Economy/Finances

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

AAI’s Analysis of Verizon-Cable Is Industrial Policy Not Antitrust

April 30, 2012 by

-By Scott Cleland

Reading through The American Antitrust Institute’s white paper on Verizon-Cable, it is striking how little analysis is relevant to antitrust/market-competition and how it is basically a thinly-veiled tacit pitch for the DOJ and the FCC to pursue an aggressive industrial policy for the wireless industry.

The white paper presumes that because the DOJ blocked the AT&T/T-Mobile merger to preserve T-Mobile as a disruptive fourth wireless competitor, and because T-Mobile now claims it needs more spectrum, that the government should intervene somehow to effectively redirect the spectrum to T-Mobile and away from Verizon.

The huge flaw in the AAI’s analysis is its central presumption, which is contrary to longstanding spectrum auction law, that the government, not market forces, should allocate spectrum. The analysis ignores that the law of the land allocates spectrum via property rights and auctions enabling the spectrum to find the party that most economically values it and has the most economic incentive to put it to productive use. The AAI’s analysis appears biased against existing law in assuming that the only or primary reason that the largest wireless providers would want more spectrum would be to anti-competitively keep it from its smaller competitors, and not the obvious and real reason that they want to provide better, faster, more reliable mobile broadband service to more people in more of the country to make more money.
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AAI’s Analysis of Verizon-Cable Is Industrial Policy Not Antitrust”

Adam Kinzinger - Anti-Americanism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Republicans - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

I Can’t Agree With Rockford Tea Party Re. Kinzinger Undervote Plan

April 29, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

I write against what I consider the outrages of the left every day. But occasionally someone on my own side, someone I otherwise support, will cast a boneheaded vote, or say something stupid, or advocate for a wrongheaded policy. I have to address such situations when they occur and this week the Rockford Tea Party is under my microscope for advocating that voters in the newly reconfigured 16th District should undervote (as in not vote) for Congressman Adam Kinzinger in the upcoming general election.

Many Tea Party folks in the district west of Chicago and running down the western side of the state are furious that Kinzinger loped over from his 11th District to primary Congressman Don Manzullo, the current 16th District Representative.

Many of these longtime 16th District residents felt Kinzinger was an interloper and in the analysis of voting records it was without a doubt that Manzullo’s was more conservative than Kinznger’s.

But, let’s face it, since the Illinois Republican Party has over the last 10 years failed so miserably to make any headway in this state and since the Democrats have a deadlock on power it was the Dems that got to control the redistricting and they made a map guaranteed to eliminate some GOP congressman or another. As it happens, Don Manzullo’s number came up this year.

This is galling most especially because the reason we had to redistrict in the first place is because we lost population in this Census and that means we lost a seat in Congress. The reason our population fell is because of the failed policies of the Democrats, yet the Illinois GOP is so feckless that it cannot even make the Dems pay for their failures and the Dems ended up being rewarded with control of redistricting, a control that will safeguard their own political power thereby assuring that Illinois will fall even further into the abyss! Nice going Illinois GOP.

Anyway, back to Kinzinger. As you all know, Kinzinger won his primary challenge against long-time Congressman Manzullo. Kinzinger will now appear on the ballot in November to take office in the newly jigured 16th District.
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I Can’t Agree With Rockford Tea Party Re. Kinzinger Undervote Plan”

Americans For Prosperity - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AFP: Obama’s Wasteful Spending Ad

April 29, 2012 by

AFP’s “Wasteful Spending” ad holds President Obama accountable for sending billions of taxpayer dollars to “green energy” companies overseas, even while Americans suffer with rising energy prices and a lack of jobs.

Learn more: www.americansforprosperity.org

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive

April 29, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Tax Freedom Day is April 17th. Freedom from teacher union extortion? To be announced.

The National Education Association has thrown itself full force into the “corporate loophole” demagoguery campaign. According to the NEA, children are being victimized by avaricious corporate types who don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The NEA exhorts the American people to “stand up for the middle class and support closing corporate tax loopholes at the federal and state level, so that additional resources can be invested in public education and other services that build our communities.” In a message oozing with class warfare, we learn that “Corporate tax loopholes are costing our schools and communities resources that would help the next generation achieve the American Dream.” (Cue the violins.)

