Obama: Capitalism and Liberty Don’t Work

-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”


Jose Antonio Vargas: Being an Illegal Alien Made Me… a Better Reporter?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jose Antonio Vargas is the perfect example of media bias. He presents himself as both an activist for illegal immigrants and a “journalist.” He’s uniquely suited to this claim in today’s PC world, too, because he is himself an “undocumented American,” as he styles it. And in a new interview he also claims that being an illegal alien made him a better journalist.

Vargas has been blurring the line between journalist and activist since it became public knowledge that he has been in the United States illegally since he was a child. After his coming out, Vargas launched himself into being an advocate for illegals. Only in the Old Media establishment can someone be an advocate for a political viewpoint yet still be consider a just-the-facts journalist. Vargas isn’t the only one, of course. Remember such “journalists” as Sanjay Gupta, Chris Matthews, Jay Carney, or Linda Douglas. Well, if you are a left-wing activist it works, anyway.

In the new interview with The Ithican’s TinaMarie Craven, Vargas posits that his status as, in his words, an “undocumented American” (nice conceit, that) made him a more careful reporter. He had to exhibit the utmost veracity, he said, because if not people might start looking closer at him and his background.
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Jose Antonio Vargas: Being an Illegal Alien Made Me… a Better Reporter?”


Romney, Newt, Bachtorum, Ron Puntsman: Who Cares?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like nearly every conservative in America today I am unimpressed by the current crop of GOP nominees for president and feel they all have major flaws — especially the two frontrunners Newt and Romney, both of whom have major deficits as far as staunch conservatives are concerned. But at this point I’ve come to realize that I don’t think I care which one of them is nominated. In fact, I think the White House is not where we should be focusing our intensity in 2012.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn’t vote for whichever GOP nominee wins the game show plaudits. We should absolutely pick one of them and then we all, conservatives and Republicans alike, should vote for him (or her).

So, what am I saying? I am saying that the White House is less important than people are saying it is. Instead, we need a two-point focus for 2012 that doesn’t include the White House. We don’t need 999 points. Just two. 1). Gaining control of Congress and 2). turning Obama out. The identity and purity of our presidential nominee is the last thing we should be worried about at this point. It is a bit late for that anyway.

Let me assure you that I don’t have a favorite in this GOP race. And I have three real dislikes: Romney, Huntsman, and Ron Paul. This article is no stealth shilling for any particular candidate. I really do have big problems with all of them. But, again, I don’t think it matters which of them we pick if we focus on the two points I note above.

First of all, any of the GOP candidates (yes even the cranky uncle of the GOP, Ron Paul) would be better than Obama. But that goes without saying because I am a conservative that votes Republican. No surprise there, really.

But there are reasons besides blind partisanship that any of the GOP nominees is better than Obama. In fact, it can really be boiled down to but one issue that makes getting rid of Obama imperative: the courts. He has been thoroughly destructive to this country with his judicial picks.
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Romney, Newt, Bachtorum, Ron Puntsman: Who Cares?”


Help Stop The High Cost of Federal Regulations

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Reposting this because the House is voting on this bill today…)

One of the reasons that our economic recovery has been so slow is that the Obama administration has opened a continuous avalanche of regulations affecting jobs, hampering businesses, and costing all of us billions in lost revenue, taxation, and waste. But there is a bill in the House called the REINS Act that could help tamp down this avalanche, save us all money, help bring back the creation of jobs that aren’t being created now.

The full name of the act is the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act and that is a pretty straight forward name for the legislation as its premise is that regulatory agencies are so out of control and the costs they impose on the people have become so onerous that Congress has to step in and place limits on this untrammeled power. (H.R. 10 and the Senate’s similar bill S. 299)
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Help Stop The High Cost of Federal Regulations”


REINing Regs In

-By GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy & Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam

“Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington.” That was the plea to President Obama from Rock Katschnig, an Atkinson, Ill.-based soybean farmer and small-businessman at an August town-hall meeting.

