Obama Fairness? White House Staffers See Amazingly Unequal Pay

-By Warner Todd Huston

In January one of the early “successes” of the White House was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, legislation that was supposed to insure equal pay “for everybody.” Apparently, as in all Obama’s pronouncements, the outcome of Obama’s drive for “fairness” is rarely as advertised. In this case, some people are more equal than others at least if we take various White House staffer’s pay scales into account.

As it happens about 36 percent of White House staffers make a low 30 percent of what the top 23 percent earn. Bill Collier of The Freedomist calculated that 42 percent of the salary budget is paid out to only 23 percent of the staffers.

What about all that vaunted equal outcome in pay, President Obama? I thought you were all about “fairness”?
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Obama Fairness? White House Staffers See Amazingly Unequal Pay”


Obama Wants to Talk Energy… Well, Except for BP Spill

-By Warner Todd Huston

On one hand the administration and its cohorts in the Democrat majority want to use the BP oil spill as an excuse to wildly raise taxes on energy, to instill cap and trade, and to excuse more regulations in order to take control of as much of our national economy as possible, yet on the other hand when he called leaders of both parties together to talk energy Obama forbade any discussion of the BP oil disaster.

Obama obviously wants his cake and wants to eat it, too. He wants to be able to use this “good crisis” — in Chief of Staff Rham Emanuel’s words — to excuse all his attempts to grab more power and raise taxes to further hamper our economic recovery, yet when it’s time to discuss energy he doesn’t want to be bothered with questions about why his administration has failed so miserably to find solutions to the BP spill. Obama contends that the oil spill has nothing to do with energy policy, except when it does, apparently.

During the bipartisan meeting of 20 Senators Obama dismissed any injection of the BP spill into the discussion with a wave of his hand and his usual upturned nose saying, “That’s just your talking point” when Republican Senators brought up the matter.
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Obama Wants to Talk Energy… Well, Except for BP Spill”


Peter Roskam Working to Keep Ally Israel Close

Israeli Ambassador: ‘Tectonic Shift’ between Israel and U.S. Diplomats

Roskam Visit to Israel Next Week

From the Press Shop of Congressman Peter Roskam (R, ILL): In case it wasn’t already obvious, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren made it clear this weekend. As reported by Laura Rozen at Politico: “Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren is reported to have told Israeli diplomats that the U.S. and Israel are experiencing a “tectonic rift,” not a temporary crisis… According to the Israeli diplomats, Oren said … ’Relations are in the state of a tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart,’”…. Oren noted that contrary to Obama’s predecessors – George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – the current president is not motivated by historical-ideological sentiments toward Israel but by cold interests and considerations…”
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Peter Roskam Working to Keep Ally Israel Close”


Tax Hike Fever: Obama is ‘Arresting the Victim After He’s Been Mugged’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steve Everley has a piece at TownHall.com that is one of those “of course they are” moments. As we all know, White House Chief of Staff claimed that he and his comrades would never let a good crisis go to waste and Everley reminds us that the BP oil spill is just another “crisis” to be used as an excuse to raise taxes as far as Democrats are concerned.

Naturally, the BP spill serves as a “reason” for Obama to try and impose new energy taxes that will help further crush our economy into the dust. “By their economic logic,” Everley says, “an accident that is already costing jobs and millions of dollars of economic losses in the Gulf requires imposing more taxes that will cost even more jobs and billions of more dollars in economic losses in both the Gulf and across the country.”

In a clever turn of phrase, Everley says that Obama’s big tax hiking plans is “tantamount to arresting the victim after he was mugged.” Sad but true, sad but true.
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Tax Hike Fever: Obama is ‘Arresting the Victim After He’s Been Mugged’”


Supreme Court protects Chicagoans 2d Amendment Rights by Overturning Unconstitutional Handgun Ban

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

U.S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL-5) praises SCOTUS for upholding the 2d Amendment Rights of Chicagoans and urges Chicago’s City Council to respect the rights of law abiding citizens.

