Free Trade

Business - Capitalism - Computers - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Inernet - Jobs - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Futurism: GE Plans Automated Internet Notices from Failing Products

December 1, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

General Electric has its eye on the future and the manufacturing giant feels the future will take the form of an “industrial Internet” that will alert both users and the manufacturers when products are breaking down or coming to the end of a life cycle. This will mean that GE will be able to fix or replace products before they even break down an idea that might curtail downtime as airplanes, trains, power generators and the like can be repaired before any actual trouble arises.

In a new report touting its “industrial Internet” system, GE claimed that even a 1 percent increase in efficiency by avoiding downtime will pay big dividends. As The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel King reports, this industrial Internet, “has the potential to add $10-$15 trillion to global GDP by 2030… According to the report, a 1% increase in efficiency generated … can mean savings of $30 billion in aviation, $66 billion in power generation and $63 billion in healthcare over 15 years.”

Supporters say that the constant updates generated from equipment over such an industrial Internet will help engineers and scientists better understand their products and improve safety and efficiency on into the future.
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Futurism: GE Plans Automated Internet Notices from Failing Products”

Business - Cable - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Progressives - TV - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Penn & Teller Says Wal-Mart Hatred is Bulls**t!!

November 23, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Penn & Teller are bombastic and foul of mouth… well, let me restate that. Penn is while Teller is not, but that is only because in the act Teller never speaks. But, bombast aside, the pair are great libertarians and in this case they are 100% right about how illegitimate Wal-Mart hate is.

Remember, this is not safe for work. It has foul language. But Penn & Teller are dead on right.

Right on. Wal-Mart hate is stupid.

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Holiday - Jobs - Thanksgiving - Warner Todd Huston

There’d Be No Thanksgiving Without the Profit Motive

November 22, 2012 by

-By Lawrence W. Reed

“The worst crime against working people,” so said Samuel Gompers, “is a company which fails to operate at a profit.”

Gompers, of course, is known by the history books as the father of the labor union movement in America. He was founder of the American Federation of Labor. It may seem incongruous for such an important labor figure to say such a thing about profit, but Gompers appreciated something back then that perhaps a few of today’s labor leaders don’t. An economy without profit is an economy in deep, deep depression.

Profit and the self-interest motive behind it were under relentless attack not so long ago. The radicalism of the 1960s was dead set against them, laying most of society’s ills at the feet of greedy, profit-hungry and selfish capitalists. Anti-profit sentiment was even more popular in Europe and Africa, where it helped boost the socialist agenda and a wave of nationalizations.

In more recent years, however, a better understanding of profit has taken hold in surprising places. Communist China started implementing it in the late 1970s as an incentive for moribund state industries and previously prohibited private enterprise. And in my files is an English translation of an article that appeared in a most unlikely place. Here’s a key excerpt:
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There’d Be No Thanksgiving Without the Profit Motive”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Washington Post

Obama’s Failed Recovery: This Graph Should Scare You

November 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is something one wishes the Washington Post bothered to tell us before the election, but, yes, the chart below proves that Obama has utterly failed to aid in our economic recovery.


Click on chart to see more

In other words, you’re not imagining it: This economic recovery has been a big disappointment relative to what the United States has usually experienced after a recession. Growth has been 9 percent below what was seen in past recoveries on average in its first three years. The CBO report tries to disentangle where that underperformance is coming from and its answer is deeply unsettling: The U.S. economy just isn’t as good at growing as it used to be…

Read the rest at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.
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Obama’s Failed Recovery: This Graph Should Scare You”

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Free Trade - Warner Todd Huston

(VIDEO) I Pencil: Classic Video Explaining Free Markets

November 15, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This was created by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CPI) and is based on I, Pencil, a famous essay by famed economist Leonard Read. This is a great video that everyone should watch, but it’s especially apropos for young people.