While Mr. Katschnig was specifically referencing his opposition to the Administration’s imposed Farm Dust rule, a rule that if implemented would affect America’s 1.8 million farmers, his sentiments have become an all too common refrain from American businesses of all sizes across countless sectors.

Appropriate and responsible regulations are important, helping to keep us safe and our environment clean. Yet Washington has become a red-tape factory stunting job creation with a dizzying amount of federally imposed regulations written by unaccountable bureaucrats with little or no regard for the jobs each will cost.

The sheer amount and breadth of the administration’s proposed regulations make it impossible to address each and every one. Yet we can take action to stop the most excessive and economically-devastating regulations. Right now, the Obama Administration has 4,257 new regulations in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually – 15 percent more than last year. At a time when job creators are fighting to survive in an already tough economy, thousands of additional regulations will only result in significantly fewer jobs – hitting small businesses particularly hard.
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REINing Regs In”


Help Halt the NLRB’s Assault On America’s Union-Free Workplace

Originally posted at Labor Union Report

Last week’s NLRB vote to give unions the ability to ambush union-free workers and the companies that employ them, as well as to deny due process on bargaining unit issues, is only the latest in a long line of attacks on America’s union-free workforce by the union extremists controlling Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board.

Notwithstanding the recent agreement between Boeing and the Machinists’ union to end the prosecution* of Boeing opening its second 787 in South Carolina, listing out of all of the attacks on job creators and America’s union-free workforce would necessitate more than an entire post. However, here are just a few:

  • Micro-unions: In a recent ruling, the NLRB has given unions the green light to begin unionizing portions companies by what are called “micro-unions.” Now, union can unionize small segments of a company by classification (or department).
  • Reducing employees’ rights to rid themselves of unwanted unions: In a reversal of a previous NLRB decision, the Obama-NLRB has made it much more difficult for employees to decertify unions where highly flawed card-check method of unionization had been utilized. The NLRB’s reversal was only outdone by the NLRB’s destroying of ballots from elections that were already held, but were awaiting the outcome of the NRLB’s decision.
  • Requiring union-free employees to post union posters. Though delayed, the NLRB is requiring all union-free, private-sector employers to post NLRB posters explaining workers’ rights to unionize.
  • Legitimizing union ‘sweetheart deals.’ Last year, the NLRB approved unions’ ability to negotiation pre-recognition agreements in exchange for ‘card check,’ thus undermining employees’ rights through “sweetheart deals.”

It’s time to put pressure on Washington to halt the NLRB’s assault and here’s how you can help.

Our friends at the Free Enterprise Alliance‘s Halt the Assault campaign have put together an online petition to send a message to Washington to Rein in the Rogue NLRB.

You can even embed a Rein in the Rogue NLRB widget on your blog or website.

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Help Halt the NLRB’s Assault On America’s Union-Free Workplace”


‘Historian’ Gets Mouthy At Congressional Hearing

-By Warner Todd Huston

I meant to get to this last week, but “historian” Douglas Brinkley is so forgettable as a writer that it all slipped my mind. But, it’s a slow news day, so let’s take a look at the temper tantrum this hack threw when he visited the House Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 22, shall we?

Brinkley was there to provide his, uh, “insight” into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, testimony that Alaska Rep. Don Young called “an exercise in futility” because the hearing wasn’t going to be changing anyone’s mind about the subject. I’d have to agree that anything including hack Brinkley truly is an exercise in futility. He’s one of the worst writers of popular history out there.

The fireworks began when Rep. Young accidentally called Brinkley by the wrong last name. This sent the scribbler off into paroxysms of pique and spurred him to interrupt not only Rep. Young, but also Committee Chair Doc Hastings when he tried to restore order.

Rep. Young later told the Washington Post’s Amy Argetsinger that he thought that Brinkley was just trying to get publicity with his outburst.
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‘Historian’ Gets Mouthy At Congressional Hearing”


Purse With Image of Gun Gets Teen Accosted by TSA

-By Warner Todd Huston

In today’s “teh stupid” files, a teen in Norfolk, Virginia missed her flight because Transportation Security Administration screeners pulled her out of line for close scrutiny because she had a leather purse with an image of a pistol engraved on it. You read that right, a leather engraving of a pistol emblazoned on a purse made TSA screeners imagine a pregnant teenaged girl was a security threat.

