This marks our one year anniversary of doing these cartoons for the big sites. Huzzah!

As a professional scholar, Ben Bernanke devoted much of his academic life to studying the Great Depression. It is no surprise then, that the cause of the Depression was of particular interest to the current Fed chairman. In the end, Bernanke surmised that it wasn’t so much a particular action that caused the greatest economic downturn the world has ever seen, but a period of inaction, specifically, the time between the crash of 1929 and the beginning of FDR’s New Deal in 1933. He proposed that government was far too slow in taking steps to stabilize the economy and as a result, it took a massive public works program and World War to eventually jump-start the country.

Convinced as he was, when faced with a similar situation he was determined not to make the same mistake as his predecessors. In short, he was determined to stop the markets from failing. Together with Henry Paulson, they provided the framework for the $700 billion bailout of American banks, designed to infuse the market with fresh capital while making the US government a shareholder in the biggest financial institutions in the country.

Fast forward two years and a few things have changed. The majority of the $700 billion has been paid back but the spending hasn’t stopped, nor does Bernanke expect it to. In fact, he expects the United States to enter an extended period of recession, ala Japan since the 1990’s. Coincidentally, Bernanke is an expert of the Japanese economy as well, having studied the rise and fall of the Asian superpower and even lectured at their central bank about how they should have handled the bursting of their real estate bubble.

For a man who wields such an incredible power over the economy, much is expected and demanded. Without getting into my overall opinion of the Federal Bank, I want to talk about what the Fed is doing today to bring an end to this recession. Let me warn you, it is has little to do with real reform and everything to do with regulation and mind games.

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I’ve obtained an advance copy of Radical-In-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, Stanley Kurtz’s meticulously researched new book on our president’s socialist roots. It’s no hatchet job. It doesn’t appeal to the prejudices of the reader, or spin facts to excite suspicion. Rather, Kurtz has done serious research to document the incestuous world of far-left politics in Chicago, where Obama got his political start.

Kurtz’s goal is to answer the question–considered inflammatory by some–of whether Obama is a socialist. At the outset, he writes, “I thought the socialism issue was an unprovable and unnecessary distraction from the broader question of Obama’s ultra-liberal inclinations. I was wrong.” Kurtz concludes that Obama is indeed a socialist, quietly determined to transform America by expanding government power over our lives.

One of the fascinating links Kurtz draws–particularly to me, since I’m running against Democrat Jan Schakowsky for Congress in Illinois’s 9th district–is the connection between Obama, Schakowsky, and her husband Robert Creamer. Kurtz shows that Schakowsky is, or was, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America; her career, Kurtz writes, “illuminate[s] the larger political intentions and strategies of community organizing in America.”

Schakowsky is rated by nonpartisan sources like GovTrack.us and National Journal as the most left-wing member of Congress. Her extremism is no accident, but the result of deeply held convictions.

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Donald Abrams, M.D. is chief of Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and the co-author—with Andrew Weil—of Integrative Oncology (Oxford University Press). Abrams has extensive experience working with cancer and HIV/AIDS patients and is a pioneer in the field of medical cannabis research.

The U.S. government classifies cannabis—along with heroin and LSD—as a Schedule I drug, the most tightly restricted category of drugs in the United States. According to the federal government, Schedule I drugs are unsafe and have “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

However, as medical cannabis proponents have pointed out since the Controlled Substances Act was passed by Congress in 1970, cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years, and there has never been a reported case of a marijuana overdose. Moreover, in recent years clinical researchers around the world have demonstrated the medicinal value of cannabis.

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This is a national disgrace.  The Illinois State Board of Elections has been lying about the status of military absentee ballots and a lazy Department of Justice has allowed itself to be duped.

In an e-mail exchange between the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Department of Justice’s Voting Section shows the State has been misleading DOJ for almost a month.

SBE DOJ military ballots

On September 14th, Justin Weinstein-Tull, an attorney at DOJ’s Voting Section contacted Dan White, Executive Director of the Illinois State Board of Elections regarding the September 18th  deadline to mail military ballots:

As you know, one of the key provisions of the MOVE Act requires that ballots be transmitted to UOCAVA voters by September 18, the 45th day before the November 2, 2010 Federal general election.

Pursuant to our UOCAVA enforcement responsibilities, we are asking, as we have in prior elections, that your office monitor the mailing of absentee ballots to UOCAVA voters to ensure that ballots are sent by your local election officials by the September 18 deadline.  We ask that you monitor the date UOCAVA ballots are sent, and provide us with a status report by September 20 to confirm whether each of your localities has met the 45-day deadline.  Also, we would request that you alert us in advance if you anticipate any delays in the ability of any of your localities to transmit ballots to UOCAVA voters by September 18, and the reason for those delays.

