Capitalism

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - Society/Culture - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties

January 18, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Neil Cavuto of Fox News had a visit with former Vice President Dan Qualyle on Jan 13. Ostensibly the interview was about the earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that Quayle was saying needed to be made for the victims there, but Cavuto also asked the former veep about his feelings about the Tea Party movement. Quayle’s reply was revealing in that he proved that he really didn’t know how to think about the Tea Partiers. I think that Quayle is in exactly the same confused state that most of the old guard GOP is. They just don’t get it.

Cavuto asked what Quayle thought of the Tea Party movement and what it portended for the Republican Party and Quayle’s reply was that the GOP had to “co-opt” the Tea Partiers back into the GOP.

Sorry, Dan old pal, but that is wrong, wrong, wrong. The GOP had better understand that it is the Tea Partiers that have the upper hand here and the party also better understand that THEY must be the ones to become “co-opted.” It ain’t the other way ’round, Danny!
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Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

Obama’s Tax On The Banks

January 18, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Dan Scott

President Obama and his advisors announced they were asking Congress to pass a tax on banks to loosely as he put it, pay back every dime of TARP funds used to save them. His condescending announcement blaming the banks was laughable ignorance at best and deceitful at worst. He further went on to imply that the banks should desist from sending lawyers and lobbyists to Washington and just do the responsible thing as though the banks have been shirking this financial obligation. This is great populist sloganeering, however, like most liberal assertions; they are falsehoods just waiting to be exposed. So is this a simple case of ignorance on President Obama’s part or was he lying for some ulterior motive?

The facts are: all the banks except Citicorp and Wells Fargo have paid back every dime of TARP money they in some cases were forced to accept from the government lest CEOs be removed from their positions. Both of these two banks are working diligently to pay this money back. Why? Self-interest, they don’t want to be under the government’s control. Which begs the question, didn’t Obama appoint a czar to “regulate” the salary and bonus issue of TARP borrowers that he is railing about? It wasn’t until the banks publicly complained and the Taxpayers (Tea Party Protesters) demonstrating in the streets against spend thrift behavior that the government relented to allow these institutions to pay back the TARP funds. In the liberal world apparently this was all done for the benefit of these institutions when many of them didn’t want a dime of government money in the first place, then the banks had the audacity of still turning a profit and paying bonuses to employees who’s activities made that profit possible. You see, since the banks are turning a profit and paying bonuses during the very same period they received TARP funds, then clearly they never needed the money in the first place thus conflicting with the liberal narrative, “it was a crisis, they had to do something.” The reality was, what they did wasn’t necessary much less proper, most Americans already knew this intuitively, the banks just proved it in black and white on their financial statements. Liberals really hate those pesky facts.

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Obama’s Tax On The Banks”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages

January 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if there were ever any doubts, the unions bosses that descended upon the White House earlier in the week appear to have succeeded in getting their members excluded from the so-called Cadillac taxes on expensive healthcare packages.

The Obama administration, having been bought and paid for by unions, agreed to demands that unions be excluded from the onerous taxation that many of the rest of us will be forced to pay to float Obama’s budget busting Obamacare plans.

The unions pretended themselves to meet Obama in the middle by agreeing to put a time limit on this sweetheart deal. It was agreed that the unions would be exempt from these taxes for the next 18 years after which they’d then have to pay the tax like everyone else.

But, come on. Does anyone believe that 17 years from now that the unions would not be right back up at the White House demanding to have that 18 years extended or the tax exclusion made permanent? And does anyone believe that their demands would not be easily agreed to by pliant politicians looking for Big Labor’s giant political donations?

If anyone doubts that once Big Labor gets an exclusion it will never be rescinded, then they are not very bright!
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Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages”

Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Illinois - Society/Culture - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Amer. For Prosperity Illinois: Regional Defending American Dream Summit, Wisconsin Dells

January 15, 2010 by

AFP-IL is partnering with AFP-WI in hosting a Midwest Regional “Defending the American Dream Summit” and You’re Invited! Join like-minded folks from throughout the Midwest. Learn more about the value of citizen activism and the tools AFP offers to effect change in your communities.

