Apple Quietly Drops Claims that Macs Don’t Get Viruses

-By Warner Todd Huston

As a Mac user since the early 90s, I’ve always laughed at Windows users so constantly beset by viruses that destroy their computers. My computer, I would tell them, is safe from that nonsense. That Macs don’t get viruses has been such a common assumption that even Apple said so on its website. But now Apple has quietly dropped that boastful claim after hundreds of thousands of computers were hijacked last April by a Trojan virus.

In April the Flashback Trojan hit some 600,000 Macs worldwide, said to be more than one percent of Mac users.

This Trojan masqueraded as an update to Adobe Flash, a web browser graphics application, and once activated by the user exploited a vulnerability in the web language program Java to take over the computer. Users were then slammed with unwanted advertisements from the web but were also open to having their financial and banking information stolen.
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Apple Quietly Drops Claims that Macs Don’t Get Viruses”


WaPo Fact Checker: We Won’t Fact Check WaPo Articles

-By Warner Todd Huston

Only others should be held accountable, not the Washington Post. I suppose that is the stance of Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler if I read correctly his somewhat confusing July 2 article answering to the measurably false story the Post published claiming Romney out sourced jobs when he worked for Bain Capital. Fact checking is only to be applied to others because, as Kessler says, the Washington Post Fact Checker won’t fact check any facts published by the Washington Post.

Kessler announced in his article that he won’t be awarding any “Pinocchios” to the whole controversy over the Post’s claims that Romney outsourced jobs during his Bain days which, I suppose, makes Post writers sigh a sigh of relief. But look out everyone else. Your words better be truthful or the Fact Checker will be on your case.

We’ve been discussing the original Post story and other coverage on the Bain jobs out sourcing issue. John Nolte talked about some of the stories on July 3 and as he notes, no out sourcing of jobs occurred while Romney was at Bain Capital. That is just a fact.
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WaPo Fact Checker: We Won’t Fact Check WaPo Articles”


Obama Has Lied to Us For Years About Jobs Reports!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again we get a dismal jobs number from our government. So few jobs were created that we aren’t even keeping up with population growth! And once again Obama tells us not to pay any attention to those numbers.


Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain!

What is it they say in Obama’s world? Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and it becomes fact? This must be the President’s mantra at least where it concerns the importance of the dismal jobs numbers we’ve seen over the last four years. OIW notes that over the last 41 months of stagnant employment numbers hovering near 8 percent Obama has told us not to pay any attention to those bad jobs reports over and over and over again.

Like the perpetually frightened Wizard of Oz, Obama uses his bully pulpit to warn us to “pay no attention to the jobs report behind that curtain.”

After all the billions he spent on “stimulus”, just look at the lies, won’t you? (These all from the White House website, too)

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Obama Has Lied to Us For Years About Jobs Reports!”


Yes, ObamacareTax IS the Biggest Tax in American History

-By Warner Todd Huston

Lefties everywhere have hastened to try and absolve the ObamacareTax claiming that it really isn’t the largest tax in American history despite that conservatives say it is. What is their proof? Well, as a percentage of GDP ObamacareTax is smaller than other taxes we’ve instituted in the past. This, statistic, though, is quite misleading.

LoudTalkerBlog has crunched the numbers, but the chief take away is in this chart, and, yes, it is the largest in total cost ever:

Talker goes on to detail why the ObamacareTax is the biggest ever.

But, if you look at the raw dollars of the deal, again using Drum’s numbers, the cost of Obamacare is $71.18 billion dollars. (0.49% x 2010 GDP of $14.526B). That would make it the largest tax increase ever. The second highest dollar amount in the list? Clinton’s 1993 tax increase of $33.34 billion, which is less than half of the Obama tax increase. Third would be GHW Bush and fourth Reagan.

Worse, those lefties that are claiming it isn’t the biggest tax ever are leaving out all sorts of aspects to ObamacareTax in order to make its impact smaller.

In other words, they lie.

