There is a reason you won’t see the tea party hanging around outside of politicians’ homes. That’s because it is incredibly inappropriate. It’s behavior which is designed to intimidate in the worst kind of way.

Yet in Wisconsin, and elsewhere throughout the country, liberals find this tactic to be acceptable if not preferable.

This kind of intimidation has no place in our society. “We know where you live” is the inherent message here and it simply doesn’t belong. Then again these types of completely uncalled for tactics are par for the course on the left aren’t they?

(more…)

Doctors accused of writing fake sick notes to protesters who staged sick outs to attend rallies, have until March 21^st to respond to complaints filed with the Department of Regulation and Licensing, MacIver News Service has learned.

On Saturday, February 19^th,  MacIver News Service broke the story in which doctors were caught on video offering and handing out sick notes to protesters who needed excuses for missing work the week before. These doctor’s notes were handed out without any attempt to perform even a cursory medical examine or to solicit even a rudimentary medical history from the ‘patients.’

After several complaints were lodged by witnesses and individuals who saw the MNS report, the Division of Enforcement in the Department of Regulation and Licensing  (DRL)  informed the doctors of the complaints filed against them.

The letters were mailed to eleven respondents on February 28^th and included copies of complaints filed with the Department.  According to the DRL, nine of the individuals against whom complaints have been lodged are licensed physicians and two are unlicensed individuals. The doctors were requested to provide a written explanation to each of the allegations contained in the complaints. The DRL has not yet released those complaints to the public, however the original MNS report did identify one of the doctors allegedly involved.

(more…)

From Politico:

Meredith Shiner reports from the Hill that the House Rules committee will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday at 3 p.m. on H.R. 1076, the measure “to prohibit funding of National Public Radio and the use of Federal funds to acquire radio content.”

The bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), who has been spearheading efforts to remove federal subsidies from public broadcasting, is here.

House Republicans eliminated federal funds to public broadcasting in a larger bill they passed to continue government funding, but that measure died in the Senate. An attempt by Democrat Earl Blumenauer during the days-long debate on H.R. 1 to add an amendment restoring was foiled by a procedural point of order.

(more…)

Illinois has long earned the reputation as one of the most corrupt states in the union and for reasons too numerous to list here. However, not content to have reached rock bottom, the Illinois Municipal League (a collection of local government officials) and Lord State Senator Ed Maloney have decided to start digging.

This week is Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to promoting the cause of governmental transparency. It should come as no surprise that transparency is needed in Illinois. However, the Illinois Municipal League and Lord State Senator Ed Maloney believes that is the problem, not the solution.

They have introduced Senate Bill 1645 which would allow local government officials to label any individual who files more than 15 Freedom of Information Act requests in a year, or more than 5 in a month, “vexatious”. This would then allow them to summarily reject any and all FOIA’s filed by that person. There is no judicial review of this designation nor any right to appeal. You see, us taxpayers who want to know more about our government are annoying so they want to be able to shut us down.

To give you an idea of what kind of politician Lord State Senator Ed Maloney is, he earlier this year was embroiled in a controversy for sponsoring legislation that would require all home schoolers to register with the government. His stated purpose was that he was worried that people who homeschool their kids were not accountable to any government officials. You read that right, he views his job as enabling government to hold private citizens accountable for their private conduct.

The bad news is that SB1645 has already passed out of the Senate Executive Committee (the committee where “important” legislation is considered and fast-tracked) by a 10-4 margin. Disappointly, this included two Republican Senator votes (John O. Jones and Dave Luechtefeld). We can just call this coaltion the “Pay up and shut up” Coalition for their support of the public’s right to know.

(more…)

Click here for the updated Palatine Village Manager Compensation Analysis.

As additional Freedom of Information Requests (FOIA) are fulfilled, here is the updated analysis of the Palatine Village Manager Compensation as compiled by a local Palatine resident. The estimated total annual compensation has increased to $355,514 (see link above).

The Palatine village manager out-earns every Governor from any of the 50 states!
Source: The Book of States 2010.

Because local governments are not proactively forthcoming regarding payroll, benefits and perks, this analysis is a good-faith estimate. For instance, the FOIA request regarding the managers current employment contract for 2011 was rejected- although contracts from 2006-2010 were fulfilled. FOIA requests regarding gross pay and accumulated sick days were rejected. Although taxpayers have a significant liability into the tens of thousands for both items, we are being told that this is “private information”.