The date is set! Saturday, March 13th, 2010. The Regional Defending the American Dream Summit will be held at the Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. The list of speakers, training classes and special guests are growing. Rest assured, the event will be dynamic, informative and great fun! To Learn more and to register for the event click here.
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Amer. For Prosperity Illinois: Regional Defending American Dream Summit, Wisconsin Dells”

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Technology

Unintended Consequences: Balkanizing the Internet

January 15, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

The big missing part of the policy debate over how to best ensure continuation of an open Internet, i.e. through existing policy or the FCC’s proposed preemptive regulations, is what makes the Internet universal?

The Internet is near universal because it is entirely voluntary. All of the Internet’s signature elements are voluntary, not mandated by government(s).

Internet Protocol (IP) is a networking protocol that became universal precisely because it offered the ability for everyone to communicate in basically the same “language.” No one was required to use/adopt IP; people voluntarily adopted it because it was better and offered the most universal networking opportunity. Moreover, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), whose “mission is to make the Internet work better,” is an entirely voluntary collaborative process that functions outside of any government(s) control.

The Domain Name System (DNS), essentially the Internet’s address system, rapidly became universal precisely because people voluntarily recognized its essential value and adopted it. No country owns, controls or approves the Internet’s addresses; it’s a voluntary market process.
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Unintended Consequences: Balkanizing the Internet”

Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Illinois - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Policy Institute: State of the State is…?

January 14, 2010 by

The State of the State is…
Yesterday, Governor Pat Quinn gave his “State of the State” address—and, by pretty much all accounts, Illinois has seen better days. John Tillman appeared on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight last night to give his assessment of Governor Quinn’s speech. You can watch by clicking the video above.
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Illinois Policy Institute: State of the State is…?”

Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Free Trade - Freedom - Illinois - Sam Adams Alliance - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago’s Sam Adams Alliance is Hiring

January 13, 2010 by

The Sam Adams Alliance is looking for students and recent grads with a passion for advancing free-market principles and policies.

We currently have full-time and part-time internships available for the spring and summer semesters in the following areas (click on each for more information):
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Chicago’s Sam Adams Alliance is Hiring”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Illinois - Liberals - Mayor Richard Daley - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Unions and Corruption Plague Chicago’s Convention Business

January 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center is one of the largest convention halls in the world. With a total of 2,670,000 square feet of exhibition space and clocking in at a building cost of nearly one billion dollars it had better be one of the biggest, after all Chicago does do things big. Sadly that includes big corruption and unfortunately that corruption is turning “the city that works” into the city that lost its jobs.

This week Chicago’s Mayor Richard “King” Daley railed against the conditions that have made Chicago’s convention business a wreck these days. Along with Governor Pat Quinn, Daley has unveiled new work rules that would prevent unions from striking and would change union policies so that the high, high costs of bringing a convention to Chicago might come down.

Naturally, Daley was too weak-kneed to assign the blame where it mostly belongs: unions. Even as all his fixes center on alterations in union operations, Daley refused to say this is mostly the fault of the overweening and costly unions.
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Unions and Corruption Plague Chicago’s Convention Business”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Google - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis

January 10, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

In a filing to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan, the DOJ Antitrust Division, the U.S Government’s leading expert in assessing the state of competition in communications markets, implicitly rejected net neutrality proponents’ core thesis of broadband market failure.

This DOJ filing, which represents the most recent U.S. Government expert assessment of broadband competition, could make it extremely difficult for the FCC to legitimately conclude in the coming months the factual opposite — broadband market failure.

Without a sound factual finding of broadband market failure, it also could be extremely difficult for the FCC to legally justify preemptively mandating common-carrier-like regulations on un-regulated broadband information service providers in the FCC’s pending open Internet proceeding.