Do you know how to make a pencil? You don’t, do you? As Read explained in his original essay, no single person on earth does. The pencil, like most modern wonders, is the end product of an intricate chain of human activity that spans the globe. There is no mastermind dictating the making of a pencil; not even the CEO of a pencil company could tell you exactly how to make one. It takes the little bits of know-how of thousands of individuals—loggers in California, factory workers in China, miners in Sri Lanka, and everyone in between—to bring an ordinary wooden pencil into being. By trading their skills and labor for wages, these individuals each bring the pencil a step closer into being.

This is the miracle of the free market. People who are strangers to each other—who might even hate each other if they ever met—are cooperating every day to produce goods that others want, need and enjoy. Markets compel men and women to voluntarily arrange themselves into efficient patterns of production through the pursuit of their individual self-interests. Without this constant spontaneous cooperation, the modern wonders of our world would not exist.

CEI President Fred L. Smith, Jr. said:

“Throughout my career, I’ve sought new and better means of communicating classical liberal ideas to people of all political persuasions. This year, I am stepping down as president of CEI so that I can continue this undertaking full-time as a policy analyst. It was with great pleasure that I shepherded the production of I, Pencil during this transition. Leonard Read’s original essay continues to be one of the most poignant free-market narratives I’ve ever come across. I’m proud of CEI’s film adaptation of Read’s work, and I’m very hopeful it will successfully bring classical liberal ideas to new and diverse audiences.”

If you know any teens, get them to watch this video. It is well worth their time.
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(VIDEO) I Pencil: Classic Video Explaining Free Markets”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - CNN - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Progressives - Russia - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

CNN Joins Attack-The-Rich Bandwagon

October 14, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN has an interesting story of an immigrant that came to this country from the oppressive socialist nation in which he was born, worked hard to attain the American dream, became wealthy, and dearly wishes for his fellow Americans to avoid the pitfalls of socialism. But instead of celebrating this man’s great success, CNN slams him as “Rich, Worried and Buying Ad Time.”

Thomas Peterffy was born under Soviet oppression in Budapest in 1944. At 21 years of age, Peterffy left his native country and came to America to try and make his way in life.

“As a young boy, I was fantasizing about one day going to America, making a success of myself. The American Dream,” Peterffy told CNN.

He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in this land of opportunity. In fact, Peterffy succeeded far beyond what he ever could have achieved in the communist country of his birth. Should he have stayed in that oppressed land he could never have become the billionaire he became in the U.S.
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CNN Joins Attack-The-Rich Bandwagon”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Quinn - Progressives - Property Taxes - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois’ Quinn Gets ‘F’ in U.S. Governors Fiscal Report Card

October 11, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois ranks at the bottom of the nation in nearly every single category of rankings of successful states and now the Land of Lincoln can rack up yet another great failure. Illinois’ Governor, Pat Quinn, has received the grade of “F” in a new “fiscal report card” of the 50 states’ fiscal health.

Congratulations once again, Illinois. Your almost unbroken record of failure goes practically unchallenged. You are pretty much the worst of the worst in all of the country.

Oh, happy days.

So, once again Illinois rates at the bottom of the pile with a governor that gets a well-deserved failing grade. This time joined Quinn is joined at the bottom by four other guvs. Chris Gregoire (Washington State), Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), Mark Dayton (Minnesota), and Dan Malloy (Connecticut), each received the grade of “F” for their monumental failure as their state’s chief executive.
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Illinois’ Quinn Gets ‘F’ in U.S. Governors Fiscal Report Card”

Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - Liberals - President - Progressives - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Jet Blue Contest Offers a Free Flight if Your Candidate Loses

October 6, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Since he didn’t seem to be able to find his way out of the country when George W. Bush won the White House in 2000, Alec Baldwin just might like JetBlue Airway’s new contest. The discount airline is offering 2012 seats — that’s 1,600 free round-trip tickets — to foreign destinations to customers whose candidate doesn’t win the presidency in November.

