Wrapup: Media Ignores DeMint While ABC Gives Away The Store to Obama

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here are the odds that Republicans are up against with this healthcare fight. The media have stacked the deck against any GOP idea or plan weighing heavily in favor of Obama’s plaintiveness over our healthcare system. The media gives him all the air time he wants to say that he knows best how to “fix” healthcare and has everyone’s best interests at heart even as he simply refuses to answer any tough questions on his bald-faced untruths. Yet when a member of the GOP puts a plan forward, near silence is heard among the Old Media.

On Wednesday afternoon, Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) and Representative Tom Price (R, GA) presented their ideas on American healthcare at a panel co-sponsored by several conservative organizations such as the Media Research Center, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Health Care Freedom Coalition.

And what was the response by the media? Essentially this: “Say, did you know Obama’s going on ABC? Oh, and I think some Senator did something today, too. It was John DeMott, er sumpthin.” Yes, the media pretty much ignored Jim DeMint’s event and waited patiently for ABC to sell it’s soul to the White House later that evening.

Continue reading


Wrapup: Media Ignores DeMint While ABC Gives Away The Store to Obama”


To Pay for Obamacare, Tax Raises for America… Except Union Members

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate is about to pay off the unions for helping get Obama elected. Senator Max Baucus (D, Mont.) looks to be about ready to propose a plan to pay for Obama’s massive, more than $1 trillion in new government spending on healthcare by instituting a new tax on many employees that currently have healthcare through their workplace (nearly 1 in 8 workers according to Peter Barnes). Never having been “income” before, Senator Baucus is prepared to claim it is and will be taxed accordingly.

… unless, of course, you happen to be a union member. If you are a Democrat supporting, Obama voting union member, why you don’t have to pay this never before levied tax at all. You get off scot free. Fuggedaboutit.

So much for equal under the law. Now, all you have to do is join a union and, voila, you don’t have to pay the taxes everyone else suffers under. Aren’t you glad that Obama is so interested in “fair,” and “balanced” governance? Isn’t it great that the Obama era is the “post-partisan” era? If it weren’t the “post-partisan” era, I’d fear for my life instead of just my tax bill this being an example of Democrat’s “fairness” for America.

Continue reading


To Pay for Obamacare, Tax Raises for America… Except Union Members”


Left-Wing Hyperbole: Know what Healthcare is Just like? Slavery

-By Warner Todd Huston

See, we know that it isn’t wild-eyed, hyperbole to say that slavery is “just like” our current healthcare debate because Glenn W. Smith of the extremist left-wing site Firedoglake helpfully tells us that “this is not hyperbole.” See? Conflict solved. I’m glad we settled THAT one, I have to tell ya.

Unfortunately, one would have to cast aside all ability to think intelligently to be assured by so casual a disclaimer. It most certainly is hyperbole to claim that our current healthcare debate is “just like” slavery but not only does Smith indulge in such hyperbole, he also employs some of the sloppiest arguments I’ve seen with any debate for quite a while. On second thought, there isn’t much by way of “debate” in this thing because Smith just assumes the concept as a matter of fact and goes from there. There is no attempt to plumb the logic of the principle at all.

Continue reading


Left-Wing Hyperbole: Know what Healthcare is Just like? Slavery”


And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…

-By Warner Todd Huston

Of course we’ve talked endlessly about the fact that the Democrat’s Orwellian named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) eliminates the employee’s free choice to vote for or against unionization using the ages-old democratic practice of a secret ballot. Who hasn’t, right? In fact, we’ve talked about it so much that even Democrats are turning against this aspect of the act and this is one of the reasons that the bill has not been able to muster enough votes to get passed. So, we can mark that as a tentative victory.

But there is more in this horrible legislation that needs to be highlighted. Here is something as egregious, but perhaps not as flashy as the elimination of a secret ballot. It is the forced arbitration clause. Let’s call it the Back Seat Driver’s clause because it is essentially a rule that says government takes away any say in unionization from BOTH the union, the workers, and the employer.

