As government employee unions continue to rally across the country in support of the Wisconsin protesters, they are becoming completely unhinged. (Being surrounded by hygienically-challenged individuals who continuously shout mind-numbing slogans will do that.)

All the protests are understandable. The Democrats and the unions had a very bad election last November. Their only hope of stopping the inevitable demise of collective bargaining privileges for public sector employees is by swaying public opinion. The unions are playing a very weak hand, and the protests are their “ace in the hole.”

But what’s inexcusable is the attempt of some protestors to villanize and make veiled threats against private American citizens (namely “The Rich”).

Last weekend, some 2,500 government workers rallied outside the California state Capitol, to demand that the Golden State does not follow in the footsteps of Wisconsin. True to form, the government employees were spreading the vitriol and intimidation there, too.

For instance, “Melody,” a 1^st grade teacher, had this to say about ‘where’s the money in this country’:

“Well, isn’t it in the top 1.5% of people?  I think they should start telling us those people’s addresses!”

Ms. First Grade Teacher, who are “they?”  SEIU’s Andy Stern?  AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka? MSNBC?

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Sooner or later, there will be a giant battle in Washington over the value-added tax. The people who want bigger government (and the people who are willing to surrender to big government) understand that a new source of tax revenue is needed to turn the United States into a European-style social welfare state. But that’s exactly why the VAT is a terrible idea.

I explain why in a column for Reuters. The entire thing is worth reading, but here’s an excerpt of some key points.

Many Washington insiders are claiming that America needs a value-added tax (VAT) to get rid of red ink. …And President Obama says that a VAT is “something that has worked for other countries.” Every single one of these assertions is demonstrably false. …One of the many problems with a VAT is that it is a hidden levy. …VATs are imposed at each stage of the production process and thus get embedded in the price of goods. And because the VAT is hidden from consumers, politicians find they are an easy source of new revenue – which is one reason why the average VAT rate in Europe is now more than 20 percent! …Western European nations first began imposing VATs about 40 years ago, and the result has been bigger government, permanent deficits and more debt. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, public debt is equal to 74 percent of GDP in Western Europe, compared to 64 percent of GDP in the United States (and the gap was much bigger before the Bush-Obama spending spree doubled America’s debt burden). The most important comparison is not debt, but rather the burden of government spending. …you don’t cure an alcoholic by giving him keys to a liquor store, you don’t promote fiscal responsibility by giving government a new source of revenue. …To be sure, we would have a better tax system if proponents got rid of the income tax and replaced it with a VAT. But that’s not what’s being discussed. At best, some proponents claim we could reduce other taxes in exchange for a VAT. Once again, though, the evidence from Europe shows this is a naive hope. The tax burden on personal and corporate income is much higher today than it was in the pre-VAT era. …When President Obama said the VAT is “something that has worked for other countries,” he should have specified that the tax is good for the politicians of those nations, but not for the people. The political elite got more money that they use to buy votes, and they got a new tax code, enabling them to auction off loopholes to special interest groups.

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Our continued annual deficits of over $1.5 trillion will eventually destroy our economy and consume our liberty.  We must deal with this crisis now.  The Left says that the rich need to pay more, that more taxes will solve the problem.  Here is the truth.  If we were to double federal taxes on all Americans, our deficits would still be in excess of $400 billion per year.  There is not enough wealth for more taxes to do any good.  Consider that doubling federal taxes means the top rate would be 70%!  With state and local taxes, Americans would have little left for food and shelter.  The debate is over.  We have no choice but to dramatically cut spending.

Entitlements are the major contributor to the spending crisis and Social Security has long been the most protected of all entitlements.  It needs to be reformed in order to reduce its growing burden on our economy.  The reforms being discussed will not result in anyone currently receiving, or about to receive, benefits having any less than they are expecting.  The Democrats will cry that restructuring Social Security will hurt those who have planned for it, but this is a lie.  All reform options being discussed will only impact those who will have the time to plan for the changes.  The truth is that if Social Security is not reformed, the program will fail.

Democrats point to a $2.3 trillion Social Security Trust Fund surplus.  This is not a cash surplus. It was spent on general government expenses and replaced with Treasury Bonds.  Who is responsible for payment of those bonds? The taxpayer is responsible.  Yes, the Social Security Trust Fund surplus is nothing more than a government I.O.U.  Bernard Madoff could not have done better.

