Ill. Policy Institute CEO John Tillman Rebuts Critiques of His Op Ed

On Friday I wrote a piece expressing my dismay at an op ed written by John Tillman, CEO of the excellent Illinois Policy Institute. In his piece he claimed there was common ground between the “Occupy” folks and the Tea Party. I wholly disagreed with that. Mr. Tillman has written a follow up that he wanted to make sure readers saw.

To frame the discussion, here is Mr. Tillman’s original op ed in the Chicago Tribune and here is my friday critique of that op ed.– Warner Todd Huston

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The Persuadable Middle is Listening to Occupy; Why the Tea Party Should Start, Too

-By John Tillman, Ill. Policy Institute

Last week, the Chicago Tribune published a commentary piece I wrote about the Occupy Wall Street protestors in Chicago. They’ve been camped out near my office for the past few weeks, and I decided to engage them in conversation on my way home one night.

The media has likened the Occupy Wall Street protestors to the tea party, making the case that these protestors are the left’s version of the small government movement that has swept the nation.

Let me be clear: The Occupy Wall Street protestors and the folks who hold tea party rallies are not the same, and I do not believe there is any real opportunity for a union between the two groups. But what I learned that night is that these movements both are rooted in the idea that this country is moving in the wrong direction.
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Ill. Policy Institute CEO John Tillman Rebuts Critiques of His Op Ed”


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

-By Warner Todd Huston

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

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

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


Occupy Chicago Wants to ‘Collapse American Government’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Retired Palatine teacher, Roger Fraser, who makes nearly $8,000 a month in pension benefits off the backs of the Illinois Taxpayer, says that he wants to “collapse American government.”

These people want to “collapse” this country. They want to destroy it and remake it as an alien, communist abomination.

This is why there should be no sympathy for these Occupy-Whatever idiots. They are not Americans. They hate America. Unlike the Tea Party movement, these Occupy people are anti-American to the core.

Remember, these are the sort of people that Democrats like President Obama and Representative Jan Schakowsky are falling all over themselves to support.
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Occupy Chicago Wants to ‘Collapse American Government’”


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

-By Warner Todd Huston

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

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


Another Stupid Liberal Assumption Dies: Top 1% NOT Made Solely of Bankers

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the favorite memes of these Occupy-Whatever events is that the “top 1%” is made up of those evil, rich bankers and Wall Street tycoons. This, they feel is why they need to “occupy Wall Street” in the first place, right? Wrong again.

Like most left-wing memes, this one is also horribly wrong. It turns out that it should have been Occupy a hospital instead of occupy Wall Street because it turns out that bankers and denizens of Wall Street barely represent a blip on the radar of the “1%.”

A report on CNN Money notes that the finance sector only makes up 14% of the folks that sit in that top 1% of the nation’s wealthy.

It turns out that medical professionals clock in at 15.7%, while lawyers represent 8.4%.
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Another Stupid Liberal Assumption Dies: Top 1% NOT Made Solely of Bankers”


Former Soviet Citizen Schools Idiots at Occupy Wall Street

-By Warner Todd Huston

Morons at Occupy Wall Street have no clue what socialism is. But they advocate it.

Here we have a video of a man that was actually born in the USSR and suffered under that oppressive, socialist system confronting the clueless idiots of Occupy-Whatever.

This is the fantasy land that these Occupy idiots live in. It’s a land where even when confronted with someone that actually lived under the system these Occupy fools want to implement, when confronted with a guy that suffered the violence, and oppression that is socialism, well, they can only resort to name calling and unsubstantiated, illogical claims.
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Former Soviet Citizen Schools Idiots at Occupy Wall Street”


Union’s Battle Against Ohio Heats Up

-By Warner Todd Huston

On November 8, Ohioans will go to the polls to vote on a series of ballot initiatives, among them Issue 2.

A yes vote will support Governor Kasich’s collective bargaining reform (SB 5) to become law. A no vote would return power to the bloated, thieving unions to do hat they have always done: steal from the taxpayers. (I wonder if you can tell which side I am on, here? Ha, ha)

Unions have rolled into Ohio with millions of dollars for anti-issue 2 advertising, donations to politicians, and the usual corrupt bargaining behind the scenes that unions generally employ. Sadly, it looks like their big money has persuaded too many Ohioans to back the unions as polling shows Issue 2 is losing with voters.
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Union’s Battle Against Ohio Heats Up”


Obama Broken Promises: From ‘No Lobbyists in My Campaign,’ to Hiring Financial Services Lobbyist

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama made a big show in 2008 of attacking evil Washington lobbyists. He campaigned on “change we could believe in” and aimed one of those things to believe in at eliminating lobbyists from Washington. But, it’s just another lie from Obama, in the end.

