Green Movement Founder Opposes Wind Turbines in His Backyard

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the world’s premiere environmentalists, credited as a founder of the green movement, is fighting plans to erect wind turbines in his own village.

Professor James Lovelock, 93, is renowned for having created the “Gaia Theory” and becoming one of the World’s earliest and most active modern environmentalists. He is also known for predicting global warming and saying that by the year 2100 warming would kill off four fifths of the world’s population.

Lovelock has, however, has lately come at odds to the movement he helped foster angering the environmental movement by becoming a recent advocate of nuclear power and for opposing wind energy.
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Green Movement Founder Opposes Wind Turbines in His Backyard”


Noam Chomsky: Obama is Like an Old ‘Moderate Republican’

-By Warner Todd Huston

On January 30, professor Noam Chomsky, famed linguistic scholar and long-time anti-American activist, said on Current TV that if President Obama were in office a few decades ago he would have “basically” been considered a “moderate Republican.”

Chomsky made his comments on Cenk Uygur’s Current TV show The Young Turks.

The MIT professor’s main point was that the Democrats have moved rightward toward “moderate” positions while the GOP has moved even further to right to the point of being extremists. This move, Chomsky said, has essentially eliminated “moderate Republicans.”

“The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore,” Chomsky said.
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Noam Chomsky: Obama is Like an Old ‘Moderate Republican’”


Paul Krugman: Let’s Just Print More Money

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has said that our government trillions in debt is not a problem and even intimated that we might we crank up the printing presses and print more fiat money to get us out of our bad economy.

Krugman appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” program on January 30 and scoffed at Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R, WS) claim that our country is on the verge of a debt crisis.

The C-SPAN host played a clip of comments made at last week’s National Review Summit by Rep. Paul Ryan where the former GOP VP candidate warned about economic collapse.
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Paul Krugman: Let’s Just Print More Money”


Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon’s Anti-Fracking Protest Song–‘Don’t Frack My Mother’?

-By Warner Todd Huston

NPR is again flogging a recent anti-fracking protest song performed by Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon that features the memorable refrain, “pleeeease, don’t frack my mother.”

The half-comedic song debuted during the Summer on the late night TV talk show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and was performed by Ono, the former paramour of the Beatle’s John Lennon, Sean, John’s son from his union with Yoko, and host Fallon.

On a side note, are we to understand that congenial Jimmy Fallon is taking a stand against the economic growth that has come to millions of Americans as a result of fracking? Is that a good idea, Mr. Fallon?

NPR dredged up the mostly adolescent song in a January 27 report on the protests against fracking.
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Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon’s Anti-Fracking Protest Song–‘Don’t Frack My Mother’?”


Facebook Chief Sandburg: Women Not Liked in Business

-By Warner Todd Huston

Discussing her recent book “Lean In” during a recent visit to Switzerland, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told an audience that powerful women are mostly disliked in the business world.

Appearing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sandberg launched a broadside against the stereotypes that she claims hold women back in business in the United States.

At one point, the Facebook chief disparaged T-Shirts for boys she had seen in the U.S. that said “Smart Like Daddy” and those for girls that said “Pretty like Mommy.”
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Facebook Chief Sandburg: Women Not Liked in Business”


Donald Trump Looking to Buy The New York Times?

-By Warner Todd Huston

There are reports that Donald Trump is looking at a new way of influencing the media, this time by trying to buy The New York Times. If he pulls it off it’ll be huuuuge.

Trump has spent years getting media attention for one thing or another. From multiple marriages, to hit TV shows, to rumors of running for President, “The Donald” has been an expert at insinuating himself into the news cycle. But now it seems he wants to write the news instead of just being written about.

Rumors abound that Trump’s making an effort to buy the paper. But he isn’t the only high profile millionaire around whom such rumors swill. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also rumored to be looking into buying the paper.

Trump’s office has refused comment on the rumors of his interest buying in the “paper of record” and so is The New York Times. But one can’t imagine that the Sulzberger family, owners of the Times, would find it a cozy fit with Donald Trump!
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Donald Trump Looking to Buy The New York Times?”


Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion

-By Warner Todd Huston

Despite Obama’s promise to cut unnecessary regulations, his administration issued $236.7 billion in new regulations in 2012.

According to a report by the American Action Forum, headed by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the direct costs of the regulations force America’s businesses to waste 87 million man-hours to fill out regulatory paperwork.

Adding Obama’s 2012 regulatory costs to that of the rest of his first term adds up to a total of $518 billion in new costs forced onto an already anemic economic recovery.

This onslaught of new regulations comes even after Obama was celebrated for claiming he was going to be the regulation-cutting president.

Indeed, in 2011, Obama released a plan claiming he would cut regulations and reduce the burden on the business sector. Not long after, Obama operative Cass Sunstein praised Obama claiming that his plan would work “to eliminate unjustified regulatory costs and to reduce burdens.” Sunstein went on to say that Obama had done more to cut regulations than any president in recent history.

Sunstein was given one Pinocchio for his misleading claims and for good reason as Obama’s small cuts have been dwarfed by the increases.

American Action Forum says that the costs of regulations have “added tremendous costs to the economy” and finds that the year 2012 tops every year in the past twelve in “terms of final rule cost.”
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Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion”


Obama’s Labor Sec: Jobs Are ‘Saved’ By Unemployment Payments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, recently gave a quixotic assessment of how many jobs were “saved” by Obama’s work in the White House. In fact, she felt it was the constant extension of unemployment benefits that somehow “saved” millions of jobs.

On a January 4 segment on CNBC, Solis maintained that the benefits “generate” spending in “the community.”

“…what I think about is, those 2 million people that would have lost their unemployment insurance. Because think about it, all that money that goes out in terms of what’s being spent by that unemployment check helps to generate two additional dollars back in the community. Everyone continues to keep their jobs. I can’t give you an exact figure, but I’ll tell you just by the movement that the President made, we’ve saved millions and millions of jobs,” Solis claimed.

This is, of course, a perfect example of the classic “broken windows fallacy.”
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Obama’s Labor Sec: Jobs Are ‘Saved’ By Unemployment Payments”


Did Al Gore Give Jihadis A Foothold in U.S. Cable Market? Probably Not

-By Warner Todd Huston

When the Arab-owned TV network Al-Jazeera bought Al Gore’s Current TV Network, it likely imagined that it finally had its “in” into the U.S. television market, something the jihad-supporting network had for sometime hoped to find. But is it likely that Al-Jazeera’s purchase assure it of a ready-made American audience? It seems doubtful.

The first bad news for Al-Jazeera’s hope of pushing its Jihad-centric ideology came as soon as the purchase was announced and TIME-Warner cable announced it would immediately drop Al Gore’s little seen network once its sale to the radical Islamist broadcaster was announced.

Naturally, lefties in the U.S. slammed TIME-Warner along “free speech” lines for its common-sense business decision.

As John Nolte wrote Thursday,
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Did Al Gore Give Jihadis A Foothold in U.S. Cable Market? Probably Not”


Another Warren Buffet-Owned Paper Goes Belly Up

-By Warner Todd Huston

After 143 years in print, the Manassas News & Messenger of Manassas, Virginia has turned off its printing presses for good.

The Manassas News is another in a long chain of failed local newspapers that have ceased publication over the last decade unable to compete with social media, electronic media, and cable TV delivering news as it happens. The paper stopped publication in November.

The paper was purchased by Warren Buffet’s World Media Enterprises last June, but ultimately the new owner decided that the Manassas News just wasn’t worth continuing.

Along with the cessation of the print edition, the paper also stopped updating its website. All employees lost their jobs.

World Media Enterprises has not announced the closing of any of its other papers but media watchers expect more to come in 2013.

Manassas, Virginia is best known as the site of two major Civil War battles.
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Another Warren Buffet-Owned Paper Goes Belly Up”


David Gregory Fawns Over Obama’s ‘Lincoln Moment’

-By Warner Todd Huston

NBC’s David Gregory hosted the President on Sunday’s Meet the Press but compared to his last notable interview, when he verbally attacked his guest at every turn, Gregory was virtually asleep this weekend. Unfortunately, Gregory’s mostly timid questions and Obama’s rambling answers gave us nothing new.