On September 20, Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, sent this reply to Weinstein-Tull:

in response to your request to monitor our local election officials, please be advised that Illinois military and overseas ballots went out between September 3rd (Illinois law) and September 18th (Federal law).
From this point forward, all requests received will be mailed out that same day.

Lies. All lies.

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By now, most Americans know how hard union bosses pushed, tugged, bullied and threatened, using tens of millions of their members’ money on advertising and lobbying, all to get health care reform passed.

Most Americans also remember (though many did not believe) the promises that health care reform would make health care “affordable for all.” And no one can forget how the legislation was sold to Americans:

The Chairmen of the three Committees with jurisdiction over health policy in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation today that will reduce out-of-control costs, encourage competition among insurance plans to improve choices for patients, and expand access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Well, on March 23rd (not quite six months ago), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. That same day, a jubilant Andy Stern even recorded this video for his SEIU members, congratulating them on ow the SEIU “changed America forever.” That was then… The Chickens Start to Come Home (aka the Law of Unintended Consequences) Almost immediately after the passage of what is now called “ObamaCare,” like a pebble thrown into calm waters, waves began to develop. Karma. The first sign of trouble began when a number of companies began taking hundreds of millions of dollars ($1 billion in AT&T’s case) in write downs due to the projected cost of ObamaCare, making Congress and the Administration furious. In fact, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) was so furious that he ordered a show-trial hearing to be held and then he abruptly cancelled it.  It soon became clear why, as noted by the Daily Caller [emphasis added]:

Publicly, Waxman said the investigation showed the companies’ disclosures were properly filed. But a new report from committee Republicans reveals the documents Waxman obtained included embarrassing evidence that the health-care law could drive up insurance premiums and force employers to dump employees from their health plans. “Turns out Obamacare means if you like your health plan you can lose it. The president didn’t have to actually strong-arm companies into dumping their employee health insurance because his bill carried financial incentives to virtually guarantee that result,” Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Joe Barton, Texas Republican, said. Most significantly, documents unearthed by the investigation highlight companies that are considering dumping employees from their current health-care plans in the face of new costs from the health-care law. President Obama repeatedly promised his health-care law would let Americans keep their current insurance if they’re happy with it.

The dumping begins… Over the past couple of weeks, months after Henry Waxman’s initial embarrassment, a big problem has begun to emerge for the Democrats who worked so hard to pass ObamaCare.  News has begun to break that companies are, in fact, beginning to dump their employees (or retirees) health care benefits.

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By Reps. Marsha Blackburn, Darrell Issa and Peter Roskam:

Last January, President Obama declared, “Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010.”

Since that time, more than 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs and unemployment stands at 9.6%. Some focus. The President and his Democrat allies in Congress instead chose to unleash a torrent of bills that do anything but create jobs, like the so-called financial services reform bill that didn’t fix the real problem of government meddling in mortgages, and another round of “stimulus” spending that only deepened states’ addiction to Washington bailouts. Last week, Congressional Democrats canceled a vote on tax relief for all Americans until after the November elections, creating more economic uncertainty while delaying private sector job creation.

The primary job killer is the trillion-dollar folly of ObamaCare. The bill hits America’s struggling small businesses and their families with 2,801 pages of new taxes and complicated rules, creating a climate of hyper-regulation and uncertainty that the nation’s most important small business alliance – the National Federation of Independent Businesses –has called “death by a thousand cuts.”

Just a couple of those painful wounds: by 2018, self-employers and small firms will be hit by a $14.3 billion health insurance tax, while a projected $17 billion will be raised by taxing every business-to-business deal over $600. Washington insiders pushing ObamaCare appear to ignore these truths and clearly don’t understand the negative impact the law is already having on entrepreneurs.

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Thomas Jefferson said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” The power of this statement is boundless, and its meaning is clear in its construction.  These eighteen common words are taken together in a unique organization to express an undeniable and unbreakable truth; that a people of liberty, united in the cause of liberty, become the strongest force for freedom in all of God’s creation.

With these words I began the fifth chapter of my recently released book, Liberty Rising, A Treatise on the Restoration of Our Constitutional Republic.  I repeat them to begin this article to remind all Americans that there has always been a third party among us, and that party is we the people.  The United States of America, more than ever before in our history since the founding, needs its people to rally in the defense of liberty, self-reliance, individualism and the real concept of American Exceptionalism.  Our great nation stands at a dangerous divide.  On one side stands the America that in 234 years has become the greatest nation in the history of man.  On the other side stands a downward spiral toward tyranny and a failed republic.