This egregious salary and benefit package is a disgrace and symptomatic of much greater problems in the state of Illinois. At a time municipalities are asking Springfield for more taxpayer dollars saying they are broke, these types of bloated spending has become more and more common throughout the suburbs.

(more…)

Yesterday, as in states around the country, another union protest took place in Annapolis, Maryland—a state that has no chance of reforming the monopoly that public-sector unions have on its government. In attendance were up to 15,000 union activists, according to an AFSCME spokesman who helped organize the protest.

Among the speakers at the rally was AFL-CIO top boss Richard Trumka, who hit the highlights of his usual class-warfare stump speech:

“Madison is just the beginning, this right here is only the beginning, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” said Trumka before an energized and cheering crowd. “Scapegoating teachers and public workers is bad policy and it’s flat a** wrong.”

Trumka said the larger fight remains between the “haves” and the “have nots.”

“When the rights of workers in one state can be stolen, all of us should feel a little less secure,” said Trumka. “This is about the corporate CEO agenda that equals more, more, more for them and less, less, less for us.”

With labor battles sprouting up throughout the midwest, Trumka remained optimistic that the people will prevail.

“Together, we’re a movement,” said Trumka. “We stand for our children and grandchildren, and tonight, you have been heard.”

That Maryland is controlled by Democrats and that the budget cuts the protesters were protesting have been proposed were proposed by Democrats was apparently lost on the protesters, as well as Trumka. Especially as the keynote speaker of the evening was the very governor proposing the cuts: Democrat Governor Marty O’Malley. (more…)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss today’s crashing market, then Ben discusses Don Berwick’s probable exit at CMS, and finally Pejman Yousefzadeh discusses the nuclear disaster in Japan.

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:

Futures Plunge as Japan Nuclear Crisis Weighs
Ben: Could Don Berwick be Done at CMS?
Ben: Alas, Don Berwick
Democrats giving up on Donald Berwick
Already Angling for Berwick’s Replacement
What’s Happening in Japan, and the Future of Nuclear Power
(more…)

From The Denver Post:

After spirited debate Monday, Denver’s City Council voted 10-3 to tentatively approve a 6.6 percent raise for the next sitting council and every other elected official — an increase to be delayed for half of their four-year terms.

The city is facing a $100 million budget shortfall for the 2012 budget and has a structural budget problem that, if not addressed, could balloon into a $500 million deficit by 2030.

(more…)

Despite the economic climate and anti-tax wave rolling across the country, New York is once again proposing tax hikes on tobacco. Senate Bill S. 2981 would add an additional $1.65 tax to the already staggering $4.35 the state levies in taxes on a pack of cigarettes—a move likely to upset smokers in the Empire State and potentially deliver little additional revenue to the state’s coffers.

Since raising its tobacco tax last year, New York has seen cigarette sales plummet, as of November 2010, by a whopping 27 percent. Meanwhile, both Pennsylvania and Vermont have seen their cigarette sales rise as New Yorkers looking for a bargain have crossed the border to load up on smokes, thus depriving the state of revenue some had hoped would help it close its yawning budget gap.

Some observers believe that this time, if another hike is put through, the state could actually lose money.  Several Northeastern states– New Jersey, New Hampshire and Rhode Island– have been exploring the idea of reducing the tax they levy on each pack of cigarettes to spur economic recovery and enhance revenues.  A recent study conducted in New Hampshire demonstrated that a 10 cent cut could result in additional tax money flowing to the state’s treasury.

(more…)

That’s the question we’re left to ask ourselves after reviewing new documents we obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. These records detail FY 2010 apprehension statistics for illegal alien smugglers and illegal aliens from countries considered a high threat to the United States because of their suspected ties to terrorism.

Here are the highlights from the documents, which we obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request filed on January 26, 2011:

• U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 463,382 individuals smuggled across the border, including 8,905 smugglers. (3,027 of the smugglers apprehended were deemed “deportable.”)
• U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 59,017 “Other Than Mexican” illegal aliens through October 7, 2010.
• Among the nations represented in apprehension statistics are the four countries currently on the State Department’s list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism,” Cuba (712), Iran (14), Syria (5) and Sudan (5), as well as Somalia (9), Afghanistan (9), Pakistan (37), Saudi Arabia (5) and Yemen (11).
• Overall, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 663 “Aliens from Special Interest Countries.” These countries are deemed “special interest” because of their suspected ties to terrorism.
• The countries yielding the highest “Other Than Mexican” apprehensions include: Guatemala (18,406), El Salvador (13,723), and Honduras (13,580).