No surprise.
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Yes, ObamacareTax IS the Biggest Tax in American History”


Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem

-By Warner Todd Huston

In its update on the coming student loan interest rate hike deal in Congress, Politico dances its blame-the-GOP tap dance once again saying that the coming rate hike is all just “politics.” But somehow Politico forgets to note that this interest rate problem is of the Democrats’ own making in the first place.

Reporting that Congress has signed off on a bipartisan deal to halt the scheduled interest rate increase on millions of student loans, Politico takes a paragraph to “explain” what the hold up was.

Lawmakers moved quickly on Friday to end a legislative dispute that got caught up in politics on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, as Obama repeatedly blamed Congress for delaying and Republicans accused the president of being AWOL in negotiations.

Yes, those darned old Republicans were just engaging in “politics.”

But, wouldn’t it have been nice for Politico to note why we got here with this student loan interest rate fiasco?
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Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem”


Texas Attny Gen on SCOTUS Obamacare Decision: ‘The American People Lost’

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Monday, July 2, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot participated in a conference call sponsored by Americans for Prosperity – Texas to talk Obamacare and how it affects the states. During that call, AG Abbot said “the American people lost” as a result of Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision. He also said the decision “threatens prosperity” as much as any Supreme Court ruling ever has.

Abbott warned that the determination that Obamacare is now a tax, the biggest tax increase in American history, is “a threat to all of us.” He noted that the ruling is “a tax on liberty itself” because now Congress seems to have been given the power to tax inactivity rather than activity.

“The New Taxing Authority will Empower Congress in an almost unlimited way,” Abbott said.

Abbott utilized the same car analogy that many have used since last Thursday to explain why this ruling is dangerous. Congress may now be able to tax people for not buying “green” cars, the AG said.
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Texas Attny Gen on SCOTUS Obamacare Decision: ‘The American People Lost’”


It Begins: CNN Rushes to Point Out Romney Once Liked ‘Healthcare Mandates’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Can you say 10th Amendment? CNN doesn’t seem to be able to

It was practically only hours after the Supreme Court issued it’s historic — and odious — decision to give Obamacare its stamp of approval that CNN rushed to tell readers that Romney, too, once approved of a healthcare mandate. This narrative, we know, will be one the Old Media tries to use to beat Romney down and give Obama his second term.

“As it turns out,” CNN trumpets, “the tax penalty in the president’s health care law was modeled after the reform plan passed in Massachusetts under then governor Mitt Romney.”

Of course, this is basically true, so fair point. But CNN falls down on the job by not explaining what Mitt Romney has been saying about his Massachusetts healthcare mandates. Romney has repeatedly said that his plan was a state-based plan but one he does not think would work on a federal level.
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It Begins: CNN Rushes to Point Out Romney Once Liked ‘Healthcare Mandates’”


How is Obamacare being Received in the States?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Watchdog.org has been doing yeomen’s work covering how the various states are reacting to Obamacare and the Supreme Court ruling making it legal. You can see the collected stories HERE, but here are a few highlights:

Follow WatchDog.org for the ongoing coverage, but in the mean time, check out this Obamacare tax chart from the Heritage Foundation.

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How is Obamacare being Received in the States?”


Google, Big Obama Donors, Bans Firearm Accessory Sales in Ads

-By Warner Todd Huston

Second Amendment, Schmecond Amendment. Google wants you to know that it is thinking of your “safety” as it announces that it has banned anything to do with firearms on its Google Shopping service. That’s what they’ve told HamLund Tactical, a Texas-based company that deals in ammunition and firearms accessories, anyway. Further, firearms customers have recently found that Google Shopping won’t give them any search results for firearm-related products anymore even though the change over isn’t supposed to fully take effect until July 1.

The folks at HamLund Tactical posted the letter they received from Google on a gun enthusiast’s message board called 68forums. In that letter, Google informs dealers in firearm accessories and ammunition that they will no longer be allowed to sell their wares through the Google service.

Starting July 1 Google has implemented the new policy, HamLund was informed. “We do not allow the promotion or sale of weapons and any related products such as ammunitions or accessory kits on Google Shopping. In order to comply with our new policies, please remove any weapon-related products from your data feed and then re-submit your feed in the Merchant Center,” the letter says.