Let’s review the DOJ’s core broadband competitive conclusions, which are relevant to the alleged broadband market failure thesis and the FCC’s open Internet proceeding.
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DOJ Rejects Broadband Market Failure Thesis”

Africa - Anti-Americanism - Britain - Capitalism - Christianity - Education - Family - Freedom - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Religion - Rights - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Some Cultures Aren’t ‘Just as Good as Ours’

January 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Multiculturalism is the dream state of the extreme left, not just in the U.S.A. but worldwide. From the pointy-heads at university, to the self-congratulatory oafs in Brussels and Washington D.C., these leftists sternly warn us all that any assumption that one culture is somehow better than another is “racist,” or at the least gauche. Everyone is the same, they say and you are a creep to think otherwise.

And they are simply wrong. Some cultures are better than others. A recent BBC report proves my nay saying of multiculturalism is right, too.

On Jan 7 the BBC posted a report on the increase in child sacrifice in Uganda where so-called witch-doctors are increasingly killing children in faux religious practices in order to bestow good luck on adults.
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Some Cultures Aren’t ‘Just as Good as Ours’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare

January 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at BigGovernment.com, Don Loos posited an excellent reason about why the big public employees unions are falling all over themselves to help Obama force Obamacare down America’s throats even though their members would lose their lavish healthcare plans as a result. The reason? $19 billion in likely dues money that these unions will get when helathcare is taken over by the federal government is the reason.

It is true that everyone in the country will be hurt by the current Obamacare policies, it is true that everyone will experience less healthcare coverage at higher costs, it is true that government will ration healthcare and the elderly and very young will find less access to healthcare, it is true that government will destroy the best healthcare in the world. But the bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, feel that the trade offs will be worth the loss.

… and to be sure neither Stern nor McEntee will lose their own Cadillac healthcare plans regardless.
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Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Family - Free Trade - Illinois - Liberals - Oregon - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike

January 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you Tea Party goers in the western U.S. want a specific battle to fight there is none better than ballot measures 66 and 67 in the State of Oregon. The venerable Beaver State is preparing to chase out even more jobs and intends to tax its industry and small businesses to death with these badly timed measures but Oregonians have a chance to stop them by voting “no” on both 66 and 67.

During the worst national and state-wide economy since The Great Depression, with Oregon families losing jobs in every corner of the state, with businesses going out of business everywhere, the high-minded, left-wing state government has decided in its inestimable wisdom to launch the largest tax hike on the business community and the so-called rich in Oregon’s history. In 2009 over 1$ billion in permanent tax hikes was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski, the drunken sailor that sits in the State House in Salem.
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In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike”

Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Case Against Public Sector Unions

January 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

By now you are all familiar with my beating on my little unions-are-bad-for-government drum… ya may even be tired of it by now. Still, I’d like to pass on the work of friend to the blog David Denholm who has also addressed this point in the past.

On the Public Service Research Foundation website can be found Denholm’s excellent article titled, “The Case Against Public Sector Unionism and Collective Bargaining.” In it you’ll find some great points and a thorough discussion on the evils that is a unionized government workforce.

One of the best insights that Denholm has is that a unionized government workforce eliminates the democratic right of the voters to affect their government. (download pdf copy)

By making the union a full and equal partner at the bargaining table, compulsory public-sector bargaining laws deprive the public of its right to participate in policy making. This point was emphasized in a U.S. District Court opinion which upheld the constitutionality of a North Carolina law declaring public-sector union contracts to be void. The Court said:

Moreover, to the extent that public employees gain power through recognition and collective bargaining, other interest groups with a right to a voice in the running of the government may be left out of vital political decisions. Thus the granting of collective bargaining rights to public employees involves important matters fundamental to our democratic form of government. The setting of goals and making policy decisions are rights inuring to each citizen. All citizens have the right to associate in groups to advocate their special interests to the government. It is something entirely different to grant any one interest group special status and access to the decision-making process.

This reflects my own points made so very often right here on the blog. The incestuous relationship between union — that becomes a patron of politicians — and politicians — that return that patronage — wholly cuts out the voter’s ability to direct government to their desires and needs.

