From AFP:

With the US Congress hurtling toward a deadline on expiring tax cuts, a growing number of wealthy people are calling for higher taxes on the rich to help restore America’s fiscal health.

One effort gathered over 45 millionaires who signed an open petition calling for the end of the tax cuts adopted since 2001 on those with annual incomes exceeding one million dollars.

Tax breaks for the wealthy should expire “for the fiscal health of our nation and the well-being of our fellow citizens,” the letter said. It was signed by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream founder Ben Cohen, hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt and others.

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When movie director James Cameron descended upon the Athabasca oil sands a while back, Albertans were subjected to the predictable but nonetheless aggravating media blitz of misinformation that occurs when a mega-star chooses a cause to elevate.

The elevation came in the form of a supercilious warning to put the brakes on the world’s second largest proved oil reserve. It could, he feared, become a curse if not properly managed. This revelation came upon reflection via a government sponsored helicopter tour and a token chat with a group of not-so disenfranchised First Nations peoples in the area. (In 2009, oil sands companies contracted more than $890 million for goods and services from Aboriginal owned businesses and employed 1600 Aboriginals in permanent jobs).

And with that, Mr. Cameron and the media were able to close the case on the oil sands, as Mr. Cameron purportedly had to jet. It’s not Mr. Cameron’s fault, completely. The oil complex is just that – complex. It’s not the kind of business one just picks up as a hobby horse. Sure, Cameron can regurgitate the technical terminology if he likes. It would be difficult for a techno-geek of titanic proportions to resist a sexy term like steam gravity assisted drainage (SAGD).

Here is where I suggest “putting the brakes on.” Perhaps a moratorium on incendiary statements by celebutantes or politicians a-la-Pelosi who are not able to, because of their lack of training, do the type of deep comprehensive assessment required for these matters.

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The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

From Fox News:

A handful of Republican lawmakers is warning against Congress approving a massive discrimination settlement that passed the Senate last week despite concerns the claims process may have been marred by thousands of potentially fraudulent applications.

Just before breaking for Thanksgiving recess, the Senate approved by voice vote a $4.6 billion package to settle claims against the government by black farmers and American Indians. The payments to black farmers account for $1.2 billion of that amount but have been the subject of intense criticism.

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The Pilgrims founded their colony at Plymouth Plantation in December 1620 and promptly started dying off in droves.

As the colony’s early governor, William Bradford, wrote in “Of Plymouth Plantation“:

That which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed.

When the settlers finally stopped croaking, they set about creating a heaven on earth, a society without private property, where all worked for the common good. Everything was shared. Especially bitching and moaning about working for the common good. Bradford again:

Yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompense….And for men’s wives to be commanded to doe service for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brooke it.

With nobody working, everybody was suffering. And in case you think nobody was working simply because they couldn’t understand a damn thing Bradford was saying, chew on this: In 1623, Bradford and the other leaders

…assigned to every family a parceel of land…this had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more torne was planted then other waise would have bene by any means the Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente.

In no time at all

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When EAGtv’s reporting team got back from covering a school choice rally in Chicago, they mentioned how impressed they were by one of the event’s speakers – a Father Michael Somethingorother.  They appreciated Father Michael’s no-holds-barred support for school choice, but being journalists, they were especially grateful for his colorful sound bites that could be used to spruce up their story.

Intrigued by reports of the crusader’s fiery performance, the EAG staff gathered around to watch the video.  It only took a couple of seconds for the most politically aware members to recognize the speaker as Father Michael. . . . Pfleger!

You remember him, right?  It was Father Pfleger (Barack Obama’s other nutty “pastor”) who said this about Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign:

“I believe she always thought, ‘[The Democratic presidential nomination] is mine.  I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine.  I just gotta get up, and step into the plate.’  And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,” and she said, ‘Oh damn! Where did you come from? I’m white!  I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’”

It’s all coming back now, isn’t it?  Well, imagine our surprise when we heard Pfleger say this about school choice at last week’s rally:

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The Democrats just don’t get America and the clear message that voter’s sent via a GOP firebomb at DC in the mid-terms.  So what’s the rationalization du jour?  The Hill reports that influential  liberals progressives in Congress are putting pressure on Pelosi causing clashes with Obama.  However, when you dissect the article and what the Democrats are saying, it’s quite the rationalization.  And believe me, I love a good rationalization, but come on already.

The pressure is for Pelosi to be more hardline with the White House.  But, you would think this would mean a move to the center.  Not so.  From the article:

As Obama decides whether and how much to compromise with the new Republican majority in the House, Pelosi is facing pressure from empowered liberals in her caucus to take a harder line with the administration.

Those liberals, led by a group of four lawmakers who tried unsuccessfully to delay caucus leadership elections last week, say House Democrats were led astray by their allegiance to a flawed White House political strategy during the 111th Congress.

