the hypocrites they are. On Aug. 16, Appelbaum was all a twitter on Twitter over Rick Perry’s slap at Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Benrnanke.

If you missed the story that caused Appelbaum’s heart to skip a beat, on Aug. 15 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Texas Governor Rick Perry said that in Texas Chairman Bernanke wouldn’t be given the wide latitude to muck up the economy as Obama has allowed him to do in Washington D.C.
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New York Times Columnist Attacks Perry With Twitter, Gives Biden/ Demos A Pass”


Obamacare Far, Far Worse Than Imagined

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Congressional Budget Office has said that only about 7% of employers will drop their own company-offered plans and enter the new government plans that Obamacare will feature when the crap hits the fan in 2014. This small percentage, though is likely untrue. More likely it will be somewhere around 30% — or higher — costing the federal gov’t $466 billion in the first decade alone just for the costs of those joining the gov’t exchanges.

Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie has the scary, budget-busting details in the following video.

Nick interviews Glen Morton, author of Passing ObamaCare, which reveals the boondoggle that Obamacare will be. Morton feels that “ultimately everyone” will end pin the gov’t exchanges and will not have private insurance costing the gov’t (and all of us) trillions of dollars.

We cannot afford this mess. Obamacare must be eliminated.
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Obamacare Far, Far Worse Than Imagined”


Palatine Tea Party: Thoughts from a Fellow Patriot

For the past weeks all we have been hearing about is the debt ceiling and the doomsday “Downgrade of our economy” and now the DINO’s (Democrats in Name Only) are blaming the TEA Party” and how much WE messed up the debt ceiling deal? Well… they came up with the deal and now we have been downgraded anyway. Lot of good it did us and while everyone was worried about that…how much else was going on behind the debt talks that the media did not tell us about. The latest one that made me scratch my head, President Obama’s bus tour. Paid for by taxpayers because it is a “jobs creation” tour not a “campaign tour.” What!!! REALLY??? When has this President stopped campaign since 2008? Are the Republicans going to let this happen and if so why?

First, lets identify who is sitting in DC, how long they have been there and their philosophical look at politics. We are all familiar with our feelings on RINOS (Republican In Name Only), the “old guard”. Well… we have the same thing on the left, DINOS (Democrats In Name Only) who are actually PROGRESSIVES. Where are the JFK Democrats? Many of the TEA Party, 912 Groups, Pachyderms, Campaign for Liberty etc…have a number of these Democrats in their groups that stand with the TEA Party on the basic issues that make us what we are, Bipartisan, and we stand and believe in Less Spending/Fiscal Responsibility, Smaller Government, Less Taxes, and the following of the Constitution.
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Palatine Tea Party: Thoughts from a Fellow Patriot”


Another Example of How the NYTimes Warps Truth

-By Warner Todd Huston

This weekend The New York Times, the fishwrap of record, had yet another one of its left-wing excuses for political analysis, this one about rumors of how Team Obama intends to carry on its continuing re-election campaign on matters economic. The piece is so chock full of bias that you don’t even have to get past the first paragraph to see it.

Apparently it took two writers to stuff this thing full of left-wing bias and falsehoods as it is given the by-line of Binyamin Appelbaum and Helene Cooper.

Check out this first paragraph:

As the economy worsens, President Obama and his senior aides are considering whether to adopt a more combative approach on economic issues, seeking to highlight substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail rather than continuing to pursue elusive compromises, advisers to the president say.

Now just look at the tenor of this paragraph. It is presented as if the President is not responsible for the economic downturn because he hasn’t done enough left-wing interfering with the economy. And it ends with the blatantly false claim that Obama is the one has been seeking “compromises” with the Republicans.

None of these contentions are true.
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Another Example of How the NYTimes Warps Truth”


Another Favored Obama Green Business Goes Bankrupt

-By Warner Todd Huston

It seems that the surest way to go bankrupt is to have President Barack Obama use your business as some sort of example of the wonders of his administration and we have yet one more example of that in Evergreen Solar, Inc., the heavily taxpayer funded business that has now closed its doors.

In April of 2009 Barack Obama’s White House Communications Dept. sent out a missive to the State of Massachusetts happily touting all the great new “green jobs” that his stimulus spending was creating.

“Evergreen Solar,the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels,” the White House letter said, “also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources.
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Another Favored Obama Green Business Goes Bankrupt”


Typical Teachers Union Tactics Kill Parent Trigger in Connecticut

-By Larry Sand

Time for being shocked, shocked about teacher union methods and objectives is over.

