Archive for March, 2010

Uncommon Knowledge

Victor Davis Hanson on America’s Approach to War

by Uncommon Knowledge

Nothing in this world is certain, except death and taxes.  And war.  At least according to Victor Davis Hanson.

In VDH’s first 2010 appearance on Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, he shares the thesis of his latest book with us, which is that war is the father of us all.

The issues discussed are varied.  Everything from the American style of war and its ineffectiveness in Iraq, George W. Bush’s missed opportunity to gain leftist support, and why Obama gets away with continuing Bush’s military strategy.

Check out this video below for highlights, or watch the full episode here.


Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King

Obama Funder and Terrorist Supporter Jodie Evans Assaults Karl Rove in Beverly Hills

by Kristinn Taylor and Andrea Shea King

[Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans. Click here to read earlier articles.]



Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood and Obama ally Jodie Evans with President Barack Obama, October 15, 2009.

Top Obama funder, terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans assaulted former President George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove Monday evening at a Beverly Hills appearance by Rove to promote his new book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life As a Conservative in the Fight.”

Jodie Evans approached Rove while he was speaking to an audience at the Saban Theater and announced she was making a “citizen’s arrest” as she attempted to place metal handcuffs on him.

Video by KCAL-TV shows Rove pushing Jodie Evans away as she tries to cuff him. The audio picks up Rove saying to Jodie Evans, “No, no, no I didn’t say go ahead. I looked at…You get away!

Two men intervened and pulled Jodie Evans away from Rove.

Jodie Evans can be heard yelling at Rove, “Look what you did! You outed a CIA officer! You lied to take us to war! You ruined a country! Totally ruined a country!”

(more…)

Publius

It’s Time For Out-a-Thug: Help Us Identify These Men

by Publius

Who is this man?

Another_Eggman

To remind our readers, this fine gentleman thrust his finger in a journalists face and shouted “Get him out of here, or I’m going to jail today!” We’re pretty sure he didn’t mean he was going to jaywalk. Let’s find out who he is and bring his intimidation tactics to light.

And, while we’re at it, please help identify this man:

another_eggman_again

Proudly wearing his Harry Reid t-shirt, this man lied to the police in Searchlight when he falsely accused Andrew Breitbart of throwing an egg at the Tea Party Activists’ bus. Does he work for the Reid campaign? Does he work for IBEW Local 357? Does he work for another union in the Las Vegas area?

Finally, we need your help with a missing persons case… Has anyone seen or heard from the media? (more…)

Greg Knapp

The Cap and Tax Man is Coming

by Greg Knapp

cap and taxAfter the divisive debate over health care “reform” and the problems that are already emerging from it (see young people, the states, AT&T, Verizon, John Deere, Caterpillar, etc.) you would think The One and Congress would take a breather. Wrongo! Here comes another hard left. A new “bipartisan” Cap and Tax bill is on the way.

Three senior US lawmakers are piecing together a sweeping bipartisan energy and climate bill, which looks set to include sweeteners to galvanize support among Republicans and industry groups…

The senators have hosted meetings with industry groups over the past two weeks, revealing details about their plan that would cap carbon emissions while expanding offshore oil drilling and nuclear power generation.

We definitely need to expand offshore drilling and remove some of the regulations that make it so hard to build a nuclear power plant, but it’s not worth the unnecessary increase in cost every American will pay for our energy (and everything that uses energy) that will come with the rest of this bill.

Will these “sweeteners” to get industry to go along include corporate welfare?

(more…)

Kyle Olson

Uh-Oh: Another Dem Acknowledges Health Bill is ‘Wealth Redistribution’

by Kyle Olson

One can only imagine the “Dean Scream” that came out of Burlington, Vermont the night the government takeover of health care passed the House of Representatives.

The always daffy Howard Dean appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Sunday to discuss the health care reform bill.  He explained that the broader principle of the legislation has less to do with fixing the health system and more to do with a Marxist principle of redistributing wealth.

“When [wealth distribution] gets out of whack as it did in the ’20s and it has now, you need to do some redistribution.  This is a form of redistribution.”


Ever the politician, Dean cautions that there could be “too much” redistribution, which could result in the “incentive” being taken out of the system.  I’m sorry – when have extreme liberals ever worried about people having incentive to do anything on their own?

