Corruption

Barack Obama - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

A Chicago Politician’s Arrogance

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Long time Chicago Democratic Politician Monique Davis is the poster child for arrogance. Davis is a State Rep that has been involved in many flaps centered around her assumption of personal imperviousness, her assumption that her office is a shield used to excuse just any activity at all on her part. She is above the law, beyond the reach of decency and responsibility as far as she is concerned and the Chicago Sun-Times has given us yet another example of her hubris.

You’ll recall that only last month the Tribune had a report that Davis hadn’t paid the rent for her offices… for almost eight years. Why should she? Do you KNOW who she is?

Well, we can add yet another bit of arrogance on the part of Davis. She’s decided that she should take possession of someone else’s work of art. You know. Just because she’s Monique Davis, and all.

The Sun-Times is reporting that Monique Davis decided that it was her right to take possession of a 400 pound statue of a slave woman so that she might have some proper I’m-a-Proud-black-woman sort of decoration for her office in Chicago. Only one problem… she doesn’t own the statue. Chicago State University owns it.
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A Chicago Politician’s Arrogance”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Greenhut has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public unions employees that “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Sign On To Obama’s Penalizing of Banks

January 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


According to The Hill, “several union officials” plan to make Obama’s newest attack on America’s banking industry part of their criteria for determining which candidates to support for 2010.

So, the unions want to use support for this economy killing tax as a criteria for supporting a candidate. If a politician is for it, then the unions are for them.

Immediately after his defeat at the hands of Massachusetts’ voters, Obama rushed out to reiterate his plan to put a confiscatory tax on banks in the hopes of diverting attention from newly elected Senator Scott Brown.

Obama claimed that this new tax would force these eeeevil bankers to “pay back” the bailout money that Obama lavished upon them last year. Obama plans a fee on 50 banks that would last 10 years.
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Unions Sign On To Obama’s Penalizing of Banks”

Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Massachusetts - Republicans - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP

January 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michelle Malkin has a post that reports about the hilarious episode of union whining that is being laid out by the President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Andy Stern. He wasted $1 million of his member’s dues money trying to shore up Massachusetts loser “Marcia” Coakley but is he blaming the Democrats for this debacle? Nope, he’s mad at Republicans!

Why did Coakley croak? Why it’s because of those dastardly Republicans that have held up Obamacare, dontcha know?

From the SEIU website we get these hilarious words:
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SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage

January 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union operative Melissa King of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) has been arrested for stealing $42 million in union funds to support the lavish lifestyle to which she and her daughter have become accustomed. It is being called the biggest union theft in history. So why haven’t we heard of this union theft? Why hasn’t it been all over the news?

That would be a good question and Brian Johnson, for one, asked the question himself. Johnson makes an interesting point when he notes that the Old Media have lost its collective mind over the Bernie Madoff scandal, yet they’ve made barely a peep about this monumental theft by a union member.

Famously nicknamed the “sandhogs,” the LIUNA is a union that represents the workers that dig the tunnels that are networked throughout New York City. It is they that are responsible for sewer tunnels, the subway, and other such excavation work.
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$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Journalism - Liberals - Massachusetts - Media Bias - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

AP Sells Coakley as ‘Historic’ Candidate

January 18, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The special election in Massachusetts for the open Senate seat once held by Teddy Kennedy is the hottest political story of the day. The race is so close that no one is sure who will win but signs are starting to point to Republican Scott Brown’s win. Cue the Associated Press with a puff piece on Democrat Martha Coakley that tries to sell her as an “historic candidate” perhaps in order to help push her over the top just before the polls open on Tuesday.

Penned by Steve LeBlanc, the AP headlined its piece, “Coakley Hopes for Historic Win in Kennedy Seat Bid.” The subtitle explains why her candidacy is “historic.” It reads, “Coakley aims to hold off GOP surge for Kennedy seat, become 1st woman elected senator in Mass.”

What puffery. The days when it was noteworthy that a woman was elected to high office are long past. For decades we’ve had women elected in just about every position in politics from the lowest city and state level all the way to the highest offices. In fact, the only two offices that have yet to see a female elected to them are president and vice president, though we have had credible candidates for them. For all other offices women have long since shattered the glass ceiling. So, how “historic” could it be that we might have yet another elected female Senator? Aren’t there several female Senators now serving? Of course there are.
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AP Sells Coakley as ‘Historic’ Candidate”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages

January 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if there were ever any doubts, the unions bosses that descended upon the White House earlier in the week appear to have succeeded in getting their members excluded from the so-called Cadillac taxes on expensive healthcare packages.

