Democrats Cancel Patriotic Music

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friends across the aisle always tell me that Democrats love America and are as patriotic as anyone on the right. Unfortunately for them, it is hard to believe that their party is on the same all-American page as the rank and file especially since Nancy Pelosi’s Democrat controlled House of Representatives tried to get rid of the patriotic music that is traditionally played on the House telephone “on hold” system.

House Chief Administrative Officer Daniel Beard decided to rid the world of John Phillip Sousa, God Bless America, the Star Spangled Banner, and any other sort of patriotic tunes played while callers to the House of Representative’s switchboard are on hold. Instead of the traditional patriotic music, Beard thought “smooth jazz” was better.

Then came the complaints. And right after that came the backpeddling.
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Democrats Cancel Patriotic Music”


Two Americas or One Nation with Liberty & Justice for All

-By Nancy Salvato

Fundamental law is the key to maintaining the rights and freedoms of every citizen in the United States of America. It is questionable how many people actually understand what is considered fundamental law, or why it is referred to as such. The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights -which was promised as part of the ratification of the US Constitution in order to ensure its passage-, are both considered to be the fundamental law of the United States. These documents, along with the Declaration of Independence are commonly referred to as our founding documents – the Charters of Freedom.

Fundamental law is so important to this society that the justices working in our federal judicial system are sworn to uphold it. Every case that comes before the Supreme Court brings into question fundamental law. If a law or decision contradicts fundamental law, it is to be overturned. The only way to change the fundamental law of our nation is through the amendment process and in the history of our country, this has only occurred 27 times, including the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution -which are encompassed in the Bill of Rights.

Every President and every US Representative and Senator take an oath of elected office, swearing to uphold the US Constitution.
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Two Americas or One Nation with Liberty & Justice for All”


Healthcare Trickery & Scottish Wimpery: Headline Potpourri #6

-By Frederick Meekins

With Obama seeming to withdraw the so-called “public option” from the healthcare reforms being considered by Congress, many will assume that the battle is now over. However, things may be more dangerous than ever before.

Up for consideration are so-called “healthcare cooperatives” that will attempt to blend aspects of public and private systems, no doubt with the care and responsiveness that homeowner associations have become renowned for. What is to prevent companies from eliminating their insurance programs and pushing their employees into these?

This is what Walmart-types are drooling for in the propaganda where they say they won’t be happy until everyone is insured. What they are really hoping for is the opportunity to drop the coverage of their own employees.

The Libyan responsible for the bombing of PAN AM Flight 103 has been set free. Since the terrorist is dieing of cancer, Scottish officials claim that he was released in compliance with the nation’s values.
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Healthcare Trickery & Scottish Wimpery: Headline Potpourri #6″


Dear Leader Chairman MauObama Addresses School Children

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve been fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of The One’s address to the nation’s children and have been authorized by the fairness Czar to reproduce it here.

Hello my little children.

Welcome to your first day of school, and for those of you that already started, I welcome you, as well.

In this historic address to all our precious children, I have decided to offer a new tone, a tone unlike what I was left with by the former president. I think we need to get beyond politics. You great kids aren’t interested in all that anyway, right?

I do, though, want to urge you all to study hard, do your homework, and strive always to do the right thing. We all must work hard to overcome the mess left us by others, of course. And to do that we all need to pay close attention to the world around us.

For instance, if you hear someone dissing your school, making fun of education, or telling you to just forget all that hard work, well you tell them I said forget that noise. If they keep it up, you tell your teacher about it.

And if you hear someone making fun of your leaders, why call me up and tell me about it. Even if it happens to be your friends or your family, call 1-800-tellObama, or go on the web and email me at fishy@whitehosue.gov.

Once you identify all these nasty people and tell me about it, I’ll send someone around to straighten them out.

And while you are at it, go home and tell your parents to help us pass healthcare reform. We want all you kids to be happy and healthy but some people want to kill you. Tell me about them, too.

Remember, do as I tell you and all will be happy and good. If you don’t you might die horribly.

