Economy/Finances

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Peter Roskam - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out

May 10, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wisconsin is celebrating over the stupidity of the political class in Illinois, a state that is steadily destroying its business climate and mounting some pretty high tax rates. The town of Menasha, Wisconsin, though, loves Illinois because Prolamina Corp. has chosen it for a new flexible-packaging plant, one it is moving from the Land of Lincoln to Wisconsin.

Prolamina Corp. will begin building its new facility in Wisconsin in August. The facility will be serving the needs of the “tobacco, cheese, pouch materials, pet food, medical, produce and snack food markets.”

“The location offers lower operating costs, improved response times and lower freight costs to customers,” said Bevis, who started the company last year as Packaging Solutions Holdings Inc., Lake Forest, Ill.

So, Illinois has lost yet one more business. There has been a steady stream of business fleeing from Illinois.

This news comes as a prelude to reports that Sears is shopping for a new state to move to, as well.

Sears has its Headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago but is now considering a move out-of-state.
Continue reading “

Thanks Governor Quinn: Illinois Loses Another Business and One More (Sears) on the Way Out”

Budget - Connecticut - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Truth in Accounting Issues: Connecticut’s ‘Financial State of the State’ – True Tax Burden $63.5 Billion

May 10, 2011 by

Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting and the Comeback America Initiative released Connecticut’s “Financial State of the State.” After an intensive review of the State’s 2010 audited financial report the Institute determined the state is in a precarious financial position, because it does not have the funds available to pay over $63.5 billion of the state’s commitments as they come due. Each taxpayer’s* share of this financial burden equals $49,000.

Connecticut state law requires a balanced budget. “If governors and legislatures had truly balanced the state’s budget, no taxpayer’s financial burden would exist,” said Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA). She continued, “A state budget is not balanced if past costs, including those for employees’ retirement benefits, are pushed into the future.”
Continue reading “

Truth in Accounting Issues: Connecticut’s ‘Financial State of the State’ – True Tax Burden $63.5 Billion”

Anti-Americanism - Chicago - Children - Cook County - Daniel Clark - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Western Civilization

Totalitarianism For Tots: School lunches are just a start

May 10, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Daniel Clark

The prohibition on bagged lunches at Chicago’s Little Village Academy elementary school was not the result of Michelle Obama’s culinary reign of terror, as was widely assumed when it was first reported by the Chicago Tribune. In reality, the ban had been unilaterally enacted six years ago by principal Elsa Carmona. So, although there may be one little tyrant presiding over one little school, it is not indicative of a broader, nationwide campaign. Or is it?

Carmona’s edict has just become newsworthy because of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, signed by President Obama in December. That law has imposed far stricter nutritional standards on school lunches, while at the same time rejecting all standards of edibility. Because the kids won’t want to eat the gruesome grub, Little Village’s forbidding them from bringing lunches from home may lead to their refusing to eat lunch at all.

While touting the new rules, the White House posted a sample of a weekly elementary school lunch menu online. If we fed many of these same items to the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo, the ACLU and Amnesty International would scream brutality, and for once they’d have a point.
Continue reading “

Totalitarianism For Tots: School lunches are just a start”

Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - Mexico - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

11 Illinois Republicans That Support Illegal Immigrant DREAM Act

May 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

When a communist newspaper celebrates the actions of Republicans, well, what more do you need to know how far off base a vote is? The People’s World is all excited about the fact that 11 Illinois State Senators voted to give freebie “scholarships” to illegal aliens to attend Illinois universities and schools.

Last week State Senate President John Cullerton’s Illinois state DREAM Act (SB 2185) passed with a 45 to 11 vote. This program sets up privately funded scholarships to upwards to 95,000 children of illegal immigrants so that they can attend schools in the Land of Lincoln.