Last week, writer Rishawn Biddle broke a story about the American Federation of Teachers’ recent successful actions to neuter a Parent Trigger bill in Connecticut. The first Parent Trigger law, officially the Parent Empowerment Act, was passed in California early last year. It allows parents, via a petition, to force change in the governance of a failing school should the petitioners get a majority of parents to sign on.

The educational establishment – school boards, teachers unions and other special interest groups, dubbed the “Government Education Complex” by Bruno Behrend, director of the Center for School Reform at The Heartland Institute, don’t like the law since it allows a group of parents to trump their power.

Most writers and bloggers who have written about the incident have focused on a pdf, originally a PowerPoint, posted on the AFT website, which very honestly and cynically describes the process by which the union did its dirty work. Realizing that this display of raw union power was not in keeping with its persona as a reform-minded partner, always willing to collaborate with parents, communities and other stakeholders, AFT pulled the pdf from its website shortly after the Biddle piece was posted and started to play defense…sort of.
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Typical Teachers Union Tactics Kill Parent Trigger in Connecticut”


Some Dr. Seussian Fun: I Do Not Like This Uncle Sam

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have a big Facebook list of followers. I have almost 5,000 “friends.” Naturally, I don’t really know all those people. They come to me because of the writing. In any case, sometimes in the “Home” page section I find a funny or interesting post that I like to share. Here is one of them…

On Patricia Mansfield’s Facebook page I found a very cute poem written in the style of Dr. Seuss, he of the famed Green Eggs and Ham poem.

Patricia posts this…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


CNN/Krugman: A Space Alien Attack Will Save Us (Disses FDR, Wants a Fake War?)

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNNs Fareed Zakaria and The New York Times’ Paul Krugman have solved our economic problems. They’ve decided that a space alien attack will save us. Aside from the guffaw factor of space aliens, there was so much wrong with this CNN segment that we must lay them out for discussion.

First on the clip is some pinhead from Harvard claiming that “infrastructure spending, that’s great.” He says he’d even borrow money for such programs. This guy thinks that if we had another giant stimulus (like a WWII Works program), why we’d be doing just “great.”

He is, of course, a Keynesian fool. Stimulus does not work. Stimulus has never worked. Further, “stimulus” itself is a misnomer. Take Illinois, for instance. It got millions upon millions of dollars in so-called stimulus money from Obama. Do you know what Illinois did with that money? It paid existing debt, it paid current bills. It “stimulated” nothing with all those millions. This happened all across the country in every state. The “stimulus” did not stimulate anything but instead went to pay exiting bills and created nothing new, supported no new projects. It was a sham.

Amusingly, this guy tried to qualify his support of infrastructure spending saying “as long as it isn’t Big Dig” sort of over spending. The “Big Dig” is a reference to the underground Central Artery/Tunnel Project undertaken by the Boston Metro Highway System that is famous for being a total boondoggle that has gone billions over budget, not to mention having so many structural and engineering failures that the whole thing is a death trap waiting to happen.

Problem is, every state project becomes a version of the Big Dig at some level. At the very least they always, always, always go over budget, at worst they become a pit of political failure and corruption. So, while this Harvard pinhead tried to qualify his position, he did so on a bed of quicksand.
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CNN/Krugman: A Space Alien Attack Will Save Us (Disses FDR, Wants a Fake War?)”


Presenting The U.S. Military’s New Fighter, the F-35 Lightning II

-By Warner Todd Huston

It has been a tough few decades for high-end military procurement, for sure. Promising projects, hardware, weapons systems, trains, planes, and automobiles — not to mention numerous boats — have been started, millions spent on them, only to be unceremoniously cancelled due to those pernicious political whirlwinds. Our nation has an aging military infrastructure and we are losing ground to other nations.

But one project looks to have weathered those whirlwinds. That would be the F-35 Lightening II fighter jet. And this one is a must for national security, too.

I was happy to have been invited to a presentation of the F-35 in Rockford, Illinois put on by Lockheed Martin. There I heard about the F-35 from its development team, I heard from two Illinois congressmen, and was fortunate enough to have had a chance to fly the cockpit simulator (very fun, by the way).

As it happens, Illinois supplies quite a few parts and computer systems for the F-35, so a demonstration in Illinois was a very apt locale.

The new F-35 is already undergoing flight tests at various bases across the country and the military is training pilots to fly them as we speak. I keep saying “the military” and not the Air Force for a specific reason. This is not just a Navy plane, nor is it solely an Air Force or a Marine fighter. In fact, one of the reasons this project has survived the budget cutter’s axe is because it satisfies more than one role of a new fighter required by our military.
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Presenting The U.S. Military’s New Fighter, the F-35 Lightning II”


Headline Potpourri #22: Oslo Shooter, Tea Party Hobbits & Federal Pecker Patrol

-By Frederick Meekins

An associate watching a home repair show informed of an episode where an owner could not get the permit to remodel unless he promised not to remove poison ivy on the property since it is classified as a “non-invasive species”.

