What happens in economic lean times? It helps clarify the mind on how we spend scarce resources and, in particular, it forces us to reconsider costly “feel good” environmentalist policies.

So it’s not entirely surprising to get the news from Gallup that “Americans are more likely to say the U.S. should prioritize development of energy supplies than to say it should prioritize protecting the environment, the first time more have favored energy production over environmental protection in this question’s 10-year history.”

Here’s the graphical evidence:

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In a blow to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its Chairman, Julius Genachowski, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today ruled against the agency in a case brought by Comcast.  At issue in the court action was the question of whether the FCC currently has sufficient authority to regulate broadband services.  The Court has now determined that it does not.

Already being interpreted as a major slap in the face to the agency, the ruling could have major implications for how Genachowski proceeds in implementing his vision with regard to broadband policy—a vision that critics charge encompasses heavy-handed, excessive and unnecessary government regulation.  As Capitol Confidential has previously reported, Genachowski is a champion of a policy known as “net neutrality,” which is broadly opposed by a coalition of internet service providers (ISPs), communications workers, minority, women’s and artists’ groups, and large numbers of congressional Republicans and Democrats.

The ruling leaves open three options for Genachowski in continuing to push for heightened regulation.  First, the FCC can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.  Second, the FCC could urge Congress to rewrite legislation.  Third, the FCC could pursue what some observers have dubbed a “sweeping reclassification” of broadband services under an existing set of rules which relate to telephone services.

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As far as white people go, you couldn’t get much whiter than Teddy Kennedy. He was utterly luminescent. Running around in his boxer shorts, chasing the college girls his nephew William brought home that night, he must have appeared almost ghost-like. Yet when he proposed Nationalized Healthcare, we soundly rejected it.

I can’t think of a bigger white cracker redneck than William Jefferson Clinton. He grew up in a trailer, and had a pick-up truck lined with Astroturf. While he was fooling around in the Oval Office, his wife tried to get Nationalized Health Care passed. America hated that idea so much, that we turned over the House and Senate to the Republicans for the first time in 40 years.

But now that Barack Obama has managed to shove a deplorable piece of questionably constitutional legislation through the corrupt purchasable legislature, we are tarred as racists for criticizing his actions.

We weren’t even allowed to hope he failed. That remark caused a lot of ruckus over the past year. For some reason if you don’t want the President’s agenda to pass, you are rooting against the Nation. Yet for eight years our opponents were allowed to get away with the remark: “I support the troops but I don’t support the mission.”

It always sounded kind of dumb to me, like “I support the Cubs, I just don’t want them to win the World Series” (and in my lifetime, they’ve yet to disappoint). Now when we on the Right say that we support the President, but not his policies, we are ignorant bigots. Which brings us around to the most common rationale you hear on the Left. “They’re only opposed to Barack Obama’s health bill, because they don’t want a black guy in the White House.”

I beg to differ.

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The Left is escalating their attacks against Republicans, conservatives and the Tea Party movement. The movement that the Left and the media have laughed off for over a year now as a radical fringe of racists, bigots, homophobes, and domestic terrorists has come to pose a serious threat to the entitlement establishment and to the agenda that the Democrats promised their base. Now, they’re lashing out. They’re fabricating stories which are later disavowed. There is talk of infiltrating upcoming events. Attacks on organizations and individuals have increased.

To provide an example, the FreedomWorks office recently received this postcard in the mail (offensive language):

The return address listed Kim Hendren. Kim Hendren is a Republican in the Arkansas state legislature who is running for US Senate in 2010. To state the obvious, it would bring stupid to a new level to send something like this on an open postcard and list your name and address – especially if you were running for office. After we received a second installment of the hate-filled postcards, the FreedomWorks staff did some digging. We contacted Kim Hernden’s office and questioned him about it, and he filled us in on the smear campaigns against him. He’s been on the receiving end of relentless political attacks throughout his campaign, and was honestly not surprised that someone had taken to writing hate-speech in his name.

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Sean Mahoney, a New Hampshire businessman who until today served as the Republican National Committeeman for the Granite State, announced today he is resigning from the RNC. Mahoney, who has served on the RNC’s Conservative Steering Committee and co-sponsored an RNC resolution against government bailouts, drew a grim comparison between out-of-control government spending in Washington and the RNC’s own profligacy in a letter to Chairman Michael Steele today.  While blasting recent RNC scandals and writing the Committee “has clearly lost its way,” Mahoney writes favorably of the Tea Party movement in his letter.

2010 04-06 RNC Letter

“Thus, it is with profound disappointment that I tender my resignation today as Republican National Committeeman for New Hampshire,” Writes Mahoney.  “I have concluded that there simply has to be a more productive and meaningful way to serve the causes I care most about – preserving what’s left of our individual liberties, restoring the liberties we have lost and drastically reducing the size and scope of the federal government.”