Supporters claim that this was a no-brainer vote because no state money is used for this program. This, however, seems to be a falsehood. For one thing SB 2185 sets up a state commission which surely will cost the state to administer. Not only that but the law forces High School counselors to get special sensitivity training on the needs of illegal immigrants. Who the heck is going to pay for all that nonsense if not the local schools that will have to hire consultants to come in for these time wasting training sessions?
Continue reading “

11 Illinois Republicans That Support Illegal Immigrant DREAM Act”

Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pension Reform in Illinois: A Hard Job That Springfield Wants to Ignore

May 9, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Prosperity – Illinois has launched an effort to goad our lawmakers in Springfield to tackle the single most vexing problem the state faces: pension obligations.

AFP has launched a website called “Fix Illinois Pensions Now” to help inform and empower voters so that they might encourage their representatives to do the right thing and fix this mess now!

A second website to find important information can be seen at: www.illinoisisbroke.org.

AFP has partnered with The Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and they have jointly produced an informative video on the effort.
Continue reading “

Pension Reform in Illinois: A Hard Job That Springfield Wants to Ignore”

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Right To Work - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Member Fired By Union For… Organizing a Union?

May 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is always the most amusing sort of union story, but a union boss is mad at one of his members for organizing a union and allegedly fired him over it. Confused? I can understand why. After all, aren’t union members supposed to organize workers? So, how could a union member get fired for doing just that? Read on, McDuff.

As the story goes, one Mr. David Highnote seems to have gone out on a low note from the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). Highnote recently filed an unfair labor practice charge against his union alleging that the ATU threatened him and then fired him for organizing other union members.

He wasn’t just organizing workers of businesses, however. Highnote was organizing the staff that works for the union itself.
Continue reading “

Union Member Fired By Union For… Organizing a Union?”

10th Amendment - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Law - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Dear Federal Gov’t, Who Do You Think You Are?

May 6, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the main forces behind the Tea Party movement and the disgust that many Americans have with the federal government is its supreme arrogance and its constant unwanted and unwarranted power grabs. This is one of the things that the American people really need to put their attention toward reversing.

Perhaps it is just beginning?

Alaska, for instance, has just thrown its weight behind the opposition to the federal government’s obscene persecution of an Alaskan citizen who was arrested for violating rules that the federal government has imposed on those Alaskan waterways flowing through national parks.
Continue reading “

Dear Federal Gov’t, Who Do You Think You Are?”

Alan Caruba - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - EPA - FDA - Government - Liberals

Scaring Mothers and All Others – The BPA File, Part Four

May 6, 2011 by

-By Alan Caruba

In a revealing article in the April issue of The Atlantic, “Beyond BPA: Could ‘BPA-Free’ Products Be Just as Unsafe?” the effort to scare American consumers and others around the world comes full circle. In essence, the people and organizations behind campaigns to ban bisphenol-A (BPA) and anything made from plastic exist to frighten everyone about everything.

From the snake oil salesmen who pitched their phony medicines in the days of the early West to today’s purveyors of fear about a wide range of chemicals that protect health and extend life, the key element remains the same; they lie to enrich themselves.

As John Entine wrote in an article, “Scared to Death”, “When it comes to stories on so-called toxic substances, the public discourse seems infected by a malady worse than microscopic residues: chemophobia.”
Continue reading “

Scaring Mothers and All Others – The BPA File, Part Four”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Michigan - President - Regulation - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

GM Exec: Reporting GM’s Failures Hurts… Republicans?

May 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In an odd turn of events, former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz thinks that anyone that criticizes GM is not only “mis-informed” but insists that those “foaming ideologues” that criticize the car giant are “damaging the Republican Party.”

It is interesting that an executive in the company derided as “Government Motors” is trying to direct attention away from his minders in the Obama administration and toward the opposing party, and just before a general election at that.

It is also interesting to see Lutz defending GM as the “future” of the car business. Lately GM has not been turning out the sort of products that puts the company at the head of much of anything.
Continue reading “

GM Exec: Reporting GM’s Failures Hurts… Republicans?”

