Today, in 197o, the first Earth Day was celebrated. It doesn’t make anymore sense than it did at its inception.

Since 2004, Gustavo Arellano has written the wildly popular – and wildly politically incorrect –  Ask a Mexican! column in the OC Weekly. In each installment, the California-born Arellano answers reader queries about Mexican-American mores that rarely come up in day-to-day conversation. Recent entries have discussed whether it’s safe to shop for prescription drugs in border towns, why Mexicans eat so many tortillas, and if it’s common for Mexican men to wear necklaces bearing their mothers’ names (it’s not, cautions Arellano, and probably a sign that a particular hombre has a chica south of the border).

The column, Arellano told Reuters, “started off as a joke. It was supposed to be just a satirical take on xenophobia against Mexicans and it just exploded.” The column now appears in about three dozen publications and spawned a 2007 collection (buy it here). The column is remarkable not only for its humor and insight but its willingness to talk frankly about topics that usually stifle even the most-open conversationalists.

In April, Reason’s Nick Gillespie talked with Arellano about U.S. natives’ attitudes toward Mexicans, whether half-Mexican Anthony Quinn’s performance in Zorba the Greek or Jack Black’s Mexican-wrestler turn in Nacho Libre was more ethnically offensive, whether Mexicans can or should assimilate, the effect of the drug war on border relations, and much more.

(more…)

While the national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is 1.5 percentage points higher than during President George Bush’s last full month in office, life is surprisingly good for folks living near the Beltway. On an unadjusted basis and as of February 2011, the unemployment rate of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area was 3.6 percentage points lower than the national average. The gap between Washington’s local unemployment and the national rate is higher than it ever was during the Bush administration.

National Minus D.C. Metro Unemployment Rates (Not Seasonally Adjusted), Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

According to The Economist, the Washington D.C. metro area accounted for 6% of the nation’s job growth over the past year, in an area that holds just 2% of the country’s population. In the one-year period ending January 2011, the S&P/Case-Schiller Index of home prices fell nationally by 3% for 20 large cities, whereas it rose 3.6% for the D.C. metro region. In 2009, the region’s GDP grew at +2.2%, compared with the overall United States’ -1.7%.

(more…)

Former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney announced on April 11 that he is “formally exploring a presidential bid”. As such, because a 2012 Romney run would be a repetition of his 2008 attempt at presidential power, a look back is reasonable due diligence for every voter.

When Michael Dukakis, another Governor of Massachusetts, ran for the great office in 1988 there were many who considered him a serious contender. After all, he had the much-touted but highly questionable “Massachusetts Miracle” claim of economic prosperity in that state during the mid to later parts of that decade to bolster his profile. Many voters in Massachusetts were skeptical (Dukakis carried his home state, but few others).

George Bush appeared a lackluster candidate in comparison and almost “too easy” to beat it seemed at the time. But there were ghosts that haunted Mr. Dukakis. As the Democratic candidate seemed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and Mr. Bush became “Bush #1” it was clear that, for Mr. Dukakis’ campaign, the man and the hour had certainly not met.

Analysts and voters during the 1988 election cycle found at least three negatives about Mr. Dukakis that he could not overcome – and which seemed to unavoidably bring him to defeat. The first was his bizarrely cold and politician-like answer during the second presidential debate to moderator Bernard Shaw’s question: “Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”

Dukakis’ spiritless, calculating, politician-like answer stunned the nation. “No, I don’t, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.” This unfortunate, but honest, answer essentially ended the debates. Dukakis lost.

(more…)

Here’s another ‘rough cut’ segment from Pigford Blues — this time, what probably will end up being the film’s intro. Please feel free to email this video to someone who might be interested or embed it on your own website.

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 Katherine Miller and Mark Jackson to discuss how the Facebook culture has impacted today’s young adults how it will change the institution of marriage for an entire generation.

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:

Theory Tuesday: Facebook and why college students hook-up a lot
More college ‘hookups,’ but more virgins, too
Where Have The Good Men Gone?
Katherine Miller’s Blog: Awkward Awesome

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Katherine on Twitter

The American people do not support Obamacare. This much we know. So I’m willing to bet they’re going to be furious when they learn that the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to spend as much as $200 million on a propaganda campaign to convince them they’re wrong about the president’s socialist health care overhaul.