This goes for knives as well as firearms and related products.
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Google, Big Obama Donors, Bans Firearm Accessory Sales in Ads”


Congressman Joe Walsh Has a Message for the Illinois GOP and America

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is Congressman Walsh Making a Populist Run for Illinois Governor?

Joe Walsh is not a rock star like Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh (the Congressman) is not Joe Walsh (The rock singer from the 1970s band The Eagles) yet both were in town this weekend working political ends. Singer Joe Walsh was stumping for Democrat Tammy Duckworth, a practically vacant, establishment Democrat who is good for little else but spewing talking points it doesn’t seem she fully grasps, while Congressman Joe Walsh was across town warning voters at a well attended townhall that thanks to Obamacare, the 2012 election may be our last chance to save America. (http://walsh.house.gov/)


Walsh was in the Elk Grove area to talk chiefly about the historic and historically bad Supreme Court decision that gave Obama a win on his nationalization of America’s healthcare industry. So, Obamacare was the big topic this day.

“I was overwhelmed by the close to 400 people who turned out for today’s forum,” Congressman Walsh stated. “It was clear from the crowd that this decision was not only historic, but also tragic. It’s even more clear that the only way to repeal this unpopular law is to do so legislatively. This health care plan is a job killing bureaucratic mess that is now recognized by the Supreme Court as a massive tax on the struggling middle class. I have made it clear that getting Americans back to work and repealing the President’s health care plan are my top priorities.”


More on healthcare in a moment, but first, after the townhall I had the chance to ask the Congressman some questions about his ideas and his campaign for reelection to his 8th District Congressional seat.

At the outset of our interview, Congressman Walsh had some very stern words for the Illinois Republican Party. In fact, he said the Illinois GOP is currently part of the problem, not the solution.

Here is a transcript of Walsh’s warning to the Illinois GOP.
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Congressman Joe Walsh Has a Message for the Illinois GOP and America”


Sign the Petition: Hands Off My Healthcare

-By Warner Todd Huston

Want to express your indignation at Chief Justice John Roberts’ sell out and the Democrats lie-filled faux healthcare law? Go HERE and sign the *petition to tell Congress and the Supreme Court that you are furious at this breach of trust with Americans everywhere.

If allowed to be implemented even in part, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will sink this country to worse than Greek levels in debt, poverty, and the destruction of our economic and business climates. Obama sold this communist plan with a lie on his lips. Not only by lying to the American public that this wasn’t a tax — a lie the Supreme Court corrected with its decision — but in the very name of the bill (the “affordable” part) the Democrats sold this law with lies on their lips.

*Petition sponsored by Americans for Prosperity.
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Sign the Petition: Hands Off My Healthcare”


News Corp to Split Entertainment from Publishing Division

-By Warner Todd Huston

News Corp watchers have been talking about a possible split of Rupert Murdoch’s massive entertainment and publishing empire for sometime and it looks like they are finally on the right side of the guesswork as the News Corp board met on Wednesday to consider separating Murdoch’s entertainment from his publishing division.

For some time Murdoch has resisted calls to split his empire into separate sections — even as recent as last month — but after the wiretapping scandals that hit his British newspapers, the idea seems to have become more acceptable to the media giant.

While the initial meeting was held Wednesday, the final decision might not be known until Thursday and the whole process could take as long as a year to work out.

This is not halving of the corporation, though. The publishing portion of the company is far smaller than the newer education/entertainment division so reports that we are about to witness a “splitting in half” of News Corp is an over statement.
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News Corp to Split Entertainment from Publishing Division”


Chief Justice Roberts Reelected Barack Obama On Thursday

-By Warner Todd Huston

I know many of you may be upset at this article, but I think the election is now over. Obama will get a second term. I don’t say this happily, but barring any really controversial incident that makes Obama look bad — or worse than he is, I should say — it looks to me that he’s now unbeatable, especially by a Mitt Romney.

Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, no this doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel and quit. It always amazes me that people go stampeding directly for the “oh, so you think we should quit” nonsense. I am not saying that, so stow your whining.

