Somewhere back in our school days, we all had a special teacher who made learning fun or who pushed us into achieving more than we thought possible.  If you were lucky, you had several teachers like that.

But we’ve all had that certain teacher who liked to show videos on Friday while he sat in the back of the room grading papers, or reading Sports section of the newspaper.  He was more concerned with getting on early start on his weekend than he was about what (or if) the students were learning.

The majority of public school teachers are dedicated and hard working. But a certain percentage of teachers are just going through the motions, putting in their time until their pension kicks in.

Watch ‘Unions vs. Good Teachers’ – Episode 3 – “Kids Aren’t Cars”

Even though experience tells us otherwise, teacher unions want schools to treat teachers as interchangeable and indistinguishable. The unions want the marginal teachers to be paid the same as the good teachers.  How does that make any sense?

Consider a survey by the Association of American Educators, an organization for teachers that actually has the interest of children at heart.  It found only 32% of teachers felt they should be judged based on the number of years they’ve been in the system.  Likewise, contrary to what unions would have us believe, AAE found 81% of teachers disagreed with the notion that “tenure is necessary for an educator to properly perform his or her job effectively.”

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Republicans have controlled the House for little over a month, but so far the record is clear: The new GOP majority is living up to its promise to cut spending.

In the first four weeks of the 112th Congress, Republicans have passed legislation that cuts spending by $656 billion without a single spending increase.

The conservative Republican Study Committee’s Money Monitor, the only document tracking the cost of bills as they pass the House, has the data. It shows:

• $541 billion in mandatory spending cuts.
• $115 billion in authorized spending cuts (subject to appropriation).
• $770 billion in tax cuts.

Those figures stand in stark contrast to the previous Congress, when the Democrat-controlled House enacted $682 billion of new spending in just the first four weeks.

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Judicial Watch recently received documents from the Department of Justice that confirmed our suspicions: the  DOJ has been working hand-in-hand with the radical leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in mounting their respective legal challenges to the Arizona’s get-tough anti-illegal immigration law SB 1070.

These documents, obtained through a June 17, 2010, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, include email exchanges between DOJ officials and ACLU staff. And I think when you read them for yourself you’ll see how difficult it is to tell where the ACLU ends and the DOJ begins.

For example, check out this July 27, 2010, email exchange between Lucas Guttentag, leader of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and the DOJ’s Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler:

2:15 pm: Ed

I left a voicemail earlier today about checking in once the district court rules. Would you be available then?

[Redacted statement] And from all of us, thank you again for your argument on behalf of the United States.

Lucas

2:40 pm: Thanks Lucas. We should definitely check in once we hear. We’ll be huddling here as soon as we can. What is your thinking at this point on if/how you will proceed in various possible scenarios?

It was good to see you, even if only briefly, and to be on the same side for once! [Redacted statement] I have a feeling we might be seeing each other again on this case.

Ed

6:14 pm: Thanks Ed. Yes, a real pleasure to be on the same side.
I think we will be strongly inclined to seek an immediate emergency injunction from the 9th Circuit…

Can you share your current thinking with regard to the various scenarios?

Best Lucas

I am sure you share my concerns about the nation’s highest law enforcement agency being “on the same side” as the ACLU.

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A few weeks back, I was preparing for a talk about school choice in Indiana.

Since I was going to talk about how big a burden K-12 education is for state and local governments, I thought I should try to get the most recent total spending figure. I say “try” because I know getting a good, recent, comprehensive total K-12 spending figure is not easy. Indiana is no special case in this regard; it’s a problem across the country.

But I was surprised by how officials at the Indiana Department of Education reacted to my simple request . . . usually government education officials aren’t so obvious about their obfuscation. They referred by request to their legal department. I was asked to explain who I was, what organization I was with, and how I would use the information before they would approve the release of what should be very public information.

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Our actors, posing as a pimp and his prostitute, walked into the Bronx, NY Planned Parenthood clinic. They were quick to tell staff there that they managed an underage sex ring of girls as young as 14.  The staffer is unfazed and offers to go one better: “We see people as young as 13,” reassuring the human traffickers, “everything is totally confidential.”