Anyway, Denholm makes some great points and his piece is well worth the read.
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The Case Against Public Sector Unions”

Business - California - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding

January 5, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another example of why unions are antithetical to good government, a pliant, left-wing judge in California has ruled that the Schwarzenegger Administration cannot furlough state workers that belong to three powerful public employees unions.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been battling to cut his over spent state budget for several years now and one of the solutions to the problem that he lit upon was the idea that he might furlough his workforce. He would give these workers a few days a month off without pay and this would save the taxpayer’s millions. It is a good idea and one that real-world businesses are forced to employ all the time when things get tough.

But here come the state unions to prevent this simple cost saving measure even though it is common as dirt in the real-world sector.
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Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Vince Johnson

Disbursements by the Lower House will get Very Serious Attention in 2010

January 5, 2010 by

-By Vince Johnson

This scoop brought to you by G. R. Vince Johnson, Veteran WW II and Korea

On June 3, 2009 Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested the Statement of Disbursements for the House of Representatives be published online as part of her continued commitment to increase governmental transparency and accountability. You can use the surfing info appearing above the red line to review and evaluate these disbursements.

The report consists of 3,379 pages listing details of disbursement made by the House of Representatives during July, August and September 2009. (4th Quarter of Fiscal 2009)

Pages 2801, 2802 and 2803 list the names, titles and salaries for 87 professional staff members on the Committee on Financial Service Chaired by Barney Frank. Total salaries paid during the 4th quarter were $2,080,547 which means the average annual salary for each staff member on Barney Frank’s committee is $95,657. Example: Thomas G. Duncan, General Counsel received $42,674 in salary during July, August and September 2009. This amounts to a salary of $170,696 a year. (Barney’s annual salary as a Representative is $174,000.)
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Disbursements by the Lower House will get Very Serious Attention in 2010″

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government

December 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I know I’ve said it before, but unionism is antithetical to good government. It is impossible to have both unions and effective government in a democratic republic such as ours. Unions destroy good government, waste money at all levels and they move strictly against the best interests of the voters in all cases. Once again my axiom is shown as a truism with a report by Michael Barone with his Dec. 30 Examiner piece.

Barone details the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll that reveals that Americans that aren’t in government unions and government jobs feel that the economy and the job outlook is getting worse while those in government jobs and unions think everything is going swimmingly.

That isn’t because the government jobs are materially better, but that the government jobs are raiding the public treasury and returning nothing of worth to the country through undue influence on politicians. You might ask why government workers feel things are so good if their jobs provide nothing of worth to the country? Good question. The problem is, even as government jobs are useless to the health, wealth, and welfare of the country, even while government jobs tear us all down and make us weaker in every category, they do provide something of relative worth to politicians: campaign cash.
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Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - GOP - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Supreme Court - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Where Are You Frum, Anyway?

December 29, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Canadian David Frum is like the cross-eyed marksman, he can see the target but just can’t ever hit it. The self-styled conservative has been the Old Media’s leading conservative in attacking, well, other conservatives. Naturally his Dec. 25 piece on theweek.com is no exception. Not only does he attack other conservatives, as is his wont, he so badly misreads the Constitution and certain other facts in the healthcare debate, it makes one wonder if he’s muffing it all on purpose? He does, however, get one salient fact right: the U.S. has already so ignored the U.S. Constitution that this socialist Obamacare plan will likely be declared wholly constitutional.

Frum’s latest frumble asks the question whether or not Obamacare is constitutional? He determines that it is constitutional mainly because Congress and multiple Supreme Courts have already ignored the Constitution so often as to make it likely they will all do so again to OK the illicit intrusion into our lives that is Obamacare.

OK, with his basic premise Frum is right. It is likely that our out-of-control federal establishment will again warp the Constitution to cover yet another socialist abomination. But how he gets to this conclusion is so filled with missteps that it is laughable and further this lapse of sense does not make it actually constitutional. It just makes it a done deal.
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Where Are You Frum, Anyway?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Founders - Freedom - GOP - House of Representatives - Jeff Lukens - Liberals - Republicans - Rights - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Western Civilization

The Choice Between Prosperity and Decline

December 29, 2009 by

– By Jeff Lukens

This land of a free people and a free-market economy has generated a great wave of innovation that has benefited all of humanity. The essence of freedom and prosperity that moved around the world in past 200 and some years has been driven primarily by the United States. With our economy now stagnating, it has become more important than ever to return to the basic Constitutional freedoms that have made prosperity possible.