“We’re going to have to really push the White House and the Senate,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said. “I think the greatest failing in this Congress was that the House … enabled the White House, and the White House was not always right. emphasis mine

You really start to think that the Democrats are beginning to get it; however, they don’t.  Look at the messenger–liberals.  Let’s read further through the article and you will see my point:

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This week we cram muscle shirts, pat downs, Thanksgiving, and North Korean aggression into one audio file. Peter gets the inside scoop on the National Review cruise from Rob (live from the Miami airport) and James. Then we get serious with John Bolton to discuss North Korea’s missile attack on the south. Will the TSA handle Rob’s junk? Tune in and find out. For links and music from this podcast or to comment directly to us, please visit us at Ricochet.com.

On this Thanksgiving holiday, the economy itself might be thankful if Congress would take a machete to the regulations strangling business and job creation.

From transportation to trade, from communications to banking and from telecommunications to technology policy, policy makers of both parties have at times challenged the moral legitimacy  and economic rationality of federal regulatory intervention. For example Democrats helped spearhead transportation deregulation decades ago; both parties rolled back unfunded mandates in the 1990s.

Regulations are frequently anti-competitive and anti-consumer, annually costing consumers hundreds of billions of dollars. The Small Business Administration, in a study by Mark and Nicole Crain, peg today’s cost at $1.7 trillion. Policymakers still largely do not know the full benefits and costs of the regulatory enterprise. Meanwhile, regulatory agencies grow in power and budget; simply look at EPA carbon-dioxide regulation campaign, FCC’s net neutrality hunger, and the rules-to-come from the health care and financial reform bills.

Many reform ideas have been proposed. Strengthening cost-benefit analysis of new regulations, however informative it may sometimes be, is politically unpopular; nor does it actually bring the largely unaccountable regulatory state under any congressional control, so there’s nothing in it for voters to react to.

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The 111^th Congress will soon pass into history and perhaps will best be remembered for having set the all time record for Congressional irresponsibility … even surpassing the machinations of the 107^th Congress, which enacted the so-called Bush tax cuts and, simultaneously, provided for their automatic expiration on December 31, 2010.  Apparently that Congress assumed, naively of course, that a more responsible group of lawmakers would fix the problem that they kicked down the road before the consequences of presenting individual Americans and the business community with the economic chaos the current legislated uncertainty has engendered.  Perhaps any assumption that any future Congress would behave rationally with the public interest as their north star was the most irresponsible action they took.

While the failure to deal with income and estate tax policy has gotten all the attention as the lame duck session of the 111^th Congress convened last week, it was hardly the only failure to do their job that our elected representatives either ducked or senselessly enacted in 2010.  Apparently the voters on November 2 agreed and fired a goodly portion of this ruling clique.  Whether the expectations of the electorate are met by the incoming 112^th Congress remains to be seen, but so far there appears to be no reason for exuberance.  Some GOP members of the new House majority are already defending the concept of earmarks as a Congressional prerogative and some Republican senators appear to take that position as well, originally including Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who finally came to his senses and announced that he would support a full earmark ban.  While it is true that earmarks are a tiny fraction of the federal budget, they have taken on symbolic significance to the voters who tend to see them as a reliable indicator of the lack of spending discipline.

In addition there appears to be little willingness to resolve some of the many disputes which paralyzed the 111^th Congress, many of which could be resolved in an hour if our lawmakers would stop trying to score political points or treat every issue as if failure to get 100 percent of what they want amounted to a complete abandonment of principle.

It is not easy with precision to discern all the messages voters send in an election, but a few things can be said with certainty about the most recent one:  the voters don’t want radical new policies based on far left ideology jammed down their collective throats; they want the government out of their private lives; and they want spending reined in before America goes the way of Greece or Ireland.

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Today, on Thanksgiving-eve, there is talk of a National Opt-Out Day to protest TSA’s Naked Body Scanners. Americans have been sheep for far too long. We hope people embrace this protest.

Fighting against terrorism, an evil which rejects all the basic moral and legal norms of civilized society, is inherently difficult for liberal democracies such as the United States. It forces us  to find the right balance between the protection of civil liberties on one hand and the prevention of violence on the other. It is clear that the latest TSA policy which gives passengers the Hobson’s choice of losing your dignity or staying home is not “balanced.”

Many of the issues in front of our policymakers have previously been faced by Israel, a country that has been under the threat of terrorist attack since its inception in 1948. We keep hearing why can’t we run our airport security the same way they do in Israel. Most people, however do not have a clear idea of what is that “Israeli way.”

The real difference between the Israeli and American approach is the target.  Israel tries to identify and stop the terrorist while the U.S. targets the bomb or other weapon. This approach does not change whether there is a left or right wing Prime Minister in power because the government realizes for Israel, the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival. Thus her government and citizenry have a view of preventing terrorism that is unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States.

The ISA (Israeli Security Agency) calls it  “human factor.” Some part of that human factor would cause Al Sharpton to show up to picket the Airport if it was practiced in the US. Ethnic profiling of passengers plays a central role in Israel’s multi-level  approach. Not just ethnicity is profile, race religion, general appearance and behavior are also part of the information used to profile.  And  wherever that profile is being made, no matter what country  it is being made in, it is an Israeli doing the profile.

