Government Is Not Our Friend

-By Warner Todd Huston

Small-government conservatives have always been suspicious of government. Whether city, county, state or federal all government is looked on as a troublesome but necessary evil that must be tightly controlled and oft times opposed. This anti-government attitude, of course, is a complete mystery to socialist Democrats. They just don’t understand why conservatives mistrust government and why they eye it suspiciously. So, looking for a way to explain in real terms why conservatives loathe government is sometimes not an easy task as the ideas are often very esoteric. Thank God the corrupt governments in Barack Obama’s Illinois are always there to supply a ready example of why government is often the enemy of a free people.

In that mien, here is another perfect example of how government often does not serve the voters, how it does what ever it wants to do despite the voters, and how government often thinks it knows better than the very voters that it is supposed to serve.

In 2009 the Illinois State legislature in its Springfield-based capitol passed a video gambling law that for the first time legalized video poker machines across the state. The progress of this law was very contentious with most Republicans and some Democrats standing in opposition to this immoral legislation and a sop to the opposers was put in the bill as sweetener to assure passage. An “opt out” clause was put in the bill so that those conservative districts that were so opposed to video gambling could exclude themselves from allowing the immoral act of video gambling in their jurisdiction.
Continue reading


Government Is Not Our Friend”


Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Lennie Jarratt was featured on Fox News Chicago last night. The subject was the $85 billion dollar deficit that the Illinois finds its public employee pensions confronted with. Fox News reports that every Illinois citizen would have to fork over $6,600 to instantly solve the problem. And what has caused this problem? Unions.

Lennie has some great lines in this piece and he’s right on. He is right that education in America has become “legalized theft.” Here are some of his main points:

  • Getting a public sector job is like hitting the lottery
  • The way schools levy is legal theft
  • We have the highest property taxes in the Midwest
  • Nearly all of the top 50 public sector pensions in IL are educators
  • Killing jobs and forcing people to leave the state further cutting state revenue
  • Within 4-6 years most public sector retirees are making more than when working

Illinois isn’t the only state in this union-made morass. Nearly every state in the union is in this mess.
Continue reading


Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess”


Still hope for the best? History tells us we’ll change for the worst!

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Now we know what it must have been like in 1933 for decent Germans during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. Ever since the unconstitutional communist coup of Obamacare passed earlier in the week, the full anger and fury of US socialists has turned on the last of the free-thinking, conservative holdouts, a.k.a. patriotic Americans. I am old enough to have seen this phenomenon in every country where post WWII socialism, in its various guises, took over.

In 2001 I wrote an editorial on what the socialists of the Labour Party in the UK would ultimately face if they continually accused concerned British citizens of parochialism, racism and bigotry when they spoke out against Labour’s gross mismanagement and malfeasance coupled with its obscene immigration policies encouraging massive and uncontrolled immigration into the UK from hostile, aggressive, alien Third World countries. I predicted that as Labour continually smeared people of good will, these same people would not only vote Labour out of office but would gravitate away from main political parties to ones that would offer them acceptance.
Continue reading


Still hope for the best? History tells us we’ll change for the worst!”


‘New Hope’ For American Docs: Help Them Move Overseas, Won’t You?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The despair in the field of medicine over Obama’s government takeover of America’s once vibrant healthcare system can be overwhelming for America’s doctors. Many have said that if Obamacare is implemented, they’ll hang up their stethoscope and retire. The gloom is overpowering.

But WAIT! Help is on the way. A new effort is underway to help these poor doctors get themselves out from under the U.S. Government’s thumb, a new website has been started to keep Obama’s socialist overreach at bay. If you are an American doctor, help has arrived to help you uphold your hippocratic oath and still serve your American free-market, capitalist principles.

At PracticeAbroad.com, you can help an American doctor to get to freedom by sending him to a country that values his skills more than Obamabots do.
Continue reading


‘New Hope’ For American Docs: Help Them Move Overseas, Won’t You?”


Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar

From Congressman Peter Roskam’s Office (6th District)…

Roskam: “When two pillars of the Illinois business community, Caterpillar and John Deere, are forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs for next year alone thanks to the health bill, it sends an ominous message about Illinois’ economic future.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam released the following statement today following the John Deere company’s announcement that the new healthcare legislation signed by President Obama this week will increase their taxes by $150 million in the first year, after Caterpillar announced it would cost them $100 million in their first year:
Continue reading


Roskam: Healthcare Bill’s Enormous Costs to Illinois Manufacturers John Deere and Caterpillar”


Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’

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

CHICAGO: The following is an open letter released today by Isaac C. Hayes, GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2, in response to Jr.’s “moment of truth” on news radio WLS 890am.

