“We know way too much about Bill Clinton,” and that’s why—as charismatic as he may be—the former president just isn’t glamorous. So says Virginia Postrel, Editor-in-chief of DeepGlamour.net and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Postrel, formerly the editor of Reason, sat down with Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker to discuss Oscar glamour, the ascent of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and whether J. Lo could be President Obama’s glamour mentor. (This Saturday check out Postrel’s column for more on Oscar-style glamour.)

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Several school districts, including Madison’s, were closed Friday for a teacher professional development in-service day.

Madison school officials had reached out to the union to cancel the previously scheduled day off, and instead use it to make up one of the four days that schools were closed due to the recent mass teacher ’sick outs.’

Those offers were rebuffed. Because of their collective bargaining agreement, both the district and the union must mutually agree upon any changes to the school calendar.

So how many teachers showed up at the professional development conference held just blocks from the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison?

MacIver News Services’ Bill Osmulski reports.

The November elections marked a sea change in the political landscape at every level of government nationwide. Right now, all eyes are focused on the Wisconsin standoff between Governor Scott Walker and the public employee unions. But under the radar, completely overlooked by the mass media, is the unprecedented move recently taken by newly-elected Carroll County, Maryland Commissioners Richard Rothschild, Robin Frazier, Haven Shoemaker, Dave Roush and Doug Howard, who abolished the County’s Office of Sustainability. They then voted unanimously to drop out of the UN’s International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). They are the first governmental organization to do so.

For those unfamiliar with the sustainable development agenda, this might not seem like much, but it is huge. If you have been following my recent series on the subject, you will know that local Sustainability offices, under the auspices of the ICLEI’s Local Governments for Sustainability, are the tiny, visible tip of the monstrous Agenda 21 sustainable development iceberg, the ultimate goal of which is to transform American society from the bottom up into a socialist ward of UN global governance. As of today, there are approximately 600 local governments in the US who have signed on to this Trojan Horse.

Minus one.

All the commissioners are to be commended for this bold decision. Predictably, the left is up in arms. The commissioners have already been challenged to a debate on their decision and the other side wants to bring in heavy hitters from the EPA and the Maryland Department of the Environment in an attempt to discredit the commission’s earth shattering (figuratively) move.

I think the commissioners took some skin.

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One thing we’ve always loved about Capitalism is that it will seize on any opportunity for a competitive advantage. That force is so strong that even quasi-government agencies will try to get in on the game. (We’re talking crazy, voodoo like power.) So…the city of Rockford decided to capitalize on its recent attraction from Democrat state Legislators. Awesome.

When First Lady Michelle Obama held a press conference last January to announce a collaboration between Walmart’s new “Nutritional Charter” and her “Let’s Move” Campaign, she was heralding more than just an alliance with the world’s largest retailer and grocer.

Walmart’s Nutritional Charter pledges to reduce sodium, sugar and trans fats in products, create “healthier product” labels, and drop prices on healthier foods, fruits and vegetables –even though lower costs in the grocery department are likely to be balanced with increases elsewhere.

Although Walmart and conservatives used share principles and be friends, this event publicly confirmed the company’s leftward shift.

After experiencing shakedowns by liberal activists, Walmart believed concessions might silence the din.  But instead of a few capitulations, the left now controls Walmart, leaving conservative support in its battles – including unionization – in shards on the floor.

Walmart’s lurch left was an orchestrated, strategic change led to a great extent by the man standing on the dais with Michelle Obama – long time Democrat strategist and liberal environmental operative Leslie Dach.

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What does the Constitution really say about the most controversial policy decisions of the present day?  What arguments against Obamacare have potential in court, and which are DOA?

Constitutional law experts Richard Epstein and John Yoo joined us  to discuss these very issues.  They examine the constitutionality of Obacamare through the lens of the “encroachment” argument (which has potential) and the “general welfare” argument, which they argue won’t work.

