There is an old saying around Congress – there are Republicans, Democrats and Appropriators. With Republicans promising to reign in the federal government, the first order of business is to change the culture of the Appropriations Committee which has been the fueled the spending beast for decades.

The Republican leadership will decide on the next chairman of the Committee in a few days. The leading contenders are Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Jack Kingston (R-GA). Word on the street is that Rogers will select Bill Inglee as the Committee Staff Director should he get the job.

Who is Bill Inglee?

Inglee is the classic RINO who ran the Wednesday Group – the meeting of the liberal Republicans on the Hill. He went on the serve as a lobbyist for Lockeed Martin where he pushed for defense earmarks for the company.

To secure earmarks Inglee gave political contributions to leading Democrats include Jack Murtha (D-PA) and Dan Inouye (D-HI). In short, Inglee is not only a RINO, he is an appropriator through and through.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning that the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent last month. As you can see from the chart, the White House claimed that if we enacted the so-called stimulus, the unemployment rate today would be about 7 percent.

It’s never wise to over-interpret the meaning on a single month’s data, and it’s also a mistake to credit or blame any one policy for the economy’s performance, but it certainly does seem that the combination of bigger government and more intervention is not a recipe for growth.

Maybe the President should reverse course and try free markets and smaller government.

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In a vote of 333-79, the House voted yesterday to censure Charlie Rangel. It’s the most serious penalty they could give him short of expulsion.

Let’s reiterate what Rangel actually did, and then we’ll discuss the horrendous penalty.

To summarize briefly, we have blatant and recurring Federal and State tax fraud, illegal use of four rent-controlled apartments in New York City, using his Congressional letterhead to illegally solicit funds for his private foundation from lobbyists for companies he was writing tax regs on, outrageous conflict of interest, failure to declare over $600,000 in income..the sort of stuff that would get you or I locked up for a long time.

Charlie Rangel’s penalty? He’ll be required to stand in the well before his colleagues in the House while a censure resolution is read, which will then become part of the Congressional Record. That’s it. Boo-freaking hoo.And he will stay in Congress.

Rangel lobbied to the end for a ‘reprimand’, a lesser punishment based on the idea that he did not commit the violations for personal gains.

According to Rangel there was “no evidence of corruption, no evidence of self-enrichment found, no evidence there was an intention on my part to evade my responsibility, whether in taxes or whether in financial disclosures.”

As I revealed earlier, that’s exactly what the Rangel Center he solicited corporate and lobbyist donations for was all about.

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It’s not every day you hear a governor laying the smack down on a group of thugs like the New Jersey Education Association, but that’s precisely what Gov. Chris Christie did before a stuffy crowd of education reformers recently.

Christie didn’t mince words.  He said when he was elected and “arrived on the playground,” he found the administrators and school board laying on the ground bleeding.  “That meant there was a bully,” he said.

So his message was simple:

“You walk onto the school yard and you say punch them, I punch you.”

Here’s a governor who is impatient with awful schools and the snail’s pace the Education Establishment travels because adults’ perks and comfort may be disrupted.

But he’s on a mission to explain to his citizens the state of the education system.  He’s telling them about the union’s penchant for “protecting lousy teachers” and “free health benefits from the day they’re hired till the day they die” and the union’s opposition to pay freezes.

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Yesterday, Rep. Charlie Rangel became the first member of Congress to be censured in almost a quarter century.

From radio and film to newspapers and publishing, the Nazi regime controlled every aspect of German culture from 1933-1945. Through Josef Goebbels’ Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the German state tightly controlled political messaging, promoting deification of the leader—the Führerprinzip—and the demonization of the ubiquitous and duplicitious “racial enemy.”

A new exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., examines “how the Nazi Party used modern techniques as well as new technologies and carefully crafted messages to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany.” Reason.tv’s Michael C. Moynihan visited with museum historian and curator Steve Luckert to discuss the role and effectiveness of propaganda in the rise of fascism and what lessons can be drawn from the Nazi experiment in mass manipulation.

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The exclusive picture below is via a source in the House. It seems that just as his colleagues appear prepared to censure disgraced Rep. Charles Rangel, he has decided to capitalize upon the deaths of NYC residents who gave their lives in military service to their country from 2006 through 2009, most likely as something of a distraction from his own misdeeds.

And, yet, once, again, Rangel is violating House Rules for his own benefit.

In a rare ritual of public humiliation, House lawmakers Thursday will begin considering censure of Rep. Charles Rangel, a legendary New York politician found to have broken 11 different ethics rules.

The 80-year-old Harlem Democrat was found to have misused congressional perks, failed to pay taxes on some income for 17 years, failed to report assets properly for a decade, and misused a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office.

