President Obama is looking to fill out the six-member Federal Election Commission (see recent pro-SEIU FEC decision) with someone he can count on to support his views on campaign law.  It is not surprising he turned to his friend Andy Stern’s union Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  Obama has appointed SEIU lawyer John Sullivan, who was intertwined in the Clinton/DNC/McAuliffe/Teamster scandal that resulted in Jimmy Hoffa’s ascension to the Teamster throne, but for over a year the nomination remains in political limbo.

Could it be that Obama appointees have finally reached such a level of ethical absurdity that even the Obama allies in the Senate are pulling back?

Sullivan was a lawyer for Teamster President Ron Carey when he was convicted of laundering Teamster forced-dues and fees through the Democratic [sic] National Committee.  He also served as SEIU’s lawyer for its 527 Federal Election Campaign Committee, “America Coming Together (ACT),” that received the second largest fine in Federal Election Commission (FEC) history.

While these facts render this appointment truly absurd, it is also appears unlikely that ethical concerns are the underlying issue in the appointment delay.

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“Waiting for ‘Superman’” is not only the most important documentary made in many a year but it might also help to restore a little of your faith in humanity, and I’m not even talking about the movie itself, which I’ll get to in a bit. I’m talking about its creator Davis Guggenheim, best known for directing and winning the Oscar for Al Gore’s alarmist global warming screed “An Inconvenient Truth.” In an era when, in order to hold on to power and take control of our lives, the Left tells Big Lies just as quickly as they can make them up, along comes Guggenheim, an acknowledged pro-union liberal, to take on the most powerful, and in my opinion destructive, special interest group in America: the national teachers union.

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Whatever his personal beliefs were as he began the process of documenting the fate of five children whose very futures rest on the less-than 10% chance of being accepted into a charter school, in the end Guggenheim risks the grave sin of apostasy as he courageously bucks the left-wing narrative to present a heartbreaking and damning exposé of the American public school system.

Had the exact same film been brought forth by a right-winger it would have had zero chance of creating any kind of national debate, much less change. But coming with Guggenheim’s clout and left-wing bona fides, there’s a chance his noble effort could spread a Road to Damascus virus among those who have for too long turned a blind eye towards an indefensibly immoral system propped up at the expense of children. Armed with facts and actual inconvenient truths, “Superman” deconstructs every lie told by politicians, union officials and bad teachers in defense of a status quo that destroys as many, if not more lives than drugs or gangs. (more…)

Last Friday FBI agents raided the homes of far left activists in Chicago and Minneapolis who are linked to the Marxist FARC terrorists and Islamic radicals as part of a terrorism investigation.

The home of radical Hatem Abudayyeh in Chicago was raided in the terror sweep.

Radical Hatem Abudayyeh protested against Israel in Chicago in January 2009. (Daylife)

Hatem Abudayyeh is the executive director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN). Hatem Abudayyeh has been with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) since 1999, and was appointed Executive Director in 2003. The Arab American Action Network was founded by former PLO operative and close Obama family friend Rashid Khalidi. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund from 1994 through 2001, when the board approved a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network.

In 2003 Barack Obama was an honored guest at a dinner sponsored by the AAAN for former PLO-operative Rashid Khalidi. During the dinner a video was taken that shows Barack Obama celebrating with members of this Palestinian group who are openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama even gave a toast to a Rashid Khalidi at this going away party. The LA Times will not release the video from this Jew-bashing dinner.

Not only was Hatem Abudayyeh’s radical organization given $40,000 by Barack Obama and the Woods Fund but his organization also collected nearly half a million in taxpayer money.

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On September 20^th, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced legislation — S. 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act — that seeks to give the Department of Justice the power to shut down websites anywhere in the world that are found to infringe on intellectual property rights.  This would be accomplished by ordering U.S. domain registrars and registries to stop resolving infringing sites’ domain names.  While this bill has the noble-sounding goal of preventing online piracy, handing the federal government authority over the Internet would set a troubling precedent that would imperil Internet freedom in America and across the world.

One disquieting issue is the lack of any requirement that these sites be found to violate the laws of the countries from where they operate.  In fact, under this bill sites operating perfectly legally under the laws of their own nations could be shut down by the U.S. Justice Department.

The concept that domain names of Internet sites operating legally in their home nations could be shut down by other nations for violation of their laws is one that should concern everyone.  For example, a few years ago a French court ordered Yahoo.com to block French citizens from accessing portions of the site deemed to contain content unlawful under French law. Yahoo.com resisted this demand, citing free speech issues. What if French courts had the capability to shut down the domain www.yahoo.com to force compliance with that decision?  What if every nation had the right to shut down Internet domains to force the entire Internet to comply with their local laws?  If the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act passes, a very dangerous precedent will be set.

Additionally, there is a threat that this power will be expanded well beyond piracy.  In fact, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear (D) is already in court seeking seizure of the domain names of 141 Internet poker and gaming websites — none based in the Commonwealth of Kentucky — with claims that these sites compete with the state lottery and with the horse racing industry.

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The CATO Institute has released its 2010 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors, offering praise for some and criticism for many.

