Taxes

Alan Caruba - Barack Obama - Budget - Catholicism - Christianity - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Mitt Romney - President - Religion - Taxes

Religion and the 2012 Elections

March 13, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

The one thing that Presidents from Washington through to modern times have held in common was the belief that religion was a central component of the life of the republic.

Calvin Coolidge, President from 1923 to 1929, said “Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberality, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government. There are only two main theories of government in our world. One rests on righteousness and the other on force. One appeals to reason, and the other appeals to the sword. One is exemplified in the republic; the other is represented by despotism.”

Ronald Reagan echoed this view saying, “Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”
Continue reading “

Religion and the 2012 Elections”

Business - Capitalism - Christianity - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Government - Jobs - Michael Bresciani‏ - Mitt Romney - President - Religion - Republicans - Taxes

This Ship Needs a Captain not just a Businessman

March 11, 2012 by

-By Rev Michael Bresciani

In this day of the history challenged it may not be safe to assume that everyone knows that it was Captain John Paul Jones who in the fall of 1779 said the famous words, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Even fewer may know that his ship the Bonhomme Richard had its upper decks nearly blown off and with what may have looked like a tattered raft the fight continued. Two hands assuming that both captain and first officer had been slain went about to lower the ship’s pendant from the mainmast, but were interrupted by Jones who flew toward them with pistols in hand.

The captain threw his unloaded pistols at the mates missing one and striking the other on the head leaving him unconscious. The master of the powerful British warship Serapis called out to Jones and asked if he was about to quarter. (Give up and surrender) Jones’ famous reply has been the example of every great naval officer since, but it doesn’t stop there. The best fighting men, statesmen and ordinary Americans, ever since, have been heard to say the same.
Continue reading “

This Ship Needs a Captain not just a Businessman”

Budget - Congress - Daniel Clark - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Regulation - Socialism - Taxes - Welfare

Defense Vs. Dependency: ‘Safety Net’ Isn’t so Safe

March 10, 2012 by

-By Daniel Clark

During the 1990s, when liberal politicians raided our military budget in order to fund their favored domestic initiatives, they referred to it as reaping the “peace dividend.” Their argument was that with the Cold War over, much of the money being used to maintain the world’s most powerful military could better be used elsewhere.

When war was thrust upon us a decade later, we were woefully under-equipped to handle it, and it’s no wonder why. The Pentagon budget, rather than being increased or cut based on its own merit, had been forced to directly compete for dollars with the pet projects of those politicians who get to determine the winners and losers. Once budget debates were framed in that way, any new military spending could be demagogued as the taking of food from the mouths of the poor.

Today, President Obama is proposing a return to the “peace dividend” model, despite the fact that we are far from being at peace. Even with commitments remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis roiling in Iran, chaos reigning throughout the Middle East, and the deployment of a small number of American soldiers to Uganda, the president plans to decimate our nuclear arsenal, and dramatically reduce our numbers of ships, planes, and active military personnel. Meanwhile, he has proposed another $3.8 trillion budget for 2013, whose deficit will surely top the trillion-dollar mark yet again, his highly optimistic GDP projections notwithstanding.
Continue reading “

Defense Vs. Dependency: ‘Safety Net’ Isn’t so Safe”

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

School Choice: Time to Move Forward

March 9, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

As evidence mounts that the government/union education monopoly is failing our children, 2012 should see ramped up efforts to advance school choice.

Last week, Education Week published “What Research Says About School Choice,” in which nine scholars analyze the results of various studies concerning “school choice” – the quaint notion that parents should be able to choose where to send their kids to school. The report boasts no ecstatic claims, nothing about lions and lambs, no Hallelujah moments – just a sober look at the 20 year-old movement to end mandatory zip code school assignments. Some of the findings:

Among voucher programs, random-assignment studies generally find modest improvements in reading or math scores, or both. Achievement gains are typically small in each year, but cumulative over time. Graduation rates have been studied less often, but the available evidence indicates a substantial positive impact.

Among voucher programs, these studies consistently find that vouchers are associated with improved test scores in the affected public schools. The size of the effect in these studies varies from modest to large. No study has found a negative impact.

A third area of study has been the fiscal impact of school choice. Even under conservative assumptions about such questions as state and local budget sensitivity to enrollment changes, the net impact of school choice on public finances is usually positive and has never been found to be negative.