In the interview, Dean wonders what the “right balance” of income distribution might be for America.  Again, as I wondered a few days ago, how are politicians qualified to determine what that “right balance” should be? If the way they handle our money in Washington, D.C. is any indication, the politicians would do us a service by steering completely clear of financial matters.

Welcome to the transforming America.

(more…)

Ken Blackwell and  Ken Klukowski

Border Murder Highlights Administration’s Failure

by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski

The tragic murder of a Good Samaritan rancher by an illegal immigrant in Arizona has people yelling for an effective response to this outrage. Although most illegal immigrants are just human beings that are desperately seeking to provide for themselves and their families, this murder shines a spotlight on the Obama administration’s utter failure to secure our borders and uphold the rule of law.

napolitano-j

A top story on March 30 is that Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was apparently gunned down by an illegal immigrant. Krentz’s family has maintained a ranch in southern Arizona since 1907, and he was known as a compassionate man who gave water and medical care to illegal immigrants crossing his land from Mexico.

Krentz was found shot to death, slumped over his vehicle on his ranch. Police dogs tracked the shooter to the Mexican border 15 miles away, indicating that the shooter was almost certainly someone in this country illegally from Mexico.

The murder of this good man casts in stark relief the outrageous failure of President Barack Obama and Secretary Janet “the system worked” Napolitano to deal with the enormous problem America faces as a result of illegal immigrants. Perhaps if they weren’t so busy taking over the economy (which the Constitution forbids them from doing), they’d actually secure the border (which the Constitution requires them to do).

(more…)

Andrew Mellon

Killing Free Speech and Free Enterprise With One Stone

by Andrew Mellon

In modern day America, if you criticize the government you are now fair game to be called upon to explain yourself in front of it.  As Byron York reported in a recent Washington Examiner column, Rep. Henry Waxman sent letters to executives of major corporations such as Verizon and Caterpillar, requesting their testimony at hearings of the Subcomittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by none other than Rep. Bart Stupak, as each of the companies “announced that provisions in the [healthcare] law could adversely affect” their “ability to provide health insurance.”  AT&T for instance had disclosed in an SEC form that changes in the tax treatment of a Medicare subsidy would lead to a $1 billion write-off in earnings from the first quarter of 2010, and said it was considering changes to the health care benefits it provides for its employees.

waxman1

That the legislation would negatively affect the earnings of these corporations and potentially hamper their ability to provide healthcare is for Rep. Waxman “a matter of concern,” as the “new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs.”

But I wonder, for whom are the negative effects of this legislation really a concern?  For Rep. Waxman and his fellow Democrats who already forced the egregious bill on the public?  For the private enterprises pummeled seemingly on a daily basis by these same politicians?  Perhaps for the American people faced with all kinds of economy-crippling unintended consequences as a result of the legislation, on top of the higher costs and worse healthcare they will ultimately receive?

(more…)

Nick Gillespie

Reason.tv: 3 Reasons Why Public Sector Employees Are Killing The Economy

by Nick Gillespie

As unemployment stubbornly sticks near 10 percent and any sort of economic recovery seems a long way off, think about this: The one part of the economy that’s going gangbusters is government work.

Indeed, since the Great Recession started in December 2007, over 8 million jobs have been lost in the private sector while the public sector has added at least 100,000 positions. It’s time to recognize that public-sector employment is killing the economy for at least three reasons:

1. They cost too much. As USA Today recently noted, federal employees make on average almost $8,000 more than their private-sector counterparts. When you add in benefits, the gap spreads to about $30,000. State and local government workers make around the same as private-sector counterparts, but their health and retirement packages mean they make significantly more in the end.

2. We can’t fire them. The private sector has shed positions in response to slackening demand and the economic downturn. That sort of adjustment is painful but necessary, as it allows the economy to adjust to changing circumstances and workers and employers to move into new activities. Because it is guaranteed certain amounts of tax revenue and has a non-market mind-set, the public sector is largely insulated from such forces and keeps or even adds workers despite changed conditions. The result? We keep paying for things that we don’t use, need, or want.