Obama cruised into office with the claim that he’d have “the strictest ethics rules” against lobbyists of any president ever. Naturally, almost immediately he began to waive these “rules” to allow lobbyists into his administration.

This week, quite contrary to his loud proclamations against lobbyists, we saw that yet another lobbyist join Obama.
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Obama Broken Promises: From ‘No Lobbyists in My Campaign,’ to Hiring Financial Services Lobbyist”


Union Organizers Work 1 Day As Teachers, Get $100K+ in State Pensions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two union organizers that represent the Illinois Federation of Teachers were able to secure millions in state pensions by working one day as a teacher here in Illinois. This outrageous abuse of the state pension system is exactly why government unions should not be allowed to exist.

The Chicago Tribune has the story of Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli who took advantage of a loophole to enrich themselves off the backs of the taxpayers written into law just for them by pliant Democrat politicians.

The crony legislation enabled the unionistas to quickly get state teaching certificates, work one day as a substitute teacher, then count their years as union operatives to qualify them for pension benefits from the state.
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Union Organizers Work 1 Day As Teachers, Get $100K+ in State Pensions”


Occupy Chicago Sign: ‘Dear Rich Straight White Dudes, F**K Off’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like the rest of the large cities in the US, Chicago is currently suffering with small pockets of Occupy protesters and their ever-present signs. And like every other big city these signs are often misspelled, sometimes profane, commonly anti-capitalist, occasionally anti-Semitic, almost always anti-American, not to mention merely ignorant of the facts. But one thing that is the same in every protest, at least in the media reportage of same, is that the worst of the signs go unseen by the general American news consumer.

Chicago blogger John Ruberry took his trusty camera downtown to the Windy City and captured some pretty representative signs the like of which were similar signs seen at Tea Party events would have made the nightly news programs for their outrageous messages.

For instance, there’s the one I note in the headline of this piece.

Now imagine if a Tea Party sign said something like, “Dear Gay Blacks, F**k Off.” The media would have lost its tiny hive mind over such a blatantly ignorant sign. It’s been two years of Tea Party protests and there’ve been few signs as blatant as the dozens seen at many of these Occupy-Whatever events.
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Occupy Chicago Sign: ‘Dear Rich Straight White Dudes, F**K Off’”


Suspected Terror Supporter Attacks Jews at Occupy Chicago

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chicago’s RebelPundit came across some of those nice Occupy Chicago folks wishing good thoughts for all the kind participants at the protest… they kindly wished that Israel be destroyed.

Worse, one of the guys these Occupy-Whatevers allowed to speak is a suspected funder of Middle Eastern terrorists.

Just like the left, eh? Haters, racists, and anti-Semites galore.

Note also that a Chicago TV station was filming the event. Note also that said film was never aired in Chicago.

The “news,” you see, don’t want to discredit the Occupy-Whatevers as much as they can avoid it.
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Suspected Terror Supporter Attacks Jews at Occupy Chicago”


Bad News for Obama: His Big Lead in Illinois Narrowing

-By Warner Todd Huston

A Southern Illinois newspaper reports what should be an ominous warning for Obama occurring in Illinois, his homestate. His margin of victory is narrowing in the one state that everyone assumes he should have in the bag.

In 2008 Obama won his homestate by 25 points against John McCain. That is landslide proportions, for sure. But a new phone survey cuts that huge lead to only 8 points when measured against Mitt Romney, for one, a little more against the other GOP candidates.

Obama did best against Perry, with 50.8 percent of respondents reelecting the president and 32.8 percent choosing the Texas governor.

Obama did the worst again Romney, with 46.1 percent to 38.5. Against Cain, the former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza, the percentage was 46.3 percent for Obama against 34 percent for Cain.

Finally against Ron Paul, Obama had a showing of 49.3 percent against 30.3 percent.