It isn’t that it’s somehow wrong to honor our fallen American heroes, despite a rule clearly prohibiting it, it’s that on the one day his offices are likely to see a larger than ever press presence, Rangel would so brazenly interject them into the news on the very day when the focus of his office should be on Rangel’s own shameful conduct and abuse.

3.4.1 Furnishings of any kind, including but not limited to furniture items (including sign-in/registration tables, pedestals, easels, carpets, rugs and mats); shades, drapes and screens; artwork, exhibits or posters; and trees, flowers and other plans may not be placed in a hallway or exit access.

The source has also informed me that Rangel’s staff appears to have developed the habit of only putting up the display on days when his office is assumed to be coming underseige by the press and it is taken down as soon as the cameras go away. No doubt many patriotic members of the House would like to honor their own home state, or town’s fallen in such a manner, were it not prohibited by House rules.

Clearly the disgraced Rangel has not learned the lesson of playing by the rules, when ignoring them might offer him some potential benefit. Have you no sense of decency, Charlie Rangel, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency at all? Evidently the poster only makes an appearance on bad news days for Rangel, perhaps otherwise being left in some closet somewhere to collect dust.

I propose a plan that I am confident will save roughly 40,000 American lives (that’s about one Korean War) each and every year and prevent many times more from being injured or maimed.  We have it in our power to  finally put an end to the steady slaughter of our fellow citizens–and it will not further intrude upon our civil liberties one iota.

What’s the plan?  Lower the national speed limit to a maximum of 15 miles per hour. (This is still faster than the average horse at an extended trot, which we were content enough with for eons before the advent of speedier travel.)

Ludicrous?  Of course.  And in reality I certainly wouldn’t support it other than in jest here.  But think about what the speed limits say about how we selectively view  public safety as our ultimate criterion when adopting policies.   By allowing the speed limits to stay 55 and higher, we as a nation are really making a not so subtle statement that the convenience of going fast (and the profits and productivity this implies) comes with a price tag of 40,000 men women and children dead by car accident every year.  It is a price we are apparently willing to pay.  Thus do we indeed draw a line whereby the considerations of safety do take a back seat to other factors.  We do not therefore accept the clarion call of “it will save lives” as the blanket justification for all things.

And yet we are willing to sacrifice so much more than just convenience at the altar of safety where the TSA’s new draconian scanning/pat-down protocols  are concerned.  Will these procedures make air travel safer and thwart the occasional statistically insignificant act of terrorism in the skies.  I would think.  But is it worth the price?

I dunno.

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Yesterday, FreedomWorks and the Conservative Steering Committee brought together four top contenders to potentially replace Michael Steele as head of a cash-strapped RNC.

While the race is presumably wide-open and the event may have little bearing on how it ultimately turns out, there are two very good reasons to suggest the next RNC Chair could be female and the fact that Tea Party activists figured so prominently in yesterday’s event indicates the movement will likely continue to be a player in Republican politics going forward.

“I was encouraged by the responses from some of the candidates yesterday who seemed to understand that the Tea Party movement is not here to be an arm of the GOP, but can function best as an outside force to keep the party on the right track. Today was further validation that the movement is having an impact, and will continue to be a powerful force in the political landscape,” said FreedomWorks president and CEO Matt Kibbe.

As NRO’s Jim Geraghty point out, with more via the Campaign Spot, the RNC’s 168 members, each with their own concerns, will ultimately decide who heads the RNC going into 2012, not some consensus from yesterday’s event. However, the stagecraft around a January election is beginning to shape up. It doesn’t look good for current chair, Michael Steele, though yesterday’s participants were mostly careful to avoid any harsh, direct criticism. Steele seems to genuinely remain well-liked, if perhaps considered not ideally suited for the job.

The discussion on Wednesday suggested a group of GOP leaders who have largely moved beyond questions of identity. They seemed more interested in the actions of the Obama administration and the reaction of the Tea Party. The GOP, as this crop of candidates sees it, is the tool to channel Tea Partiers’ objections, a process that began in 2009, continued and intensified in 2010, and, they hope, will reach full fruition in 2012.

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From The Hill:

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are complaining that legislation funding a settlement for discrimination against black farmers sets too high a bar for claimants.

The lawmakers argue language added by the Senate, which is meant to prevent fraud in the program, sets higher standards for proving a claim than were required for other groups trying to prove loan discrimination by the Department of Agriculture.

“There’s no question. The bar is much higher,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), a CBC member and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

The legislation to be sent to the president would provide $4.55 billion to settle longstanding discrimination claims with the Department of Agriculture from black and Native American farmers.

The additional steps added to the claims process include an audit by an inspector general and oversight by the attorney general’s office, as well as a review by the secretary of Agriculture, who must sign off on a farmer’s claim. (more…)

The fiscal disintegration of Europe is bad news, though I confess to a bit of malicious glee every time I read about welfare states such as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal getting to the point where they no longer have the ability to borrow enough money to finance their bloated public sectors. This I-told-you-so attitude is not very mature on my part, but at least one hopes that American politicians will learn the right lessons.