The Obama administration, having been bought and paid for by unions, agreed to demands that unions be excluded from the onerous taxation that many of the rest of us will be forced to pay to float Obama’s budget busting Obamacare plans.

The unions pretended themselves to meet Obama in the middle by agreeing to put a time limit on this sweetheart deal. It was agreed that the unions would be exempt from these taxes for the next 18 years after which they’d then have to pay the tax like everyone else.

But, come on. Does anyone believe that 17 years from now that the unions would not be right back up at the White House demanding to have that 18 years extended or the tax exclusion made permanent? And does anyone believe that their demands would not be easily agreed to by pliant politicians looking for Big Labor’s giant political donations?

If anyone doubts that once Big Labor gets an exclusion it will never be rescinded, then they are not very bright!
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Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Liberals - Massachusetts - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Coakley’s Democrat Operative Knocks Over Reporter, Coakley Lies About It

January 13, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

An operative for the Martha Coakley campaign, Democrat for Massachusetts Senate, assaulted a reporter from the Weekly Standard Magazine last night. The Weekly Standard has the dirt.

As it happens long-time Democrat media operative Michael Meehan knocked over the reporter and then, after he rose, continued to push the reporter down the street pretending that he was “helping” him up. This video clearly shows the assault on the reporter…

As I said, all the details of the assault was posted by the assaulted reporter, John McCormack, at the The Weekly Standard.

It’s all an example of the rough and tumble way that Democrats operate: Is there a reporter asking tough questions? Knock him down and prevent him from asking the candidate questions. It’s all very typical Democrat ignorance, typical Democrat hate for a free press, and for a typical Democrat desire to shield their candidates from the people. So, it’s nothing surprising to see a Democrat operative trying to beat someone up for daring to ask a question of a Democrat candidate. Democrats are thugs. Always have been. From the days when Democrats were slave masters wielding the whip against slaves that dared raise their heads, to the hanging tree upon which Democrats hanged “uppity” blacks during the early 1900s, to the streets of Selma where Democrats beat civil rights protesters, to the mean streets of modern day Massachusetts, Democrats have always used violence to get their way.

And now comes news that Senate candidate Martha Coakley is lying about the incident. In a bald-faced lie, Coakley is saying she had no idea what was going on. She didn’t see it. She missed the whole thing. Gosh, she is just completely unaware of what happened, dontcha know?

The Boston Herald just reported that Coakley is playing innocent.

“I know there were people following, including two from the Brown campaign who have been very aggressive in their stalking. I’m not sure what happened. I know something occurred, but I’m not privy to the facts. I’m sure it will come out, but I’m not aware of that.”

She isn’t “aware” of the “facts”?

LIAR!!

She was standing right there watching the incident!

Want proof? Here is an AP photo showing Coakley two feet away and watching HER operative attack the reporter…

Martha Coakley is a liar. It’s just that plain.

Just one more reason that citizens of Massachusetts should vote for Scot Brown for Senate. He doesn’t beat up reporters. www.brownforussenate.com.
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Coakley’s Democrat Operative Knocks Over Reporter, Coakley Lies About It”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Chicago - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - Patriotism - Society/Culture - State Government - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Unpatriotic Illinois Business Owner Flies Mexican Flag

January 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

An owner of an apartment complex in Rolling Meadows, Illinois has decided to fly the Mexican national flag side-by-side with the U.S. flag, both on 30-foot flag poles and both at the same height. Apartment owner Mike Sparks says he’s doing it as an advertisement of sorts to entice Mexican immigrant tenants to come live in his apartments.

Local residents, however, are not as enticed by Sparks’ anti-American advertising campaign and say that he should follow flag codes which often state that the U.S. flag should always be higher than a flag of any other nation.

This flag argument comes up a lot. The problem here is that the so-called flag codes are not enforceable by authorities. In essence, they are customs and suggestions, not legal requirements. The simple fact is the U.S. flag codes are not laws and carry no penalty for violation. It may be a case of there-outta-be-a-law, but the fact is there are none.

