Free Trade

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Technology

Google’s Liability Decade: Why Google’s Leadership Ducks Investors

April 30, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

The abrupt change, that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt will no longer be accountable to shareholders on Google’s earnings calls, should prompt investors to ask why?

Google claimed that they wanted to put more focus on Google’s strong financials, but they did not disclose any more than Google’s usual barest minimum of information to investors. The most obvious reason for this abrupt change is the literal explosion of real franchise liabilities and risk overhangs to Google that reared their ugly heads this past quarter. Had CEO Schmidt been available to answer investor questions, Google’s exploding liabilities could have dominated the Q&A and the investment narrative coming out of the earnings call.

What has changed, and what Google has been not been open about, is the very serious ripening of three different types of going-forward franchise risks (antitrust, privacy/security and intellectual property) that cumulatively herald a de facto change in Google eras: from the roaring “Growth Decade” of 2000-2009, to the more unpredictable “Liability Decade” of 2010- 2019.
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Google’s Liability Decade: Why Google’s Leadership Ducks Investors”

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Inernet - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Technology

Why FCC’s broadband public option is a lose-lose gamble

April 27, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC would be making a longshot, bet-the-farm gamble, if it decided to mandate the broadband public option, i.e., deeming broadband to be a common-carrier-regulated service and regulating the Internet essentially for the first time.

It would be a classic lose-lose gamble because the FCC is very likely to lose in court — accomplishing nothing, but damaging the hard-built trust, cooperation and commitment necessary for public-private partnerships to be able to get broadband to all Americans fastest. Also everyone else would lose from the irreparable damage to private broadband investment, innovation, growth, jobs and America’s broadband ranking in the world.

I. Lose in Court:

It is a given that the FCC would be sued; and it is very likely that the Appeals Court and/or the Supreme Court would overturn any FCC unilateral assertion of authority to deem broadband a common carrier service. It is also likely that the court would stay such an FCC action from going into effect because of the likelihood of the petitioners winning on appeal and because of the easy case that it would cause irreparable harm.
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Why FCC’s broadband public option is a lose-lose gamble”

Andy Stern - Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Stern’s Handpicked Replacement Not as Strong as Advertised

April 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


Pictured: Barack Obama; Henry Nicholas;
Anna Burger; Andy Stern

Not long ago, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern abruptly resigned from his powerful position and we still aren’t sure why. But as he headed for the exit, Stern recommended his long-time confidante and current SEIU Secretary-Treasurer, Anna Burger, to be his replacement. But shockingly it is beginning to look as if Stern’s druthers will not win the day.

Andy Stern has been one of the most powerful union leaders in America for a long time. Along with Burger, Stern was one of the most frequent visitors to Barack Obama’s White House, he’s spent years gobbling up smaller unions and placing them under the thumb of the SEIU with the result that his union has grown exponentially, and he’s succeeded in insinuating his union into the bowels of just about every state and local government office in the country. He’s wielded the power of multi-million dollar political campaign donation funds and has been involved at the highest level in U.S. labor policy. He was even named to Barack Obama’s Deficit Reduction Commission tasked with finding out ways to restructure federal budgeting.

I have my suspicions as to why he’s so suddenly stepped down (I spoke about those suspicions here) but what is beyond doubt is that Andy Stern has held in his hands an awful lot of power as the head of the SEIU. So it is a bit shocking to learn that his handpicked replacement might not be the shoo-in that might otherwise have been imagined.
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Stern’s Handpicked Replacement Not as Strong as Advertised”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - History - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Radio - Socialism - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Does Obama Want to Destroy America? Yes, But…

April 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Rush Limbaugh and a few other radio hosts have made it a center piece of the attack against President Obama, the Tea Partiers have often put such sentiment on their protest signs, and the conservative chattering classes have been abuzz with the question: does Barack Obama want to destroy the United States?

The only real answer is “yes, but…” Yes he does, but only if it’s your ox being gored. Yes he does but there is more to it than that. And if it’s someone else’s veritable Oxen the answer might still be “yes, but…”

Conservative radio host Michael Medved, for one, emphatically denies that Obama wants to “destroy the country.” Medved employs the conventional logic that a politician that wants to be re-elected would not want to destroy the very nation that he has been elected to lead. That would make sense if only Obama were a conventional politician and if only Obama himself hadn’t told ABC News, “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” That very sentence straight from this president’s own mouth seems to shoot full of holes Medved’s conventional logic.