The only real pointed question that Gregory asked Obama was over Susan Rice. But even there he asked the question in the meekest manner possible.

Gregory asked, “Do you feel like you let your friend Susan Rice hang out there to dry a little bit?”

The equivocation of “A little bit” was far more consideration than the badgering Gregory offered Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association last week.

But all of Obama’s answers were mere talking points. Take his line about what he thinks Republicans priority is.
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David Gregory Fawns Over Obama’s ‘Lincoln Moment’”


Bank of America Sues Customer, What Happened to Acting Like Humans?

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is well noted that we live in an overly litigious society. But one small company in Las Vegas isn’t just knuckling under the thumb of a big corporation and the hammer-fist of another big lawsuit.

Instead, the small business is taking the revolutionary view that big business should treat its customers as human beings. This small firm is speaking out and urging face-to-face discussions instead of a constant deluge of lawsuits.

Galaxy Gaming of Las Vegas – the world’s second largest developer, manufacturer and distributor of casino table games and enhanced casino systems – had been dutifully paying on its mortgage on its offices but out of the Nevada desert sky, as far as they were concerned, the small firm suddenly learned it was being dragged into court with its mortgage holder, Bank of America, demanding payment in full of its loans.

Robert Saucier, CEO of Galaxy Gaming, has decided to try a different tact in this discussion. Instead of just slinging charge and counter charge in court, Saucier published an open letter in a newspaper to ask Bank of America to just deal with him face-to-face, like a human being.

In the open letter published in the Charlotte Observer — where Bank of America is headquartered — Saucier urged his company’s former “financial partner” to settle their differences.
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Bank of America Sues Customer, What Happened to Acting Like Humans?”


U.S. Already Hitting Debt Ceiling on Monday?

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is warning Congress that the U.S. is on the cusp of hitting the debt ceiling yet again, maybe as soon as Monday.

Geithner said that the Treasury Dept. will be taking some “extraordinary measures” to prevent borrowing from exceeding the previous debt ceiling limit, measures such as a temporary halt of the reinvestment of federal workers’ retirement account contributions.

This, along with other measures might save the government $200 billion as the debt limit approaches to just under $95 billion below the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling limit.

A major problem with these “extraordinary measures” is that no one knows what effects the fiscal cliff may have on them. The biggest unknown is what effect new tax rules will have on the situation.
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U.S. Already Hitting Debt Ceiling on Monday?”


Chicago Tribune, Six Other Papers Drop Associated Press

-By Warner Todd Huston

In perhaps an unsurprising move, the Chicago Tribune has announced that starting in January, the Chicago-based paper and several other Tribune-owned papers will be dropping the Associated Press as its chief wire service.

Along with Chicago, six other Tribune-owned papers will also be dropping the AP. Those papers are the Baltimore Sun; the Orlando Sentinel; the South Florida Sun-Sentinel; the Hartford Courant; the Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania; and the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia.

Reports from Tribune insiders were confirmed Sunday by Paul Colford, director of media relations for AP. “We’re disappointed by this development but recognize this is a time of transition for these seven Tribune newspapers,” Colford said. “We hope they’ll return to AP as their circumstances change. AP continues to diversify its business to enhance the value of our newsgathering for our 1,400 member newspapers and other news organizations worldwide. The Los Angeles Times has indicated that it plans to stay with AP. The Times has been a great partner in innovation and developing new AP services for many years.”

This news shouldn’t really be a big surprise as the Trib had already started to scale back use of the AP. As far back as 2008 the Trib began using Reuters’ American wire content.
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Chicago Tribune, Six Other Papers Drop Associated Press”


Subjective ‘News’: Buzzfeed Says ‘Fox News Bench is Weak’

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a classic example of substituting opinion for facts, Buzzfeed reported that MSNBC’s recent ratings should “make Fox News nervous.” It seems the main reason Fox should be nervous is because its featured stars and its back bench correspondents are “weak” according to Buzzfeed Politics.

