We have established that Obama’s war on coal assumed a massive, crash program of 100 new nuclear reactors — for optics purposes, keeping the cost of killing coal down, on paper — without which power the lights will necessarily go out. You cannot rule out half of our electricity supply and pretend otherwise.

Now that that binge is an even more obvious fiction, his defenders charge forth to say he does too support nuclear.

And they point to this recent statement. “Nuclear energy is an important part of our own energy future.”

Which does not say he will promote any new reactors, of course. Just that he knows he can’t shut down the existing fleet, additions to which have been stalled since 1978. Meanwhile he plans to add no coal, and shut down the existing coal fleet. Electricity, after all, comes from those holes in the wall.

Obama also said to Iowa voters in October 2008 that he was “not a proponent” of nukes, and it is unlikely that anything has changed his core position.

And in response to which rhetoric I also note that on Friday he said this: “First, we need to continue to boost domestic production of oil and gas.”

Ah. Yes. Of course we must. Please point to his record of trying to boost production again?

(more…)

On March 13, 2010, the Arizona Star Daily carried an op-ed written by President Barack Obama that called for more gun control in the name of “common sense.”

Using the Tucson shooting as a justification for this new effort, Obama also cited various other violent acts committed by criminals, including Columbine, to convince us that it’s time to go after guns once more.

When will liberals learn that going after the criminals who use guns is far more effective than going after the guns that law-abiding citizens possess? (In fact, let it me state here at the outset that “we the people” know politicians are being disingenuous about their intentions to keep us safe when they react to crime by targeting the tools we use to keep ourselves safe – guns – instead of targeting those who misuse the tools – criminals.)

Throughout the op-ed Obama pushed and pulled: that is, he pushed for more gun control by describing it as an “intelligent way to make the United States of America a safer…place” then pulled back to focus on how certain he was that “almost all gun owners in America are highly responsible [citizens]… who buy their guns legally and use them safely.” At the risk of parsing Obama’s words a bit more than he did, it doesn’t make sense to speak of gun control as “intelligent” if you’re also going to admit “almost all gun owners are highly responsible.”

In truth, Obama’s words demonstrate that more gun control is actually unintelligent and thus against commonsense, for it will only result in greater scrutiny on those already designated as “highly responsible” (which will do nothing to stop crime.)

(more…)

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.

Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.

Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.

(more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Japan and the real costs of inflation for the average American family.

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.

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Jim Shankman (left)

Jim Shankman, the Madison-based author of a now notorious, vile Internet screed directed at blogger Ann Althouse and her husband, returned my call late last night and we spoke for approximately 30 – 40 minutes.

WE WILL FUCK YOU UP. We will throw our baseballs in your lawn, you cranky old pieces of shit, and then we will come get them back. What are you gonna do? Shoot us? Get Wausau Tea Patriots to form an ad hoc militia on your front lawn? That would be fucking HILAROUS to us. You could get to know the assholes on your side in real fucking life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath.”

Shankman is currently unemployed, claims to not be a member of a union and says he most often works as a dishwasher when employed. He insists that he does not advocate for violence and in some ways sought to distance himself from his “manifesto,” while also acknowledging authorship. He says he’s done with the issue and was simply giving voice to thoughts and rhetoric he “regularly hears in the street.”

“I’m done with it,” said Shankman, adding that he intends to pull back some from social media. However, he did not back away from the manifesto, claiming he wanted to elevate the idea and that if others in Madison wanted to embrace it, then so much the better.

“Why Ann Althouse,” I asked.

(more…)

It’s been years since Wisconsin’s welfare reforms under Gov. Tommy Thompson inspired Congress to pass the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. Now, spurred to action by a looming $1 trillion federal budget deficit, a national debt of $14 trillion and a growing taxpayer rebellion, some members of Congress are taking a stand against the earmarks so deeply entrenched in defense spending.

A bipartisan majority in the House, including the entire Wisconsin delegation, drew a line in the sand last month and voted against handing out another $3 billion to GE and Rolls Royce for the clearly unnecessary alternate engine for the F-35 joint strike fighter. This second engine would be produced in addition to the engine being manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, the company that won the competitive bidding to supply the engine for the F-35.