(more…)

Jed Babbin

End ObamaCare, Don’t Mend It: 100% Repeal Is Only Option

by Jed Babbin

Winston Churchill – the statesman who defined champagne as “bottled sunshine” – often suffered bouts of deep depression.  He called that frequent companion his “black dog.”   After their drubbing in 2008 and Obama’s legislative tsunami – pausing, not ending in the enactment of the healthcare reform bill – some Republicans appear ready to settle in for a long political winter with Churchill’s black dog curled up at their feet.

Grenadiers_at_Marengo

Former presidential speechwriter David Frum, apparently eager to hug the black dog, wrote that the passage of Obamacare is the Republicans’ Waterloo, and that while they may retake the House or Senate this November, that wouldn’t matter because “This healthcare bill is forever.”

Frum merely gives voice to the thinking of the Old Republican Establishment.  They are comfortable in the minority, smiling – as former House Minority Leader Bob Michel used to – at the inability to direct national policy, adept at getting re-elected without the burden of leadership.

Frum’s reference to Waterloo is almost apt.  But the enactment of Obamacare isn’t the Republicans’ Waterloo.  If Frum knew his military history, he’d see it not as Waterloo, but as Marengo: a defeat that turned what could have been a devastating defeat into a crushing victory for Napoleon in June 1800.

(more…)

Marinka Peschmann

4 D Strategy: Clinton Redux and the War Against the Tea Party Part II

by Marinka Peschmann

[Note: This is Part II in an ongoing series about the Clinton Redux, the Obama Administration and their political wars against Americans. Click here for Part I]

With the passage of Obamacare, Democrats, assisted by the media, have been claiming that participants in the Tea Party Movement are behind a rash of harassment, racism, and violence against them. But their allegations are being debunked. See here, here and here.

Once again, Americans are being pitted against Americans, irrespective of the truth, at a level we have not since the Clinton era. The significant difference, however, is under the Obama Administration, instead of singling out individuals to target, smear and destroy; entire segments of Americans are under attack.

bill-clinton-3-08

As Big Government reported, the Clintonistas have reunited to take down the tea party movement. It appears we are witnessing the Clintons tactics of the 1990’s — injected with steroids.

In that spirit, it is instructive to review the Clinton tactics that were used to keep them in power.

(more…)

Larry O'Connor

Meet Another One of Harry Reid’s ‘Rent-a-Thugs’: Edward ‘Eddie’ Gering

by Larry O'Connor

When thousands of peaceful, Tea Party protestors came to Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nev. last Saturday, you would have thought that the favorite son of this hardscrabble, mining town would garner tons of local support.  Not so.  Members of IBEW Local 357 were called to action to agitate the crowd and, as we’ve previously shown, to hurl eggs at the busses carrying them.

Around 0:18 into the video released last night showing the exploding shell and yolk that came inches from Andrew Breitbart’s face, a loud protestor taunts Breitbart, smiling and mocking his condemnation of the egg-throwing.  “Glad you approve!” he sneers, “Thanks, man!”.

eddie 2

This guy really gets around.  Here he is at a Las Vegas healthcare townhall meeting back in August.

(more…)

Publius

Wednesday Open Thread: Virgins Edition

by Publius

Today, in 1917, the United States took possession of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The specific reasons remain unclear.

189734~Trunk-Bay-Panorama-Saint-John-US-Virgin-Islands-Posters

Derek Hunter

‘Education Is a Right’: The New Gateway Drug

by Derek Hunter

“Education is a right!” That was the mantra of the “progressives” marching a few weeks ago against proposed tuition increases for college students.  Implicit in that chant is the thought that college should be free for everyone, after all you can’t charge for a “right.” While I’d love to retroactively wash my hands of my student loan payments, this “belief” doesn’t hold up to scrutiny because it exposes the blatant hypocrisy of those chanting it.

No responsibility at all.

No responsibility at all.

To understand this you must first understand what is, in fact, a right. Many wrongly think the Constitution grants us our rights as Americans, that the right to free speech is our “First Amendment Right.”  Nothing could be more wrong.  The First Amendment does not grant you a right to free speech, it says you are born with it and the government cannot infringe upon it. (Read this for an explanation of this point.)

So, if education is a right along the lines of speech, the government has no business being involved in it in the first place. Yet those seeking a “free” education for everyone do not seek a government-free education, they seek a government monopoly of it.  Since education is a human right, the involvement of government can, logically, only serve to infringe upon that right.  But that’s not what these people are really about.