We also discuss CA’s Prop 8 and Judge Walker’s ruling that it violates the equal protection and due process laws in the Constitution. Yoo argues that the “right to gay marriage” is a new and invented right, and that while he is okay with gay marriage as a policy matter, a judicially imposed rule that overturns the majority of voters isn’t the way to get it done.  Instead, Judge Walker essentially says that the majority of Californians are bigots .

Epstein and Yoo provide predictions for Supreme Court decisions, reflect on Bush v. Gore (ten years later!), and discuss the Supreme Court under John Roberts.

Here is the full episode:

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Is it the slow-moving nature of bureaucracy or is it politics that has turned a simple Freedom of Information Law request into a 94-day wait?

On December 20, 2010, Education Action Group filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the New York City Department of Education. The request was for the personnel file of former New York City employee Rhonda (Randi) Weingarten, who is now the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union.

After missing its first two deadlines, the DOE now says that information will not be available until late March.  It is our plan to post it for America to see at PublicSchoolSpending.com.

On December 27, 2010, one week after EAG’s initial request, we received an e-mail response from the Office of Legal Services of the New York City Department of Education saying that the FOIL request had been received.

“We anticipate providing you with a response by January 26, 2011,” the letter read.

When the first deadline came, EAG received another e-mail saying that “due to the volume and complexity of the requests we receive and process,” more time was needed to answer the FOIL request. “Accordingly, we anticipate a response by February 24, 2011,” the letter read.

Yesterday, EAG received yet another e-mail from the DOE that pushes the response date back another full month.

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Today, in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from his exile on the island of Elba.

Long before Gov. Scott Walker watched Democrats flee Wisconsin last week, a similar scenario played out in Texas when another first-term governor faced a contentious political debate.

In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry was only beginning to make his mark on the Lone Star State. Eight years later, the experience gives him a unique perspective on Walker’s situation. During an interview Friday in Washington, D.C., Perry had nothing nice to say about the 14 Wisconsin senators who ran for Illinois to prevent a quorum in the state Senate.

“Instead of respecting the democratic process, they run off and somehow or another think that’s going to be productive,” Perry said. “I don’t think it is. I think people, they look at this like, you know, the kid who takes his ball. I can’t win, I can’t play, then nobody else is going to.”

He added: “That is immature, is juvenile and at the end of the day, I’ll betcha the folks of Wisconsin, they punish those senators rather than heralding them as heroes.”

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Wisconsin. Ohio. Michigan. New Jersey. New York. Budget-battle showdowns are coming soon to a statehouse near you.

Thousands of angry school teachers, union members, and their sympathizers have descended on capitals to fight against reducing pay and benefits for public employees. The protesters are up against a new crop of governors who are hell-bent on spending cuts to deal with deficits that may rise to combined $125 billion in the next fiscal year.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) is looking for public employees to pay $500 million towards benefits they’re currently receiving for free.

New Jersey’s Chris Christie is proposing public employees pick up 30 percent of their health care premiums. Wisconsin’s Scott Walker wants public employees to pay at least 13 percent of their health care premiums. And he wants state workers to start contributing to their retirements for the first time.

This newfound fiscal discipline comes after a virtually unchecked binge over the past 10 years during which state expenditures exploded by more than  80 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars, including big bumps in overall worker compensation.

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I’ll drink to this latest video…

From the Associated Press:

The Obama administration is offering at least $1.3 billion to settle complaints from female and Hispanic farmers who say they faced discrimination from the Agriculture Department.

The Agriculture and Justice departments announced Friday that farmers who could prove discrimination could receive up to $50,000. The proposal comes after the government settled with American Indians over similar discrimination issues last fall and Congress provided money for the second round of a black farmers settlement.

Like the black and American Indian farmers, the thousands of minorities and women say local USDA offices for years denied them loans and other assistance that routinely went to whites.

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In a Friday afternoon news-dump, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a representative of the Obama Justice Department announced a bombshell: the Obama administration has set up their own “streamlined process” for women and Hispanic farmers to collect damages from the federal government for alleged past discrimination.

