Money will make a whore out of just about anyone, apparently even unionized teachers.

The American Federation of Teachers recently passed a resolution at its annual convention which demands an immediate cessation of American activities in Afghanistan. From the Democratic Socialists of America website:

Delegates adopted a resolution that puts the giant teacher union on new ground in opposition to the war and occupation of Afghanistan, opposing any further escalation and calling for “rapid, orderly withdrawal of all armed forces and military contractors, to begin immediately.”

But what’s funny – not to mention hypocritical – is that the teachers union is also pushing the $80 billion war spending bill because it contains pork for public schools. The bill is now in the Senate where it faces likely changes or defeat altogether.

So on the one hand, the union opposes the war, but will push to continue funding it if it contains funds for its members.

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Republicans in the House of Representatives are seeking to force a vote, using a discharge petition, on repealing Obamacare. This has caused some infighting since some Republicans want to simply repeal the monstrosity that passed earlier this year, while other GOPers are in the repeal-and-replace camp (Heritage Action is leading the pure repeal effort and National Review has good coverage here and here).

I’m not an expert on the politics of healthcare and discharge petitions, but my gut instinct is that a pure repeal vote is the best short-term strategy. Having said that, there should be no question that good policy requires much more than repeal. In this new Center for Freedom and Prosperity video, Eline van den Broek of the European Independent Institute explains that Obamacare should be repealed, but she also makes a key observation that the American healthcare system was in deep trouble even before that legislation was adopted and sweeping reforms are needed for Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code’s healthcare exclusion.

I especially like the “Health Freedom Meter” in the video. Citing government data on the huge share of healthcare spending that already is being financed by taxpayers – and showing that only 12 percent is financed directly by consumers, the Health Freedom Meter shows that Obamacare moved America from having a healthcare system 67 percent controlled by government to a system 79 percent controlled by government. That’s obviously a step in the wrong direction, but it also makes clear that repealing Obamacare means a system that will still be burdened with far too much government invovlement and intervention.

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Funny, but with a tinge of seriousness…

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The number of wealthy Americans living in the UK who are renouncing their US citizenship is rising rapidly as more expatriates seek to escape paying tax to the US on their worldwide income and gains and shed their “non-dom” status, accountants say. As many as 743 American expatriates made the irreversible decision to discard their passports last year, according to the US government – three times as many as in 2008. …There is a waiting list at the embassy in London for people looking to give up citizenship, with the earliest appointments in February, lawyers and accountants say. …“The big disadvantage with American citizens is they catch you on tax wherever you are in the world. If you are taxed only in the UK, you have the opportunity of keeping your money offshore tax free.”

When I was a kid, the only time I was allowed to say “bad words” was when I was tattling on someone else (usually my older brother or sister), such as “Mommy Paul said F**K.” These days it has become easier to tattle, the bad curse word simply became a letter, the “F” word.

Somewhere around the OJ trial, that horrible word nigger became the “N” word, and unless it is being used in by an African American comedian, it gets bleeped out when someone says it on TV or radio. On those crazy Mel Gibson tapes that have been unearthed during the past few weeks every other word is bleeped out because of his liberal use of the “F” and “N” words.

Some people believe that things have gone too far, this “F” and “N” word business an example political correctness gone too far. I say nay, nay we have not gone far enough.

“F” and “N” are only two of the 26 letters in the alphabet, what about the other 24 letters, let’s face it they must be feeling left out. So in honor of a society where some people say the scientific term “black hole” is racist, allow me to suggest it would be helpful to have a guide to all 26 letters of the alphabet. So after some consultation with the President’s word Czar NY Times Columnist Frank Rich, these are the words that we will no longer be able to say completely we will only be able to describe by letter:

• “A” Word- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama is going to give him one more chance (again).

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When Howard Dean implemented his “50 State Strategy” most, including some in his own party, considered his plan to be unworkable and more importantly “unwinnable”. After the resounding sweep of the Democrats in 2006 and Obama in 2008, the RNC has only feebly attempted to replicate this strategy.

From Wikipedia:

“As chairman of the party, Dean created and employed the ‘50 State Strategy’ that attempted to make Democrats competitive in normally conservative states often dismissed in the past as ’solid red.’ The success of the strategy became apparent after the 2006 midterm elections, where Democrats took back the House and picked up seats in the Senate from normally Republican states such as Missouri and Montana. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama used ‘The 50 state strategy’ as the backbone of his candidacy.”