Since the Democrats took control of the Congress on January 1, 2007 and then with Barack Obama becoming President on January 20, 2009, single party rule in America became a self-appointed ruling class and began to dictate to the American people, against the will of the people.  I have no excuses for the establishment Republicans who, in the years immediately prior, lost their way and set the stage for the assumption of this elitist group of power-mad progressives who believe that their ends justify their means.  The stimulus legislation, the health care debate and resultant law, the House version of cap and trade legislation and countless un-elected special advisors and czars who were appointed to positions of power without even the consent of the Senate, are all examples of how in just 20 months the state has placed itself above the people in an arrogantly un-America fashion.

The response, however, has been typically American.

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The brand-spanking new Robert F. Kennedy Community School opened in Los Angeles recently and carried a price tag of $578 million, making it the most expensive public school ever.

The reason it cost so much?  Well, Donald Trump, of course!  No, it wasn’t The Donald that ordered up this opulance – it was the big-spending bureaucrats of the L.A. Unified School District.

But have no fear, they guarantee a return on investment.  Well, sort of.  Maybe.  Oh, who cares?  Did you see the cool talking benches??  EAGtv reports:

Today, in 1966, the Black Panther organization was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seales. In spite of them, race relations have steadily improved.

Click to Play

By popular demand, it’s our heavy hitter edition of the podcast with guests Mark Steyn and Jonah Goldberg. We cover the surprising Noble Prize selection, one last look at the view from France, the sorry states of New York and California, our panel’s view on the “legalize it” debate, and a whole lot more. Listen, then discuss it here.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.”

I’m actually pleased that Obama has gone after the Chamber of Commerce for allegedly funding Republican ads with foreign donations. Set aside that there’s no evidence whatever for it, as even the New York Times and CBS’s Bob Schieffer acknowledge. There’s much more potent ammunition here.

In the Chamber of Commerce, one couldn’t find a more homespun, middle-of-the-road group of Republicans to attack. Going after them shows just how desperate Obama and his henchmen have become in the face of worsening election prospects.

Trying to make Boehner the face of the enemy failed. The “Party of No” meme fell flat, as has every gambit intended to make Republicans look like the reason things are not getting better. Those efforts had to, given the GOP’s minority status (not to mention their leaders’ string-like spines). Republicans in Congress have clearly been able to block nothing the past 20 months.

So, being left with attacking private citizens — and not your typical “Wall Street fat cats” at that — amounts to digging that trench ever deeper. Not only will Obama not crawl out of it by November 2, it could keep him clambering for a foothold long afterward.

Better still, the harder he presses this the more he’ll alienate the middle. That’s a surefire losing tactic. There’s no better way to make the Republican majority even larger than it’s going to be than to press arbitrary charges against millions of small businessmen.

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During a debate with his Republican opponent, Marty Lamb, in Massachusetts Jim McGovern said the thinks the Constitution is wrong in regards to campaign financing.

We have a lousy Supreme Court decision that has opened the floodgates, and so we have to deal within the realm of constitutionality. And a lot of the campaign finance bills that we have passed have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. I think the Constitution is wrong. I don’t think that money is the same thing as human beings.

In the question and answer section of the debate an audience member apparently asked McGovern about his remark. He promptly denied ever making the comment in the first place.

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Robert Delaney, the Illinois Election Official who refused to mail 1,300 Military Absentee ballots for 14 days beyond the Federal deadline  has a history of disenfranchising voters.  In 2009 Delaney, an active Democrat, was sued by a group of citizens in St. Clair County who claimed he used his office to disenfranchise hundreds of voters in a predominantly African-American community.

According to the complaint, hundreds of letters were mailed to residents of  Alorton, IL.  a community with a 97% African-American population.  The letters informed the recipients that they had to attend a hearing or their voter registration would be canceled, in addition any voter who had already cast an absentee ballot would have their ballot rejected if they did not attend the hearing. The letters were mailed just two  weeks before the April 9, 2009 election.  One of the recipients was Kenneth Chatman, a Trustee of the City of Altoron who was up for re-election.  Chatman and several other plaintiffs, including elderly and bed-ridden individuals, filed a lawsuit.

On April 3, U.S Magistrate Judge Clifford Proud issued an emergency injunction against Delaney and stopped him from suppressing minority voters.

This year, his target is the members of the military who are fighting for our country.  Regarding the current inquiry by the Justice Department into Delaney’s handling of the military ballots he said:

“I really don’t care what the Department of Justice thinks.”