If the Oslo tragedy will be invoked to justify how guns and those questioning immigration are a threat to social order, can’t it also be used as an example of why you shouldn’t automatically obey someone in a police uniform since they might be an impostor?

I thought European social democracies had extensive gun control regulations.
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Headline Potpourri #22: Oslo Shooter, Tea Party Hobbits & Federal Pecker Patrol”


Obama DID Lie: Obamacare Now Paying for Illegal Immigrants

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson called out “You Lie!” when Obama claimed in his 2009 state of the union address that his Obamacare plan would never go to care for illegal aliens? Well, turns out Wilson was right. We now know that Obama did lie. His latest move has been to turn Obamacare to benefit illegals just like Wilson said it would.

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was funneling Obamacare cash to 67 community health centers where the money would be used for migrant farm workers. HHS also informed us that the immigration status of said farm workers would not be ascertained before free care was given meaning that illegal aliens would be given Obamacare funding.
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Obama DID Lie: Obamacare Now Paying for Illegal Immigrants”


Do the Math

-By Frank Hyland

With the Congressional bill on raising the debt ceiling signed into law by the President, the talk by people like Harry Reid (D-NV) is already turning to the next round of deliberations. “Today we made sure America can pay its bills. Now it’s time to make sure all Americans can pay theirs,” Reid said. Other comments were made about “millionaires, billionaires, and corporate jet owners.” (Be sure and call Reid, by the way and ask if he was including luxury yacht owners like Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).) What you are seeing and hearing is a delayed reaction to what Harry Reid and others consider having been put in the Timeout Corner by the hated TEA Party.

A number of times in the past when you have been in a public place it is likely that you’ve seen an unruly child in the midst of a temper tantrum. A tantrum is one of those events that is completely mindless, such as when you react to touching something too hot, too cold, or too expensive, like a yacht. More and more knowledge has emerged on how to respond to howling children in a store, a restaurant, or a commercial plane so that they throw such tantrums less often. The prevailing wisdom? Walk away and let ‘em scream. How, then, should you respond to Harry Reid and his cohorts in the coming phase of the effort to keep the US from going bankrupt as they throw tantrums?
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Do the Math”


AFP: Join Us for a Special GOTV Training Program August 27th‏

From Americans for Prosperity…

Americans for Prosperity, United to Restore Freedom and the Great Awakening invite you to a special “Get Out the Vote” training seminar conducted by the prestigious Leadership Institute.

The Leadership Institute stands alone as the only conservative organization with the mission to increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process. The Institute doesn’t analyze policy; it teaches conservative Americans how to influence policy through direct participation-activism and leadership.
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AFP: Join Us for a Special GOTV Training Program August 27th‏”


The Stunning Demonization of Fiscal Responsibility

-By Frank Salvato

Just when you thought the Progressive Movement could be more deeply invested in denial, now comes the absurd notion that somehow, the TEA Party Movement, whose pinnacle tenet is fiscal responsibility; which has devoutly insisted that the federal government cease the practice of spending beyond the tax revenue it gleans from taxpayers, that somehow it is the TEA Party Movement and their affiliated members of Congress who are responsible for the downgrade in the US credit rating by S&P and not the glad-handing spendthrifts of the big government, nanny state Progressive Movement.

“Bottom up, top down…inside out.”

Shameless partisan, Chicago Progressive operative and former senior advisor to Pres. Barack Obama, David “Say Anything, Lie, Cheat and Steal to Win” Axelrod is quoted as saying, “The fact of the matter is that this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade.”

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The Stunning Demonization of Fiscal Responsibility”


Reps. Kinzinger & Rush on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight‏

From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (ILL, 11th)…

On Wednesday night, Congressman Adam Kinzinger joined Carol Marin and Congressman Bobby Rush on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight to discuss current unemployment rates, the debt ceiling vote and the Super Committee.

Excerpt:
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Reps. Kinzinger & Rush on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight‏”


Americans for Prosperity: You’re Invited to a Special Meeting – What’s happening in Washington?‏

From Americans for Prosperity-Illinois…

Over the past years Americans for Prosperity and those who believe in fewer taxes, smaller government and more personal freedoms have become engaged in the battle over the direction and the future of our country. We have all fought hard to protect our freedoms, yet there is so much more to do.

