As the war against for-profit schools drags on, several organizations continue to cry wolf in the hopes of landing the final blow to the resilient colleges. One of the biggest players in recent battles has been the New American Foundation. A seemingly ‘nonpartisan public policy institute’, this group is layered with traces of political leanings and loaded assertions.

The most vocal arm of the New America Foundation has been their publication of ‘Higher Ed Watch.’ Editor Stephen Burd remains one of the strongest opponents of for-profit schools having slandered the industry at every turn. Articles such as, “For Profit Higher Education’s New Conspiracy Theory” and “Heads Will Roll At For-Profit Colleges — But Not The Right Ones,” have allowed Burd to preach from his soapbox and reveal the political tendencies of the foundations largest donors.

George Soros, one of the looming figures behind the war against for-profit schools, has managed to force his philosophies into the group by means of a quite sizeable contribution. New America Foundation received between $250-000 and $999,999 from short seller Soros’ Open Society Institute. Steve Coll, President of New America Foundation, receives a base compensation of $271,000. The former contributor at The New Yorker Magazine calls the shots at NAF amid a cloud of outsider influence. With staff salaries paid in part by the contribution of George Soros, NAF’s alleged ‘bi-partisan’ reputation becomes an ever harder pill to swallow.

Even the chairman of the New America Foundation’s board, Eric Schmidt, can be called into question. Schmidt, the Chairman and CEO of Google, not only campaigned for President Obama but is also rumored to be on the short list for Commerce Secretary. Given all the incestuous political ties, it remains difficult to ignore the administration’s ability to force the hand of various non-profits.

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The national campaign against bullying and hate may be in the news, but it’s nowhere in evidence as an American university wreaks revenge, not just on a dissenter who ran for Congress—but on his children, and on a brave professor who blew the whistle.

Michelle Obama may deplore playground name-calling, humiliation, and taunting. But she says nothing about powerful administrators wrecking the careers of our most promising students and distinguished professors, by actions and not just words?

Here’s the background: In one of the most astonishing races in the 2010 election, renowned scientist Arthur Robinson took on 12-term progressive incumbent Peter DeFazio for his congressional seat in Oregon’s District 4. DeFazio won the 2008 election with 82% of the vote. When the polls showed Robinson coming very close to winning, DeFazio unleashed a last-minute smear campaign.

That much is not unexpected. Americans have gotten used to vicious lies by politicians. Character assassination seems to be protected political speech.

But on November 4, after the election results were known, another campaign took off: against the three younger Robinson children, who are working toward their Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). The stellar academic records of all six home-schooled Robinsons (a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech, two veterinary medicine doctorates from Iowa State, and undergraduate degrees in chemistry or mathematics for the younger Robinsons) were an embarrassment for DeFazio, who is strongly supported by public education unions.

The twins, Joshua and Bethany, have nearly finished work that would qualify them for a Ph.D. at any normal university. They are highly regarded by the scientists and engineers who have worked with them. They continued to work hard, while noticing some oddities—that made sense when Professor Jack Higginbotham alerted them to plans hatched in closed-door departmental meetings. Political ideologues in control of the department had decided that Joshua and Bethany, and if possible their younger brother Matthew, would not be allowed to complete their degrees at OSU.

Getting good grades, following all the rules, working hard—and achieving mastery of a difficult, important field in which few Americans can qualify—are not enough, if your name is Robinson.

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There has been a bit of a lull in the push to undo the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s obnoxious December 21^st Internet takeover – executed so that they could then impose Network Neutrality.

This stillness is understandable, given the avenues that need to be traveled to reverse this autocratic absurdity.  Going through Congress and the courts takes some time, and will result in some pauses along the way.

But the efforts to reverse the FCC’s terrible move do continue unabated, if intermittently.

The biggest impediment to reversing the FCC remains – the FCC.  And that’s intentional.

As we have previously noted, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has now waited more than three months – and counting – to file his Net Neutrality order with the federal registry.