JetBlue spokesperson Allison Steinberg reported that the airline’s Live Free or Fly contest is already a hit. Steinberg says they are “extremely pleased” with the response thus far and says,
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Jet Blue Contest Offers a Free Flight if Your Candidate Loses”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

For His Trajectory, Obama is Right, ‘He Didn’t Build That’

August 8, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Much has been made of President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment made early in June at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia. Comments range from the disingenuous claim that he only meant that successful folks didn’t themselves go out and build roads and bridges to the thought that his comment revels his desires to credit the nanny state with all things good in the world. But one thing seems evident. From his perspective he’s right. Wealth and fame are easy and really don’t require much work.

An extended look at Obama’s trajectory to wealth and fame explains his attitude quite well. Upon examination, the phrase “you didn’t build that” seems quite apropos. After all, his entire life has been one handout from others after another and it doesn’t seem that he had to put much work into anything he’s ever done to become part of the one percent. All he had to do was walk around “being” Obama and it all was just handed to him by the great affirmative action administrator in the sky.

At first one might think that his earliest days would have produced a man of hard luck. His addled, useless, philandering father left him when he was young. And unfortunately for young Barry, his mother was a starry-eyed agitator without much interest in child rearing. She was one enamored of everything outside her experience, unhappy with life “here” — wherever that was at the time — and always thinking every other culture was better than the American hell she was born into. In other words, his mother was a typical liberal.
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For His Trajectory, Obama is Right, ‘He Didn’t Build That’”

California - Capitalism - Conservatives - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Los Angeles - Obamacare - Warner Todd Huston

What’s Going Wrong at the Pacific Research Institute?

August 7, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Early in July extreme left-wing Mother Jones magazine published a piece claiming that Sally Pipes, the head of the Pacific Research Institute, was not doing a very effective job of leading the San Francisco-based conservative, free-market think tank. Unfortunately, whether the magazine is left-wing or not and whether these questions make me comfortable or not (they don’t), there seems to be some truth in the story.

The magazine focused on the excessive amount of money that Pipes has requisitioned from the think tank to pay for Public Relations agencies to assist her in writing the many books, papers, articles and the like that carries Pipes’ name. Calling her “supernaturally prolific,” Mother Jones reported that Pipes employs Keybridge Communications to do the writing.

In fact, according to Mother Jones, Pipes has spent “nearly $1 million — $400,000 alone in 2010” on the services of Keybridge. This is a substantial amount of money considering that the institute has an annual budget of only $4 million. To have spent such a huge chunk on “research assistance” is quite a lot, indeed.

Pipes has a very high profile in conservative circles. She is a sought after speaker with a specialty in healthcare. She’s worked with such big name groups as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, and her work appears in newspapers, magazines, and websites everywhere — such as Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review. Pipes is also listed as the author of at least a half dozen books.
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What’s Going Wrong at the Pacific Research Institute?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - GOP - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Milton Friedman’s Legacy of Fighting for School Choice for All

July 31, 2012 by

-By Amy Payne, Heritage Foundation

On the late Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday today, his words are truer than ever: “There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children.”

And the news from many parts of the country is disheartening. Despite a new school choice option for students in Louisiana, a teachers union there has threatened to sue private schools that accept voucher students this fall. Unions have fought school choice initiatives because they see options for students eroding their power structure.

The Administration is also fighting students’ best interest. Instead of promoting what works—school choice, empowering parents and students—President Obama just issued an executive order last week creating a new federal bureaucracy to single out African-American students for more government meddling in their education. The order states that:

substantial obstacles to equal educational opportunity still remain in America’s educational system. African Americans lack equal access to highly effective teachers and principals, safe schools, and challenging college-preparatory classes, and they disproportionately experience school discipline and referrals to special education.

The new White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans is supposed to “help expand educational opportunities, improve educational outcomes, and deliver a complete and competitive education for all African Americans.”