The fact that the apartment owner didn’t really violate an actual laws, though, does not detract from his un-American attitude. It is patently obvious that Mr. Sparks does not see any reason to revere the U.S. flag enough to bow to tradition and place the foreign flag at a lower staff. And that isn’t the only problem with this situation.
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Unpatriotic Illinois Business Owner Flies Mexican Flag”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike

January 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday I posted a story about how the two big public employees unions were looking the other way on Obamacare and helping Obama to pass his socialist take over of our healthcare system even though the plan would hike taxes on their very own members and would devastate their helathcare plans. Well, not all unions are willing to hurt their own membership merely for political reasons.

Of course, in the past we’ve posted stories (here, and here) pointing out that there are the several unions that are not bending over backwards just to hand Obama a political victory and today The New York Post reported on several New York unions that are just as unhappy as those that we’ve previously mentioned.
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…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare

January 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at BigGovernment.com, Don Loos posited an excellent reason about why the big public employees unions are falling all over themselves to help Obama force Obamacare down America’s throats even though their members would lose their lavish healthcare plans as a result. The reason? $19 billion in likely dues money that these unions will get when helathcare is taken over by the federal government is the reason.

It is true that everyone in the country will be hurt by the current Obamacare policies, it is true that everyone will experience less healthcare coverage at higher costs, it is true that government will ration healthcare and the elderly and very young will find less access to healthcare, it is true that government will destroy the best healthcare in the world. But the bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, feel that the trade offs will be worth the loss.

… and to be sure neither Stern nor McEntee will lose their own Cadillac healthcare plans regardless.
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Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare”

Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Case Against Public Sector Unions

January 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

By now you are all familiar with my beating on my little unions-are-bad-for-government drum… ya may even be tired of it by now. Still, I’d like to pass on the work of friend to the blog David Denholm who has also addressed this point in the past.

On the Public Service Research Foundation website can be found Denholm’s excellent article titled, “The Case Against Public Sector Unionism and Collective Bargaining.” In it you’ll find some great points and a thorough discussion on the evils that is a unionized government workforce.

One of the best insights that Denholm has is that a unionized government workforce eliminates the democratic right of the voters to affect their government. (download pdf copy)

By making the union a full and equal partner at the bargaining table, compulsory public-sector bargaining laws deprive the public of its right to participate in policy making. This point was emphasized in a U.S. District Court opinion which upheld the constitutionality of a North Carolina law declaring public-sector union contracts to be void. The Court said:

Moreover, to the extent that public employees gain power through recognition and collective bargaining, other interest groups with a right to a voice in the running of the government may be left out of vital political decisions. Thus the granting of collective bargaining rights to public employees involves important matters fundamental to our democratic form of government. The setting of goals and making policy decisions are rights inuring to each citizen. All citizens have the right to associate in groups to advocate their special interests to the government. It is something entirely different to grant any one interest group special status and access to the decision-making process.

This reflects my own points made so very often right here on the blog. The incestuous relationship between union — that becomes a patron of politicians — and politicians — that return that patronage — wholly cuts out the voter’s ability to direct government to their desires and needs.

Anyway, Denholm makes some great points and his piece is well worth the read.
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The Case Against Public Sector Unions”

Business - California - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding

January 5, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another example of why unions are antithetical to good government, a pliant, left-wing judge in California has ruled that the Schwarzenegger Administration cannot furlough state workers that belong to three powerful public employees unions.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been battling to cut his over spent state budget for several years now and one of the solutions to the problem that he lit upon was the idea that he might furlough his workforce. He would give these workers a few days a month off without pay and this would save the taxpayer’s millions. It is a good idea and one that real-world businesses are forced to employ all the time when things get tough.

But here come the state unions to prevent this simple cost saving measure even though it is common as dirt in the real-world sector.
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Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - Freedom - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Another Example of Obama’s Radical Leftist Agenda

January 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at the American Thinker, Jay Schalin has another example of the radical leftist agenda that Obama is trying to pull over on the American people. This time we see it in the extremist agenda for education that Obama is trying to implement by revitalizing the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), a panel that Congress shut down in 2008 because it had become “too politicized.”

The NACIQI is charged with advising the Sec. of Education on “matters related to accreditation and to the eligibility and certification process for institutions of higher education.” According to the government website the NACIQI will be a reconstituted on Jan. 31 2009.