That is all, Children. Remember to OBEY.
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Dear Leader Chairman MauObama Addresses School Children”


Obama to Offer His Own Plan?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Marc Armbinder of The Atlantic is reporting that President Obama will be unveiling his own healthcare plan in the coming week as a way to kick start the debate back in his favor.

One of the easy digs against Obama until this time has been that he not only had nothing to do with the various plans floating around Congress (at least three bills thus far) and, worse, that he hasn’t seemed to really know what is in any of them.

Now Obama is about to offer his own plan. Some of it will be ideas already in play and others will be new.
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Obama to Offer His Own Plan?”


Union Expense Forces 92-Year-Old Restaurant to Close

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Café des Artistes has been doing a steady restaurant business in New York City since 1917, but is now forced to close its doors. One of the main reasons for this happens to be the fact that the Café is unfortunate enough to be a union restaurant and the exorbitant costs of supporting a union workforce has contributed to killing the business.

A blog called the 212DressingRoom, a website about New York fashion, culture, art and other rather Bohemian subjects, has detailed the sad end of the long time café written by the owner of the place, Jennifer Lang.

The decision to close the Café is exceedingly painful to make, but inevitable. We are one of the very, very few independent restaurants in New York City that operates with a union; many of those have closed in the last few years, and hundreds have closed in the last few decades. In that respect, we are a dinosaur because the huge added expense of having a union restaurant can be crippling, especially when the economy takes a nosedive.

Since 99% of the independent restaurants in New York City do not have a union, we are not playing on a level playing field with the rest of our competition. One example: We pay approximately $250,000 more each year for health insurance and pension coverage for our employees than we would if we were paying for non-union coverage.

This is a stark reminder that unions kill profitability and cost jobs. A minute can be spent here to realize what the Obama administration’s “cure” for this sort of situation is, too.
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Union Expense Forces 92-Year-Old Restaurant to Close”


Illinois Business Groups Schedule Anti-Cap and Trade Rally, Sept. 1st

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group called Energy Citizens made up of 23 Illinois business associations have scheduled a September 1st rally in order to protest the seriously damaging policies of the Cap and Trade bill. The rally will be held near the State Capitol in Springfield.

The event will start a noon and will be held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 3000 Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, Illinois.

A notice was posted at the Illinois Farm Bureau website.

A lunch will follow the roughly 45-minute event, one of 22 rallies nationwide sponsored by the group Energy Citizens to oppose House-approved legislation. IFB members are encouraged to attend, and may contact their county Farm Bureau for additional details.

The Illinois members of Energy Citizens includes the Southwestern Illinois Employers Association and Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative, the Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, Associated Builder and Contractors of Illinois (ABC), Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, Grain & Feed Association of Illinois, Growmark, Home Builders Association of Illinois, Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers, Illinois Coal Associations, Illinois Energy Forum, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois manufacturers Association, Illinois Petroleum Council, Illinois Pork Producers, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Trucking Association, MidAmerica Energy, Mid-West Truckers Association, Illinois Oil & Gas Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative and the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association.
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Illinois Business Groups Schedule Anti-Cap and Trade Rally, Sept. 1st”


U.S. Government Killing Dialysis Patients

-By Warner Todd Huston

Want an example of why government healthcare in the U.S. is a dangerous proposition? USA Today has a lengthy story on kidney dialysis and how new research is showing that having dialysis treatments more often seems to be keeping patients alive and healthy longer than the traditional thrice weekly treatments. The piece also sadly shows that the U.S. has higher rates of early death of dialysis patients than other western nations.

Why is that, you might wonder? It’s because Medicare won’t pay for more than three treatments a week so the national standard has become thrice weekly because that is what government will pay for. Not only that but government won’t pay for medical services ancillary to dialysis causing patients to succumb to other problems that often accompany or presage kidney failure.

Barry Straube, chief medical officer at the federal Centers for Medicare & Medcaid Services, says 25 million Americans have kidney disease, but Medicare benefits don’t kick in until patients are at the most advanced stage. Many patients with earlier-stage kidney disease aren’t treated for high blood pressure or diabetes, which cause two-thirds of kidney failures.