For Buzzfeed, Dorsey Shaw writes that MSNBC has begun to climb the ratings ladder becoming second to Fox News and ahead of CNN in the cable race. But Shaw also notes that for the first time ever a couple of the far left-wing cabler’s shows beat Fox in the ratings game.

MSNBC’s back-to-back prime-time opinion shows, The Rachel Maddow Show and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, topped both Fox News and CNN for the coveted 25–54 demographic during the week of Dec. 3. That gives Phil Griffin’s network the number one ranking in the demo for four of the first five weeks since the presidential election. Adding to the impressive numbers is the fact that the MSNBC shows outperformed their Fox counterparts despite having guest hosts fill in for Maddow Dec. 5 through Dec. 7.

Dorsey properly reports that Fox still dominates Prime Time ratings but goes on to needle Fox for a three-year-old press release that touts its own ratings success — what that has to do with anything is anybody’s guess.
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Subjective ‘News’: Buzzfeed Says ‘Fox News Bench is Weak’”


Grudge Match: Reporters Asked to Decide Which Will Keep Job

-By Warner Todd Huston

It will be a merry Christmas for one of two reporters at the Kansas City Star. One of them will get to keep her job. The other? Welcome to Obama’s unemployment line. But there’s a twist. The KC Star has told both reporters to decide between the two of them who will stay and who will go.

The Star apparently told reporters, Karen Dillon and Dawn Borman that only one will still be employed into the new year. Management further informed the scribblers that they’d have to decide between them which will get the ax. Looks like it will be Christmas to the tune of Should I Stay Or Should I Go, by The Clash at the paper.

Dillion corroborated the unique personnel management technique but refused further comment. For her part, Borman completely refused to talk about her plight to her brethren in the media and it looks like she is the one hitting the bricks.
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Grudge Match: Reporters Asked to Decide Which Will Keep Job”


Fiscal Cliff Fallacies

-By Chuck Busch

The “fiscal cliff” negotiations, although they are hugely consequential, are an over-dramatization of a self-imposed crisis narrowly focused on federal revenue policies. The country wouldn’t have to endure these theatrics in the middle of the holiday season during a lame duck session of congress, if our national leaders had made the hard decisions months ago to curb government spending which is the real crisis. The resumption of the Clinton era tax rate increases was known in well in advance and now, as the protections are about to expire, at least one party is doing what it can to preserve the Bush tax rate cuts.

To heighten the political theater, the whole episode is being portrayed as a cataclysmic event as though an immediate precipitous national financial collapse will occur on New Years Day if there is no resolution of the spending and tax issues. Certainly the country will continue its path of decline, but this occurrence will simply be one more step, not off a “cliff”, but down a very slippery slope to the rocky shore of a runaway inflation, massive unemployment, massive federal debt, and national insecurity where the economy will be continually pounded by fierce waves of unfunded spending, a devalued currency, a popular entitlement mentality, and an expansion of government control.
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Fiscal Cliff Fallacies”


Unions Attack/Destroy African American Hot Dog Vendor’s Equipment

-By Warner Todd Huston

One story that no one seems to be talking much about is the violent attack on an African American small businessman’s hot dog vending stand perpetrated by criminal union thugs during Monday’s right-to-work fracas in Lansing, Michigan.

Clint Tarver set up his stand near the Americans for Prosperity tent that union goons later tore down and, at least initially, Mr. Tarver reported that things were “going real well,” until the union toughs got into their woefully common criminal behavior.

Tarver was not just selling his hotdogs to the AFP folks but to anyone that wanted a snack. But it wasn’t long before the union members began to taunt him, even calling him a “n*gger,” calling him an “Uncle Tom,” and accusing him of being “on the wrong side.”
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Unions Attack/Destroy African American Hot Dog Vendor’s Equipment”


Media Ignores Union Violence: Flashback to Palin’s 2008 ‘Target’ Outrage

-By Warner Todd Huston

As unions again run amuck, this time in Michigan, the Old Media establishment has steadfastly refused to report on the union’s violence, not to mention the “violent rhetoric” coming from their advocates. But this is in stark contrast to the Summer of 2011 when the Old Media was hot to condemn the supposed “violent rhetoric” of Republicans such as Sarah Palin, Andrew Breitbart, and talk radio hosts.

