More Proof of California Being Destroyed by Homelessness, Illegals, and Liberals

-By Warner Todd Huston

Liberals are no longer destroying California bit-by-bit. They have sped their destruction up to a faster clip and conservative actor James Woods just showed some proof of the frenetic pace.

Usually, the left in California, especially the Hollywood elite, have succeeded in secluding themselves away from the troubles the average citizen faces every day, but Woods shows that even the liberal elites are starting to be forced to confront the troubles they have wrought with their foolhardy, self-destructive policies.

Liberals have allowed the once great state of California to devolve into the worst dystopian mess in the nation (though Illinois is desperately trying to beat the west coasters). But, now even the elites are finding their territory overrun with the homeless and illegals and conservative actor James Woods revealed a shocking video outside the famed studios of TV mogul Oprah Winfrey to show it.

“This is the sidewalk next to Oprah Winfrey’s studio in West Hollywood,” Woods tweeted on May 25. “She has done extensive, and truly beautiful renovations to The Lot. Brand new apartments were built across the street. The new resident families cannot walk their children on the sidewalk to the local school.”

Along with the tweet, Woods added a video showing row after row of tents used by illegals and homeless people living on the very sidewalk outside Oprah’s studios.

Conservative Tribune reported the major trouble that California is seeing with the growing number of homeless people in the state…
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More Proof of California Being Destroyed by Homelessness, Illegals, and Liberals”


Defiant: New Hampshire GOP Establishment Gov. Candidate Calls Tea Partiers ‘Teabaggers’

-By Warner Todd Huston

New Hampshire GOP establishment has foisted Walt Havenstein on the state as the Republican candidate for Governor. But, typical of these establishment types, it seems that they have more contempt for people on their own side than they do for the real enemy; the Democrats. Havenstein, for instance, calls you Tea Partiers the disgusting name “teabaggers.” Not only that but he refuses to apologize for his slander.

Havenstein was recorded on video calling members of the Tea Party “teabaggers” at talk he gave a few years ago at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Now, one might note that this speech was a few years ago, sure. Maybe Havenstein has changed his mind, maybe he was just trying to be “funny,” maybe he really doesn’t hate conservatives?
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Defiant: New Hampshire GOP Establishment Gov. Candidate Calls Tea Partiers ‘Teabaggers’”


Could India Be On The Verge of a Major Shift Toward Capitalism?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of all the countries in the world that have the potential to become one of the world’s next great superpowers, India is a nation poised to take that step. While there is an awful lot holding that giant nation back, their latest election just might be the next step to a more secure, prosperous future.

This possible new step was the election of a pro business party to govern the nation. For some time India has been controlled by the Congress Party, a very corrupt and typically socialist-styled political party that has done little to bring growth to the country. But the Congress Party has fallen and in a big way.

This week the BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party) has won a shocking landslide election booting the Congress Party entirely out of power.

Headed by Prime Minister-Elect Narendra Modi, the BJP is a very pro-business and pro-modernity party. Modi has already created India’s version of Texas with his governorship of the Gujarat state, the most prosperous area of India and now he is poised to try and bring that level of success to the whole country.
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Could India Be On The Verge of a Major Shift Toward Capitalism?”


Senate Hearing on Future of Bitcoin: Legal Tender or Criminal Enterprise?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The U.S. Senate held a hearing on the Internet-based Bitcoin currency on Nov. 18 revealing a U.S. government that is struggling with crafting policy to govern how the virtual currency can be used in the United States.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs held a major hearing on Bitcoin and other virtual currencies called, “Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies.” The Committee also has a video of the proceedings.

Bitcoin has gotten a black eye because criminals and drug dealers have used the currency in an effort to avoid law enforcement and earlier this year U.S. authorities shut down several websites that traded in Bitcoins over this use by criminals.

But recently the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank issued a “primer” on how Bitcoin works that raised the virtual currency’s stock in the world of finance.
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Senate Hearing on Future of Bitcoin: Legal Tender or Criminal Enterprise?”


Congressman Roskam Previews Obama’s State of the Union Speech

-By Warner Todd Huston

I had a few minutes to speak privately to Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam (R, 6th District) about the upcoming State of the Union speech that the President will give tonight and as far as Roskam is concerned the speech tonight will be nothing but a “highly charged and very, very political” speech that won’t contain many actual solutions.