Still, in a way, Medved has stumbled upon a certain amount of truth no matter how small. The problem is that what we really have here is a misunderstanding of concepts. The fact is, following his straight down the line, left-wing, anti-American, radical ideology, Obama does want to destroy the U.S.A. as it is now. But in his mind he is not trying to destroy America simply because he wants utter destruction and devastation to be the only outcome. You see, mere destruction isn’t his end goal as those on the right fear. In his left-wing ideology, he thinks after America’s fall he and his left-wing comrades will be building a new and better U.S.A. Where real Americans see destruction and the end of everything, the leftists see a re-birth to a better and, in their eyes, more moral America. He and his left-wing friends see the U.S. as a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the bad old days.
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Does Obama Want to Destroy America? Yes, But…”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Congress - Cook County Board - Democrats/Leftists - DuPage County - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - House of Representatives - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Taxes - TV News - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Roskam: GOP Not the Party of No, the Party of ‘No, How About This?’

April 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On April 19, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam joined Fox News Chicago to talk jobs and the economy. The anchor brought up the claim made by many in the chattering classes that the GOP is just the “party of no.” Roskam had a great come back for this dismissal of the GOP’s principled stance against Obama’s socialist-like attack on our political system.

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Immigration/Immigrants - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Cokie Roberts: Japanese Internment Was an Immigration Issue?

April 16, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why is it that lefties always get history wrong? The Jewish World Review recently published an editorial by NPR commentator Cokie Roberts and her hubby meant to urge the country toward “comprehensive” immigration reform by praising America’s history of immigrant labor. But even as much of what the two Roberts say is dead on, there are still a few glaring errors one of which is their claim that Japanese internment during WWII was an immigration issue.

Cokie, whose full name is a mouthful — Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs — garbled history at the tail of her piece by saying that the internment of Japanese during WWII was little but “anti-immigrant sentiment.”

American history has been scarred by outbursts of anti-immigrant sentiment… In the 1940s, we interned Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast.

But this is an absurd statement to make. Japanese Americans were not interned into holding camps during WWII merely because they were immigrants, it was because their distant fellow Japanese relatives were at war with us. In fact, Franklin Roosevelt also interned Germans and Italians in similar camps, though in lesser numbers, because he was worried that they might be enemies within. This was no “anti-immigrant sentiment,” it was war. Right or wrong, it was war.
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Cokie Roberts: Japanese Internment Was an Immigration Issue?”

Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - President - Race - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Race Baiting at Philly Tea-Party: Anti-Tea Party Democrats No Better than Fred Phelps?

April 15, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

On March 6, former George H. W. Bush speechwriter Michael Johns was speaking before a tea party gathering in Philadelphia when someone from the audience took exception to the fact that during his address he did not say “President Obama” but merely called him Mr. Obama. The heckler screamed a racial slur at Mr. Johns calling him a “white boy.”

“It’s President Obama, President Obama, white boy, President Obama,” the heckler yelled. Apparently this heckler did not recall the many times the Old Media called President Bush “Mr. Bush” all those eight years, but, there you have it. (There is a video of Mr. Johns’ full speech at YouTube)

Mr. Johns reacted well by not engaging this creep and asking him to say his piece after Mr. Johns was done, but otherwise carrying on.
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Race Baiting at Philly Tea-Party: Anti-Tea Party Democrats No Better than Fred Phelps?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Assault on Non-Union Businesses

April 13, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Donald Lambro has a great piece discussing the new rules that Obama wants to impose on every single business in America that derives even the tiniest part of its income from the federal government. In essence, Obama wants to impose Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on everyone.

As Lambro says, Obama wants to “shatter decades-old, competitive contract rules that seek the best quality work at the lowest price” and this would cost government untold billions in higher costs as well as destroy untold thousands of small businesses that won’t be able to support the wild increase in their expenses. This will also cost thousands of jobs and give great payoffs to unions.

In the still-little-known initiative taking shape in the White House, senior officials are working on regulations that would use the full power of the government’s vast $500 billion a year contracting business to favor firms ,that offer higher wages and economic benefits, while ruling out firms whose wage, pension and even environmental record may not meet with the administration’s approval.

The Obama Administration is perpetrating the absurdity that this policy of forcing every business that does business with the government to increase wages and benefits to come in line with union benefits will somehow save the federal government money.
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Obama’s Assault on Non-Union Businesses”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Regulation - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Lawsuit Loan Sharks? Stop This Latest Trial Lawyer Bill

April 12, 2010 by

From the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform…

Illinois’ reputation for lawsuit abuse hurts our jobs climate.