As Schalin reports, the people that Obama Ed Sec Arne Duncan has appointed to the new NACIQI panel seem to be one extremist after the next. Duncan is attempting to put on this official board racemongers, ACORN activists, and one who is associated with a member of the Black Panthers.
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Another Example of Obama’s Radical Leftist Agenda”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Liberals - Patriotism - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

What One Russian Was Worth and His Thank You for the Purchase

January 3, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On a previous episode of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Conservatism, Babe and I interviews the delightful Leon Weinstein, Russian immigrant and capitalist booster.

Leon has made a few YouTube videos that are well worth the time to watch as they teach a good lesson on why the socialist/communist direction that Barack Obama is trying to drag this country toward is NOT the right way to go.

Here is a sample video:
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What One Russian Was Worth and His Thank You for the Purchase”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government

December 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I know I’ve said it before, but unionism is antithetical to good government. It is impossible to have both unions and effective government in a democratic republic such as ours. Unions destroy good government, waste money at all levels and they move strictly against the best interests of the voters in all cases. Once again my axiom is shown as a truism with a report by Michael Barone with his Dec. 30 Examiner piece.

Barone details the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll that reveals that Americans that aren’t in government unions and government jobs feel that the economy and the job outlook is getting worse while those in government jobs and unions think everything is going swimmingly.

That isn’t because the government jobs are materially better, but that the government jobs are raiding the public treasury and returning nothing of worth to the country through undue influence on politicians. You might ask why government workers feel things are so good if their jobs provide nothing of worth to the country? Good question. The problem is, even as government jobs are useless to the health, wealth, and welfare of the country, even while government jobs tear us all down and make us weaker in every category, they do provide something of relative worth to politicians: campaign cash.
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Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Chicago - Christianity - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Illinois - Liberals - President - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

No Church on Christmas, Mr. President? Of Course Not, Communists Don’t Do Church

December 28, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Time Magazine reported that President Obama and his family didn’t attend a church service this Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. He is, to my knowledge, the first president to skip a Christmas Eve service for a long, long time.

But, while it is interesting to note that Obama is quite unchurched in a position where profession of the Christian faith has been nearly of a piece with the office, his skipping church — again — shouldn’t surprise anyone. Obama is not really much of a Christian after all.

Time notes that Obama has only attended church three times in the year he’s been in D.C. as our president and even when he pretended to be an active member of Trinity United, the uncouth Chicago church where the Racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright belched his hate on a weekly basis, he never attended with regularity or fervor.
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No Church on Christmas, Mr. President? Of Course Not, Communists Don’t Do Church”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Man Who Told of Obama’s Islamic Benefactor Passes Away

December 28, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Percy Sutton, long-time Borough President of Manhattan passed away this week at 89. Sutton is famous for being Malcolm X’s lawyer and a powerful New York politician but he was also a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a radio pioneer, and a civil rights activist. There is one more little thing that Sutton is known for and that is for revealing that Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, a member of the Black Panthers and a well-known Islamist, was the benefactor that paid for Barack Obama’s Harvard education.

In October of 2008 Sutton appeared on NY1, a cable news channel in New York City. On the Inside City Hall show Percy spoke on-air with reporter Dominic Carter.


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Man Who Told of Obama’s Islamic Benefactor Passes Away”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Blocks Red Cross Blood Donation

December 24, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In their greedy desire to steal even more money from employers one union has even gone so far as to block Red Cross blood donations from getting to a hospital as well as picketing blood drives from private companies. In other words, these union thugs have put money and their quest for power above the health, welfare, and medical needs of real people.

As BigGovernment.com reported a few days ago, union workers for Red Cross have been picketing locations in an attempt to disrupt Red Cross Blood Services operations. In one case, the Red Cross was blocked from delivering blood that was supposed to go to save the life of a two-year-old child.

The unions were so disrupting delivery of life saving blood that the Red Cross had to resort to the courts to stop the union thugs from stopping them.

The whole fight seems to be over pay raises and the Red Cross says that they’ve already cut the salaries of non-union employees and its time the unions shared the sacrifice. In this bad economy everyone is suffering but unions refuse to bend to reality and would rather see a two-year-old child die for lack of life saving blood than to give an inch like everyone else has to.

This is the logical, and disgusting, end result of unionism.
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Union Blocks Red Cross Blood Donation”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Heritage Foundation - Warner Todd Huston

The Debt Limit Made Simple

December 23, 2009 by

The Heritage Foundation brings us “The Debt Limit Made Simple. This video takes you to the United Estates–a gated community in sunny Florida–to help you understand the impact of Congress decision to annually raise our nations debt limit without addressing the out-of-control spending that keeps us buried in debt.