Mahoney continues, “On April 15th, for example, hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of ordinary Americans all across the country will make a statement that Washington is out of control and out of touch.”

“The powerful in Washington will belittle these folks and dismiss their list of legitimate grievances,” he concluded.  “As for me, I would prefer to stand with the hundreds of concerned taxpayers in Manchester, New Hampshire who have courageously cut back their family budgets to make ends meet rather than with a crowd of self-important politicians who spend other people’s money with reckless disregard.”

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In the vernacular of financial commentary, “PIGS” is the term recently coined by the financial markets to refer to sovereign countries whose economies are virtually bankrupt and whose bonds are virtually worthless. These are the basket cases of the international economic system — Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.  Recent evidence suggests that the fiscally irresponsible PIGS may soon have a new applicant for membership in their club.  Membership in this particular club is somewhat reminiscent of Groucho Marx’s famous remark that “I wouldn’t belong to any club that would have me for a member.” The new expanded club’s acronym is shaping up to be (you guessed it) USPIGS.  No, the United States is not about to go bankrupt.  Not yet, anyway. We are, however, pursuing the very same types of vast spending policies that brought the PIGS of Europe face to face with that real possibility.

What have we done recently to be considered for membership in this club of dubious distinction?  Last week, government budget personnel revised their estimate of when Social Security would begin running in the red from 2017 to, essentially, “right away.”  Yes, Social Security is broke…right now!  So much for government estimates.

The announcement of this distressing news was, it appears, kept well under wraps until Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid along with a shamelessly compliant Democratic Congress safely ramrodded Obamacare, with its astonishing price tag, into law. The entitlement sinkhole just got an order of magnitude bigger.  “But,” one might ask,  “haven’t we been accumulating all the excess funds paid into Social Security all these years in a special trust fund.”  Well, not exactly.  In fact, not even almost exactly.  You see, the government has been vacuuming out the excess cash as soon as it comes in and spending the money (the money we all paid in) to pay the government’s current bills.  The trust-fund cash has been replaced all this time with IOU’s (that’s internal Treasury debt), which are now being called to meet current payment obligations.  These IOU’s are being replaced, of course, with even more IOU’s but this time there is no more cash to divert from payroll taxes to fund government operations. We have to borrow more.

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Yesterday on Big Government, Levi Russel, the communications director of the Tea Party Express posted an update about the status of the police investigation into who threw eggs at the Tea Party Express bus in Searchlight, Nevada.

With egg yolk dripping down his windshield and obscuring visibility, Tea Party Express bus driver Jerry Ragle pulled to the side of the road and told an officer what had happened, giving a brief description of the thrower.

We could be mistaken, but perhaps that description is what led the officer on the scene to look for a man in a mask, (1:19 in the video below):

Poring over our images and footage, we can find only one Harry Reid supporter wearing a mask that day:

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The Obama Administration is putting the best face on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) recent March 2010 jobless numbers report, touting the steady nationwide jobless number of 9.7%.  But for minorities, the news is bad and getting worse.

The really bad news is buried in the middle of the 38 page report.  The BLS data reveals an alarming and growing divergence between the number of white and the number of minorities that are unemployed.  Worse yet, it is clear that minorities, especially African Americans, are falling further behind.  If unchecked, the long term implications of that imbalance are nightmarish for the nation.

Larry Summers and others in the Administration have not yet shown much interest in the appalling unemployment rates for minorities and, instead, exude childlike enthusiasm at the nation’s overall jobless rate that held steady for the 2^nd consecutive month.

While the unemployment for white Americans averaged 9.3%, African Americans averaged 16.6%, just a little less than double the rate of white unemployment.   Hispanic Americans reported 13.3% unemployment, while recent, young veterans are averaging 14.7%.  Black men, over 20 years old, are showing 20.2% unemployment and teenaged, African Americans, ages 16-19, of both sexes, show a mind-boggling 39.3% unemployed.  Hispanic teens also report a staggering 30.3% unemployment.  The long-term repercussions of these unemployment numbers are troubling, yet the Administration is curiously silent.

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Remember our Rogues’ Gallery of Reid supporters from last week?  Let’s call them “The Searchlight Four”.  They were the highest profile members of the “Rent-a-Thug” protest in support of Sen. Harry Reid on Saturday, March 27th.  Their preferred method of showing support for the Majority Leader of the United States Senate?  Throwing eggs at a bus full of private citizens assembling in the Senator’s hometown to exercise their 1st Amendment rights.

Let’s re-aquaint ourselves with the Searchlight Four:

This is “The Eggman”

Jesse Walker threw an egg at the Tea Party bus.  He is a member of IBEW Local 357 and he was also instructing Andrew Breitbart on the finer, nuanced points of racial politics in America today:

“The demographics of this country is changing, your way of thinking is dead.”