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

The Intersection of U Street and Main Street Does Not Exist

May 5, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

The teachers unions’ radical agenda alienates them from the American mainstream

As I mentioned in last week’s post, during the week of May 9th, the California Teachers Association and many local unions, like the United Teachers of Los Angeles, will be taking to the streets in an attempt to convince legislators and citizens that cuts to education will not be tolerated by the unions. In other times this would be a winning strategy, but as shown by recent polls, the teachers unions are not the darlings of the public that they used to be.

While unionistas all over the country lament this loss of favor, they only need to look in their collective mirrors to understand why. They have managed to alienate too many Americans who previously had held them in a better light. The unions’ insistence on things like tenure and seniority privileges, which serve to protect only the bad apples, has begun to grate on the public. Additionally, the fact that they are tolerant of, and give outright support to extremist political causes is another reason the public is turning against them.

An example of the unions turn toward extremist politics took place last year in Los Angeles. Santee High School teacher and UTLA union rep Jose Lara took his students to Arizona on a “field trip” to protest Arizona’s new immigration law. In a YouTube video, Lara is seen standing in front of a wall-to-wall mural featuring a who’s who of murderous revolutionaries, including Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, while proudly displaying the motto Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!!! (Fatherland or Death, We Shall Overcome!!!). UTLA, while not a sponsor of the Memorial Day weekend trip, had no comment on Mr. Lara’s attempt to turn his students into an army of radical activists.
Continue reading “

The Intersection of U Street and Main Street Does Not Exist”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Right To Work - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Is Obama Planning to Impose DISCLOSE Despite the FEC, Congress AND The Supreme Court?

May 4, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You may remember last year, when union-backed Democrats nearly passed the so-called DISCLOSE Act, imposing financial disclosure for companies, while excluding unions.

Well, the DISCLOSE Act is back…Sort of.

Based on pretty solid reporting by Pajamas Media and confirmed by Huffington Post, it appears that the Obama Administration is preparing an Executive Order to force portions of the DISCLOSE Act on all federal contractors.
Continue reading “

Is Obama Planning to Impose DISCLOSE Despite the FEC, Congress AND The Supreme Court?”

Budget - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Frank Hyland - Government - Liberals - Taxes - Tea Party

We Are All Wisconsin Union Members

May 4, 2011 by

-By Frank Hyland

This is not an easy column to write. Normally the subject is a loon like Michael Moore and he has again done something that is easy to criticize. This one is about me, though, and — even more difficult — about you (the “You” writ large, that is). For this one, I had to spend considerable time in front of the mirror even after finishing shaving, and we all must do that to resolve this problem.

This is about being honest about ourselves to the point that it will hurt, at least in the pocketbook.

The biggest story, still ongoing, is about unionized state workers in Wisconsin. But other stories are related and need to be put in the same context. For one, a new poll says that almost two thirds of Americans think we’re on the wrong track; that figure will continue to rise along with gasoline prices. That many or more of us, though, want budget cutters to look elsewhere for the place to cut, as opposed to their own wallets. In truth, we are resurrecting that catchy jingle saying, “Don’t tax me. Don’t tax thee. Tax that man behind the tree.” It will not be easy, though, because another report to put in the same context is that more than one third of us receive our income from the US Government in one form or another. It is easy for me to say that I’m not on “welfare.” The trouble is that creative characterization of Federal Government programs over many decades has convinced many of us that we receive income from “entitlements” or because we show up at our desk every day in the public sector — the US Education Department, for example. We have come to believe, therefore, that we are entitled to the money. Less and less money will be available, though, as ten thousand or more people – read Baby Boomers – retire each and every day.
Continue reading “

We Are All Wisconsin Union Members”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Financial Reform - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Republicans - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Inflation At The Gate, The Fed Talks About Deflation

May 3, 2011 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

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

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

The New York Times, the nation’s premier voice of socialist propaganda, admits in a front page, lead article that Stimulus by Fed Is Disappointing, Economists Say.
Continue reading “

Inflation At The Gate, The Fed Talks About Deflation”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Biology - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Health - Liberals - Medicine - Science - Society/Culture - Technology - Western Civilization

Bogus Sex Scares Used to Ban BPA – The BPA File, Part Five

May 3, 2011 by

-By Alan Caruba

Over the course of the first four elements of The BPA File, we have documented a massive, global campaign to ban bisphenol-A, BPA, a chemical that has been safely used for more than a half century to protect metal and plastic containers for food and liquid against spoilage and the resulting hazard to health.