My son came home from college to visit recently. After some time of catching up on things, the conversation turned to topics that interest him — and that means all things electronic. He explained to me why I needed the latest operating system update for the computer and how properly to configure the surround sound system for the HDTV. I could barely keep up with it. Somewhere in the conversation, it occurred to me that in the long view of human history, we have come a long way in a very short time.

Think about it. In the 1600s, the ships that brought the first settlers to our shores, and tools for tilling the soil they brought with them, were not much more advanced than those used by people thousands of years before. In the relatively short time since their arrival in the New World, there has been an explosion in technology and the standard of living for ordinary people.

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The Choice Between Prosperity and Decline”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Technology

Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open”

December 27, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Google posted its treatise on “The meaning of open” designed to redefine the word “open” in Google’s image. It is an important read because it is a bay window view into the altruistic way that Google yearns for the world to perceive it.

Like most all of Google’s PR, however, Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open” may be “the truth” as Google sees it, but it is certainly not “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

I. Google’s Open Double Standard

Simply, Google is for “open” wherever it does not have a monopoly or dominant market position, however where it does, as in AdWords, AdSense and search advertising syndication, it is closed, to ensure that its dominance remains impregnable to competitors.
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Google’s Open Double Standard: Fact-Checking Google’s Treatise on “The meaning of open””

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Surprise: Obama Springs to Action With Federal Cash for Alabama

December 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tropical Storm Ida happened well over a month ago, almost two now. But regardless, the great father in Washington has generously opened up the federal purse to help those struggling folks that lost so much to that storm. The devastation was so bad that USA Today said of the storm, “Tropical Storm Ida slogged ashore in the area in November with heavy rains but left relatively little damage.”

Huh? Wait a minute? If the storm wasn’t so bad, why is the Obama Administration suddenly, almost two months later, making a show of sending federal disaster money to Alabama?

Oh, wait. Maybe this is why…

Rep. Griffith of Alabama leaves Democrats for Republicans

Freshman Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) switched his affiliation to the Republican Party on Tuesday, saying he could “no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country.”

Hmmm. Maybe Obama is trying to bribe the left over Democrats of Alabama with federal “disaster” cash in order to make sure no more of them jump into Representative Griffith’s boat?

What else could explain this quixotic largess but bribery?
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Surprise: Obama Springs to Action With Federal Cash for Alabama”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Google - Inernet - Liberals - Scott Cleland - Society/Culture - Taxes - Technology

Googleopoly V — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob

December 22, 2009 by

-By Scott Cleland

Below is the abstract of the latest white paper in my five-part “Googleopoly” series of antitrust white papers. The full white paper is at this link and at www.googleopoly.net.

 Googleopoly V* — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob

The Top Ten Reasons Why Google-AdMob Would “Substantially Lessen Competition”

Abstract: A Google acquisition of AdMob would eliminate Google’s only substantial rival platform in mobile in-application advertising and catapult Google from an estimated 25% share to over 75% share of this strategic gatekeeper market for monetizing mobile Internet applications. Combined with Google’s search advertising monopoly and dominance of mobile search advertising, Google’s acquisition of AdMob, “the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace,” would likely tip the broader mobile advertising marketplace from a competitive to a monopoly trajectory. In short, the AdMob acquisition threatens to foreclose competition and facilitate monopoly in a strategic gatekeeper market essential to the Internet economy, which would harm: consumers, developers, advertisers, publishers, smart-phone manufacturers, and broadband providers.
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Googleopoly V — Why the FTC Should Block Google-AdMob”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Cokie Roberts Proves She is a Liar

December 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am finding it increasingly impossible to discuss current politics without pointing out that Democrats and liberals are simply a pack of liars and “journalist” Cokie Roberts fits quite neatly into this category for what she said about the healthcare debate on ABC’s This Week Sunday morning talk show.

