$300,000 in federal stimulus money pays to map radioactive rabbit turds from a helicopter

$445 million worth of congressional earmarks compromise the priorities of the Energy Department

$2.6 billion diverted from guns and ammunition for troops to pay for politicians’ pet projects

Two men imprisoned for skimming money from a $8.2 million congressional earmark funded through the Defense Department

Go fish: $1 million of stimulus funds spent to catch fish in Utah

The Federal Highway Administration urging localities to impose tolls on motorists who drive during rush hour

The Federal Highway Administration tells Indiana it has too many billboards along the state’s roads

Sens. John Kerry and Lindsey Graham had a piece Sunday in the New York Times, stumbling through a pro-cap-and-trade routine. Initial thoughts on this homage to the bipartisanship fetish:

The “we even have different accents” bit tips their hand that the argument is as substantive as those Gore-group ads with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson on a couch together. Not a bad parallel actually, though I can’t help but recall this far more entertaining version of the labored intro.

When one feels compelled to give six reasons why we ought to embrace their idea, you know they aren’t persuaded themselves with the “global warming” argument, and see little persuasive opportunity in it.

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In the wake of the massive bank bailouts, nearly everyone is calling for some kind of financial regulatory system overhaul. The Obama administration has outlined what it would like to see and Congress is currently holding hearings on how to best reform the regulatory structure. But the lobbying began long ago.

Big banks are squaring off against smaller banks in the debate over consolidating national banking regulatory powers. All banks are lining up against financial institutions like hedge funds on the regulation of products like derivatives. Even the regulating agencies are competing against each other in hopes of garnering more power.

Unfortunately, if Congress makes choices on political criteria alone, reforms are likely to damage the country’s economic recovery.

Instead, there are three guiding principles that lawmakers should bear in mind when writing new regulations for Wall Street.

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They were “Wide Awakes” – scores of torchbearers marching through sleepy hamlets to herald the emancipation of a people from the bonds of slavery into God-given liberty.  These despised and decried champions of human freedom and defenders of American Union proudly called themselves “Republicans.”

Through the ensuing decades of political triumphs, falters and defeats, we Republicans never forgot our honorable heritage – until today.  Amidst the stormy present, some of our compatriots suffer from an apocalyptic intimation that America’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom and self-government is over.  They are wrong.

Throughout the life of the exceptional nation we’ve inherited from our parents and must bequeath to our children, America’s strength and salvation remains her free people.  They have and will never let her down.

Indeed, through history’s lens Global Generation Republicans glean the transformational challenges confronting our nation.

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President Obama’s Department of Labor just ended disclosure of the lavish perks enjoyed by his Big Labor Boss supporters. But this should come as little surprise as Obama’s Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in a recent speech to the AFL-CIO tacitly acknowledged that she has turned the U.S. Labor Department over to them.  

The Obama Labor Department has been positioning themselves to rollback recent changes to the congressionally mandated union financial disclosure reports for unions with receipts of $250,000 plus.

And now they have announced that they are eliminating disclosure designed to protect millions of workers who are forced to pay dues as a condition of employment.  The specific disclosures being rescinded, among other things, exposed labor boss perks like John Sweeney’s alleged million dollar payment in 2000.  Now, Big Labor Union Bosses who receive special payments can continue to hide these payments from workers who are forced to subsidize them.

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From American Thinker:

Here’s one example of how state law enforcement officials have leveraged and possibly violated the law to help ACORN in return for ACORN’s political help.

In December 2004, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch sued Capital One for failing to state in its advertisements that it could increase interest rates on credit cards. As part of a 2006 settlement, Capital One paid $749,999, of which $249,999 went to ACORN, $250,000 went to the nonprofit Legal Aid, and $250,000 to the State of Minnesota.

ACORN’s political action committee had endorsed Mike Hatch for attorney general in 1998 and 2002, and in 2006 for governor.

Read the whole article here. Of course, this could be an isolated incident, but we think it is likely this skit has played out countless times around the country.

Today’s Wall Street Journal has this story about an Obama appointee to the NLRB:

One of Big Labor’s priorities in Washington is to place allies in key government jobs where they can overturn existing labor policy without battles in Congress. This is a very good reason for the Senate to hold a hearing on the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Mr. Becker is associate general counsel at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is most recently in the news for its close ties to Acorn, the disgraced housing shakedown operation. President Obama nominated Mr. Becker in April to the five-member NLRB, which has the critical job of supervising union elections, investigating labor practices, and interpreting the National Labor Relations Act. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor. And he suggested the NLRB could do this by regulatory fiat, without a vote of Congress.

Yet now that he could soon have the power to act on this conviction, Mr. Becker won’t tell Congress if this is what he still believes. In written responses to questions from Republican Orrin Hatch, Mr. Becker promised only to “maintain an open mind about whether [his] suggestions should be implemented in any manner.” That sounds like his mind is made up but he won’t admit it lest it hurt his confirmation.