Last week Judicial Watch obtained documents from HHS that provide new details on a massive, taxpayer-funded, multimedia campaign designed to promote the Affordable Health Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and other HHS policy initiatives (such as the anti-obesity — or food control — campaign that is a vanity project of Michelle Obama). According to the records, which we obtained through a March 23, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the total cost of this campaign, which notably targets Obama’s electoral coalition, could reach as much as $200 million over the next five years!

The following are highlights from the documents, which you can read in full here:

• An April 27, 2010, Department of Health and Human Services Acquisition Plan entitled “National Multimedia & Education Campaign & Grassroots Outreach,” details a comprehensive five-year communications program covering a variety of HHS policy initiatives, including “health care reform.”
  •According to a section of the Acquisition Plan entitled, “Independent Government Cost Estimate,” the Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA) states: “ASPA is unable to provide a definitive government cost estimate. Campaigns vary is [sic] size and scope. Some campaigns involve radio, some TV, and some print. Other campaigns may involve all of those avenues plus on ground events, website, bus tours, etc.” However, “ASPA is letting this contract in order [to] produce three to four campaigns per year through the life-cycle of the contract. We are requesting a contract with a $200,000,000 maximum.”
• According to a subsequent March 14, 2011, contract included among the documents, HHS hired The Ogilvy Group “to provide services to design, develop, and execute a multiplatform educational media campaign to promote the new website Healthcare.gov, including the new Spanish language version of the website.” The total amount of the contract awarded was: $3,998,928.
• The Ogilvy contract “task order” describes the purpose of the Healthcare.gov website: “To accompany such a monumental piece of legislation [The Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare], the law charged the Department of Health and Human Services with the creation of a website to aide [sic] Americans about the health insurance coverage options available to them.” (U.S. Senator Charles Grassley has deemed the HHS online program “state-sponsored propaganda.”)
• The Ogilvy contract also describes the “audiences” that will receive “targeted messaging” during the campaign: “Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Young People, Women/Mothers,” all considered key target demographics for the Obama reelection campaign.
  •According to the Ogilvy contract, HHS sought to receive “media training” in the following areas, among others: “controlling your message,” “handling hostile interviews,” “artful repetition,” “identifying loaded questions” and “being persuasive.”

And now for the really creepy part…

(more…)

America is in fiscal peril in the short run because of a 10-year spending binge by Bush and Obama and in the long run because of a toxic combination of entitlement programs and demographics.

Congressman Paul Ryan has introduced a budget plan to address America’s fiscal crisis, but Senator Reid and President Obama have summarily rejected his proposal, so it appears the United States will continue to drift in the wrong direction.

Something is needed to compel action. One might think that such an impetus would have been provided by the recent decision by Standard & Poor to downgrade the fiscal outlook for the United States. But this development hasn’t affected the spending culture in Washington.

But there is hope. Senator Corker has legislation that would force Congress to act – and automatically impose fiscal discipline if they don’t. His bill caps – and then slowly reduces – government spending as a share of national economic output (gross domestic product).

I’ve already written about the merits of this proposal, including an explanation of the all-important enforcement mechanism of sequestration (automatic spending cuts). Here’s Senator Corker’s description of his plan, as delivered at a Cato Institute conference on the Economic Impact of Government Spending.

To build on the Senator’s comments, there are two things that deserve special emphasis.

(more…)

On Wednesday, President Obama’s union-controlled National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the Boeing Company that, if ruled in the union and NLRB’s favor, may prove to have far-reaching consequences across the American business landscape. Ultimately, the outcome to this case will state whether or not America has, in fact, become entirely hostile to business (and the jobs they provide). The complaint was issued by the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel (the same one who threatened to sue South Carolina and three other states over the states’ secret-ballot initiatives) and is set to go to hearing on June 14th before an administrative law judge in Seattle.

At issue, according to the NLRB, is whether Boeing violated federal labor law by deciding to transfer a second airplane production line from a union facility in the state of Washington to a non-union facility in South Carolina for “discriminatory reasons.”

Despite the fact that Boeing now employs around 1,000 employees in South Carolina and has spent millions to build a facility, the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel is seeking an order for Boeing to maintain production of the second production line in Washington.