Roskam, the Chief Deputy Whip of the House, said that he hopes that the President will offer ways to grow private sector jobs and a plan to “live within our means,” but he was not sanguine that he will.

“I think the President is going to lapse right into inauguration speech 2.0 and it’s all going to be highly political, and a lot of wedge issues that are not designed to try and get any kind of concessions or solutions on any of these things,” Roskam told me.

“The irony is, he’s got a real opportunity here if he wanted to lead and try and grow the economy but I think he’s just going to follow the old play book.”

Roskam also noted that the President’s Party is also not trying too hard to offer solutions.
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Congressman Roskam Previews Obama’s State of the Union Speech”


Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Social Security is as close to insolvency as you can get and not be completely belly up. Government watchdogs warn that Social Security will see a $7 trillion shortfall by 2086. But the Associated Press says, don’t worry about all that, America. Why, the Social Security system isn’t as bad as Europe’s public pension mess, so everything’s just fine. Move along. Nothing to see here.

In the article, AP sets about comparing Europe’s public pension systems to Social Security. In so doing AP is apparently trying to quell fears that Social Security is in crisis. Why, Europe’s is in worse shape, so Social Security is “downright frugal,” The AP says.

Not only is the AP apparently trying to make Americans forget all about the mess that our entitlements are in, but the venerable wire service goes on to note that Europe’s benefits are far more generous than our miserly Social Security.

AP points out that those lucky Europeans can retire earlier than Americans and also informs readers that this Nirvana was created by high taxes. See, Europe is better.
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Assoc. Press: Stop Whining About Soc. Sec., America. It Isn’t as Expensive as Europe’s!”


Obama Labor Dept. Forces Journalists to Use Government Issued Computers?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Journalists are crying foul at a new Obama policy that will deny them the right to use their own computers to write stories from economic data issued inside the halls of the Department of Labor. Instead, the DoL says, journalists will have to use government owned computers, government selected software, and government owned Internet transmission lines to write their stories about the data issued by the department.

All news organizations have been ordered to remove their computers, tools, and other electronics from the Department of Labor by June 15 and will not be allowed to bring any of their own electronics into the place from that point forward.

Until this change, the practice had been that the economic data was released to journalists ahead of the official release date in a special “lock-up” room inside the DoL. Reporters then used their own computers and software to write their draft reports and create their graphics and tables on the data. Then, once the release time for the data was reached, the DoL allowed the journalists to transmit their stories from inside the special room over Internet lines that have been installed and paid for by news media outlets.
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Obama Labor Dept. Forces Journalists to Use Government Issued Computers?”


J.P. Morgan Chase $2 Billion Loss Raises Fears of Government Actions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the news of the $2 billion trading loss suffered by J.P.Morgan Chase hit the country like another nasty slap in the face to a nation already facing an economic downturn that is the worst one in a lifetime.

The $2 billion bandied about by the media is not likely the end of that loss, either. This was only the first round of losses due to these bad derivatives trades and more losses are likely yet to come.

For some insight on this mess I exchanged some emails with Sandra Smith of Fox Business Network.

Smith said that the bank “characterized the trades as legitimate hedges of risks elsewhere in the banking group that went awry,” but this understated explanation won’t likely suffice for those out for the heads of those working in our financial sector.
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J.P. Morgan Chase $2 Billion Loss Raises Fears of Government Actions”


Debunking Myths About The Great Depression

The New Deal Was A Failure: Hoover and FDR Prolonged the Great Depression with Big Government

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation explains how the statist policies of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt lengthened and deepened the Great Depression. The video also briefly explains how reductions in the burden of government spending helped the economy recover from a deep recession after World War I and to grow after World War II.


Business Roundtable: Regulations Are Killing Business

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday I attended an informative business roundtable meeting of Chicago-area small businessmen who came together to discuss how government intervention and its avalanche of regulations are killing jobs and businesses not only in Illinois, but nation wide. Some of the stories were chilling, to say the least. These trials go to show how anti-business the most famously capitalist country in the world has become. No wonder we can’t get out of this second great depression!

The event was held at the headquarters of The Rabine Group in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Rabine Group is a group of nationwide companies that specializes in driveway paving, roofing, and other contracting work. The company is headed by owner and CEO Gary Rabine.

