Today is the celebration of Columbus Day. Eat tapas, a plate of spaghetti, or hug an immigrant. Vocally rail against the PC crusade against Columbus and the European exploration of our continent. It was unequivocally a great thing. Just don’t do it in the same breath as railing against “illegal immigrants.”

Imagine this, your state has a budget deficit of $13 Billion dollars (despite having a constitutional clause that requires balanced budgets). The state is months late in payments to local schools. Medicaid providers aren’t getting paid to treat the poor so they stop seeing Medicaid patients. Social service providers are going out of business because they received state grants which the state isn’t paying on. What would you do to start to address this?

Here is what Illinois is doing, spending more money. As a case in point, the state has begun construction on a $580 MILLION dollar interchange between I-57 and I-294 in Chicago. What makes this a complete waste is that an exchange already exists only 3.5 miles away from the one planned. This map will help show how absurd this is.

To get to I-294 from I-57, you have to exit on I-80 and head 3.5 miles east to get to I-294. It’s not a bad jaunt, really. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and live downstate now. I make this trip dozens of times a year. Perhaps when the interstate was built it might have made sense to put a direct interchange between I-57 and I-294. The reality is, it’s maybe an additional 2 minutes of travel time. The bulk of the additional travel time isn’t the roads, it’s the toll booths which we can all be quite sure they will continue to exist once the interchange is put in.

They justify this over half BILLION dollar expenditure because they argue having that interchange will generate billions of economic growth in the area once it is in place. Take a look at that <a href=”http://www.parttimepundit.com”map again to see how absurd that is.

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According to the New York Times, no less:

Ever since he raised the issue in his State of the Union speech nearly nine months ago — prompting head-shaking by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the Supreme Court — President Obama has been warning about the danger of foreign money creeping into elections as a result of the court’s landmark campaign finance ruling.

In two campaign stops Thursday, Mr. Obama invoked what he portrayed as a specific new example, citing a blog posting from a liberal advocacy group as he teed off on a longtime adversary, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, over its political spending.

“Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign corporations,” Mr. Obama said. “So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections.”

But a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents.

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On Thursday, in Detroit, a federal district judge named George Caram Steeh ruled Obamacare constitutional. On Friday, Mike Pence, a Republican Congressman from Indiana, expressed his confidence that the Supreme Court will declare key sections of the bill unconstitutional.

I believe that Pence is right – and for three reasons: one principled, one personal, and one practical and political. The first is easy to grasp.

At stake, Pence asserts, is “whether or not the Constitution of the United States permits the government to order the American people to purchase goods or services, whether they want them or need them or not.” With this description of what is at issue, Judge Steeh, who was appointed to the court by William Jefferson Clinton, is in wholehearted agreement. As he puts it in his ruling,

The decision whether to purchase insurance or to attempt to pay for health care out of pocket, is plainly economic. These decisions, viewed in the aggregate, have clear and direct impacts on health care providers, taxpayers, and the insured population who ultimately pay for the care provided to those who go without insurance.

It is his view that – since our “decisions” to buy or not buy insurance have an impact on the market – the federal government can make these decisions for us.

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You might think that a prominent veterans organization like the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) would actually reserve its political endorsements for, you know, veterans, or at least those politicians that actually demonstrate some level of respect for the military.  But you would be wrong.  And the problem is not just the VFW; rather, the VFW’s current lobbyist-driven fiasco simply serves to illustrate how out-of-touch the Washington in-crowd is with the feelings of us benighted souls dwelling outside the beltway.

In the Florida 22^nd Congressional District race, incumbent Democrat Ron Klien is running against Republican challenger Allen West.  Actually, he’s properly addressed as Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Allen West, a decorated combat veteran who commanded a battalion in Iraq until he was forced to retire after making a 9mm suggestion to a captured terrorist that it would be a very, very smart move to give up some information about future attacks against LTC West’s men.  Now, that’s not to say Congressman Klien does not have a distinguished military record of his own – to be fair, apparently he saw most of Saving Private Ryan on AMC once, though he found it pretty scary.

After due consideration- which apparently means the VFW’s lobbyists told it to do so – the VFW endorsed Klein.

Okay, sometimes an organization makes a mistake.  I mean, it’s not like the VFW decided to endorse, say, a liberal Democratic senator who tried to humiliate an Army general testifying by demanding that he call her “Senator” instead of the perfectly appropriate “ma’am,” or who allowed her fundraisers to be hosted by the likes of Hanoi Jane.  That would be, well, crazy.