So as to better hinder the lawsuits and legislation seeking to undo it.

The longer the Chairman drags his feet on this Oh-So-Vitally-and-Imminently-Important Net Neutrality order, the less likely it becomes that the D.C. Circuit will be able to hear the case(s).

So by stalling, the Chairman is callously venue shopping – and ducking a court in which he knows he will most likely lose.

Thus far, there are two litigants (Verizon and Metro PCS) languishing – awaiting the long overdue action of Chairman Genachowski.  More would perhaps have already filed – but they are probably also waiting on the Chairman.

While these multiple litigations sit in Chairman-consigned limbo, the Congressional moves to undo press forward.

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In a state where thousands of properties have been threatened and continue to be threatened, California is in desperate need of meaningful eminent domain reform that will respect the rights and property of its residents. The preceding legal overview in California demonstrates just how difficult it is for private property owners to defend themselves against California’s redevelopment machine, which siphons billions and billions of dollars into a closed economic system that benefits private parties and hurts not only property owners, but all taxpayers as well.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Libya, Washington’s boom town status and a key court decision against the Fed.

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:

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From The Washington Examiner:

Media Matters, the George Soros-backed legion of liberal agit-prop shock troops based in the nation’s capital, has declared war on Fox News, and in the process quite possibly stepped across the line of legality.

David Brock, MM’s founder, was quoted Saturday by Politico promising that his organization is mounting “guerrila warfare and sabotage” against Fox News, which he said “is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.”

To that end, Brock told Politico that MM will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests …” Murdoch is the founder of Fox News and a media titan with newspaper, broadcast, Internet and other media countries around the world.

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A previous post of mine at International Liberty addressed the issue of whether Republicans were right to trim the IRS’s budget. The following case study of IRS thuggery should convince everyone that the answer is a resounding yes.

First, some background. The federal government made a rather troubling decision a few years ago to investigate, persecute, prosecute, and ultimately imprison a random home-loan borrower named Charlie Engle for the crime of mortgage fraud.

Mr. Engle is far from blameless in this saga, but I noted in another post that it was rather odd that the government would target a nobody while letting all the big fish swim away. This episode certainly paints a picture of a government that has one set of rules for ordinary people, but an entirely different set of rules for the political elite and those who make big campaign contributions to that ruling class.

But I also noted that I’m not a legal expert and was unsure about the degree to which the big players actually broke laws, or whether they simply made stupid business decisions (often encouraged by bad government policy).

The most upsetting part of the story, though, is how the government wound up targeting Mr. Engle. It turns out that an IRS agent, Robert Norlander, must have been competing for the IRS’s Thug-of-the-Year Award (or maybe it was A-Hole-of-the-Year or Jerk-of-the-Year) because here are some of the things he did:

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This weekend we learned which 4 teams will meet in the finals of the NCAA College Basketball Tournament. For many players, coaches and fans, this weekend was the culmination of life-long dreams. This weekend, however, we also learned that Delaware state officials thought it was prudent to dispatch resources and manpower to remove a number of curbside basketball hops from a local cul de sac.

So much for their dreams.

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) deployed heavy equipment and over a dozen staff to tackle the scourge of curbside basketball. When a local resident complained about the heavy-handedness of the state’s response, they even brought in law enforcement.

Behold, your Republic, 2011 Edition:

Well.

Look…I admit, I don’t know the particulars of this situation. Perhaps these basketball hoops were “illegal.” Perhaps, as one government official states, DelDOT does own the “rights of way” in this cul de sac (let’s set aside that weirdness for a moment) and somehow it really felt the need to flex its sovereign muscle and better police its curbs.

But, is this really the best use of government resources? Delaware faces a budget shortfall equal to over 6% of its budget. The tiny state is #12 in the NATION in its level of debt. And yet, it feels it is vital to dispatch a bunch of fully-pensioned and health benefited state employees to remove basketball hoops. Really? When we hear from state employees that they can’t possibly accept any more cuts in funding, is it because we’ll lose the basketball-hoop-removal-sqauds. Cause, I might be willing to stomach that cut.