(more…)

Timothy H. Lee

The Ominous ‘S-Word’ – Secession

by Timothy H. Lee

After 230 years, are the American people coursing toward eventual divorce?

lib_con

Our polarized society increasingly ponders what would happen if American conservatives and liberals simply agreed that their differences had become irreconcilable, and redivided the nation to go their separate ways. Which side would prosper and experience an influx of migration from the other? Conversely, which side would likely become a fiscal and socio-political basket case?

Any reasonable person already knows the likely answer. One need only compare the smoldering wreckage wrought by liberal governance in such states as California or Michigan with the comparative prosperity created by conservative governance in such states as Texas or Utah. We can also examine the past 400 years, during which immigrants abandoned Europe for an America founded upon the fundamental principles of limited government and individual freedom.

Regardless, the above hypothetical has become increasingly frequent among both conservatives and liberals in recent years.

Following the 2004 election that they confidently expected would vindicate their 2000 rage and send President Bush back to Texas, liberals only half-jestfully proposed that “blue” states secede and join a new “United States of Canada.” Conservatives replied with a collective, “don’t let the screen door hit you in the [posterior] on your way out.”

(more…)

Dick Morris

Take Back Congress to Stop Obamacare

by Dick Morris

We don’t have to wait until we have a Republican in the White House to rid this nation of the shackles of Obamacare. We can do it next year if we win simple majorities in one or both houses of Congress.

The Obama health care bill was an authorization measure which established a program and set down its parameters. But authorization bills are not appropriations. Each year the Congress must act on appropriations for each department and agency in the government. If no funds are appropriated, nothing can be spent.

take back america

So if Republicans take the House (where appropriations have to originate) – and especially if they also take the Senate – they will have the capacity to zero fund Obamacare, appropriating not a dime for it in their spending bills. Indeed, they can and should include a specific amendment to their appropriations bills banning the expenditure of any of the funds on Obama’s health care program.

In the wake of the passage of the health care bill, states are filing lawsuits and talk of repeal is in the air. Both are useful efforts. But litigation takes time and the key challenge – to the constitutionality of the requirement that everybody buy insurance – cannot even begin until it takes effect in 2014. And repeal will obviously be impossible as long as Obama wields the veto from his Oval Office. It would be impossible mathematically for the Republicans to get a two-thirds majority in the Senate and unlikely in the House, so an override is out of the question. Repeal will have to wait until 2013, after Obama’s defeat in 2012. (more…)

Andrew Breitbart

I Am the Walrus; Jesse Walker, IBEW Local 357 in Las Vegas, Is the Eggman

by Andrew Breitbart

Goo goo g’joob:


Early today we pointed out video of the unidentified eggman of Searchlight, Nevada.

If you have any other evidence on the rent-a-thugs of the IBEW Local 357 caught in this series of videos who even dared to call the police and accuse me of what they had done, please email feedback@breitbart.com.  We are looking to do a series looking into this chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Why would they go to such length to agitate, misdirect, threaten, vandalize, and lie on behalf of Sen. Harry Reid and why would the police turn a blind eye to their misbehavior?

BONUS OBSERVATION:  The most eccentric union astroturfer featured a mouthful of something that looked like chewed up Saltine crackers (at 85% oral cavity capacity).  While one thug was threatening violence against me and the Eggman himself was claiming himself a moral high ground for the Democratic Party on race issues and while others were shoving their signs into my face and into the lenses of cameras filming the scene, the Saltine-spewer screamed at me with cracker particles exploding out of his mouth while no words were remotely decipherable.  Each agitator seemed to have trained skills of misdirection, incitement, and other forms of intimidation.  Is anyone aware of the Saltine-mouth-spew tactic?

Warner Todd Huston

Obama To Take Over Control of College Textbooks?

by Warner Todd Huston

Candace de Russy over at National Review posted an alarming example of an Obama power grab. Or perhaps more precisely it’s yet another alarming example of an Obama power grab. This time Obama apparently is setting the table to take control of what is printed in our nation’s college textbooks.

money

This one slipped past my radar in August of 2009, but apparently Barack Obama signed the Federal Textbook Act (Download .pdf file) that made provisions for the federal government to take control of the pricing and availability of the text books in our institutions of higher learning (at least the ones that take federal funding).