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After Barack Obama’s historic victory in 2008, many in the Democratic Party and on the political left argued that the GOP and the conservative movement were finished and that Democrats were destined to control, in perpetuity, the presidency, Congress, and culture, writ large. But then something unexpected happened–millions of sleepwalking, mall-shopping Americans finally woke up.

The activist left, which denigrated the previous president in a merciless fashion, took the reins of power with reckless abandon and shoved its brand of poisonous hope and change down the throats of the American people. So we the people, the reawakening silent majority, responded in the form of a grassroots movement that is turning into a juggernaut set to roll past November 2nd and become something transcendent and long-lasting. Our Founding Fathers would be proud that we have rediscovered the spirit and the essence of their ideas.

While the Tea Party has not been specifically partisan–many Republican carcasses lie in its rubble–this conservative and constitutional checks and balances has created a rejuvenated GOP, chastened and wiser.

This weekend I have the honor of sharing the stage with one of the Tea Party’s and Republican Party’s fearless leaders, Sarah Palin. Since her arrival on the national stage, the Democratic Party has recognized her potential as a political powerhouse and has worked in tandem with its partners in crime, the mainstream media, to wage an unprecedented personal campaign against her and her family. The Tea Party can relate.

But the power of Alinsky and the politics of personal destruction vis a vis the Democrat Media Complex has reverse effects when the object of the hate bravely stands up to the bullies and thugs. The Tea Party and Sarah Palin have given America a great lesson in standing up to the bullies who have co-opted the Democratic Party and the American media. (more…)

From The Hill:

Likely voters in battleground districts see extremists as having a more dominant influence over the Democratic Party than they do over the GOP.

This result comes from The Hill 2010 Midterm Election Poll, which found that 44 percent of likely voters say the Democratic Party is more dominated by its extreme elements, whereas 37 percent say it’s the Republican Party that is more dominated by extremists.

The revelations in a survey of 10 toss-up congressional districts across the country point to problems for Democrats, who are trying to motivate a disillusioned base and appeal to independents moving to the GOP ahead of the Nov. 2 election.

The polling firm Penn, Schoen and Berland conducted the survey, contacting 4,047 likely voters by phone between Oct. 2 and Oct. 7. The margin of error for this sample is 1.5 percent.

More than one in every five Democrats (22 percent) in The Hill’s survey said their party was more dominated than the GOP by extreme views. The equivalent figure among Republicans is 11 percent.

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When we say that Democrats spend money like drunken sailors, we meant it figuratively. It turns out, though, that at least some Dems take it literally. The video below shows Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee socializing at the recent Democrat Days in Hannibal, MO. As you can see, she is a big fan of the margaritas, which amusingly are made by the Steelworkers’ traveling margarita machine. (There is a phrase we never thought we would write.)

About 3 minutes in, the Ms. Montee, remember a Constitutional Officer, hits on the brilliant idea of getting a margarita machine for her state car. Of course, the machine would be paid for by campaign contributors.

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Some of Obamacare’s most destructive forces are quickly becoming common knowledge. We have, for instance, become painfully aware that Obama’s claim that we all could keep our plans and doctors “if you like them” is an outright falsehood as some people are already losing their coverage.

It is also becoming clear that companies will be dropping plans all over the place making a lie of the idea that plans will be cheaper and easier to get once Obamacre comes into force. Another aspect of the destructive nature of this top down-style of “healthcare” is that once government takes over the system Democrats will assume they have the power to force religious-based healthcare providers to perform abortions and this will cause thousands of facilities to close down. This will, of course, make care even harder to get in many cities across the nation as hospital beds are lost in great numbers.

In fact, we are already seeing this disastrous situation of closing hospitals playing out in Scranton, Pennsylvania where three Catholic-operated hospitals are likely going to be shut down and/or sold off because of the negative affects Obamacare will have on these facilities.

Kevin Cook, the CEO of Mercy Health Partners, the company that operates these three hospitals, told WNEP TV News that Obamacare “absolutely” playing a role in the decision to sell off the facilities.

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The FCC is trying to walk a careful line on net neutrality, according to Democratic and Republican sources in Congress and the FCC.

Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed regulations giving his agency wide authority over broadband services, including the right to set limits on new services and innovation.

Lately, however, Genachowski seems on a more cautious approach, distancing himself from the more fanatical regulations. Word coming from the FCC is that Genachowski decided that he couldn’t satisfy the net neutrality fanatics and still have good policy. So if he couldn’t get both, he decided, he should focus on good policy.

Naturally, the Professional Left is outraged but at this point, most policymakers recognize that as a political pressure game and they are increasingly disregarding it. In fact, Genachowski is even getting a great deal of credit – especially within Congress – for having the courage to withstand the political pressure from Free Press and Moveon.org.

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