Lafe Solomon, acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, has suggested a remedy for Boeing’s actions: that Boeing will maintain a second 787 line in Washington state. The labor board, however, isn’t saying Boeing has to close its South Carolina facility.

“We’re not telling them what to do with it,” said Nancy Cleeland, a spokeswoman with the labor board.

Despite the possibility of political retaliation on the part of the Obama NLRB, as well as the possible job losses in South Carolina an eventual NLRB decision may cause, the core principle at stake is whether or not an employer has the right to move business away from a unionized location that has repeatedly been the victim of extortive strikes, causing the employer hundreds of days of lost production, customer delays and billions in revenue. (more…)

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the disastrous BP oil spill. Remembrance of the fateful months after the spill was followed by strict criticism from several politicians across the country. Gov. Bobby Jindal appeared on television this morning offering praise towards the residents of Louisiana and neighboring states for a resilient and speedy recovery. While the speed of the recovery is reason enough to celebrate, Jindal’s message took a more somber tone, focusing on the “one-size-fits-all moratorium” that was placed on the Gulf States following the spill.

With the stigma of the spill remaining clear in the minds of many Americans, tourism in the Gulf has taken a significant hit. Several Governors are attempting to reel visitors back into their states, but the policies introduced following the spill are only further crippling economic recovery in the Gulf. It is no secret that the price of oil continues to rise at an out-of-control pace. The average price of gas has risen by nearly a dollar since the spill and production has been stunted by nearly a third. Gov. Jindal, and others, argues that increasing offshore drilling would only alleviate some of the economic burden that all Americans face.

As this infographic demonstrates, the administration’s disastrous energy policies have had a hand in nearly all of the deleterious long-term effects of the Gulf spill crisis (click to enlarge).

Safe drilling remains at the forefront of the administrations mind, but the continuation of this moratorium has only hurt small business and added to the already high unemployment rate. The rising price at the pump has spurred increase support for off-shore drilling. A recent CNN poll shows that Americans are beginning to learn towards increased drilling. The survey showed that 69 percent of Americans favor increased offshore drilling, with just over three in ten opposed. That 69 percent is up 20 points from last June, while the oil spill was still in progress, and is back to the level of support seen in the summer of 2008.

(more…)

Wisconsin is home to the Circus World Museum (it is in Baraboo where the Ringling Bros. Circus was founded).

Now it appears as if it will be home to yet another political circus that could drag into the summer months.

From a park on Madison’s North side, a defiant Joanne Kloppenburg announced Wednesday that she’s requesting a statewide recount in the Supreme Court race. The official canvass of the statewide results indicated she lost to incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser by more than 7,300 votes.

The campaign of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser issued a swift and stinging response immediately following Kloppenburg’s news conference.

“We learned something this afternoon from JoAnne Kloppenburg. Apparently nothing will stop her from going ahead and wasting taxpayers hard‐earned money to discover what election officials did on April 5th – that Justice David Prosser was reelected.

“We’ve now had a statewide canvass and four separate examinations of the canvass in one county. The record books show the largest number of votes turned in state history on a recount is 489. Their losing margin now stands at fifteen times that.

“And now, ironically, less than 24 hours after the Government Accountability Board concluded that the April 5th canvass in Waukesha County was correct, she today insists that it needs further examination.

“With the official canvass showing her down by over 7,300 votes, the only way she can achieve her nakedly political goal is to do one thing: challenge and disenfranchise thousands of Wisconsin citizens who exercised their right to vote April 5th and believed this election over. Justice Prosser’s recount team will work diligently in the weeks and months ahead to protect the votes of Wisconsin citizens at the same time Ms. Kloppenburg’s campaign works to take them away.”

Clearly, it’s on.

(more…)

Today, in 753 BC, Romulus and Remus are considered to have founded Rome. It rose to great heights, even the pinnacle of world power, but didn’t last. Interesting.

I first created (with the help of my son) and posted this cartoon on June 6th, 2009 and wow, it has been the most popular cartoon I’ve done (gathering 7000 hits to date). It has even been sent back to me in chain emails. For some reason though, people think it was created in Scotland. It wasn’t, but yes, I’m sure the world IS still laughing at us (as the email usually suggests). So here it is again, feel free to pass it on.