The U.S. Border Patrol estimates that three out of every four illegal aliens who cross the border evade apprehension. So while these apprehension statistics are alarming, it’s the ones that got away that should cause us the most concern. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that a significant number of these illegal aliens intend to do us harm. (You should also know that many of those “apprehended” simply cross the border illegally again within moments of being deposited in Mexico by Border Patrol.)

(more…)

Japan is suffering from a natural disaster that threatens to turn into an existential crisis. Colonel Q-ball has unleashed a blistering assault on pro-democracy rebel forces.  Large swaths of the Middle East are in turmoil. The federal government is bleeding red ink, with absolutely no end in site. The economy sucks and is getting battered by skyrocketing commodity prices and a volatile oil market. Near-record numbers of Americans are leaving the work force. If the world isn’t quite on fire…it is at least approaching a slow burn.

But, what’s all that against a little MARCH MADNESS!

(more…)

California tax payers just took a huge punch in the nose from the same actuaries who provided the cover for state politicians to spike public employee retirement benefits. The latest shocker comes from California State Controller John Chiang who yesterday unveiled a new actuarial report that shows California faces another unfunded debt of $59.9 billion to pay for retiree health and dental benefits over the next 30 years.

Controller Chiang highlighted that the unfunded liability grew during the 2010 fiscal year by $8.1 billion; an amount equal to almost 25% of this year’s entire California kindergarten through high school education budget.

Actuaries have aided and abetted the explosion in under-funding of pension and healthcare liabilities for public employee pension plans over the last ten years. With most public employee pension plans fully funded in 2000, a preposterous actuary study gave assurances that the technology stock market bubble of the 1990s would continue its high returns never burst.

The California Governor and the Legislature used the study, paid for by employees who are eligible for retirement benefits, to justify 40% retroactive increases in lifetime pension payments and enhancements of retiree healthcare. During 2008 and 2009, a bogus California actuary study claiming the retiree healthcare plan was over-funded was used to justify waiving mandatory employee contribution increases to cover accelerating healthcare insurance premium increases.

The bulk of this new increase in retiree costs came as the result of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CALPERS) actuaries “discovering” after the fact that employees with their new pensions payments spiked and healthcare enhanced are retiring earlier, retirees are living longer, and healthcare costs are increasing faster than the crony projections by the actuary. The new actuary calculations now estimate the total un-funded California retiree costs are about $340 billion.

(more…)

Beware today, the Ides of March.

On March 7, the Wisconsin Senate passed a bill reforming the public sector union bargaining process.  For weeks, the Senate remained at an impasse on the issue as absent Senate Democrats denied the quorum required to move forward.  By redrafting the bill to exclude certain fiscal items, a 2/3 quorum was no longer required to vote on the legislation.  The Senate promptly approved the bill 18-1.

After passage of the bill by the Senate, the Joint Committee of Conference then received the bill.  This committee’s responsibility is to make changes to  similar pieces of legislation passed in both the Senate and House.  Once these changes are approved by the Joint Committee of Conference, the legislation is then submitted for approval by the legislative chambers.  For a bill to be submitted to the governor for his signature — and thereby enacted into law– the language in the bill passed by the Senate and the House must be identical.   In this case, the Joint Committee of Conference approved the language of the bill passed by the Senate verbatim, submitting this to the House for Approval.

Typically, consideration of legislation by this committee for the mark-up process takes weeks.  However, the committee completed its work on this public sector union bill just hours after posting notice of its upcoming meeting.

Much criticism has been levied at the Wisconsin Republicans for the actions of the Joint Committee Meeting.  In a dramatic outburst, Representative Peter Barca proclaimed, “This is a violation of the Open Meetings Law!”   What does the law say?  The portion which the Democrats claim is being violated is Wisconsin Open Meetings Law, in particular §19.84 of the statute.

§19.84 (1) Public notice of all meetings of a governmental body shall be given in the following manner:….(2) Every public notice of a meeting of a governmental body shall set forth the time, date, place and subject matter of the meeting, including that intended for consideration at any contemplated closed session, in such form as is reasonably likely to apprise members of the public and the news media thereof. The public notice of a meeting of a governmental body may provide for a period of public comment, during which the body may receive information from members of the public.(3) Public notice of every meeting of a governmental body shall be given at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of such meeting unless for good cause such notice is impossible or impractical, in which case shorter notice may be given, but in no case may the notice be provided less than 2 hours in advance of the meeting.”

