-By Warner Todd Huston
CNN is reporting that Obama “has his work cut out for him” if he wants to get reelected in 2012 and a poll of Ohio and Pennsylvania is the evidence.
There has been a lot of speculation on how bad things are looking for The Obammessiah these days. Even Democrats are afraid that it is looking bad for Obama winning a second term…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is a lie that serves as the left’s basic narrative for the birth of the Tea Party movement and this weekend it was The New York Times’s turn to push that lie claiming that the Tea Party is “led by veteran conservative activists and bankrolled by billionaires.” This bull hockey (yes, I said bull hockey) can’t be debunked enough, because to undermine the legitimacy of the Tea Party movement, extremists and left-wingers that pretend to be journalists push this lie for all its worth.
Left-wing Georgetown Professor Michael Kazin, who masquerades as a history professor by day, penned this latest piece for the Times pushing the left’s favorite false narrative about the Tea Party movement. The piece, lamenting the loss of the spirit of activism and protest in the American left, revealed a professor paid for by our tax dollars longing for the days of the violent, anarchist protests of the early 20th century.
Kazin cries that the left has lost its umpf and wails that “the Tea Party rebellion” has instead come to the fore.
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NYTimes Sunday Review Again Pushes Lie that Billionaires Run Tea Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Freedom Works initiated Kosher Tea, a way to connect Tea Party groups with Jewish groups in order to facilitate some common efforts on conservatism, pro-Israel policies, and economic freedom.
www/KosherTea.org
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Kosher Tea Unites Tea Partiers With Jewish Community”
-By Frank Salvato
There is a great discontent emanating from the Democrat and Progressive base regarding President Obama’s performance, a demographic he desperately needs if he is to succeed in his bid for re-election. Many in the traditional Republican circles, especially the so-called Republican strategists, argue that Republicans could run a teleprompter-reading “animatron” and win in 2012. This is a foolish and dangerous position to espouse but one that should come as no surprise. Republicans, since their first days as a party, have honed the skill of shooting themselves in the foot to perfection. If Conservatives and Republicans don’t wake-up, evolve in their media tactics, get ahead of the message, frame their opponents and mandate the argument before the Progressives do, we could very well find Barack Obama taking the Oath of Office in 2013.
Steve Chapman, no stranger to the Chicago Progressive crowd, wrote in The Chicago Tribune:
“The vultures are starting to circle. Former White House spokesman Bill Burton said that unless Obama can rally the Democratic base, which is disillusioned with him, ‘it’s going to be impossible for the president to win.’ Democratic consultant James Carville had one word of advice for Obama: ‘Panic.’
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Framing the Election Before the Progressives Do”
From the campaign for State Senate of Arie Friedman…
“The news for job-seekers and employers in Illinois just doesn’t seem to get any better,” said Dr. Arie Friedman, Republican candidate for State Senate in the 29th District, southeast Lake County and Wheeling, Palatine, Northfield and New Trier Townships in northern Cook County.
“The jobs climate in our state is closely tied to the fiscal condition of the state government itself,” said Friedman, “as Illinois continues to rate red alerts about the state budget deficit and the state’s growing debt.”
Friedman cited Monday’s report by the Civic Federation documenting Illinois’s deepening debt, even in the wake of increased state revenue from the personal and corporate income tax hikes passed by Springfield Democrats in January.
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State Senate Candidate Arie Friedman Comments on Illinois Deepening Debt”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Even Dancing is not safe from left-wing attacks on Tea Partiers, sadly. Tonight on the venerable dance show, fashion makeover maven Carson Kressley thought it would be a hoot to make fun of over half the voters in America with an attack on how he thinks Tea Party activists smell.
On tonight’s Dancing With The Stars, funny guy Carson Kressley hit the screen wearing a gorilla mask. Taking it off he snarked, “It still smells like a Tea Party.”
So, what are we to make of this nonsense? Is Kressley saying that Tea Party activists smell like gorillas?