According to the language of the act, it is all about keeping textbooks affordable for students.

Purpose and Intent- The purpose of this section is to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and enhancing transparency and disclosure with respect to the selection, purchase, sale, and use of course materials. It is the intent of this section to encourage all of the involved parties, including faculty, students, administrators, institutions of higher education, bookstores, distributors, and publishers, to work together to identify ways to decrease the cost of college textbooks and supplemental materials for students while supporting the academic freedom of faculty members to select high quality course materials for students.

Sounds good, right?

Maybe not so much.

(more…)

Frank Gaffney

Will DNC Chair Tim Kaine and Congressmen Connolly and Moran Attend the Dar Al-Hijrah Fundraiser?

by Frank Gaffney

Guess which elected officials are invited to the terrorist-linked Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center Annual Fundraising Dinner April 3 – and who, in spite of repeated requests, have not removed their names from the very public flyer for the event: Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, and Fairfax Supervisor Penny Gross, as our mini-documentary proves:


On Saturday, April 3, the terrorist-linked Islamic Center Dar Al Hijrah in the Washington DC suburbs will hold their annual fundraising banquet.  The original flyer headlined  that seven elected officials were “invited”: former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, now Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Sen. James Webb (D-VA), Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, Fairfax Supervisor Penny Gross, and Virginia State Delegate Kaye Kory.   We thought that those elected officials would not want their names associated Dar Al-Hijrah, long-known as an al-Qaeda linked Islamic center, on which we had posted at Biggovernment.com on February 14.  So on February 17, we mailed and faxed a letter to each of the seven elected officials, alerting them to the invitation using their names, and asking them if they would remove their names as invitees.

Within a few days, Senator James Webb and State Delegate Kaye Kory’s names were removed from the invitation.

(more…)

Capitol Confidential

Google Buzz Privacy Flaw Snags Another Victim: White House Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin

by Capitol Confidential

It’s been several weeks now since the disastrous rollout of Google Buzz’s initial social networking platform.  It was on February 9ththat Google Buzz unleashed its newest foray into social media to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

google_buzz_icon_extralarge

According to a post on Google’s Official Blog at the time, Buzz was touted as a service that was built “right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch… Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email with and chat with the most.”

And therein lies the problem…  Almost immediately, Buzz was lambasted for taking huge liberties with Gmail users’ privacy.  By default, the Gmail contacts of each new Buzz user were made publicly available in their Google profiles for the world to see.  The Buzz-o-sphere even included “follow” links, which meant that any prying snoop could harvest the contact lists of other Buzz users as well.

Well, now we’ve learned that one of those who apparently got swept up in the Buzz privacy imbroglio was none other than Andrew McLaughlin, the controversial Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the Obama White House who was formerly Google’s top lobbyist.

McLaughlin works in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and is in charge of all Internet policy for the Administration.  The two key components of OSTP’s mission are the creation of an “Open and Transparent Democracy”, and ironically, “Safeguarding the Privacy of Every American” by … “holding businesses accountable for violations of personal privacy.”  (More on this in a moment.)

McLaughlin’s Buzz profile (which he quickly made private after his contacts were exposed) is enlightening to say the least.  It includes a treasure trove of movers and shakers in high-tech, Internet public policy, and venture capital circles.

But it includes much, much more.  At least 28 of the folks Google Buzz pulled from McLaughlin’s Gmail contact list are employed by…Google!  And, as you can see from the screenshots below (captured before he made his contact lists private) McLaughlin’s Gmail appears to include a “who’s who” of Google senior lobbyists and lawyers from across the globe:

(more…)

Andrew  Marcus

VIDEO – The Egg Man Of Seachlight, Nevada

by Andrew Marcus

egg man still

When we first reported that Harry Reid Supporters threw eggs at the Tea Party Express bus, some on the left tried to blame Andrew Breitbart, claiming that it never happened, or that if it did, Breitbart probably threw the eggs himself to make the Reid supporters look bad.

Too bad for them there is video. In this clip, a Reid supporting union man is busted egg handed!


The egg man featured above was also recorded calling Breitbart a racist, and blocking our camera, almost pushing me out into the street.

(more…)