They then post a list of programs that would thrive if the greedy corporate bastards would just pay their fair share – Title 1, Pre-K education, etc. NEA of course fails to mention that these programs, though popular, are essentially federal boondoggles. They don’t really do what they purport to do. They do make work for unionized adults, however, which if you haven’t been paying attention, is all NEA really cares about. But I digress….

Using Citizens for Tax Justice as their source, NEA claims that closing the seven largest corporate tax loopholes would provide an estimated $1.487 trillion in additional revenues over the next ten years. Coincidentally, CTJ just happens to be the union founded and funded lobbying wing of something called the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Environment - EPA - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - YouTube

EPA ‘Crucifixion’ Video Pulled From Youtube, The Liberal Cockroach Behind the Move

April 28, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier in the week a video surfaced on Youtube of Al Armendariz, head of the EPA office in Dallas, saying that he and his agency planned to “crucify” any business that crosses them. The video caused a lot of consternation on Capitol Hill as well as recriminations for the EPA. But by Friday the video had been pulled by Youtube because of complaints from the man that originally made the video. Turns out he’s an extreme environut connected with the gay community.

To quickly recap the video, Armendariz noted that his job as an EPA enforcer was like that of the ancient Romans. He joked that the EPA’s philosophy was like the Roman’s who, when mollifying a populace, would “find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.” This, he laughed, would make the town “easy to manage for the next few years.”

So apparently Armendariz felt that the EPA’s job was that of indiscriminate intimidation as opposed to law enforcement.

That said, how does one guy get a video like this pulled and why did it happen?
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EPA ‘Crucifixion’ Video Pulled From Youtube, The Liberal Cockroach Behind the Move”

Barack Obama - Budget - Daniel Clark - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Health - Liberals - Obamacare - Taxes

Extended Terms: Libs Stretch the Letter of the Law

April 28, 2012 by

-By Daniel Clark

One of the reasons why liberals think they’re so much smarter than the rest of us is their use of big words. Not big words like “sesquipedalian,” but more ordinary words that liberals have inflated in such a way as to make them include meanings that were never intended.

A favorite Democrat talking point about the pending Supreme Court decision on Obamacare is that, because health care represents one sixth of our nation’s economy, the Commerce Clause must apply. This conclusion rests on their equating “commerce” with “economy,” when in reality, the definition of the former is far narrower than that. “Commerce” is the large-scale trading of commodities, or material goods. It is not just anything that directly or indirectly affects the way a dollar changes hands.

The amendment process is very long and difficult by design. Besides, it relies on the actions of elected representatives, whose constituents may not share the liberals’ utopian ideals. Why not circumvent those obstacles, and simply change the Constitution by expanding the definitions of its terms?
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Extended Terms: Libs Stretch the Letter of the Law”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Frank Hyland - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Stimulus - Taxes

It Didn’t Work

April 26, 2012 by

-By Frank Hyland

A number of times, you’ve entered an antique store or another type of store that carries items that need to be handled tenderly if at all. The sign says, “You break it, you bought it.” In the neighborhood in which I was raised, the operative saying was, “There are talkers and there are doers.” In another neighborhood, you’d hear, “You can’t just talk the talk; you’ve got to walk the walk.” In Texas, the saying is, referring to a loud-mouthed Cattleman-wanna-be, “He’s all hat and no cattle.” We’ve been cautioned for centuries that, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” These sayings are all variations on the Words-Deeds dichotomy. This week, which the White House and the DNC are referring to as “This weak,” saw an attempt to throw a major stone at the Romney camp, followed by a series of denials, U-Turns, and “Oops-ies.”

In the context of “You break it, you bought it,” and living in a glass house, the last thing that the Obamanation should have done is take on Ann Romney by name by accusing her of never having worked a day in her life. First of all, Ann Romney is not – I repeat, NOT – running for office. Secondly, if you’ve decided that it is time for your life to end, head over to the nearest preschool or playground where exhausted Moms take their youngsters to expend a bit of energy while they chat with their counterparts. Once there, begin shouting at the Moms that they don’t “work.” That should do the trick – Rest in peace. Typically, the Lame Stream Media has devoted a good deal of time and space to the misstep. And typically, the coverage has been hardly worth your time reading/watching/listening, which explains why you are now tuned in here. That the initial DNC attack is a sign of desperation – with less than six months left until the election – is not being discussed. In addition, that the attack is a symptom of organizational ineptitude and sheer stupidity has received even less coverage. The attacker, DNC staffer Hilary Rosen, is a self-described “pundit.” Among other definitions of the word, pundits are described as being a “learned person” and an “expert.” Leaving aside for a moment how incorrect it is to say that mothers don’t work, there obviously is either no editorial review process at the DNC or the Editors’ seats are filled with others as brain-dead as Hilary Rosen.
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It Didn’t Work”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - George W. Bush - GOP - Government - Health - Liberals - Nanny State - Obamacare - President - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Michael Mukasey’s Excellent Argument Against Obamacare

April 25, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On April 20, Michael Mukasey appeared before the Republican Lawyers Association’s National Policy Conference and C-SPAN cameras were there to record his discussion of the conference theme: Restoring a Government of Laws: The Obama Administration v. The Constitution.