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A three-month investigation by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute found that a federal program intended to help disadvantaged business owners win contracts at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix is benefiting a small group of political insiders who are anything but disadvantaged.

The federal Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program (ACDBE or DBE) sets guidelines requiring minimum levels of participation by small businesses owned by minorities and women in airport concession contracting. Award winning investigative reporter Mark Flatten, formerly of the Mesa, Ariz.-based East Valley Tribune, shows that many of the DBE owners at Sky Harbor have a net worth in excess of $1 million and hold multiple city contracts, both on and off the airport.

Of the $52 million in sales attributed to disadvantaged businesses at Sky Harbor in fiscal year 2008, $15.4 million was generated by five DBEs owned by people active in politics. And of the more than 140 individual concession storefronts at Sky Harbor, city records identify only two that are not operated exclusively by a master contractor or owned, at least in part, by a certified DBE.

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In three weeks, the people of New Jersey go to the polls to elect a new Governor, among other offices. A new poll out today shows that the race could be very close, and we could be headed for a recount. This is a clear case in which every vote will count.

That’s why it is so interesting to note that yesterday Ronald Harris, a Democratic campaign worker from Atlantic City, plead guilty to “third-degree conspiracy to commit absentee ballot fraud,” according to New Jersey Newsroom. Looks like he’s talking too:

In pleading guilty, Harris admitted that he conspired with others involved in Small’s mayoral campaign to submit false documents related to the procurement, casting, or tabulation of messenger absentee ballots in the primary.

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On this day, in 1815, Napoleon began his exile at Saint Helena.

***VIDEO FIXED!!!***
Watch the full episode here.  ACORN segment begins after the last commercial.

The ACORN scandal was immortalized tonight on “South Park.” The plot of the season 13 episode “Butters’ Bottom Bitch” is that Butters, the adorably naïve fourth grader starts a “kissing company” that grows to the point where he is a pimping out 10+ prostitutes, many of whom are underage. Always the sharp social commentators, the “South Park” crew sent Butters and Co. to ACORN to try to get a housing grant for these prostitutes:

…Butters get TWO housing loans, and tax-exempt status.

This isn’t your typical ACORN office. The employees are sharply dressed and working off of widescreen computer monitors in a lavish building (actually, it looks like the woman is sitting in an Aeron chair… we’re not sure even ACORN gets enough government handouts for those). But that’s beside the point. The joy in this scene is that at long last, ACORN is officially a punch line. Anyone who has followed ACORN throughout the years knows this is long, long, long overdue, but today, ACORN’s calling card is that they are the company that, as Butters puts it, “helps pimps and their bitches.” Not sure it gets more damning than that. (more…)

Taxpayers foot the bill for office items lost or stolen by members of Congress

Half-a-million dollar NSF stimulus grant pays to search for alternatives to Facebook

Stimulus funds pay to create an online database of bugs

Stimulus funds to pay for talking buses in Ohio; Human voices to replace beeping sounds that alert pedestrians of approaching buses

Congressmen successfully pressure the Food and Drug Administration to approve medical device manufactured by campaign contributor

Spending bills stalled by decision of Appropriations Committees to withhold government reports from the public and other members of Congress

Political ‘scientists’ lobby to keep millions of dollars in federal science grants

Congress will spend more than $100 million to put sand on beaches

From ESPN.com:

Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources.

Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams, realizes he must remove the controversial conservative radio host from his potential role as a minority member in the group in order to get approval from other NFL owners, the sources said.

Three-quarters of the league’s 32 owners would have to approve any sale to Limbaugh and his group. Earlier this week, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay predicted that Limbaugh’s potential bid would be met by significant opposition. Several players have also voiced their displeasure with Limbaugh’s potential ownership position, and NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith, who is black, urged players to speak out against Limbaugh’s bid.

Ultimately, the sources said, Checketts must reconfigure his group and find another investor to make his bid more viable.

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Our stomachs turned a bit this morning when we watched a YouTube video of part of last weekend’s DC AFT rally in Washington, D.C.  You can see it here:

The event was billed as the “Rally for Respect.” If the AFT wants respect, we respectfully submit the following suggestions:

Number one – Stop threatening people. During the rally, an unidentified male speaker was clearly heard on the video threatening D.C. school Chancellor Michelle Rhee. “Michelle Rhee had better watch her back,” the large, angry man chanted into the microphone. That clearly sounds like a physical threat, typically used by street gangs. His next few words were not clear, but then he added something about “She’s going down.”

Perhaps Ms. Rhee would be wise to contact D.C. police. Union thugs may very well have her on their target list. How disturbing.