Continue reading


And Another Bad Part of the EFCA…”


Obama Quietly Pushing Back Healthcare Deadline to December?

-By Warner Todd Huston

The folks at HealthcareHorseRace.com have discovered an interesting inconsistency with Obama’s June 20 statements on his healthcare bill deadline and that posted in the “official” transcript on the White House website. As far as the White House website is concerned, the goal is to have a bill before the president by October. But in verbal statement reported by several media sources, Obama himself has said December and not October. So, what we have here is a hint that Obama might realize his bill is in major trouble and he is quietly trying to push back the expectations on his self-imposed deadline.

During the initial stages of the schedule that Obama was expecting to impose on the healthcare debate, he expected a bill to sign by October. This Fall deadline still appears on the White House policy page in its Briefing Room section where Obama comments are supposedly transcribed for the sake of “transparency.”

Continue reading


Obama Quietly Pushing Back Healthcare Deadline to December?”


Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?

-By Warner Todd Huston

I suppose, strictly speaking, if you are a mother that takes care of a developmentally disabled son, well, I guess you might be considered a “healthcare worker” of a kind. Also, I could easily see the state being such a buttinski that it forces such a mother to get “training” to take care of her own son in order to receive state aid. That seems just the sort of twisted logic that might be employed by the nanny state(s) under which we suffer. It might even behoove a mother of a developmentally disabled child to get some training of some type, too, if she so chose, even if the state didn’t require it.

So, that being said I present to you mother Lisa Brown of Fresno, California who is seen in a new Republican ad threatening a meeting of lawmakers. She is in attendance speaking as a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the public employees union that might see some budget cuts befall it due to California’s bankrupt treasury.

Continue reading


Are you a ‘Healthcare Worker’ By Taking Care of Your Own Son?”


A Conservative Case for Healthcare to be Made Wednesday

-By Warner Todd Huston

This week, Senator Jim DeMint will give his reply to Obamacare and it is sure to be a conservative reply as he is being backed by several stalwartly conservative organizations in the effort.

Groups like Americans for Tax Reform, Media Research Center, Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights and Tea Party Patriots will all stand behind Senator DeMint’s presentation in the Cannon Building in the House Budget Committee Hearing room on the Hill this Wednesday at noon.

Continue reading


A Conservative Case for Healthcare to be Made Wednesday”


Amer. Indians Already Suffer Gov’t Healthcare

-By Warner Todd Huston

Let’s talk about a government healthcare plan that already exists. It might help us understand what sort of situation we might see when Obamacare is fairly begun. It’s not Medicare or Medicaid but the IHS, the Indian Healthcare Service.

Few have remembered during this debate that the U.S. government already has a sort of single payer styled healthcare program already and it is for America’s Indian population. Unfortunately, it has not served our native peoples well.

For example, recently it has been shown that the IHS has “lost” $20 million in high tech healthcare equipment bought by the federal government to care for Indians.

Continue reading


Amer. Indians Already Suffer Gov’t Healthcare”


Fiscal Realism: Adam Andrzejewski Wants to be Illinois Governor

-By Warner Todd Huston

First of all, I know it looks impossible to even say, so let’s clear up that last name. It’s pronounced An-gee-ef-ski. I know, I know, that means here in Illinois we could possibly go from a Governor Blagojevich to an Andrzejewski. But the difficult last name should stand as the only similarity between the two men, for Adam seems to have some ideas on how Illinois might get out of its fiscal nightmare. I interviewed him not long ago and he had some very interesting thoughts on how to fix Illinois. (adamforillinois.com/)

In fact, Andrzejewski has already made some headway in shining the sunlight of accountability on various sate and local agencies through his self-funded program — self-funded to stay independent, he said — dubbed “For the Good of Illinois.” Andrzejewski has been at the vanguard of encouraging school boards and county governments in Illinois to put their check registries and finances on the Internet for all citizens to see. In fact, his catch phrase is “every dime online in real time.”