Our new undercover video released today shows a Planned Parenthood supervisor/practitioner willing to assist the pimp, even offering guidance on how the pimp’s underage sex slaves can get insurance through taxpayer funded programs to pay for abortions and other services even if the underage girls are not U.S. citizens. Both Planned Parenthood workers are quick to recommend that the self-identified pimp use the New York Medicaid system for free services for his sex slaves.

Keep in mind that Planned Parenthood receives over $300 million from taxpayer funds. How much of this money is going to discounts for pimps?

Watch the footage here:

This endemic cover-up of abuse extends beyond the staff at the New Jersey clinic, the four Virginia clinics, and the New York clinic. For four years our investigative team has been documenting the widespread abuse cover up at Planned Parenthood. See it yourself: From 2007-2009 we released 10 cases of sexual abuse cover up in six states, and our footage has led to suspensions and firings, resignations, numerous state investigations, and probation. (more…)

I believe that Americans are the smartest and most innovative people in the world. If we weren’t how could we become the greatest economic, cultural, social and military superpower the world has ever seen? It puzzles me though why we sometimes refuse to learn from our mistakes.

Case in point; energy independence; the oil embargos of the 1970s crippled our economy. Apart from creating the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, we did painfully little over the last 40 years to make sure that oil could not be used as a weapon against us. If anything, we made oil a more powerful weapon. In 1972, we imported 28% of our oil from foreign countries. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest figures (from 2009), 62% of the oil we consumed that year came from other nations.

In July 2008, OPEC reminded us of the power of oil as a weapon when the price of a barrel of oil reached $147. The tactics had changed from the 1970s – OPEC manipulated the supply to jack up the price versus imposing an outright embargo – but the results were eerily the same; Americans struggled to pay high gasoline and home heating oil prices, and America’s economy teetered on the brink of recession (our weakened economy would eventually be pushed over into the Great Recession by the collapse of the subprime housing market).

What was America’s response to the crisis? Nothing; or to be fair, we did nothing to increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. In fact, the Obama Administration recently made oil an even more powerful weapon by banning oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico thereby shutting down another 11% of our domestic oil production. So, here we are in 2011 more heavily dependent on foreign oil than ever before and watching helplessly as the price of oil climbs towards $100 a barrel thanks to the unrest in Egypt.

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Yesterday, President Obama traveled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to begin a much anticipated outreach to the private sector. It was an odd performance. Apparently, Obama believes the private sector simply needs more scolding, rather than a change in his Administration’s policies, to get the economy growing again. Going to be a long two years.

Who is responsible for America’s culture of freedom?

Much credit is given to the Founding Fathers who crafted the Constitution, but what about the drunkards who threw horse manure at British soldiers?

Historian Thaddeus Russell explores the taboo side of America’s fight for freedom in his new book, A Renegade History of the United States . Russell’s list of heroes of freedom includes pub owners, prostitutes, and sexually liberated pirates.

“People who existed and operated purely for their own pleasures and interests expanded freedoms for all of us, says Russell. “They broke open American culture in ways that most of us—not all of us—value if not cherish today.”

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A new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity gives four reasons why big government is bad fiscal policy.

I particularly like the explanation of how government spending undermines growth by diverting labor and capital from the productive sector of the economy.

Some cynics, though, say that it is futile to make arguments for good policy. They claim that politicians make bad fiscal decisions because of short-term considerations such as vote buying and raising campaign cash and that they don’t care about the consequences. There’s a lot of truth to this “public choice” analysis, but I don’t think it explains everything. Maybe I’m an optimist, but I think we would have better fiscal policy if more lawmakers, journalists, academics, and others grasped the common-sense arguments presented in this video.

And even if the cynics are right, we are more likely to have good policy if the American people more fully understand the damaging impact of excessive government. This is because politicians almost always will do what is necessary to stay in office. So if they think the American people are upset about wasteful spending and paying close attention, the politicians will be less likely to upset voters by funneling money to special interests.

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How’re y’all doin’? I’m Dinky McSweeney, candidate for Michigan State Senate in 0’11.

I know what you’re thinkin: How did a numb nuts like me, who was livin’ in a Super Bugger with his exotic Thai buddy Chowsers and bummin’ dimes playin’ bass in parkin’ garages, evolve into the Adonis you revere today? Ain’t no secret. All I’ve accomplished and become is because of the book Seize Freedom! by Congressbum Thaddeus McCotter.