And yes, I really think this is a big deal.

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Breitbart Media has worked for days to get to the bottom of a seemingly highly-charged story allegedly involving racism from a high profile Democrat and now former law enforcement official that may reach into the upper-level of Illinois state government, including the office of Governor Pat Quinn. Based upon sources in Carlinville, Illinois, at least on the surface, it appears as though powerful Democrats and perhaps even the State Police may be attempting to cover up a racial incident involving now resigned Democrat County Chair and former head of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s southern security detail, Kenneth Snider.

The Sun-Times shed some light on the story on Saturday. Their story suggests they’ve been enountering the same resistance we’ve encountered. Snider abruptly resigned his various official positions without explanation the day after an alleged racial incident. At the time, Snider was already relying upon benefit time after a previous troubling incident in January. St. Louis Today touched on the latest story on March 23, as well. The Chicago Republican Party also reported the story, calling the investigation “secretive,” while pointing out Snider was paid $132,000 a year as head of Quinn’s State Police security detail.

Snider had been employed by the state since 1984 and was elevated last December as supervisor of Quinn’s south security detail, a job that put him in charge of overseeing executive protection officers, scheduling, routes and movements, Vega said in a prepared statement late Friday.

That assignment lasted until Jan. 19, when he began to use benefit time until his resignation on March 18, he said. Immediately after the March 18th incident, Snider resigned his chairmanship of the Carlinville school board and the MaCoupin County Democratic organization.

Multiple sources reluctant to come forward publically, or speak on the record, paint an extremely troubling picture that only raises even more serious questions, if true. Why did Snider abruptly resign? If there was an altercation, why was no one charged? Why did the local police turn the case over to the State Police? Are they really the best qualified to investigate one of their own given such a potentially significant story impacting race relations, especially for Democrats, in Illinois? Will justice be served, or only the interests of Democrats, who control all levers of government in Illinois?

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Today, in 1969, President Dwight D. Eisenhower died.

Under the category of “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott can file some news accounts of his recent unveiling of the transparency web site, www.FloridaHasARighttoKnow.com.  The site includes salary information about many key state employees – including those on the Governor’s staff – as well as records from the Florida Retirement System listing every government pensioner receiving at least $100,000 a year.

While this proactive disclosure of frequently-requested information won the Governor brownie points with some “open government” advocates, the head of the AFL-CIO and at least one major newspaper accused Gov. Scott of selectively releasing information to advance his pension reform agenda.  (See: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/florida-gov-rick-scott-launches-public-records-website/1157906 and http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/19/2124262/pension-battle-overlooks-the-deeper.html).

Critics of Governor Scott considered it foul that he chose to highlight the 542 government pensioners that annually receive more than $100,000 from the taxpayers, rather than releasing the data on all pensioners in the Florida Retirement System.

Yet, many “good government” liberals in Minnesota must wonder what all the fuss in Florida is about.

That’s because Minnesota’s Democratic-controlled Senate joined in passing a 2005 law which requires most local governments in that state to proactively disclose their three most-highly-compensated officials each year.  (See http://freedomfoundationofminnesota.com/minnesota-notifies-citizens-on-top-public-pay).

The logic behind the Minnesota law is simple – taxpayers can typically take one good look at the top numbers and determine whether or not there’s a problem in excessive government compensation.

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I’ve started more than a dozen small businesses. For one, over $20 million was invested by me and investors who believed in me. I’ve paid payrolls, health insurance, payroll taxes, workers comp, and unemployment insurance for hundreds of employees.

Because of that, my employees were able to pay their mortgages, buy groceries, send their kids to college, and provide for their families. For this same small business, I spent about $50 million dollars on things like advertising, marketing, promotion, lawyers and accountants. That money enriched and employed thousands of others. And, that’s just one small business. Think of the impact that thirty million small business owners have on the U.S. economy. No wonder we create 70% or more of America’s new jobs. Small businessmen and women are a far more powerful economic force than Exxon, Microsoft, GE, or Wal-Mart.