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I hate football. Not as much as I detest baseball and basketball and NASCAR, but the mere thought of sitting in a stadium watching a football match or game or whatever it’s called makes me dream of the sweet release of death. So when I heard that Rush Limbaugh wanted to buy one of these teams or crews or squadrons or whatever they are called, I shook my head. If I had a couple hundred loose mil to spend, it would be on a tropical island, not a bunch of ‘roided-up dudes bashing into each other and preempting my favorite shows. But its Rush’s money and this is America.

Well, it was America. Apparently, that’s changed in the last few days because now it appears that Rush cannot be allowed to spend his own money as he wants to because his political views are unsatisfactory. He’s conservative, and therefore the rights, privileges and immunities or any other American citizen no longer appear apply to him. Just ask Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who urged the NFL not to allow Rush’s bid to buy some team (The Rams? The Raiders? The Yankees? I really don’t follow this stuff).

Let me get this straight, because this is more disturbing than the thought of having to attend a hockey doubleheader: An American political leader is demanding that a private business not do business with an American citizen because she does not approve of his politics.

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If you have been following the unending revelations about ACORN on BigGovernment.com, then you are likely aware of ACORN’s $1 million embezzlement cover-up which has now grown to an alleged $5 million embezzlement cover-up. 

This new $5 million revelation was posted just days after ACORN founder and the embezzler’s brother Wade Rathke nonchalantly explained his reasons for the embezzlement cover-up to Megyn Kelly on Fox News:

“Because we made a decision that between restitution and retribution, that restitution was more in the interest of the [ACORN] organization and that decision was unanimous.”  

A pimp, prostitute, underage human trafficking and now a self-professed murderer; what could be next for the embattled Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now?!?

Margaret Williams, Maryland ACORN board member and Sonja Merchant-Jones, Baltimore ACORN President both reported that the low level ACORN employees caught on tape in the Baltimore office were immediately terminated for behaving unprofessionally; but yet, senior staff members who assisted and concealed a million dollar Rathke embezzlement remain employed.

The ACORN 8 commends these board members’s decisive action, but find it extremely ironic since the board of directors do not actually control ACORN employees. According to ACORN’s by-laws that authority is exclusively exercised by the “Chief Organizer,” formerly Wade Rathke and now Bertha Lewis. This fundamental disconnect between an actual functioning board of directors and senior management is the true problem and real scandal within ACORN. It causes low-income members and staff to become mere pawns of senior management.

Ultimately, ACORN’s low-income workers are simply trying to meet and fulfill unreasonable membership quotas set by senior staff. This undue management pressure results in fraudulent voter registrations, tax assistance for “pimps and prostitutes” or worse. Poor governance and lack of accountability are the real problems. Voter fraud or rather voter registration fraud are just symptoms of a far greater problem. And that is the lack of meaningful control and accountability by the membership. So don’t fault poor workers – blame the board!

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I have had the pleasure of Greenpeace taking my trash every Sunday night after I put it out — the contents winding up in staged “stories” in outlets like Deutsche Welle, the Independent, El Pais and Old Red herself, the Guardian, whose reporters never even called before cobbling unrelated offal together to spin their yarn. Not content to address the issues when old fashioned (if lame) intimidation efforts were handy, the green machine have also labored over breathless press releases announcing with whom they’ve seen me dine, and plastered the walls and leafleted Kyoto negotiating conferences with my mug as a “climate criminal”. As I detailed in Red Hot Lies, that’s child’s play compared with the death threats and attempts on scientists’ lives when they dare push back against The New Red that is Big Green.

So naturally, when I see an email touting a “tribunal”, in Spanish though it may have been, I look closer. Courtesy of a translating software and a little cleanup work, here’s today’s missive from Friends of the Earth International. When reading it, recall how the International Criminal Court was hailed by academics and even our then-president as an environmental treaty. Recall how we are poised to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty which despite its name purports to regulate land-based sources such as transport and electricity generation, just like Kyoto except that it has its own court, one that has already shown its willingness to go rogue and set its jurisdiction ad hoc.

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If government-run healthcare is approved, it is very likely that politicians will then look for a new revenue source to finance all the new spending that inevitably will follow. Unfortunately, that means a value-added tax (VAT) will be high on the list. Indeed, the VAT recently has been favorably mentioned by powerful political figures and key Obama allies such as the Co-Chairman of his transition team and the Speaker of the House.

The VAT would be great news for the political insiders and belteway elite. A  brand new source of revenue would mean more money for them to spend and a new set of  loopholes to swap for campaign cash and lobbying fees.  But as I explain in this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity,  the evidence from Europe unambiguously suggests that a VAT will dramatically increase the burden of government.  That’s good for Washington, but bad for America.

It’s worth noting that even if the politicians are unsuccessful in their campaign to take over the health care system, there will be a VAT fight at some point in the next few years. This will be a Armageddon moment for proponents of limited government. Defeating a VAT is not a sufficient condition for controlling the size of government, but it surely is a necessarry condition.

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