Continue reading


Fiscal Realism: Adam Andrzejewski Wants to be Illinois Governor”


Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now wait a minute. Aren’t unions on the side of good and light? I men, they sure pal around with leftists enough to make the claim, right? And the left certainly claims that unions are part-and-parcel to their whole package of policies for what is best for America, for sure. So, one would have to assume that unions are on the side of the fringe enviro movement pushing all these green initiatives, right?

Not so fast. It seems the only real green anything that unions are interested in have pictures of presidents on them; cash!

Continue reading


Unions Put Selves Ahead of ‘Saving Planet’”


Why do Democrats Hate Our Soldier’s Kids?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last Friday the Wall Street Journal once again excoriated the president and his henchmen in that mis-educational system so larded with self-interested union thugs (and other Democrats) by pointing out how these ne’er-do-wells are attempting to kill the D.C. school voucher program that has done so much good for so many minority, inner city kids in the Nation’s capitol.

But the end of the editorial also pointed to the fact that Obama wants to perpetrate the same misdeeds against the educational opportunities of our soldier’s kids. It turns out that because the D.C. voucher program is such a success, military families are asking for a similar program. Democrats and Obama are desperate to head this idea off and kill it before it is fairly born — and Democrats have a lot of experience killing things before they are born, we all know.

As far as parents and kids that have had the benefit of the soon to end voucher program, the whole thing is one they don’t want to lose.

Continue reading


Why do Democrats Hate Our Soldier’s Kids?”


My House Internet Privacy Testimony — ‘a consumer-driven, technology/competition neutral privacy framework’

-By Scott Cleland

Today I testified before a Joint House Subcommittee hearing of the Energy & Commerce Committee on “The Potential Privacy Implications of Behavioral Advertising.”

A one-page summary is below and the full testimony is here.

Summary Testimony of Scott Cleland, President, Precursor LLC

“Why A Consumer-Driven, Technology/Competition-Neutral, Privacy Framework Is Superior to a Default ‘Finders Keepers Losers Weepers’ Privacy Framework”

Before the Joint House Energy & Commerce Hearing on Behavioral Advertising, June 18, 2009
Continue reading


My House Internet Privacy Testimony — ‘a consumer-driven, technology/competition neutral privacy framework’”


Playing Political Games With our Healthcare

-By Warner Todd Huston

These days, government lives to feed itself. It’s the old “nose in the tent” theory. Give ’em an inch, they’ll take a mile. And government never fails to make itself more important with each new generation of self-important pols. Unfortunately and because of this propensity, should we be so foolish as to allow the federal government to take over our healthcare, you and your doctor will find a bureaucrat telling you what to do with your healthcare. Your health will no longer be a matter of what is good for you but will become a political football with an edge toward giving others more and more power over your very life.

There is no end to the examples of the hardhearted, unthinking and foolish decisions affecting people’s healthcare coming from bureaucrats in those nations that were foolish enough to allow a government takeover of their medical sector. We’ve already talked of a few of them here.

Continue reading


Playing Political Games With our Healthcare”


When We Voted for Unions to Run State Gov’t…

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s a good thing that California’s public employee union is taking it’s rightful place at the head of our government by proposing new taxes for us to pay. Why when we voted to give a union power to control government, I… oh, wait. No one ever voted to put a union in charge of government fiscal policy or give them the role of creating new taxes to burden us all with. How, could I have forgotten that these union thugs are not elected officials?

How could I forget it? Why it’s easy to forget this small fact because our Democratic lawmakers act as a rubber stamp for the unelected, unconstitutionally empowered unions, that’s why.

Continue reading


When We Voted for Unions to Run State Gov’t…”


Did Obama Admin. Try to Take Credit for Twitter’s Iran Coverage?

-By Warner Todd Huston


Some attention was paid to the fact that the newest social networking website, Twitter, had decided to push off its scheduled maintenance Tuesday morning as the situation in Iran became steadily more embroiled in conflict. As it happened, Twitter was a major source of information coming out of that repressed society as news was happening. Twitter had, though, scheduled a few hours down time just when Iran was at a peak of activity. So, in order to keep the flow of communication to the outside world flowing, Twitter announced it would not turn off its service until Iran calmed down.