At the front of the pack are three Republicans and one Democrat: Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) and Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).  Each of the four earned an “A” rating from CATO, besting their fellow governors by as much as 55 points according to CATO’s scoring mechanism.

Sanford, once considered a top GOP 2012 presidential prospect, led the A-grade recipients.  CATO notes that Sanford has proposed implementing a flat tax in South Carolina, phasing out the state’s corporate tax, and adopting a firm spending cap.  The report card write-up also called Sanford’s budgets “very frugal.”

Jindal, who many Republican insiders expect to consider a run for the presidency in 2016 has “a solid record on both his tax and his spending policies” according to CATO.

Meanwhile, Pawlenty, the subject of much media speculation regarding a possible presidential bid of his own, earned praise from CATO for his record on spending, and holding down general fund expenditures in particular.

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In a country of exceptionally high rates of personal taxation and home to one of the world’s most generous welfare states, Norway’s Progress Party, which describes itself as a “classical liberal” organization committed to “personal freedom,” is something of an anomaly. But it is an increasingly powerful anomaly, now ranking as the country’s second biggest political party.

In August, Progress Party leader Siv Jensen sat down with Reason senior editor Michael C. Moynihan and explained that Norwegians are growing tired of “regulation, bureaucracy, and high taxes” and why the Scandinavian health care model is bad for America—and Scandinavia.

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Any American who wants the opportunity for a college education, or a degree that can help provide gainful employment, should be outraged at the Obama Administration’s back-room dealings to kill for-profit schools.  Obama supporters themselves should be asking how restricting financial aid to people, just because they want to go to a for-profit school, reflects the ideals they voted for…and that Obama promised would become easier.

Brian Darling’s excellent article, “For-Profit Education Under Assault“, exposes the details of this insidious plot.

There is, however, another aspect of this story — continued wealth destruction by the Administration.

The DOE’s plan to kill for-profit education is to restrict financial aid to students, as Mr. Darling described.  Therefore, enrollment will fall.  If enrollment falls, for-profit schools have less revenue, which means they have to cut services.

What services?  Teachers.

Voilá, these people get tossed onto the unemployment lines.

Hey, that’s okay!  Maybe they can get jobs in the public schools, which would require them to join the Teacher’s Union, and pay their dues into a union that is bankrupting the country state-by-state.

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Word has it that the Internet is on the brink of a takeover.

Egged on by radical interests, the FCC is poised to impose onerous regulations to guide the medium to a more “open” future.  No matter that the Internet is perhaps one of the greatest success stories ever.  And that a key to its success rests in the fact that government has stepped out of the way, letting developers and networks do what they do best – serve Americans with cutting-edge communications tools at affordable prices.

All of this is meaningless, of course, when the whip count and brute bureaucratic force are in your favor.

You see, Washington just learned that a bill, which could stop the FCC’s plans, is in deep jeopardy.  The bill’s sponsor – Representative Henry Waxman – doesn’t have enough Republican support to credibly move the legislation through Congress.  Lacking this, the proposal is basically dead in the water (even before formal introduction), having virtually no practical effect on the rogue FCC.

On any other day I wouldn’t shed a single crocodile tear hearing this news.  Not today, however.  Said Waxman, “If our efforts to find bipartisan consensus fail, the FCC should move forward.”

This will have significant repercussions.

I have long advocated that the Internet does not need regulating.  Technology, marketplace dynamics, consumer education, reputation management, current competition law and industry best practices all work together to make sure that the Internet remains open.  Though the naysayers cry otherwise, the still-unregulated Internet is anything but broken.  With each day, new services come on line, serving more and more Americans with Internet services.

But since the present Administration came to town, radical interests have captured policymakers at the FCC.  Over the past two years, they have enjoyed immense success in peddling the idea that the Internet is in danger of breaking unless Washington comes to the rescue.

How so?

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In mid August under the heading “The Perversion of American Democracy:  Death by a Thousand Cuts” we opined that in a series of continual steps the current Administration was subverting the underpinnings of our form of government by usurping and exercising power proscribed by the Constitution.  Over time, we said, this can amount to the death of federalism by a thousand cuts.

Sadly, we may have understated the speed with which our 234-year-old constitutional system with its built in allocation of power between the national government, the states and individuals and the checks and balances between the three branches of the federal government is eroding.  What is now more visibly apparent is the biggest power grab by an imperial Executive Branch in the last 75 years and the Congressional elections of 2010 may be our only real chance to stop the bleeding before we wake up and find a fundamentally different America. Far fetched? Alarmist? We don’t think so.

In case after case, the public has shown its disapproval of the policies of the current Administration, both in its legislative agenda and the pompous pronouncements of the president and his appointees.  There was no consensus to radically change our health care system so the Administration resorted to deceit, legislative bribes and procedural chicanery to get it done.  The damage to health care delivery and affordability is only now beginning, but for Mr. Obama who promised fundamentally to change America, it is a cornerstone of the change (with more to come) he really had in mind.  It signals that more and more Americans in the years ahead will be dependent on big government.