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Surprise: Obama Springs to Action With Federal Cash for Alabama

December 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Tropical Storm Ida happened well over a month ago, almost two now. But regardless, the great father in Washington has generously opened up the federal purse to help those struggling folks that lost so much to that storm. The devastation was so bad that USA Today said of the storm, “Tropical Storm Ida slogged ashore in the area in November with heavy rains but left relatively little damage.”

Huh? Wait a minute? If the storm wasn’t so bad, why is the Obama Administration suddenly, almost two months later, making a show of sending federal disaster money to Alabama?

Oh, wait. Maybe this is why…

Rep. Griffith of Alabama leaves Democrats for Republicans

Freshman Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) switched his affiliation to the Republican Party on Tuesday, saying he could “no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country.”

Hmmm. Maybe Obama is trying to bribe the left over Democrats of Alabama with federal “disaster” cash in order to make sure no more of them jump into Representative Griffith’s boat?

What else could explain this quixotic largess but bribery?
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Surprise: Obama Springs to Action With Federal Cash for Alabama”

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Democracy - Elections - Society/Culture - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

The Fire ‘Em All Approach to Voting is Just Silly

December 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many good, honest conservatives want to fire all of Congress. One of the latest efforts is a website called goooh.com (as in GetOutOfOurHouse.com). Believe me, I understand the feeling. Congress has miserably failed to satisfy the voters. They’ve been arrogant, they’ve spent more time accumulating personal wealth than legislating, they’ve casually ignored the entirety of the Constitution, they’ve lied, stolen and become so filled with hubris that even when they stand silent people assume they are lying. Yes, I get it when people say that we should “fire ’em all.” But unfortunately the righteousness of the populist anger doesn’t make the sentiment the right prescription to cure what ails our nation.

Let’s be clear here, this contemporary disgust with Congress is in no way unusual. The fact of the matter is that you can go back to any time in our nation’s history and find that the same anti-Congressional sentiment abounded. The assumption that the current sad state of affairs in Congress is completely new is simply an ahistorical, ill-informed concept.
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The Fire ‘Em All Approach to Voting is Just Silly”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter

December 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recalcitrant teachers union in Florida once again shows that reform for the sake of the kids doesn’t interest it. A federal program called Race to the Top bestows federal money on any district that institutes merit pay and reforms its schools. Guess who hates the idea. Yep, you guessed it: Florida’s teachers unions.

Instead of launching in full support of school reform in order to help kids get a better education, the union has announced that it will instead be foot draggers and opposers.

Rightly or wrongly, the federal government is offering billions of federal dollars to Florida schools, but the teachers union wants to stand in the way of that largess because it opposes requiring its teachers to be worthy of their pay through merit.
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One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Closing the Barn Door

December 19, 2009 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Procrustean regulation of banks and other financial institutions, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, will not prevent the next credit debacle and economic recession.

The House of Representatives has just passed a bill, primarily the brain child of Congressman Barney Frank, that expands the scope and detailed depth of financial markets’ regulation.

For public consumption, Congressman Frank’s legislation aims to prevent future financial meltdowns. This it will fail to do. It will, however, continue the long standing animosity between Democrat/Socialists and Wall Street and the business community.

Accepting the Democrat/Socialist Party’s nomination for the presidency in 1936, Franklin Roosevelt railed against the “economic royalists” who were allegedly seeking a “new industrial dictatorship.” Privately, he opined that businessmen as a class were stupid, that newspapers were just as bad. During the election campaign of 1936, in an address at Madison Square Garden, he fulminated against the magnates of “organized money.” To uprorious applause, he threatened: “I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”
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Closing the Barn Door”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Cuba - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Freedom - Liberals - President - Security/Safety - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Here’s A Deal With Cuba I Endorse

December 18, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There hasn’t been much news about it in the U.S. but an American citizen has been arrested by Cuban authorities and has been placed in one of Cuba’s most secure facilities.

Cuba has yet to announce what charges they are leveling against the man but he was arrested after he gave out laptop computers, cellphones and other communication equipment to Cuba’s beleaguered citizens. The Cuban government claims these items are against the law for its citizens to own because it “subverts” government authority.