Vanessa Gibbs was attempting to board a plane to get home to Jacksonville, Florida, but the TSA screeners spied the leather design of a pistol on the exterior of her purse. This, they somehow imagined, made the teen a security risk, so they pulled her out of line for interrogation.

How could a design of a purse cause such panic in the TSA, you might ask? TSA agents told the girl that it is a federal crime to take replicas of firearms onto an airplane. This, they claimed, justified their focus on her purse.

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Looks Like Obama Lost These Boobs as Fans, Anyway

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Barbi Twins are no longer big fans of the Obammessiah. They think he’s turned his back on the horses. No, not the ones at the race track — well, maybe after they retire from the track they’ll fit in this story. No the Barbi twins think Obama has abandoned the horses that had until now been protected by a federal ban from being sent to U.S.-based horse slaughter houses.

Now, I did not choose to write about this story because it features two “hot” blondes with big boobs — though that doesn’t hurt. I’ve actually written about this horse meat issue before. Naturally I came down on the opposite side of the issue that the girls chose.

The two blond bobble heads are upset that Congress is repealing a ban on horse slaughter houses in the U.S. Absurdly, they seem to imagine that all horses in the country are “pets.” This is their theme to rail against the idea of having equine abattoirs operating inside the U.S.A.

Now, to millionaires that are out of touch with normal people, I guess horses might always be thought of as “pets.” But in the real world horses are often draft animals working on farms. And when they get sick or old and infirm or when owners can no longer afford to keep them they are properly — and humanely, I might add — destined for the slaughter house.
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Looks Like Obama Lost These Boobs as Fans, Anyway”


How Radical is Obama? This Radical…

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama is very successful at one thing: the bait and switch. He stands before America presenting a picture of a hard-working moderate and claims that he wants to work with the Republicans to get things done. In reality he won’t even meet with them. He talks about compromise, but never offers any. He mouths kind words abut the business sector but uses his powers to make new regulations to destroy its profitability. In short, he’s a radical even though he doesn’t play one on TV. His modus operandi is to assume most voters are too stupid, lazy, or disinterested to compare his hope-n-change rhetoric with his actions.

Obama’s penchant for bypassing Congress and making radical changes to regulations in order to push his far left agenda is a case in point. Obama’s push to radicalize the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and turn it from a non-partisan watchdog agency into a tool for Big Labor is a perfect example of how the President uses regulations to achieve what he and the far left cannot do with legislation. It is also an example of how he is trying to radically change America under the radar of most voter’s notice.
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How Radical is Obama? This Radical…”


Black Friday Special on Fox Business Network: Follow the Money: The Investor’s Holiday Portfolio

-By Warner Todd Huston

On November 25, Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling will be hosting a Black Friday special to kick off the holiday season this year titled, Follow the Money: The Investor’s Holiday Portfolio. The program will air at 10PM eastern.

The Chicago-born Bolling will enlist a panel of experts to examine which stocks will make great gifts this season, where the hidden deals can be found, and whether the European debt crisis will dampen investor spirits.

Guests will include: Dialectic Capital Management Head of Trading and “The Risk Doctor” Tim Strazzini; Exemplar Capital managing partner and “The Chartman” Gary B. Smith; Yahoo! Finance blogger and “The Lone Wolf” Jeff Macke, and others.
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Black Friday Special on Fox Business Network: Follow the Money: The Investor’s Holiday Portfolio”


GM Bailout: Bait And Switch And Drive That Lemon Away

-By Warner Todd Huston

General Motors was too big to fail. This is why President Obama had to ride in on his white steed with billions of taxpayers dollars in hand to bailout GM rechristening it Government Motors. Besides, we were told it would be a great deal, a money maker, right? Well, not so much. The Administration has reported a dramatic increase in the money We The People have lost on the GM bailout.

