Sam Adams, Andrew Breitbart, and Me: The Third Annual Sammies Awards, a Report

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Sam Adams Alliance, a free-market think tank that specializes in encouraging new media, held its third annual Sammies awards in beautiful downtown Chicago last Friday, April 16. This year the event hosted a visit by the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and featured a keynote address by media maven Andrew Breitbart. And somewhere in the back of the room was little old me, your humble correspondent, there to report on the events of the night.

The Sammies are given to outstanding bloggers, community activists and purveyors of traditional American freedoms all of whom come from humble beginnings. Whether a frustrated mom, a put-upon property owner, or a school teacher that started a blog that ended up holding governments to account, the Sammies awards are intended to encourage citizen journalism, citizen activism, and organizing to affect our governments.


The Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the Public Library

This year’s event was held in the Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the building that housed the Chicago Public Library. The diner was beautifully laid out right under the famous stained glass dome created for the building by Tiffany’s of New York in 1897. We gathered beneath this great glass dome that is the spectacular feature of the Preston Bradley Hall of the Cultural Center.
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Sam Adams, Andrew Breitbart, and Me: The Third Annual Sammies Awards, a Report”


‘CNN Production Meeting: The Day After’

-By Matthew J. O’Connor

Before parody is “deemed” unconstitutional, I have herewith prepared a special look into what CNN may have discussed in their production meeting today subsequent to the Tea Party rallies held throughout the country yesterday. For which, the sum total of the rallies provided the MSM nary a controversy to manipulate – or did they?

CNN Atlanta: Production Minutes: 10:45 AM 4/16/10

Chad: Thank you producers for coming . . . Carol, thanks also for the fat free mocha lattes . . . next time, we should hold off on real sugar, just bring Splenda . . . corporate is all over us on this. And also, thanks for remembering my “no – doughnut” rule – it ensures compliance with the 500 calorie or less meeting rule.
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‘CNN Production Meeting: The Day After’”


The Town the Census Forgot

-By John Armor

This is more or less an open letter to Robert Groves, Director of the Census Bureau. Dear Bob.

Can I call you Bob? I feel I know you since you’ve been all over the TV explaining that the screw-ups that have occurred in your Bureau about operations and cost will all be resolved. Well. here’s another screw-up for you to put on your plate.

The Census has a rule that it will not mail Census forms to Post Office Box addresses. As a general rule, I understand and support that. There are probably more than a million people in the US who use P.O. Boxes to cheat on their spouses, run investment scams, sell useless or non-existent products on the Internet, etc. However, every rule has its exceptions.
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The Town the Census Forgot”


Cokie Roberts: Japanese Internment Was an Immigration Issue?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why is it that lefties always get history wrong? The Jewish World Review recently published an editorial by NPR commentator Cokie Roberts and her hubby meant to urge the country toward “comprehensive” immigration reform by praising America’s history of immigrant labor. But even as much of what the two Roberts say is dead on, there are still a few glaring errors one of which is their claim that Japanese internment during WWII was an immigration issue.

Cokie, whose full name is a mouthful — Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs — garbled history at the tail of her piece by saying that the internment of Japanese during WWII was little but “anti-immigrant sentiment.”

American history has been scarred by outbursts of anti-immigrant sentiment… In the 1940s, we interned Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast.

But this is an absurd statement to make. Japanese Americans were not interned into holding camps during WWII merely because they were immigrants, it was because their distant fellow Japanese relatives were at war with us. In fact, Franklin Roosevelt also interned Germans and Italians in similar camps, though in lesser numbers, because he was worried that they might be enemies within. This was no “anti-immigrant sentiment,” it was war. Right or wrong, it was war.
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Cokie Roberts: Japanese Internment Was an Immigration Issue?”


Unions Killing U.S. Post Office

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union contracts are killing the U.S. Post Office, making it uncompetitive and driving costs through the roof according to the Government Accountability Office.

The U.S. Post Office lost $12 billion between 2007 and 2009 and has reached its borrowing limit of $15 billion already. On top of that the union pension fund is underfunded. Even as Congress cut benefits by $4 billion the agency faces a $3.8 billion loss.

The GAO report also states that one of the reasons why the Post Office has lost so much cash is because it doesn’t have the freedom to close fiscally inefficient offices. Politicians have stepped in and prevented a logical, financial sensible reassessment of the Post Office’s operations.
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Unions Killing U.S. Post Office”


Chicago Tax Day Tea Party Video: Ballad of the Tea Party

During the tea party protest downtown Chicago at Daley Plaza, 9th District Republican candidate for Congress Joel Pollak debuted his new song, “Ballad of the Tea Party.”