Right now we’re in the midst of the most important policy battles over government spending in our lifetime. Debt ceilings, balanced budgets, Homeland Security, Social Security reform, Medicaid reform, regulatory reform, what does it all mean and how is it going to affect our pocket books?

To learn more about these issues and more please join Americans for Prosperity and the Great Awakening for a special Skype presentation by Americans for Prosperity’s National Director of Government Affairs, James Valvo.
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Americans for Prosperity: You’re Invited to a Special Meeting – What’s happening in Washington?‏”


Union Thug Puts Own Teen Daughter In Front of Moving Truck as Protest

-By Warner Todd Huston

With the current strike against Verizon we once again find that union thugs see no reason to obey the law. But it gets even worse. One union thug has even placed his unionism above fatherhood by placing his own teenaged daughter in front of a moving truck in order to protest Verizon.

This Verizon strike has been going on for a little while and has already resulted in lawbreaking, intimidation, and now endangering a minor. Check out this video of a foul-mouthed union thug putting his own teenaged daughter in danger just so he can pay fealty to his unionism…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Aug. 12: Happy Cost of Government Day (Illinoisans Hardest Hit)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, we’ve finally paid for the cost of government for the year. That’s right, it took over half the year for working folks to pay off what it costs to keep government rolling for a year. Sadly, Illinois does not far as well as most other states.

Each year Americans for Tax Reform figures in the costs of federal, state, and local taxes, fees and costs to float government and calculates that against the income earned by each individual American worker to arrive at the day that government costs are satisfied for the year. This year the day is August 12th.

Working people must toil 224 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government, a full 27 days longer than 2008.

In other words, in 2011 the cost of government consumes 61.42 percent of national income.

Interestingly, last year’s date was August 14, so 2011’s cost of government day is two days earlier than 2010’s.
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Aug. 12: Happy Cost of Government Day (Illinoisans Hardest Hit)”


Failure: Over $14 Mil Spent on Wisc. Recall By Liberal Groups, Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

As a recap on the past recall effort that just occurred in Wisconsin, a final accounting shows that liberal groups spent over $14 million to beat the six Republicans that were up for recall. They failed in four of the six attempts and in the two they won, well, it was a pyrrhic victory to say the least. It all goes to show that money is not always the final arbiter of an election victory.

The MacIver Institute of Wisconsin has created a great graphic to diagram the spending the left indulged to recall these six Wisconsin Republicans. It was mostly union money, of course.

Click Image to embiggen…

Of the totals, MacIver says:
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Failure: Over $14 Mil Spent on Wisc. Recall By Liberal Groups, Unions”


My Live Tweets of the August Fox GOP Debate

-By Warner Todd Huston

I usually live Tweet many events like this at my Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/warnerthuston. The Fox GOP debate is no exception.

As to the debate, who won and who lost?

I’d say Tim Pawlenty ended his run last night. His bickering with Michele Bachmann rattled him and made him look a bit silly. Tim lost but so did Rick Santorum who kept attacking Ron Paul for some crazy reason. Rick seemed like the queen of rage last night, not Bachmann.

As to Bachmann, she did not damage herself in the room, but a few of the things she said about Pawlenty’s past positions were a bit of a misrepresentation. Still, she could think on her feet and seemed in command of herself whereas Pawlenty was getting mad.
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My Live Tweets of the August Fox GOP Debate”


Ill. Policy Institute: $85 Billion in the Red‏

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

My name is Ted Dabrowski, and I’m the Institute’s new Vice President of Policy.

During my first two months here I’ve rapidly engaged in the many challenges Illinois faces. I’m excited to work with all of you to implement policies that help Illinois return to prosperity.

But the path won’t be easy. Last week’s Standard & Poors downgrade of U.S. debt heaped additional scrutiny on the credit rating of states that are fiscally irresponsible. A credit rating consolidates a state’s policies, its financial health and overall outlook into a single rating. Unfortunately, Illinois shares the worst credit rating in the nation with the state of California.

But the situation will worsen. Recently, Moody’s Investors Service (the other major credit rating agency) began implementing a major change in how they calculate a state’s credit rating. Moody’s will now take into account how much each state owes to its retirement funds. Our newest policy report highlights this issue specifically. Read that report here.

For those of you who don’t know how much much Illinois has shortchanged its pension system over the past decades, it now exceeds $85 billion. That number alone dwarfs the rest of Illinois’s other debt.

Policymakers and citizens alike should take notice. Illinois’s credit ratings have been in a downward trajectory for the past few years. We need a new direction from our leaders and we need your engagement.