Chicago, IL, June 24, 2010– Long time transparency and pro-liberty advocate Candidate for U.S. Congress from Illinois’ 5th Congressional District, David Ratowitz supports the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago.
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Supreme Court protects Chicagoans 2d Amendment Rights by Overturning Unconstitutional Handgun Ban”


Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The president of the Seafarers International Union’s Gulf Coast District, Dean Corgey, recently penned an op ed in which he noted an interesting fact: deepwater oil drilling rigs are “100 percent non-union.” With this in mind one of union bought president Barack Obama’s major decisions — in fact, one of his few actual decisions — in the BP Oil mess was to shut down the very oil rigs that unions have been trying to organize for decades with a six-month moratorium.

Naturally, as is evident by Corgey’s op ed, unions are claiming the whole BP incident is a result of non-union workers and with Obama trying to shut down these platforms he lends credence to the union claims. Unions are sure to try and use the moratorium as a reason to convince skeptics against organizing workers of deepwater rigs.

But unions or no, Obama’s moratorium will potentially cause 120,000 jobs to be lost in the Gulf area just when the economy of the Gulf states is at its worst.
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Obama’s Drilling Moratorium a Sop to Unions?”


Obama Fail: Hundreds of Oil Skimmers NOT Being Used in Gulf

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ken Marrero alerted me to this video of Florida Senator George LeMieux alerting the world that there are hundreds of oil skimmers across the country and the federal government has refused to allow them to be transferred to the Gulf to help in the cleanup because — get this — there may be an oil spill somewhere else and they might be needed there.

As LeMieux says, that this “logic” is like not sending a firetruck to a house fire because some other house might catch fire and the truck might be needed for that possible fire.

The folks at The Shark Tank conducted this interesting interview.
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Obama Fail: Hundreds of Oil Skimmers NOT Being Used in Gulf”


11th District: Kinzinger Says Nuclear Power the Answer

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have been saying this for years, and now so is GOP candidate for the Illinois 11th District Congressional seat, Adam Kinzinger. In a recent Morris Daily Herald article Kinzinger said that the nation should prioritize nuclear power as one of the solutions to our energy woes.

Kinzinger told the *Morris Daily Herald that he would support building more nuclear power plants, he wants the country to further explore reprocessing spent fuel and supports developing a national long-term nuclear waste storage facility.

Essentially, the program would increase the nation’s number of nuclear stations and establish a long-term repository for storing nuclear waste. Also, the plan would follow Europe’s lead in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel for reuse, reducing the amount of waste in storage.

“I think the powerhouse, when it comes to nuclear energy, is to be able to go out and say, ‘Hey, look, we have three nuclear plants in our district, people in our district are employed, it’s safe, they are supportive, and it produces a lot of electricity,” he said in response to questions by the news media.

After all, here we are in the United States claiming that we are in the middle of an energy crisis yet Democrats, liberals and enviro-Nazis have put up roadblock after roadblock to stop the pursuit of energy independence in the form of nuclear power.
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11th District: Kinzinger Says Nuclear Power the Answer”


(5th District) Ratowitz Attacks Disclose Act‏

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

H.R. 5175 Disclose Act Sacrifices Freedom of Speech to Protect Incumbents.

U.S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL-5) defends Freedom of Speech and Liberty against nervous incumbents who seek to use the Disclose Act to protect their Congressional Seats.

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(5th District) Ratowitz Attacks Disclose Act‏”


Disclosure Act: Another Example of Unconstitutional Obamaism

-By Warner Todd Huston

On June 24 the House of Representatives passed by a bare minimum number of votes the DISCLOSE Act, a law that is supposed to be a new effort to get around the recent US Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of Congress’ campaign finance law. Bare minimum or no there is no doubt that this new law is an unconstitutional mess that unfairly limits the free political speech of some Americans while giving an unfair advantage to unions and certain lobbyists — lobbyists including the National Rifle Association and Big Labor groups such as the AFL-CIO and the SEIU.

The DISCLOSE Act (full name, Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act) was passed through the House by a 219 to 206 vote with only two Republicans voting in favor and 36 Democrats voting against. The two Republicans that voted in favor were Mike Castle of Delaware and Joseph Cao of Louisiana.