Mukasey, the former Bush Administration Attorney General, headlined a half hour discussion — which included a Q&A session — and offered one of the more cogent explanations I’ve seen of why Obamacare is so wildly unconstitutional.

The whole presentation is worth watching but one of his answers during the Q&A segment was particularly important.

One of the attendees asked if Mukasey regale tell them with his hypothetical argument in support of Obamacare. Mukasey joked that his supporting argument would be “an extraordinarily short opinion,” but his more detailed answer actually presented a concise argument to the opposite; why Obamacare is simply unconstitutional. (At about 25 minutes into the segment)
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Michael Mukasey’s Excellent Argument Against Obamacare”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Bankrupting America Launches Online Advocacy Campaign Urging Senate to Vote on a Budget

April 25, 2012 by

From Bankrupting America…

ARLINGTON, VA – Bankrupting America, a project of Public Notice, today announced a multipronged online educational advocacy campaign leading up to the three-year anniversary since the last time Congress passed a budget. The campaign includes a web video, online advertising, a Twitter hashtag campaign and a grassroots call to action urging the Senate to pass a budget.

Congress last passed a budget on April 29, 2009, almost three years ago. Since then, Members of Congress from both parties have failed to work together to perform one of the federal government’s most basic functions.

Gretchen Hamel, executive director of Public Notice, issued the following statement announcing the campaign:
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Bankrupting America Launches Online Advocacy Campaign Urging Senate to Vote on a Budget”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Taxes - The New York Times - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Loves America… When It Agrees With Him

April 24, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama is an autocrat. Were we a South American nation he’d be our Hugo Chavez. He is not interested in democracy, our republican form of government, or listening to other’s opinions. And he most certainly is not interested in allowing the American people to see their will reflected in their duly elected officials. It’s his way or the highway. Period.

All this is the subject of a recent New York Times piece that, even as it notes Obama’s wild grabs for personal power, tries its best to give cover to a president that has decided that he has no need to work with Congress and intends to bypass both the courts and our elected representatives to put his radical agenda into place.

With its typical, hypocritical partisanship on full display, the Times, the same paper that repeatedly called George W. Bush an imperial president, is now bending over backwards to excuse even more egregious behavior from its Obammessiah.

In fact, the first paragraphs of the two stories liked above are telling in how the Times regards the two presidents and in how the actual issue of executive overreach is a but a device in stories meant to sell readers on a picture of the man, not the issue.

Let’s take the first paragraph of the 2006 piece on Bush (my bold):
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Obama Loves America… When It Agrees With Him”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Liberals - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Wealthy Michigan Teacher Upset She Can’t Retire at 47

April 20, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s just unfair, isn’t it? I mean, if an $80,000-per-year, union protected, unfireable, teacher can’t retire at the extremely young age of 47 while the rest of us have to work into our 70s, well, what kind of world are we living in? That’s how teachers in Michigan feel, anyway.

Just ask the haughty Terri List, a Michigan public school teacher from Saginaw Township. She’s entirely disgusted with all those ignorant taxpayers — who vote in evil Republicans — that won’t let her retire at 70% of her salary at a sprightly 47-years-of-age. She’s so upset that she’s telling anyone that will listen that being a teacher isn’t worth the effort.

On the government union site run by the Michigan Education Association, Mz List is seen carping that waiting to retire at 60 is a travesty for the teaching profession. In what rotten world do people have to wait until they are 60 to retire, anyway!?

… only the rest of us, Mz List, only the rest of us. You know the “us” I’m speaking of Mz List? Yeah, the “us” that are with our taxes forced to pay your exorbitant salary, your overly generous benefits, and your retirement in your middle age.
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Wealthy Michigan Teacher Upset She Can’t Retire at 47″

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Climate Change - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Environment - Ethics - Liberals - Socialism - Taxes

Genocidal Green Quotes

April 20, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

As Earth Day 2012 occurs on Sunday, April 22, I offer a selection of quotes from leading figures in the environmental movement that are worth reading so that you can draw your own conclusions.