Pollack himself performed the tune. It has the ring of a good old Irish diddie.

“Hey, hey, what do we say? Don’t tax our freedom away!”

Lyrics:
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Chicago Tax Day Tea Party Video: Ballad of the Tea Party”


Gosh Darn it… The Assoc. Press is all Mad at Me (Update on NJ School Cross-Dressing Day)

-By Warner Todd Huston

I hate it when the Old Media gets all mad at me, and stuff. But, here is the vaunted AP scolding me for “skewering” a grade school over the story of the canceled cross-dressing day that was to be held at the Maude Wilkins School in New Jersey.

On the morning of April 12 I came across a story posted on my FaceBook page by an incensed mother of a grade school boy from the Maude Wilkins grade school. She was upset that her school had planned an event for women’s history month wherein students would come to school dressed as a famous woman from history, or dressed in representative historical women’s fashion from American history… yes, they even expected the boys to dress as women.

Later that day I wrote my treatment of the event and off to the races we went. As it happened it wasn’t long before the pressure that the school felt over the ridiculous cross-dressing day caused Principal Beth F. Norica to cancel the event.
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Gosh Darn it… The Assoc. Press is all Mad at Me (Update on NJ School Cross-Dressing Day)”


Cook County Commissioner Peraica at the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica produced this video of his attendance at the Tax Day Tea Party event held in Daly Plaza, in beautiful, corrupt downtown Chicago!

Tony is right to mention the “corruption tax” we in Crook County pay every day. Let’s hope that in November of 2010 these tea party efforts will help bring about the real hope and change that this country needs.


Proft’s latest: The Simple Math of Socialism

From Dan Proft…

The Simple Math of Socialism

If you’re like me, there’s nothing you enjoy more than listening to politicians you can’t trust try to explain legislation they haven’t read by arguing about accounting models they don’t understand lifted from government agencies they manipulate that leave you with tax bills you can’t afford.
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Proft’s latest: The Simple Math of Socialism”


Urgent Appeal: Stop the Cynical Attempt to Seize Control of Redistricting by Corrupt Power Brokers!‏

From the Putback Amendment effort…

For a few months now, I’ve been sending you e-mails about the Put-Back Amendment, a citizen-initiated amendment to provide term limits and comprehensive reform of the General Assembly. I encourage you to keep sending in signed petitions to help me get the 500,000 signatures to get this on the ballot. However, that is not the reason for my e-mail today.
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Urgent Appeal: Stop the Cynical Attempt to Seize Control of Redistricting by Corrupt Power Brokers!‏”


Video: Mama’s Got a Smith and Wesson

Meagan Fox of the Illinois blog Intolerant Fox debuted her new song “Mama’s Got a Smith and Wesson” at the Homer-Lockport Tea Party rally on the 6th. It’s a toe tapping tune with a message.

Megan is a bit too self deprecating when she says that the song isn’t so good, but, well, you take a listen and judge for yourself…

Now we need the studio version! Way to go Meagan.

Thanks to Chicago News Bench for alerting me to this one.


Race Baiting at Philly Tea-Party: Anti-Tea Party Democrats No Better than Fred Phelps?

-By Warner Todd Huston

On March 6, former George H. W. Bush speechwriter Michael Johns was speaking before a tea party gathering in Philadelphia when someone from the audience took exception to the fact that during his address he did not say “President Obama” but merely called him Mr. Obama. The heckler screamed a racial slur at Mr. Johns calling him a “white boy.”

“It’s President Obama, President Obama, white boy, President Obama,” the heckler yelled. Apparently this heckler did not recall the many times the Old Media called President Bush “Mr. Bush” all those eight years, but, there you have it. (There is a video of Mr. Johns’ full speech at YouTube)

Mr. Johns reacted well by not engaging this creep and asking him to say his piece after Mr. Johns was done, but otherwise carrying on.
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Race Baiting at Philly Tea-Party: Anti-Tea Party Democrats No Better than Fred Phelps?”


Nuclear Summit logo is an Islamic-shaped crescent

World leader, known for reminding the Islamic world that his middle name is Hussein, hosts nuclear summit, presided over by large Islamic-shaped crescent:

Obama, Hu, et al with NSS10 logo, Ron Sachs photo
Photo by Ron Sachs. Post via Error Theory.