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Milton Friedman’s Legacy of Fighting for School Choice for All”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - House of Representatives - Jobs - Pennsylvania - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Rep. Mike Kelly’s Fantastic Speech on House Floor

July 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

“So, do you want know the price of regulations? You want to talk about creating jobs in America? …Take the heavy boot off the throat of America’s jobs creators and let them breathe!” — Mike Kelly, Representative of Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District

On Friday, July 27, Rep. Mike Kelly (R, Penn.) took to the floor of the House of Representatives to slam Washington’s business as usual, red tape attacks on the American business sector.

Obama’s regulations are killing this country.

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Rep. Mike Kelly’s Fantastic Speech on House Floor”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Farming - Fox Business Network - Free Trade - Journalism - Media - Warner Todd Huston

Fox Business Network Flies the Skies Covering the Midwest Drought

July 27, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Midwest has been suffering a major drought this year, one that will surely cost us all in higher food prices over the coming years. Fox Business Network has been literally flying the friendly skies — in a helicopter — to cover it.

FBN’s intrepid reporter of the skies, Jeff Flock, has been touring the Midwest reviewing the effects of the drought and covering the devastation it’ll wreck on the country.

Flock has literally been flying around in a helicopter covering the drought. Yesterday I got some updates on Flock’s journey right from the whirley-rider himself.

Over the past month our team has reported live from corn fields already lost to the drought, irrigated fields with corn plants over your head, a grain elevator that expanded to hold what was expected to be a record harvest, and a dairy farm using fans and spraying cows with water to keep their herds cool. I’ve also been to the corn and bean pits at the CME where traders have bid up both commodities to record levels. And I’ve also reported from a chopper 1200 feet in the air over the drought-baked Midwest landscape.

Each of our stops has brought a texture to what is a complicated and compelling story that has yet to fully unfold.


Over the fields in Sugar Grove, Illinois

Take Thursday’s chopper trip over the farm town of Sugar Grove, Illinois. The country singer Jason Aldean has a song called “Flyover States” which is about the Midwest and how people on the coasts only know the likes of Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois from flying over but never stopping in them. Just like in the song, we found that just flying over gives a skewed picture of the drought.

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Fox Business Network Flies the Skies Covering the Midwest Drought”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

‘You Didn’t Build That’: Obama Wasn’t Taken Out of Context!

July 26, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For me, I recently Tweeted a line that got a ton of replies”

Dear Mr. President, if “roads and bridges” were all that was needed for success, why isn’t the Roman Empire still ruling the world?

From the Romney campaign:

President Obama wants us to believe his now infamous “you didn’t build that” line was taken out-of-context. But he meant exactly what he said. Watch this video and then share it with friends if you believe individual Americans built our businesses, not big government!

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‘You Didn’t Build That’: Obama Wasn’t Taken Out of Context!”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Mashups

July 19, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you are paying any attention at all to politics, you can’t have missed Obama’s claim that no one builds their own businesses and that success only comes through the benevolence of our lord and Master, The One, Barack “Obammessiah” Obama and his big brother, nanny state, government.

So, I thought I’d grab some of the funnier images I saw lambasting the nanny in chief for his hate for American entrepreneurship.

But first, here is what he said earlier this week:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

Obama is the worst, most anti-business President we ever had.

Now for the funnies…

Oh, there’s lots more out there too.

Oh, and remember, Obama is thinking of YOU…

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Obama ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Mashups”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - MSNBC - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Wawagate: MSNBC/Andrea Mitchell Smear Romney With Edited Video

June 18, 2012 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huton

Once again the left-wing media edits a video to misrepresent what a Republican is saying in order to make him look the idiot. This time on June 18 at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, MSNBC and Andrea Mitchell edited the context right out of a video of what Romney said about eastern U.S. chain restaurant Wawa’s in order to make it seem as if he was out of touch with reg’lr Americans.

Mitchell likened her heavily edited video to George H.W. Bush’s “grocery scanner moment,” when, in his run for reelection in 1992, he was portrayed by the Old Media as never having seen a price scanner at a grocery store (though this characterization was untrue). The media used that moment to smear Bush as an out of touch elitist that simply couldn’t understand the common man. Mitchell used her current dishonest video to promulgate the same smear against Romney.