Filling out the panel was Moderator, Brian Kelly of Bulk Lift International; Gary Rabine, The Rabine Group; Garrett Patten, Patten Industries; Randy Truckenbrodt, Randall Industries, Inc, and Former State Senator Steve Rauschenberger, Rauschenberger Partners.

The panel began with some of the regulatory horror stories experienced by the panel. Each story illustrated how government stands in the way of job creation, small business, and expansion, and how government is not working hand-in-hand with small business but actually fosters an inimical relationship. The panel showed how the oppressiveness of these regulations actually tempts business to break laws just to be able to carry on with business.
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Business Roundtable: Regulations Are Killing Business”


The Rise of the Obamavilles

Remember back in the 30s when disgruntled WWI veterans and homeless Americans created shanty towns called “Hoovervilles“? They felt failed by an uncaring president in Herbert Hoover.

Well, with the Occupy-Whatevers have they created “Obamavilles”?

I’d say they have.


How Obama Is Bypassing Democracy, Congress and YOU

-By Warner Todd Huston

Phil Kerpen has a warning for you, America. He wants to alert you to the fact that Barack Obama is using his powers to create regulations to undermine Congress, ignore voters, and “radically transform America.” But Kerpen also has some good news. There’s a way to stop this left-wing assault on our country. You can find out what that something is in his new book, Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America — and How to Stop Him.

For this book — his first if I am not mistaken — Kerpen, the Vice President for Policy at Americans for Prosperity, has decided no less than to save the Republic. Of course, it’s an uphill battle to beat back the war that has been launched against America for sure.

Why is it an uphill battle? Because the way our country is being torn down is happening in the most subtle way possible. Worse, it is all being done with such ersatz legality, a legitimacy so seemingly ironclad, that most Americans are completely unaware of what is happening. And when they are aware of it they imagine there is nothing wrong with it all.
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How Obama Is Bypassing Democracy, Congress and YOU”


Ron Paul: NOT a Serious Candidate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ron Paul is not serious about running for president nor is he a serious candidate even were he to be so inclined. But serious or no, he is a horrible candidate regardless.

Now, there may have been a time a decade or so ago when Ron Paul really thought he had a shot at being elected the president of the United States but that time has long ago passed into history. His last several campaigns were not serious efforts.

Let’s take Paul’s unserious campaign effort first, before I get to his amazing unsuitability for the White House.

The idea of having a national campaign organization to propel a candidate to winning primaries is predicated on reaching out to local state and country party organizations, working with them on ideas, and bringing some of those local political operatives into your own primary effort. This practice then extends your influence and helps bring ground troops to your game, folks that are influential in each sector of the country, folks that will presumably bring voters to your candidacy.
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Ron Paul: NOT a Serious Candidate”


Fox Business Network Opens New Studio Overlooking Floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fox Business Network is leaping head first into full time coverage right in the thick of it all at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with a new CME-based studio booth on the next level up from trading floor itself. Interestingly, this marks as the very first time a financial network will have its own, branded booth so close to the floor.

Thursday afternoon I spoke to Fox Business Network correspondent Jeff Flock about the grand opening of the CME booth and asked him what made the Network make this move. “Since both exchanges were consolidated there that makes that floor the center for futures trading in the country and now Fox Business will have a permanent presence where all the traders can see us.”
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Fox Business Network Opens New Studio Overlooking Floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange”


The Fannie Mae Mess

-By Alan Caruba

It was a relatively short Wall Street Journal article on Saturday, May 7th. “Fannie Mae Falls Back Into the Loss Column.”

“Fannie Mae reported a net loss of $6.5 billion for the first quarter as a weakening housing market dashed hopes that the company had stabilities,” wrote Nick Timiraos. “Fannie said Friday it would ask the government for a fresh taxpayer infusion of $6.2 billion after paying dividends to the Treasury.”

What we are witnessing—and paying for—is the way this “government-sponsored enterprise” (GSE) has distorted the nation’s housing market since it came into being. Freddie Mac is another GSE that shares the blame.

In a Cato Institute Policy Analysis by David Reiss, the author notes that “Fannie and Freddie are extraordinary large companies: together they own or guarantee more than 40 percent of all the residential mortgages in the United States. This amounts to more than 4.2 trillion dollars in mortgages.”
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The Fannie Mae Mess”


Inflation At The Gate, The Fed Talks About Deflation

-By Thomas E. Brewton

While flooding the banking system with excessive amounts of fiat dollars, Fed Chairman Bernanke has talked endlessly about the need to avert deflation. Unspoken was the real reason: promoting inflation – robbing retirees and working people who are saving to support their retirements – in order to fund mounting federal debt.