It’s my manifesto and muse – a true celebration of unashamed sovereign self-fulfillment. As you bear witness to my transfiguration, fear not! There’s room for two on my cloud. Seize Freedom! is so eloquent and emotive, it made me into me; and it can change you into me.

Look it: One day in a fit of lonely desperation after a particularly gruelin’ tickle fight at the pettin’ zoo, the old me found Seize Freedom! in my man Chowsers’ sock draw. Bein’ curious by nature, I took a teensy peek. By the time Chowers burst into the room and bit my ankle, I was two chapters into it and realized this was not what I expected. I quickly dislodged Chowsers with a rolled up Lane Bryant catalogue from the nightstand, and caught a glimpse of myself in the little fella’s vanity mirror, which hangs a foot and a half lower than usual. Sure, I kinda let myself go a bit over the years, but I was startled by my reflection’s new air of dignity and self-respect. I was puzzled by these new sensations. Where did they come from? I reverently hung my head and, by chance, locked eyes with Chowsers, who’s jowls were about to sever my Achilles tendon.

It was then, like a heavy metal power chord across my cranium, from Chowsers’ frothing mouth uttered three words… “It’s the book, you dumbass.” At that sublime moment, a bottle of body paint fell from the top of the armoire where I’d hidden it from Chowsers, and it gently spilled its edible contents over my pate and face in a baptism of cleansing viscosity. I’m no crack pot cult member, but I gotta tell ya, I was changed. My burning eyes wept as Chowsers teeth tore at my calf. Looking down while I kicked him off, from the depths of my rebooted being I uttered, “Yes, Chowsers. It’s the book!”

Seize Freedom! is a book about America – land that I love! – and the four big ass problems confronting us: the economy, terrorism, Chi-coms, and cultural decay. Talk about a four bagger of bummers.

But the Congressbum who wrote the book, Thaddeus McCotter, isn’t a total stiff. Sure, he plays guitar like he’s wearing boxing gloves and hangs out with known metrosexuals like Greg Gutfeld and the House GOP leadership. Still, McCotter’s got brain one enough to look into these four big ass problems and root out a solution! He’s convinced me America will stay atop the world stage struttin’ more erect than ever.

A passage I had tattooed (with a bald eagle) on the small of my back sums it up:

“Champions of freedom, we will ensure America remains our blessed land of liberty, inspired and guided by the virtuous genius of her free people; and eternally blessed by the unfathomable grace of God.”

Damn straight!

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So what do you think the proper punishment should be for a government worker who invades the privacy of a citizen to help a political campaign? How about a brand new government job?!

According to the Columbus Dispatch:

A county agency has hired Ohio’s former social services director, who quit over a records check on the campaign figure known as “Joe the Plumber.”

Helen Jones-Kelley resigned in December 2008 as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. That was after an investigation found she improperly used state computers to find personal information on Samuel J. Wurzelbacher of the Toledo area.

Jones-Kelley was hired yesterday to lead the Montgomery County Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board.

Board Vice Chairman Stan Eichenaur tells the Dayton Daily News that Jones-Kelley has acknowledged that mistakes were made.

Let’s take a quick look at those “mistakes” made by Jones-Kelly.

You likely remember the exchange between Mr. Wurzelbacher and then-presidential candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008. Mr. Wurzelbacher, who was then an employee of a small plumbing business, asked Obama a question regarding the impact of his economic policies on small businesses.

Obama responded by 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.”

Of course the exchange between Mr. Wurzelbacher and Obama was captured on tape and immediately ignited a media firestorm. It even found its way into the next presidential debate with numerous references to “Joe the Plumber.”

Now, Mr. Wurzelbacher didn’t ask to be famous.

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A few weeks ago, President Obama purported to promise an overhaul of the Federal regulatory regime, pledging to look at bloated and outdated piles of red tape in order to make the tough cuts necessary, in his mind, to stimulate economic growth.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Obama stated, ““Regulations do have costs; often, as a country, we have to make tough decisions about whether those costs are necessary…But what is clear is that we can strike the right balance. We can make our economy stronger and more competitive, while meeting our fundamental responsibilities to one another.”