This week the Treasury Dept. has announced that the estimates of our loss has gone from $14.33 billion tax dollars to $26.6 billion.

To put it in terms easier to understand, for the American people to just break even on the bailout deal the more than 500 million shares owned by the U.S. Treasury must sell at $53 a share. Unfortunately for all of us, GM stock has tumbled to just $22.99 (as of closing on Nov.14). We are waaay off from the break even point, folks!
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GM Bailout: Bait And Switch And Drive That Lemon Away”


Actor Ruffalo Wants Obama to Turn Army Corps of Engineers Political

-By Warner Todd Huston

Mark Ruffalo — you know, the millionaire actor that claims to be part of the 99% — may not be a scientist. But he plays one on mass emailings from left-wing advocacy groups. And with that activism Ruffalo is urging President Obama to turn the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from a science-based service to the American people into just another politicized arm of progressivism.

Ruffalo is lending his name to WaterDefense.org, an anti-fracking group claiming that the practice of drilling for natural gas contaminates drinking water wherever it is employed.

The science of the water contamination claim is not exactly proven but that won’t stop this group and actor Ruffalo from claiming it as fact. Clearly more scientific studies are needed to determine what is true and what isn’t here.
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Actor Ruffalo Wants Obama to Turn Army Corps of Engineers Political”


Romney Shoves RoBamneyCare in Our Faces, Slickly Hiding Behind the 10th Amendment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Romneycare was “the right thing,” proclaimed Mitt “the flip flopper” Romney on a recent Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto. Wouldn’t you know it, the only thing conservatives want him to flip flop on he refuses to do so.

I guess we can’t expect Romney to own up that Romneycare is a disaster for Massachusetts and that it was a major mistake, one that makes him look exactly live Obama any time soon. He’s steadfastly refused to say that Romneycare was a mistake in the past and today he’s doubled down on that insistence…

Read the rest at RightPundits.com.


Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently Politico does not like the new concealed-carry reciprocity law recently passed in Congress. They must not like it. After all, aside from covering it in a negative light, the newser so badly misstated the law that it could easily turn its readers against the whole idea. But perhaps that’s the idea?

The law, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, would allow gun owners that have a concealed-carry license in their home state to carry their firearm in another state if that state also has a carry law in place. The law, however, does not allow someone to carry a firearm in a state that does not currently allow its own citizens to enjoy concealed-carry rights.

All this law does is standardize the lawful status of interstate gun carriers so that law-abiding citizens are not confused by and in fear of violating the many different state statutes concerning their firearms when traveling.
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Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws”


Illinois CAT Dealer: Illinois’ Worst Business Climate Getting Worse

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Wednesday I attended a “government day” event at Patten Industries, a 78-year-old Illinois Caterpillar dealer situated in Elmhurst, a northwest suburb of Chicago. The event, led by current General Manager Garrett Patten, featured a discussion on the severely unfavorable business climate in Illinois and why the state is lagging so horribly behind the leading economic indicators of every surrounding state.

Patten Industries has been guided by four generations of Pattens, the company having been founded by B. C. Patten, Sr. in 1933. But Illinois has not been good to the company or its employees over the last decade or so. Unfortunately, the company has gone from employing some 700 employees in 2006 to only about 400 today due to the harsh economic climate in the Land of Lincoln.

This contraction is most certainly not something the Patten family wanted to see happen to their long-standing Illinois-based company. Patten Industries has faced a whole host of negative forces causing them to scale downward. And Patten is just one of many Illinois businesses facing the same problems — problems faced in much less severity by businesses in other nearby states.

Even as many corporations are just starting to see an upturn in their fortunes, Illinois government has set up so many hurdles to growth that other states are either taking our customers or even welcoming Illinois businesses themselves as new residents.

