The two men that you’ll see during the video of the F-35 Lightning II demonstration I attended are Andreas Schell, President of electronic systems at Hamilton Sundstrand (Rockford, ILL) and Stephen O”Bryan, a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Vice President.
BIOS
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F-35 Team Bios”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Remember when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson called out “You Lie!” when Obama claimed in his 2009 state of the union address that his Obamacare plan would never go to care for illegal aliens? Well, turns out Wilson was right. We now know that Obama did lie. His latest move has been to turn Obamacare to benefit illegals just like Wilson said it would.
Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was funneling Obamacare cash to 67 community health centers where the money would be used for migrant farm workers. HHS also informed us that the immigration status of said farm workers would not be ascertained before free care was given meaning that illegal aliens would be given Obamacare funding.
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Obama DID Lie: Obamacare Now Paying for Illegal Immigrants”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Ron Paul certainly distanced himself from the other GOP candidates at the debate on the issue of foreign policy, didn’t he? He made himself seem like a head-in-the-sand, isolationist and his historical ignorance was amazing. Not only that but his simpleton approach to foreign policy was nothing short of breath taking. Well, Rep. Allen West similarly thought that Paul’s gabled ideas were dangerous and stated directly that Pau is “not the kind of guy you need to be sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”
Florida Representative Allen West, a former Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army who served in Iraq, was attending a Tea Party event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida late last week and made a few comments about Paul’s rambling at the Ames debate.
West told attendees that the threats to the USA are far more dangerous than Ron Paul’s simple minded claims tended to make them seem…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Frank Salvato
Just when you thought the Progressive Movement could be more deeply invested in denial, now comes the absurd notion that somehow, the TEA Party Movement, whose pinnacle tenet is fiscal responsibility; which has devoutly insisted that the federal government cease the practice of spending beyond the tax revenue it gleans from taxpayers, that somehow it is the TEA Party Movement and their affiliated members of Congress who are responsible for the downgrade in the US credit rating by S&P and not the glad-handing spendthrifts of the big government, nanny state Progressive Movement.
“Bottom up, top down…inside out.”
Shameless partisan, Chicago Progressive operative and former senior advisor to Pres. Barack Obama, David “Say Anything, Lie, Cheat and Steal to Win” Axelrod is quoted as saying, “The fact of the matter is that this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade.”
The Stunning Demonization of Fiscal Responsibility”
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (ILL, 11th)…
On Wednesday night, Congressman Adam Kinzinger joined Carol Marin and Congressman Bobby Rush on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight to discuss current unemployment rates, the debt ceiling vote and the Super Committee.
Excerpt:
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Reps. Kinzinger & Rush on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight”
-By Rev Michael Bresciani
The only place where the glazed eyes of the most excited followers still reflect a, “If I could but touch the hem of his garment” look; seems to be at the President’s recent birthday bash. The rest of the world, it seems, does not want to look on the face of President Obama, much less his fiscal policies. The no confidence vote is reflected in huge stock sell outs both here and abroad.
The Dow, NASDAQ, Amex and other markets have slipped some 800 points at home and teetering world markets reflect the same no confidence vote in the recent bi-partisan deal to raise the debt ceiling 2.4 trillion while cutting other spending in a long range effort to acquire a balance. Jobs in America are still slipping away and government is still choking free market investments but the president has gotten his way for the moment. Standard and Poor’s reaction to the weak efforts to stabilize the debt has been to knock America’s credit rating back a notch for the first time in our history.
The power to borrow has been saved and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems satisfied with the fact that it will take almost five years for the effects of any caps or cuts to have any appreciable sway against the 14 trillion in debt that the country is now facing.
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World Markets Teetering – No Confidence in Obamanomics”
-By Alan Caruba
“Credit rating agency S&P has downgraded U.S. debt from AAA, the first debt downgrade in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported.” — Politico, Aug. 5, 2011
When a nation’s debt equals its entire annual gross domestic product, it is bankrupt. It can still produce goods and services, but it will likely encounter fewer customers worldwide as they too are drawn deeper into their own debt crises.
When it must borrow billions daily just to meet its obligations to other nations and individuals who have purchased its treasury notes, it is has reached a point of “moral hazard” that threatens the wealth of every single citizen.
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Flirting with the Great Depression 2.0″
-By Warner Todd Huston
Texas Governor Rick Perry has made it known that he’s going to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination for president at the Red State Conference in South Carolina on August 13, the same weekend as the Ames, Iowa straw poll. This didn’t sit well with the Iowa Republican blog. The paper called Perry’s timing a “slap in the face to Iowa Republicans.”