It is hard to believe that the State Department could do this by accident:
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Nuclear Summit logo is an Islamic-shaped crescent”


Prosecutors: Blago Wanted to ‘Personally Profit’ From U.S. Senate Seat

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. prosecutors released a document today detailing some of the charges against former Governor Rod Blagojevich one of which is that the ex-gov “repeatedly expressed an interest in personally profiting” from his responsibility to appoint a successor to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat abandoned in 2008 when he won election to the White House.

The document reports that Blagojevich told a high-ranking aide, “Now is the time for me to put my (expletive) children and wife first, for a change.”

Also repeated is the allegation that Blago expected to turn his power to appoint a Senator into a future job for himself and/or his wife, a “good gig” as he put it, as heard on surveillance tapes in possession of prosecutors.

Much of this info has come out in drips and drabbles in the past, but this is the first time that prosecutors have assembled it all in a single document laying out their roadmap for proceeding on the case.

Quite a few shady financial deals are outlined in the document.
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Prosecutors: Blago Wanted to ‘Personally Profit’ From U.S. Senate Seat”


Congressman Pence Ridicules Dems Claims of Being Tax Cutters

Congressman Mike Pence (R, IN) just can’t keep a straight face when recounting the hypocritical statement by Pelosi’s Democrats that they are tax cutters in this era of Obama.

I have to say, I couldn’t stop from laughing at the Democrat’s lies, either. Obama and Pelosi are responsible for the largest tax increases in U.S. history! It just goes to show that they really do think Americans are stupid.


Daley’s Deficit: $180 Per Citizen

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Business Insider reports that Mayor Richard Daley’s budget shortfall is one of the top 15 worst deficit budgets of America’s cities clocking in at $530,000,000 through fiscal year 2011. That breaks down to $180 of debt per citizen.

But this is a bit deceiving because of the $1.15 billion that Daley got by selling the city’s parking meter franchise, not to mention his sale of the Chicago Skyway a few years ago.

In February, Daley announced a hiring freeze that he claimed would save the city $11 million and the Mayor himself will work 29 days this year without pay. Daley also laid off 1,500 employees of the city last year and instituted 24 unpaid furlough days.
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Daley’s Deficit: $180 Per Citizen”


Melissa Bean’s Washington Math Doesn’t Add Up for 8th District Families

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

(Grayslake, IL)– Incumbent Rep. Melissa Bean is fond of calling herself a “fiscal conservative.” If only it were true.

According to a new study by the nonpartisan Heritage Foundation, thanks to big spenders in Congress, the federal government will spend $31,406 per household in 2010 – the highest level in American history (adjusted for inflation). In fact, government spending has increased by $5,000 per household (or nearly 25%) since 2008 alone.
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Melissa Bean’s Washington Math Doesn’t Add Up for 8th District Families”


Ill. Policy Institute: Can we turn Illinois around?‏

A New Jersey Twist
“The best reality show on television today isn’t running on MTV,” William McGurn wrote in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. It’s in the New Jersey state capitol, where Gov. Chris Christie is leading a dramatic campaign to make the state government live within its means. You can watch Gov. Christie discuss his dramatic attempt to turn New Jersey around here.
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Ill. Policy Institute: Can we turn Illinois around?‏”


10th District, Dold for Congress: We Can Do Better

From the Dold for Congress campaign (10th District)…

It is once again Federal income tax season in the United States and this April is a reminder of the problems we face. For a large number of Americans, 2009 represented a year during which many made less than in previous years compared to their expenses. Yet we worked harder than ever and made sacrifices to meet the obligations of both our families and our nation. But those in Washington, DC who are charged as responsible custodians of our tax dollars have not met our sacrifice with the same diligence and seem disconnected from the reality of what it takes to earn those dollars. We now find ourselves facing the reality that we may be the first generation of Americans who leave to our children a country worse off than the one we inherited. We cannot and will not accept this. We can do better.
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10th District, Dold for Congress: We Can Do Better”


Tell the Insiders Not to Play Politics With Your Property Taxes: Text REFORM to 77007

From Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica…

This week the focus is on federal Tax Day — the deadline for us all to file our federal income taxes.