As Brent Baker of Newsbusters reported on December 20, Cokie Roberts was all aflutter over the “Christmas gift” that is the Senate healthcare bill. But her characterizing this anti-American piece of legislation as a “Christmas gift” isn’t the lie. After all, when you want America destroyed like Cokie obviously does, then this bill is, indeed, a sort of gift.

No, here is what made her out to be a liar.
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Cokie Roberts Proves She is a Liar”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Do you Believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Stimulus?

December 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Christmas for adults is never quite the same as Christmas for the under 12-year-old set. Not that it’s all bad if you are an adult, it’s just that it takes a different form for adults. For kids it’s all about the magic of Santa Claus. When you believe it all seems so wondrous. This blindly, uninformed reliance on mere belief is a perfect definition of the Democrat voter.

As an adult, of course, a lot of what many of us see during Christmas are the mounting bills for gifts, growing credit card debt, and draining bank accounts. It always makes for a bit of a dark cloud for which the silver lining is a day with family, the bright smiling faces of our kids on Christmas morning, and a celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus.

Recently I was reflecting on this Christmas reality trying to apply it as a metaphor for Obama’s wasted stimulus money. But, soon I realized that the only similarities between believing in Santa and believing in the stimulus is the fact that they are both a fantasy. Sadly, whereas Christmas offers much that is wonderful (despite that the bills will come due) the stimulus has no such silver lining… unless you are a Democrat politician needing votes because a vote getting device is all the stimulus really was.
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Do you Believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Stimulus?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Science - Selwyn Duke - Socialism - Society/Culture

Understanding the Global-warming Jihadists

December 21, 2009 by

-By Selwyn Duke

“I was born with a chronic anxiety about the weather,” said John Burroughs in 1877. Today, anxiety about the weather is more common than ever, although it’s not inborn but cultivated in schoolrooms, through television sets and by lying, rapacious ex-vice presidents. And I have anxiety about the weather, too — especially when it’s being used to promote a destructive agenda.

This brings us to Climategate, the scandal everyone is talking about and that inspired British journalist James Delingpole to write “it’s [the climate con is] all unravelling now.” I only wish I could be so optimistic. Sure, we have the smoking gun of the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia, which provide evidence that we “deniers” were only denying a lie. And the erstwhile head of its Climatic Research Unit, Phil Jones — a con man with a science degree if ever there were one — had to resign in disgrace. But don’t for a moment confuse a smoking gun with a coup de grace, or being sacrificed for the team with waving the white flag. I say this because I long ago realized something about man’s nature, something that may sound like a gross exaggeration: If a person has a strong enough vested interest in believing 2+2=5, he will surely insist it is so — in the face of all evidence to the contrary. But before I talk about who the real deniers are and what is being denied, let’s discuss the ugly reality reaffirmed by Climategate.
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Understanding the Global-warming Jihadists”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Frank Salvato - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

At This Point It’s About Defining the “Win”

December 20, 2009 by

-By Frank Salvato

Does anyone remember back to when the current healthcare reform initiative began? What were the goals? What were the reasons for the subject even being broached? Progressives and Democrats insisted that the healthcare system was broken because there were millions of people (figures varied, but averaged around 37 million) who were uninsured and that those who had health insurance were subject to continuously rising insurance premiums and diminished coverage. The goal, Progressives and Democrats said, was to provide every American with health insurance and lower healthcare costs for all…all by the end of President Obama’s first term.

Today, as we approach the end of President Obama’s first term, the House and Senate bills that are being presented to the American people fail – miserably – to achieve these two basics goals. Instead, they present as a wish list for special interest groups, establish an unnecessary and additional government bureaucracy and stand as testimony to the opportunistic ineptitude of today’s Progressive controlled Democrat Party. The only saving grace is that these bills will have to go through the reconciliation process before they are presented to President Obama for his signature, at which time the final product will become the law of the land…for now, at least.