Before the recession accelerated in the fall of 2008, Social Security payroll taxes exceeded benefits paid each year.  Surplus cash, though diverted and replaced with bonds, was being generated.  However, since the labor force lost eight million jobs in the recession, Social Security benefits now exceed payroll taxes collected each year.  With the surplus nothing more than part of the national debt, we have to borrow to make up the difference.

It gets worse.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss stock derivatives, the Flash Crash and the failing financial status of USA Inc.

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:

Report from the Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues
Mary Meeker’s look at USA Inc.
USA Inc.: A Basic Summary of America’s Financial Statements
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It took two years, a lawsuit and a ruling from a federal judge, but Judicial Watch finally got hold of a batch of documents from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) related to the Citigroup and Bank of America bailouts. (The FOIA lawsuit, you may recall, was filed on behalf of former Federal Reserve and FDIC employee Vern McKinley.)

Specifically, we received the unredacted minutes from FDIC Board meetings during which FDIC officials and staff discussed the rationale for the bailouts which centered on the “systemic risk” of allowing the two financial institutions to fail.

We also received never-before-seen documents regarding the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, which guaranteed unsecured debt of private financial institutions and provided them “full coverage of non-interest bearing [sic] deposit transaction accounts, regardless of dollar amount.”

Here are the highlights:

• FDIC Board Meeting Minutes from approval of Citigroup bailout (November 23, 2008):According to the minutes from the meeting, government officials described in vague terms the consequences of allowing Citigroup to fail, including “the effects on money market liquidity could be expected on a global basis,” “term funding markets remain under considerable stress” and the fact that it would “significantly undermine business and household confidence.” One FDIC Board member who was in attendance, John Reich, cautioned Federal bank regulators and the Treasury Department to “avoid ‘selective creativity’ in determining what constitutes systemic risk and what does not and what is possible for the government to do and what is not.”
• FDIC Board Meeting Minutes from approval of Bank of America bailout (January 15, 2009):According to the meeting minutes, Sheila Bair, Chairman of the Board of the FDIC, admitted the agency “was relying on data analysis by the Federal Reserve” and for that reason the FDIC “very much needs to proceed with a systemic risk determination with respect to [Bank of America].” Chairman Bair characterized the decision to bail out Bank of America as demonstrating that the FDIC, an independent agency, was a “team player along with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to prove the systemic risk case.” (Translation: Treasury and the Fed really want this so we have no choice but to go along.)

Incidentally, these meeting minutes are consistent with a separate report by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program released on January 13, 2011.

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Although the energy and influence of organized labor has shifted over to the public sector, union bosses are ambitious to regain their footing in the private sector. This much is evident from the rulemaking changes the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) now seeks to enshrine. With media attention understandably focused on the confrontation between Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, and the teachers unions, private industry advocates should not lose sight of administrative activity in Washington D.C.

In just a few weeks, the Obama Administration attorneys who dominate the board could open the way for labor bosses to burrow into private companies with “mini-unions” built around small clusters of employees. At issue, is a seemingly narrow case involving nursing home workers that could potentially reshape the way bargaining units are created in six million companies covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), industry advocates have warned.

Despite losing on major legislative priorities like “card check” and binding arbitration, which were included in the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), organized labor could still find a way to regain its footing in the private sector through rulemaking changes. Brian Haynes, a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), explains how this can occur in a strongly worded dissent attached to the Specialty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center of Mobile case.

Under the current system, organizers must gain support from over 50 percent of an entire storewide bargaining unit. However, the legal reasoning at work in Specialty makes it possible for just 10 pharmacy workers, or 15 auto shop workers, or 20 loading dock personnel to all form separate unions.  Employers would have to negotiate separate contracts with each group, while losing the flexibility to reassign workers to different jobs within the organization.

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It’s nearing two weeks since unions and their cohorts on the Left have thrown a nationwide fit over Scott Walker’s solution to what is ailing Wisconsin. Unions and Democrats have made Wisconsin their cause célèbre by deploying OFA astroturf, the big talking heads, as well as recruiting just about every known Grateful Dead concert attendee on their mailing lists into Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Democratic state senators (now humorously known as fleebaggers) comically continue to hold the state hostage over an issue of union power, politics and money—nothing more and nothing less.