And, yes, while federal taxes are burdensome and growing, we must not forget about the tax shenanigans going on right here in Cook County.
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Tell the Insiders Not to Play Politics With Your Property Taxes: Text REFORM to 77007″


Obama’s Back Alley Healthcare

-By Warner Todd Huston

For decades abortion supporters argued that restrictions on abortion would cause women to die in unsafe “back alley abortions” all across the land. This scare tactic was a mantra that seemed to work quite well to spread abortions throughout the states and helped spur the Supreme Court to penumbra its way to a pseudo Constitutional “right” for abortions. But the main thrust of the tactic was ostensibly warning about unsafe medical procedures, a situation that they wanted to change. Flash forward to 2010 and we see President Barack Obama and his Democrats about to send not just abortions, but our entire medial system into a veritable “back alley” situation with a shortage of doctors, rationing, denials of service, and outrageously high insurance premiums.

And now we can add a new twist to the dangerous situation that Obama is forcing on patients in the U.S. The Associated Press reports that 28 states are already seeing a shortage of primary care physicians, a dearth of doctors that will only get worse with Obamacare, and these states are looking toward expanding the medical responsibilities of nurses to cover the shortage.

So, what we see here is a situation where less qualified practitioners will see their roles expanding in the era of Obamacare! Healthcare practitioners with less training and experience are being given more responsibilities in our healthcare system even as Obama claimed that his goal was to improve our nation’s healthcare.
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Obama’s Back Alley Healthcare”


Here’s a Leftist Spin on Healthcare For You

-By Warner Todd Huston

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that Obamacare is a ”momentous step toward comprehensive health care.” Implicit in that statement is that Obamacare isn’t finished and the left fully intends to up the ante even more as time goes on. But that isn’t the spin I announced in my headline. Here is something from the AFL-CIONowBlog written by one Mike Hall. Try this on for spin…

The bill survived a $100 million lie-and-distortion campaign by Big Insurance to kill it—the same kind of tactics these groups have aimed at health care proposals for six decades.

That is some wonderful spin, isn’t it? The bill “survived” a distortion campaign designed to “kill it,” says Hall. But he’s spinning one hundred miles an hour with his claim. The truth is that the bill did not survive that campaign.
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Here’s a Leftist Spin on Healthcare For You”


Demonizing the Tea Party the Chicago Way

-By Frank Salvato

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.” – Sun Tzu, 6th Century, BC.

One way to tell how effective the Tea Party movement has been is to gauge the severity of the attacks on the movement by its detractors. It is fair and logical to deduce that the more severe the attacks, the more threatened the attackers feel. Judging from the most recent attacks on the Tea Party movement – and because the Progressives and Liberal Democrats are completely invested in “feelings” instead of facts – those opposed to limited government and the constitutional rule of law are feeling quite threatened.

Anyone paying attention to the mainstream news media has noticed a recent uptick in the number of news stories about the Tea Party movement. While media outlets such as FOX News, The Washington Times, BigGovernment.com, NewsMax.com and talk radio portray the Tea Party movement in a favorable light, the “alphabet media,” its cable brethren and the Progressive blogs are painting the movement as having emanated from the fringe; a group consisting of a bevy of Timothy McVeigh’s on steroids. Truth be told, this isn’t because they are grossly ideological in their reporting – although that lends to the zealousness of their actions – as much as it is a coordinated tactic to neuter the power of the Tea Party movement. The Progressive’s attacks on the Tea Party movement are straight from Rules for Radicals; they are a textbook Saul Alinsky play…and they are only going to get more vicious as the 2010 and 2012 elections approach.

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Demonizing the Tea Party the Chicago Way”


‘Mob Banker’ Giannoulias Can’t Raise As Much $$ As Mark Kirk

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrat candidate for Senate Alexi Giannoulias seems to be having some trouble raising campaign cash, at least when compared to the more successful efforts by GOP candidate Mark Kirk.

Giannoulias told reporters that his first quarter fund raising rang in at about $1.1 million for his race to win Barack Obama’s old Senate seat. For his part, Kirk reported that he raised $2.2 million.

The candidate have until April 15 to make their formal fundraising report.

Giannoulias claimed that his bank troubles were not a factor in his lower fundraising amount than Kirk’s. It has been discovered that Broadway Bank, the family bank Giannoulias ran, made over $20 million in bad loans to convicted felons, loans that were never paid back.

The bank is also in severe financial straits having lost $75.3 million last year alone. Regulators have given Broadway Bank until the end of the month to raise $85 million to cover its shortfall.