The Iowa GOP uses the well-publicized straw poll as a fundraiser for the party and it is also has a sort of pride of place being one of the early, notable primary time events. So, it is easy to see how the Iowans would be a tad upset that Perry decided to use another state on the same weekend to make his announcement. Iowa Republicans would naturally feel he should have used their own stomping grounds for his announcement…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
-By Frank Salvato
There is a lot of talk about our politicians today. Some of what I hear is good but a majority of what I hear is awful, as in we’re pretty upset that our elected class has taken to making excuses for not executing the will of their constituents, abdicating their responsibilities only to position for re-election and bolster their political parties. This happens on both sides of the aisle so, no, this isn’t a hit piece on one party of the other. It is a request that elected members of both parties stop, just for a minute, and examine their motives. Just what is the purpose of government; what are you trying to achieve?
In the wake of all of the rancor that surrounded the debt ceiling debate and subsequent legislation – a piece of legislation only eclipsed in poor quality by the partisan posturing that preceded its enactment – one thing has become quite apparent: the United States federal government has moved completely away from “protecting and serving” the American people and has, instead, become an exercise in societal engineering and transformation.
It is an exercise in societal engineering because increasingly we see elected officials unmasked only to be found zealous ideologues hell-bent on making people believe what they believe. It is almost the exact opposite of what representative government is supposed to be. In a true representative government the elected officials actually represents his or her constituents; he or she stands to express the concerns, fears and intentions of those who he or she represents, thus the moniker “public servant.”
Long Live the ‘Boogie’ Man”
From the Chicago Tea Party…
The Chicago Tea Party will be coordinating a free bus trip to the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday, August 13. The Iowa Straw Poll is a critical event in deciding who President Obama’s opponent will be in the 2012 election. It’s a fun event with a great atmosphere including music, entertainment, food and a chance to see and hear from the field of Presidential candidates.
Who: People who want to chose a candidate who will uphold the Constitution and defeat Barack Obama in 2012.
What: Free bus trip to the Iowa Straw Poll on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, IA.
Where: Bus leaves from the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station parking lot, 5800 N. Cumberland, Chicago, IL 60631.
When: The bus begins boarding at 5:00AM and will leave the Cumberland CTA Station at 5:15AM
How: The road trip will include a free bus trip, free breakfast, free lunch at the straw poll, free t-shirt and free tickets to the straw poll. The bus is an executive coach bus with a restroom facility on board.
There will also be free adult beverages on the ride back home.
There will be several Chicago reporters covering our trip, so you may have multiple opportunities to have your voice heard.
Seating is limited, please register as soon as possible. The deadline to register will be Friday, August 12 at noon.
The trip is being sponsored by Strong America Now. Strong America Now is dedicated to educating and mobilizing Americans focused on eliminating the national debt and deficit using a proven waste-elimination process called Lean Six Sigma. Strong America Now wants to change the way Washington thinks about spending money, as do we.
You can register for the free road trip here now.
You must be an Iowa resident to actually vote in the straw poll, but you are welcome to attend and participate in all the straw poll activities.
Please call 773-599-0105 or email us with any questions.
You can learn more about TeaCon and purchase your tickets for TEACON 2011 at www.teaconmidwest.com.
-By Warner Todd Huston
“The debt deal was a bad deal…”
We were told that the country was about to collapse like the Weimar Republic or the Soviet Union, even, if Washington didn’t get that darn debt ceiling hike done. Yet, even as President Obama was signing the very bill that was supposed to save our faltering economy, the DOW tanked closing down 512 points.
I had a chance to talk with Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling about this mess and, hoping for some happy news, found that Bolling was not so optimistic about the near economic future of our great nation.
Here is our exchange:
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FBN’s Eric Bolling: ‘Obama’s Economy Will Dip Back Into Recession’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Since Obama began his run for the White House he has been Big Labor’s best friend. And they loved him for it, too. As Obama ran and as soon as he got into office the unions had stars in their eyes. They thought that with a bought and paid for president in their hip pocket, every long dreamed of union wish was about to be fulfilled.
You can’t really blame them, of course. Obama did nothing but work to let them believe he’d do everything they wanted once safely in the White House. They gave him millions of dollars and he gave them rosy promises. But they are starting to feel duped.
To be sure Obama has done more for Big Labor than any other president in American history. He’s stocked his entire regulatory edifice with union hacks, he’s issued executive orders to force federal contractors to pay union dues, wages, pensions and to work under union rules even when said companies aren’t unionized, and he’s used his powers to regulate to attack companies that dare to cross swords with Big Labor.