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If I had the ability to write a song that captured the spirit of the Tea Party movement and my love of this country, it would be Jon David’s “American Heart.”

That’s why I’ve been asking Jon to play it at Tea Parties.  I’ve seen and heard the reaction to this song in Quincy, Nashville, Nevada, and soon DC on April 15.  The story behind the writing of “American Heart” is also a great example of how pride and creativity can flourish in the contorted face of left wing hate and misguided patriotism.

And that’s why I’m asking you to Tweet, Facebook, and email “American Heart” to whomever you can. This should be our anthem.

I’m American made. I’ve got American parts. I’ve got American faith in America’s heart.

Go on raise the flag. I’ve got stars in my eyes. I’m in love with Her and I won’t apologize.

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Today, in 1814, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. It wouldn’t take.

My post last week about the flat tax generated a lot of friendly comment and email, but also some pointed questions about whether a national sales tax such as the Fair Tax would be a better approach. Since I’ve written favorably about a national sales tax, debated in favor of a national sales tax, and even testified to the Ways & Means Committee about the positive attributes of a national sales tax, I certainly have no objection to that reform. Any single-rate, consumption-base tax would be a vast improvement over our corrupt and punitive internal revenue code.

So why, then, do I spend most of my time on the flat tax? The simple answer is that I don’t trust Washington. We know the politicians are salivating at the prospect of imposing a broad-based consumption levy such as the value-added tax. And we know they want the VAT in addition to the income tax. What’s to stop them from saying they’ll impose a national sales tax, promising to repeal other taxes, but then pulling a bait and switch and giving us both? As I explain in this video, the national sales tax should only happen after supporters amend the Constitution to repeal the 16th Amendment and replace it with an ironclad ban on income taxation to protect against political duplicity.

Amending the Constitution, however, is a daunting challenge. Does anyone really think a proposed amendment to prohibit income taxation would attract the required two-thirds support in both the House and the Senate? Even when Republicans were in charge, there were not enough votes to approve a watered-down balanced budget amendment, so it seems unlikely that a far bolder proposal could attract sufficient support. And even if Congress approved such an amendment, what are the odds that three-fourths of the states would ratify?

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It’s been about a week since eggs thrown by Harry Reid supporters exploded onto the windshield of the Tea Party Express bus as it rolled through his hometown of Searchlight, NV. The crime, reported to police just moments after it happened, was ignored by local authorities, who wouldn’t return phone calls and dodged responsibility with a line stolen from bad police movies, “Nothing we can do, that’s not our jurisdiction.”

With egg yolk dripping down his windshield and obscuring visibility, Tea Party Express bus driver Jerry Ragle pulled to the side of the road and told an officer what had happened, giving a brief description of the thrower. In the days following, Jerry has followed up with repeated calls to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, yet was unable to get any law enforcement to take interest in the attack. On the first call to LVMPD, he was told he’d have to call back later – the person that takes reports was at lunch.  Evidently crime takes a regular lunch break in Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, which must be remarkably convenient.  Jerry left a message, and waited all day for a return call that never came. (more…)

This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” April 2, 2010.

RICH LOWRY, GUEST HOST: Good evening, I’m Rich Lowry in tonight for Sean Hannity. It seems that those on the left feel that the First Amendment applies only to themselves. Members of the Tea Party movement saw that firsthand last weekend as they attempted to travel to a rally in Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada.

Reid supporters lined the streets throwing eggs at the Tea Party buses as they passed by. There are even reports that some of those Reid supporters intentionally redirected buses in the wrong direction as they approach the rally.

Journalist Andrew Breitbart was there and watched it all go down. Take a look:

ANDREW BREITBART, BIGGOVERNMENT.COM: They throw eggs. They’re throwing eggs. Lovely. They threw eggs, isn’t that nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody on the bus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get them out of here or I’m going to jail today. Get him out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of my way.

BREITBART: What did you just say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said I love you! In spite of what you are! You heard what I said.

BREITBART: You’re going to jail if I don’t get out of here? (more…)

It’s a health care-palooza on the podcast this week. With Rob Long MIA deep in the San Fernando valley, Peter Robinson and  Mark Steyn  ably carry on and talk to Victor Davis Hanson and Indiana Governor (and possible presidential candidate Mitch Daniels about what happened, why it happened, and where to go from here. All that and David Frum too. Questions? Comments? Fan us on our Facebook page or write us at podcast@ricochet.com.

Last week, we reported that Obama administration Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin –who headed up Google’s lobbying shop before joining the administration – had been ensnared in the Google Buzz privacy imbroglio when his Gmail contacts were made publicly available through his Google Buzz profile…and they revealed that McLaughlin’s most emailed Gmail contacts included more than two-dozen Google employees, including many of the company’s most senior lobbyists and lawyers.

Now, Consumer Watchdog has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the White House to obtain all e-mails and Buzz correspondence between Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin and his former employer, Google.