The last thing we need are measures in Springfield that would encourage trial lawyers to file more lawsuits.

So then why are our state legislators considering a law that would do just that?

This wrongheaded bill (S.B. 3322) would legimitize a new “lawsuit lending” industry in Illinois — creating new “lawsuit loan sharks” who loan money to help people file lawsuits.

More Illinois lawsuits? That’s the last thing we need.
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Illinois Lawsuit Loan Sharks? Stop This Latest Trial Lawyer Bill”

Business - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Net Neutrality - Scott Cleland - Technology

Harms of a Potential New FCC De-Competition Policy — Reply Comments to FCC Open Internet NPRM

April 11, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

The FCC’s proposed Open Internet Regulations and/or the oft-rumored potential re-classification of broadband as a Title II telephone service effectively would create a new FCC “de-competition policy.” (For the one-page PDF submitted to the FCC click here.)

A new FCC “de-competition policy” would:

  • Supplant market-based competition policy with outdated common carrier regulation policy;
  • Shift the FCC’s primary purpose from promoting competition to promoting openness;
  • Replace the core mechanism for advancing consumer welfare from a voluntary, bottom-up, market-based competition system to a coerced, top-down, centralized, FCC regulation system; and
  • Remove users from being in charge of the Internet to the FCC asserting control over the Internet.

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Harms of a Potential New FCC De-Competition Policy — Reply Comments to FCC Open Internet NPRM”

Budget - Capitalism - Dan Proft - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

They came first for John Deere, Caterpillar, AT&T and Verizon…

April 8, 2010 by

From Dan Proft, Urquhart Media…

Henry Waxman is confused and afraid.

Waxman is the California Congressman who looks like a fruit bat and heads up the House Committee on Wealth Extraction and Job Disappearance.

Waxman is confused by the growing chorus of U.S. corporations reporting that Obamacare will add tens of millions of dollars in cost to their bottom lines and afraid of the implications.

So Waxman and his colony of fellow bloodsuckers have descended on the CEOs of John Deere, Caterpillar, AT&T and Verizon and will hold hearings to find out if one of those CEOs can teach them how to read a balance sheet.
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They came first for John Deere, Caterpillar, AT&T and Verizon…”

Banks - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Matthew J. O'Connor - President - Socialism - Taxes - Western Civilization

Professor Paul Krugman: Team Obama’s Prof. K-9

April 8, 2010 by

-By Matthew J. O’Connor

One of the left wing’s most vocal and pernicious purveyors of liberal rhetoric is the Nobel prize winning, new age globalist professor of macroeconomics, Paul Krugman. Professor Krugman is one of the left’s most respected economic advisers and has gained much notoriety over the past decade as a constancy providing economic theory and political punditry [centered left of left ] – communicated through a certain arrogance and hubris on a level somewhere between the stratosphere and Valhalla.

One only has to periodically read and watch Mr. Krugman to detect the vanity and self-righteous indignation he holds for those who challenge his findings or opinions; it is quite fascinating and at the same time quite instructive into the politically liberal mindset. A mindset which the ubiquitous Professor Krugman staunchly guards and promotes throughout the media as the liberals’ economic attack dog; code name, Professor K-9.
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Professor Paul Krugman: Team Obama’s Prof. K-9″

Adam Andrzejewski - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Christianity - Congress - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Federalism - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Religion - Republicans - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Tea Party Express Hits Rockford, Illinois

April 6, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

No posts have emerged from me today because I was away for most of the day witnessing the Tea Party Express as it rolled into rolled into Rockford, Illinois.

Rockford is situated about 90 miles west (and a bit north) of Chicago in Northern Illinois. It’s a region that has been hit particularly hard by this recession and has the highest unemployment rate in a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

The Tea Party Express is ranging across the country in an effort to keep the Tea Party spirit alive. If you want to find out if the Tea Party Express is coming to a town near you, check out the itinerary at www.teapartyexpress.org.

The Rockford Tea Party folks had hoped to get 1,000 Illinoisans to attend their rally, but there was at least 2,000 that actually came (some say 3,000) so they most certainly met their goals. These were some great Constitution-loving Americans that were very concerned about the downward direction that their country is taking. These people were worried, of course, but all seemed buoyed by their shared fellowship in patriotism. These are all great Americans. With citizens like this, we may yet bring our nation back from the brink of the leftism that is destroying Europe… unless Obama, his regime and their co-conspirators can help it.