MSNBC edited out all the things that Romney said in connection with Wawa’s in order to make Romney into a person that was “amazed” by the technology of using a touchscreen system to order his food as the Wawa restaurant. MSNBC portrayed Romney as someone who had never seen such technology, systems with which regular Americans throughout the east coast are well familiar. Mitchell made Romney into an elitist that had never had to deal with something the rest of us use every day.
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Wawagate: MSNBC/Andrea Mitchell Smear Romney With Edited Video”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - Occupy Wall Street - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

RO12 Film Premiere Review: Occupy Unmasked

June 18, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the things we were treated to at this year’s Right Online event, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, was the world premiere of the documentary film Occupy Unmasked.

The one thing I can say about this film is it is absolutely intense. The amount of violence committed by the “Occupy” leftists is shocking when you see so much of it gathered into one visual presentation. But the behind the scenes lies and the smoke screen deployed to hide who is really behind the creation and launching of this so-called “movement” is just as shocking and this film documents both.

The film features Andrew Breitbart in the first of the two recent films he helped along and stars in (the other being Hating Breitbart — see preview HERE), films that ended up being the last two major projects he finished before he so regrettably passed from us. It is also a production of Citizens United.

Now, by intense, I really mean it. When the film was over I was almost fatigued by all the swirling images of the hate, the violence, the anti-Americanism and the lies from these leftists behind Occupy. It all washed over me like a wave of emotion during the film. In some ways it was over whelming.
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RO12 Film Premiere Review: Occupy Unmasked”

Americans For Prosperity - Capitalism - Free Trade - Jobs - Las Vegas - Nevada - Warner Todd Huston

Right Online 2012: Great Success at the Vegas Venetian

June 17, 2012 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

For my final report on the fifth annual Right Online 2012 sponsored by Americans for Prosperity we’ll be talking about the parade of great speakers like NRO writer Jonah Goldberg and environmental apostate (as far as the left is concerned) Ann McElhinney. But first a word about the great hotel and casino in which we stayed.

The Venetian Las Vegas is in many ways a conservative’s dream hotel — well, unless you opposing gambling, and certainly many conservatives do — that aside, as I was saying, The Venetian is the best of Vegas and the best for conservative entrepreneurship. You see, this hotel is the only union free hotel on the strip.

But not only is The Venetian union free, it also has the highest paid staff getting the best benefits in Vegas. This is because conservatives know how to treat their employees!

If you are planning a Vegas get away, even if you aren’t planning on gambling, come stay at the Venetian. Heck, it’s even the biggest single building in the world, now. The suites are incredible, there’s shopping, big time stage shows, swimming, and eating and drinking galore.

Just look at this incredible room:

See the sacrifices I have to make to report these events to you?

Anyway, folks, do yourselves a favor if you’re coming to Las Vegas, book The Venetian.
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Right Online 2012: Great Success at the Vegas Venetian”

Andrew Breitbart - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Paul Ryan - President - Republicans - Scott Walker - Senate - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Racine Tea Party Rally for Scott Walker/Kleefisch (Also Paul Ryan, Dana Loesch, Tony Katz, More)

June 2, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

This morning I got up bright and early, jumped into the car and took a drive up into Wisconsin to witness the Racine Tea Party rally in support of Wisc. Governor Scott Walker. Speakers included the lovely Rebecca Kleefisch (Wis. Lt. Gov.), Rep. Paul Ryan, State Senator Van Wanggaard, Talk Show Host Tony Katz, Breitbart Editor Dana Loesch and more.


Racine Tea Party Main Stage

It was a beautifully sunny day, perfect temperature, a nice breeze swept over those 3,000 or more gathered, and, in fact, you couldn’t ask for a better out doors experience. But beyond the wonderful weather was the upbeat enthusiasm bubbling up from crowd and speakers alike. This was no down in the dumps group. They were ebullient and thrilled to be out and active for the conservative cause.