Are we supposed to be laughing at that, now?
So, what do Democrats smell like? Maybe Europeans? How about reds?
I wonder what dance partner Anna Trebunskaya, who was born in Russia, thinks about that? I wonder how ABC will take attacking so much of its audience?
Whatever Anna or ABC thinks of it the bigger questions is, what do you Tea Partiers think? Maybe you can ask ABC yourself?
Dancing With The Haters: DWTS Slam on Tea Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
What happens when the sun refuses to shine on a PR event for solar power…
Yeah, look to the right under the sign. Yep, that’s a gas generator powering the “solar” sign.
Brett Jacobson was alerted to this hilarious example of the unviable nature of solar power as a reliable source of energy.
It was too deliciously funny to ignore.
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The ‘Solar Decathalon’ That Needed a Gas Generator for Cloudy Days”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is completely put of control. Now it wants to implement new regulations that would destroy 183,000 private sector jobs every year. Yes, even after Obama has destroyed the economy and jobs we do have he wants to destroy even more.
The EPA’s new rules, according to PennEnergy, would be disastrous to our already flagging economy.
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Obama’s EPA Regs to Kill 183,000 Private Sector Jobs a Year”
-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”
From Illinois GOP House Leader Tom Cross…
In response to a series of news reports in the Chicago Tribune on WGN-TV this week, uncovering huge pension hikes under the guise of public service, we filed a bill (HB3813) to close the little known loophole that nets some Chicago city workers tens of millions in pension bumps at the end of their careers.
Click here to watch WGN-TV’s coverage of our bill filling.
Click here to read the Chicago Tribune’s story.
“This is a huge slap in the face to taxpayers that government in cooperation with its employees comes up with a scheme, that is currently allowable under state law, to boost pensions sky-high,” said Cross. “This practice needs to stop—immediately—and we will file a bill today, so that this provision in state law cannot be abused.”
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Cross Files Bill to End Pension Perks”
From the office of Rep. Randy Hultgren (Ill., 14th District)…
A balanced budget amendment (BBA) to our Constitution is a permanent solution to our nation’s fiscal crisis to legally force future Congresses and Presidents to stop spending money they don’t have. Earlier this week I sat down to share my thoughts about a BBA and why it’s so important for the future of our country.
America Speaking Out (ASO), www.americaspeakingout.com, is an online community aimed at giving you a voice and the power to set the agenda in Congress. Through ASO, you can express your opinion about the BBA, which will be voted on in the House this fall.
I encourage you to visit www.americaspeakingout.com now to express your opinion about a BBA. It is through the support of the citizens like you that a BBA will become a reality – bringing much-needed certainty to the small business community, putting an end to the out-of-control spending, and restoring accountability to Congress.
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Video: Speak Out And Support A Balanced Budget Amendment”
Congratulations to Herman Cain for his big win of the Florida Straw Poll. In celebration I thought I’d post his TV ad again…
-By Warner Todd Huston
Reuters has a very interesting article detailing the fall of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the modern era. It is a long article, but if you are interested in the way the UAW intends to keep itself relevant to the auto industry on into the future, it is worth the read.
It is also a good article if you want a glimpse of the possible end to the UAW. Its deep financial troubles, its steady loss of members and plants to represent, and its powerlessness to spread its cancer to other auto makers in the south is an ominous warning that the UAW might be headed for the dust bin of history.
Let’s not start popping champagne corks yet, though. We should not count the UAW out, of course, as it is still very powerful. But things are not looking good for the once supremely powerful union.
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The UAW’s Waning Days?”