Yesterday morning, Mr. Congressman, you told Dan Proft and Bruce Wolf, who were guest-hosting the Don Wade and Roma Show on WLS, “There’s probably going to have to be a significant reform of other social programs as the Federal Government assumes more responsibility for health care for the nation’s people, there are other social programs that are probably going to undermine some elements of social cohesion, there’s no doubt about that.”
Continue reading


Hayes: Open Letter to Jesse Jr. ‘No Leadership, No Integrity’”


Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?

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

“This is about doing due diligence on behalf of small businesses and families that I represent in the 8th District,” -Rep. Melissa Bean, on her vote for Obamacare, March 23, ABC Link

Perhaps as part of her “due diligence”, Rep. Bean should have considered talking to actual small business owners in the district or small business trade associations like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
Continue reading


Walsh to Bean: How is raising their taxes doing small businesses ‘due diligence’?”


ACORN’s Tangled Branches

-By Warner Todd Huston

News is all over the country that the often criminal group the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is dead, folding its tent, kaput. All this is because, as Politico puts it, of a “conservative assault that never prompted any prosecutions.”

But let us not get our hopes up that ACORN is defeated. It isn’t. In fact, most of the groups that huddled under ACORN’s left-wing are just changing their names and moving on with all the same people involved as if nothing ever happened. And this isn’t anything new. The fact is, ACORN activists have always hid behind dozens of false front organizations and corporate identities to disguise their criminal network.

In California, for instance, one of the ACORN affiliates is changing its name to “Californians for Community Empowerment” and one of the New York offices will now be known as “New York Communities for Change.” But all the same people that ran these former ACORN offices in these states are still there, no change has been made but the name.

We also saw the shady groups connected with ACORN but not named ACORN just last year during the Doug Hoffman, New York 23 arc. There an ACORN affiliate had created a fake political party in order to funnel cash to the Democrat running in that race. One of the organizations hip-deep in that election was a political group called the Working Families Party. Of course, the WFP is more-or-less a front for ACORN in New York and no political party at all.
Continue reading


ACORN’s Tangled Branches”


New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barbara Hollingsworth of the Washington Examiner has a piece celebrating the efforts of New Jersey’s new Governor Chris Christie in his effort to take on the state’s over indulged public employees unions.

Christie has taken on one of the worst budgets in the country and the task ahead of him will be difficult in every way imaginable. Unfortunately, the former Governor, John Corzine, made matters worse by negotiating a deal that will prevent Christie from furloughing state workers until 2011.

But Christie is forging ahead making the cuts he can.
Continue reading


New Jersey’s Gov. Taking on Unions”


The Causes and Consequences of Liberal Superiority Complex

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Liberal-progressive-socialists, from Henri de Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte in the 1800s and Karl Marx in the mid-1800s, to present-day liberal-progressive members of the Democrat/Socialist Party, have believed as an article of secular religious faith that their superior intellects alone are capable of intuiting the inevitable course of history. Those who disagree with their reading are written off as cranks or imbeciles, unworthy of serious consideration.

For liberal-progressives, apparently, the inevitable triumph of socialism is “settled science” with which all the world’s important people agree.

Read Chris DeMuth’s post on the American Enterprise Institute website.
Continue reading


The Causes and Consequences of Liberal Superiority Complex”


Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

SB 2494 passed out of committee just moments ago. This bill, sponsored by the Rev. Sen. James Meeks, would create a pilot school voucher program for students in struggling Chicago public schools.

This new power for parents promises that many children can enroll in schools that are better able to meet their needs. It promises that surrounding public schools will improve, and it promises that everyone in Illinois, as taxpayers, will benefit.

This is landmark school choice policy in the making.
Continue reading


Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon”


New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote

From Truth In Accounting…

Truth In Accounting Issues New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State”

Today, the Institute for Truth in Accounting released New Jersey’s “Financial State of the State.” The numbers are not good and they are getting worse every day. The state’s bills as of June 30, 2009 were $143 billion and the state had already used $33 billion of assets that were supposed to be set aside to met established legal and contractual obligations. To pay bills and obligations past legislators should have already covered current and future, taxpayers will have to come up with $176 billion—$66,200 per family.

Continue reading


New Jersey Legislators Should Know the FACTS Before Budget Vote”


Dold: Healthcare, an Historic Missed Opportunity

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

The healthcare bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the President is an historic missed opportunity that will adversely affect the 10th Congressional District and chill the creation of new jobs. While nobody disputes that healthcare reform is needed, this legislation is the by-product of a corrupt and partisan process that ignored the voices of job creators throughout our country. By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have voiced their opposition to this bill. Unfortunately, their voices fell on the deaf ears of Congress. When presented with an opportunity to work together and craft reforms with consensus, the U.S. Congress chose politics over policy.