Also last week, the California Charter School Association released its second annual “Portrait of the Movement: How Charters are Transforming California Education.” Not a sales pitch or compilation of cherry-picked data data, the CCSA report is an honest look at California’s 900 plus charter schools which educate about 400,000 students. A few of its many findings:
Continue reading “

School Choice: Time to Move Forward”

Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - GOP - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Taxes - Transparency - Warner Todd Huston

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Secret New York Trip, Transparency OFF The Agenda

March 8, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, looks like the RahmFather isn’t going to be one of those mayors that gets all excited by that silly old transparency stuff. Fox Business Network revealed that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in New York on a secret visit on Tuesday and this is the second secret trip that Mayor Emanuel has made on Chicago tax payers’s dime.

Emanuel ended up in Manhattan at a high-end restaurant named Sistina where he was seen hobnobbing with a retinue of his old buddies in the banking industry along with his chief economic adviser.

FBN’s Charlie Gasparino wonders if Rahm was in the Big Apple to raise cash for team Obama. After all, Rahm is still an active fund raiser for his former White House boss so it’s a good bet that he was wringing wallets dry for Barack “One Billion Dollar Campaign Fund” Obama.

Emanuel’s office, though claims the Mayor was in New York in order to bring new business back home. Yeah. He’s meeting with old friends established heavily in New York to convince them to drop the financial center of the country in order to come to the state with the worst business climate of all fifty? (Not to mention most corrupt city and worst in nearly every other category, too.)
Continue reading “

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Secret New York Trip, Transparency OFF The Agenda”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama’s Costly Broken Promises

March 5, 2012 by

Candidate Barack Obama regularly flipped positions for political gain, perhaps learning an unfortunate lesson that flip-flopping has no costs. However, as taxpayers are learning, President Obama’s broken promises have very real costs.

As the president took office, his advisers released an analysis that promised his stimulus bill would prevent the unemployment rate from rising over 8 percent. Obviously it has not. For example, in October 2009 the rate was 10.0 percent, 2.1 percent above the rate promised by the president. That 2.1 percent translates into 3.3 million more workers out of work that month than the president promised. Using the average hourly earnings in that month, the lost jobs in November translated to $11.2 billion in lost wages in one month alone.

Obama’s failed promise to reduce the deficit totals: $1,090,700,000,000

For that amount of money we could pay for:

  • 88,33,170 Americans to go to college
  • 6,562,575 homes
  • 294 billion gallons of gas

Obama’s failed promise to keep unemployment below 8% with the stimulus totaled: $423,000,000,000 in lost wages

For that amount of money we could pay for

  • 34,257,753 Americans to go to college
  • 2,545,126 homes
  • 114 billion gallons of gas

Read more at American Action Forum.

Budget - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Frank Hyland - Liberals - Senate - Taxes

Robbing Grandma to Pay Junior

March 3, 2012 by

-By Frank Hyland

Almost a year ago, we were treated to a political TV ad showing a man (intended to look like Congressman Paul Ryan) pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off the edge of a cliff. The eye-catching ad was meant to portray Ryan and the remainder of the GOP as villains for daring to even talk about reforming “entitlements,” including Social Security. The ad neglected to mention that Ryan and others had stated publicly and unequivocally that, under their plan, those already receiving Social Security would see absolutely no change in their benefits.

Fast forward to today and we are now seeing news that the so-called “payroll tax cut” trumpeted by the White House will be extended for another year. How can anyone possibly be against putting more money in the pockets of the American middle class? While loudly and repeatedly trumpeting the “giving” of $1,000.00 to members of the middle class, has anything been said about where the money is coming from? Do you know?
Continue reading “

Robbing Grandma to Pay Junior”

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

Gov’t Waste Watch: Former California Treasury Official Slams Prop 29

February 28, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The opposition to Proposition 29, the nearly billion dollar per year tax hike slated for the June ballot, is growing. A new wrinkle comes from former California Treasury official Mark Paul who hit the nail on the head in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last week.

It seems that another celebrity is barging into politics, this time it is bicycling champ Lance Armstrong who has signed on as the pitchman for Prop 29 the ballot initiative that, if approved by voters, will create a new agency whose task is to undertake research to cure cancer. Never mind that hundreds of other agencies across the country are already doing this, of course, but supporters of Prop 29, the so-called California Cancer Research Act, imagine that billions more taken from California taxpayers will find a cure that others have missed.