In 1970, the first Earth Day generated the following quotes:

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” – George Wald, Harvard Biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.” – Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.” – New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day
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Genocidal Green Quotes”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Media Misleads on California Prop 29

April 19, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Californians are being asked once again to fund a government boondoggle with a ballot initiative which will levy more taxes on an already over taxed state. This time it is Proposition 29, intended to fund the California Cancer Research Act, a measure that appeals nicely to emotions but will likely be just another black hole for tax dollars when all is said and done — just like many other successful California ballot measures have been.

Naturally, many members of the media are in love with yet another new tax not to mention its chimerical promise of “cancer research.” Take Dan Morain of the Sacramento Bee, for instance, who recently pumped out the false dichotomy of having to choose between the wonderfulness of “cancer research” and those evil, rotten cigarette companies.

Here is how Morain characterizes the debate:
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Media Misleads on California Prop 29″

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Business - Climate Change - Democrats/Leftists - Environment - Ethics - Liberals - Taxes

Eco-Communism Celebrated Annually on Earth Day

April 19, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

I came of age in the 1950s during a period when Joe McCarthy was raising hell about communists in the federal government. He was spectacularly inept, often made intemperate and inaccurate charges, but for the most part he was right. He managed to alienate his fellow Republicans and earn a slap-down from then President Eisenhower. By around 1953 his fifteen minutes of fame were up. His bombastic personality undermined the seriousness of the issue.

McCarthy was all bluster, but the publication of “The Venona Papers: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors” in 2001 revealed that his charges of widespread infiltration of the State Department and even the White House during the Roosevelt and Truman years were true. Venona was the U.S. code name given secret Soviet spy communications that had been recorded during and after World War II. In 1995, the National Security Agency began releasing the documents.

In 2000 Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media wrote about a conference, “Rethinking McCarthy” devoted to the myths surrounding McCarthy that were disputed by journalist M. Stanton Evans, a director of the National Journalism Center. Chief among them was that McCarthy never named any names of suspected communists in government, but Evans revealed a file of material showing that he had. The other myth was that those named had been cleared by congressional committees or were just mildly leftist. They were not.
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Eco-Communism Celebrated Annually on Earth Day”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Perverts Prevail in Public Schools

April 19, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

With teacher union enabling, child abuse goes on unabated.

A male business owner joking about life for homosexuals in prison, forced a junior accountant to bend over a desk, lined up behind him to simulate a sex act, then quipped, “I’ll show you what’s gay.”

An insurance company middle manager who had been warned about touching secretaries brushed his lower body against a new employee, coming so close that she told company investigators she could feel his genitals through his pants.

A corporate vice-president sent text messages to and called one of his female underlings nearly 50 times in a four-week period and, over the winter holidays, parked himself near her home.
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Perverts Prevail in Public Schools”

Alaska - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Electric - Energy - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Oil - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

ANWR: It’s Been ’10 Years,’ We Could Have Been Reaping Rewards Now

April 18, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ten years ago this month the Democrats defeated the bill that would have allowed us to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve (ANWR). So it’s happy anniversary to the loss of our energy independence once again.

It turns out that the tenth anniversary is known as the “tin” anniversary in that wonderful list of gifts one gives to celebrate such things. Tin is the perfect alloy when one notes the “tin ear” represented by the constant refrain the left always trumpets whenever we talk about drilling for oil, namely that it is pointless to do because we won’t realize any benefits for up to 10 years.

To that point, Democrat Representative Maria Cantwell disgorged that very talking point during that 2002 debate:

I believe there is no way to justify drilling in ANWR in the name of national security. Oil extracted from the wildlife refuge would not reach refineries for 7 to 10 years and would never satisfy more than 2 percent of our Nation’s oil demands at any one time.

Well, it’s ten years, folks, and because the Democrats continually defeat new efforts to drill or explore for oil on American soil we are once again out of luck for exploiting our own sources of energy. Thanks to Obama and his party we stay dependent on foreign sources of energy.
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ANWR: It’s Been ’10 Years,’ We Could Have Been Reaping Rewards Now”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Environment - Taxes

Overthrowing Environmentalism

April 17, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

In 1517 Martin Luther set off the Protestant revolution against the Catholic Church that led to the spread of the then-new movement as a response to the corruption of the Church. It took time for it to establish itself as an alternative and was greatly aided by the invention of printing and spread of literacy, but mostly because ordinary people had grown weary of the Church’s extravagance, poor governance, and resistance to change.