I have always supported healthcare reform. Specifically, I have advocated the merits of addressing medical malpractice costs, and have promoted consumer-driven care as a means to reduce costs and expand coverage. However, this new healthcare reform addresses neither of these issues. This legislation threatens to bankrupt our great nation through tax increases, and places new and expensive burdens on small businesses. In short, this legislation does not address the root cause of the problem – healthcare is too expensive. Instead, it simply shifts the burden on to businesses, taxpayers and seniors.
Continue reading


Dold: Healthcare, an Historic Missed Opportunity”


Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes

-By Warner Todd Huston

Amusingly enough the Washington Post has a blog called PostPartisan. I say amusing because it is obvious that there is nothing “post” partisan about it if a rant against tea partiers by Jonathan Capehart is any indication. He thinks that Obama was speaking to the tea partiers in his latest healthcare address and so posted his titled, “A message from President Obama to Tea Party America.”

In an effort to come rushing to the aid of the president and in an effort to castigate all those racist tea partiers he so dislikes, Capehart excerpted a segment of Barack Obama’s recent healthcare speech (what is this one, like number 200 or so?) and pointedly asked tea party activists what was wrong with it — or rather what is wrong with them for not being in thrall to this president?

Capehart is mad at those tea partiers that think Obama is a “Manchurian candidate sent here to destroy the United States” and found the following segment of Obama’s millionth healthcare address particularly inspiring, claiming that it spoke to the “true character of this nation.”
Continue reading


Liberals Value Good Intentions Above Both Truth and Outcomes”


Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you want to see the ignorance of the left, below is a good video to see it in. In it a woman that supports Obamacare makes all sorts of accusations that everyone is a racist in a confrontation at a small protest outside of Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky’s Chicago-area offices. Another portly woman whines about the fact that she might be expected pay for her own healthcare and her equally portly boyfriend calls people names and asks what’s wrong with “a little socialism?”

The video shows that the only people filled with hate, the only ones resorting to name-calling and ignorance are the Obamacare supporters. But the you’re-all-racists lady is the most typical example of the left’s empty-headed line of attack against anyone that dares to nay-say their communist ideas.

One of the ignorant things this woman did was dismiss the Holocaust. It is infuriating, of course, that this chubby chider in purple was so dismissive of the Holocaust because there once was slavery. To her, slavery was worse than the Holocaust. A disgusting display of ignorance, of course. It is also a sad display of ignorance that this woman really thought that her “ancestors” were brought to Evanston, Illinois to work a “plantation.” This foolish woman doesn’t appear to know the history of her own people. There WERE no slave plantations in Evanston, Illinois so it is impossible that her ancestors were brought to Evanston to work plantations for white folks.
Continue reading


Obama Supporter’s Racism Cop Out”


Obama Likes Euroweenies So Much He Even Dates Like One

-By Warner Todd Huston

On my Twitter feed, I spotted a post by Patrick Ruffini asking a pertinent question… “What’s up with Barack Obama writing out dates euro-style?”

Check out this photo as hosted on the White House website…

Notice that the president signed his name and then penned the date as “11 June 2009”? That is the European way to note dates, not the American way. In America we always put the month, then the day, then the year.

Obama hates America so much he can’t even stand to write dates like Americans do!

(EDIT: I am hearing from several folks that don’t get that I was just trying to rib CommieObamie with this one. I wasn’t being wholly serious. Apparently I wasn’t snarky enough for people to get that. Lighten up Francis!)


New Cook County, Illinois Republican Group Has First Meeting

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Republican Assembly of Northern Cook County held its first meeting this week in Des Plaines. 10 people attended and three candidates for office spoke to the group.

Cook County Board President candidate Roger Keats spoke as did 8th District Congressional candidate Joe Walsh. Cook County Board of Review candidate Dan Patlak also attended. Keats told the group that he’s the best candidate for Cook County Board President because “Alderman Preckwinkle is closely tied to corrupt politicians, including Speaker Madigan and Mayor Daley.”

Also in attendance was Jim Leahy, the executive director of the Republican Assembly of Illinois and Jerry McDaniel, the chairman of the Illinois Conservative Action Network.
Continue reading


New Cook County, Illinois Republican Group Has First Meeting”


Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District

From the Adam Kinzinger for Congress campaign (11th District)…

Adam Kinzinger is currently holding townhalls across the district and after Wednesday night, he will have held 11, Debbie Halvorson, who voted yes for healthcare, has held zero. This is the first poll conducted on the Congressional Level after the Healthcare vote.