Paul is the author of a popular new book on California government, California Crack Up, and for his part he is skeptical over the efficacy of Prop 29, to say the least.
Continue reading “

Gov’t Waste Watch: Former California Treasury Official Slams Prop 29″

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Energy - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Oil - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Chop Licking: How Obama Uses Falsehoods to Advance His Policies

February 27, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week we all got a great lesson in how the left promotes a lie to make Republicans the enemy and this time President Obama was a chief participant.

This is how the game is played: the left-leaning media establishment makes a claim about how rotten Republicans are and Obama then echoes the claim and presents it as the true state of Republican opposition to his policies. The result is that we have a partisan opinion foisted on the public as truth about how mean the GOP is to this poor, well-meaning president. A false media narrative is established by the partisan press, politician adds said meme to a policy speech, presto-chango, a political “fact” is born. But it’s all just a partisan hit job masquerading as fact.

We are talking, of course, about President Obama’s claim that the GOP is “licking their chops” over the bad news of high gas prices. This is the line uttered by the president in his most misleading energy speech delivered in Florida on February 23.

In that speech, President Obama claimed that Republicans were happy that gas prices were hurting Americans. Obama intended to show that Republicans didn’t care that America was hurting, happy they could use it as a political tool to hurt the president and his well-meaning policies.

Here is what he said:

“Some politicians, they see this as a political opportunity. I know you’re shocked by that. Last week the lead story in one newspaper said, ‘Gasoline prices are on the rise and Republicans are licking their chops.’ That’s a quote. That was the lead. Licking their chops. Only in politics do people root for bad news. Do they greet bad news so enthusiastically.”

Note how Obama uses the partisan slam, published in “one newspaper” written by a left-wing writer and presents this as fact about how Republicans feel about rising gas prices. Note that Obama didn’t quote any actual Republican saying rising gas prices is a good thing. He quoted one of his own follower’s partisan claims and then assigned that false narrative to his political enemies.
Continue reading “

Chop Licking: How Obama Uses Falsehoods to Advance His Policies”

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

CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!

February 27, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The California Teachers Association is seeking cover in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The OWS crowd doesn’t understand that CTA and other public employee unions are a major part of the problem.

Last week, part of my post concerned itself with the March 5th “Occupy the Capitol” protest being promoted by the California Teachers Association. I wrote,

“Not only is CTA inviting the OWS rabble, they are calling for teachers to attend, even though it is a school day, thus costing taxpayers all over the state untold thousands in costs for subs and robbing children of a productive school day.”

Little did I know, March 5th was just the tip of the iceberg. The CTA website is now touting a “Week of Action” covering the first seven days of March. Many activities are planned and will be led by various “Occupy” groups that have sprung up like weeds. The result is a grand mishmash of radical organizations coming together to vent their spleen over various and sundry issues, and all links to their activities are available through the CTA website.
Continue reading “

CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Cap and Trade - Democrats/Leftists - Environment - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Taxes

The Global Warming Hoax is Now Killing People

February 27, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

By Friday, February 10th, an estimated 500 Europeans had died from the freezing weather gripping the continent. This is the price they and British citizens are paying for embracing the global warming hoax, spending billions for wind power when they should have been building coal-fired and other sources of energy to heat their homes and businesses.

As the British daily, The Telegraph, reported on Friday, “Serbia has started implementing power cuts in a desperate bid to stave off the collapse of its national grid as the country suffers the effects of days of freezing temperatures.”

I and others have been warning for years that the Earth has been cooling since 1998 and that the planet is on the cusp of a new ice age because the average length of an interglacial period of warmth between such ages is now coming to an end after the passage of some 11,500 years.
Continue reading “

The Global Warming Hoax is Now Killing People”

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

The Brazen Hypocrisy of the Teachers Unions

February 26, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

When teachers unions wear their duplicity like a bright red bandana, it shows the whole world what they really are about.

Last week, New Jersey Education Association Executive Director Vincent Giordano, who makes over $500,000 a year in salary and assorted perks, shoved his foot in his mouth big time. Appearing on “New Jersey Capitol Report,” he and the host were discussing Governor Chris Christie’s plan to install a voucher system in New Jersey. Such a plan would enable students in the state’s worst performing schools to escape them with a voucher that they could use to attend a private school.