So why do Obama and his socialist cabal hate us? Why do small businessmen and women feel demonized and punished? Why is it Obama’s goal to drive us out of business?

Mug or rob me once? Maybe it’s ignorance or a mistake. Twice? It’s a pattern. But, coming up with ways to rob and destroy me and my businesses on a daily basis? It’s time to get the message. Without a doubt, Obama and the progressive left are the enemy of small business.

Let’s look at the facts.

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Fascinating profile of Charles and David Koch in The Weekly Standard:

A few years ago Richard Fink told Charles and David [Koch] to prepare for the worst. The brothers were raising their political profile, Fink said, and that would come at a cost. There would be a lot of name-calling. Their opponents would impugn their beliefs, characters, and business. Charles understood what Fink was talking about. “I believed that when we were considered effective we would be attacked,” he said. Before Obama’s election, those who were aware of the Kochs’ political activities tended to assume they were tilting at Austrian windmills. The Kochs had an exotic philosophy, but few took them very seriously.

Not anymore. During the fight over health care and cap and trade in 2009 and 2010, liberals went looking for baddies against whom to mobilize public opinion. The Kochs’ wealth and political involvement made them an obvious choice. Reflecting on the ferocity of the onslaught that ensued, Charles told me, “I didn’t anticipate the hatred, the advocacy of violence.” He must not have been paying attention.

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As Obama’s three simultaneous “Kinetic Military Actions” devolve into blame games and leadership refusals, everyone is wondering about the Obama Doctrine.   What is it, how does it work, and has it been implemented?  Thanks to the famous Powell Doctrine of the early 90’s most associate such statements of principle with war.  However, Obama’s vision is far too lofty to be bogged down solely in military matters.

After all, the mainstream media has made it clear.  The 44^th President is nearly omnipotent.  He’s so wise that any strategy he develops will take into account every fluid facet of a constantly changing, globally interconnected, world stage.

That’s not to say that the President would be satisfied with a plan of action that covered international incidents alone.  Problems can arise anywhere – even at home.  So it’s vital that any plan of action be applicable to domestic affairs as well.

With that in mind, allow me to present the Obama Doctrine: Five simple steps that can handle any national emergency, crisis, or disaster.

STEP ONE: Do nothing until doing nothing becomes politically unfeasible.

Jumping into a leadership position too quickly exposes your weaknesses, your paper thin intel, and your lack of experience. Rushing to get a handle on a burgeoning situation may help in the long run, but decisions are hard, success is uncertain, and mistakes are virtually guaranteed.  These will present your “enemies” with ammunition that they will undoubtedly use in 2012.  So, sit back, relax, and allow things to play out for as long as possible.

The American people’s tolerance for inaction will vary according to the situation but a general guidline is: 30 days for a response to a terrorist action, 2-3 months for a natural disaster on home soil.

Remember, most problems, if ignored long enough, will solve themselves or simply go away. If, however, the problem persists, see Step Two.

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Had the federal government passed a law (in the best interest of the people, naturally) mandating that every household in America purchase a handgun and learn how to use it in order to protect themselves and in turn save the government money on police protection, that law would be a constitutional issue for the courts to decide in the exact same way ObamaCare — a real federal law requiring every American purchase health insurance — is also a constitutional issue. Regardless of your political persuasion, any intellectually honest individual understands that the government requiring an individual purchase something is exactly why our founders created a judicial branch. That’s what they’re there for. What they’re not there for, however, is to use judicial fiat to overturn an election. But that is exactly what the Left in Wisconsin is counting on happening just a few days from now on April 5th.

Before I get to that, though, I want to backfill my point with a rundown of the hows and whys that make a Wisconsin State Supreme Court race so crucially important to everyone in America, not just my fellow cheese heads.