In other words, medical care is rationed by government to keep down costs based on a one-size-fits-all system. This rationing kills patients sooner than necessary and stifles life-saving innovation in treatment.
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U.S. Government Killing Dialysis Patients”


Top Ten Pitfalls of Wireless Innovation Regulation

-By Scott Cleland

Analysis of the potential pitfalls of wireless innovation regulation is a necessary complement to the FCC’s upcoming Notice of Inquiries into wireless competition/innovation and the DOJ’s review of wireless competition in order to ensure policymakers get a balanced view of the big picture.

What are the Top 10 Pitfalls of Wireless Innovation Regulation?

#1 Pitfall: Losing focus on universal broadband access

“Wireless innovation” appears to be the latest rebranding iteration of “net neutrality” and “open Internet” as the net neutrality movement searches for more mainstream support of their views.
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Top Ten Pitfalls of Wireless Innovation Regulation”


A Christian Analysis Of Atheism, Part 1

-By Frederick Meekins

If the Middle Ages are to stand in history books as the Age of Faith, it could be equally asserted that the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries will no doubt be remembered as the Era of Unbelief. Whereas unbelievers in the Middle Ages were careful in how they expressed their theological doubts for fear of befalling persecution, theists (be they Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox Jew) have today learned selectivity in how they go about expressing challenges to the prevailing lack of belief impacting fundamental cultural institutions such as government, academia, and the scientific establishment. And like the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, the atheistic establishment of today seeks to foster a worldview influencing all aspects of society and binds all individuals whether they wish to be or not. Such an assertion will become more obvious in the following analysis which identifies significant atheistic thinkers, clarifies why some chose to adhere to this particular belief system, and critiques this worldview and contrasts it with Christian monotheism.

As an intellectual tradition, atheism has captured the minds of some of history’s most formidable thinkers. Creation science apologist Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis has astutely pointed out that social issues and public policies rest upon a foundation of thought and belief. Keeping with this analogy, atheism proceeds from a theoretical base up through a practical program designed to influence various spheres of culture such as politics and education with prominent luminaries within the movement solidifying this mental edifice along the way.

As stated elsewhere within these introductory comments, atheism did not suddenly appear on the doorstep of the twentieth and twenty-first century fully formed demanding things like the removal of school prayer and the enshrinement of evolution as biological dogma. Rather like a weed strangling the other plants around it, today’s culture of unbelief sprang from the soil in which it was planted. While atheism can trace its pedigree back throughout much of human history, a number of modern thinkers have ensured this system a place of prominence within the cultural consciousness.
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A Christian Analysis Of Atheism, Part 1″


John McCain in Town to Stump for Kirk — Are We Grateful?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Former GOP candidate for president and highest profile Republican Senator, John McCain (R, AZ), appeared in town this weekend to stump for Mark Kirk’s Senatorial campaign.

McCain appeared side-by-side with Representative Kirk in Glenview on Sunday.

Now, I suppose that if you want to make a wild guess, you can feel sanguine that the national party has decided who it is going to endorse in this upcoming GOP primary here in the Land of Lincoln. This, of course, is a boon for Mark Kirk, but not very good for the Illinois GOP that should have been given more space to feel out its own candidates for its own representation in the fight to fill Senator Roland Burris’ ill-gotten seat.

There is a plethora of candidates coming forward to face the Democrats in 2010. Kirk is not the only one. But, if the bigwigs in Washington have their way, it seems that the others aren’t even going to be given a chance to make a dent before the national folks stampede for Kirk.
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John McCain in Town to Stump for Kirk — Are We Grateful?”


A Patriot’s Reply to a Pro-Government Takeover of Healthcare Supporter’s Video

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is a fantastic video. Some half-informed, leftist made a video in support of Obama’s socialist takeover of our healthcare system and a great patriot found it and then took the time to reply point for point against this fool’s anti-capitalist, un-American talking points.

The original video was made by Andy Lubershane and called “Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance.” But patriot and smart guy Lee Doren saw it too and he felt that the lies, misconceptions, and half-truths were so thick that he just had to respond.

I only wish that the Patriot’s voice was a bit more distinguishable from the left-wit’s voice. The two fellows have a similar timer to their voices which makes it a tad confusing at times. If you aren’t listening closely, there are times when you miss the fact that one guy stopped talking and the next started. But, that is a mere quibble. This video does a great job to show why the healthcare socialist is basically lying with every one of his talking points.