As the November 2010 mid-term elections rapidly approaches it  is now even more important to focus on every race, every state, and every primary. Blogger Melissa Clouthier describes the problem in the Republican party:

“The Republicans conceding in between elections as well as races, themselves, has been a tremendous source of irritation. It is one thing to microtarget and write off a district because it’s ‘unwinnable’. The problem is that too many areas were written off that could, in this election, be won. And now, with no foundation there, it makes the task of winning more difficult. Texas isn’t the only place this has happened. In fact, this is a problem nationwide for Republicans. With a lack of organization and get out the vote effort and the lack of relationship building, many potentially winnable races will be lost simply because there is no there, there. It’s been conceded.”

Clouthier’s article includes a review of a primary race in a solidly red state of Georgia. In Georgia’s 12^th Congressional district candidate Ray McKinney is running a tight primary race against former fire chief Carl Smith, Jr. McKinney, a former supporter of Smith, has run a solid campaign while Smith has been embroiled in a number of ethical situations reminiscent of Democrat candidates. This is where the problem lies, as the Tea Party activists have become more politically savvy, every candidate must be held to a higher standard. To ensure a government that is free of corruption, the people must be willing to expose those within their own party whose actions are not aligned with our values.

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There’s a new site to add to your blogroll:  Congress Shall Make No Law.

The site, which has the address makenolaw.org, empowers grassroots activists from around the country that are standing up and saying no to unconstitutional attacks on free speech coming in the guise of campaign finance reform.  The site explains all the latest news and events going on in this increasingly complex area of law.  All of the writers are First Amendment attorneys and experts at the Institute for Justice (IJ)—the libertarian law firm dedicated to striking down campaign finance laws in state and federal courts.

The unfortunate reality is this:  Campaign finance laws are a way to regulate speech and silence speakers.  And they have seriously negative impacts on everyday Americans.

Consider Karen Sampson of Parker North, Colorado:

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Paul Krugman has been on a roll the last two weeks. After announcing that America is in its “Third Depression” last week, he provided an encore last weekend, by blaming U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for his concerns about the evils of deficit spending for failing to increase economic stimulation of the economy. During the Great Depression President Franklin Roosevelt brushed away concerns regarding the wisdom of deficit spending by saying; “If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.” Perhaps Professor Krugman is frustrated that so many Americans have not enshrined the boondoggle of deficit spending in their hearts the same way he has.

Our good Professor just won the Nobel Prize for economics in October 2008, for his theory, that to be economically dominant, industries must concentrate their producers and suppliers into a common metropolitan area near their customers to maximize economies of scale and transportation savings. His model perfectly explained the 1950’s and 1960’s success of the U.S. auto industry’s tight concentration of assembly plants, steel foundries and parts suppliers in and around the city of Detroit; and within one days delivery to the bulk of their big city customers.

But Krugman’s theory of economic dominance through concentration has been rendered meaningless by modern supply chain management revolution that interconnects competitive vendors from across the globe. China has a massive balance of payments surplus because they can competitively ship products 10,000 miles to Detroit and beat local parts manufacturers on price and quality. Just nine months after our Nobel Laureate picked up his $1.8 million check and Norwegian hardware, General Motors, the poster child of the Professor’s industrial policy, filed the largest bankruptcy in the U.S. history in September 2009 with only $82 billion in assets, but $172 billion in debt.

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With a bad-blood, confidence-destroying battle royale going on between Team Obama and business, you would think a highly publicized White House jobs summit would have produced some kind of positive announcement that gives a nod to the business point of view.

After all, as part of his so-called “business charm offensive,” the president is arguing that “it’s the private sector that has always been the source of our job creation, our economic growth, and our prosperity; and it’s our businesses and workers who will take the reins of this recovery and lead us forward.”

He also says “the free market depends on a government that sets clear rules that ensure fair and honest competition,” and that “too much regulation or too much spending can stifle innovation, can hamper confidence and growth, and hurt business and families.”

But uncertainty over the regulatory-and-tax rules of the road is exactly what has buffaloed business and stifled the animal spirits that are so necessary for investment and job creation.

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DISGUSTING— NAACP Chief and smear merchant Ben Jealous just linked the tea party groups to the KKK, Stormfront and David Duke.

And, it looks like he just labeled the tea party a “white supremist group.”

Unbelievable.

Via CNN:

This week at the NAACP annual convention, we passed over 75 resolutions. They addressed critical issues from education equity, to fixing our broken criminal justice and immigration systems, to our top priority: jobs, jobs, jobs.

One resolution, which was highlighted in my convention speech, created media frenzy: The unanimously passed resolution demanded that the leadership of the Tea Party repudiate its racist elements and make it clear that there is no space in the organization for bigotry.

It is unfortunate that at a time when our nation is reeling in the midst of one of the most devastating downturns in our economy since the Great Depression, the NAACP is compelled to deal with a disturbing, corrosive attack from the Tea Party.