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Today, in 1938, Britain, France, Italy and Germany signed the “Munich Agreement,” allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Later that same day, the League of Nations passed a measure to outlaw the “intentional bombing of civilians.”

A citizen journalist interviewed sign-holding protesters at a Barbara Boxer rally outside of KPCC radio station where Boxer was debating Carly Fiorina.

Deck chairs on the Titanic.

What state ranks third in unemployment, second in foreclosures, has the nation’s worst credit rating, is running a $19 billion deficit – yet insists on spending billions on a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan that can’t possibly impact global warming?

Yes, it’s California, land of the Governator, who signed a bill that may say “Hasta la vista, baby!” to perhaps a million jobs. Yet there’s hope the prosperity terminator can be stopped.

The state boasts that the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, better known as AB 32, is “first-in-the-world.” It requires that by 2020 the state’s greenhouse gas emissions be reduced to 1990 levels, about 25-30 percent less than they’d otherwise be. It demands another 80 percent reduction by 2050. This even as the state’s population is projected to grow from 34 million to 59 million by then. Minor implementations have already begun and the law fully kicks in during January 2012.

The Golden State has prided itself for decades as a national leader in business and economic trends. Lately the focus seems to be on showing the rest of the United States the quickest path to financial ruin. Already poised at the edge of the cliff as far as jobs go, California is about to let AB32 push it over and finish the job.

As I pointed out in a previous post, the green jobs story spun by environmentalists and progressives has been nothing more than a leftist fairy tale to this point. The sales pitch for the artificially propped-up “industry” has become so sour that its most prominent champion-President Obama-has stopped trying to make it.

Noticeably absent from President Obama’s latest economic-stimulus package are any further attempts to create jobs through “green” energy projects, reflecting a year in which the administration’s original, loudly trumpeted efforts proved largely unfruitful.

The long delays typical with environmentally friendly projects – combined with reports of green stimulus funds being used to create jobs in China and other countries, rather than in the U.S. – appear to have killed the administration’s appetite for pushing green projects as an economic cure.

The plan to shackle and financially strangle profitable, proven energy sources and replace them with a renewable energy industry that has no real-world success stories (large scale) is losing steam on both ends of the political spectrum now.

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Listen here.

Debate, discuss, live-blog in the comments.

It hasn’t been a good week for American Federation of Teachers’ president Randi Weingarten.

After being on defense the entire time during NBC’s “Education Nation” multi-day event, she was put on a list of “Most Hated People in America,” alongside Osama bin Laden.

Now I know what you may be thinking: what conservative teacher-hater could be so over the top?

Try *Huffington Post* writer Keli Goff, who wrote:

“American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten is about to join Osama bin Laden on the list of Most Despised People in America. And if even one tenth of [Davis] Guggenheim’s film [“Waiting for Superman”] is to be believed, then this distinction is well earned and well deserved.”

Wow!  Randi Weingarten, who has been described as willing to “protect a dead body” in the classroom, is taking heavy fire from the Left.  This is big.

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The trial of scandal-ridden former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich came to an unjust conclusion weeks ago, as Blago was largely let off the hook for his crimes. But as the government plans its second attempt to prosecute the case, news continues to break regarding Blagojevich’s scheme to sell President Obama’s then-vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times:

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) said Tuesday he is “deeply sorry” for having “disappointed some supporters” regarding his relationship with a female “social acquaintance.”

But the congressman vowed to stay in office in the wake of a Chicago Sun-Times report that a major political fund-raiser has told federal authorities that Jackson directed him to offer former Gov. Rod Blagojevich millions of dollars in campaign cash in return for an appointment for Jackson to the U.S. Senate, to succeed President Obama.

As you may recall, Jackson’s connections to the Blagojevich scandal landed him on Judicial Watch’s list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported back then, emissaries for Jesse Jackson Jr., named “Senate Candidate A” in the Blagojevich indictment, reportedly offered $1.5 million to Blagojevich during a fundraiser if he named Jackson Jr. to Obama’s seat. And three days later federal authorities arrested Blagojevich.

So Jackson is partially correct when he said that these allegations are “not new.” But what is new, however, is that Jackson Jr.’s fundraiser, Raghuveer Nayak, has come forward to personally tell investigators that Jackson Jr. asked him to offer not $1.5 million, but a whopping $6 million in campaign cash to Blagojevich to secure the Senate seat!

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Arguing doggedly against returning Republicans to power, President Barack Obama told Iowa voters Wednesday that the GOP has been dishonest about what needs to be done to revive the economy and restore middle-class dreams.

“We can’t pretend that there are shortcuts,” the president said, addressing about 70 voters in a grassy backyard.

“When you look at the choice we face in this election coming up,” Obama said, “the other side, what it’s really offering is the same policies that from 2001 to 2009 put off hard problems and didn’t really speak honestly to the American people about how we’re gonna get this country on track over the long term.”

Five weeks ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats retain control of Congress, Obama confronted stark voter angst. The first question he got was from a woman who said of her son, a recent college graduate, and his friends: “They are losing their hope which is a message you inspired them with.” (more…)