It’s now clear that government stimulus spending, under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and unending expansion of the money supply by the Fed, have prolonged our agonizingly slow economic revival. That is hardly surprising, since no previous resort to Keynesian macroeconomics has worked as advertised. At most they have promoted stock market bubbles, and all such essays, beginning in the 1930s Depression, have led to continual and ruinous inflation.

The New York Times, the nation’s premier voice of socialist propaganda, admits in a front page, lead article that Stimulus by Fed Is Disappointing, Economists Say.
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Inflation At The Gate, The Fed Talks About Deflation”


Government Motors: The Coming General Motors Failure Will Be At Taxpayer’s Expense

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama Administration has proclaimed TARP and the subsequent bailout for General Motors a great success. US Treasury Deputy Timothy Massad recently said, “Where we are today shows that the program, by any reasonably objective measure, was a success.” But is GM, now much derided as “Government Motors” the success that Obama says it is? Facts don’t argue in Obama’s favor.

First of all, we must dispense with the whole idea that a benevolent Obama played sugar daddy to “save” GM and did so without too much meddling with the company. Despite the claims that it is “back” and back in private hands, We The People still own 33% of GM. But government ownership is deeper than the a mere calculated percentage. You see, GM’s Board and its CEO were all placed in their positions by Obama, his czars and advisers. Worse, none of them have any experience at all in the auto industry.

Obama’s GM CEO, Dan Akerson, is not a “car guy” — as he himself admitted. Akerson’s experience is as a Wall Street hedge fund operator not an auto industry exec. He was also a player at the politically connected Carlyle Group and was the firm’s Managing Director.
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Government Motors: The Coming General Motors Failure Will Be At Taxpayer’s Expense”


Corruption and Political Intrigue in Government Employee Pensions

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Los Angeles Times has a disheartening report about the graft, corruption, and nest-feathering infesting the administration of California’s government employees pension fund, CalPers (California Public Employees’ Retirement System). It reports that subordinates were pressured into investing in to firms run by political buddies and that one of the former CalPERS administrators was “lucky” enough to have been handed a high paying new job in one of those politically connected firms after he left the government agency.

Some of these officials now under investigation are also accused of falsifying documents to further their schemes of self-enrichment at the expense of the people, accepting large gifts that went unreported, and earning millions in “placement agent fees.”
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Corruption and Political Intrigue in Government Employee Pensions”


Video: Stop Obama and His Union Bosses!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Courtesy of the Republican National Committee…

This is exactly right. While every state is drowning in debt, Barack Obama and the billions that unions have spent on him and his Democrat Party is being put toward thwarting the will of the voters and to making the state’s and the federal government’s debt far, far worse.
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Video: Stop Obama and His Union Bosses!”


What Did Reagan Do and How Have Other Nations Solved Their Fiscal Problems?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation at CATO has made a few videos that help us understand how we have fixed some of our fiscal troubles in the past. In part two they also looked at a few foreign countries. Now, I have to admit that I am not much interested in what other nations do about anything. They aren’t America. Still, in part two below the folks at the CATO Institute have pointed out a few things that are instructive, if not a tad wonky.

These videos are worth taking a look at.

Spending Restraint, Part I: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton

Spending Restraint, Part II: Lessons from Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, and New Zealand

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What Did Reagan Do and How Have Other Nations Solved Their Fiscal Problems?”


Rahm Emanuel ignores Hard Truth about Freddie Mac

From the Gery Chico For Chicago Mayor campaign…

Facts suggest Emanuel ignored scandal but mayoral candidate continues to ignore questions

(CHICAGO) Several hours ago, Rahm Emanuel was asked about Gery Chico’s charge that when Emanuel was informed of scandal on the Freddie Mac board, he sat on his hands and took the cash.

Emanuel didn’t deny it. Instead, he said he was never mentioned “by name” in any of the wrongdoing. Here’s the hard truth – Rahm won’t answer the hard questions about Freddie Mac.
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Rahm Emanuel ignores Hard Truth about Freddie Mac”


A Video Critique of the Claim That Fox News Viewers Are Misinformed

Lee Doren does a great job tearing down another left-wing shibboleth.