At first glance, it appears that due to the lack of a 24 hours notice to the public, the Joint Committee of Conference violated the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law.   However, there is much more to this statute.  We must also take into consideration §19.87 regarding the notice required by legislative meetings.

(more…)

The obvious question is why?  Why would the Obama administration who boasted open and transparent discussions of such a sensitive subject as healthcare close the door to the opportunity to present its factual case to the American people?  Messaging anyone?  Nope.

Complying with the records request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee “would constitute a vast and expensive undertaking” and could “implicate longstanding executive branch confidentiality interests,” White House lawyer Robert Bauer wrote the committee. Translation: Nice try.

Before the Democrats rammed through the Obamacare bill (and don’t think for one little ol’ minute that our narcissistic President doesn’t love that branding), Obama and WH officials met with several high-profile insurance executives as the WaPo lists:

The list included George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans; Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist representing Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among other clients; Billy Tauzin, then head of PhRMA, the drug industry lobby; Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Association; and numerous others.

The most concerning is George Halvorson as he was the only executive to meet with Obama.  And here is why:

(more…)

From the Associated Press:

Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency, the Obama administration took action on fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information. The administration disclosed at least some of what people wanted at about the same rate as the previous year.

People requested information 544,360 times last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act from the 35 largest agencies, up nearly 41,000 more than the previous year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of new federal data. But the government responded to nearly 12,400 fewer requests.

The administration refused to release any sought-after materials in more than 1-in-3 information requests, including cases when it couldn’t find records, a person refused to pay for copies or the request was determined to be improper under the law. It refused more often to quickly consider information requests about subjects described as urgent or especially newsworthy. And nearly half the agencies that AP examined took longer—weeks more, in some cases—to give out records last year than during the previous year.

(more…)

This past weekend, a member of the Breitbart family reached an achievement we’d all like to acknowledge and applaud.  Julia Pollak, wife of our very own Joel Pollak, graduated from U.S. Navy Boot Camp and was awarded the Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award, given to the top recruit in each class of roughly 1,000 or so future sailors.

Julia’s story is the perfect allegory of what is great about America and speaks to the possibilities of achievement that is in inherent in the American promise.  In an age where much of what we hear focuses on the decline of America’s excellence and the perceived limitations for ethnic minorities in our culture, this story is something we all need to know.

She was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her parents were married in South West Africa (now Namibia) because at the time it was illegal for people from different racial groups to marry or to have intimate relations. Julia was born in 1987 in a racially segregated hospital, and as a child was denied admission to public schools based on race. She was accepted by Catholic and Anglican schools (she is now an observant Jew), which were the first to desegregate until the end of apartheid. (more…)

During my graduate studies, I was frequently in the miserable position of listening to the lectures of professors who loathed this country, and who were so focused on indoctrination that they had all but forgotten that their job was to provide an education. And although the desires of these professors varied one to another – from abolishing gender to eradicating God to magnifying the “wonders” of communism and more – one theme that united all of them was a militant environmentalism that demanded an end to drilling for oil vis-à-vis their opposition to the use of fossil fuels.

The professors gave voice to their militancy whenever they saw fit, which was pretty often. And sometimes, they would ask questions designed to pull the student who was an unwitting supporter of things like cheaper gasoline into a situation where he or she would be lambasted for being so naïve as to think fossil fuels remained a viable energy option.

In the fall of 2008, in a class that covered the history of the western portion of the United States, a professor was lecturing on how oil companies had drained western states of all their oil, and how they had raped the environment in the process. Mid-sentence he suddenly stopped, grimaced, and asked: “Why do Republicans keep pushing for a revival of this kind of thing? Why don’t they understand that we’ve already taken all the oil there is to take?”

He then pushed for discussion, and when none of the students spoke up he began to call us out by name to force comment. When he called my name, I said, “Sir, this attempt to dissuade further oil extraction is analogous to trying to dissuade hungry persons from reaching into a cupboard for food.”

The professor looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but I continued: “Just imagine if you were hungry, near starvation, and you knew there was food in a cupboard in front you, but between you and the cupboard stood a strong man who not only kept you from opening the cupboard doors, but swore there wasn’t any food in the cupboard to begin with. Yet even as he made such promises you could look through the cracks in the cupboard doors and see the food he said wasn’t there.”

I then turned the question back to him and said, “In that situation what would you do?”

(more…)

Crossposted: TobyToons (Conservative Political Cartoons)