Pratt & Whitney is already manufacturing that engine, and it has performed well in the advanced testing required by the Air Force. Nonetheless, the federal government has paid out $1.3 billion to GE over the past 14 years to develop a long delayed second engine. Estimates are that the engine development would cost taxpayers another $3 billion.

The second engine program is obviously unneeded. President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush both tried to kill the second engine program as unnecessary and expensive. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates doesn’t want the second engine, nor does the Air Force. But until the House vote on Feb. 16, Congress had continuously approved an earmark of unrequested spending for the second engine.

Funding production of a second engine is a classic example of the earmarks that inflate the cost of defense spending and have helped build the massive federal debt.

(more…)

Union leaders can dress it up and use innocuous-sounding phrases like “ voluntary consumer activism,” but the bottom line is that Wisconsin’s unions are now resorting to thug-like behavior against political opponents, real or imagined.

The state’s largest teachers union, Wisconsin Education Association Council, along with the Green Bay Education Association, Madison Teachers Inc. and a handful of other public employee unions are carrying their fight over collective bargaining to innocent business owners.

News accounts reveal that the Fox Valley chapter of WEAC has e-mailed local businesses, asking them to show their support for collective bargaining privileges by putting a poster in their business’ window. The union’s e-mail suggests the posters will help members with “substantially less discretionary money to spend” know where to shop.

This is a thinly-veiled threat from a bunch of thugs if there ever was one.  First there were the Gangs of New York.  Then there were the Gangs of Chicago.  Now we see the Gangs of Wisconsin.

(more…)

Inside the Obama administration, a debate is raging. In the face of the uprisings in the Middle East, Barack Obama has opted to sit on his hands. He has a talent for that. Robert Gates, who is extremely wary – one might even say, excessively wary – of commitments abroad, is happy about the President’s passivity; Hillary Clinton, who had hoped that we would act to tip the balance in Libya, is not. It would not be hard to imagine her resigning from the cabinet over this issue. The tensions are starting to mount.

In his comedy routine last week at the Gridiron Club, the President reportedly delivered remarks that had a certain edge. “I’ve dispatched Hillary to the Middle East to talk about how these countries can transition to new leaders – though, I’ve got to be honest, she’s gotten a little passionate about the subject,” he is said to have remarked. “These past few weeks it’s been tough falling asleep with Hillary out there on Pennsylvania Avenue shouting, throwing rocks at the window.” And in an interview yesterday with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, when Mrs. Clinton was asked four times whether she would agree to serve in any post under Barack Obama if he were re-elected in 2012, she responded on each occasion in the negative and refused further comment.

Here is what The Daily Caller reports: “Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,” a Clinton insider told The Daily. “She’s exhausted, tired.”

He went on, “If you take a look at what’s on her plate as compared with what’s on the plates of previous Secretary of States — there’s more going on now at this particular moment, and it’s like playing sports with a bunch of amateurs. And she doesn’t have any power. She’s trying to do what she can to keep things from imploding.”

(more…)

Today, the U.S. may be launching airstrikes against Libya.

Below, you’ll find a compilation of 20 days worth of the death threats, vandalism, and intimidation practiced by pro-union thugs opposed to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill. Wisconsin is my home state. I lived there until I was 27 years-old in 1993 and most of my family, including my parents still live there. For that reason and because the issue of education and teachers unions has been a passion of mine for going on two decades, I’ve been following this story very, very closely. My original intent was to compile all of this earlier in the week, but after reading Lee Stranahan’s superb editorial I decided to wait and see if that might have some effect on the national and local Wisconsin media in moving them towards giving the ongoing violence, intimidation, vandalism, and overall thuggery occurring at the hands of union activists and their supporters, the coverage it needs and deserves.

Actual note slid under office door of a Wisconsin legislator

Not only should the local and national media be amplifying their coverage of this ongoing scandal because of the bar they themselves set with the Tea Party for what rises to the level of of racism, “predominantly white” protesters and troubling behavior — but in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tuscon you would think direct threats on elected officials would rate a little outrage. Well, obviously not when those threats come from the Left.

Politics aside, what’s happening in Wisconsin is downright frightening because, as you’ll see below, these incidents are growing in number and intensity. Furthermore, other than the Right, no one is calling for calm or civility. The local media is, at best, wrist-flicking these incidents, Democratic legislators have not called for calm, President Obama is AWOL, and worst of all, Public Union employees not involved in the thuggish behavior taking place in their name, have been complicit with their silence.