Instead of joining us to repudiate racism, Tea Party leaders have attempted a tit for tat and demanded that we condemn the New Black Panther Party for reported hate speech. It is a false argument. Of course we condemn hate speech from anyone and any organization, including the New Black Panther Party. But that party is a mere flea compared to the influence and size of the Tea Party. And the New Black Panther Party is not a member of the NAACP. What we are asking the Tea Party to eschew is not the racism of some outside organization, but the bigotry within.

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The United States never was intended to be a democracy, but rather a compound republic delegating clearly enumerated powers to the federal government and creating a masterfully designed system of checks and balances amongst its three branches meant to limit Washington’s intrusions on the sovereignties of the several states and the liberties of their peoples.

As attentive students of the New Deal know, however, any brake that the federal judiciary might think of applying to the expansion of the central government’s powers was undermined by FDR’s proposal to “pack” the Supreme Court after his landslide reelection to the White House in 1936. Although it failed to become law, the court-packing plan nevertheless soon was followed by the famous “switch in time that saved nine”, thereby ushering in a period of judicial deference to the executive and legislative branches that fulfilled the president’s intent, namely securing a working majority of justices willing to clear the path of constitutional objections to the Social Security Act, the Wagner Labor Relations Act, minimum wages and other legislative monuments to his “progressive” agenda. More than any other consequence of FDR’s politically-motivated meddling, the Commerce Clause thereafter became a dead letter, as Ms. Kagan candidly admitted during her recent confirmation hearings.

Mr. Obama apparently has as little respect for the third branch of government as FDR had. Twice rebuffed in tests of the moratorium he imposed on offshore deepwater drilling by the federal courts, issued by executive order on May 27, the president responded by ordering a new ban on exploratory drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet, effective until November 30.

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When hard times come, people might wake up. They might have to rethink their foundational beliefs. Some of that may be happening right now as the Obama administration leads the nation ever deeper into a moral, political, and economic decline. This was supposed to be New Deal II. Well, maybe it is, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. If we can come up with a leader who has learned his or her lessons from this experience, there might be hope for real change.

It happened before in the case of Ronald Reagan. Raised a New Deal liberal, Reagan never seriously questioned his political faith until after World War II. It was then that he became president of the Screen Actors Guild and had to confront the enemy in the form of communist subversion of the movie industry. Communist-led strikes created chaos; lives were threatened—even Reagan’s. He had to carry a gun for months after an anonymous caller warned that his actions would end his career. He was told later that plans had been made to throw acid in his face.

Reagan became the voice of the actors in congressional hearings. He went to Washington to testify in 1947.

Reagan Testifying at Congressional Hearings on Communism in Hollywood

In his autobiography, he stated,

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Today, in 1945, leaders of the Allied powers met at Potsdam to finalize plans for the post WWII world. The US ceded most ground and allowed Eastern Europe to be absorbed by the Soviets. It would take several decades to set right. No doubt, the US position was probably applauded by the media.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) has falsely accused  the Tea Party of having ties to the Ku Klux Klan.  Speaking at the NAACP convention, she said: “All those who wore sheets a long time ago lifted them off to wear Tea Party clothing.”

Now is the time to speak some Truth to Power.

It would have been far more truthful for the congresswoman to have admitted the fact that all those who wore sheets a long time ago lifted them to wear Democratic Party clothing.  Yes, the Ku Klux Klan was established by the Democratic Party.  Yes, the Ku Klux Klan murdered thousands of Republicans — African-American and white – in the years following the Civil War.  Yes, the Republican Party and a Republican President, Ulysses Grant, destroyed the KKK with their Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

How did the Ku Klux Klan re-emerge in the 20th century?  For that, the Democratic Party is to blame.

It was a racist Democrat President, Woodrow Wilson, who premiered Birth of a Nation in the White House.  That racist movie was based on a racist book written by one of Wilson’s racist friends from college.  In 1915, the movie spawned the modern-day Klan, with its burning crosses and white sheets.

Inspired by the movie, some Georgia Democrats revived the Klan.  Soon, the Ku Klux Klan again became a powerful force within the Democratic Party.  The KKK so dominated the 1924 Democratic Convention that Republicans, speaking truth to power, called it the Klanbake.  In the 1930s, a Democrat President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, appointed a Klansman, Senator Hugo Black (D-AL), to the U.S. Supreme Court.  In the 1950s, the Klansmen against whom the civil rights movement struggled were Democrats.  The notorious police commissioner Bull Connor, who attacked African-Americans with dogs and clubs and fire hoses, was both a Klansman and the Democratic Party’s National Committeeman for Alabama.  Starting in the 1980s, the Democratic Party elevated a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), to third-in-line for the presidency.

Speaking more Truth to Power, the Republican Party has been a resolute enemy of the Ku Klux Klan, terrorist wing of the Democratic Party.