McLaughlin’s Google Buzz account also included correspondence directly to the Google Buzz development team soon after the launch of the service inquiring about how he could communicate privately with his Gmail contacts on Buzz.  In one enlightening post, McLaughlin inquired:

“How do I delete or block followers?  There are a bunch of random people showing up whom I don’t know, and who I don’t want to read my Buzz items.”

As we pointed out, none of this suggests impropriety on the part of McLaughlin per se.  It’s not necessarily unreasonable for McLaughlin to be communicating with his former friends and colleagues at Google, although it does seem odd that McLaughlin (a senior White House official) made repeated inquiries of the Google Buzz development team about how he could communicate with his Gmail contacts, many of whom are Google lobbyists and lawyers, privately over Buzz.

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Over the weekend, Tribune Corp’s Oscar Avila played stupid in his coverage of the Chicago Tea Party:

One year ago at a downtown Chicago tea party rally, a confrontation between a television reporter and activists crystallized the emotions surrounding the movement that so loudly opposed health care reform as an unwelcome expansion of government.

In a video widely circulated online, many at the rally felt a CNN reporter was arrogantly dismissing what they consider valid fears of runaway spending and taxes when she focused on the most inflammatory signs. Some of those signs said President Barack Obama’s policies are socialism and one alleged that he is a fascist.

But when protester Kathy Barkulis, of Deer Park, asked the reporter if she was “playing stupid,” it confirmed the image among others that the tea party movement is indeed inflaming the public debate with angry rhetoric.

Wow. That is selective stupidity, and willful ignorance. Conveniently for Oscar and his Tribune bosses, they have not yet discovered how to link to or embed video in their posts. If they were educated as to the steps necessary to show their readers the video referenced in their own article, readers would surly notice a disconnect in the characterization written above.

Let’s go to the tape:

So……..Kathy Barkulis is to blame for making Liberals think the Tea Party movement is inflammatory? Funny how Oscar failed to mention that CNN’s Susan Roesgen verbally attacked a man holding a two year old, and was subsequently released from her position at the Democrat media organ.

Oscar, do your job. Not the White House’s.

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[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 and Part II]

The attacks on the tea party movement are continuing. In a March 28 New York Times article, When Does Political Anger Turn to Violence? The NYT ran a photograph juxtaposing the 1960s terrorist group, the Weather Underground Organization, on top of a photo of protestors protesting Obamacare in Washington.

The caption: “Varying degrees of rage: The Weathermen, including Bill Ayers, second from right, during the Days of Rage in 1969, and anti-health reform protesters in Washington on Sunday.”

In the article, the “anti-health reform” protestors are identified as tea party protestors. Bill Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist and former leader of the Weathermen, by his own account, is President Obama’s “family friend,” At minimum, Ayers launched Obama’s political career from his house in Chicago. Today he is a “distinguished” professor. During his Weathermen days, Ayers said: “We are revolutionary Communists. We’re fighting to destroy imperialism and established (sic) a socialist state.” Does that sound like the Tea Party Movement?

Let’s take a look at Ayers’ Weathermen to distinguish where their anger came from that turned to violence to see if the NYT is on to something. We know the anti-health reform/tea party protestors are angry over Obamacare.

To start, to my knowledge, the tea party protestors have not traveled to Fidel Castro’s Cuba to conspire against America, unlike Bill Ayers. According to a series of declassified 1976 FBI reports, released under the Freedom of Information Act, Ayers, and his future wife Bernadine Dohrn traveled to Castro’s Cuba before the October 1969 Days of Rage riots as part of the Venceremos Brigades.

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Now that the health care bill has been passed into law, many Americans are asking, what’s next? Will it be Immigration Reform?  Will it be Cap and Trade in the Senate?

Take a cue from the White House’s recent announcement to use TARP funds to expand the housing aid program, which will also enable some homeowners to refinance their current private-lender mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) instead.  And if you’ve followed some of my SEIU posts in recent months, you know very well that Financial Reform has been number two on their list.

Just days ago, the Senate Banking Committee approved Senator Chris Dodd’s (D-CT)  financial reform proposal, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.  Behind the scenes, Dodd is said to have been working with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) to negotiate a final version of the bill that the House will approve.  Just two weeks before it passed the Health Care bill last December, the House passed H.R.4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009.  While Dodd’s bill is viewed as less stringent than the House bill, both include a controversial stand-alone Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).  If these next several weeks of closed-door negotiations are successful, word on The Hill is that we could see financial reform enacted by Memorial Day.

The proposed legislation, most specifically the CFPA, extends far beyond Wall Street; it will expand government even further and give it unprecedented powers like never before.  And with more government power comes the potential for abuse.

Let’s be reminded, for example, of what Senator Chuck Schumer did to one financial institution in 2008.

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