In Michigan this week unions have once again shown why the term “union thug” is no misnomer by beating up people and engaging in property destruction, intimidation, and violence all in order to turn back Michigan’s right-to-work legislation passing through the state’s duly elected legislature.

During the day on Monday union goons attacked a tent set up by members of Michigan’s chapter of Americans for Prosperity. The tent was staffed with women and men, Michiganders who came out to support the Republican’s effort to pass worker’s rights legislation that would make The Wolverine State the 24th right-to-work state.

Also in attendance was occasional Fox News guest and comedian Steven Crowder. The young Crowder was actually physically attacked, punched at least four times, by one union criminal. Crowder’s crime? He dared to ask unionistas the simple question: “what is it about right-to-work that you oppose so much?”

The union thugs then swarmed AFP’s tent and tore it down with the women, and a few children, still inside.
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Media Ignores Union Violence: Flashback to Palin’s 2008 ‘Target’ Outrage”


MSNBC: An Unprofessional Excuse for the News

-By Warner Todd Huston

The violence that unions perpetrated in Michigan as the state legislature passed its new right-to-work legislation was hailed by lawless Democrats and union supporters alike showing that neither unions nor Democrats are much interested in morality of legality, but the incident also revealed yet another perfect example of how illegitimate MSNBC is as a source for reliable news.

During the union thugs’ protest outside the state capitol in Lansing, union criminals beat up a pro-worker’s rights advocate and destroyed a tent set up by the conservative activist group Americans for Prosperity. Multiple videos show that it was a spontaneous, criminal action by the union members but MSNBC’s coverage tended to run counter to the truth.

On the evening of December 11, Ned Resnikoff took to the cabler’s webpages to “report” on the incident for MSNBC’s The Ed Show. But instead of observing journalistic practice, instead of doing his job as a reporter, Resnikoff outrageously lied through his teeth and claimed that the AFP tent was really torn down by its own people!

Resnikoff posted the mere claims of a biased union member pretending that he knew that the AFP folks had torn down their own tent just to get publicity out of it all.
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MSNBC: An Unprofessional Excuse for the News”


TIME’s Best Places to Live Does Not Include Any in the USA

-By Warner Todd Huston

TIME has one of those lists that we always start to see as the year comes to a close. This one is the top ten best and worst places in the world to live. Sadly, there isn’t a single place in the U.S.A. on that list.

The worst place to live on this list is, unsurprisingly, the disaster-prone (both man-made and natural-made) country of Haiti. Neither Yemen nor Iraq fare much better than Haiti. The rest of the top ten worst list is filled out with African nations — again, unsurprisingly.

But it’s the best-places list that disappoints the red, white and blue as not one of the best places in the world in which to live are in the good ol’ U. S. of A.

The “Best Quality of Living” list is:

  1. Vienna, Austria
  2. Zurich, Switzerland
  3. Auckland, New Zealand
  4. Munich, Germany
  5. Vancouver, Canada
  6. Dusseldorf, Germany
  7. Frankfurt, Germany
  8. Geneva, Switzerland
  9. Copenhagen, Denmark
  10. Bern, Switzerland

What is the deal? Why does this list diss the United States? In fact, the USA doesn’t even appear in the top 25 best places.
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TIME’s Best Places to Live Does Not Include Any in the USA”


Mich Dem. Whitmer Shows Unions & Obama More Important Than Her State

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, the State’s Senate Democratic Leader, is now pleading for President Obama to trample on Michigan’s state sovereignty and control the state from Washington DC. This is an odd request for someone that thinks she should be Michigan’s next Governor.