To me, the stars seem to be lining up for another Obama win, though certainly one not close to his numbers the first time ’round. Infuriatingly, it is Supreme Court Justice John Roberts that tipped it in for Obama. His giving Obama the supreme win on his socialist takeover of our healthcare system is the win Obama needed to show that he is “on the right track” as far as too many voters will be concerned.

If the Court would have invalidated Obamacare as it should have, Obama would have looked weak. He would have looked the loser. This would have been enough to keep some of his most freebie-loving voters from the polls on voting day and given Romney a fighting chance. But now that “free” healthcare is a big win, the “gimme” set will come out to vote for neo socialist Obama in hopes that in a second term he’ll pay their mortgage and give them a no-work government job.

But even beyond these freebie-grasping, lowlives that will now vote for Obama when many wouldn’t have been excited enough to come out were it a “free” healthcare loss, other Democrat voters who were down on Obama because he seemed to be losing everything lately will now feel energized to come out and vote.
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Chief Justice Roberts Reelected Barack Obama On Thursday”


CNN Mistakenly Reported Roberts Overturned Obamacare

-By Warner Todd Huston

Seven minutes of “f**king humiliation” is how one CNN staffer described the morning faux pas the “most trusted name in news” made when it reported that Chief Justice John Roberts overturned Obamacare’s mandate this morning.

As the Supreme Court of the United States was delivering its long awaited decision on Obamacare, CNN’s on-air news reader, 29-year-old Kate Bolduan, breathlessly said that the healthcare mandate was struck down. And I do mean breathlessly…

Kate Bolduan: We’re still going through the reading of the opinion, but I want to bring you the breaking news that according to producer Bill Mears, the individual mandate is not a valid, uh, not a valid exercise of the Commerce Clause. So it appears as if the Supreme Court Justices have struck down the individual mandate, the center piece of the healthcare legislation.

Not only did Miss Bolduan make CNN look bad but she also claimed that CNN’s man inside the courtroom, Bill Mears, told her this misconstruction of the facts over the phone. It doesn’t appear, though, that Mears actually said the whole thing was struck down but that young Bolduan just didn’t understand the complexities that Mears was trying to relate.
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CNN Mistakenly Reported Roberts Overturned Obamacare”


Obamacare: Largest Tax Hike in U.S. History

Obama specifically said (yes in his own voice) that Obamacare is not a tax when he sold this faux healthcare bill to the American people.

He simply lied. In fact, even after the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare only because it is a tax, Obama’s White House is still claiming it isn’t a tax.

Obama should go down in history are the biggest, most destructive liar ever to sit in the Oval Office.


CNBC Ratings Crash, Fox Business Network Surge

-By Warner Todd Huston

In this volatile market atmosphere, one might think that networks such as CNBC would be seeing all time high numbers as traders and other folks in the financial sector seek up-to-the-minute information. But as the second quarter comes to a close, CNBC is losing ground in the ratings and losing ground to upstart Fox Business Network, at that.

As the second quarter ratings hit it revealed the CNBC garnered its lowest ratings since 2005 in both total viewers as well as the coveted demo of persons aged 25 to 54. Even worse, chief business hour programming from 9:30 AM to 5 PM (ET) also had its worst low since 2005. CNBC also had its lowest rated quarter in the most sought after demo since 1997.

Just as alarming for CNBC is that one of their best anchors, Maria Bartiromo, had the worst rating for her timeslot since 1997.
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CNBC Ratings Crash, Fox Business Network Surge”


Fox News Brit Hume: ‘Republican Brand’ In ‘Terrible Shape’

-By Warner Todd Huston

You can’t call Fox News Commentator and Senior Political Analyst Britt Hume a shill for the Republican Party, especially after slapping the Republicans for having a brand name that is in “terrible shape” on the June 24 episode of Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Even after the bad several weeks the Democrats have had, Hume still felt the need to kick the legs out from under the Republicans.

Not only did Hume smack around the Republicans for their bad PR but he also warned that the GOP could suffer some backlash, or end up in “overreach,” with the Fast and Furious investigation.