Even though this is a big issue, I have not written much about the topic, in part because I don’t have much to add to my original post about this issue back in February. All the arguments I made then are still true, particularly about the moral hazard of bailouts and the economic damage of rewarding excessive government. So why bother repeating myself, particularly since this is an issue for Europeans to solve (or, as is their habit, to make worse)?

Unfortunately, it appears that all of us need to pay closer attention to this issue. The Obama Administration apparently thinks American taxpayers should subsidize European profligacy. Here’s a passage from a Reuters report about a potential bailout for Europe via the IMF.

The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters on Wednesday. “There are a lot of people talking about that. I think the European Commission has talked about that,” said the U.S. official, commenting on enlarging the 750 billion euro ($980 billion) EU/IMF European stability fund. “It is up to the Europeans. We will certainly support using the IMF in these circumstances.” “There are obviously some severe market problems,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In May, it was Greece. This is Ireland and Portugal. If there is contagion that’s a huge problem for the global economy.”

This issue will be an interesting test for the GOP. I think it’s safe to say that the Tea Party movement didn’t elect Republicans so they could expand the culture of bailouts – especially if that means handouts for profligate European governments.

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Throughout the month of December, Coffee and Markets will be looking back at the most significant stories of 2010 with recap interviews from leading thinkers. In today’s edition, Ben Domenech interviews Avik Roy, a health care analyst on Wall Street and author of The Apothecary blog, about how Obamacare effects pharmaceutical innovation.

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

Related Links:

Pitts: Keeping the U.S. Lead in Medical Innovation
Podcast: The Market Case for Health Care
Roy: Why is the Pharma Pipeline Clogged?
Roy: The Fiscal Commission on Health Care Reform

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President Obama dispatched former President Bill Clinton and, mysteriously available, Attorney General Eric Holder to Zurich to bolster the U.S.’s bid for the 2022 World Cup.

They failed. The heretofore totally unknown Gulf State of Qatar beat us. (In Qatar, the temperature often rises above 100 degrees in summer. PERFECT for a soccer match.)

First the Olympics, now this. I guess we’re still waiting for that tidal wave of global goodwill that was supposed to wash up on our shores once The One was elected.

Florida trial attorney Chris Hoyer, who along with his wife, has donated close to $30,000 to President Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates and causes over the last decade, appears to be curiously in-tune with the Democratic administration’s agenda on higher education.

Hoyer, through his James/Hoyer Law Firm, is targeting for-profit career schools for class actions at around the same time the Obama administration Department of Education appears to be targeting that same industry through aggressive new regulatory action and rule making.

Hoyer has filed a lawsuit against Westwood College, claiming the school lied about tuition costs and future salary potential for graduating students. As with any class action situation, where the people who benefit are primarily the attorneys, Hoyer’s class action pursuits should not be taken lightly. His 2008 action against Waste Management Company yielded each plaintiff a whopping $25.

But the underserved, largely black and Hispanic students who tend to enroll in similar career schools need to worry that their education choices are under legal assault. “I’m not trying to attack the whole for-profit school industry,” Hoyer maintains. Nevertheless, James/Hoyer claims on its website that it is “investigating” no fewer than seven such for-profit colleges.

As it happens, the Department of Education has begun an aggressive campaign to enforce a beefed up “Gainful Employment” rule. As former New Jersey Governor and 9/11 Commissioner Thomas Kean recently pointed out, this “Gainful Employment” rule appears to be specifically targeted at the same career schools in Chris Hoyer’s laser scope:

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So the latest disappointing news from the Republican leadership in Congress comes from Majority Whip in waiting, Eric Cantor.  As Whip, Congressman Cantor carries the message of the caucus.  So what does he think about healthcare?  Does he support full repeal of Obamacare?  Does he share the view of most Americans that the federal government should get back into its Constitutional cage and get out of health care, education, mohair subsidies and a host of other spheres of American life over which they should have zero sway?  Nope!  Sadly, Congressman Cantor has just affirmed our worst fear.  He thinks the federal government should absolutely be regulating health care and guaranteeing Americans “free stuff”.

I suppose the Congressman fancies himself a limited government fiscal conservative.  Ok.  What does that mean?  I thought it meant that the federal government should handle basic things like fighting wars and coining money (and please coin way less than you are).  Everything else should be left to the “several states”.

But hey, at least the Republican leadership wants to give us less free stuff than the Democrats.  Here is what Cantor says about Obamacare:

“We too don’t want to accept any insurance company’s denial of someone and coverage for that person because he or she might have a pre-existing condition,” he said. “Likewise we want to make sure that someone of your age has the ability to access affordable care if it’s under your parent’s plan or elsewhere.”