Oh, wait.  The VFW is endorsing leftist Senator Barbara Boxer.  Yeah, the same Barbara Boxer who voted to undercut us troops as we sat out in the desert waiting for Operation Desert Storm to start.  Yeah, the same Barbara Boxer who undercut the troops by voting to cut and run in Iraq.  Yeah, that Barbara Boxer – the one who will be running around using the VFW’s shameful endorsement as a shield against the truth of her track record of contempt for our military.

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Today, in 732, at the Battle of Tours, Charles Martel defeated a large Moorish force and stopped the Muslim expanse into Western Europe. Silly Charles probably thought this ended the question.

President Barack Obama is making his bid to be ”the education president.” At the start of NBC’s recent Education Nation summit in New York, Obama appeared on the Today Show and touted what he claimed were a wide-ranging set of reforms to improve America’s K-12 schools.

Yet Obama’s education vision deserves an F for at least three reasons:

1. Money Talks. Obama says that the educational system needs new ideas and more money. Despite a doubling in inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending since the early 1970s, student achievement is flat at best. But Obama is placing most of his bets on the money part. While he brags constantly about his Race to the Top initiative, in which states competed for $4 billion to fund innovative programs, he’s spent more than $80 billion in no-strings-attached stimulus funds to maintain the educational status quo.

2. Choice Cuts. Candidate Obama said that he’d try any reform idea regardless of ideology. Yet one of his first education-related moves after taking office was to aid his Senate mentor, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), in killing a successful and popular D.C. voucher program that let low-income residents exercise the same choice Obama did in sending his daughters to private school.

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Since Bush v. Gore was decided in 2000, recounts have received far more attention; it’s almost like they’ve become a routine part of a campaign.  Each year, candidates, state parties, and election lawyers across the country prepare for these post-election challenges that may never come.

In 2008, we saw the impact that a recount can have.  In Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman won on election night.  On election night Coleman led comedian Al Franken by over 700 votes.  A canvass ensued, and Franken chipped away at Coleman’s lead, leaving Coleman ahead only 215 votes.  With a margin that narrow a recount ensured.  Over the course of the recount Franken managed to find enough votes to come out ahead by 225.  (Some news stories even reveal that the election may have been decided by the votes of convicted felons who were not eligible to participate in the election.)

This delivered Al Franken to the United States Senate, and delivered President Obama and Harry Reid a critical vote for their liberal agenda.

The Democrats learned a lot from this.  So much so, that this election cycle they want to be even better prepared.

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Remember your high school year book that the popular kids were the editors of and made their friends the top of every list and highlighted pictures of them on what seemed like every page?

They apparently are now the editors at Forbes Magazine.

Yes, Forbes Magazine has released its list of the “100 Most Powerful Women in the World”, and from the get-go of the article it starts defending itself in saying that the standards are changing.

Obviously.

Number one on the list? First Lady Michelle Obama.

Forbes gives a biography listing why they feel she is powerful. It states that she has a fitness program for kids and that she is a style icon. Oh, and 54% of people like her according to a poll.

That is all it takes now to be considered the most powerful woman in the world? I am going to J. Crew right now and opening a store credit line.

If she were not the President’s wife, she would not be on the list. Period.

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It should come as no surprise that unions are spending big bucks to keep their Democratic friends in power.  And with good reason:  Does anyone honestly believe with fiscal conservatives in control of Congress, legislation like last summer’s $10 billion “education jobs fund/teach union bailout” would stand a chance?  Of course not.

November is shaping up to be a historically bad year for Democrats, and the teacher unions know they’re living on borrowed time.

Not only will the money spigot be turned off, but Americans are beginning to realize the corruption of the nation’s public education system that serves adult interests very well, but fails so many kids. Americans wonder:  How can a system graduate a child who cannot read?  Yet, it happens every year.

The teacher unions say they care about such problems, but it’s so hard to tell.  They resist education reform and accountability at every turn.  And when the union stages a protest, it invariably revolves around protecting their pay, benefits and power.

Now comes word that the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country, is digging deep into its members’ pockets to spend $15 million on protecting vulnerable Democrats, as well as a few big spending Republicans.

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Last week on the PBS NewsHour, Judy Woodruff asked Nancy Pelosi if the GOP would take back the house.  Pelosi replied “We take it one district at a time.”

“Will the Republicans take back the House?” is perhaps the most frequently asked question in Washington, and is usually followed up with “By how much?”  Regardless of what you think about Speaker Pelosi, the lady didn’t get to be Speaker of the House by not being able to count votes. So lets have a look “…one district at a time.”