Interesting in all of this is how the target goals have changed.

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At This Point It’s About Defining the “Win””

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter

December 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recalcitrant teachers union in Florida once again shows that reform for the sake of the kids doesn’t interest it. A federal program called Race to the Top bestows federal money on any district that institutes merit pay and reforms its schools. Guess who hates the idea. Yep, you guessed it: Florida’s teachers unions.

Instead of launching in full support of school reform in order to help kids get a better education, the union has announced that it will instead be foot draggers and opposers.

Rightly or wrongly, the federal government is offering billions of federal dollars to Florida schools, but the teachers union wants to stand in the way of that largess because it opposes requiring its teachers to be worthy of their pay through merit.
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One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Closing the Barn Door

December 19, 2009 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Procrustean regulation of banks and other financial institutions, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, will not prevent the next credit debacle and economic recession.

The House of Representatives has just passed a bill, primarily the brain child of Congressman Barney Frank, that expands the scope and detailed depth of financial markets’ regulation.

For public consumption, Congressman Frank’s legislation aims to prevent future financial meltdowns. This it will fail to do. It will, however, continue the long standing animosity between Democrat/Socialists and Wall Street and the business community.

Accepting the Democrat/Socialist Party’s nomination for the presidency in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt railed against the “economic royalists” who were allegedly seeking a “new industrial dictatorship.” Privately, he opined that businessmen as a class were stupid, that newspapers were just as bad. During the election campaign of 1936, in an address at Madison Square Garden, he fulminated against the magnates of “organized money.” To uprorious applause, he threatened: “I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”
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Closing the Barn Door”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union

December 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is momentous news, harrowing news if you are a Democrat that wants Obamacare passed at all costs. The powerful and very rich Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is wavering in its until now stated support of Obamacare.

The Hill is reporting that the SEIU just backed out of an event promoting the Senate’s healthcare bill over “concerns” about the changes that have recently been made to get the support of Joe Lieberman and centrist Democrats.

Apparently the SEIU was going to attend a rah-rah session with the AARP, the liberal advocacy group Families USA, Consumers Union and the American Cancer Society Action Network but unexpectedly dumped out of the event on Wednesday.
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Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Health - Illinois - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Govt Healthcare Will Give us ALL Pay Cuts

December 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Big Labor has, for the most part, fallen all over itself to help its patron President get his Obamacare policies passed in Congress spending millions to do so. If Obamacare should pass many millions will lose their healthcare and will be forced into government healthcare. According to the CBO at least 10 million will lose their insurance in short order. The CBO is likely lowballing the number, too.

That means many people that now have insurance through their employers will lose it and, thereby, lose some of their compensation and that brings up a major point that few people are talking about. I’ve mentioned it offhandedly in the past, but reader D. Harrison brought the issue before me in a recent email and I thought we should make it a point here.

Mr. Harrison wrote:
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Govt Healthcare Will Give us ALL Pay Cuts”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Founders - History - John Armor - Liberals - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes

Ben Franklin: On Science

December 17, 2009 by

-By John Armor

As most of you know, the international recognition of me as a scientist began with the day that I captured lightning with a kite. Had I done that experiment the way the popular myth says, I probably would have been electrocuted, an early end to an ordinary career.

You probably recall that my formal education ended when I was 14. After that, I bought and read every worthwhile book I could find. I died in 1790, but one aspect of the Other Side that I can share with you is that we get to read and see whatever interests us about the continuing fate of this nation we created, and started on its way.

You are in the middle of national consideration of laws that would involve more than a trillion dollars of public and private spending for purposes based, or claiming to be based, on scientific weather considerations. Now, I know the word trillion, but I never had occasion to use it. I recall the greatest warship Congress approved in my day, the USF Constitution and known as “Old Ironsides” now lies at harbor in Boston. She cost about $60,000 to build and equip. That gives you an idea of how far the value of the dollar has declined.
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Ben Franklin: On Science”