Despite unions’ long hatred of Scott Walker, the new governor is moving to address both the symptoms of the disease and the disease itself—the public-sector union scheme that has molested Wisconsin’s taxpayers and their children by gaming the system. Unions like Wisconsin’s teachers’ union [WEAC] (which was Wisconsin’s biggest-spending lobby in 2009) have been extraordinarily adept at fixing the system through spending millions to elect politicians who, in turn, reward the unions at the expense of the taxpayers.

Now, in response to Walker’s proposals, the Left has gone overboard in their attempt to protect their stranglehold on Wisconsin taxpayers. Even though unions have made clear that their fight is not about their wages or benefits (they’ve offered concessions), they’ve made the fight all about their “right to be unionized” and the fictitious right to “collective bargaining”—which makes their cause even more despotic.

In making Madison into something reminiscent of the spectacle of the 1960s, unions, Democrats and their liberal cohorts are attempting to make the Wisconsin union battle into a civil rights battle, when it is not.  In fact, the Wisconsin fight, when compared to private-sector negotiations is about: 1) the Scope of Bargaining, 2) Union “Income” Security [Right-to-Work vs. Forced Dues], 3) whether Wisconsin should be the unions’ dues collection agency [payroll deduction of dues], and 4) whether public-sector unions should be ‘recertified’ by holding elections every year.

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We have a major oil crisis unfolding now and where’s Obama?  He was last spotted giving aid and comfort to public union thugs in their battle against the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

We now, this week, have oil prices busting through $100 a barrel. This will create major havoc to our already anemic economy. How did we get here?  Our president has a moratorium on nearly all domestic oil production: we can’t drill off our coasts, nor Alaska and certainly not the gulf.  We can’t build nuclear power plants, dam rivers, explore for natural gas or mine coal.   We’re stuck with windmills and failing solar power companies- companies that can’t even stay in business after billions in taxpayer subsidies.  This is an energy policy written by hippies.   Please, if our Community Organizer-In-Chief really wants a windmill, let’s just go buy him a propeller that he can put onto his beanie cap.  We hope that’ll satisfy his urge for wind, because all the windmills in the nation couldn’t power up Bezerkely, CA.

What happens with oil prices rising? Who are the winners and losers?

• Arab tyrants and mullahs who fund al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas are the biggest beneficiaries.
• The American workers suffer, as their jobs are transferred overseas when we ban production here.
• The American consumer pays a not-so-hidden tax at the pump with the increased prices.
• Business are hurt with extra costs,  laying off still more workers.
• Finally, rising prices on everything.  Prices on all food and products will increase with the added costs to both the manufacture and distribution of the merchandise.

How did we get to this precarious a place?  You can thank the first, propeller-beanie-president, Jimmie Carter.

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One morning last week I awoke and read the news: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican legislature were ready to pass a budget repair bill aimed at bridging the state’s $3.6 billion deficit, protecting 5,500 public employees from lay-offs and furloughs, granting freedom of choice to public employees with regard to joining a union, granting freedom of choice to local school boards with regard to health care, and ending a perennial cycle of Corleonesque backroom dealing between legislators and union lobbyists using taxpayer funds as collateral.

In response, all 14 Democrat state senators decided to stand by the people of Wisconsin by scrambling to hide out in Illinois. Within hours, busloads of out-of-state union members, many from Illinois, swarmed the Capitol with “Democracy at Work” signs to thank the senators on behalf of the people of Wisconsin. (You know, the people of Wisconsin whose majority elected Scott Walker into office by 52 – 46 percent.)

While I tried to figure out how “Democracy at Work” meant Democrats not showing up at work, the demonstrators made it abundantly clear in their favorite chant: “This is what democracy looks like!” So a few hours later, I caught a flight from Los Angeles to Wisconsin to find out what I was missing, and for that matter, what precisely democracy looks like.

Notwithstanding some of the rather audacious tactics employed by their supporters I was to encounter upon my televised doctor’s appointment, I was for the most part impressed by the rank and file, the actual Wisconsinite demonstrators, who bear little if any resemblance to the friends I made at another union protest in Palm Springs just weeks prior, nor the winners documented in my video Teachers Unions Gone Wild.

To the contrary, they are warm, kind-eyed, genuine. Among them are some of the politest protestors I have met at a left-wing rally. They are mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, grandmothers and grandfathers, who have simply been misguided into believing this they have been marginalized and ignored — despite the 17-hour public testimony hearings the legislature had just held.