This is more than a disgrace, it’s dangerous. Conservative radio talk show hosts and Governor Walker can talk all they want, but I fear that until the media starts a campaign of shame by focusing on these incidents, and responsible pro-union types begin to police their own side, someone is eventually going to get hurt.

(more…)

Just a few weeks ago, the national media wrung its hands about the need for greater civility in our political dialogue. Almost within minutes of that sanctimonious plea, the institutional left launched an assault against any and all perceived opponents. No matter how many videos of leftist hate surfaced, nor instances of leftist violence, the national media has ignored it all.

So, what do we make of this threat on Ann Althouse:

50869881-Op-countertroll-Vs-Althouse-and-Meade-1

Professor Althouse is not a card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. She is a law professor whose views are not easily categorized. She is both more conservative than some on the right and more liberal than some on the left, depending on the issue. Above all, she reports truths, as she sees it.

(more…)

Two months after 85-year-old Dolores Sherman announced her name would appear on the ballot April 5 as a candidate for a seat on the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen, the first-time office seeker posted a video on YouTube containing some stinging accusations and calling for an external investigation of an incident that involved a state trooper visiting her home.

Before viewing that video, however, it would probably be instructive to view the video below that appeared in a Jan. 11 post on this blog. It offers an overview of Sherman’s candidacy announcement Jan. 11.

Now, fast-forward to the video Sherman released March 9, a five-and-a-half-minute effort that highlights her appearance at the Board of Alderman meeting April 22, 2010.

At the popular video-sharing site, the video is accompanied by a lengthy description, an excerpt of which appears below:

This video clip shows that some members of the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen didn’t take Dolores Sherman seriously when she spoke during the “Citizen’s Petitions and Comments” of their meeting April 22, 2010. Almost a year later, they might be having second thoughts.

On Jan. 11, 2011, Sherman announced she is running for one of two Ward One seats on the board in the City of St. Peters (Mo.), the city in which she says she was prosecuted more than five years earlier for a crime she didn’t commit.

(more…)

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

In December 2009, though little attention was paid to it at the time, Wisconsin’s then-Governor Jim Doyle signed a bill into law that force feeds unions on schoolchildren:

Wisconsin schools will be required to teach the history of organized labor under a bill signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The bill Doyle signed Thursday also requires Wisconsin schools to teach the history of collective bargaining.

The proposal has been around for years but never passed. This year it cleared the Democratic controlled Legislature despite opposition from school boards and administrators who said they didn’t want the curriculum micromanaged.

Labor unions supported the bill.

Now, witness the the planning of the pro-union cirriculum [via Trevor Loudon]

(more…)

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House on Thursday voted to end federal funding to National Public Radio. Republican supporters said it made good fiscal sense, and Democratic opponents called it an ideological attack that would deprive local stations of access to programs such as “Car Talk” and “All Things Considered.”

The bill, passed 228-192 along mainly partisan lines, would bar federal funding of NPR and prohibit local public stations from using federal money to pay NPR dues and buy its programs. The prospects of support in the Democratic-controlled Senate are slim. Seven Republicans broke ranks to vote against the bill.

“It is time for American citizens to stop funding an organization that can stand on its own feet,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., the sponsor. He said it was not a question of content—which many conservatives say has a liberal bias—but whether taxpayer dollars should go to nonessential services. “As a country we no longer have this luxury.”

Other Republicans also denied that the measure was a vendetta against NPR, although the organization left itself open to conservative attacks last week when an executive, talking to conservative activists posing as members of a fake Muslim group, was caught on camera deriding the tea party movement and saying the NPR would be better off without federal funding. Both the executive and the president of NPR resigned after the incident. (more…)

Being vocal about the need for serious education reform means you must face a few arrows heading your way from teachers’ unions and the educational establishment.  Both have a lot to lose if a student-centered education system emerges.

Education Action Group, my organization based in Michigan, often receives e-mails larded up with rhetoric and vitriol.  Just this week, we were accused of being “Nazis” for having the gall to chastise school districts that want to charge thousands of dollars for public records.