During most of American history, state politicians have been keen to safeguard their own power in their state. We even fought a whole civil war in part over the idea of states’ rights, after all. Oh, but not Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer. No, for Whitmer, allowing unions and President Obama to control Michigan is far more important than allowing the people of Michigan and their representatives to control the state.

Whitmer, you see, is trying to get President Obama to withhold federal funds from Michigan merely because Republicans and worker’s rights advocates have succeeded in passing right-to-work-style legislation in the current lame-duck session.

Whitmer is calling the right-to-work law “petty and vindictive politics.” That’s how losers talk, we all know. So, she wants King Obama to take action.
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Mich Dem. Whitmer Shows Unions & Obama More Important Than Her State”


WaPost: Next Struggling Paper Planning Paywall

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Washington Post is poised to initiate a paywall in 2013. The Post is one of the last major American papers to look into putting some parts of its publication behind a subscriber only Internet screen.

The Wall Street Journal reports that The Washington Post is preparing a “metered paywall” for its Internet site. A metered paywall allows readers to see a few articles per month before blocking any more access and informing the visitor that he must pay to read further.

But ahead of this new attempt to improve revenue, ThePost has been seeing a steep decrease in earnings.

The Post is dealing with a steep decline in its core business of print advertising. Its newspaper division reported an operating loss of $56.3 million for the first nine months of the year, reflecting a 14% decline in revenue to $160.7 million. The company lost its chief revenue officer in the spring, and the search for a replacement continues.

The Post has seen quite a lot of trouble recently with a shake up in leadership as publisher Katherine Weymouth canned executive editor Marcus Brauchi and replaced him with the former editor of the Boston Globe, Marty Baron.
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WaPost: Next Struggling Paper Planning Paywall”


Big Ohio Newspaper Cutting One-Third of Newsroom

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is one of Ohio’s biggest papers but neither size nor influence is likely to save the jobs of one third of the paper’s newsroom employees who are preparing for big cuts to hit as the new year begins.

Workers at the paper found out on Wednesday that 58 employees would likely be losing their jobs starting in 2013. That is one-third of the workforce Harlan Spector of the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild reported.
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Big Ohio Newspaper Cutting One-Third of Newsroom”


NY Times Cutting Staff Again

-By Warner Todd Huston

Workers at The New York Times are facing more lost jobs as the paper of record initiates a new round of staff cuts in a cost savings move.

In a pair of leaked memos written by The Times’ executive editor, Jill Abramson, management informs employees of the goal of eliminating thirty more newsroom staffers.

“The economic environment has grown more difficult in the second half of the year and I must reduce costs in the newsroom,” Abramson told employees.
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NY Times Cutting Staff Again”


Fox Business Network’s Dobbs Wins Demo For 11 of Last 12 Weeks

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lou Dobbs has been enjoying an awful lot of success these days over at Fox Business Network. I’ve reported about the solid performance that Lou Dobbs Tonight has earned and this week we get yet another great ratings success for the program.

Dobbs 7PM program has scored multiple ratings wins over rival Larry Kudlow on CNBC and according to Neilsen numbers, Lou Dobbs Tonight beat Kudlow by 65 percent in last week in the demo.

Lou Dobbs has taken top marks for 11 of the last 12 weeks. He has also come out on top in 20 of the last 48 total weeks.

This is pretty good considering that Dobbs and FBN is the veritable newcomer on the block compared to the long standing CNBC programming.

With all the success that Lou Dobbs has built in 2012, next year ought to be quite interesting.
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Fox Business Network’s Dobbs Wins Demo For 11 of Last 12 Weeks”


AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a November 28 article, the Associated Press tried to give cover to Democrats by insisting that they are somehow divided over cuts in entitlements to help solve the “fiscal cliff” problem. But the truth is, Democrats are united against these cuts, not divided.

In its piece headlined, “It’s Not Just Taxes: Benefit Cuts Divide Democrats,” the AP attempted to demonstrate a “division” that doesn’t exist by citing two Democrats that meekly offered to consider cuts to entitlements.

It’s not just about taxes. There’s another big obstacle to overcome as Congress and President Barack Obama work to skirt the fiscal cliff: deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether to consider cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

This is flat out absurd. There are no deep divisions among Democrats over cuts to these programs. In fact, just the opposite.