Host: The issue of fairness, I mean this is the argument that a lot of voucher supporters make. People who are well off have options. Somebody who is not well off and whose child is in a failing school, why shouldn’t those parents have the same options to get the kid out of the failing school and into one that works with the help of the state?
Continue reading “

The Brazen Hypocrisy of the Teachers Unions”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Climate Change - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Environment - Ethics - Government - Green Energy - Liberals - Policy - President - Taxes

America’s Green Enemies

February 21, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

It was good news that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the nation’s first nuclear power plants on February 9th, clearing the way for the construction of two reactors by Southern Company at its Plant Vogtle site near Atlanta, Georgia. The bad news is that these are the first new nuclear plants since 1978!

In a nation with a growing population and increasing need for electricity to power homes and businesses, it is nothing less than insane to not include nuclear energy in the mix of providers. Environmentalists immediately attacked the announcement using the usual scare campaigns.

Equally insane is the failure to provide the means to safely store the radioactive materials that result. Highly contested by environmentalists, the Nevada-based Yucca Mountain deep geological repository storage facility for spent reactor fuel was cancelled in 2009. Nevada’s Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader in the Senate, played a major role in this disgraceful decision. The Obama administration terminated funding for the development of the site in 2011, leaving the nation with no long-term storage site.
Continue reading “

America’s Green Enemies”

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

Would you trust these people with $1 billion?

February 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

If the members of the California State Legislature had to get real jobs, most of them would have been fired by now. Incapable of solving any of the problems that have crippled California, they instead fritter away their time giving perks to special interests and passing endless new regulations that have decimated California’s business community. Then, when voters passed a measure that would withhold their pay if they don’t pass a budget on time, two legislative chieftains turned around and sued the state’s Controller who handles their paychecks.

Imagine the gall of suing the taxpayers for refusing to pay legislators unless they actually perform their jobs and get work done! It’s just further proof that Sacramento is broken and politicians there have only the special interests in mind. Take, for example, the latest special-interest giveaway by the one career politician, former state Sen. Don Perata.

Proposition 29 raises taxes by nearly $1 billion and hands the money to a board including six political appointees who’ll have to power to dole out that cash however they may chose with no accountability. That money is protected under the terms of Proposition 29 for 15 years, meaning that not even the Governor can step in and change things even in cases of waste or abuse. Proposition 29 is literally a case of the fox guarding the hen house.
Continue reading “

Would you trust these people with $1 billion?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Conservatives - Crony Capitalism - Elections - Energy - GOP - Jobs - Natural Gas - Oil - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Sarah Palin’s Main CPAC Speech Points: Did She Sell Out?

February 12, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I am just now back home from CPAC and I thought I’d wrap up my CPAC reports with the main points from Sarah Palin’s CPAC speech. I will have video of a dozen or so GOP candidates for Senate and the House over the ensuing days as well as a short video interview with Daniel Hannan, the Member of European Parliament that made himself beloved to Americans for his impassioned speeches in favor of freedom and liberty.

Those videos will come later, but now, on to Sarah’s speech. As expected, Sarah Palin was met with the most adulatory applause of any CPAC speaker. When she came out onto the stage the house went wild. She had the longest sustained standing ovation of the entire event. Obviously, Sarah Palin is still a rock star to these conservatives.

I live tweeted her speech and following this introduction I’ll repost those live tweets here so that you can see her main points as she delivered them and as I tweeted them. But first my over all impressions.

Palin spent a lot of time smacking President Obama over the head with his smashing failures over the last three years. She made no effort to be coy about it but attacked him head on. As in all her speeches — and I’ve been in the audience for a few of them, myself — she made many allusions to the founders, citing them often. And she ended up with an urgent plea to those watching to fall in behind who ever becomes the GOP nominee “for the sake of our country.” This ending might have surprised, maybe even dismayed her more ideological fans because perhaps she just proved to be just another party woman instead of the ideologically pure representative they’d hoped for.
Continue reading “

Sarah Palin’s Main CPAC Speech Points: Did She Sell Out?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Conservatives - Crony Capitalism - Elections - GOP - Mitt Romney - Newt Gingrich - President - Republicans - Rick Santorum - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CPAC Speeches: Contrasting Santorum, Gingrich, Romney

February 11, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

CPAC 2012 featured appearances by the three top GOP contenders who came to ask for the support of the conservatives gathered there. First came former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum, then Governor Mitt Romney, and finally former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, all came to sell their ideas and candidacy.