The Basics

Last November, for the first time in a long time, Wisconsin voters went to the polls and gave Republicans control of the assembly, senate, and governorship. Governor Scott Walker, the former County Executive of Milwaukee, ran as a reformer, inherited a crushing deficit, and drafted a Budget Repair Bill that would allow him to do two vital things. His first priority was to not lay off any public employees. His second priority was to create long-term, sustainable fixes to the state budget. One of the only ways he could do this was to increase the percentage public employees pay for their health insurance coverage from 6% to 12.6% (still half the national average) and their pension contribution from 0% to 5.8% (most Americans don’t even get pensions). By far, though, the most controversial and necessary part of the bill is the stripping away of public employee collective bargaining rights in all matters other than wages. Opponents say collective bargaining has nothing to do with the budget, that it’s just an attack on workers’ rights.

That’s a lie. And here’s why they’re telling that lie.

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Yesterday, 100s of thousands of trade unionists, leftists and anarchists protested in London against proposed budget cuts. It, of course, turned violent. (Although, it seems to us that anarchists protesting government budget cuts is kinda missing the whole point of being an anarchist.) No doubt the left will do something similar here soon.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan announced to the American people that the United States had begun bombing Libya. In his statement, President Reagan referred to Libyan dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi, as a “monstrous murderer.” Here, he described Qaddafi’s heinous crimes against the Libyan people, Americans, and citizens of other countries.

Qaddafi has continued his reign of terror throughout the past 25 years, yet, as of March 1st- just a few weeks ago- the United Nations’ Human Rights Council was set to adopt a report which praised Libya for its human rights record. UN Watch, a nongovernmental organization based in Geneva, documented the path of the report, and ultimately urged the Council to reject it. The organization exposed the words of praise for Libya, in the report, from countries such as North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba, among others. However, in his review of the report for the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto sarcastically recommended that the council “ignore UN Watch’s advice and approve the report praising Libya. For it tells us a lot about the U.N. Human Rights Council.”

Indeed, UN Watch Director, Hillel Neuer, observed that while the Human Rights Council was praising Libya, the U.N. Security Council was simultaneously approving a tough set of sanctions against the Libyan regime.

As the various councils of the United Nations operate at cross-purposes, so, too, does the current United States President, who holds the organization at the highest level of esteem. So much so, in fact, that President Obama has involved the nation in a third Mid-Eastern war, with no clear mission and no exit strategy. Yet, these serious deficits seem lost on the American president who would prefer to have the permission of the U.N. over that of the United States Congress to utilize the nation’s human and financial resources in an act of war.

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I am here in sunny Houston, Texas attending the opening night of the True The Vote Summit and what a time it has been. We heard some inspiring speeches for this sold out event, saw some interesting attendees, and met an awful lot of great folks.

It has been thrilling to see several hundred handpicked Tea Partiers and local concerned citizens from 27 states here to learn how they, too, can stop vote fraud in their own districts using the methods learned the hard way in 2010 by the King Street Patriots here in Harris County, Texas.

You might recall back in Sept. of 2010 when the KSPers discovered an ACORN guy that had registered over 23,000 fake voters for the 2010 elections here in Texas. That was only the beginning of their efforts to root out vote fraud in one of the most corrupt Democrat controlled areas in the state.

Tonight we heard from True The Vote Chief Catherine Engelbrecht, former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, the Heritage Foundation’s Hans Von Spakovsky, ACORN Whistle blower and American Majority Rep Anita MonCreif. All gave us spellbinding tales of vote fraud and how important it is to stop. Also in attendance was former Senate candidate from Alaska Joe Miller, RNC Chair candidate Saul Anuzis, and many others.

Today we’ll hear from John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, J. Christian Adams who blew the whistle on the Obama administration’s refusal to prosecute the Black Panthers in Philadelphia, and the boss himself Andrew Breitbart — and I even get some podium time to speak on using new media.

What follows is the encapsulated thrust of the messages we heard Friday night.

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