So, the Democrat are promising a chicken in every pot and the Republicans are promising a nice broth.  Great message guys.   Certainly your pollsters really dug deep for that.

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At the Justice Department, one man has played a central role in two of the most controversial racialist policies of the Obama Administration – Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli.  This bundler of huge campaign contributions for the Obama Campaign is now the second highest ranking Presidential appointee at the Justice Department.  Perrelli is best known for his central role in dismissing the slam dunk voter intimidation case brought and dropped against the New Black Panther Party.  But the leftist Perrelli has outdone himself.

This week, the House passed a $4.6 billion payout to American Indians and black farmers as part of a settlement of alleged race discrimination claims.  BigGovernment.com has reported extensively, on the “Pigford II” settlement and how it promotes fraud.  Worse than fraud, it represents a race-driven political payoff by the Obama Administration to a favored political constituency.

Nothing happens in Washington like the Pigford settlement without the Justice Department.  The DOJ, acting as the nation’s law firm, was intimately involved in piloting the Pigford settlement through Congress and reaching similar settlements with other identity politics plaintiffs.  Perrelli ran the show at Justice in all of these efforts.

In fact, a large portion of  the settlement windfall escapes Congressional approval entirely because Perreilli’s shop at DOJ also approved a similar but separate settlement with Hispanic farmers. Instead of a Congressional appropriation, Hispanic farmers will be paid out of an existing “judgment fund.”

Like the black farmers, Hispanic farmers made claims of racial discrimination in the administration of Agriculture Department loans.  But Hispanic farmers added noisy street protests outside of the Justice Department’s headquarters.  No wonder Perrelli’s DOJ made a settlement offer of $1.3 billion in this lawsuit.  And over $680 million will flow to Indian claimants as part of the Perrelli approved “Keepseagle” lawsuit settlement.

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Today, in 1805, Napoleon defeated a larger Russo-Austrian force at Austerlitz. It was one of the greater military victories of all time. (Today is also the anniversary of Napoleon becoming emperor of the French (1804) and his nephew becoming Napoleon III (1852). Kinda weird.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah, Chanukah and/or חנוכה the Jewish holiday that is spelled a hundred ways in English. Along with the joy of the holiday is the sadness that this minor holiday is continually hijacked by the ACLU and other liberal groups who have no idea what the holiday means.

It happens every year at this time: the battles of political correctness. When a community puts up a Christmas tree, one of two things happens. Either there is a battle to take it down, or someone fights to get a Chanukkiyah (that’s the real name, not Menorah), Kwanzaa candles, or a symbol of some other religion’s holiday placed right next to it. Then Fox News follows by running stories about the latest battle in the “war against Christmas,” and the ACLU starts suing any town whose mayor ever went to a church, mosque, and/or synagogue. Hey, ACLU: Give it up. America is a Christian country.

People who see December as an opportune time for the celebration of politically correct multiculturalism have to stop! I understand that people are trying to be fair, but it just doesn’t make sense.

I can’t speak for the other holidays, but I can tell you that as Jewish holidays go Chanukah is among the least important, unlike the “big ones” Passover, Sukkot, or Shavuot you can work, drive, etc. Guess what, the Books of the Maccabees weren’t even included in the Jewish canon (that’s another and and more political story).

Guess what? It’s not a Holiday Tree, a Tree of Life, or a Celebration Bush, its a Christmas Tree. Nothing goes against the true meaning of Chanukah more than placing a Chanukkiyah near a “holiday tree” or using a “Jewish star” or Dreidel as a tree ornament. The true meaning of Chanukah is the exact opposite of that multicultural rubbish.

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This past Sunday, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, made good on his dangerous threat to our national security and the security of all of our allies by illegally releasing and illegally obtained classified State Department communications.

How did this illegal act against our nation happen? It appears that a trusted member of our armed forces, Army Private Bradley Manning, betrayed his country.  Private Manning served as an Intelligence Analyst at Contingency Operating Station Hammer in Iraq and his duties gave him access to some of the most sensitive and secret documents in our nation.

The protection of these secrets is a duty of every man and woman who is entrusted with a clearance to view them and to use the information to assist in the protection of our nation.  Today, Private Manning is charged with violating that oath he took to defend our nation and the constitution by admittedly giving thousands of highly classified documents and other information to the organization WikiLeaks.  And if he is convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to 52 years in military prison and given a dishonorable discharge.

These penalties in my opinion are too lenient because it is my belief that in the modern world Private Manning has not just violated orders, he has committed treason.  He has aided and abetted our terrorist enemies and put the lives of countless of his brothers and sisters in uniform in jeopardy.

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