Wide-eyed and idealistic, they are dreamers, but they’re not the only ones. As Chicago’s new mayor famously said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Mindful of this axiom, scores of operatives from groups such as Organizing for America (the campaign arm of that mayor’s former boss) flocked to Madison. Pizzas orders came in from at least 14 foreign countries to feed the demonstrators camping in the Capitol who had instituted their own socialist people’s government with their sleeping bags, first aid tables, and “food share” stations. This was not just a legislative battle in Wisconsin. The SEIU, AFSCME, SDS, AFL-CIO, WIAC, NEA and other national and international “progressive” groups had all shown up to invest their capital into this crisis—inspiring me to investigate what their anticipated dividends might be.

One such shareholder (I hope they’ll forgive these analogies), is a group called the International Socialist Organization (ISO), a Trotskyite international organization that has been committed to organizing unions, and particularly students, since 1976.

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Today, in 1854, the Republican Party was organized in Ripon, Wisconsin. Odd that today, in many ways, the future of the GOP-and the nation-rests on individuals from the same state.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl’s (R-AZ) announcement that he will not seek a fourth term in the US Senate set off a flurry of maneuvering in Arizona, which has not witnessed a vacant senate seat in nearly two decades. So as ambitious politicians play a frantic round of musical chairs and begin the “Political Consultant Full Employment Act” to determine who will claim Kyl’s seat, Arizona will be lucky to elect a successor who’s half the stalwart Kyl has been on behalf of his beloved state, the Constitution and core American principles.

Although he has consistently received accolades (including being named one of Time’s Most Influential People in 2010), Kyl has often been overshadowed in the media by his counterpart John McCain, who is much better known because of his presidential campaigns. Yet among Washington insiders as well as many within his home state, it is Kyl who appears to be Arizona’s favorite son.

Since taking office as an Arizona Congressman in 1987, Kyl has been an enduring champion of fundamental conservative values. The Senator has been seemingly immune to the Potomac Fever that affects so many within the Beltway, never wavering under special-interest pressure or to gain a particular sector of support in an election year.

It is this commitment to core principles that makes it all the more impressive that Kyl has repeatedly been able to work with Democrats across the aisle. In 2004, Kyl gained notice for his work on the issue of victims’ rights with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Although Kyl and Feinstein were not able to pass a constitutional amendment on the subject as they originally had hoped, they did pass a comprehensive victims’ rights bill, the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, which ushered in sweeping reforms to improve the circumstances of victims during criminal investigations and proceedings. Since that bill’s passage, Kyl has continued to advocate on behalf of crime victims to protect their privacy.

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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski has a bit of reputation for not liking conflict – and avoiding it whenever possible.

An excellent way of attempting to do this is to say whatever it is each person with whom you engage wishes to hear – even if consecutive conversations require diametrically opposite assertions.

The people with whom you speak all walk away happy, each thinking you’re a swell guy.  And you can continue doing exactly what it is you want to do.

Like, say, shoving through in unauthorized fashion overly oppressive Network Neutrality regulations.

—–

As we have previously discussed, President Barack Obama does – and will be doing – this sort of double dealing all the time.  (He’ll also repeatedly do it with his oath of office – as again demonstrated by his abdicating his responsibility to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act.)

Let us now take a look at Chairman Genachowski’s recent public statements on the subject of Net Neutrality.

Starting with what should have been the end of this entire FCC power grab fiasco.  In the October 3^rd Washington Post, Genachowski said:

“…(W)e have a Communications Act that wasn’t written for broadband.”

Game over, one would think.  The FCC can’t regulate anything unless and until Congress writes a law that says “Hey FCC – regulate this.”  And here we have the Chairman of the FCC admitting that Congress has never done this on broadband.

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Tonight, Hollywood pauses to salute itself for a job very well done. The other 364 days of the year it merely pauses to salute its moral and political superiority. Be sure to check out the live-blog over at Big Hollywood tonight. Link here.

The 17-year-old high school senior waded into a sea of communist red to deliver the truth of liberty in the form the US Constitution to the political pagans assembled.

In the process, Patrick was verbally assaulted by an old man who graphically described sexual tea-bagging to the high school student. The incident took place during dueling protests in Jefferson City, Missouri, and was caught on two separate video cameras.

Patrick had grabbed a stack of Pocket Constitutions and Declarations offered for free by the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition The Tea Party held a rally on the south side of the Missouri Capitol. He took those Constitutions to the north side of the Capitol where the unions and socialists had gathered to denounce Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

The contrast of the two generations–the dying union generation that demanding more of others with the rising Generation Tea–could not be more stark. Or more encouraging.