Garrett Patten says that at least three major problems face Illinois businesses. Workman’s comp, labor unions, and corporate taxes.
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Illinois CAT Dealer: Illinois’ Worst Business Climate Getting Worse”


Diane Sawyer Again Links Tea Party and Sarah Palin to Rep. Giffords’ Shooting

-By Warner Todd Huston

In her exclusive interview with Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D, AZ), ABCs Diane Sawyer began with a retrospective of the terrible crime committed against the Congresswoman by a mentally disturbed, a-political gunman. But true to her left-wing agenda, Sawyer could not resist illicitly linking Tea Party activists, anti-Obamacare sentiment, and even Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to what was perpetrated against Rep. Giffords on that terrible day.

Yes, even though these calumnies against conservatives and Sarah Palin have been thoroughly discredited, Sawyer links them anyway to the shocking crime that took the lives of six people, injured others, and delivered a debilitating head wound to Representative Giffords.

It was only hours after the shooting occurred on January 8, 2011, that left-wing activists, purported journalists, and Democrat operatives alike began blaming the shooting of Rep. Giffords on “Tea Party hate” and the “violent rhetoric of the right.”

The false narrative was picked up by nearly every Old Media outlet and disgorged from their talking points sheets over and over again. It was days before everyone learned that the killer, one Jared Lee Loughner, had been stalking Giffords for several years before the Tea Party, Obamacare or Sarah Palin became national news.
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Diane Sawyer Again Links Tea Party and Sarah Palin to Rep. Giffords’ Shooting”


NYPD Police Union: Another Example of Why Public Employee Unions Need to be Outlawed

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week 16 dirty New York cops went on trial for all sorts of criminal behavior. From dealing drugs, to assault and grand larceny, and “unrelated corruption,” these cops are proving to be some very crooked characters. But fellow officers don’t care about that. They have ginned themselves up to act like the punks and scumbags they are supposed to be putting behind bars all due to their police union and its agitation over the trials.

Even The New York Times seemed shocked by the venomous treatment these union thugs cops were delivering to the District Attorneys handling the case. Certainly these crooked cops are innocent until the prosecution proves its case, but these union toughs don’t care to let the law take its course. They want to storm the gates like the barbarians they are.

These so-called police officers even began to accost the media as the defendants left the courtroom. Says the Times, “The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.”
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NYPD Police Union: Another Example of Why Public Employee Unions Need to be Outlawed”


Ripping Off California at the Speed of High Speed Rail

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of President Obama’s favorite go-to items to “stimulate” the economy is building new rail lines, especially high-speed rail. Many states have been smart enough to cancel the high-speed rail projects, but oh, not California. California’s project rolls inexorably onward. Still, California does help show the rest of the country why high-speed rail is a boondoggle that should be avoided.

The high-speed rail line that is being built between San Diego and San Francisco was initially sold to California voters as a $40 billion project with Prop 1A back in 2008. That’s a lot of cash, certainly, but its proponents said if it brings jobs to build it and improves the jobs situation in both cities after it’s built, it would be a good investment.

Prop 1A passed with just under 53% of the vote and was supposed to begin ferrying passengers by the year 2020. But now it has been found that the completion date and the $40 billion estimate both are, well, a bit off.
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Ripping Off California at the Speed of High Speed Rail”


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

-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”


Death By Regulations: Has Obama Lost Senator Blanche Lincoln?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last year for the 2010 midterms Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln was in trouble with her reelection. Up until 2010 most felt her seat was a safe one but Democrat challengers pushed the sitting Senator to a runoff that she barely won. 55% of her constituents opposed her.

Lincoln welcomed the support of President Obama who cut an early ad for the Senator portraying her as a “populist crusader.” Still, Lincoln lost her her reelection bid to Republican John Boozman.

Obama may have come to Lincoln’s aide in 2010, but it doesn’t look like Blanche is returning the favor in 2012. Lincoln is leading a charge against the Obama administration’s regulatory orgy by taking the chairmanship of a new group called Small Businesses for Sensible Regulation.
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Death By Regulations: Has Obama Lost Senator Blanche Lincoln?”