No wonder Republicans can’t get ahead when even Britt Hume won’t give them credit where it is due while scolding them despite how badly Democrats have been doing of late.

Hume also noted that Republicans looked bad during the debt ceiling debate last year — even as he noted that the party was, as a whole, doing exactly what it promised to do with the debt ceiling.
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Fox News Brit Hume: ‘Republican Brand’ In ‘Terrible Shape’”


Success! Obama Spent $10B to Create 355 Jobs Per Year

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, after the news from the Obama administration of its “highly successful 1603 tax program” the fantastic program that is responsible for successfully creating literally dozens of jobs at a mere cost of 10 billion tax dollars, why, I don’t want to hear you naysayers out there dissing the big guy again!

The Washington Free Beacon brings us the good news of this great Obama success having received a statement saying:

“The highly successful 1603 tax program has played a critical role in the dramatic expansion of America’s renewable energy industry over the past three years – supporting more than 30,000 renewable energy projects, leveraging more than $25 billion in private sector investments and creating tens of thousands of jobs in installation, construction and operation, as well as up and down the manufacturing supply chain,” said DOE spokesperson Jen Stutsman. “This program has helped to build infrastructure that will spur economic development and job creation in the country over the long-term and ensure the United States can compete in the global clean energy economy.”

That settles it, right?

Well, let’s see how U.S. Representative Cory Gardner (R, Colo.) added up the costs of this “success” at a recent House hearing.
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Success! Obama Spent $10B to Create 355 Jobs Per Year”


Wawagate: MSNBC/Andrea Mitchell Smear Romney With Edited Video

-By Warner Todd Huton

Once again the left-wing media edits a video to misrepresent what a Republican is saying in order to make him look the idiot. This time on June 18 at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell edited the context right out of a video of what Romney said about eastern U.S. chain restaurant Wawa’s in order to make it seem as if he was out of touch with reg’lr Americans.

Mitchell likened her heavily edited video to George H.W. Bush’s “grocery scanner moment,” when, in his run for reelection in 1992, he was portrayed by the Old Media as never having seen a price scanner at a grocery store (though this characterization was untrue). The media used that moment to smear Bush as an out of touch elitist that simply couldn’t understand the common man. Mitchell used her current dishonest video to promulgate the same smear against Romney.

MSNBC edited out all the things that Romney said in connection with Wawa’s in order to make Romney into a person that was “amazed” by the technology of using a touchscreen system to order his food as the Wawa restaurant. MSNBC portrayed Romney as someone who had never seen such technology, systems with which regular Americans throughout the east coast are well familiar. Mitchell made Romney into an elitist that had never had to deal with something the rest of us use every day.
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Wawagate: MSNBC/Andrea Mitchell Smear Romney With Edited Video”


RO12 Film Premiere Review: Occupy Unmasked

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the things we were treated to at this year’s Right Online event, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, was the world premiere of the documentary film Occupy Unmasked.

The one thing I can say about this film is it is absolutely intense. The amount of violence committed by the “Occupy” leftists is shocking when you see so much of it gathered into one visual presentation. But the behind the scenes lies and the smoke screen deployed to hide who is really behind the creation and launching of this so-called “movement” is just as shocking and this film documents both.

The film features Andrew Breitbart in the first of the two recent films he helped along and stars in (the other being Hating Breitbart — see preview HERE), films that ended up being the last two major projects he finished before he so regrettably passed from us. It is also a production of Citizens United.

Now, by intense, I really mean it. When the film was over I was almost fatigued by all the swirling images of the hate, the violence, the anti-Americanism and the lies from these leftists behind Occupy. It all washed over me like a wave of emotion during the film. In some ways it was over whelming.
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RO12 Film Premiere Review: Occupy Unmasked”


Assoc. Press Now Pushing Anti-Scott Walker Story About… Beer?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press seems to be still on the lookout for stories about how Wisconsinites (especially “unions”) hate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker — yes, even after he beat a recall attempt getting even more votes than he did during his first run for the Guv’s manse. This time AP is pushing the tale that Carrie Nation’s alcohol prohibition “union” is mad at Walker for wanting to serve beer at his unity picnic. Yeah, the same 140-year-old group chiefly responsible for passing the ill-fated Prohibition Act on the country in the 1920s.