In any case, Mr. Doren does a great job showing that the rhetoric used by the leftist is misleading and full of false dichotomies and misdirection. This video should be passed around.
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A Patriot’s Reply to a Pro-Government Takeover of Healthcare Supporter’s Video”


NRSC in Colorado: Hey, Let’s Endorse a Tax Raiser!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Nationally, Americans are beginning to again trust Republicans over Democrats on taxes and the economy. The overreach in spending and the constant Democratic drum beat of wanting to raise taxes on “the rich” to pay for a massive enlargement — and engorgement, really — of big government has dug into the high approval rates that Democrats had enjoyed for well over a year. So, what does the National Republican Senatorial Committee want to do in Colorado? You guessed it, they want to endorse a tax raising, squishy moderate for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate for the 2010 race.

My friend Ben DeGrow of the Mount Virtus blog has discerned the rumblings beginning to come out of the NRSC and it looks like that wayward group is about to land four-square behind former Lt. Governor Jane Norton as the GOP race for the Senate gets rolling in the Centennial State.

So, what is Norton known for? Raising taxes. Great, huh? I’ll let my Colorado friend tells us more:
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NRSC in Colorado: Hey, Let’s Endorse a Tax Raiser!”


Chgo Trib’s Eric Zorn Doesn’t Mind That Teddy Got Away With Murder

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this isn’t the perfect example that liberals don’t care who has to die in order to make sure that left wing policies win the day, then nothing does. We can see this prime example in Eric Zorn’s horrid August 28 editorial where he thanks … well, whatever deity leftists believe in, if any… that the country didn’t quickly find out about the homicide of Mary Jo Kopechne that was committed by Teddy Kennedy in July of 1969.

Zorn is happy that the news of Teddy’s crime was quashed for hours as the poor woman slowly drowned while Teddy boy sat around a plush hotel drinking with pals. He’s happy because if the country had seen 24/7 coverage of the incident in 1969 it may have ruined Teddy’s career as a politician afterward. And if that had happened, you see, why the “lion of the Senate” wouldn’t have been able to push his anti-American, left-wing agenda for the ensuing four decades.

So, as far as Zorn is concerned, quashing the news of the homicide that Kennedy committed was a good thing. In Zorn’s opinion, allowing the woman to slowly drown wasn’t so bad after all. In Zorn’s opinion, the attempted cover-up of Mary Jo Kopechne’s death was unimportant. Yeah, the woman’s death was a small price to pay for 40 years of pushing a left-wing agenda.
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Chgo Trib’s Eric Zorn Doesn’t Mind That Teddy Got Away With Murder”


Feingold: About That Bill, Did I Say It’s Doomed? On Second Thought…

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week Senator Russ Feingold was heard to lament that there would be no Obamacare bill to vote on before Christmas. The liberal Feingold even said he wondered if there would ever be a bill at all because the divisions were so deep.

Well, only six days later, Senator Feingold is playing a different tune. Suddenly he’s quite upbeat and jubilant about the bill saying how he’ll work hard to get Obamacare passed and that he’s sure it’s all just over the horizon. Gone is the gloomy guss of a week ago and in is the happy Russ for this week. Suddenly the “no bill before Christmas, if ever” Russ is saying he’s sure it’ll come just before Christmas.

Check out these two quotes back-to-back:
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Feingold: About That Bill, Did I Say It’s Doomed? On Second Thought…”


Challenging the Status Quo

-By Frank Salvato

With the death of US Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) the Democrats lose their sixty-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. This will make the passing of Obama agenda legislation – specifically healthcare – more difficult until Massachusetts seats its next Junior Senator, who promises to be a Democrat. The loss of even one Democrat in the Senate is cause for concern for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) because he has a rogue element within his Democrat caucus, the Blue Dog Democrats. In Washington, it is all about counting the votes at any given moment on any piece of legislation. As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows.