This is pretty interesting news, that a mere social networking site was so deeply involved in momentous news of the day and that it became so relied upon by people hungry for news and interested in discussing a major democratic movement is definitely a new thing. It is especially interesting because the U.S. media so badly fell down on its job of reporting activities in Iran making Twitter a vital tool for communication. But what was even more interesting was that Obama’s State Department tried to claim credit for Twitter’s decision to stay in operation during the day.

Continue reading


Did Obama Admin. Try to Take Credit for Twitter’s Iran Coverage?”


Will the Real Republican Please Stand Up?

-By Warner Todd Huston

“I am not beholden to any party.”
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, candidate for governor

That must be true given Steve Poizner’s history of political donations. Poizner has given, and generously at that, to both Republican and Democrat candidates for office in addition to several Democrat controlled committees, this based on he and his wife’s publicly reported accounts, anyway. Oddly, Poizner’s wife happens to be a registered Democrat who Poizner has “blamed” for many of the Democrat contributions that have his signature affixed. Such donations include: a $10,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee on 10/02/00; $1,000 to John Forbes Kerry on 02/15/01; and a $10,000 donation he made to the ’00 Gore/Lieberman Recount Committee.

In fact, there is quite a lot of chatter out there that seems to point to Poizner’s less than stellar Republican credentials. He has been termed everything but a conservative for the last 5 years.

Continue reading


Will the Real Republican Please Stand Up?”


During Healthcare ‘Special’ ABC Refuses Paid Ads That Oppose Obamacare

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, not only is ABC not planning to include opposing voices to President Obama’s healthcare proposals during its special presentation next week — though ABC does claim “those in the audience” will ask questions of the president — it is refusing to even allow groups that oppose Obamacare to purchase paid for advertisements to air during the healthcare special.

Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients Rights, contacted ABC and inquired about purchasing some ad time during the Obamainfomercial, but was refused the sale. Scott wanted to air his 60-second ad before the healthcare show started. Though it was refused by the national Network, apparently it is still possible for Scott the buy time on local affiliates should he desire it.

Continue reading


During Healthcare ‘Special’ ABC Refuses Paid Ads That Oppose Obamacare”


Capriciousness of Government

-By Warner Todd Huston

What should be isn’t always what is, we all know. For instance, government is supposed to serve its people. However, more often than not government becomes a burden, an iron boot heel on the neck, and if not so egregiously oppressive at the very least it is often capricious. Today I have two examples of the capriciousness of government. One case in Chicago, a place where if government isn’t capricious it’s big news, and Ohio, a land where capricious is government’s middle name.

Let’s start with Chicago. The city of big shoulders, the city that works, the Windy City, the city that Al Capone Built, the city of the 1968 Chicago riot… er Democratic Convention, the city where a serial killer murdered dozens of visiting World’s Fair goers in 1893. Yeah, that city.

Continue reading


Capriciousness of Government”


Indexing into the Ditch — Financial Crisis Root Causes — Part I

-By Scott Cleland

Despite the widely held view that indexing is the safest way to invest, indexing helped recklessly drive our financial system and economy into the ditch last fall.

While there’s consensus the financial crisis warrants “new rules of the road” and better policing to protect against systemic risk, all the rules and oversight in the world can’t keep us out of the ditch in the future if index vehicles continue to drive the wrong way against oncoming traffic.

And “stress testing” whether bank vehicles can survive head-on crashes, completely misses the point that indexers should not be driving the wrong way on the freeway.

Continue reading


Indexing into the Ditch — Financial Crisis Root Causes — Part I”


Tough Times Doesn’t Stop Union Chief’s Salary Double Dipping?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last month the Las Vegas Sun had an interesting extended interview with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern in which he claimed that the Culinary union is “going through some tough economic times.” Not surprising in this economy, but tough times or not, it doesn’t seem that these economic conditions are stopping one of Culinary’s union bosses from double dipping his salary.