But as Big Government demonstrated just a few short weeks ago, the progressive left did not respond favorably to the President’s call for balance between public welfare and private-sector growth. Progressive special interest groups have outlined, instead, a plan of attack on Obama’s regulatory agencies, demanding an iron-fisted regulatory regime designed to punish some of the nations most prolific industries. A few short examples:

• Just days before Christmas, the FCC voted in “Net Neutrality,” an unprecedented power grab on par or greater than Obamacare. Under this scheme, the FCC essentially gave itself regulatory power over telecommunications companies, a job it was never intended to do.
• Speaking of Obamacare, contained within it’s own regulatory scheme is a terrifying Medicare reform project called IPAB, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. IPAB consists of 15 unelected officials charged with making drastic cuts to Medicare benefits – cuts that don’t require Congressional approval and can only be reversed by a Congressional supermajority.
• On the education front, it seems that the Department of Education has been relying on the advice of noted short-sellers as it and Congress formulates policy on for-profit colleges. New rules like the “gainful employment” rule threaten to punish students for choosing not to attend favored non-profit schools and universities in favor of career-oriented schools.
• Across the country, the National Labor Relations Board has been threatening legal action against state legislation designed to protect workers from “Card Check” legislation at the behest of the Obama Administration.
• Although the Clean Air Act was never intended to regulate carbon emissions, the EPA is threatening to use it to punish energy-producing industries that it doesn’t like, like biomass, a plan that could cost Americans nearly a million jobs. At the same time, the EPA is revoking permits for clean coal operations, and despite promising to restore oil and gas production in the Gulf, the Obama Administration has failed to issue new drilling permits, resulting in a de-facto moratorium on domestic oil production.

The Republicans have just introduced draft legislation that could force the Obama Administration to live up to it’s promises to investigate regulatory overreach and institute real, job-saving reforms.

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It is no secret that, since the passage of the healthcare law, the states have been desperately scrambling to figure out how to pay for the millions of people who are to be added to the Medicaid rolls if the law survives.

On February 3rd, Secretary of the Department of Health and  Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, wrote to the governors of the states:

“In light of difficult circumstances, we are stepping up our efforts to help you identify cost drivers in the Medicaid program and provide you with new tools and resources to achieve both short-term savings and longer-term sustainability while providing high-quality care to the citizens of your states.”

According to DHHS, some of these key areas of cost-savings to states include changing optional benefits by limiting their amount, duration or scope. Some of the benefits included are services such as prescription drugs, dental services, and speech therapy. In some cases people may be removed from the program.

This is an ironic turn of events. While the Democrats have spent years denigrating health insurance companies for limiting coverage, Secretary Sebelius is sounding an awful lot like health insurance managed care companies whose job it is to ration care. If you are on Medicaid, your state, according to DHHS, has the “flexibility” to limit or cancel your coverage for these types of services in order to make room for the thousands more who will proudly wear the “insured” label as required by Obamacare.

Further, in response to states who have requested “waivers” from some of the healthcare law’s requirements, Secretary Sebelius responded:

“I continue to review what authority, if any, I have to waive the maintenance of effort under current law.”

It would appear, from this statement, that the Secretary, who already has authorized waivers for over 700 companies and unions who are unable to meet the law’s requirement of no annual limits on health insurance coverage, is considering waivers from some requirements to entire states if the “flexibility” provided in the law is not sufficient for them to make the healthcare law cost-effective.

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A homeowner with a leaky roof may be better off than one whose kitchen is on fire. But he still has a serious problem.

That’s something public policymakers – and everyday citizens – may want to remember as they try to make sense of the emerging debate over pension reform in the state of Florida.

The AFL-CIO recently held a major press conference in Tallahassee designed to minimize the need for pension reform legislation. The union leaders argued – correctly – that Florida’s state pensions are in better shape than those in California, Illinois, New Jersey, and several other states in financial crisis.

But just because Florida’s state pension problems aren’t (yet) a three-alarm fire doesn’t mean that many cities in the Sunshine State can afford to ignore their extremely leaky roofs. Because a number of municipal pension plans in Florida are suffering from the very sorts of mismanagement that have plagued state plans elsewhere. And some city pensions are so seriously underfunded that they will go belly up unless public policymakers step in and take bold action.

According to economist Randall Holcombe of Florida State University, government pension programs get into financial trouble because politicians often make promises today that have to be paid for by taxpayers tomorrow.