The pre-event was held by the Rockford Tea Party folks (www.rockfordteaparty.org). And they had a nice line-up of local Illinois pols and political folks.
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Tea Party Express Hits Rockford, Illinois”

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Illinois State Government - Liberals - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Ill. Policy Institute: Working for the man‏

April 1, 2010 by

A “First Step”
If you thought the passage of the expansive new health care bill was a pretty big deal, you might want to hold on to your hat. On the “Today” show, President Obama recently told Matt Lauer that it was simply a “first step.” You can watch by clicking here.

Workin’ For the Man…
Each year, the Tax Foundation releases the dates of Tax Freedom Day, which reveals how many days of the year we spend working to pay off state, federal, and local taxes. Here in Illinois, it falls on Sunday, April 11, meaning we work 101 out of 365 days just to pay taxes. Ouch.
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Ill. Policy Institute: Working for the man‏”

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Jobs - Liberals - President - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

HALT THE ASSAULT, Help Stop Obama’s Assault on America’s Jobs

April 1, 2010 by

The good folks at the Free Enterprise Alliance has launched a new site to encourage people to join the effort to stop this out-of-control, anti-jobs, anti-business climate that President Obama and the Democrats are ginning up in America today.

HaltTheAssault.com

So, pass the site around to those like-minded folks that want to stop intrusive government. Let pro-business folks everywhere know that this site has been launched and let’s

HaltTheAssault!

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Communism - Craig Becker - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Appointee Has Attacked Worker’s Right Group

April 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner had another piece on Obama’s appointee to the National Labor Relations Board, union hack Craig Becker. Hemingway wrote about Becker’s past articles ripping the worker’s rights group National Right to Work and wondered if Becker could be fair to them now that he’s in a position to adjudicate between them and big labor?

One does not hold out much hope for Becker to be fair, though.

Hemingway reminds us that the NRW is involved in a lot of worker’s disputes with labor and Becker has attacked them mercilessly in past opinion pieces and appearances. Apparently he’s called them the “anti-union fringe” and are “ideologically driven” (as if Becker isn’t??).
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Obama’s Appointee Has Attacked Worker’s Right Group”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Foreign Countries - Free Trade - Government - Health - Humor - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

‘New Hope’ For American Docs: Help Them Move Overseas, Won’t You?

March 25, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The despair in the field of medicine over Obama’s government takeover of America’s once vibrant healthcare system can be overwhelming for America’s doctors. Many have said that if Obamacare is implemented, they’ll hang up their stethoscope and retire. The gloom is overpowering.

But WAIT! Help is on the way. A new effort is underway to help these poor doctors get themselves out from under the U.S. Government’s thumb, a new website has been started to keep Obama’s socialist overreach at bay. If you are an American doctor, help has arrived to help you uphold your hippocratic oath and still serve your American free-market, capitalist principles.

At PracticeAbroad.com, you can help an American doctor to get to freedom by sending him to a country that values his skills more than Obamabots do.
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‘New Hope’ For American Docs: Help Them Move Overseas, Won’t You?”

Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - New Jersey - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - Taxes - Truth in Accounting - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote

March 24, 2010 by

From Truth In Accounting…

Truth In Accounting Issues New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State”

Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State.” The numbers are not good and they are getting worse every day. The state’s bills as of June 30, 2009 were $143 billion and the state had already used $33 billion of assets that were supposed to be set aside to met established legal and contractual obligations. To pay bills and obligations past legislators should have already covered current and future, taxpayers will have to come up with $176 billion—$66,200 per family.

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New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Federalism - Frank Salvato - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes - Welfare

We Simply Can’t Afford Another Entitlement Program

March 18, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

Congressional Progressives are arm-twisting, threatening, promising and cajoling each and every member of the Legislative Branch in an effort to advance proposed healthcare insurance reform legislation. They are setting the stage to use the reconciliation process to advance the legislation in the Senate, even though the process was created to address budgetary financial issues, exclusively. And one House member, Louise Slaughter (P-NY), is even concocting procedure that would literally bypass any need for the House to vote on the Senate proposal. The effort that is going into circumventing the will of the American people is wickedly stunning.

But in the end, there is only one question that lawmakers of every political persuasion must ask themselves when it comes time to cast their votes: can we, as a nation, really afford to add another behemoth entitlement program onto the backs of the American taxpayers?