So now, the AP has its headlined, “Walker Angers Temperance Union by Serving Beer,” and is seriously trying to get the nation all ginned up over the fact that the beer hating Women’s Christian Temperance Union is upset at the Governor.

What is the Women’s Christian Temperance Union? The WCTU started way back in 1873 ultimately becoming a major political force when its most well-known advocate, Carrie Nation, helped lead the way for the 18th Amendment, the one that banned alcohol in the United States. Of course, Ms. Nation died 8 years before the Amendment succeeded in becoming law, but that doesn’t stop her from being one of the main reasons for giving rise to the exciting career of our most honored Chicago citizen, Al Capone. Thanks, Carrie.

So, who cares much about what the WCTU is doing now some 90 years after their main premise was proven an abject failure? The AP apparently.
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Assoc. Press Now Pushing Anti-Scott Walker Story About… Beer?”


What, Mr. President? The Private Sector is ‘Doing Fine’??

On Friday, President Obama inexplicably said ‘The private sector is doing fine.'” Since the president is completely out of touch, these middle class workers talked about their experiences to remind him of the realities of the Obama economy.

Transcript
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What, Mr. President? The Private Sector is ‘Doing Fine’??”


CPAC Chicago, Part 4: Joe Walsh, Randy Hultgren, Straw Poll Results

-By Warner Todd Huston

Finally, in part four we’ll hear from two solid Illinois Congressmen, the 8th District’s Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren of the 14th. We’ll also hear the, perhaps not startling results of the straw poll, the most important question from which was who Romney should pick for his vice presidential candidate (hint, the top picks weren’t any of his one-time rivals for the nomination).

Congressman Joe Walsh


Rep. Joe Walsh gins up the crowd

Joe Walsh of the Illinois 8th District is the one Congressman that the left wants to eliminate more than any other Republican Congressman. This is because Joe has carved out from among his fellows an outsized voice for conservatism. He appears regularly on TV and radio to tout the conservative message. But he’s become a major target of Democrat redistricting and now faces a tough challenge to be reelected in his newly reconfigured 8th District. Me, I think he can easily beat the know-nothing candidate the Democrats have put up against him, but Joe is taking nothing for granted.

One thing is sure, though, Joe Walsh knows how to get a conservative audience in motion.
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CPAC Chicago, Part 4: Joe Walsh, Randy Hultgren, Straw Poll Results”


CPAC Chicago, Part 3: Bobby Jindal, Peter Roskam, Michele Bachman

-By Warner Todd Huston

In part three of our series we’ll take a look at the speeches of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam, and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Bachmann’s speech was quite interesting for its singular focus on a particular jihad-supporting Muslim group that is operating in America today. Bachmann was vehement that Obama ban this group.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal


Gov. Bobby Jindal on the main stage

Jindal is another favorite of the greater conservative movement. He has a very compelling story of immigrant parents that came to America to become part of this great nation to finally see their little son become the most powerful man in their adopted state. It’s the perfect American story, for sure.

Speaking of stories, Jindal has a lot of them especially where it concerns his involvement in the BP Oil spill from 2010. I’ve seen Jindal relate this tale several times and it is always a good one. His description of how the federal government was more interested in observing its silly OSHA than deal quickly with the emergency before them was telling and hilarious — though ultimately sad and infuriating. Since this is standard stump speech stuff of Jindal’s, though, I did not Tweet that segment.

Like the others Jindal started praising the Walker win in Wisconsin. One of his funniest lines was that all the news people were proclaiming that the vote would be so close that it would be a long night for Wisconsin as they tallied the votes. But reality proved that the whole thing was over in a matter of hours with Walker’s landslide. Instead of it being a long night for Wisconsin, Jindal joked that it was instead a “long night at Obama headquarters in Chicago!”
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CPAC Chicago, Part 3: Bobby Jindal, Peter Roskam, Michele Bachman”


CPAC Chicago, Part 2: Richard Mourdock, Chris Christie, Herman Cain

-By Warner Todd Huston

In part two of my coverage of CPACs first Midwestern conference event, we will see some of the high spots of the floor speeches of Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – always a crowd favorite – and the redoubtable Herman Cain. Cain also visited the media room and I have video of that below the fold.

Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock

Richard Mourdock is the current Indiana State treasurer but he also just defeated long-time incumbent Senator Richard Lugar for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate from Indiana. He’ll face the Democrat come November. Mourdock has been widely touted as the insurgent Tea Party candidate that beat Lugar, the old line, establishment man.

“No one expected a lowly state treasurer could take out a 36-year Senator! But we DID,” Mourdock said triumphantly.

Mourdock also noted that Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has called him the “Hoosier headache.” Mourdock was rather proud of that appellation.
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CPAC Chicago, Part 2: Richard Mourdock, Chris Christie, Herman Cain”


CPAC Chicago, Wisconsin Praised, Obama Razed — Part One: Rick Santorum, Ron Johnson

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, Friday evening, June 8, 2012, we marked the end of the first CPAC event held in Chicago and what a great event it was. The triumph in Wisconsin was on everyone’s mind but so was Obama’s dismal record. Not just dismal, but according to several speakers, even dangerous. The economy and the election of Romney were focal points but so was foreign policy this day. One theme, though, was constant: Obama has to go.

Because of other things going on and the several press availability sessions, I didn’t catch every speaker in the main hall, but I did hear the speeches of (in this order) former Senator Rick Santorum, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Indiana Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Illinois Representative Peter Roskam, Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann, and Illinois Representatives Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren. I also heard and recorded the press availability sessions of Herman Caine, Peter Roskam, and Michelle Bachmann and I caught most of Kansas Representative Tim Huelskamp’s.

Other notables whose speeches I missed were Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner, and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

The event was a great success with well over 2,000 participants, all seats filled for the most part during the speeches and some great groups like the United Republican Fund, the Illinois Policy Institute, the Heartland Institute, Champion News, and others hosting and participating.

I’ll say a few words about the speakers I did see in the order I saw them and I’ll do this in a few installments so that this won’t be one long, overly taxing post. Now, as each of these speakers appeared before us I live Tweeted their comments, so the following quotes are pulled from my Twitter feed.

But before I do that, each speaker was quite enthusiastic over the win of Governor Scott Walker who defeated an effort by the far left and their union overlords to recall him in Wisconsin. Each speaker praised Walker and crowed about the left’s loss in there. I won’t regurgitate the Wisconsin hunk of each speaker as they were pretty much all the same; exuberant. The essential point was that we are all cheeseheads now.

Rick Santorum


Rick Santorum on the main stage

Former Pennsylvania Senator and recent GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum gave one of his well-crafted, typically workman-like speeches. One of Santorum’s early points was that America is at a “tipping point” and we’d better be there to tip it in the right direction.
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CPAC Chicago, Wisconsin Praised, Obama Razed — Part One: Rick Santorum, Ron Johnson”


Equal Pay? More Like Special Payoffs to Trial Lawyers

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrats and left-wing activists have lately been pushing the idea of “equal pay” for women in an attempt to find some issue that would take attention away from the horrible economic record of the Obama administration as the campaign for the White House heats up. But who really benefits from this push? Trial lawyers, of course.

This week the Democrats tried to float the “Paycheck Fairness Act,” but it failed in the Senate in a 52-47 vote.

So what would this act do? As Andrew Stiles reports:

The “Paycheck Fairness Act” would have established unlimited punitive damage claims in class action lawsuits filed against employers in instances of alleged gender discrimination. The chief beneficiaries of the bill, experts told the Washington Free Beacon, would not have been female workers but the lawyers and law firms that would litigate the lucrative lawsuits made possible by its passage.

Naturally trial lawyers have given more than $230 million to federal political candidates with the largest amount going to Democrats — $132 million to Senate democrats alone.
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Equal Pay? More Like Special Payoffs to Trial Lawyers”