Like the fraud-filled Pigford claim persons who claim to have “attempted-to” farm will be eligible for awards of up to fifty thousand dollars each. In response to a question from Big Government’s Lee Stranahan the Department of Justice laid out a set of requirements that is eerily similar to the Pigford claims process, such as categories of “farmed” or “attempted-to-farm,” “owned land” or “attempted-to-own land,” standards that will almost certainly result in thousands of fraudulent claims.

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You might recall that with great fanfare and the slobberingly positive coverage by the Old Media, President Obama made Reagan-like and claimed that he thought it was time to get rid of the regulations strangling American business. Since that time he’s met with businesses and pretended to suddenly be a pro-business, pro-economic growth president. His actions, however, give the lie to his sudden turn around from anti-business to pro-business man. Thankfully the GOP is making to help the president become what he’s selling himself as, despite his best intentions.

One of those ways that the GOP is assisting Obama to become business friendly — no matter how much Obama hates the idea — was announced last week by John Kline and the Republicans of the Education and the Workforce Committee of the House of Representatives.

Subcommittee Chairman Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) announced the closer scrutiny that the GOP intends to level upon the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal entity that is supposed to act as a mediator for disputes between labor. That closer scrutiny is a result of Obama’s appointees moving the NLRB from mediator between business and labor to outright advocate in favor of Big Labor.

Showing what he truly thinks of the business sector, Obama’s NLRB has been punishing businesses as much as possible and attacking worker’s rights in the process. By making labor friendly rules changes and using the office as an activist tool to take business to court to force them to accede to labor demands, all things that has never been done on such a scale before.

Obama’s NLRB has made several key rules changes that the GOP members of the committee say shows that it is, “eager to tilt the playing field in favor of powerful special interests against the interests of rank-and-file workers.”

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The potential government shutdown is not just history repeating itself between a Democrat President and a Republican House.  It’s also a repeat of a key role played by government employee unions.

What’s different now is that the public has awakened to how they’ve been duped with false promises about big government.

In the 1995-96 shutdowns, the public worker unions reportedly played a huge role behind the scenes; today their role has been brought into the open, becoming common knowledge even before the mass union protests at the Wisconsin state capitol.

President Obama’s allegiance toward government unions is well-known.  The failed $800-billion stimulus was mostly about protecting government jobs.  His minions in Organizing for America have orchestrated the Wisconsin protests, which Obama labeled “an assault on unions.”  And it’s well-known how the unions spent $400-million for the 2008 election.

That’s the backdrop as House Republicans insist on billions in spending cuts before they will approve funds for the rest of government.  The House spent long days and nights in session to create their plan; the Senate Democrats sit inactive instead, criticizing lots but doing nothing.

So the action comes from the public workers, as their demonstrations provide visual proof of who wants big government to continue unchecked.  Their key role was behind-the-scenes in the 1995-96 shutdowns, but every bit as vital.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by John Ross and Cole Abaius to discuss how movie studios are struggling to survive in a 3D and digital age.

We’re brought to you by Film School Rejects and by BigGovernment. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

How much money does a movie need to make to be profitable?
Six Reasons Why Hollywood Box Office is Dipping, from Avatar vs. Tron to Snow vs. Netflix
Cole at Film School Rejects

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From The Hispanic Conservative:

The year that best summarized Walker’s saga with local labor was probably 2010. As the 2008-2009 Great Recession hit the country, Milwaukee County’s tax base felt the pinch. Walker called for an aggressive strategy of employee wage cuts and increased benefit contributions. AFSCME refused to accept those concessions provoking Walker to order layoffs and furloughs for hundreds of county workers. The exchange typified the continuing narrative that is Scott Walker.

At no point during Walker’s eight year tenure did AFSCME recognize the financial impact the pension scandal had upon Milwaukee County. In short, Milwaukee County’s Pension Board – without so much as a cost study on pension benefits – passed ultra-lucrative pension buy-backs to hundreds of employees. Almost in a day, Milwaukee County government found herself mired in a $60 million hole without a viable exit strategy.

Instead of acknowledging the county’s fiscal woes, AFSCME fought Walker every step of the way.

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