Republican challengers and open seat candidates lead in at least 51 House districts currently held by Democrats, according to public polling.

Following Nancy’s methodology, if the election were held on October 9 instead of November 2, the GOP would gain back the majority with 230 seats, assuming all tied races and races where Dems cling to a narrow lead break against the Republicans. Note that 17 more seats are within the margin of error of a standard poll.

Thanks, Nancy, for the vote of confidence.

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Friday’s unemployment report for September, the last before the election, brought more bad news for the Obama Democrats.

Noteworthy is the fact that stocks rallied a bit on the lackluster and tepid jobs numbers, pushing through the 11,000 mark. But more and more, it seems bad economic news illustrating the failure of Obamanomics becomes good news for stocks on the expectation of a GOP tsunami in November.

The unemployment rate itself held at 9.6 percent. It’s been over 9.5 percent for 14 straight months. Meanwhile, the marginally unemployed — or the so-called impairment rate (U-6) — jumped to 17.1 percent from 16.7 percent.

These headlines are political poison for Democrats. Voters are going to keep asking, What exactly did we get for a $1 trillion stimulus-spending package that puts us deeper in hock?

Overall, nonfarm payrolls fell 95,000 for September, largely from a drop in census workers and state and local government employees. Private payrolls increased 64,000, only a third of what’s necessary to sustainably reduce unemployment.

Average hourly wages were flat, as was the workweek.

Looking back, the jobs story was much stronger in the first four months of the year through April. But job creation has slowed markedly since then, along with the overall economy.

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Today, in 1967, leftist murderer Che Guevera was executed in Bolivia. The world became just a little bit freer and safer that day.

41.8 million Americans are now on food stamps. The details don’t look good for our country.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

An average of 43.3 million people, more than an eighth of the population, will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates.

You might think this is bad news. But, according to House Majority Leader (until 11/2) Nancy Pelosi, this is good news – no, it’s GREAT news! We have found the way to get out of our economic malaise.

At a press conference in her home town of San Francisco, Pelosi explained that the program’s multiplier effect –the amount of money generated in the local economy as the result of the subsidy– far exceeds the nearly $60 billion spent this year by the federal government and is a sure-fire way to stimulate the economy. For every dollar a person receives in food stamps, Pelosi said that $1.79 is put back into the economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cites an even higher figure of $1.84.

“It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance. The biggest bang for the buck,” she said.

New Obama/Pelosi plan for our economy: Put EVERYONE on food stamps and unemployment and watch the multiplier effect turn this thing around.

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In an address to Green Mountain College on May 15, Carol Browner, Director of Energy and Climate Change Policy, stated “The sooner the U.S. puts a cap on our dangerous carbon pollution, the sooner we can create a new generation of clean energy jobs here in America…” In July, 2009, President Obama lauded the “Cash for Clunkers” program, stating that the initiative “gives consumers a break, reduces dangerous carbon pollution, and our dependence on foreign oil…” Unfortunately, our President is misinformed about carbon pollution.

The phrase “dangerous carbon pollution” has become standard propaganda from environmental groups. An example is a May, 2010 press release from the World Wildlife Fund that called for “a science-based limit on dangerous carbon pollution that will send a strong signal to the private sector.” Environmentalists have successfully painted a picture of black particle emissions into the atmosphere. This misconception is being used to drive efforts for Cap & Trade legislation, renewable energy, and every sort of restriction on our light bulbs, vehicles, and houses—all in the misguided attempt to stop climate change.

Carbon is integral to our skin, our muscles, our bones, and throughout the body of each person. Carbon forms more than 20% of the human body by weight. We are full of this “dangerous carbon pollution” by natural metabolic processes.

It’s true that incomplete combustion emits carbon particles that can cause smoke and smog. But this particulate carbon pollution is well controlled by the Clean Air Act of 1970 and many other federal and state statutes.

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The federal government has identified a new opportunity in its quest to endlessly push dubious spending initiatives supposedly tied to advancing “the greater good.”  According to the New York Post, federal copy-editors are forcing New York state to spend $27.6 million to eradicate the apparently major threat of… all-capital-letter street signs:

Federal copy editors are demanding the city change its 250,900 street signs — such as these for Perry Avenue in The Bronx — from the all-caps style used for more than a century to ones that capitalize only the first letters.

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At $110 per sign, it will also cost the state $27.6 million, city officials said.

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The Highway Administration acknowledged that New York and other states “opposed the change, and suggested that the use of all upper-case letters remain an option,” noting that “while the mixed-case words might be easier to read, the amount of improvement in legibility did not justify the cost.”

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