-By Frank Hyland
On the night of January 20th/21st, 2009, a large, dark SUV pulled onto the White House grounds and disgorged the deepest, darkest secret of the administration – In addition to Barack H. Obama, his twin brother, Tele P. Obama, resides in the White House and has covertly exercised the responsibilities of the Presidency ever since, whenever he could get away with it. The existence of Tele P., of course, has been kept a closely held secret by the President’s senior staff. But a review of the President’s actions over the past almost-three years has thrown a feared and unwanted spotlight on Tele P. In the process, the reputation of the President’s senior staff, which has been much maligned as a lying bunch of Chicago thugs, has been restored. Just a brief review of the ill-considered, amateurish actions of Tele P. will quickly convince you of his existence:
** Barack told us all this August that he would unveil his Jobs Plan soon, in order to deal with the urgency of the situation. While Barack remained in the White House working feverishly, Tele P. was photographed on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and telling us that he would give the speech when he returned, thereby destroying the sense of urgency expressed by Barack.
** Actually, Tele P. began countering Barack from the very beginning. Tele P. ignored the concerns of the American people and, while Barack was in his office working long and hard on a jobs program, Tele P. emphasized a healthcare reform package and targeted banks and Wall Street.
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Frank Hyland’s Food for Thought: The Most Closely Held Secret”
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill., 11the District)…
To Assess Consequences of EPA Regulations for U.S. Energy, Manufacturing & Jobs
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-11) along with Congressman Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) today offered a bipartisan amendment to the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts to the Nation (TRAIN) Act, H.R. 2401. The Kinzinger/Gonzalez Amendment would give Americans the opportunity to receive an explanation of the costs and job impacts associated with a new EPA regulation on gasoline before it can be enforced. The amendment was adopted and the TRAIN Act passed the House with bipartisan support.
Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing a “Tier 3” rulemaking that would further reduce sulfur levels in gasoline to an average of 10ppm – this is a 70 percent change from today’s already low levels. In 2004, Tier 2 rules reduced sulfur by 90 percent from 100ppm to 30ppm. The Kinzinger/Gonzalez Amendment forces the EPA to ensure that the economic and job impacts of the Tier 3 regulations are thoroughly analyzed and reviewed.
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Kinzinger/Gonzalez Amendment Adopted into TRAIN Act Forces Agencies”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Thanks to Illinois Democrats and Governor Pat Quinn, Illinois now sits among the worst states in the country for jobs and business. Texas and North and South Carolina rank as the best.
Illinois is the state with the third worst business climates in the country. Only New York and last rated California are worse in the survey of 322 corporate executives conducted by Development Counsellors International (DCI).
The survey, taken every three years, asks the executives a series of questions meant to discern the most effective tools for marketing and business that leads to deciding where to open new offices and expand business. Executives cited low operating costs and a pro-business climate as the chief reasons for looking upon a state favorably.
California remains the worst state, the survey found.
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Illinois at Bottom of Favorable Business Climate List”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Heritage Foundation has a post giving a run down of some of the scandals mounting in the Obama administration… you know, the most ethical administration ever? Yeah. That one.
Most of them have to do with Obama’s penchant for crony capitalism. Like the good socialist he is, Obama wants to pick the winners and losers in the world of business so he shovels mounds of the taxpayer’s cash to the companies of pals and donors so that they will… well, apparently so that they will give him money back in donations and then just go bankrupt!
The post at Heritage details the crony capitalist scandals of failed companies like LightSquared and Solyndra.
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Obama’s Mounting Scandals”
From the Illinois House Republican Caucus…
We traveled around Illinois this week introducing our new jobs plan to several communities in an effort to become more competitive with other states in order to retain and grow jobs.
Media Round-up:
We’ve all seen the news. Mounting debt, sluggish consumer confidence, zero jobs created in August – the first time since World War II that the U.S. economy had a net zero jobs created for a month – and the Illinois unemployment rate at a staggering 9.9%, nearly a full point higher than the national average.
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A Blueprint for Illinois Job Creation”
I have to apologize to Freedom Works. I stole their video and added the Jake Blues apology scene into it. Freedom Works did not add that scene from the movie, but I just couldn’t resist it.
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama pretends that he wants to cut regulations and make it easier for businesses to make jobs. Unfortunately, what he says and what he does with his powers to regulate are two very, very different things.