If you take only one thing away from this news, it should be the following: Reforming the broken pension system of Illinois is pivotal to securing your family’s future and saving the vital services that are so important to your community and Illinois’s future prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ted Dabrowski
Vice President for Policy
Illinois Policy Institute

P.S. I look foward to meeting you in person soon. Feel free to contact me by phone at 312-346-5700 or by email tdabrowski@illinoispolicy.org.

Kinzinger, Durbin Weigh in on Reforming Tax Code | Tillman, Ruder Debate Credit Impact: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

What’s Happening with the Stock Market?
To say the least, the stock market has not reacted kindly to the debt ceiling agreement made in Washington and the subsequent lowering of our nation’s credit rating. Why is this happening and what does this mean going forward? John Tillman appeared on FOX Chicago earlier this week to address these important issues. Watch that video above.

Join Us at the State Fair
On August 17 and 18, we are going to be out in numbers at the State Fair in Springfield gathering signatures for our Repeal the Tax Hike Petition. Come on by to say hi or to help us collect more signatures! More information is available here.

Event: Heartland Institute Author Series
On Tuesday, Aug. 16, join our friends at the Heartland Institute as they host Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch of the Reason Foundation to discuss their new book, “The Declaration of Independents.” The event is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Jaks Tap (901 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60607). The cost to attend is $25, which includes food and drink. Click here to register.


Dan Patlak Cook County Board Of Review Summer Update‏

Our last update was in April, so I thought it wise to provide you another report on our progress and activities at the Board of Review since that time.

On August 1st the Board of Review concluded its 2010 tax year appeals, finishing two months earlier than last year. We did this despite adjudicating the second highest volume of property index numbers (387,000) in Board history. In addition, the Board had two new staffs of analysts, my own and Commissioner Cabonargi’s who were hired after his appointment in February.

I continue to fulfill my campaign pledge to be a full time commissioner, working every day side by side with my personal staff as well as the other staffs at the Board. In line with our plans for instituting a continuing education program at the Board, forty-two analysts attended a two and a half day class on residential assessments August second through fourth conducted by the Illinois Department of Revenue. Several analysts on my staff plan to take additional classes to receive their Certified Illinois Assessing Officer designation.
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Dan Patlak Cook County Board Of Review Summer Update‏”


World Markets Teetering – No Confidence in Obamanomics

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

The only place where the glazed eyes of the most excited followers still reflect a, “If I could but touch the hem of his garment” look; seems to be at the President’s recent birthday bash. The rest of the world, it seems, does not want to look on the face of President Obama, much less his fiscal policies. The no confidence vote is reflected in huge stock sell outs both here and abroad.

The Dow, NASDAQ, Amex and other markets have slipped some 800 points at home and teetering world markets reflect the same no confidence vote in the recent bi-partisan deal to raise the debt ceiling 2.4 trillion while cutting other spending in a long range effort to acquire a balance. Jobs in America are still slipping away and government is still choking free market investments but the president has gotten his way for the moment. Standard and Poor’s reaction to the weak efforts to stabilize the debt has been to knock America’s credit rating back a notch for the first time in our history.

The power to borrow has been saved and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems satisfied with the fact that it will take almost five years for the effects of any caps or cuts to have any appreciable sway against the 14 trillion in debt that the country is now facing.
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World Markets Teetering – No Confidence in Obamanomics”


Flirting with the Great Depression 2.0

-By Alan Caruba

“Credit rating agency S&P has downgraded U.S. debt from AAA, the first debt downgrade in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported.” — Politico, Aug. 5, 2011

When a nation’s debt equals its entire annual gross domestic product, it is bankrupt. It can still produce goods and services, but it will likely encounter fewer customers worldwide as they too are drawn deeper into their own debt crises.

When it must borrow billions daily just to meet its obligations to other nations and individuals who have purchased its treasury notes, it is has reached a point of “moral hazard” that threatens the wealth of every single citizen.
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Flirting with the Great Depression 2.0″


Truth In Accounting Exposes ‘Unbalanced’ Budgets

From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…

Report Identifies Five Sinkhole States and Five Sunshine States

Chicago, (August 3, 2011) – While Congress debated legislation that includes a federal balanced budget amendment, many pointed out that 49 out of the 50 states have that same legal requirement. However, a new comprehensive study by non-partisan Institute for Truth in Accounting reports most state balanced budget laws have not worked, because past governors and legislators have not used truthful accounting to calculate their budgets. This lack of transparency has concealed a total of $1 trillion of outstanding bills.

‘State officials say their budgets are balanced but do not include employee pension and healthcare obligations in their calculations,’ stated Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of the Institute. ‘Unlike the federal government, states can’t ‘print money’ to cover costs and shore up their financial conditions.’
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Truth In Accounting Exposes ‘Unbalanced’ Budgets”