Rick Santorum

Santorum came out to the most applause of the three, for sure. As he and his family mounted the stage the crowd was obviously eager to hear what the candidate had to say.

“Conservatism did not fail this country,” began the meat of the former Pennsylvania Senator’s remarks, “conservatives failed conservatism.”

Santorum said that in the past we, “listened to the voices that said we had to abandon our principles and our values to get things done, to win.” But no more compromise, he said. “The lesson we’ve learned is that we will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great for a hollow victory in November.”

Santorum went on to say that Obamacare was a “game changer” and with it, as the British found with their system, we will never be free again. “It’s about government control of our lives and it’s gotta stop,” he asserted to great applause.
Continue reading “

CPAC Speeches: Contrasting Santorum, Gingrich, Romney”

Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - Immigration/Immigrants - Jim DeMint - Senate - Taxes - The Law - Uncategorized

A Few Moments With Senator Jim DeMint

February 9, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is well known as the most conservative man in the upper chamber. He gave a rousing speech here at CPAC and afterward told a small gathering of us that many of the points he made will appear in his forthcoming book, Now or Never, Saving America From Economic Collapse. That message is, he said, that we have only a short time to turn this mess around and get this country back on track.

DeMint said that we need to remind our people — or in too many cases teach them from scratch — about America’s exceptionalism, but we also need to learn what changed from the days when our exceptionalism was better understood by the people. DeMint also noted that one of the problems we have to over come is that the Democrats agenda now prevents them from working in any way with the GOP and because their agenda is so extreme we just can’t compromise with them any more.

“Something’s gotta give,” DeMint said, “We have about a year before its too late
Continue reading “

A Few Moments With Senator Jim DeMint”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Frederick Meekins - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Senate - Taxes

Stream Of Consciousness Observations Regarding The 2012 State Of The Union

February 9, 2012 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Obama insists he doesn’t want our energy needs linked to unstable parts of the world. Service to do anything about the Occupy beatniks laying siege to a number of parks in Washington, DC?

Why should it be portrayed as a greater tragedy when a “single mother” loses her job rather than a man with a wife that stays at home? Seems both domestic arrangements are in similar positions without income.

In calling for a single source for the unemployed to seek information on training opportunities, doesn’t that involve the federal government assuming more control over education?

Obama insists it should be illegal for students to drop out of school before they are 18. Why should this be a matter of federal interference and what will the punishment be for those leaving prior to that age?
Continue reading “

Stream Of Consciousness Observations Regarding The 2012 State Of The Union”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Larry Sand - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

CTA Sponsored Legislation Could Cripple Charter School Growth

February 8, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

The California Teachers Association can’t realistically unionize all charter schools, so it promotes laws that limit their numbers.

In Golden Missed Opportunity, recently published in City Journal, I examined the options that families in California have if they want to remove their children from failing public schools. The pickings in the Golden State are rather slim, and those options we do have — charter schools, homeschooling and the Parent Trigger — are constantly imperiled by a governor and state legislators who typically do the bidding of the California Teachers Association, the largest state affiliate of the National Education Association.

Charter schools are public schools which aren’t bound by the bloated union contracts that stifle so many traditional public schools. California has over 900 charter schools that currently educate about 400,000 students. To the union’s consternation, only about 15 percent of these schools are unionized. Of course, the union would like to see a 100 percent rate, but accomplishing that would take too much effort and money. Additionally, the flexibility that non-unionization offers is one of the attractions of charter schools for many teachers.

So instead of unionizing, CTA tries to eviscerate current charter laws or get caps on the allowable number of charters. At this time, there are three pieces of CTA sponsored legislation working their way around Sacramento. In fact, just last week the state assembly voted 45-28 to approve one of them, AB 1172. The bill, now in the Senate Rules Committee, was authored by State Assemblyman and former teacher and union activist Tony Mendoza. If AB 1172 becomes law, it would allow a school board to block the creation of a new charter school if it would have a “negative fiscal impact” on the school district. However, “negative fiscal impact” is never really defined, and California charter law already has clearly defined reasons why new petitions can be denied.
Continue reading “

CTA Sponsored Legislation Could Cripple Charter School Growth”

Anti-Semitism - Budget - Cities - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Ohio - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Red Light Cameras: Government’s ‘It’s For Public Safety’ Lie

February 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Red light cameras are a mixed bag across the USA. Big cities love them, small cities increasingly less. But one thing is universal where ever they are tried. The whole thing is about revenue generation, not public safety. Most city administrations try desperately to hide their greed behind hoary claims of safeguarding the public, but at least Toledo, Ohio has dispensed with some of that subterfuge and is admitting straight out that making money is a main goal.