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Unions: On the Outside Looking In At Political Power?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Obama administration has been touting new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to be imposed on America’s automobile manufacturers saying that it will save all Americans money at the pumps. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of hidden costs of which the administration isn’t noting, costs that will drive up the price of driving in multiple ways for all of us.
The new standards are supposed to raise the miles per gallon requirements from the 2016 mandate of 35.5 mpg to 56 mpg by the year 2025. The administration claims that this would be a big savings and would serve to help get Americans off a reliance on foreign oil.
Curiously, as Obama touts his new CAFE standards as a way to get us off foreign oil, there is no talk at all of increasing domestic oil production which would help do the same thing. But I digress.
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Obama’s New CAFE Standards Will Cost Us All More Money”
-By Frank Salvato
What is being termed a “historic debt ceiling compromise deal,” complete with backslapping and self-congratulations at the highest levels, is being considered by the Senate and the House rank-and-file. And consider they will. With many provisions going against the principles of both the TEA Party contingent and the far-leftist Progressive faction, there is a lot to consider. Significantly, lost in this “grand compromise” are these facts: a) Almost all of the spending cuts trumpeted as victory for the TEA Party Movement come after the 2012 General Election and with the election of a new Congress, b) The agreement does not eliminate deficit spending, rather, it simply lowers the amount of deficit spending, and c) Because the agreement doesn’t reach the $4 trillion mark mandated by the ratings agencies there is still a chance for our nations credit rating to be downgraded.
Perhaps the most significant issue in all of this is that for all the talk of not wanting to “kick the can down the road,” this agreement “kicks the can down the road.” Why do I say that? I say that because one Congress cannot mandate a future Congress to do anything. Short of a constitutional amendment that includes triggers that would apply devastating consequences outside the manipulative reach of any future Congress – or the Executive Branch – future Congresses don’t have to honor anything passed by previous Congresses. A perfect example comes in the form a the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, which mandates that Congress must complete its annual budget resolution by April 15th. Even though there is an enforcement mechanism – a punishment for not achieving this goal – in that if Congress fails to pass a budget resolution, legislation that affects budgetary matters cannot be considered, today, the 111th Congress has essentially ignored the law, having been delinquent in passing a budget for over two years running.
Mandating the Future to Kow-Tow to Now”
From the Institute for Truth in Accounting…
Report Identifies Five Sinkhole States and Five Sunshine States
Chicago, (August 3, 2011) – While Congress debated legislation that includes a federal balanced budget amendment, many pointed out that 49 out of the 50 states have that same legal requirement. However, a new comprehensive study by non-partisan Institute for Truth in Accounting reports most state balanced budget laws have not worked, because past governors and legislators have not used truthful accounting to calculate their budgets. This lack of transparency has concealed a total of $1 trillion of outstanding bills.
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Truth in Accounting Exposes ‘Unbalanced’ Budgets”
From the office of Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill., 8th District)…
Leaders with Ginni Thomas: Rep. Joe Walsh
One Republican freshman from Illinois has the audacity to tell the president he lies, to tell Chris Matthews he bullies guests, and to say the Tea Party movement seems bigger than either the Republican or Democratic parties.
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Joe Walsh’s Interview With Ginni Thomas of The Daily Caller”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today the bulk of the Illinois GOP delegation to Congress put out a letter decrying the badly gerrymandered recreation of Illinois’ congressional districts. The redistricting mess was denounced by every Illinois Republican Congressman but one.
Recently, a lawsuit has been filed to fight the redistricting that Illinois Democrats pushed through to fruition. The letter from the GOP delegation supported the lawsuit saying, “We look forward to an impartial hearing in court that exposes the fatal flaws in the Democrats’ Illinois congressional redistricting scheme and recognizes the fact that creating fair, compact, and representative congressional districts is not only possible, but necessary.”
One Illinois GOP congressman, though, did not sign onto the letter. That one Republican was Representative Tim Johnson (15th District) of Urbana, Illinois.
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Ill. Rep. Tim Johnson Says Redistricting Challenge Useless”
“The Fair Map filed in federal court today proves that it is possible to create congressional districts that respect both constitutional and democratic principles. More importantly, this map stands in stark contrast to the contorted map passed by the Democrats, which is so gerrymandered that it can have no goal but to maximize partisan advantage by disregarding the will of Illinois voters.
“The Fair Map specifically addresses the problems with the Democrats’ map by providing a second district for the state’s growing Latino population, creating district lines that satisfy the tests for compactness, and protecting communities of interest by keeping them wholly within individual districts.
“We look forward to an impartial hearing in court that exposes the fatal flaws in the Democrats’ Illinois congressional redistricting scheme and recognizes the fact that creating fair, compact, and representative congressional districts is not only possible, but necessary.”