So what is this law supposed to do? For one thing the law would require “special interest group officials to physically appear at the end of campaign ads they sponsor, acknowledging their campaign contributions.” It would also require that advocacy groups detail on their public websites every campaign they’ve donated to.
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Disclosure Act: Another Example of Unconstitutional Obamaism”


10th District: Robert Dold’s ‘Let’s Get to Work!’ Bus Tour

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

From June 16-20 our “Let’s Get to Work!” bus tour touched every corner of the 10th District and took Bob’s message of small business growth and job creation to the voters. We visited numerous train stations, coffee shops, restaurants, baseball fields, farmers markets and businesses along the way. Collectively we spoke to and were visible to thousands of voters throughout the 5 days.


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10th District: Robert Dold’s ‘Let’s Get to Work!’ Bus Tour”


Ratowitz on Judge Striking Down Moratorium‏

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

Louisiana Federal Judge Struck down Obama Administration’s Oil Moratorium Request.

U.S. Congressional Candidate, David Ratowitz (IL-5) criticizes“ the Obama administration for banning an entire industry instead of addressing the problem of safely producing oil necessary for our nation’s economy.
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Ratowitz on Judge Striking Down Moratorium‏”


Walsh Campaign Again Faces Lawsuit

Former Campaign Manager Files Amended Complaint for Unpaid Services

MORTON GROVE, IL — This morning in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Keith Liscio, former Campaign Manager for 8th Congressional District Republican nominee Joe Walsh, filed an amended complaint against Walsh’s campaign for unpaid campaign management services on behalf of his firm Patrickson-Hirsch Associates. Liscio originally brought suit against the campaign in January seeking payment of $20,000 in unpaid fees but that complaint was dismissed without prejudice last month on a pair of legal technicalities.

Specifically, the judge in the case ruled that Liscio’s complaint must explicitly state that Mr. Walsh and Mr. Liscio’s agreement in the case was oral and that the complaint must list Liscio’s campaign duties and responsibilities. The new complaint addresses both of those issues.

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Walsh Campaign Again Faces Lawsuit”


Kinzinger Says BP Should be Held Accountable (11th District)

-By Warner Todd Huston

11th District Republican candidate for Congress Adam Kinzinger has come out with his stance on the BP oil mess down in the gulf. But while Kinzinger offers his ideas on BPs culpability, his opponent incumbent Democrat Congressman Debbie Halvorson is less interested in serious discussion and more interested in turning the BP oil mess into a personal fund raising device.

For his part, Kinzinger says that the full force of the U.S. government should be used to focus on the clean-up and to stop the leaking well.

If he were in Congress, Kinzinger said he would press President Obama to basically use the full force of the federal government to cap the gushing well. Also, to support oil well owner British Petroleum in what it has to do.

“And to open dialog with other oil companies and say, ‘What do you guys have,’ and to other nations and say, ‘What kind of boats can you guys bring down here to help us skim the oil off,'” he said.

Kinzinger also notes that Obama has yet to waive the Jones Act so that foreign companies and governments can offer us assistance. Currently Obama has only accepted a very few of the dozens of foreign companies and nations that have offered us their expertise.

Even George W. Bush knew enough to waive the Jones Act when we need it in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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Kinzinger Says BP Should be Held Accountable (11th District)”


Despite Misconception, We Conservatives DO Want Some Government

-By Warner Todd Huston

Leftists love to purposefully misconstrue what sort of government conservatives want. Certainly whenever some new big government boondoggle erupts in the typical corruption and waste that is government, conservatives rail against the misappropriation of powers that such boondoggles invariably mean. But when government isn’t doing something they want it to do and conservatives kvetch with equal vitriol, the first attack left-wingers charge them with is hypocrisy. The left’s taunt, however, is a willful misread of what it is that conservatives are saying in their critique of government.

Unfortunately, many conservatives make this taunt all the easier to level because it seems that they are a bit hazy themselves on just what they should think about the role of government.