The crowd as seen from the main stage


Sign: “Republicans are Makers Democrats are Takers”

This recall election is a total sham. For one thing it is practically illicit. The Democrats never gave Walker a chance to do anything before claiming he needed to be recalled for cause. They’ve abused the recall law, too. Officials are supposed to be recalled for malfeasance in office, not mere political temper tantrums. One way to prove that these leftists violated the spirit of the law is the recall Walker website was registered the same day Walker was elected!

Yet, curiously enough there was no hate spewed — though certainly opposition expressed. There was also no upside down American flags, no communist propaganda, no signs with anyone called “Hitler,” and on top of all that there wasn’t a scrap of garbage left on the ground after everyone left. Not much like an Occupy Whatever rally, eh?

The morning started with the Americans For Prosperity bus pulling in and a short address by AFP President Tim Phillips who was introduced by California talk show host Tony Katz. Katz also emceed the later Racine rally, as well.
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Racine Tea Party Rally for Scott Walker/Kleefisch (Also Paul Ryan, Dana Loesch, Tony Katz, More)”

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

EU’s Regulated Mobile Prices Higher than US Competitive Mobile Prices

June 1, 2012 by

-By Scott Cleland

The EU’s latest round of mobile price regulation provides a golden opportunity to show how market competition produces much better results for consumers than government price regulation. Ironically, the European Parliament voted this week to lower mobile roaming charges by mid-2014 to levels that will still be much higher than America’s competitive wireless market prices are today.

Per New York Times reports, the EU mandated price for making a roaming mobile voice call will be reset from 35 cents a minute today to 19 cents a minute by mid-2014, and the price for receiving a roaming mobile voice call will be reset from 11 cents a minute today to 5 cents by mid-2014. Putting this in perspective, Recon Analytics’ research shows that Americans pay 4.9 cents a minute vs. 16.7 cents a minute for Europeans — ~70% less; and because of these dramatically lower American wireless prices, Americans consumers use more than twice as much wireless as Europeans, 875 minutes of use per month vs. 418 minutes for Europeans. Simply, the EU’s ~50% mandated price reductions will still have European consumers paying much more for mobile usage even if one incorrectly were to assume that competition won’t further lower the market price for American consumers like it has every year.
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EU’s Regulated Mobile Prices Higher than US Competitive Mobile Prices”

Budget - Business - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Google - Inernet - Jobs - Liberals - Net Neutrality - Regulation - Scott Cleland - Taxes - Technology

Netflix’ Net Neutrality Corporate Welfare Plan

May 26, 2012 by

-By Scott Cleland

Apparently Netflix is angling to become Silicon Valley’s king of corporate welfare. We learn from a New York Times economics column advocating for an Internet industrial policy that “Netflix is trying to build a coalition of businesses to make the case for… net neutrality.” And that the “online video powerhouse Netflix started a political action committee to complement a budding lobbying effort in support of the idea that all content must be allowed to travel through the Internet on equal terms” — translation: always at no cost to Netflix.

But Netflix isn’t in need of public assistance; it is America’s video subscription leader with 23 million subscribers. Netflix has $3.3b in annual revenues, $1.2b in gross profits, $800m in cash, a 34% return on equity, and a market valuation multiple over twice the market’s. And Netflix flexed its exceptional pricing power last year in raising its prices 60% without losing many subscribers.

Netflix’ net neutrality plan is a shameless Washington plea for corporate welfare via Government price regulation of privately-owned broadband networks so… Netflix’ uniquely voracious 33% usage of the Internet’s traffic peak does not cost Netflix anything! Greedily, Netflix is asserting that it somehow has an inalienable “right” to forever gorge on nearly a third of the Internet’s peak capacity without any obligation, responsibility or expectation to either responsibly use, or contribute to the cost of operating or investing in, the Internet infrastructure that they use more than any entity.
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Netflix’ Net Neutrality Corporate Welfare Plan”

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Financial Reform - Fox Business Network - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Money - President - Regulation - Republicans - The Law - Transparency - Warner Todd Huston

J.P. Morgan Chase $2 Billion Loss Raises Fears of Government Actions

May 14, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week the news of the $2 billion trading loss suffered by J.P.Morgan Chase hit the country like another nasty slap in the face to a nation already facing an economic downturn that is the worst one in a lifetime.