Quiet whispers among state Democrats have been heard questioning Giannoulias’ electability and rumors abound that state pols are considering alternatives to his candidacy despite his win in the late primary.

Desperate to refocus the news cycle upon Mark Kirk, Giannoulias tried to characterize Kirk as “obsessed” about Giannoulias’ Broadway Bank troubles. Kirk, however, has built a small 37-33 lead in the polls early in this campaign.

www.kirkforsenate.com
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‘Mob Banker’ Giannoulias Can’t Raise As Much $$ As Mark Kirk”


2nd District: GOP’s Isaac Hayes Gets City News Endorsement

From the Hayes for Congress campaign (2nd District)…

“I am honored to receive the endorsement of City News. This endorsement by a community paper sends a strong message that the status quo is unsustainable. Empty promises and political corruption have persisted for too long at the expense of economically distressed communities. Illinois 2nd District needs new leadership, new ideas and a new face.”

Endorsement from City News

“The City News, an African American owned newspaper which circulates in Kankakee, Will and Southern Cook Counties today endorsed Republican candidate Isaac Hayes in Illinois’s 2nd Congressional District race.
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2nd District: GOP’s Isaac Hayes Gets City News Endorsement”


8th District, Walsh: Jobless Recovery? Only if Melissa Bean Gets Her Way

From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…

(Grayslake, IL)– In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich offered a fairly pessimistic view of any potential recovery from what he referred to as “The Great Recession”.

Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 8.4 million jobs and failed to create another 2.7 million required by an ever-larger pool of potential workers. That leaves us more than 11 million jobs behind. (The number is worse if you include everyone working part-time who’d rather it be full-time, those working full-time at fewer hours, and people who are overqualified for the jobs they’re in.) This means even if we enjoy a vigorous recovery that produces, say, 300,000 net new jobs a month, we could be looking at five to eight years before catching up to where we were before the recession began.
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8th District, Walsh: Jobless Recovery? Only if Melissa Bean Gets Her Way”


5th District: Ratowitz Town Hall Announcement April 17

From the Ratowitz for Congress campaign (5th District)…

David Ratowitz, Republican Candidate for Illinois’ 5th Congressional seat, to hold Town Hall on the heels of speaking engagement at TEA Party Rally.

U. S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL – 5), states “The so-called health care bill is a radical change in 17% of the United States economy. People in the 5th District deserve to have a leader explain how this mammoth new bill will change their lives. If Mike Quigley doesn’t care enough about us, I’ll do it myself.”
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5th District: Ratowitz Town Hall Announcement April 17″


Unions’ Big Shift to Government

-By Warner Todd Huston

Unionism is failing miserably in this age of a greater world market and an increase in competition for business across the globe. More nations than ever have left behind the 18th century and are taking bold steps into a world made smaller by technology. No longer is but a handful of nations leading the world in manufacturing while the rest wallow in abject poverty. This greater competition is increasing the standard of living in nearly every corner of the earth but because there is so much competition, unions in the U.S. are dying out.

American unions are not conducive to the 21st century and companies shackled by them are finding that either unions have to lose their once overpowering control over production or the businesses simply have to shut their doors as foreign competitors beat them up in the world market place.

But these antiquated, jobs killing unions won’t go quietly into the night and they’ve found their path to existence: government. Unions are growing wildly in the public sector because there are no market forces to curb their excesses.
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Unions’ Big Shift to Government”


Obama’s Assault on Non-Union Businesses

-By Warner Todd Huston

Donald Lambro has a great piece discussing the new rules that Obama wants to impose on every single business in America that derives even the tiniest part of its income from the federal government. In essence, Obama wants to impose Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on everyone.

As Lambro says, Obama wants to “shatter decades-old, competitive contract rules that seek the best quality work at the lowest price” and this would cost government untold billions in higher costs as well as destroy untold thousands of small businesses that won’t be able to support the wild increase in their expenses. This will also cost thousands of jobs and give great payoffs to unions.

In the still-little-known initiative taking shape in the White House, senior officials are working on regulations that would use the full power of the government’s vast $500 billion a year contracting business to favor firms ,that offer higher wages and economic benefits, while ruling out firms whose wage, pension and even environmental record may not meet with the administration’s approval.

The Obama Administration is perpetrating the absurdity that this policy of forcing every business that does business with the government to increase wages and benefits to come in line with union benefits will somehow save the federal government money.
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Obama’s Assault on Non-Union Businesses”