NRCC Memo
Adam Kinzinger currently leads on the ballot test 44%-38% over Congresswoman Halvorson, with 16% of voters undecided. Among high interest voters (8-10s), Kinzinger’s lead improves to 49%-35%, with 13% undecided.
Continue reading


Kinzinger Tops Polls in 11th District”


Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?

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

“For moderates like myself who are fiscally conservative, this is a win,”–Rep. Melissa Bean, The Daily Herald, March 20. Link

A moderate who votes her party not her district? A fiscal conservative who votes to spend a trillion dollars of money we don’t have for something 8th district families don’t want?
Continue reading


Walsh to Bean: How is Spending a Trillion Dollars Being Fiscally Conservative?”


Did Stupak Prostitute Himself for $$ to Home District?

-By Warner Todd Huston


Rep. Bart Stupak caught at Work in Washington D.C.

Why did this “pro-life Democrat” throw away his supposedly principled stand against Obamacare’s forced federal funding of abortion last weekend? Maybe his Friday announcement of $726,409 for “airport maintenance and improvements” has something to do with it?

This money is going to several airports in his home district back in Michigan.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Do ya think?

Let’s face it. There is no such thing as a “pro-life” Democrat, nor a religious one, for that matter.

You know what they say? Stupid is as Stupak does.


Obamacare is ‘Like Christmas’ for Democrat Voters

-By Warner Todd Huston

WRAL TV of Durham, N.C. has a story today that exemplifies how Democrats win votes in a most un-American way. In the words of one North Carolina resident and Democrat voter, Democrats are “like Christmas” because with Democrats in office no one has to pay any of their bills.

WRAL had a news story on local reactions to the signing of Obamacare and the report featured video of resident DeCarlo Flythe of Durham, N. C. who was “overjoyed” that Obamacare is here.

Here was Mr. Flythe’s reaction to Obamacare:

“It’s gonna be like Christmas, you know your first Christmas when you want that Barbie doll, so it’s gonna be just like Christmas. I mean it’s gonna be great, you know worries, you know the bills, we can go ahead and pay our co-pay and be all right.”

According to the report, Flythe has a job but doesn’t think he has to pay for his healthcare and he imagines that Obamacare will give it to him for the cost of a co-pay. Co-pays are doctor visit fees in many insurance policies that are typically less then $100 a visit. But co-pays are not all there is to paying for healthcare because the premiums paid to the policies are what is used to cover other aspects of the service to the patient.
Continue reading


Obamacare is ‘Like Christmas’ for Democrat Voters”


Cato Study: Unions Violate Freedom

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Cato Institute has issued its latest Tax and Budget bulletin, this one centered on public-sector unions. The essence of the report is that public employee unions violate freedom, make government more expensive and inefficient, and the incestuous relationship between unions and politicians takes away power from the voters.

While labor unions do play a diminishing role in the private sector, the study points out that they play are playing an increasingly larger role in government these days through their “vigorous lobbying efforts.” I’d add that they are also playing a larger role due to the personal greed of our politicians who are the happy recipients of large amounts of the campaign donations that unions typically provide, as well.

And it’s all bad for government finds Cato. “Collective bargaining is a misguided labor policy,” the report says, “because it violates civil liberties and gives unions excessive power to block needed reforms.”

To fix this evil, Cato recommends that collective bargaining in the public sector be banned.
Continue reading


Cato Study: Unions Violate Freedom”


Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois ranks a dismal 45th place in state rankings for the best business climates in the country according to a new study by the Institute for Legal Reform.

The study finds Illinois trailing the rest of the country in legal fairness with a litigation climate that is bad for businesses. Two Illinois counties, Cook County and Madison County, were also found to be the most unfair litigation climate in the nation.

In the press release, ILR says that Illinois is a “jackpot” state.

“Home to two of the most notorious jackpot jurisdictions in America and known for imposing expansive liability, Illinois has rolled out an ‘unwelcome mat’ to business,” said Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. “Illinois needs more jobs, not more lawsuits. Yet, even with an unemployment rate higher than the national average, the state’s anti-business legal climate discourages economic growth at a time when it needs it most.”

This ease at filing and constant upholding of frivolous lawsuits is reprehensible and decimates Illinois jobs just at a time when we need more jobs because of this bad economy.
Continue reading


Illinois Ranks At Bottom of Best Business Climates in America”


Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!