Sure Obama is still winning handily against the GOP nominees but that once monumental lead is now cut more than in half in many cases.
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Bad News for Obama: His Big Lead in Illinois Narrowing”


Occupy Wall Streeters: Communists, Anti-Capitalists And now Rapists?

-By Warner Todd Huston

We know that the Occupy Wall Streeters are extremists in nature and far outside the American norm. We know they are communists, they hate capitalism, they are against the U.S. Constitution, American history and character, and believe in all sorts of wacky, fringe stuff. But thanks to Occupy Cleveland, we now see that they are rapists, too.

Nice, eh?

A young female student attending the Occupy Cleveland protests told police that she was raped by a male protester who was assigned to the same pop-up tent as she by the idiots in charge of the Occupy event.
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Occupy Wall Streeters: Communists, Anti-Capitalists And now Rapists?”


Rep. Joe Walsh Discusses Obamacare

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Joe Walsh appeared at a conference earlier this month and he was asked to address some of the troubles that this nation is going to suffer once Obamacare really kicks in.

Walsh is 100% right about his contentions over this destructive Obamacare mess.

Representative Walsh has already announced that he will run against Republican Congressman Randy Hultgren in the newly re-configured 14th District in the upcoming primaries.
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Rep. Joe Walsh Discusses Obamacare”


Lisa Fithian: Teaching Radicalism to Chicago Teachers Union

-By Warner Todd Huston

Violent, union thug comes to Chicago to fake teacher “arrests”

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible.
— Lisa Fithian

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) trained under radical street organizer, and leader of the anti-capitalist #occupy movement, Lisa Fithian, to stage a protest march in Chicago on 10/10/11.

During this event, more than 20+ members of the CTU were arrested.

THE NYT MAGAZINE SAYS THIS ABOUT FITHIAN
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Lisa Fithian: Teaching Radicalism to Chicago Teachers Union”


Did a Big Dem Donor Turned Obama Medical Records Czar Hoodwink Members of Congress?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did Obama’s medical record czar, Judy Faulkner, hoodwink five members of Congress into pushing her own medical records company as the solution for the problem of electronic medical records for all government contracts? That’s what some wonder as Obama’s search for an electronic medical records solution evolves.

In a likely earnest effort to bring jobs to Wisconsin and help improve the fortunes of a home state company, five members of Congress signed onto a letter urging the Department of Defense to seriously consider EPIC Systems medical records computer architecture. (Download PDF of letter)

The letter, signed by Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl (D) and Ron Johnson (R), as well as Representatives Paul Ryan (R), Tammy Baldwin (D), and Ron Kind (D), was written some two years after EPIC Systems CEO, Judith Faulkner was appointed (April 3, 2009) to Obama’s Health Information Technology Policy Committee. This is a committee established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will, “make recommendations on creating a policy framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure,” for electronic medical records.
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Did a Big Dem Donor Turned Obama Medical Records Czar Hoodwink Members of Congress?”


Occupy Wall Street’s Essential Hypocrisy

-By Warner Todd Huston

There are a few major reasons that this Occupy-Whatever “movement” is as hollow as a Halloween pumpkin. One is that they are employing the sort of rhetoric with their “we are the 99%” claim that they complained about from Tea Partiers and two that some of their spokesmen are not what they claim to be.

A particular hypocrisy from these leftists has been repeatedly seen over the last two years when Tea Partiers would say what “America wants” or couched their rhetoric in terms of the country as a whole should do as if all real Americans wanted what the Tea Party was working for. Liberals would immediately scold the Tea Partiers saying that Tea Party folks do not represent the left so they shouldn’t act as if “Americans” wanted what the Tea Party wanted.

Yet, here come these leftists to claim that they represent “99% of America”! Sorry, Occupiers, but you do not represent me or anyone I side with, so don’t claim you represent “99% of America.” In fact, you don’t even represent half the voting base as liberals consistently poll at less than 20% of the Democrat Party these days.

Heck, you Occupiers don’t even represent 99% of your own side of the aisle!
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Occupy Wall Street’s Essential Hypocrisy”


Occupy Boston Ruins Food Bank Fundraiser, Conservatives Step in With $3,700 Fund Drive

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Greater Boston Food Bank intended to have a fundraising event in Boston’s Dewey Square over the weekend of the 14th of October. It was to be called the “Greenway Mobile Food Fest” and was supposed to help raise funds to feed the poor and needy. But due to the tantrums being thrown by the Occupy Boston protestors the event had to be canceled.