The American was a contractor for Development Alternatives, Inc. a company that has worked for the State Department since 2008 and is part of a Cuban democracy project that has received some $40 million in federal aid.

U.S. officials have been quiet on the matter and have yet to make too many demands of the Cuban government for this man’s release. They aren’t even releasing his name to us.
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Here’s A Deal With Cuba I Endorse”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - House of Representatives - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Rep. Brian Billbray: Rep. Gutierrez is Creating the Next Wave of Illegal Immigration

December 16, 2009 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Luis Gutierrez (D, IL) will introduce another stab at “comprehensive immigration reform” this month and it’s been given another one of those Orwellian names that you know means the opposite of what it says in the title. Gutierrez is calling this mess the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, or the CIR ASAP — in other words Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP.

The simple fact of the matter is that, regardless of the name, this legislation will do nothing whatever to help our security or our prosperity. In fact it will damage both.

In his press release touting this bill, Gutierrez said the following:

“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” said Rep. Gutierrez. “The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year. It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain —mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.”

This morning I spoke to Representative Brian Billbray in that nation’s capitol and found him chagrined by the whole thing. Billbray is the Chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus and is from California’s 50th District which is situated in the San Diego County area.
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Rep. Brian Billbray: Rep. Gutierrez is Creating the Next Wave of Illegal Immigration”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Cops Insist on Getting Paid for Dressing Themselves

December 16, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is another reason why unions need to be destroyed…

Do you think your boss should pay you for getting dressed in the morning or for taking off your day’s clothes to climb into your snuggly Pjs each night? No reasonable, sane person would. But unions are neither reasonable, sane, nor apparently interested in what’s good and right. At least the moron unionists in Oakland, California are illicit like that because the thugs of the police union have found some halfwit judge to agree with them that the city… that would mean the taxpayers… should pay them for zipping up their fly each morning and taking off their clothes at the end of each day.

In the height of arrogance, idiocy, and theft of taxes, these Cop thugs have been suing the city to get paid for “donning and doffing,” or in more sensible English, for putting on and taking off their uniforms each day. It’s bad enough these creeps had the gonads to make this idiotic attempt to steal the taxpayer’s money in the first place, but the feckless “legal” system in California has allowed it to go on AND have absurdly given these greedy public servants a victory over it all.
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Cops Insist on Getting Paid for Dressing Themselves”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax

December 12, 2009 by

By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press reports the words of Lily Eskelsen, vice president of the National Education Association, who went to Washington D.C. to protest the so-called Cadillac healthcare plan tax currently in the Senate’s healthcare bill. “We should tax the millionaires, not teachers and bus drivers,” she told reporters.

This has been the constant refrain from Big Unions since Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) included the taxing plan into his Senate version of Obamacare earlier this year. This 40 percent tax plan would kick in for any employee whose healthcare plan reaches $8,500 per year for individuals or $23,000 for families.

Of course, there is a fatal flaw in the Democrat’s assumptions of what this tax will do. As the AP reports, “The tax would raise some $150 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Democrats’ nearly $1 trillion health care bill.”
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Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax”

Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - House of Representatives - Liberals - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas

December 9, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Weekly Standard has an excellent new article in its latest issue that reports on the discouraging story of the Washington D.C. teachers union that is rushing headlong toward destroying the successful and popular federally-funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).

The program has helped many disadvantaged D.C. are kids get a better and safer education than they would have gotten in the violence plagued public schools system. But Democratic lawmakers in Congress have continually announced their lack of support for the voucher plan despite the inner city kids that have benefited from it all.
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The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU’s Calif. Vote Fraud

December 7, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over the last few months we’ve talked about several instances of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) committing vote fraud in elections for in-home helathcare workers to chose a union. We have also reported on the shaky UHW election in Dec. of 2008. (Here, here, and here) Even with those instances extant we have more SEIU vote fraud to report.

The SEIU is still perpetrating fraudulent elections, intimidating union voters, and trying to strong-arm members into accepting SEIU dominance despite what they may want. Recently the Wall Street Journal had another story detailing the SEIU’s un-democratic actions.

Among other things, the Journal is reporting that SEIU officials working with its sister union, California’s UHW, have been threatening deportation to Hispanic union members that were considering a vote for a new union going by the name National Union of Health Workers (NUHW).
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SEIU’s Calif. Vote Fraud”