-By the Illinois Conservatives FaceBook Group

Turns out, yes he can. President Obama has shown the country that yes, he can do the secret backroom deals and kickbacks that he promised to eschew. That yes, he can confuse and complicate a process and fog it over with last-minute “emotional pleas.” Yes, he can force Americans to buy a product. And yes, he can orchestrate a government take-over of 1/6 of the American economy.

While President Obama once campaigned on transparency and bi-partisan cooperation, he and Nancy Pelosi have shown us that not only is it politics as usual with them—but on a bigger, more jaded and oppositional level than we’ve ever seen.
Continue reading


Secret Back Room Deals is NOT Democracy!”


8th District: Joe Walsh Responds to Healthcare vote in Congress

“Melissa Bean voted to take us further down this spending path which will bankrupt future generations. It doesn’t matter what political persuasion you are, that’s not right!”

www.JoeWalshForCongress.com


Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District

From the Hultgren for Congress campaign (14th District)…

Tonight, Bill Foster dealt the 14th Congressional District a devastating blow!

Foster’s vote to takeover health care doesn’t only run contrary to the wishes of his constituents, it delivers on the commitment he made to HIS real boss, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union.

In the Washington Post this week, Stern boasted of the debt owed to SEIU by Foster saying that “Foster, who we ran a significant independent expenditure for, we’re telling him what it is our workers thought they were working for him for” in reference to the Pelosi/Reid health care bill.
Continue reading


Randy Hultgren: Bill Foster’s Vote Betrays the Trust of the 14th District”


This Just In, Liberals Are Murderers

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is it that the extremists of the anti-war left, liberals, and Democrats say about the U.S. practice of capturing and detaining terror suspects? Don’t they say that it is wrong and evil? To that end, the left has through constant abuse of our own legal system made it practically untenable to capture and house terrorists in detention centers. And so, the U.S. is now just killing them outright instead of trying to capture them.

Let me say that again: because of the left, we are now just killing terrorists instead of capturing them. The result? Liberals are responsible for what they would consider the “murder” of terrorist suspects.

Yes, liberals are murderers. Now, not only are they baby murderers, but they are terror suspect murderers too. Will the left’s bloodlust never be sated?

A report in the L.A. Times reveals the ultimate, logical outcome of the left’s ill-considered actions against the war on terror. With the plans of closing Guantanamo Bay detention facility proceeding, the Obama administration is finding itself facing a dilemma. What they heck is it to do with terror suspects? According to the L.A. Times Obama faces “bringing them to the U.S. or even killing them.”
Continue reading


This Just In, Liberals Are Murderers”


Civil Disobedience

-By Dan Scott

ObamaCare has managed to pass the House of Representatives and it is only a matter of a few days before they complete the package with their reconciliation bill. Those who passed the Law had very little respect for those they claimed to represent given they were unwilling to present themselves and their bill to the electorate in November for their judgment. So cowardly were the bill’s backers for a while they actually contemplated passing the Law without voting on it, however, with their fig leaf of deception exposed they realized such an action would give them no political cover. Obviously filling Washington, DC’s streets with protestors was not effective, neither was vocally opposing ObamaCare at Town hall meetings. Do we quit and give up to let the usurpers have their way? Or do we step up to the next level of expressing our discontent and opposition to this imposed Law against the consent of the governed?

Will making legal challenges in Court be sufficient? Are we really confident to leave such matters to the Courts when in the past they have repeatedly failed the American People (Kelo Decision, EPA to regulate CO2) when it concerns the consent of the governed? Yes there will be legal challenges, but in the meantime the most egregious parts of the Law will go into effect immediately such as the annual billions of dollars in taxes to further suppress the economy by robbing businesses and individuals of investment income.

Many of you now having woken up to a radical agenda that has been foisted upon the country may now consider either running for office or becoming volunteer staff at a local political campaign office this November. If you are upset at the outrage that occurred in the night hours of March 21st, then get involved at the local level in your county and purge those who are not faithful as representatives. Choose your political representative carefully, there were 34 Democrats in the House of Representatives who voted against this monstrosity and therefore deserve at minimum your consideration of the positions they hold on other issues. Healthcare was only the tip of the iceberg that will be foisted upon the country to its harm in the months to come. This November, some Senatorial Republicans may not deserve your vote and need to be removed during the primaries.
Continue reading


Civil Disobedience”


Publius Podcast: And the New York Times Never Mentions the Word Islam

Nicholas Kristoff does a review of a book about the oppressed life of a young Muslim girl that was married off at 10-years-old. Kristoff laments this poor girl’s plight but not once mentions that she was from an Islamic culture. How can he discuss the evils of these sort of arranged marriages without mentioning Islam? You tell me…