Last month Toledo’s finance director told the city council that they were installing 11 new red light cameras with the expectation that the project would “raise” $320,000. What did the city need that new revenue for? More government spending, of course.

Oh, and it’s for the children, too. Toledo Councilman Steve Steel was excited to get the new revenue. “It does restore the biggest thing we were looking for, which was giving kids something constructive to do in a positive atmosphere,” he crowed.

So, now officials will berate you if you stand against these useless devices that are just a means to give government more money to spend on pet projects because, darn it, it’s for the children! WHY do you hate kids, taxpayers?
Continue reading “

Red Light Cameras: Government’s ‘It’s For Public Safety’ Lie”

Alan Caruba - Anti-Americanism - Book Reviews - Budget - Business - Congress - Conservatives - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Taxes - WWII

The New American Elite

February 6, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

The only constant in the life of individuals and nations is change. Since the beginning of the last century, the process or rate of change has accelerated with the invention and availability of a myriad of machines, technologies that have altered the lifestyle of Americans as well as of millions around the world.

Let me put it in personal terms. When I was born in the late 1930s, my Mother washed the family laundry by hand and hung it out to dry on sunny days or in the basement of our home if it was raining. We were not poor. We were middle class. My Father was a Certified Public Accountant and we lived in a spacious suburban home in an upscale New Jersey community. Mass produced washers and dryers would arrive after the end of World War Two.

The differences between lower economic classes, the middle class, and upper classes were well defined back then. All, however, generally held the same values regarding societal institutions such as marriage, religion, national pride. Those values have eroded since the 1960s and Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, whose new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” ($27.00, Crown Forum) tells you how and why.
Continue reading “

The New American Elite”

Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Taxes - Teachers Unions

Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins

February 1, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Children in the Golden State will get a better education when teacher quality becomes a priority

In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)

The only caveat from the authors is that using test scores in teachers’ evaluations could lead to “teaching to the test or cheating.” Nothing new here. Some people, when involved in any kind of competition, will try to gain unfair advantage or cheat outright. Typically, it’s a small part of the population and those who do should lose their jobs and face criminal charges.

The lesson is clear: test scores can give us a great deal of information about who the really good teachers are. But California Governor Jerry Brown, unfazed by the blockbuster study, actually called for less testing in his recent State of the State address.
Continue reading “

Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

OCCUPY GENIUSES (The Constitution vs. Southern Occupiers)

January 31, 2012 by

Van Jones promised back in November that the Occupy gang will put up over 2,000 candidates for election in 2012. After AIM’s Ben Johnson did some man-on-the-street pop quizzes in the south this past week, we sure hope they come through on Jones’ promise. Ladies and gentlemen: we present to you the fruits of public school social studies programs.

In the meantime, is the Silliness Coming to an End? Occupy DC gets its eviction notice…

… naturally they are communists and anarchists.

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - EPA - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Set to Cost Each of Us Hundreds a Year in Higher Electric Costs

January 31, 2012 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama’s avalanche of needless regulations on coal-fueled power plants are going into effect and the net result will be the closing of hundreds of power plants all across the country just when our need for power is increasing. This will absolutely necessitate the cost of our power to skyrocket. But, this is exactly what he wants. He wants to rape us for our power. He said so from the beginning.

Well, now that he’s had the opportunity to put into place just some of the new rules and regulations he wants — and he’s only pushed through a tiny bit of what he really wants, indeed — we are already seeing the results of his attack on us.

Look to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland where six coal-fueled power plants are being shut down by FirstEnergy because the retrofitting the power plants will have to undergo to satisfy Obama’s whims is just too expensive to justify.
Continue reading “

Obama Set to Cost Each of Us Hundreds a Year in Higher Electric Costs”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Communism - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Detroit - Economy/Finances - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?

January 30, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

How much bailing out does one company need? (The correct answer is none, of course) After receiving some $50 billion in tax dollars from us courtesy of Obama’s “cash stash,” GM is claiming success with a “Obama claimed that GM was “back on top as the world’s number one automaker.” But true or not, if all is coming up roses for GM why is the company now lobbying the individual states for mini bailouts?