“There is always a temptation on the part of government officials to promise increased compensation in the form of unfunded pension benefits, because by doing so they can push the present cost of government into the future,” Dr. Holcombe notes in a new report of The James Madison Institute. “Generous pension benefits promised a decade or more ago are now placing significant burdens on government budgets.”

Or, as they say in Marianna, the chickens are coming home to roost.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Friday’s unemployment numbers, Super Bowl ads, and AOL’s purchase of the Huffington Post.

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:

U.S. jobless rate drops, but experts question how many actually found jobs
Money Matters: Deciphering Bureau of Labor unemployment statistics
AOL to Acquire Huffington Post
Who Will Profit From AOL’s Deal for Huffington Post?
LEAKED: AOL’s Master Plan
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It appears that 2011 will continue to be another challenging year for many looking to sell their home, particularly given a glut of inventory sure to be on the market from an increase in foreclosures. That’s just the latest hurdle, however, for a Minnesota man who says a controversial city rental ordinance not only restricts his property rights, but also his ability to sell his three bedroom house.

Ethan Dean recently wrapped up his fourth tour of duty as a U.S. advisor in Iraq, but soon he’ll be carrying on the battle from his new post in Afghanistan—his battle, that is, with the City of Winona, Minnesota.

Dean’s campaign on the home front involves a controversial city ordinance that he says has cost him the opportunity to sell his $139,900 house that’s located in a prime location near Winona State University.

The conflict involves the so-called “30 percent rule” that limits the number of rental properties to 30 percent of residences per block in this college community.  Home owners who live on blocks above the 30 percent cutoff are not only prevented from renting their property, but also in effect from selling to buyers looking to invest in rental housing for college students.

“If it weren’t for the 30 percent rule, I’d have sold my house two years ago,” Dean emailed  from Iraq recently.  “There are many in town, some elderly who need the money from their house sale for medical issues. They are being punished for being Winona residents more than anyone.”

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Last week President Obama began the blitz which, barring Republican collapse (read on) could last for the next two years, pushing his State of the Union call for American taxpayers to hand over even more billions to underwrite a supposed ‘clean energy’ future.

By chance, I read of this between sessions conferring in London and Brussels with leading experts on the disastrous folly of Europe’s experiment with the ‘clean energy economy’. We know that this is the same disaster that President Obama is now doubling down on as an economic recovery plan because he used to admit as much.

But in his new push the president has toned down the European roots of his model, as well as the planetary salvation rationale for energy rationing. This is because, respectively, the success stories all proved to be black holes which European governments are now trying to walk back, and the public turned against the global warming campaign.

So it was with great amusement that I caught, on my flight back this weekend, some art imitating life in a spectacularly appropriate way. Accountant Leo Bloom revealed to producer Max Bialystock, “under the right circumstances, a producer could actually make more money with a flop than he can with a hit”. Voila! There you have, in a Broadway second, President Obama’s ‘clean energy’ agenda.

Government Electric – once a bastion of American genius now fallen to being no more than a government front company – and the rest of the ‘renewables’ Music Men (to note another apt vehicle) are the Bialystock and Bloom of policy. They seek to make their fortune by producing flops. But since their ‘markets’ are arranged by pals in government and not due to performance, it works. That’s the beauty of it.

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Perhaps you’ve heard about Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was recently tried and convicted for falsifying residency records so her daughters could attend a better school where they would receive a quality education.

The “better school” hired a private investigator to prove that Williams-Bolar’s children lived outside the district. As a result, she received a 10-day jail sentence, three years of probation, and a criminal record (two third-degree felonies) that will haunt her for the rest of her working life.

All this happened simply because Williams-Bolar wanted her children to receive a decent education.

Yes, she broke the law and was punished. On strict legal grounds, that was the correct course of action.

But in the broader sense of right and wrong, what happened to Williams-Bolar is an outrage – possibly of game-changing proportions—and should serve as a wakeup call for Americans about the need for bold, substantial school choice laws throughout the country.

When National Public Radio called for my reaction, I compared her to Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to move to the back of the bus when a white passenger needed a seat.

Since Williams-Bolar is also African-American, some seized on this comparison and began making this a story about race.  But let me be very clear: this is not about race, this is about injustice.

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Today, in 1962, the US imposed a near-total embargo of Cuba, to pressure the country to move away from it’s communist dictatorship. Should be any day now…