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Click to Play

The band is back together this week as James Lileks, Jonah Goldberg, Mickey Kaus, and John Hinderaker discuss everything from how to handle rude emailers, using obscure Star Trek references to describe the President, ponder whether Mickey Kaus is a closeted Tea Partier, an insider on Pawlenty’s chances in 2012, and a better than decent Nixon impersonation from a most unlikely source. All links discussed in the show (including the explanation of the name of episode) may be found in the podcast discussion thread at Ricochet.com.

Now, here’s your patented Ricochet Run Down™:
00:00 – Open Chat with James Lileks
06:15   – Jonah Goldberg
31:05 – Mickey Kaus
49:40 -  John Hinderaker
Questions? Comments? The conversation continues at Ricochet.com or write us at podcast@ricochet.com.

Rep. Elijah Cummings was on with Andrea Mitchell this week to discuss the bogus tea party racism story. Cummings said,

“The best way that the tea party can rid racism from their ranks is to help people get jobs.”

Huh?

What does he think the tea party is, an employment agency?…
What does he want the tea party to do?… Ram through another stimulus? Pass the hat?
Unreal.

And, besides… When the tea party does create jobs they just beat the hell out of them anyway! That’s worked really well.

Does Elijah have any idea what the h*ll he’s talking about?

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The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that racial slurs and swastikas were spray painted on a fence in  Southern New Jersey late Sunday or early Monday. The article states:

Obscene references to President Obama and African Americans were scrawled in black across backyard fences owned by five residents, according to Monroe Township Police Capt. John Cortesi. Two “crudely drawn swastikas” also appeared on the fences, which face heavily traveled Corkery Lane.

As expected, the NAACP chimed in as well:

Loretta Williams, president of the Gloucester County NAACP, said her organization wanted the incident treated as a bias crime and not a prank.

“This is something we won’t tolerate,” she said. “People have no right to spread their hate message, whether it’s on a fence, a wall, or over the Internet, and intimidate people.”

It’s interesting how the NAACP denounces hate speech when they are the target, but it’s free speech or is to be tolerated when one of their own spews the hate:

Samir: My job is to educate black people, whether they want to be educated or not. I don’t give a damn what they may think about white people, I hate white people. All of them. Every last iota of a cracker I hate him. Because we are still in this condition.

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In 1979, Australia abolished federal inheritance taxes. Using daily deaths data, we show that approximately 50 deaths were shifted from the week before the abolition to the week after. This amounts to over half of those who would have been eligible to pay the tax. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that our results are driven by misreporting, our results imply that over the very short run, the death rate may be highly elastic with respect to the inheritance tax rate.

It looks like this experiment is going to be repeated in the United States, but in the opposite direction. There was a rather unsettling article in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. The story begins with a description of how the death tax rate dropped from 45 percent in 2009 to zero in 2010, and then notes the huge implications of a scheduled increase to 55 percent in 2011.

Congress, quite by accident, is incentivizing death. When the Senate allowed the estate tax to lapse at the end of last year, it encouraged wealthy people near death’s door to stay alive until Jan. 1 so they could spare their heirs a 45% tax hit. Now the situation has reversed: If Congress doesn’t change the law soon—and many experts think it won’t—the estate tax will come roaring back in 2011. …The math is ugly: On a $5 million estate, the tax consequence of dying a minute after midnight on Jan. 1, 2011 rather than two minutes earlier could be more than $2 million; on a $15 million estate, the difference could be about $8 million.

As a co-founder of the Quincy Tea Party I was appalled at the lack of social responsibility and restraint Mr. Jealous displayed in his remarks regarding the Tea Party Movement. I found myself becoming increasingly irritated when he began his political spin and roll tactics to distance himself from his statements. Motivational speaking can backfire if it is at the expense of someone else. Especially if that someone else is 20,000,000 of your countrymen.

But alas, the truth will set us free. You see, Mr. Jealous ignited the single largest surge in Tea Party membership in the movement’s history. The current membership explosion has even surpassed the surge that followed the passage of the Health Control Law. I was amazed by the email and telephone traffic generated by his unfounded remarks. I feel as though we should pay Mr. Jealous a consulting fee or give him some sort of recruiting award.

Mr. Jealous seems to be unaware that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool the Tea Party ever. This grassroots group of Americans has been abused, ridiculed, slandered, and hacked on by every form of progressive, democrat and leftist organization in existence from the day it was born. The Tea Party can take a verbal punch better than any candidate or spin doctor the left can muster. We are the grassroots equivalent of Muhammad Ali. The Tea Party is the classiest and most resilient group that has assembled in this country since the Civil Rights Movement. That being said the Tea Party Movement is about as likely to give up, as Dr. Martin Luther King was during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

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