From the Workforce Fairness Institute:
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President Obama’s NLRB & Their Summer Assault On American Jobs”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Now this is the sort of corruption we are used to seeing in Illinois, eh? This week the Chicago Tribune and WGN TV has found up to 23 retired union operatives that are collecting millions in taxpayer dollars because they had pals in government tweak the state’s pensions laws to favor them.
These former government workers that were government union members got pliant politicians to alter the pensions laws to say that their pension remuneration would be calculated not on the lower pay they received when they retired from government, but from the much higher salary they received when they worked as union operatives. These folks worked as union bosses at the same time as working on the clock for government.
The “luck” of former union boss and Dept. of Streets and Sanitation worker Thomas Villanova is a typical example. Villanova last worked full-time for the city in 1989 and made $40,000-a-year. But he was also a union big wig making $198,000 annually upon his retirement in 2008 at age 56. His city pension, it appears, was calculated on the union salary of $198,000 instead of his real salary of $40,000 — itself obviously a no-show job in the first place.
Villanova stands to make millions off the taxpayers.
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Chicago: Union Members Collect Millions in Tax $$ With Sweetheart Pension Deal”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Back on August first the whole country was waiting for the House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling and offer a continuing resolution to prevent a feared government shutdown. That was done with the support of 95 Democrats who claimed they were desperate to prevent that shut down. (Relevant amendment)
However, in a follow up vote on Sept. 21 on another bill (H R 2608), 89 of those same Democrats reversed their vote and have essentially voted in favor of a government shut down by voting “no” on the latest continuing resolution to keep the government’s doors open.
Of course, Democrats voted against this bill because increases in budgets (such as that for FEMA) were offset with cuts in other areas. Democrats simply want to increase spending without the fiscally responsible act of cutting spending elsewhere.
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Did 85 Democrats Vote In Favor of Government Shutdown?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
News today had it that two Cook County Commissioners have refused to take the agreed upon furlough days as required by the 2011 budget, days meant to save the county money. Both William Beavers and Earlene Collins have both refused to take the 10 days off.
Collins claimed on Chicago’s WLS AM 89 radio that she shouldn’t have to suffer the indignities of the cut in salary that the days off would mean. She says her base pay has never risen since she was first elected to office and that she has already cut out much of her office allowances and other staffing funds so she should not have to take a cut in pay, too.
In fact, claims Collins, she’s already made cuts that amount to more than the some $9,000 that her 10 day furlough would add up to.
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Cook Commissioners Refuse to Take Furlough Days?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Must be nice to be a member of the “in” crowd, the crowd of crony capitalists to whom President Obama has given so much of the taxpayer’s money. And not just money but positions of power in the government.
Take, for instance, Obama’s newest czar, Judith Faulkner, recently named Obama medical records czar. She was not only put in charge of deciding which company would be used for Obama’s official electronic medical records system, but she also just happens to have an electronic medical records company of her own. And, gosh, it seems her company is suddenly quite busy and just might be in line to become THE electronic medical records company. Imagine that.
Only a few weeks ago news of Faulkner’s elevation to Obama’s Health Information Technology Policy Committee. This committee is charged with deciding how $19 billion in Obama bucks is spent on healthcare IT systems.
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Obama Donor, Now Medical Records Czar Gets Little Gov’t Job BIG Gov’t Contracts”
-By Frank Salvato
Unless you’ve been living under a soundproofed rock for the past two and a half years you know that the approval rating for our nation’s politicians is pathetically low. President Obama’s approvals are hovering around 44 percent while Congress’ approval rating hardly shows-up on the radar screen at 13 percent, and rightfully so. Those elected to federal office (and for that matter, the many State houses) have ignored the basic responsibilities of their offices – to represent their constituencies – and have, instead, arrived inside the Washington DC beltway to execute their stations in the best interests of their political parties and associated special interest groups.