The selling of worthless “indulgences” as a means to wipe one’s sins clean was the final straw.

Environmentalism has become a modern religion and its “cap and trade” scheme to sell worthless permission slips for the emission of so-called “greenhouse gases”—based on United Nations Kyoto Protocol calling for a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere—is being rejected by many nations .

As it has become common knowledge that CO2 is vital to all life on Earth and plays no role in affecting the climate, ordinary people have concluded that global warming in particular and environmentalism in general is a giant fraud.
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Overthrowing Environmentalism”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Founders - Government - Health - History - House of Representatives - John Adams - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Nanny State - Obamacare - President - Regulation - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

No, Left-Wingers, the ‘Founders’ Did NOT Approve of Mandates or Obamacare

April 16, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every few weeks leftist supporters of Obamacare will float the “fact” that our founders passed the first “national healthcare law” claiming that this supports Obamacare. The truth is, though, the history they claim supports them doesn’t in any way prove that the founders would approve of mandates in general or Obamacare in particular.

This failed historical analogy is once again seen this month in the prattling of one Einer Elhauge, a fellow who claims himself the title of a professor at Harvard Law School. If his recent article in The New Republic is any indication of the level of history he teaches students, we have yet another example of our failed state of higher education.

Elhauge makes two failed analogies to history in his support of Obamacare. One is the 1792 law that required men to own a firearm. This law passed by many members of our founding generation — with only four opposing the mandate — proves, Elhauge claims, that mandates were not something the founders would oppose.

Elhauge’s claim is facile, of course. After all, we had no standing army at the time (in fact the founders were vehemently against a standing army) and the whole of the people in the form of the militia were the army.

So, requiring people to own firearms was, at the time, observing the Constitutional mandate to protect the nation. Helthacre is not something in the Constitution and cannot be construed as such, so Elhauge’s extrapolating military matters to Obamacare is absurd o its face.

Then there is the sailor relief act that lefties have been harping on for several years now claiming that it supports Obamacare. This, too, is a facile comparison cynically and illicitly used to explain away Obamacare.
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No, Left-Wingers, the ‘Founders’ Did NOT Approve of Mandates or Obamacare”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Jobs - Liberals - President - Taxes

How (and Why) Obama has Impeded Recovery

April 16, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

During and after his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was hailed as the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt. History records that Roosevelt presided over the Great Depression, begun in the previous administration of Herbert Hoover who got most of the blame. Roosevelt’s policies extended it well beyond the normal recovery from a recession.

In his book, “Dupes”, historian Paul Kengor, wrote “Roosevelt won in a landslide in November 1932. To liberals and traditional Democrats everywhere, he was more than just a new face at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He was a kind of political savior at the most desperate time in their lives.”

Roosevelt was immediately assailed by the Communist Party USA as he launched his New Deal stew of programs intended to reverse the effects of the economic crisis. As Kengor notes, “No president had ever moved so far to the left, and so quickly, but it was not enough for the comrades.” They portrayed Roosevelt “as a warmonger bent on wreaking havoc on the poor USSR (Soviet Russia)” because they feared the U.S. might go to war against it.
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How (and Why) Obama has Impeded Recovery”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Nanny State - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Arrogant Democrats Think They Have Role to ‘Protect’ Titanic Wreck Site

April 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Titanic sunk 100 years ago this year. The great ship went down in international waters as a vessel of British registry. When it went down the United States was barely a presence on the international stage. Yet now, 100 years later, American Democrats imagine they have the duty and power to control what will happen at the final resting place of over 1,500 passengers.

In their arrogance and led by the haughty and self-referential Senator John Kerry (D, Mass.), American Democrats are pushing Congress to pass legislation to make the wreck site of the Titanic off limits to further exploration.

Supporters of the Kerry arrogance claim that the Titanic’s final resting place should be afforded the same legal standing as a cemetery and James P. Delgado, director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says that he believes “there are people inside” the unexplored sections of the ship.