David Denholm, President of the Public Service Research Foundation did a little research on one of Culinary’s top officers and found some interesting revelations.

Continue reading


Tough Times Doesn’t Stop Union Chief’s Salary Double Dipping?”


Unions Team With California’s State Controller to Stop Cost-Cutting Measures

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Democratic Controller of the State of California is joining with unions to prevent the ability of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to get a handle on the state budget by refusing to obey the governor’s furlough plan and pay cuts. And state officers, including the Republican Insurance Commissioner, are backing the Controller showing that unions have co-opted all of them.

State governments have spent themselves into oblivion, we all know. Unfunded mandates, programs that cannot be paid for and for which no provisions for funding were ever arranged, have been the modus operandi of governments across the country. Strange, indeed, is the government program that is properly and affordably funded.

Continue reading


Unions Team With California’s State Controller to Stop Cost-Cutting Measures”


The National Broadband Plan “Fork-in-the-Road”

-By Scott Cleland

A scan of the major comments just delivered to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan (which is due to Congress February 2010), spotlighted the big broadband policy “fork-in-the-road” decision that the FCC now has before it.

One road of the fork-in-the-road continues down the road of: Promoting facilities-based competition;Encouraging private investment in a wide diversity of technologies; and Facilitating a cooperative public-private partnership to address unserved broadband areas and lagging adoption of widely available broadband.
Continue reading


The National Broadband Plan “Fork-in-the-Road””


Obama’s Own ‘Firing’ Gate

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember the hue and cry that went up when President Bush fired some U.S. attorneys in 2006? Oh, the left was beside itself about how eeeevil it was that Bush was to fire so many U.S. Attorneys… even though he had the authority to do so. Charges that the firings were made for “political reasons” were thrown about and Congressional Democrats clamored for new laws and the head of Bush’s Attorney General on a pike.

Well, last night, clearly for political reasons, Barack Obama tried to fire AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin. Not only is it for strictly political reasons (Short take: “the AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.”) but Obama does not have the authority to summarily dismiss an IG as he tried to do last night.

Will the left ring the claxon clang of how illegitimate the president’s actions are this time? Should we hold our breath?

Continue reading


Obama’s Own ‘Firing’ Gate”


Slippery Slope 2: A Water Slide With Govt’s Bid to Control America’s Waters

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago I wrote a piece on how the law often becomes a slippery slope when in the hands of judicial activists and radicals that look to the law in order to warp it to their agenda. Today I have a different example of that warping of law except this is one from the legislative side in Congress. This time Congress is attempting to take under its control all water in the United States, even that which sits on or under privately owned lands.

Senator Russ Feingold (D, Wis.) has introduced S. 787, legislation that is meant to help alleviate the confusion that has occurred for litigants since the 1972 passage of the Clean Water Act. Since ’72 a series of confounding decisions have put agencies and users in a quandary as to the implications of the act and its authority.

Unfortunately, Feingold’s revision of the bill makes matters worse. Oh, sure it solves the question of authority, alright. But it solves it by seeming to claim that the federal government controls all of America’s waters. From the puddle in your back yard, to the aquifer under your property, to the stream on your land, to every last rivulet, farm pond (even man-made ones), and navigable waterway, it’s all Uncle Sam’s if the over broad language in this bill is to be believed.

Continue reading


Slippery Slope 2: A Water Slide With Govt’s Bid to Control America’s Waters”


Gov’t Healthcare Advocates: No Bi-Partisanship Required

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no mistaking that I stand against a single payer, government controlled healthcare system. The last thing I want is a person with the same attitude as a DMV worker in charge of my health! By now, everyone here has noticed what direction I lean, I’m sure. Nonetheless, I do like to check out what the other side says about what they want, too. This is a report on one of those voices, that of the folks at OpenLeft.com.

Suffice to say, they want socialized healthcare with no private aspect to the system at all. They want all hospitals run by government, all doctors working for government, all research facilities funded and controlled by government. And, if Mike Lux of OpenLeft can be believed, they also want the Republicans to butt out of the whole debate.