This tall tale goes on to present the weak claims of “considering” cuts to these programs uttered by Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) and Kent Conrad (D, N.D.). But one, Conrad, is retiring and the other has no support from his fellows — especially Democrat leadership — for the idea.
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AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts”


Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Insulting.” That is what conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer termed Obama’s “plan” to prevent the federal government from falling over the fiscal cliff. But to the Old Media establishment, Obama’s insulting plan lacking in specifics was a brilliant “strategic move” that will force Republicans to “offer a counter proposal,” despite the fact that, going back to Paul Ryan’s Road Map, the GOP is the only side offering many specifics in this debate thus far.

Before Election Day, President Obama made vague comments about implementing 2.5 dollars in cuts for every dollar of spending increases, but he never really clarified what that meant in real terms, never saying exactly what he would cut. But at least before the election he gave lip service to cuts. This week, though, now that he is safely re-elected, he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the GOP leadership to offer a plan that had no specifics, no cuts, and huge spending hikes.

Even more idiotic, Obama wants another stimulus of $50 billion!
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Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’”


The Lies The SEIU Tells Its Members

-By Warner Todd Huston

This week the SEIU sent out an email to its members hoping to drum up some hate against the fast food chain Wendy’s. The email not only had one outright lie, it was also a sad example of how stupid unions think their members really are.

The email starts out as if it is from a Wendy’s employee named Joshua Williams.

Mr. Williams may or may not really exist, but the union created a video featuring a person claiming to be this Williams fellow, so maybe he’s real and maybe he isn’t. But that isn’t the obvious lie. The obvious lie is in the email’s very first paragraph. The SEIU has been trying to unionize the fast food industry.

Last year, the CEO of Wendy’s took home $16.5 billion dollars while I barely scraped by on $16,000.

The email then goes on to suggest that the fast food industry needs to be unionized so that… oh, I don’t know … maybe so that guys like Mr. Williams can be the ones to take home “$16.5 billion dollars,” or something? Yeah, we all understand that a burger flipper takes exactly the same skills as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. It’s just the same, of course.

Whatever.

But let’s look at the claim of this “Mr. Williams,” if he really exists.
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The Lies The SEIU Tells Its Members”


Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’

Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) delivered the GOP weekly address and it was a damn good one.

He pulled no punches and laid it out straight that Obama lied when he ran for re-election and perpetrated a “classic bait and switch” maneuver.

Transcript:

“Hi. I’m Senator Orrin Hatch from the great state of Utah.

“The holiday season is upon us: a time when families come together to celebrate and reflect on another year gone by—and another one set to begin.

“But this holiday season is different: as the clock ticks down towards the New Year, nearly every single American is facing the real prospect of what’s called the Fiscal Cliff.

“If we don’t act by the end of the year, 28 million more families and individuals will be forced to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax, 21 times as many farmers and ranchers will be hit with the death tax, and the average middle-class family would see their taxes go up by at least $2,000.

“Economic leaders have told us that if we don’t act, our nation will fall into another painful recession—pushing unemployment back up over 9 percent, threatening our children’s ability to get a good paying job, and putting seniors’ retirements at risk.

“The President has said he wants a so-called balanced approach to solve this crisis. But what he proposed this week was a classic bait and switch on the American people—a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus spending and an unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese. Maybe I missed it but I don’t recall him asking for any of that during the presidential campaign. These ideas are so radical that they have already been rejected on a bipartisan basis by Congress.

“Fresh off his reelection, the President has an obligation to first steer us away from the fiscal cliff, and second, to tackle our $16-plus trillion debt, that is driven by our runaway entitlement programs, so our country doesn’t reach this dangerous crossroads ever again.

“But we’ve seen an utter lack of leadership from President Obama, and his allies on the left have shown little—very little—to no willingness to tackle real, structural entitlement reform. There is no manner of tax hike that can save Medicare or Medicaid—these programs can only be fixed with real reforms that go to the heart of how they work.

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Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’”