Few experts agree with this assessment, though. The Times notes that Hollywoodite James Cameron, who has been through the wreckage more than just about anyone, says he’s never once seen any evidence of bones or human remains.
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Arrogant Democrats Think They Have Role to ‘Protect’ Titanic Wreck Site”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Britain - Budget - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Health - Liberals - Obamacare - President - Regulation - Socialism - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Healthcare Death Panels Are Inevitable

April 12, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Much was made of Governor Sarah Palin’s use of the term “government death panels” to lambaste Obamacare. Left-wingers and Democrats everywhere scoffed at the term and accused Palin of demagogy and even lying. But the fact is, government death panels of all sorts are inevitable once government takes over healthcare. In fact, once government takes over healthcare, all sorts of unscientific, non-health related nonsense creeps into your healthcare whether you like it or not and none of these decisions are made with your doctor’s advice or consent.

To understand this we have but to look to countries that already have government provided healthcare to see many incidents of the foolishness that is government control of medicine. Arbitrary decisions are made, people are told they are too old to bother with and treatments are too late to save the patient because of long wait times.

Worse, are the cases where government lackeys use non-medical criteria to replace medical considerations such as a recent case in Britain where a woman was told she can no longer get her healthcare because her travel distance makes her “carbon footprint” too big.
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Healthcare Death Panels Are Inevitable”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Frank Hyland - Government - Liberals - Taxes

Who Pays?

April 11, 2012 by

-By Frank Hyland

Effective the 1st of April, your nation achieved Number One status, but in a category that won’t make you pleased or proud: The U.S. now has the highest corporate income tax rate in the entire world as of that date. You’ve been hearing in the news recently a number of different views on this development. As I’ve watched the news, though, I first became more and more curious and then angrier and angrier. I may have missed it, but nowhere in the media, across the full political spectrum of Left to Right, have I heard or seen an explanation of the tax. The government has steered clear of an explanation. Some of them may believe that everyone already knows the details. Others, I really believe, hope that you don’t know the truth and never figure it out.

The key question, neither asked nor answered that I know of, is, “Who pays the corporate income tax?” Under U.S. law, a corporation is a “person.” Corporations realize income, have expenses, and pay taxes just as individual people do. But wait a second — although GE, Exxon-Mobil, Apple, and Safeway food stores take in the income and have expenses — who actually pays the taxes? Do you think the corporations do? While some, including the administration, probably hope you think that Exxon-Mobil pays the tax every time you fill up at the gas pump, give it just a moment’s thought and pardon my methodical approach – The gas pump, itself, doesn’t pay taxes; the gas station owner pays individual income taxes just like you do; the Exxon-Mobil Corporation forwards money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as corporate income taxes. Where do they get those funds? They get them from you and from me, to put it simply. On many gas pumps nowadays, you’ll see a listing of the portions that make up the per-gallon price of gasoline. That listing came about in response to complaints about the amount of money in each gallon that goes to which recipient, including counties, states, and the federal government. That information is useful to you, too, but it’s a different issue. Nowhere on the pump does it tell you who actually pays the corporate income tax; nor does it tell you that you, in fact, pay them.
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Who Pays?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Occupy Wall Street - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Petulant, Occupy Chicago Protesters Want Everything ‘Free’

April 10, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the sort of thing that makes these idiotic Occupy whatevers… well, idiots.

Via Marathon Pundit, a cadre of comrades in the Occupy Chicago “movement” decided it would be a cool idea to have a “fare strike” and crash Chicago’s mass transit system in order to ride for free.

When Ruberry asked the gaudily masked nut what a fare strike was, he said that it means we pay “zero” to ride the bus and/or the train.

“It’s when a lot of people show up and say this is what we’re willing to pay for this public service,” he explained. “Today it was exactly zero.”

So, here’s a random question… how, exactly, do these morons think we can even have a mass transit system if no one even pays any fare to use them?
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Petulant, Occupy Chicago Protesters Want Everything ‘Free’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Frank Hyland - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes

Are You In?

April 10, 2012 by

-By Frank Hyland

Seemingly everywhere I go on the web these days, I encounter a political ad for the President’s reelection, asking me, “Are you in?” I don’t know if you feel as upset as I do. I can just imagine the responses that are coming in as disillusioned Americans click on the web banner and then go on:

Yeah, I’m in….I’m in debt up to my eyeballs!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in foreclosure thanks to you and Barney Frank!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in trouble with my bank for non-payment!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in default on my Student Loan!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in over my head on credit card payments!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in the Pawn Shop for the third time this week!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in my parents’ basement at the age of 31!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in envy of the menus at your White House parties!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in hock for more than I make in a month!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in awe at the number of trips on Air Force One!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in search of a job for over a year!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in contact with a debt collector over the phone!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in fear that my classmates will find out I’m broke!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in tears over my finances since you took office!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in my car, where I’ve lived since being evicted!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in shock every time I pull into a gas station!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in envy of the number of vacations you all take!
Yeah, I’m in…..I’m in a state of confusion as to whose side you’re on!