Ballot Measure Boondoggle – High Speed Rail Costs Balloon to $100 Billion

By Steve Maggi

Nearly $100 billion. That’s what High Speed Rail is now going to cost California taxpayers – more than double the costs initially promised by the proponents of Prop 1A, which contained the initial taxpayer financing for the project.

2033. That’s when the HSR project is now expected to be completed – 13 years after it was initially supposed to be completed.

So, in the three short years since voters were sold this bill of goods, the costs have gone up $50+ billion and the time to complete the project has doubled. How could that be? Maybe the cost of labor has skyrocketed, despite unemployment being in double digits? Or maybe the cost of purchasing land for the tracks has dramatically increased, despite the real estate market being down? Or – just maybe – the special interests that pushed High Speed Rail didn’t give voters all the facts when they sold this program in 2008.
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Ballot Measure Boondoggle – High Speed Rail Costs Balloon to $100 Billion”


Killing Energy, Killing Jobs, Killing America

-By Alan Caruba

America has been under attack since Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009. The primary target has been the nation’s ability to generate energy for electricity and transportation, without which this nation will slide into Third World status and economic decline.

This appears to be the goal of this administration from the President to his Secretaries of Energy and Interior, to his Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. There is no other rational explanation for what they are doing.

We are days away from the latest Environmental Protection Agency assault in the form of the “MACT” rule allegedly to reduce mercury and other emissions that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says will reduce electricity generation in America by about 81 gigawatts in the years ahead. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said “this could compromise the reliability of the electric system if as much as 8% of generating capacity is subtracted from the grid.”
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Killing Energy, Killing Jobs, Killing America”


Obama’s Regulations So Far Cost Us $84.8 Billion And Climbing Weekly

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a lot of talk about the high cost of regulations (in fact, a lot of talk from me about them). But how do you put a number on that cost? Well Sam Batkins of the American Action Forum has been keeping a running tab not only on the high cost of the regulations themselves but also the man hours it takes Americans to implement them and the cost is staggering.

Every Friday Batkins reviews that week’s new regulatory onslaught, makes his calculations and thus far Obama’s regulatory juggernaut is costing Americans $84.8 billion bucks. But that isn’t the last of what it will cost Americans. In order to implement these regulations, to make sure business and individuals are following the rules, it will cost Americans 88.2 million annual man hours to do the paperwork, file the reports, and follow the Internet-based reporting procedures in order to satisfy the rules.

Imagine this burden of worker’s time wasted just to make sure we follow regulations! It is obscene.
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Obama’s Regulations So Far Cost Us $84.8 Billion And Climbing Weekly”


$200 Million of Calif. Taxpayer’s Money Spent With No Accountability

-By Stephen Kruiser
Voter-Approved First 5 LA Program Spends $200 Million of Taxpayers Money without Oversight

As the Los Angeles Times reports, a recent independent audit of the First 5 LA Commission revealed massive problems with the agency, including lack of accountability, spending oversight or competitive bidding. First 5 LA is part of a statewide program created in 1998 by Prop 10, a measure which was supposed to use funds from a tobacco tax to promote health and education of young children. According to the audit, it’s not exactly fulfilling its mission. From the Times:

An audit by Harvey M. Rose of San Francisco found First 5 LA’s commission was unable to monitor money that was being spent “since monthly programmatic expenditures are not presented relative to a budget.” Auditors also concluded the agency was overstaffed while under-spending on programs for children.

So, First 5 LA is spending too much on public employees and not enough on kids. Not to mention doling out $200 million without a competitive bidding process and operating with such a lack of oversight that there’s no way to determine if the agency has signed agreements “for inappropriate purposes or with unqualified vendors or grantees”. Sounds like standard operating procedure in California, which has seen similar accountability and oversight problems with other initiative-created agencies as well.

And yet, former pro Tem and career politician Don Perata is pushing another measure – the so-called California Cancer Research Act – to create yet another unaccountable bureaucracy with six political appointees that can spend nearly a billion each year, including millions on staff salaries and pensions and overhead. With huge budget problems and public pension costs spiraling out of control, the last thing California needs is another big-spending bureaucracy with no oversight or accountability.