That is exactly what is happening. The new “big success” automaker is spending millions hiring lobbyists to squeeze more millions out of state legislatures. As Justin Owen notes, GM has “turned to another, smaller government teat,” by putting its hand out to the states. GM, Owen says, “has received another $1.7 billion in taxpayer-funded grants and tax abatements.”

This is no accident of timing, either. GM admitted to the Tennessee Watchdog that begging to the states for tax dollars is a concerted effort.
Continue reading “

After Billions in Federal Bailouts, Now GM Lobbying States for More?”

Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Los Angeles - Natural Gas - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

PG&E Wants Higher Rates Even While Collecting Millions for Improvements Never Made?

January 28, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Since the several disastrous accidents that claimed the lives of too many Californians, Pacific Gas & Electric has been fighting criticism over its dismal safety record. In response, the energy provider cried poor and said it needed billions for upgrades and repairs and wanted ratepayers to pay even more for its services. But a new report says that PG&E collected millions from ratepayers for repairs and improvements that it never actually made.

Early last year PG&E got a large rate increase, but by August the energy provider was at it again asking for an additional $2.2 billion for upgrades, repairs, and improving its explosion-prone delivery system, a cost to be born on the backs of the ratepayers.

This January, though, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) reported that PG&E has already collected half a billion dollars that was supposed to go to these repairs and upgrades yet the repairs were never made.
Continue reading “

PG&E Wants Higher Rates Even While Collecting Millions for Improvements Never Made?”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Republicans - Selwyn Duke - Senate - Taxes

In Praise of a Do-nothing Congress

January 28, 2012 by

-By Selwyn Duke

Here’s a question: how can we expect to have small government if we condemn Congress for not growing it?

It’s always a disturbing experience when you’re accosted with a picture of Harry Reid, as I was upon logging on to Drudge last Monday afternoon. But at least his image bore a fitting caption: “MOST FUTILE EVER.” I then clicked the link and found myself at The Washington Times – normally a quite sane organ of the media – and learned the meaning of the caption: the Times was lamenting a do-nothing Congress and presented Reid as its poster boy. Writes the paper, “It’s official: Congress ended its least-productive year in modern history after passing 80 bills – fewer than during any other session since year-end records began being kept in 1947.”

Writes Duke, “It’s official: conservatives are completely confused about what begets big government.”

The paper then expanded on its theme, pointing out that Congress set a record for “legislative futility” according to something called the “futility index.”

I’ll tell you what’s futile: complaining about a loss of freedom while chastising legislators for not spawning enough bills.
Continue reading “

In Praise of a Do-nothing Congress”

Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Jobs - Larry Sand - Liberals - Los Angeles - Public Employees Unions - School Choice - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

January 28, 2012 by

-By Larry Sand

Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California.

With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the country. In states like New Jersey and Louisiana, governors are taking the lead in proposing ways to break the devastating monopoly that government run schools – their educrat leaders, corrupt and/or inept school boards and the powerful teachers unions — have held for far too long.

As an example of Big Education gone bad, I write in City Journal about a crime that has been perpetrated on the children of California for 40 years and the lawsuit that addresses it:
Continue reading “

Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice”

Alan Caruba - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Money - Oil - President - Senate - Taxes

Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy

January 27, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.

While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.

This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.
Continue reading “

Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New York City - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din

January 26, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The gauzy puffery that the Old Media slathers upon the Occupy Wall Street movement has helped keep most Americans in the dark about how nasty, how violent, how outrageous, and even how incredibly lacking in integrity this movement is. On the conservative blogs the truth is well known, of course, but the fact that few Americans seem to know how bad the OWSers are shows that as conservatives we are not effectively getting our message out there.

For the initial two years of its existence the Old Media spent its every waking moment destroying, maligning, and out right lying about the Tea Party movement. Even today you’ll see an occasional swipe at the Tea Patiers made by some hater from the left and the Old Media is happy to “report” the slander, naturally.

You might remember when Obama operative Anna Park tried to start a counter movement that she prosaically called “the Coffee Party” during the heyday of the Tea Party. You may also recall that those Old Media mavens, while daily lying and lambasting the Tea Partiers, fell all over themselves to play up the silly and quickly failed and forgotten “Coffee Party” effort.
Continue reading “

Conservatives: Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din”