This disinterest in the American system of debate, compromise and governance is a typical aspect of the goals of the authoritarian left that is coming on like gangbusters in this healthcare debate. They want socialist healthcare and that is that. They are not interested in capitalism, not interested in freedom, not interested in debate or compromise, not interested in any sort of bi-partisanship… in essence they want a tyranny of the minority. They want the whole cake and they want to eat it, too.

Continue reading


Gov’t Healthcare Advocates: No Bi-Partisanship Required”


Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Hill has news of a new report that will show that Democratic Politicians will make out like fatcats if they are successful in passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) this Congressional session.

It is being estimated that unions would gain an additional $320 million to spend on political campaigns and much of this money would go right in the campaign accounts of Democratic politicians in D.C. and elsewhere.

“EFCA’s passage into law could generate billions of additional dollars for unions to spend on political activity to advance their agenda,” a WFI memo says. “And for those union leaders whose pension funds have been mismanaged, EFCA’s passage would also amount to a massive government-engineered bailout of their financial mismanagement.”

The report cites a claim made by Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern who estimates that the EFCA could enlarge union membership by as many as 1.5 million members.

Continue reading


Dem Pols Make Out Like Bandits With EFCA”


Shocking: Businessman Finds N.Y. Dems are Unfriendly

-By Warner Todd Huston

Water is wet. The sky is blue. And Democrats aren’t friendly to taxpayers. These should be natural assumptions, of course, and in the age of Obama the later is more true than ever. But color powerful New York businessman Tom Golisano surprised that, even after he gave tons of cash to New York Democrats, he was treated like an annoyance when he asked them not to raise taxes in the Empire state.

Golisano says that he was ignored and shunted aside after his big money donations to New York’s Democratic power players in Albany and so he worked with Republicans to engineer the stunning upset that put the New York State Senate back in the hands of the GOP early this week.

I only have to ask: why did Golisano ever imagine that mere campaign donations would keep these Democrat leopards from changing their big taxing spots?

Continue reading


Shocking: Businessman Finds N.Y. Dems are Unfriendly”


High Schoolers Taught ‘There’s a Whole World Full of Different Genders’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently most of us were ill served by our high school education. But, don’t worry, our children will have that fixed for them. You see, we oldsters were thoroughly misinformed into thinking that there was only two genders in the human animal: male and female. But now, through the wonders of the modern, radical re-education racket, comes the new-new way of seeing “a whole world out there full of different genders.”

Confused? Well, that’s because the radical gender lobby hasn’t gotten hold of your schooling like it has in Vermont where high schoolers are exposed to the fantasy science of “gender studies.” That’s right, now our kids will be taught that there’s far, far more to gender than male and female. And guess what? Your tax dollars are paying for this tripe. It’s “Gendertopia,” folks and it’s funded by an extreme homosexual advocacy group called Outright Vermont in conjunction with Vermont’s Burlington School District.

Continue reading


High Schoolers Taught ‘There’s a Whole World Full of Different Genders’”


Lawyers Proving the ‘Slippery Slope’ is Real

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you’ve spent any time at all on Internet message boards or in college debate class you’ll have seen the rafters vibrate with righteous condemnation against the “slippery slope argument.” It is claimed that a worst case, ultimate extrapolation of a thing is a bad argument because it isn’t necessarily a truism. Supporters of the Second Amendment, for instance, are scolded by liberals when the supporter says that any new gun law is “one more step to banning guns.” The gun restricter says that the gun supporter is employing a “slippery slope” argument and that it is idiotic to claim that one new law must mean that a gun ban is the ultimate outcome. One doesn’t necessarily follow the other.

It is a logical conclusion, of course, that one step won’t necessarily lead to a series of other steps. But, humanity isn’t ruled by logic and those small steps that ultimately lead down the road to ruin are far more common than not. Here is another example of how one step led to another to bad effect and, as is far too often the case, the situation at hand was made in the arena of the law. And recently that slope descended even further down that road to hell.

Continue reading


Lawyers Proving the ‘Slippery Slope’ is Real”