Conservatives come by this problem honestly, though. What conservative worth his salt is unaware of Ronald Reagan’s famous small government quote: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” (Reagan’s first inaugural address)
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Despite Misconception, We Conservatives DO Want Some Government”


Roskam’s Straightforward Fix to Medicare Fraud

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

Predictive modeling technology would save billions

“This is not about donkeys. This is not about elephants. This is not about liberals. This is not about conservatives. This is about being smart and using the technology that is available to us, investing in it and deploying that to the benefit of the taxpayers and the seniors that we’re here to protect.’”

Washington – As much as $60 Billion of Medicare claims every year are fraudulent. Rep. Roskam has a straightforward, commonsense solution to fix this. In fact, even Nancy Ann DeParle, the White House’s Director of Health Reform, called him a few weeks before the healthcare vote to learn why his amendment wasn’t included in the healthcare bill. Roskam’s solution involves the same predictive modeling technology that credit card companies and other financial services institutions use to discover fraudulent payments with amazing success – only 0.047% of their $11 trillion in annual transactions are fraudulent.
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Roskam’s Straightforward Fix to Medicare Fraud”


Alan Dershowitz Endorses Joel Pollak for Congress (Ill., 9th)

From the Pollak for Congress campaign (9th District)…

Today I am pleased to welcome Prof. Alan Dershowitz to Chicago, and humbled to receive his endorsement in the race for the 9th congressional district. It is an honor to be one of the few Republicans that Prof. Dershowitz, a life-long Democrat, has supported. And it is a privilege to welcome a sold-out audience to our fundraising luncheon today–200 enthusiastic supporters from both sides of the political divide.

Prof. Dershowitz is an inspiration to me, and to so many others. His book Chutzpah was the first political work I ever read. Later, at Harvard, I was his student and research assistant. We have worked together in debating the fiercest enemies of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Whether standing up for Israel or standing up against corruption, I have tried to emulate Prof. Dershowitz’s courage, and his refusal to yield to political bullying.
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Alan Dershowitz Endorses Joel Pollak for Congress (Ill., 9th)”


Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of Obamacare’s new rules states that if your employer finds it necessary to change healthcare providers to a more cost effective plan they will lose their federal health plan exemptions. This will cause employers to drop employees from health plans forcing workers onto government sponsored plans. So much for Obama’s hoary idea that you can “keep your doctor if you like him.”

Of course, this harmful new rule only applies to 80 percent of America’s workforce because the other 20 percent, those that are union members, are getting a special deal from their pal Barack Obama.

At issue is the definition of the “grandfathered” health plan which is different for those plans initiated by collective bargaining and those simply instituted by an employer. The requirements for unions have been made far less stringent than those of non-union employers.
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Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests”


McConnell for Colorado: He Loves Guns and The U.S.A…. not so big on the U.N.

I have to say, I find it somewhat amazing to see the sort of campaign videos we’ve been seeing of late. They are hard-nosed, straight-forward, REAL American styled campaign spots. I can’t imagine any time in our past when such hard-core American sentiment would have been evident in campaign commercials like this.

Here is one for Bob McConnell who is running for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

Army RANGERS, hoo ah!

So, all you true Americans living in Colorado’s Third, go out and vote for a real American. Vote Bob McConnell.

http://www.mcconnellforcongress.com/

(H/T HotAir)


Unions Preventing a Timely Cleanup of Oil in the Gulf?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Joseph Carafano of the Heritage Foundation has made an interesting observation and wonders if President Obama is allowing unions to make it harder to effect a timely and effective cleanup of the BP oil spill in the Gulf?

The offer of aid from foreign companies has been refused by the Obama administration and the Jones Act is cited as the reason why Obama will not allow foreign ships to enter our waters to assist in the cleanup.

The Jones Act is a 1920s protectionist law put in place to assure that boats and crews working in American waters are American crews and union members. Carafano thinks that Obama is using the Jones Act as a sop to unions despite what it is doing to slow the cleanup.

“Cause this is a big thing for unions,” Carafano said. “The unions see it as … protecting jobs. They hate when the Jones Act gets waived, and they pound on politicians when they do that. So … are we giving in to unions and not doing everything we can, or is there some kind of impediment that we don’t know about?