Every day, somewhere in the nation and the world, there is a constant repetition of lies regarding BPA They frequently target the fears of mothers of newborn infants, but also allege a wide variety of other health threats including a healthy sex life for men and women.

In the same fashion that the global warming hoax was spread and maintained by a campaign that asserted that everything from frizzy hair to blizzards was the result of a dramatic warming cycle that was either happening or predicted to happen, the effort to ban BPA uses the same technique.
Continue reading “

Bogus Sex Scares Used to Ban BPA – The BPA File, Part Five”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Labor Law - Liberals - NLRB - President - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Right To Work - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Arrogance: Obama Decides HE Can Tell A Company Where They’re Allowed to Build

May 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama thinks he has the power to tell companies where they are “allowed” to build new facilities and, shock of shocks, Obama wants all those facilities to be in union controlled states.

Last week Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced its plans to force Boeing to keep building its aircraft in union plagued Washington State instead of building its planned new facility in South Carolina — a right to work, union free state.
Continue reading “

Arrogance: Obama Decides HE Can Tell A Company Where They’re Allowed to Build”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - EPA - Free Trade - Government - Health - Liberals - President - Scott Portman - Taxes

Expect the GOP to continue criticism, fight against EPA

April 30, 2011 by

-By Scott Portman

With a failure to hit the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget anywhere near expectation in the resolution last week, the GOP will likely have to switch its plan of attack on the EPA regulations that are threatening to cost businesses jobs and money in the near future.

The GOP had been pressuring in Capitol Hill on the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations through multiple attempts and proposals to cut their budget. While republican reps were looking for a 30 percent cut to the budget, the resolution came back with only a mere 16 percent cut to the EPA. Despite the failure to have the budget cut to their liking, the GOP has managed to take part in fights over legislation throughout the early months of 2011 as well.

Senator James Inhofe was one of those responsible for the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which is geared to attack the EPA’s cap and trade tax that allow them to lay costly regulations on businesses over greenhouse gas emissions. Inhofe saw the act as a major positive, saying that “The Energy Tax Prevention Act leaves all of the essential provisions of the Clean Air Act intact, ensuring that Americans will be protected from pollution that has direct public health impacts. It also prevents EPA from twisting the Clean Air Act into a bureaucratic obstacle to growth and expansion.”
Continue reading “

Expect the GOP to continue criticism, fight against EPA”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Republicans - Socialism - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Geithner’s Spin: Auto Bailout A Success

April 29, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

At the Detroit Economic Club today, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to claim the auto bailout is a success.

It certainly doesn’t seem like a success for the taxpayers. GM stock is about $30 today, and unless it gets up to $54, the taxpayers lose money on the deal. Why would it go up? You want to fight high gas prices by buying a Volt? How does $41 grand a pop sound? And still GM loses money on every one it sells even at that price. Not only that but we are seeing that government subsides for electric cars is good tax money wasted in any case.
Continue reading “

Geithner’s Spin: Auto Bailout A Success”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Google - Government - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Net Neutrality - PCism - President - Society/Culture - Technology - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Why We Can’t Trust Government on Technology

April 29, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Free market advocates have for years been fighting the anti-capitalist left over government control of the Internet, a battle that has reached a temporary plateau when Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) arbitrarily decided that it was in full control of the Internet and by fiat implemented the left’s long-sought net neutrality rules. This isn’t the only technology kerfuffle that the federal government is involved in, either.