In the US House of Representatives the Democrats have a lock on the majority. According to the Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, the congressional profile stands at: 256 Democrats, 178 Republicans, 0 Independents and 1 Vacancy. These numbers give the Democrats, as a party, a 78 vote majority in the House.

In the Senate, Democrats have a lock on a majority as well: Democrats number 57, Republicans have 40 seats, and Independents and Independent Democrats have one seat each.

In addition to the fact that it matters which party is in the majority, in both chambers of Congress, it also matters who the parties elect as their leaders.

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Challenging the Status Quo”


Why Broadband is Not a Public Utility

-By Scott Cleland

The data and evidence show that broadband is not a public utility warranting economic regulation of prices, terms and conditions; this is contrary to the assertions of net neutrality proponents: the Markey-Eshoo Bill, FreePress, the Open Internet Coalition and Google’s Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, among others.

Why is broadband not a public utility?

First, it is a competitive service, not a natural monopoly service.

A public utility presumes “natural monopoly” economics where economies of scale and scope preclude the possibility of competitive facilities/services.

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Why Broadband is Not a Public Utility”


Democrat Sheriff Gets 5 Yrs, Media Ignores Party

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yes, it’s another episode of “Name That Party,” where our contestant is a criminal Democrat in the news that somehow, mysteriously finds the Old Media conveniently forgetting to mention that he is, indeed, a Democrat. This time it’s former Starr County, Texas Sheriff Reymundo Guerra who was handed a five-year sentence for drug trafficking this week. Guerra is the second Starr County Sheriff in a row to go to jail for corruption.

The Old Media dutifully reported this conviction, to be sure. It was reported that Guerra was up on harsher charges, how he had those reduced, it was also reported what criminal drug cartel figures from Mexico he was involved with and that Guerra was sorry for what he’d done.

Only one tiny, little part of the story was left out. Guerra was a Democrat official in a Texas county that has been controlled by Democrats for about 100 years. I guess the fact that a Democrat Law Official turned into a drug dealer isn’t news? Of course, if it should have been a Republican Sheriff turned drug dealer, why the Old Media would have led with that news.

As is always the case in these name-that-party stories, the AP had a short story on Guerra without mentioning he’s a Democrat. It made no stronger effort to set the record straight in its longer story, either.
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Democrat Sheriff Gets 5 Yrs, Media Ignores Party”


A Warning For Obama: President Hoover’s Fealty to Unions Worsened Great Depression

-By Warner Todd Huston

An economist is saying that President Hoover set the stage to worsen The Great Depression because of his pro-labor union stance.

Pro-labor policies pushed by President Herbert Hoover after the stock market crash of 1929 accounted for close to two-thirds of the drop in the nation’s gross domestic product over the two years that followed, causing what might otherwise have been a bad recession to slip into the Great Depression, a UCLA economist concludes in a new study.

Lee E. Ohanian, a UCLA professor of economics, lays the worst of the Depression at the feet of Hoover who, in his opinion, made the recession “three times worse” by keeping industrial wages too high which “sharply depressed employment.”

Ohanian’s study is being published by the peer-reviewed Journal of Economic Theory in December and was also posted at www.nber.org, the site of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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A Warning For Obama: President Hoover’s Fealty to Unions Worsened Great Depression”


“We The People”

-By Marie Jon


“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson

President Barack Obama, you’ve overwhelmed “We The People.” Since you were given the prestige of the highest office in the land, there has not been one day of peace or tranquility for the citizens of our country. Many Americans are feeling frustrated and angered, and rightfully so.

One could say you’ve eroded away the last of the American people’s trust, respect, and patience. You’re now threatening to intrude into every facet of our daily lives, and enough is enough.

Thou shalt not bear false witness

We see you as the “number one” community organizer sitting in the White House. The members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and union thugs are being mobilized to counter the truth at public gatherings. They are sent out for the sole purpose of confronting, threatening, intimidating, and maligning your opponents, including those among America’s elderly who’ve come to stand up for their rights at town hall meetings. — View YouTube)

Very few believe you anymore. Only those who refuse to listen to reason remain gullible. Their minds are still open to your deceptive lies. You used cunningly-crafted words and theatrics during the 2008 election to con half of America into thinking you were a special and decent man of integrity, but even your Democrat constituents are becoming aware of what you are. You and your political cronies are corrupt to the hilt, like the rest of the Daley Chicago political machine.