The measure is slated for the June 2012 ballot in California.


Business Roundtable: Regulations Are Killing Business

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday I attended an informative business roundtable meeting of Chicago-area small businessmen who came together to discuss how government intervention and its avalanche of regulations are killing jobs and businesses not only in Illinois, but nation wide. Some of the stories were chilling, to say the least. These trials go to show how anti-business the most famously capitalist country in the world has become. No wonder we can’t get out of this second great depression!

The event was held at the headquarters of The Rabine Group in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Rabine Group is a group of nationwide companies that specializes in driveway paving, roofing, and other contracting work. The company is headed by owner and CEO Gary Rabine.

Filling out the panel was Moderator, Brian Kelly of Bulk Lift International; Gary Rabine, The Rabine Group; Garrett Patten, Patten Industries; Randy Truckenbrodt, Randall Industries, Inc, and Former State Senator Steve Rauschenberger, Rauschenberger Partners.

The panel began with some of the regulatory horror stories experienced by the panel. Each story illustrated how government stands in the way of job creation, small business, and expansion, and how government is not working hand-in-hand with small business but actually fosters an inimical relationship. The panel showed how the oppressiveness of these regulations actually tempts business to break laws just to be able to carry on with business.
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Business Roundtable: Regulations Are Killing Business”


Ill. Policy Institute CEO Tillman Is Just Plain Wrong About ‘Occupy’

-By Warner Todd Huston

John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, penned an op ed in the Chicago Tribune touting what he claims is the common ground between conservatives and the Occupy Wall Street leftists who have trickled into the streets across the country. I hate to say it, but his op ed was puzzling and its base concept — that conservatives and these Occupy nuts should work together — is incredibly off base.

Before I get into Tillman’s points, though, let me say that I generally support the good works of the Illinois Policy Institute. I’ve covered many of its events in the past, I’ve worked closely with some of its members, and I’ve met Mr. Tillman many times at many events. I repost the Institute’s email blasts on my sites, as well.

I will continue with my support of the Illinois Policy Institute (don’t call them IPI because some other organization has that trademarked and they get mad) despite this disagreement with Mr. Tillman. They often do very good work.

OK, now that that’s out of the way… Tillman, my friend, you are soooo wrong!
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Ill. Policy Institute CEO Tillman Is Just Plain Wrong About ‘Occupy’”


Wisc.: Walker’s Union Reforms Are Working! (A Lesson for Illinois)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Governor Scott Walker was the worst devil the unions could imagine. They targeted him and Wisconsin’s Republicans mercilessly earlier this year. Fortunately, the unions and their Democrat handmaidens lost most of these battles.

But now some results are being seem from the efforts to curtail the un-democratic, unearned power of Wisconsin’s government employee unions. A new effort by the MacIver Institute and Americans for Prosperity is showing the world where these policies have succeeded in making things better in Wisconsin.

This is a lesson for Illinois and every other blue state. We can fix our problems, too. But it means defeating entrenched, un-American union power and their bought and paid for Democrats.
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Wisc.: Walker’s Union Reforms Are Working! (A Lesson for Illinois)”


Illinois: Beloved Doctor Benched For Not Being Proficient with Electronic Medical Records System

-By Warner Todd Huston

A popular, longtime Doctor from central Illinois has been sidelined by employer Springfield-based Memorial Health System because he has not become proficient with the electronic medical records system, named EPIC Systems, that they purchased and implemented. Patients are so incensed that they’ve started a Facebook page as well as a blog to rally to his defense.

This situation brings into focus the problem of top-down medical solutions, calling into question the efficacy of healthcare by committee, not to mention Obmacare itself. Do we really want to sacrifice good doctors in favor of good followers of top-down rules? Do we want good users of computers or excellent doctors?
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Illinois: Beloved Doctor Benched For Not Being Proficient with Electronic Medical Records System”