Another techno-mess has been raging over a contract being considered by the Department of the Interior for its new email/messaging system using a cloud computing solution. The fight has been between Microsoft and Google and the results tends to prove that the government is as tech stupid as a Luddite on steroids. It tends to show that the government simply can’t be trusted with technology issues, whether net neutrality or otherwise.
Continue reading “

Why We Can’t Trust Government on Technology”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif Union Chief Says You Taxpayers are Selfish and Full of ‘Envy’

April 29, 2011 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

You taxpayers should be ashamed of yourselves, says Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. You big, selfish jerks should be happy to pay the taxes that gives government employees all healthcare practically for free and allows them to retire at 50 with their comfortable 40-year-long retirement pensions that pay government union members twice what you’ll ever see in your golden years.

I mean, who do you taxpayers think you are, anyway?

Interestingly enough, even the soft-headed, left-leaning voters of California seem to be getting sick and tired of the freebies give government union members at this point.

A recent L.A.Times poll found that Californians are about done with the ritzy government employees sweet deals and are becoming tired of being the union’s sugar daddy. They are in increasing numbers desirous of caps on the spiraling unearned government union pensions.
Continue reading “

Calif Union Chief Says You Taxpayers are Selfish and Full of ‘Envy’”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Democrat Caused Pension Bomb About to Destroy Our States

April 28, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few weeks ago I wrote that unions have driven every state budget into a hole from which it isn’t likely the states can easily dig themselves out. I did not at that time reference the Pew report on the pensions mess and I want to revisit it here.

On April 5, I said, “The worst mess that states are in is because government unions have been handed luxurious and unsustainable pensions and healthcare plans by those very Democrat politicians that unions have paid off to do so. Again all at the expense of the suffering taxpayers.” The Pew report shores this up thoroughly.

In fact, the Pew report from early April 2010 even understates the problem, not because of any bias but because the stats that they used were taken from stats assembled in 2008 because that was the last year where full records had been compiled. Further, we must remember that these stats also came before the market crash ushered in during the age of Obama.
Continue reading “

The Democrat Caused Pension Bomb About to Destroy Our States”

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Cook County Board - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Taxes - Toni Preckwinkle - Warner Todd Huston

Cook County Board: Where a Politician Refuses to Say Something Like a Normal Person… Again

April 27, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

You gotta hand it to new Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Not only has she risen above her goofy name and won a highly important political position, but she’s achieved the art of almost saying something that she means.

Of course there’s another thing you have to hand to her. For a Democrat she’s been doing a fair bit of cutting of the Cook County budget. She could do far more, of course, but at least she’s doing something.

Anyway, back to the “almost saying something she means” thingie…
Continue reading “

Cook County Board: Where a Politician Refuses to Say Something Like a Normal Person… Again”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Wisc. Democrats Use Recall Petition Info to Harass Voters

April 26, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In yet another union-styled outrage, Democrats backed by union thugs in Wisconsin are using the personal information of voters found on recall petitions to harass them because they signed a petition to recall Green Bay Democrat State Senator Dave Hansen.

Over the last few weeks thousands of Wisconsin voters signed a recall petition in Green Bay to recall Hansen and when voters sign such petitions they must give their address and phone numbers so that authorities can verify the voter’s signature in order to approve the petition. Now it seems that the Wisconsin Democrat Party has gotten hold of these petitions and have begun a telephone harassment campaign against the individual voters that signed the petitions.

The Wisconsin GOP has discovered this disgusting campaign and have found that the Democrats are using a fake phone number and a fake caller ID in order to get voters to answer the phone only to be harangued about having signed the recall petition.
Continue reading “

Wisc. Democrats Use Recall Petition Info to Harass Voters”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Nanny State - Oil - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington

Paradox: Green-Loving Washington State About to Penalize Electric Car Owners

April 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Some people think that marriage is the most absurd institution ever invented by man. But those that think so are ignoring what is truly the most idiotic, paradoxically absurd practice in all of human history: government. Yeah, yeah, necessary evil and all, but still there is nothing that exemplifies human folly better than politics and Washington State has uncorked a doozie for us today.