On the one hand, you have a creepy old man, speaking filth to a boy. On the other, you have Patrick, politely fending off the old pervert’s sexual advances.

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Tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood as usual, but it’s increasingly common for Hollywood films to be produced outside California or even outside the United States.

Filmmaker Joe Gressis isn’t surprised when Hollywood productions leave the Golden State. He’s surprised when they stay. “The fact that we remain here is kind of ridiculous,” says the three-time Emmy-nominated Gressis.

Reason.tv’s Tim Cavanaugh sat down with Gressis, a founding partner of Secret Handshake Productions, to talk about runaway film production and the headaches of making movies in California (or anywhere else, for that matter).

Topics include: tax incentives, the benefits of shooting in Hong Kong, and why Gressis admires Michael Bay.

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President Obama’s cult of personality and feel-good message of “change” allowed him to sail through the 2008 campaign without being thoroughly vetted by the press.  No one took the time to delve into his past and look at his influences, his actions, or his political theory.  And when something did come up, the press allowed him to skate on by rather than press him for real information (Jeremiah Wright, anyone?).

Recent guest  Stanley Kurtz decided to do what the press failed to do – take an honest look at Obama’s politics.   His investigation resulted in Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism. In this episode, Kurtz discusses the many socialist influences in Obama’s life, from his college years to his time as a community organizer, with men such as Bill Ayers, Frank Marshal Davis, and Jeremiah Wright.

In examining Obama’s main mentors, Kurtz begins to see a clear ideology that motivates the President’s disdain for the middle class, take-no-prisoners approach to passing socialized healthcare, reluctance to discuss political theory and desire for, ultimately, a socialist revolution.

Here is the full episode, you won’t want to miss it:

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Here’s yet another union supporter foaming at the mouth, literally.

This time the scene is Chicago. Bob Oehmen, who calls himself PackerBackerBob, is carrying a sign that reads “the GOP hearts the KKK” and offers 1 million dollars to anyone who can prove him wrong. If that’s not enough, he then challenges those who disagree to a fight and promises to make the “wussy motherf**ckers” and “teabaggers” suffer.

As Rebel Pundit notes, on Daily Kos he actually declares war on all righties, neo-cons, “teabaggers”, and libertarians.

Warning: He’s also “the meanest damn liberal in the land”. You’ll practically tremble in fear.

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On Saturday Feb. 26, a protest rally was thrown together by MoveOn.org and the SEIU at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.

It just so happened that Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin and Barack Obama’s former green jobs czar and self-admitted communist Van Jones stopped by to show their support for the 14 Wisconsin State Senators who fled as well as the unions and teachers taking fake sick notes from doctors to stay out and protest.

At one point, Van Jones claims that the Tea Party turned off the television after the word ‘liberty’ and missed the ‘and justice for all’ part. These people can never get a sentence out without mentioning the Tea Party. Perhaps maybe, just maybe, they’re actually frightened of the Tea Party and the power they posses. Not only that, Tea Party rallies are actually attended by people. Jealousy may also play a factor.

Also, here’s a fantastic sample of that new tone Democrats have been calling for. I personally have no idea why abortion was an issue at a union rally. Then again, out of about the 500 people there it seemed as if they were protesting 128 different things.

Yes, that sign actually reads “Keep your laws off my body, and I’ll keep my hands off your throat.” How nice. Civility at it’s finest.

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As a wave of left-wing violence threatens to engulf the nation, why is the progressive New York Times running an ugly campaign of character assassination against a real-life American hero who saved lives and helped to safeguard the nation’s sacred democratic process?

Could it be because the newspaper is sympathetic to the goals of the thuggish community organizers and union goons intimidating state legislatures across America and wants to help advance the liberal-left narrative?

The man with the bull’s eye on his back is Brandon Darby, formerly a far-left community organizer. This heroic defector from the Left stands accused by the New York Times and by angry radical groups of becoming an agent provocateur. Unhinged anarchists across the country would love to get their hands on him.

All over the Internet Darby’s name has been dragged through the mud by the Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars crowd. They accuse him of selling out and pushing the wrongdoers hard enough that he essentially became a co-conspirator. Search for his name with the words traitor, rat, or fink and you’ll see what I mean. (more…)