Despite the selfishness of these pointless, clueless protesters, though, conservative bloggers stepped in and raised over $3,000 for the food bank. An important question is, where is the media on this story? Isn’t this a perfect sort of human-interest story that media types usually love?

The media should love this. It’s got clueless, uninformed, cretins hurting an organization that helps feed the needy. It has a more caring group rising to the challenge to help replace those lost donations. Perfect story, right?

Ah, except that it is conservatives in the role of good guy and the Old Media can’t have that, now can they?
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Occupy Boston Ruins Food Bank Fundraiser, Conservatives Step in With $3,700 Fund Drive”


Congresswoman Schakowsky Says The Communist, Maoist, Illiterate, Hate-Filled OWS Protesters Are ‘Ordinary Americans’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of the Illinois 9th District, a sitting Congresscritter, mind you, decided it was a great idea to march with the Occupy-Whatevers on Thursday.

Interestingly, a large contingent of these people sported T-Shits with Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, and other communist heroes emblazoned upon them. Guevara, a murderer, coward, and communist, is particularly loved by these useful idiots. But Mao is the greater mass murderer and genocidal maniac, of course.

Regardless of which mass murderer they most love, the fact is that these people hate the USA and everything it stands for an equal amount — maybe even more. And these are the sort of haters that a sitting Congresswoman is keeping company with?

For shame, Congresswoman Schakowsky.
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Congresswoman Schakowsky Says The Communist, Maoist, Illiterate, Hate-Filled OWS Protesters Are ‘Ordinary Americans’”


Labor Unions Support Wisconsin Agitators

Until now many of the often-illegal antics perpetuated by several individual Wisconsin-based protesters appeared to be random acts committed by disillusioned agitators. But the MacIver News Service has learned that these acts have been highly orchestrated and perpetuated by an organization whose members are told to deny their involvement in the group. A group, we’ve discovered, which is financed by thousands of dollars from Big Labor.

With that funding comes clout. They have shared the stage with Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. They’ve hosted prominent Democratic legislative speakers such as Representative Cory Mason and Minority Leader Peter Barca, a rumored potential candidate for governor.

These protesters have played a key role in many of the most visible events in and around the State Capitol since February. This week, their organization was listed alongside the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin as key organizers behind the efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker.

And they’re currently organizing and participating in many of the ‘Occupy’ protests in Washington, DC, New York and Wisconsin.

Bill Osmulski reports in this MacIver News Investigation.

http://maciverinstitute.com/


Bad News For Illinois Teachers: Illinois is Broke and You Might Not Get Your Pension!

The unions and the Democrats are lying to you, teachers.

In Illinois we have a $140 billion retirement pension deficit for teachers, folks. Don’t let the unions lie to you all the way until you decide to retire only to find out you lost everything.

And you police, firemen, and other state employees… don’t think you are better off than the teachers. You aren’t.


The Hate From The Occupy-Whatever Left

The left is built on pure hate. Hate for patriotism, hate for the Constitution, hate for our troops, hate for the left’s opponents… just plain hate.

Accuracy in Media, Let Freedom Ring and Young America’s Foundation have joined forces to invade Occupy DC. Our objective: to see what happens when three peaceful fans of capitalism, guns and our military take to the streets. It’s a good thing we didn’t do a live shot, they weren’t greeted nicely to say the least.


John Fund on Why Voter ID Law is Good for Minorities

-By Warner Todd Huston

John Fund visited with Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation to discuss why voter ID laws are good in general but also good for minorities.

www.PubliusForum.com

Visit The Scribe for more info.
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John Fund on Why Voter ID Law is Good for Minorities”


Rep. Jan Schakowsky Thinks Gov’t ‘Creates Jobs’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D, Illinois 9th District), whose husband has been convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion, was interviewed by the far left website truthout.

You’ll remember truthout for its scoop back in 2009. It was truthout that was the first to report the big news that Karl Rove had been indicted. Unfortunately for this “news” site, Karl Rove was never indicted. That was a spot of bother, indeed, going to impugn the site’s veracity just a bit. You may also know that original editor, Marc Ash, was ousted from the site by a coup from within when it was discovered he was making $140,000 a year off the donors and left-wing foundations supporting the site. But he’s all for the downtrodden masses, ya know?