From coast to coast and all over the world liberals are mindlessly going gaga for green. Anything that smacks of greenism is, with religious fervor, promoted and revered. The electric automobile, for instance, is one of the left’s dream modes of transportation. Pursuant to that dreamy green dream, liberals have made sure that all sort of tax breaks are lavished upon those citizens who dutifully jump up to their necks into the unprofitable and technologically untested world of electric cars. Washington State is no exception to this mania.

… and hilarity ensues.

The Associated Press is even a bit snarky about the whole mess.
Continue reading “

Paradox: Green-Loving Washington State About to Penalize Electric Car Owners”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

CTA Days of Desperation Coming to Your Town

April 26, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Fearful of taking a financial hit, California Teachers Association will be taking to the streets and declaring a “state of emergency.” But I have some questions for them when the demagoguery begins.

With California in a world of fiscal trouble and many people sick and tired of the unrealistic perks and benefits gained by collective bargaining, the California Teachers Association figured they had to take action. Their first idea was to go on a rampage the week of May 9.
The original plan included such disruptive strategies as…
Continue reading “

CTA Days of Desperation Coming to Your Town”

AFL-CIO - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Labor Law - Law - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Richard Trumka - SEIU - The Law - UAW - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Plan: ‘Forget About the Law, Brand Businesses as Human Right Violators’

April 25, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again we see how lawless the Obama administration and its allies in unions are. By their own admission they don’t care about the law.

In the following video we see Obama’s appointee to his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and United Auto Workers President, Bob King, telling attendees at a recent union roundtable discussion that the unions intend to “forget about the law.”

We also see violence prone AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a close Obama confidante, saying the same thing.

So, their plan is to ignore any actual law and then further to “brand” businesses as “human rights violators” so that they can destroy them.

Unions are entirely un-American. At their core they are socialist, anti-capitalist, destroyers of jobs and success. And remember, folks. THESE are Obama’s people.
Continue reading “

Union Plan: ‘Forget About the Law, Brand Businesses as Human Right Violators’”

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Cook County Board - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Property Taxes - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Cook County Property Tax Appeal Seminar

April 25, 2011 by

Seminar includes a presentation by Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Dan Patlak followed by an opportunity to file an appeal.

When: Thursday, April 28, 2011 – 6:00 PM

Where: Hanover Township Senior Center 240 South Route 59 Bartlett, IL 60103

Sponsored by:

Cook County Commissioner Timothy O. Schneider
Hanover Township Assessor Thomas S. Smogolski

Please make sure you bring your Property Identification Number (PIN) with you to the forum.

For additional information, please call (312) 603-3644

Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Paul Ryan - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C. - Wisconsin

Left Laments Ryan’s GOP Budget NOT Raising America’s Ire

April 23, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left is desperate to color Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget plan (The Path to Prosperity, as it is styled) as the end of America, crazed to call his plan a killer of old people, and maniacal about saying that the GOP and Ryan want to destroy the country by asking for a few budget cuts. The left even claims that “the country” or “the people” are against the GOP budget proposal. But even lefty blogger Dave Weigel is asking the seminal question: where are the protests?

Now, there does seem to be enough evidence that the people are not very optimistic about America’s economic outlook. And members of Congress are certainly feeling the heat over the budget. I recently spoke to GOP Chief Deputy Whip Rep. Peter Roskam and he confirms that. So, the American people are exercised about the budget. They just aren’t mad about the Ryan plan.