Please feel free to add to the list any and all of your own entries. And, like I will, take this list with you into the voting booth on November 6th.
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Are You In?”

Alan Caruba - Animals - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Health - Liberals

It’s the Lies About Beef that are the Slime

April 6, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

I am subject to various enthusiasms and, in 2008, I wrote a series about beef and the vast network of phony consumer advocates, vegetarian types, animal rights groups and headline chasing media folks who love a good scare campaign, all trying to convince Americans that beef was bad for them.

Today, it is a smear campaign about a type of meat promoted in the media as “pink slime.” Typically, it is a pack of lies and it’s going to cost some folks their jobs and drive up the cost of beef if allowed to go unchallenged.

What is being demonized in this 21st century reincarnation of the 1989 Alar apple scare is finely textured, 95% lean beef. It is composed of small parts of beef that are still available for use after the cuts with which we are more accustomed, like sirloin, brisket, top round, flank, porterhouse, and some forty other selections, are taken.
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It’s the Lies About Beef that are the Slime”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Daniel Clark - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Ethics - Green Energy - Liberals - President - Solar

Outrage Outage: Why Solyndra Fails to Spark Anger

April 5, 2012 by

-By Daniel Clark

After all the anger, rational and otherwise, that was directed at Enron after it went bankrupt several years ago, one might have expected Americans to be incensed by the failures of Solyndra and other federally-subsidized “renewable energy” companies. So why aren’t we?

For conservatives, the answer is fairly simple. To us, the Solyndra fallout has been the proverbial spilled milk. It’s not as if we thought these “green energy” ventures would actually pay off. The real offense was the taxpayer-financed investments that Obama made in these companies through his gargantuan stimulus package, at which we really were angry, and still are.

Since liberals championed the stimulus package, it stands to reason that they are undisturbed by Solyndra, assuming that they didn’t expect it to pan out, either. If the subsidies were meant primarily as a symbolic expression of liberal ecological sensitivity, then they have already served their purpose, regardless of whether or not they yield any real-world results.
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Outrage Outage: Why Solyndra Fails to Spark Anger”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Frank Salvato - GOP - Government - Liberals - Paul Ryan - President - Republicans - Social Security - Taxes

Outing the Progressives & Liberal Democrats on the Ryan Budget

April 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Frank Salvato

“We have a choice of two futures. We know the path we’re on right now. That’s the path the President is proposing: a debt crisis; no health or retirement security; a diminished future; a stagnant country; less jobs; less prosperity. That is not the America we know. We can choose this other path, but we have to make that choice. We can lift the crushing burden of debt off our children and grandchildren. And we can get this economy growing today. It is up to our generation to pick this path. The question is: will we do it or not.” – US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Path to Prosperity (Episode 1).

This will be the question that the 2012 Presidential Election decides. Will we choose to remain a fiscally solvent and financially independent Republic of sovereign citizens? Or will be choose to complete the fundamental transformation of the United States of America from Constitutional Republic to nanny-state, Socialist Democracy? To me – and to most thinking Americans – the choice is clear: we would all like to remain as free and independent as possible. But there are factions in our country that would like to transform our country into something that it was never intended to be. And there are other factions that are so targeted on the retention of power that they would destroy our nation in that pursuit.

The 2012 House Republican Budget Proposal, put forth by US Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), arguably the most fiscally responsible person inside the beltway, is a solid, common sense piece of legislation that some on the Right – and on the Left – are calling moderate in its goals. It simplifies the tax code, collapsing the current system of six tax brackets for individuals into two marginal rates of 25 percent and 10 percent, and ends deductions that benefit a relatively small class of mostly higher-income individuals. It also lowers the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent – competitive with the world average, while eliminating carve-outs and loopholes that have allowed some narcissistic corporations to avoid paying taxes altogether. It would also scrap the Alternative Minimum Tax that captures more and more of the Middle Class each and every year.
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Outing the Progressives & Liberal Democrats on the Ryan Budget”