We have heard all of the arguments about how it will and won’t affect healthcare insurance premiums. Ironically, even the Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin (D-IL), has come to admit that the Progressive’s healthcare insurance reform legislation will not lower the cost of healthcare insurance premiums and said as much on the floor of the Senate:
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We Simply Can’t Afford Another Entitlement Program”

Barack Obama - Budget - David Huntwork - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Media Bias - Taxes - Tea Party

The Rise of the Tea Party

March 14, 2010 by

-By David M. Huntwork

In less than a year well over a thousand independent groups have sprung up around the nation to organize and demonstrate against the attempted government takeover of entire industries, high taxes, crippling debt, and the agenda of President Barack Obama. While many have ridiculed and guffawed about the “teabaggers,” these motivated and angry voters have very quickly shown the ability to raise millions of dollars, target specific political races, grab headlines and media exposure, stage large rallies, and mobilize volunteers.

The Tea (Taxed Enough Already) movement has been defined as populist, conservative, and libertarian in tone. It is a movement diverse in leadership and organization but united in its defense of liberty and the constitution. Its members are technologically savvy and able to mobilize in a moments notice. It is anti-elitist, anti-big government, and anti-big business. It is a revulsion and revolt against perceived corruption and politics as usual. And it the most recent public face of the Liberty Movement that resides on the right side of the ideological spectrum.
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The Rise of the Tea Party”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Free Trade - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Illinois State Government - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Ill. Policy Institute: 33%!

March 11, 2010 by

The Tax Drumbeat Begins
There’s no debate that Illinois is a financial disaster—and in yesterday’s state budget address, Governor Pat Quinn proposed his preferred solution: a 33% income tax increase, plus increased spending. Institute CEO John Tillman appeared on Chicago Tonight to talk about Springfield’s real problems—and solutions that don’t involve emptying taxpayers’ pockets.
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Ill. Policy Institute: 33%!”

Budget - California - Campaign Finance - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Lobbyists - Media - Media Bias - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Top the $1 Billion Club in California Political Spending

March 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The California Teachers Association spent $211,849,298 on lobbying and political spending to get its way in California in 2009. Along with the CTA, the Calif. State Council of Service Employees and 13 other organizations spent a total of one billion dollars on political lobbying of the State House at Sacramento. All of these special interests have helped push California to the brink of insolvency.

But, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the two unions mentioned above far and away top the spending of the other top lobbying spenders in California. The next closest in spending was the Big Pharma clocking in at $104,912,997 on its political spending with various and sundry Indian casino groups whose spending was in the less than $85,000,000 range.

Commission Chairman Ross Johnson said in a press release, “This tsunami of special interest spending drowns out the voices of average voters and intimidates political opponents and elected officials alike.”
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Unions Top the $1 Billion Club in California Political Spending”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - History - Inernet - John Armor - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Net Neutrality - Taxes - Technology

Lies, Damned Lies, and Expert Testimony

March 11, 2010 by

-By John Armor

Before we get rolling, a pet peeve. Entirely too many reporters are too lazy to check their quotes. Time and again, they will say in their lede that “some wag referred to lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No, no, no. That was not “some wag;” that was the greatest of all American humorists, Mark Twain.

Twain’s Autobiography attributes the quote to the quick-witted British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali. But Disraeli’s biographers can find no trace of it. Apparently, Twain attributed it to someone else who was conveniently dead, to fend off attacks for using that shameful word, “damned,”

I’ve modified the Twain quote to apply to recent hearings before the Federal Communications Commission. I’ve testified before a handful of federal hearings. I’ve attended dozens of such hearings. And I’ve never heard more lying, by more people, not even from sitting through an entire day of traffic court and hearing the infinite reasons why each particular motorist was not guilty.
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Lies, Damned Lies, and Expert Testimony”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Race - Warner Todd Huston

Walmart’s Barbie Price is Raaaacist

March 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Race hustlers, hate peddlers and “critics” strike again with their wolf-crying about raaaacism. This time it’s that eeevil Walmart (again) that is raaaacist because one of its stores marked down the black Barbie doll to $3.00 while the white Barbie doll was still being sold at $5.95. See? It’s raaaacist!

ABC claims it found some “critics” that charge Walmart for not being “sensitive” in its pricing strategies. For its part Walmart says that the store in question was trying to thin out inventory for the upcoming Spring restocking.

But… can’t you see that it’s raaaacist, asks ABC and its carefully sought out “critics”? Here is the race hustler and agitation pimp that ABC dredged up to point fingers at that eeeevil raaaacist Walmart.
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Walmart’s Barbie Price is Raaaacist”

Budget - California - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Liebau on Unions: ‘The System is Unsustainable’

March 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Carol Platt Liebau posted a piece on RealCleaPolitics.com that also clangs the warning bells over the unsustainable situation that the various states find themselves in between their public employees unions and the states’ fiscal obligations. She focuses on California, but nearly every state in the union is quickly approaching the mess California is in.