The fact seems to be that the Democrat’s are losing the issue and all their demagoguery against Ryan — led by the chief demagogue in the White House — are not winning the American people over to their side by trying to make Paul Ryan out to be an ogre.
Continue reading “

Left Laments Ryan’s GOP Budget NOT Raising America’s Ire”

Budget - Chris Slavens - Conservatives - Constitution - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - President - Republicans - Taxes

Like Him or Not, Ron Paul is Relevant

April 23, 2011 by

-By Chris Slavens

At age 75, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is the oldest of a crowd of potential Republican presidential challengers, if only by a few years. If elected in 2012, he would be the oldest president in U.S. history; the record-holder, Reagan, assumed office at age 69. The uninformed reader might jump to the incorrect conclusion that Paul, who is old enough to be President Obama’s father, is hopelessly out of touch with the young voters who turned out in 2008 and ignorantly propelled a dangerous radical into the highest office of the land, but as anyone who pays attention to political chatter knows, Paul is wildly popular with the under-thirty crowd.

Paul won a GOP presidential straw poll on April 16 in South Carolina, easily beating Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, who tied for second place. Paul has been winning such polls left and right since the libertarian-rooted Tea Party became a political force in 2009, but his popularity among Republicans continues to be underemphasized by mainstream media outlets, which frequently (and probably intentionally) identify him as a libertarian rather than a Republican.

According to the talking heads, Romney, Huckabee, Palin, and Gingrich are the Republicans worth paying attention to as the 2012 election cycle approaches. Hesitant to take Trump’s candidacy seriously, they laughingly praise his ability to generate publicity, and might or might not remember to mention Paul, Bachmann, Pawlenty, and a handful of others. The fixation on Romney and Huckabee is somewhat understandable, as they hold impressive leads in most of the polls, but might prove to be unjustified as the race heats up.
Continue reading “

Like Him or Not, Ron Paul is Relevant”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Rep. Peter Roskam on the Ryan Budget Plan: Obama’s Lack of Leadership Gives GOP a Leading Issue

April 22, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

No one but the worst sycophant thinks that President Obama’s latest stab at a federal budget is a serious plan. In fact, that he’s come before the American people again with a second budget plan itself bespeaks of a president badly floundering on the issue. This has left the Republican Party, and more specifically the GOP led House of Representatives, as the only real game in town on the budget, the debt, and in correcting the Bacchanalia of spending that Congress has indulged for nigh on the last 100 years.

Sadly the Old Media has let Obama skate on the fact that this is his second stab at a budget. If this had been a Republican president forced to throw away his first budget plan, forced to offer a second one, the Old Media would be proclaiming him a president in trouble, a failed leader, a man without influence. Obama, however, has been given a complete pass on his total failure to lead and convince.

Regardless, the GOP has proven to be the adults in the room here with its public face of Paul Ryan and his “path to prosperity” budget plan. As flawed as it might be it is the only serious plan on the table at this time.

I recently spoke to GOP Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R, IL) about the House plan.
Continue reading “

Rep. Peter Roskam on the Ryan Budget Plan: Obama’s Lack of Leadership Gives GOP a Leading Issue”

Business - Cap and Trade - Capitalism - Climate Change - Coal - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Environment - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - North Carolina - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Greenpeace Admits Coal Power a Job Creator

April 22, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently the enviro-centric group Greenpeace issued an extensive report scolding the “dirty” energy choices made by tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook. Greenpeace is all exercised over the fact that many of these companies have moved to North Carolina to take advantage of the coal-produced energy there because the costs are cheaper than the power in other regions. Amusingly, Greenpeace seemed to have completely missed the fact that coal obviously creates jobs or all these companies wouldn’t be moving to North Carolina in the first place.

Greenpeace has its nose out of joint because Google, Facebook, and Apple have moved data centers to NC to take advantage of “low-cost energy” that it claims produces a “corresponding lack of commitment to clean energy.” The eco group is aghast that “misplaced tax incentives” bring jobs and economic success to rural North Carolina.

All that capitalism is horrible, I suppose.
Continue reading “

Greenpeace Admits Coal Power a Job Creator”