Incredibly, some in the political talking-head and spin doctor class try to explain away the dismal approval ratings as repercussions from the maladies of our time; they try to rationalize that the cause of public discontent, where their elected officials are concerned, is more about an unsophisticated and less realistic interpretation of all the bad news emanating from across the world. These contentions might very well be true if it weren’t for the truth of extremely elevated non-approval ratings received by the elected class. President Obama’s negatives are over 50 percent and Congress’ negative rating is at a stunning 83.5 percent. In fact, the only leader not to have a negative rating over 50 percent is House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who stands at 41 percent.
Keep in mind that, traditionally, approval ratings can bounce up and down quite erratically, but once a voter has established a negative view of a candidate it is very hard to flip that view to the positive. It is for this reason that a unique opportunity presents itself; an opportunity that even the doomed politician can use to throw a lifeline to his or her legacy.
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Now Is the Time”
-By Illinois GOP House Leader Tom Cross
For nearly 100 years, Modern Drop Forge employees have been manufacturing metal forging tools in Blue Island. In August, the company announced it was moving to Indiana and taking 240 jobs with it. The reason: Illinois’ “poor business environment”–specifically, workers compensation laws and high taxes.
How many more companies and good jobs are we willing to let go before we get serious about workers compensation, regulatory, tort and tax reform?
In January, after Illinois’ governor and Democrats in the General Assembly passed the largest income tax hike and corporate tax hike in state history, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels actively began recruiting Illinois businesses. He isn’t alone. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey came to Illinois and ran TV ads after the tax vote marketing his state to businesses.
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Illinois Jobs Need to be Job One”
-By Warner Todd Huston
“Since 1975,” a study of union violence says, there has been “more than 9,000 reports of union violence.” With that in mind, wouldn’t it scare you if you were told that your name and address would be made public knowledge if you were hired as a temporary or replacement worker during a union strike? If you had any sense you sure would.
Well, now that is exactly what the Obama administration wants to do. Obama’s Department of Labor wants to make a new rule that businesses must disclose the names and addresses of individuals that are hired during strikes to replace unionized workers, whether permanently or temporarily.
With the long, long history of murder, property damage, beatings, and general harassment that unions have engaged in since unions came to this nation, the idea of having a worker’s name and address released to these union thugs so that unions can create hit lists of employees to attack is unconscionable.
Obama plans to put the property, family, and the very lives of thousands of workers in danger just so he can again give a big payoff to Big Labor.
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Intimidation: Obama’s Dept. of Labor To Supply Replacement Worker’s Names AND Addresses to Union Thugs”
From the office of Rep. Peter ROskam (Ill., 6th District)…
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06), issued the following statement in response to the President’s debt plan:
“It is disappointing that with our economy on the verge of a double-dip recession President Obama is proposing trillions in higher taxes. Small businesses are already begging for mercy from Washington’s high tax and regulatory environment. Higher taxes – and the uncertainty caused by the threat of them – is the last thing American small businesses and job creators need to endure. It’s unfortunate but this latest proposal is predictably sad and sadly predictable from an Administration that has over-taxed, over-regulated, and over-spent our way to nine-percent unemployment and $14 trillion in debt.”
Roskam Statement on Obama’s Debt Plan”
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama just proved that his supposed “jobs speech” is nothing but the first part of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and no effort to work with anyone to solve the nation’s economic woes.
But Obama’s pretended focus on “jobs” has always been a head fake. First off he ran for president in 2008 as the jobs president claiming that he wanted to put American back to work. Repeatedly during his first two years he claimed he was all about jobs. Yet it took to year three for him to finally bother to get around to that all important “jobs speech.” Then he scheduled a joint session to Congress that he didn’t arrange properly with Congress and had to move it to the next day. He finally gave the speech but even after telling Congress to “pass this bill” about 50 times, he didn’t have any bill to give them. That, he said, would come in a week or so. Now we finally have some semblance of a bill — even though the Senate agrees the bill is not fully written — and the Senate now says it won’t take it up for a while…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com