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From AFP:

The US economy will grow at a much slower pace than expected this year and next, as unemployment remains stubbornly high, according to bleak Federal Reserve estimates published Tuesday.

Painting a stark picture of the short-term fate of the world’s largest economy, minutes from the Fed’s last meeting showed that growth would be around half a percentage point less than expected this year and in 2011.

Minutes from a November meeting showed that already anemic growth predictions have been slashed to 2.4-2.5 percent this year and 3.0-3.6 percent in the next.

Unemployment is not expected to go below 9.5 percent this year and 8.9 percent in 2011.

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From Syracuse.com:

Ann Marie Buerkle will be Syracuse’s next representative in Congress, its first woman in the U.S. House.

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, the Democrat, called Buerkle today to concede, ending three weeks of ballot inspections, recounting and court wrangling.

Buerkle’s staff said she will have a 4 p.m. news conference. Onondaga County Elections Commissioner Ed Ryan confirmed that Maffei conceded.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Sarah Isgur, a former clerk on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, to discuss the legality and political implications of TSA’s controversial searches.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine
TSA chief: Resisting scanners just means delays
Analyst: TSA methods ‘will kill more Americans on highway’
Body scanner makers doubled lobbying cash over 5 years
TSA Searches: Are Trains and Subways Next?
1973 the 9th Circuit Court rules on U.S. vs Davis, 482 F.2d 893, 908

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Can a private citizen be subjected to a smear campaign by government officials for merely questioning a politician? That’s the issue at the heart of the lawsuit on behalf of Joe Wurzelbacher, known to most as “Joe the Plumber.”

A federal district court (erroneously in our view) dismissed Joe’s claims. Judicial Watch lawyers have since filed an appeal for Mr. Wurzelbacher in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Here is why we’re asking the appellate court to review the lower court’s decision, according to our brief, which you can read in its entirety here:

Ultimately, review of the issues in this case is important, not just to hold these state officials accountable for this abuse of their power and the harm inflicted on Mr. Wurzelbacher, but because it goes to the heart of free expression and political participation in this nation.

Private citizens should not have to worry whether their letter, phone call, or simple question to a political candidate will cause them to be targeted for investigation. Mr. Wurzelbacher and all Americans should have the freedom to openly participate in their government without fearing reprisal from partisan government officials.

Now let’s quickly review the facts of this lawsuit.

As you may recall, during the 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Wurzelbacher was throwing a football with his son in the front yard of his home when then-candidate Barack Obama and his campaign entourage passed by. Mr. Wurzelbacher, an employee of a small plumbing business, was given the opportunity to ask Obama a question about his tax policies affecting small businesses. Obama responded by famously saying, “It’s not that I want to punish your success; I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you — that they’ve got a chance at success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

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The public reaction to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) overreach and lack of even minimal sensitivity should stand as a lesson to those who believe the government always knows best and think Americans are a malleable bunch who will ultimately do as they are told.

George Will, echoing the late William F. Buckley Jr., got it right. We do live in a society in which too many of us are willing to accept just about any indignity without protest. But as the boys and girls at TSA are learning, our acquiescence in the outrageous has its limits.

At one level, the argument being made by TSA in favor of increasingly intrusive searches at our airports is the same we’ve heard every time anyone has dared since 9/11 to suggest that our protectors ought to be sensitive to constitutional rights and the differences in the way free and totalitarian states go about the task of protecting themselves. We are told that since we are in the midst of a war with an enemy that has little respect for human life, we must do everything we can to protect ourselves and the American homeland; that security must of necessity trump traditionally guaranteed rights and that those who disagree simply don’t understand the dangers we face.

Former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld has been much maligned, but put the challenge we face in better perspective than anyone since when he observed just a few days after braving the fire and smoke enveloping the Pentagon on 9/11 that if, in response to the attacks of our enemies, we give up those freedoms that are uniquely American, we will have lost. Since then we have been gradually doing just that, and justifying every alteration in the way we live our lives in the name of “national security.”

The “enhanced” pat-downs being visited on those who refuse to go through the new scanners are clearly designed to intimidate and make such refuseniks pay for their reluctance to do as they’re told. Some are afraid of the radiation, but more object to bureaucrats sitting around a screen to observe them virtually naked. The TSA response: Get over it.

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On Election Day, voters sent a clear message to Washington politicians: No more corruption. No more secrecy. And no more backroom deals that enable shady politicians to remain in power. But did that message reach Congress?

If we are to look at what happened to Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) last week as a guide, the answer is “yes” and “no.”

At the beginning of last week, it looked like Rangel might finally get his comeuppance. On Tuesday, the House Committee on Standards and Official Conduct (commonly known as the House Ethics Committee) convicted Rangel on a series of corruption charges that “brought discredit to the House.” As reported in The Hill and many other press outlets, Rangel was convicted by a House Ethics panel on 11 counts of violating ethics rules.

The convictions are serious and demonstrate a serial tendency on the part of Rangel to abuse his congressional office for personal gain.

You can read the official report from the House Ethics Committee here. The following is a summary of what the committee said Rangel did wrong:

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