So when we highlight the impressive array of reforms being proposed in Indiana by state superintendent Tony Bennett, what’s the reaction by unionized teachers?  Consider the e-mailed thoughts of one Terry Daugherty of Monroe County, Indiana schools:

“I always wonder if Jesus were in Michigan, is this what he would do?  Spend his time destroying public education in Indiana?”

Determining Jesus’ position on political issues can open up quite a can of worms, but I’ll try. The book of Matthew tells the story of Jesus cleansing the temple of the money changers.

“As Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  And He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a robbers’ den.’”

So, Terry, you got me thinking.  What would Jesus say of Detroit Public Schools?  That public education “temple” graduates kids who can’t read.  A majority of kids don’t graduate.

(more…)

Although usual suspects are now saying that the chain of events leading to Japan’s nuclear crisis is simply proof that we need to now rule out the last energy source that works, in terms of providing the necessary, base-load power required to run a modern society, it actually proves the opposite. With nuclear for all intents and purposes frozen in amber — as if it wasn’t already, talk of a ‘renaissance’ notwithstanding — this, combined with the Left’s war on energy that works now places us on the precipice, as well.

Will Obama admit that he must immediately cease his war to kill coal, which is a stepping stone on their war to also strangle gas? (all of which was detailed here, ten months, early, I suppose)

Of course not. Will someone, possibly an aspiring president, call him out on it?

After all: his war on coal assumed an unprecedented binge of 100 new nuclear ractors here.

That was facially absurd at the time — “at this rate”, as the greens like to say, we’ll add 100 new reactors as the new millenium approaches — but it is inescapably reckless now. They must be forced to cop to it. And do the responsible thing.

That’s not exactly how things are playing out. Congress is moving to stop Obama’s EPA from the centerpiece of its ‘energy plan’, which is to regulate its war on coal-fired electricity that they were unable to legislate. And the administration reflexively joined the demagoguery of that responsible move, the necessity of which has now only proved more obvious.

But that EPA backdoor global warming scheme is, just like the failed cap-and-trade legislation, premised on a fantasy economic assumption (100 new reactors) to dumb-down the cost of regulating coal out of existence (‘bankrupting’ anyone who wanted to try and use it, in Obama’s own phrase to the SF Chronicle ed board). In fact, this was built in purely to have a piece of paper to wave around and say see this is completely different than the plan that candidate Obama said would cause your rates to necessarily skyrocket, and bankrupt anyone daring to use coal! Not honest.

(more…)

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker explained how the savings gained through the collective bargaining changes recently passed by the legislature will more than offset cuts in state aids to most school districts.

That formula is altered, however, if school districts rush to implement new labor agreements before Act 10 goes into effect on March 26th.

Walker was joined at his press conference with administrators and board members from the New Berlin school district.

Those education officials praised Walker’s plan, noting that it allows for merit pay and flexibility which will improve the educational opportunities for Wisconsin students.

(more…)

From The Courier Post:

John Willliamson, president of the union representing Camden’s police officers, said he and his members would be at the meeting whether they were invited or not.

“We will be there,” he said. “Camden City needs Camden police officers. As far as firefighters, same thing.

“We know the city, we know the people and we know the terrain.”

In town hall meetings, the Republican governor has chided Camden’s police and fire unions for being unwilling to give up perks such as paid birthdays off. But, Williamson said, his members have never been paid for birthdays off.

Williamson did not say it directly, but he cited an historical figure to imply that the countywide plan is part of a larger plot to dismantle public employee unions in New Jersey.

“‘We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers’ salaries and take away their right to strike,’” he read aloud.

“That was said on May 2, 1933, and the person who said it was Adolf Hitler.”

(more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Anne Sorock discusses the Sam Adams Alliance study on the Wisconsin union protesters. Then Pejman Yousefzadeh talks about the brutal battle between Jewish settlers and Palestinian terrorists.

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:

Madison Unwrapped: Reading the Union Label
Tea Parties and the Political Establishment
Buy Tickets to the Sammies
Coffee & Markets: Wisconsin Assemblywoman Michelle Litjens Discusses Union Protests
Insiders Sharply Split On Influence Of Unions In U.S. Life And Politics
Are Israeli Settlers Human?

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