Once again, just as with car manufacturing and education, we see unions getting in the way of best practices, safety, and the creation of the optimal American lifestyle. In this case, we see President Obama paying unions back as wildlife dies and the livelihood of millions of American is destroyed for decades to come.
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Unions Preventing a Timely Cleanup of Oil in the Gulf?”


Obamacare: Eliminating the Poor and Elderly’s Last Resort to Life and Health

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many left-wingers complain that our healthcare system as it stands leaves out the poor, elderly, and those least able to care for themselves. They say that because of this inequity private medical care should be eliminated and government should take over that role in society. That way, they claim, all will be treated equally and everyone will get the same sort of care. Unfortunately for this left-winger’s utopian fantasy, once government becomes the only doctor in town, the very poor, elderly and indigent about whom the left claims to care so much will end up forsaken by the very system envisioned to save their lives.

Does that seem counter-intuitive to you? Do you believe that those least able to take care of themselves will benefit from a government take over of healthcare in America? If so, you’ve been taken in, you’ve swallowed the left’s fantastic claims hook, line, and sinker and they are playing you for a fool… a fool with pockets to be picked clean and power to be taken away from.

In fact, we are already seeing Democrats and Obamacare advocates warming up the hearse to cart off the dead bodies of the young, indigent and elderly that will pile up as a result of lack of access to heatlhcare forced upon them by Obamacare.
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Obamacare: Eliminating the Poor and Elderly’s Last Resort to Life and Health”


Why Do Fannie And Freddie Execs Make More Than our Generals?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Peter Roskam tries to offer an amendment that makes sure that the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t make more money than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Naturally the Democrats would rather pay millions to the executives that are still running Freddie and Fannie into the ground than accept even this small measure of agreement between parties. The leftists keep bawling for bi-partisanship, yet won’t even agree with the smallest of bi-partisan measures.

Democrats don’t want “bi-partisanship.” They want total control and their voters are fools to imagine anything else.
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Why Do Fannie And Freddie Execs Make More Than our Generals?”


Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ben Smith of Politico is reporting that an administration insider told him that unions just wasted millions of dollars on a forlorn hope in the Arkansas primary in an attempt to beat Democrat Blanche Lincoln.

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Big Labor — like the SEIU and the AFL-CIO — threw millions of dollars into the Arkansas campaign of Bill Halter in an attempt to chastise Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln because she had yet to vote “yes” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a union friendly bill they’ve been panting after for several years.
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Unions ‘Flushed $10 Million Down the Toilet’ in June Primary”


Gallup says Republicans in Lead – Keep the Momentum!‏

From the office of Representative Peter Roskam (6th District)…

It’s hard to believe but the November elections are just five months away and we have a critical task ahead – restoring a conservative Republican majority to the House of Representatives. This feat that once appeared to be out of reach is now well within our grasp if we keep our momentum going strong.

A new poll last week found that Republicans have opened their widest lead yet when it comes to which party voters prefer this fall. Gallup’s generic congressional ballot finds that the number of voters who say they will vote Republican has jumped to 49 percent, compared with 43 percent for Democrats. That’s not only the biggest lead Gallup has recorded for the GOP this election cycle – it’s the largest lead Republicans have ever had in the poll since it began in 1950.
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Gallup says Republicans in Lead – Keep the Momentum!‏”


Rauschenberger on Ill. House Speaker Madigan: ‘We Impeached the Wrong Guy’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steve Rauschenberger is running to once again take the 22nd State Senate seat and during his as we discussed earlier this week.

I’d like to highlight some stark truth that Mr. Rauschenberger uttered that night about the particular failures of the Democrat Speaker of the Illinois House, Mike Madigan. Rauschenberger thinks we should have impeached Madigan instead of Blagojevich.

“Mike Madigan has been Speaker of the Illinois House for 28 of the last 30 years. He is the architect of the worst funded public pensions in America.It’s time we hold the Chicago bosses accountable.”

We support Rauschenberger to retake the 22nd District Senate Seat.
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Rauschenberger on Ill. House Speaker Madigan: ‘We Impeached the Wrong Guy’”