Rep. Peter Roskam (Il-6)
Rep. Joe Walsh (Il-8)
Rep. Robert Dold (Il-10)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Il-11)
Rep. Judy Biggert (Il-13)
Rep. Randy Hultgren (Il-14)
Rep. Don Manzullo (Il-16)
Rep. Bobby Schilling (Il-17)
Rep. Aaron Schock (Il-18)
Rep. John Shimkus (Il-19)
-By Warner Todd Huston
William J. Kelly of Chicago organized an event at a business across the street and about a block down from the venue where President Obama held his birthday bash/fundraiser. Naturally Chicago’s anti-Tea Party set were furious at the business and used threats and intimidation to stop Kelly’s event.
Kelly called the event “Jobs Bash 2011,” and intended to highlight the fact that, while America was losing jobs by the millions, Obama cared more about keeping his own job than he was in helping Americans keep theirs by holding a high dollar donor event in the Windy City only days after signing a bill to put all Americans further in debt.
Of course, we were told during the eight years of the Bush administration that protest was the very essence of patriotism, but since Obama was elected the left has suddenly been all upset at anyone that wants to “speak truth to power.” This was seen by the good folks at Chicago’s Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, one of the city’s best sports for jazz music, when the lefty haters came out of the woodwork to complain that the lounge was to host Mr. Kelly’s event.
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Tea Party-Haters Attack Chgo Business For Event Countering Obama B-Day Bash”
-By Frank Hyland
The 150th anniversary of the first Battle of Bull Run, fought on 21 July 1861, just passed. The timing could not be more ironic because we in the United States find ourselves in the midst of the Second U.S. Civil War. While this present one doesn’t feature sounds of gunfire — at least not yet — the level of noise is extremely high and gaining in amplitude by the minute. (Cue the Wisconsin audio-video here. endsarcasm)
The original conflict, in the midst of the 19th Century, is said by many to have been rooted solely in the desire of Americans to continue to “own” other human beings and to oppress them. A closer examination reveals a variety of motives among supporters of leaving the union of states. Chief among them was a fundamental dispute over the preeminence of the power of the federal government. While there have not been long lines of uniformed troops in blue or gray forming recently, we continue to hear the rallying cry, “The South shall rise again.” That figure of speech has evolved to express the growing fears of Americans from all corners of our country, and includes growing numbers of African-Americans as well. The more recent outcry is along the lines of, “Taxed Enough Already!”
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The Second US Civil War”
-By Alan Caruba
â”I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” — Thomas Jefferson
My father was a certified public accountant, as is my older brother. I not only lacked any arithmetical skills, I spent much of my early years ignoring the ups and downs of the economy, thinking that these matters were beyond my comprehension. What I failed to understand was that the economy was as much a creature of meddling politicians as economic theories.
I was born in the midst of the Great Depression and have now lived long enough to be caught in a new one. I know that economists and others say we are in a Recession, but it feels like a Depression to me and to the millions of other Americans who are out of work and being laid off weekly. It feels like one to those who suffered foreclosure on their homes. It feels like one every time we go to the supermarket and gasp in disbelief at the cost of groceries.
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Unleashing Americans”
Activists Plan to Counter Obama’s Re-Election Fundraiser in Chicago
WHAT:President Obama plans to celebrate his big 50th birthday this Wednesday at the historic Aragon ballroom on Chicago’s north side with additional satellite fundraisers being held around the country. But the President may be in for another unexpected surprise: A “Jobs Bash” just steps away from the upscale fete in his honor.
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Jobs Bash 2011 Announced Across The Street from Obama’s Chicago Birthday Party”
-By Warner Todd Huston
So, it was claimed to be the end of the world if Congress didn’t vote on the debt bill. But not every Illinois Republican voted to support GOP leader and House Speaker John Boehner’s bill. Let’s see how the Illinois GOP delegation voted, shall we?
The most vocal opponent of the bill was the 8th District’s Joe Walsh. He said that he could not, in good conscience, vote yes on the bill. Amusingly, he said in a radio interview on WLS that if he saw Speaker Boehner headed his way with the intent to change his mind, he’d turn and run the other way.
To his credit, Walsh did not try and claim that he would stand fast in the face of a direct Boehner appeal, but he did say that he was voting his conscience regardless.
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How Did The Illinois GOP Delegation Vote on Boehner’s Debt Bill?”
-By Daniel Clark
Liberals often justify their disdain for our nation’s founding documents by saying that the men who wrote them could not have foreseen the way things are today. Our founders needed no foresight about bureaucratic tyranny, though, because they experienced it first hand, as illustrated in the Declaration of Independence.