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“We The People””


The Race Idiots

-By Selwyn Duke

With relativistic people, there is no such thing as a true axiom, yet you’d never know it listening to our modern mantras. We hear things such as “Our strength lies in our diversity,” “Religion has caused all the wars in history,” and “Everything is a matter of perspective” proclaimed with theological assurance. Of course, the last supposition is contradictory, and embracing it renders moral supposition itself meaningless. Regardless, it’s natural for man to make sense of the world by “profiling” elements of reality.

Many of our assumptions pertain to race, and one is always uttered in the wake of stories such as the recent Henry Louis Gates affair. What happens is that, referring to race, people will reflexively say something akin to the following, “Well, we still have a long way to go.” Even conservatives pay homage to this self-evident provisional “truth,” only, they add a qualifier so it goes something like, “We still have a long way to go, but . . .,” with the caboose being “we’ve made great strides,” “we’ve come a long way” or some variation thereof. It’s obligatory, after all. It’s how you polish up you credentials as a person who “understands the problem.”

It’s also reflective of a hang-up. Oh, this isn’t to say I believe we’ve achieved perfection in racial attitudes, perish the thought. It is to say, however, that seeing a failure to achieve perfection in an area as a characteristic problem is far more of a problem than what ostensibly needs invasive and aggressive remedy. It usually yields a cure worse than the disease.
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The Race Idiots”


California’s Free Cash For Illegals, Coddling Lawbreakers

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is just another example of why the State of California is in a budget crisis: The Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI).

What is this program, who qualifies? Well, it does no less than give free government money to any illegal immigrant that is either over 65 years of age or is disabled or blind and does not qualify for Supplemental Security Income (Social Security) due to their immigration status.

Why is California just giving money away to elderly illegals?

Your guess is as good as mine.
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California’s Free Cash For Illegals, Coddling Lawbreakers”


Obama Administration Announces Not Enforcing Union Reporting Laws

-By Warner Todd Huston

Are you a union member trying to find out information of the criminal actions and shady financial dealings of your union? Well don’t expect Obama and his toady in the Labor Secretary’s office, Hilda Solis, to help you uncover any illegalities perpetrated by your union bosses.

Solis’ department has just announced that it is suspending the stringent reporting requirements that labor unions must by law satisfy to assure that their financial dealings are legal and above-board. That’s right, unions have just been given a free pass for criminal actions by this president.

This is proof that political donations are the key to get away with crime. So, yes Virginia, crime does pay… at least in Obama’s Washington.
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Obama Administration Announces Not Enforcing Union Reporting Laws”


With Papers Failing Everywhere, Union Members Mad For Keeping Jobs

-By Warner Todd Huston

The journalists of Indianapolis want us to feel sorry for them. See, they’ve voluntarily signed a contract that includes a 10% pay cut and precludes raises during this contract’s 2 year term. And they are whining about it.

In a day when papers are failing all across the country, the guild members of Indy journos want us to shed a tear for the fact that they’ve been successful in keeping their jobs. In a day of the highest unemployment in all sectors of the economy for decades, these newspaper folks want us to get all twisted up over the fact that they didn’t get fired. Yes, they are all mad at their employer for not firing them and they are looking for sympathy from us.

Sure they agreed to the contract, but darn it all, they are “angry about it.” And, gosh, they’ve “sacrificed,” man! And they want to be sure that we all know about it.

I have to say, this has to be one of the most amazing displays of self-indulgent hubris I’ve seen in quite a while. Apparently, it doesn’t seem to dawn on these union members to feel grateful that their paper hasn’t gone down the tubes like so many others have. It doesn’t seem to dawn on them that they should feel lucky they have a job at all, either.
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With Papers Failing Everywhere, Union Members Mad For Keeping Jobs”


Government Stimulus Spending: Differing Perspectives

-By Thomas E. Brewton

President Franklin Roosevelt, speaking of the intractable Depression, sourly admitted that Keynesian fiscal policy, in theory, was the simplest thing in the world, but in practice, a disaster.