Supposedly, Fox News viewers are more misinformed than the general public because:

  • They think most economists believe the stimulus caused job losses;
  • They think most economists believe Obamacare will increase the deficit; and
  • They think the economy is getting worse; etc.

As a result, I analyzed the entire study and debunked it, while addressing the points above. I even found a clip of the CBO Director admitting that his report can’t test if the stimulus failed.


The Deflation Bogeyman

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Declining prices are not necessarily bad.

The Fed plans to add massively to the supply of phony money by monetizing the Federal debt with QE2, its latest multi-trillion dollar intervention to manipulate the financial system and to control business production and employment decisions.

The effect, in the short run, is to inflate further the developing stock market bubble, preparing the way for our next inflation-induced recession. In the long run, we the people are to be robbed of the purchasing power of our salaries, wages, and retirement incomes by the disguised tax of inflation.

Fed chairman Bernanke’s Keynesian, socialist rationale for this crime against society is his fear of deflation, a fear belied by prices of commodities that are increasing at an accelerating rate.
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The Deflation Bogeyman”


Senator Kirk Already on Track to Vote Against GOP Interests

-By Warner Todd Huston

I said it during the primary, Mark Kirk is a 45 percenter. His record in the House pretty much shows that he will only vote with Republicans 45 percent of the time if left to his druthers. True to my worst fears, Kirk seems to be right on track with my predictions. The man hasn’t even taken his seat yet and many are assuming he’ll support one of the Democrat’s favorite issues: the DISCLOSE Act.

The Hill is reporting that Kirk is coming under pressure by the left to vote “yes” on a watered down version of the DISCLOSE Act, ostensibly a campaign finance reform law. The Hill also correctly points out that Kirk has in the past been a proponent of changes in campaign finance rules even as he voted against the Democrat’s DISCLOSE Act in the run up to the election.
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Senator Kirk Already on Track to Vote Against GOP Interests”


Roskam Video: The Road We are On is a Recipe for Disaster!

Representative Peter Roskam gives a rip roaring speech about the failures of Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives at a recent DuPage Republicans gathering.


U of Chicago Prof Says His $400,000 Salary Is Taxed Too Much

-By Warner Todd Huston

University professors so often get the reputation of being ivory tower pinheads sheltered from real life and out of touch with reality. Professor Todd Henderson of the University of Chicago sure didn’t help change that perception when he posted a blog post detailing how Obama’s tax hikes will hurt and that his combined family income of $400,000 annually still doesn’t prevent them from struggling to keep up with his bills.

The professor posted some of his family finances in order to show that even though many feel he is “rich” he has bills like everyone else and Obama’s tax hikes coming next year will hurt him badly. Interestingly, Henderson a neighbor of Obama in Chicago’s prestigious Hyde Park neighborhood.

“A quick look at our family budget, which I will gladly share with the White House, will show him that, like many Americans, we are just getting by despite seeming to be rich. We aren’t,” Henderson wrote on the blog post.
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U of Chicago Prof Says His $400,000 Salary Is Taxed Too Much”


Video: Spending Just Got Personal

This is a pretty inventive way to relate polling figures, I have to say. This one was made by BankruptingAmerica.org.

Seven out of ten voters say government spending is too high and 68 percent say spending is affecting them personally, according to a bipartisan ten-state poll we sponsored. Our fans told us they love the infographics we made to visualize the poll’s key findings. So we made a video taking the graphics to the next level.

Hundreds from our online community have taken the poll themselves. See how their views match up with them and the rest of the country. Click here to weigh in now.


Bean’s Earmarks in 2010

From the Palatine Tea Party group…

(Palatine, Illinois) – Representative Melissa Bean Illinois 8th district sponsored or co-sponsored the following 13 Earmark projects in 2010 totaling $25,271,000*. Keep in mind that 2010 is not over yet.

With record deficits in 2010 of over one trillion dollars and unemployment near 10% we can see why people are angry with members of Congress and “Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job. That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached.”

Is Melissa Bean at all interested in upholding a high standard of ethics? Where is her common sense and accountability to us the United States taxpayer? This is not your money to waste!
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Bean’s Earmarks in 2010″