Now that we have established the forum upon which Schakowsky appeared, let’s look at some of the extreme things she said, shall we?
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Rep. Jan Schakowsky Thinks Gov’t ‘Creates Jobs’”


Remy’s Occupy Wall Street Protest Song (Making Fun While Having Fun)

Hilarious, but with a message…

As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads like a, well, financial contagion through global markets, intergalactic Internet sensation Remy and Reason.tv give the movement its anthem.

Written and performed by Remy and produced by Meredith Bragg from Reason.tv.


Abuse: Union Leaders Pull Down Millions in Public Pensions in Illinois

-By Warner Todd Huston

Andrew Thomason of the Illinois Statehouse News agency has a pair of stores on the criminal syndicate that is unions in the Land of Lincoln this week that have to be seen to be believed. In fact, these stories and the ones like them we’ve seen for the past several months in Illinois are proof positive that unions should be illegal for government employees.

In one story, Thomason reports the tale of Michael Johnson, a corrupt teacher out to milk the taxpayers dry by collecting $209,379.43 in pension benefits while at the same time also collected $324,785 from a separate Illinois pension fund. And so far this crook has already collected $1.1 million of our tax dollars on top of the $198,105 a year he makes for “part-time work” for the school district.

This is called double dipping. Johnson was able to do this because he worked at one job in Illinois education, “retired” from it, then took a second job in the same field. This means he gets two pensions to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, likely totaling up to millions by the time he dies. All paid for by the taxpayers of Illinois.
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Abuse: Union Leaders Pull Down Millions in Public Pensions in Illinois”


Finger-Waving, Child-Like Protestors Refuse to Allow Left-Wing Congressman to Address Crowd

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the funniest thing I have ever…

This is the funniest thing I’ve ever….

Seen in my life.

Seen in my life.

A bunch of child-like protesters in Atlanta, Georgia refused left-wing Congressman John Lewis — a civil rights icon to many — to be allowed to address the crowd this weekend. The whole scene is reminiscent of the worst, hackneyed, new agie-styled preschool program devised for 5-year-olds by one of the most idiotic leftists imaginable. But it makes for hilarious video entertainment.

Apparently these people decided that their “assembly” would employ pure democracy. But if there was ever a more annoying way to do it, I’ve never seen it.

A scraggly, bearded, hippie wannabe playing the part of the crowd’s conscience spoke to those gathered over a megaphone system. He would say a few words and the crowd would, like five-year-olds in a preschool class, repeat his words verbatim.

It went something like this:

Anorexic Hippie Megaphone Guy: “We have someone here…”
Dirty, Ground-Sitting Hippie Crowd in Unison: “We have someone here…”
Anorexic Hippie Megaphone Guy: “Who would like to address the assembly…”
Dirty, Ground-Sitting Hippie Crowd in Unison: “Who would like to address the assembly…”

So, Anorexic Hippie Megaphone Guy explains to the crowd that they don’t “use clapping” in their “assembly” because clapping can “prevent someone else who is addressing the assembly from being heard.” So, to “signal approval” the crowd is instructed to raise their hands and wiggle their fingers. I swear I saw this on Barney the Dinosaur show.
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Finger-Waving, Child-Like Protestors Refuse to Allow Left-Wing Congressman to Address Crowd”


New Bill Introduced to Roll Back Obama’s Anti-Business NLRB Rules

-By Warner Todd Huston

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline (R, Minn.) is tired of sitting around doing nothing while Obama ramps up his extremely anti-business, anti-jobs regulatory regime. So Kline has introduced a new bill to roll back some of these harsh rules.

Since he became president Obama has been using his power to create regulations to push his pro-big labor, anti-business ideology. Obama knows he cannot get Congress to implement these anti-jobs regulations, so he has been quietly changing rules using his Dept. of Labor, the NLRB, and the EPA to hamper business and increasingly institute big government control over all our lives.
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New Bill Introduced to Roll Back Obama’s Anti-Business NLRB Rules”


Holder vs White House: Who Is Accountable?

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the worst Obama scandals continues to grow…

Courtesy Rep. Darrell Issa, House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.

And as Mark Stein wondered today, why isn’t the media interested in the deaths of over 200 Mexicans killed by Obama’s gun running program?
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Holder vs White House: Who Is Accountable?”