A thoughtful reader, who generally disagrees with me, posted the following as part of his comment responding to The Bigger the Government, the Harder the Economic Fall:

I must confess that I find your “mysticism” explanation of how business cycles occur somewhat baffling, but knowing your anti-Keynesian viewpoint, I should not be surprised that you view any governmental pump priming with suspicion.

According to the butterfly effect, any seemingly insignificant action will have a cascading effect and invariably lead to a chain of events elsewhere. How much more telling would the expenditure (whether you approve or not) of billions of dollars be to the economy than the flutter of the wing of a moth?

My response:

I can’t presume to speak for the reader’s views, but liberal-progressives on balance advocate the Keynesian macro-economic approach, a variety of chaos-theory, butterfly effect, which appears to me to be simplistic.
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Government Stimulus Spending: Differing Perspectives”


Beware of Bitter, Old, Lefty, White Women With Dreadlocks

-By Warner Todd Huston

I haven’t seen so many lies, misconstructions, affectations, and guffaw-invoking absurdities in a single editorial in a major American newspaper for a very long time. In fact I thought it wasn’t possible to see so much foolishness in such a small space without satire being the ultimate goal. In the L.A. Times, however, Anne Lamott has succeeded in making a bigger fool of herself in one editorial than Maureen Dowd could hope to have achieved in a whole year’s worth of blather.

Lamott, an aging novelist that churns out those woefully indulgent tomes that forces readers to endure her darkest feelings and imagines that all of us are on the edge of our seats as she chronicles raising her child, fancies herself an expert on faith and grace. She seems to imagine that she defines it, what ever it is. Of course she was one of the most infested with Bush Derangement Syndrome and was quick to warm to her ersatz religious leader, Barack Hussein Obama. It seems to me that she’s spent her life looking for meaning anywhere and she thought she finally found paydirt with The One. She likes to use words like “grace” and “belief” a lot in her writing but like a true newagie, leftist she rarely talks about any actual religion except in the vaguest of terms. It does appear, though, that she had found a new religion in The One.

And now, with her piece in the Times, it seems she is on the verge of losing her religion… again.
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Beware of Bitter, Old, Lefty, White Women With Dreadlocks”


$15 Million Stimulus Spent for 1,095 Canadian Tourists in Montana

-By Warner Todd Huston

What is the cost of three Canadian visitors a day? Fifteen million dollars in Obamabucks, apparently. Worse, this waste of money wasn’t something the president of “transparency” seemed disposed to let us easily discover. Still, the Boston Globe reports that $15 mil is the amount of so-called stimulus money that Obama allowed to be spent by the state of Montana on a tiny border check-point facility that sees about three visitors a day — that’s $14,000,000 per tourist for the year.

Despite Obama’s promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of more pressing concerns, according to documents revealed to the Associated Press.

Obama claimed he’d be “different,” though. Remember that he was supposed to be the serious president that only did the right thing? Yet, he’s turned his back on any sort of effort to hold stimulus spending to account. Projects all across the country are being given to less needy government facilities instead of going where need is greatest because of the influence brought to bear on distribution of funds by powerful politicians.
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$15 Million Stimulus Spent for 1,095 Canadian Tourists in Montana”


King Daley Apologizes for his Meter Mess

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tuesday, Mayor “King” Daley apologized for the mess he and his buddies made of the sale of Chicago’s parking meters to a private company.

As the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

“I’ll be the first to admit that we totally screwed up the way it was implemented. I want us to do better — and we will,” Daley plans to tell the crowd at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. Shore Dr., according to a copy of his speech obtained by the Sun-Times.

No issue in recent memory — not even the Hired Truck scandal or Daley’s notorious midnight destruction of Meigs Field — has resonated more with voters than the 75-year, $1.15 billion parking meter lease tied to a steep schedule of rate hikes.

An apology is pretty meaningless when Daley is already walking around with the cash merrily jingling in his pocket and no real changes are being offered. After all, even as he was to “apologize” Daley planned to go on to say that the whole episode was still the best of ideas.

So, it’s really just more empty words from Mayor Daley.
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King Daley Apologizes for his Meter Mess”