Contained in that document is one indictment of King George that is especially relevant today: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” If rewritten in the first person, this passage could have been used in an Obama campaign ad.
As tumbleweeds continue to bounce across America’s economic landscape, Washington has become a boomtown, thanks to a gusher of new government jobs. According to Labor Department statistics, the federal workforce expanded by 7 percent during President Obama’s first two years in office, while private sector employment declined by 2.6 percent.
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Starve The Swarms: or be Devoured by Gov’t Gluttony”
-By Frank Salvato
As we tick-tock toward August 2nd, the day President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have set as the day the Executive Branch will have to start prioritizing expenditures – establishing what programs are covered exclusively by actual tax revenue and not borrowed money, we approach an artificial deadline for a secondary issue created by a much more systemic national malady. Where the news media and elected officials argue, whine and mislead on the issue of raising the federal debt limit ceiling, the debt ceiling isn’t even close to the issue that all inside the beltway, but for the TEA Party, are refusing to address seriously: overspending.
Many on the Left side of the aisle have been caught rationalizing the need to raise the debt ceiling by noting it has been raised 78 times since 1960 – 49 times under Republican presidents, and 29 times under Democrat presidents, an irrelevant attribution due to the fact that Congress holds the power of the purse, not the Executive Branch. In fact, if one wants to split hairs about which party has presided over the majority of debt ceiling raises, and, consequently, which party has presided over the most deficit spending, it would be more accurate to point out that Democrats, from 1960 to 2010, have held the majorities in the Senate for 36 years and the House for 41 years. Ergo, Democrats and Progressives are far more to blame than Republicans for bringing the nation to the precipice of financial ruin.
The Debt Ceiling Is Actually Not the Issue”
-By Warner Todd Huston
As many of our congressmen and senators wail abut the eeeevil rich, as they sit in D.C. and claim that “the rich” need to be punished for their success, as many of them constantly look for new ways to turn Americans against “the rich,” we find out that “the rich” include those same over paid members of Congress that are so hotly engaged in class warfare.
A new report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance titled Are Taxpayers Getting Their Money’s Worth?, provides an analysis of Congressional compensation that shows that members of Congress make far and away more than lawmakers of other western countries — second only to Japan — not to mention the average American of similar station…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
From the office of Rep. Bob Dold (Ill, 10th Dist.)…
This morning I spoke with Fox News and called for a “big, bold bipartisan plan” to resolve our nation’s debt ceiling crisis. Click here to watch the video, then visit my website to give me your feedback.
For another look at my desire to craft a solution based on compromise, please read the editorial that appeared in Thursday’s Daily Herald.
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Rep Dold Calls for Big, Bold Bipartisan Plan—
From the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL, 11th Dist.)…
Legislation authorizes largest debt limit increase in history
Washington, D.C. – Today Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-11) issued the following statement after voting against H.R. 2693, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt limit increase plan that fails to offer spending cuts greater than the increase and authorizes the largest debt limit increase in history. The measure failed in the House by a vote of 173-246.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan offers phantom savings, accounting gimmicks and hands a blank check to the President, signed by the taxpayers. It fails to cut more in spending than it increases in the debt ceiling and the deep slashes to our defense, threaten the security of our country.
“General Martin E. Dempsey, President Obama’s nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also cautioned that these cuts to the military budget would be ‘extraordinarily difficult and very high risk.’
Kinzinger Opposes Legislation that Fails to Offer Spending Cuts Greater Than Debt Limit Increase”
-By Warner Todd Huston
It amazes me that after all this time of the debt crisis discussion, after the media has spent hours upon hours scolding Republicans for being the “party of no,” that President Obama has remained absent from the actual discussion and has offered no plan of his own.
Yet, even as Obama’s failure to lead has become painfully obvious to anyone actually paying attention, the Old Media has given no coverage of Obama’s abject failure to lead.
To so many in the general public that have not paid close attention, they listen to the Old Media’s overage and think it is the Republicans that have offered no plan. But, as Florida Senator Marco Rubio notes in the video below, it is the GOP that has offered multiple plans, multiple bills, multiple compromises while the Democrats have continually said no, no, no…
Read the rest at RightPundits.com.
“With No Budget In 822 Days, Dem Leaders Try To Force Last-Minute Debt Vote.”
“This has been the plan all along, by the way. The plan all along was not to take a position, to let the days count down until we got to this point with 72 hours to go, and then force a vote on something that they wanted… You want to know why people all across America get grossed out by politics? It’s by watching this kind of stuff happen.”