Liebau writes of the effort that the teachers union in California led to get kids as young as five-years-old out of school so that they could be bussed to the state capitol in Sacramento in order to protest school budget cuts. Me, I think she races by this outrage too quickly.
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Liebau on Unions: ‘The System is Unsustainable’”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - EFCA - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Senate - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively

March 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago union advocate Stewart Acuff penned a piece for the Huffington website that was filled with soaring rhetoric about unions “creating the middle class” and pleading for voters to pressure Congress to pass the absurdly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). He claimed that this piece of… legislation would “restore the right to form unions and bargain collectively.”

Despite Acuff’s urgent pleading, however, he misses an elephant in the room. No one has taken anyone’s “right to collectively bargain” away from them. Of course that wasn’t the only thing that Acuff was factually incorrect about.

Why is it that union folks have to lie about everything, anyway?

Acuff starts out with a whopper.
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‘Restoring’ Unions ‘Right’ to Bargain Collectively”

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

Google-AdMob: An FTC Antitrust Enforcement Watershed — Lessons from Google-DoubleClick & EU

March 9, 2010 by

-By Scott Cleland

Will the FTC strictly enforce antitrust laws in its review of Google’s AdMob acquisition? Google-Admob is a watershed decision for the FTC given that Google recently blew off the DOJ’s serious antitrust objections to the pending Google Book Settlement; The EU opened a preliminary investigation of antitrust complaints against Google from companies in the UK, France and Germany; and The DOJ had to play backstop to the FTC and block the Google-Yahoo Ad Agreement, less than a year after the FTC incorrectly assumed in their 4-1 approval of the Google-DoubleClick deal that Yahoo and others would provide sufficient competition to Google and Google acquiring DoubleClick would not “substantially lessen competition” or tip Google to a monopoly.

A recent New York Post article: “FTC inclined to approve Google’s acquisition of AdMob” states the deal “may just squeak by federal regulators.”

It’s pretty obvious the article’s source came from the Google camp and not the FTC, given the political nature of the source’s views: the FTC “will likely not rule until Obama nominees” are confirmed by the Senate, strongly implying that the:

Administration’s close political ties with Google would trump any career staff law enforcement findings of fact or the law and the lone FTC vote against the 4-1 Google-DoubleClick deal approval, Commissioner Jones-Harbor, will no longer be at the FTC.

Why is this Google spin on the FTC’s inclination likely false?
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Google-AdMob: An FTC Antitrust Enforcement Watershed — Lessons from Google-DoubleClick & EU”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Dr. Don Boys - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Liberals - Lobbyists - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes

Panic on Wall Street?

March 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

One of the oldest French banks, Société Générale, tells clients how to prepare for potential global collapse within the next two years according to a headline in London’s Telegraph, Dec. 2, 2009! That was a “global” collapse! And some of my friends suggest that I am an extremist! Yes, I have said that panic (an out-of-control response to economic collapse) was coming to the U.S. and the world economy not because I am a prophet but because I can connect the dots. Moreover, I expect the panic to reach Main Street where chaos will reign.

For a few years, I have been warning that panic is coming to the market. When that happens, everyone will know because Main Street will feel it bad. When the stock market was over 10,000 and gold was under $300.00, I told a stockbroker friend that the market would fall to 5,000 and gold would go to $2000. Recently, I told him I was fearful that he might have jumped from his penthouse apartment because of market volatility and massive fluctuations. Not yet, but he’s sitting on the ledge! Most brokers say that now is a great buying opportunity, but if you keep dealing with a broker that’s what you will be–broke. Others say, “go with the flow,” but you will likely go down the drain!

I have been trying to get people to get out of the market (unless they have taken precautions) for almost ten years, but they heard talk of a 36,000 Dow (from people who benefited from such talk) and what do I know! Some friends and subscribers did cash out and have called or written to thank me. Others stayed in hoping to recoup their losses. I think every investor should take advantage of any temporary market surge to minimize their losses–cash out. After all, something is better than nothing. The panic hasn’t started yet! Wait until masses of people call their mutual fund and get a recording or a constant busy signal! If you can’t reach them, you can’t sell. When everyone runs for the exit at the same time, many people are trampled in the stampede. Don’t get caught.
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Panic on Wall Street?”