The $2 billion bandied about by the media is not likely the end of that loss, either. This was only the first round of losses due to these bad derivatives trades and more losses are likely yet to come.

For some insight on this mess I exchanged some emails with Sandra Smith of Fox Business Network.

Smith said that the bank “characterized the trades as legitimate hedges of risks elsewhere in the banking group that went awry,” but this understated explanation won’t likely suffice for those out for the heads of those working in our financial sector.
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J.P. Morgan Chase $2 Billion Loss Raises Fears of Government Actions”

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.
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The New American Elite”

Alan Caruba - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Cold War - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes

The U.S. is on a Suicide Watch

January 22, 2012 by

-By Alan Caruba

In 1991, the Soviet Union, arguably the greatest experiment in Communism, collapsed. After Mao Zedong died in 1976, his successors moved to shift its Communist economy to one that embraced Capitalism while retaining centralized government control.

Following World War Two, the recovering nations of Europe were rescued from Communism by the Marshall Plan, but adopted Communism-Light in the form of Socialism. The U.S. was already headed in that direction, creating programs that we now call “entitlements.” For most of the nation’s history, such “entitlements” did not exist.

What binds together the financial problems of the West is the common thread of infantile behavior and thought. One might call it wishful thinking. Instead of encouraging people to provide for old age and possible illness, politicians decided to turn government into Big Daddy, the eternal source of money for everything.

Need to go to college, start a business, or plan for retirement? Government would be there to help. All this ignored the need to actually pay for these programs. In the case of Social Security Congress began to dip into its funding to pay for other programs! This is what children do.
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The U.S. is on a Suicide Watch”

Barack Obama - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

Not to Nag But Obama’s Horse Flip Flop Leaves Media Uninterested

December 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let’s talk about flip flops, shall we? No not those of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but those of President Obama. One in particular, in fact. It turns out that Obama was horsing around with one of his many campaign promises and has ended up galloping in the opposite direction of the thing. And throughout this whole episode the Old Media has gone silent.

What we talking about is Obama’s 180 turn on his promise to make a ban on American horse slaughter houses permanent. And no less than the Barbi Twins of Hugh Heffner fame find this story a night-mare and are a bit peeved at their Big “O” over the whole thing.

A few media outlets did mention the controversy over the reopening of American horse slaughter houses that Obama signed into law in September — The Washington Times and Politico, for instance — but here it is almost two months later and few others have paid much mind to the incident that sent Barbi One and Two into a snit over the President.
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Not to Nag But Obama’s Horse Flip Flop Leaves Media Uninterested”

Anti-Americanism - Banks - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Crime - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - Taxes - Tea Party - Time Magazine - Warner Todd Huston

Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?

December 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s that time of year again, time for newspapers and magazines to start floating their “top stories of the year” lists and Time Magazine has a whole “Top of Everything” list with which to thrill us. But it is Time’s Top U.S. News Stories list that deserves some closer scrutiny because on it Time has determined that the Occupy Wall Street tale is the number one story of the year. As if anyone ever doubted that this left-wing temper tantrum would pique Time’s interest most.

But, seriously, now. Is Gabrielle Giffords somehow a lesser story than the Occupiers? Is the long-drawn out GOP primary campaign a lesser story? How about the debt crisis? Is that somehow a less important story than Occupy Wall Street? Apparently Time thinks so.

Certainly these lists are always somewhat subjective. After all, what one considers important another may not. But some of these entries seem to point out Time’s ideology as opposed to a serious attempt to pick the top stories of 2011. And making the Occupy story number one is pure ideology.

Time puts this story above the bad economy, Iraq, the Penn State sex abuse case, and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. In fact, if it weren’t for the bad economy, the debt ceiling debate and the bank crisis this Occupy business would not have occurred at all.
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Time Mag: Occupy Wall Street The Number One Story of 2011?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Federalism - Founders - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Regulation - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama: Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work

December 8, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama, President of the United Deniers of America, is slamming the country again. This time he ways that capitalism, liberty, and American principles have never worked.

Speaking in Osawatomie, Kansas, where in 1910 an off-the-rails Teddy Roosevelt laid out a new socialist-inspired dream for America he entitled the “New Nationalism,” Obama had a few choice words for our American principles.

In his speech, Obama went for the gusto in class warfare rhetoric characterizing anyone that makes a few dollars as the eeevil rich that refuse to be “fair” to the poor. Obama told his audience that capitalism doesn’t work and never did. And guess what he thinks the solution is? Yep, more power to himself and government.

If no other video clip has done it for you, this one should show that Barack Obama’s ideals are not American ideals.
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Obama: Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work”

Business - Capitalism - Free Trade - Jobs - New York City - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Greedy Union to Destroy Black Restaurant Owner’s Business

December 1, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

An actress, model, and African American business entrepreneur credited with reviving a once-blighted neighborhood and bringing back theater goers to the New York Theater District is about to lose her business to a greedy union that wants to hike the rent for her famous restaurant 350 percent.

Back in 1986, Barbara Smith, sometimes called “the black Martha Stewart,” opened a restaurant in the Theater District called B. Smith’s. Her eatery soon became the toast of theater goers and stars alike. It also became a favorite in the African American community.

B. Smith’s was visited by such famous people as Denzel Washington, August Wilson, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Angela Bassett Liza Minnelli and more.

Unfortunately, the building in which Smith opened her famous restaurant is run by the Local One of the stagehands union and quite despite what she has done for New York Theater the union has decided to raise the rent so high on Smith that she will be priced out of her long-time business.
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Greedy Union to Destroy Black Restaurant Owner’s Business”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Blogging - Business - Capitalism - Censorship - Computers - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - FCC - Free Trade - Government - Inernet - Law - Liberals - Net Neutrality - President - Regulation - Senate - Technology - Warner Todd Huston

Video: Urgent – Tell Your Senator to Overturn FCC’s Illicit Net Neutrality Internet Power Grab

November 8, 2011 by

-By Seton Motley

From most appearances, the Senate will this week vote on Senate Joint Resolution (S.J.Res) 6 – the Congressional Review Act Resolution of Disapproval of the Obama Administration Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s illegal Internet Net Neutrality power grab.

Only 51 votes are required for passage – which means only 4 Democrats are needed. There are 23 Democrat Senate seats up for reelection next year. A few of these folks aren’t running. The rest are – many in center or center-right states. Additionally, there are a few other Senators that should also be subject to Constitutional reason, and thusly contacted.
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Video: Urgent – Tell Your Senator to Overturn FCC’s Illicit Net Neutrality Internet Power Grab”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Nancy Pelosi - NLRB - Pensions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pelosi: Boeing Plant Should Unionize or be Shut Down

November 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The now thankfully former Speaker of the House Nancy “San Fran Nan” Pelosi said in a recent interview that a Boeing plant in South Carolina should either unionize or be shut down by the iron fist of government. So much for America being the land of the free, eh?

Pelosi appeared on CNBC with hostette Maria Bartiromo. Bartiromo asked about the famed Boeing plant being harassed by Obama’s union-sold National Labor Relations Board.

“Do you think it’s right that Boeing has to close down that plant in South Carolina because it’s non union?” Bartiromo asked. “Yes” insisted the former Speaker.

A flat out “yes.” No equivocation.

Lachlan Markay notes that the workers at the Boeing plant in question overwhelmingly voted not to join a union.
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Pelosi: Boeing Plant Should Unionize or be Shut Down”