Cross-Posted: TobyToons.com (Conservative Political Cartoons)

New Hampshire may become the 23rd Right To Work state. Today the Senate passed the Right To Work bill (16-8) that will soon head to Governor John Lynch for his signature. Lynch has publicly promised his Big Labor benefactors that he will ignore the overwhelming support for the Right To Work Bill that passed both houses with a veto-proof margin.

If you thought intimidation in Wisconsin was bad, start watching New Hampshire! Big Labor will fight using everything they have to promote compulsory unionism and its ability to force people against their will to pay into union coffers.

Gov. Lynch may see the tide has turned and consider signing the bill, but Big Labor cronies are already working on him. So he will likely make the weaker choice – veto the bill – and plunge New Hampshire into a Big Labor siege unlike anything Wisconsin or Ohio saw. It will take elected men and women by storm, and they will need your support to get through these tough days until they override the Big Labor veto.

(more…)

When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker curtailed collective bargaining privileges for public sector workers (formerly known as public servants), it resulted in all-out political war in Madison.

Walker won the showdown, and now the state can get its financial house in order.

But that doesn’t mean Walker is done taking on the unions.

One of the governor’s next goals is to improve the state’s public education system by giving more kids access to quality schools. That means expanding Milwaukee’s wildly successful voucher program to even more families. And that means a raucous showdown with the teacher unions.

As part of his budget proposal, Walker wants to lift income restrictions on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program so that families earning up to 325 percent of the federal poverty line would quality for vouchers, the School Reform News reports.

Walker also wants Milwaukee voucher students to have access to all private schools in Milwaukee County, not just those within the city.

The voucher program was established in 1990, and is the oldest program of its kind in the nation.

The reality is vouchers are working in places like Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. because it gives kids a way out — an alternative to the drop out factories known as public schools.

The Milwaukee voucher program has been enormously successful. EAGtv recently visited a school in Milwaukee that takes kids of all races, economic backgrounds and social classes and  prepares them for life. The school, Eastbrook Academy, graduated its first high school class last spring, and reports that each graduate is currently studying in a four-year college program.

Those who value “social justice” should be the biggest supporters of school choice and vouchers. As EAGtv’s Milwaukee story shows, school choice benefits kids by allowing them to attend a school they otherwise couldn’t afford.  It’s “spreading the wealth around,” in the form of quality schooling.

(more…)

The other night, a funny thing happened on the way to an idea… With an absurd attack against Sarah Palin, the MSM proved a point I was going to make about the potent power of Twitter better than I ever could. But, first, a little background.

Let me see a show of hands. How many of you sit home frustrated by MSM bias, lies, misinformation and double standards?

Wow. That many.

So my idea was to write an article encouraging people (meaning, you) to sign up for a Twitter account and help us to smoke out MSM bias — to urge you to tweet about it and  sound the alarm online whenever you see it. It’s a ridiculously simple process and not only will you feel better, but word will spread and the culprits will know you’re spreading that word. The idea most certainly isn’t to get the hopelessly corrupt media to stop being hopelessly corrupt. If plummeting circulation rates and embarrassing ratings can’t get them to change their ways, nothing will. But more people policing the MSM and spreading the word on Twitter is a beautiful thing, good for America — and what better way to expose them than through the art of mockery? For example…

The MSM has set for themselves a Sarah Palin Standard whereas any perceived mistake the Governor makes becomes an instant part of the noisy MSM narrative. The idea, obviously, is to destroy her. And yet, when she hits a grand slam like she did with her speech in Madison Saturday, the coverage pales in comparison to, say, when the MSM spends 10 days blaming her for those heinous murders in Tucson.

(more…)

The most instructive part of the president’s “deficit” speech last week was his insistence that he could help balance the budget through an “independent commission” with the “authority to make additional savings by further improving Medicare.”  That commission is the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and it is nothing more than another leg in ObamaCare’s rationing stool.

Writing in the Weekly Standard, Mark Hemmingway writes:

Here’s how IPAB works. It’s a panel comprised of 15 presidential appointees who are tasked with reducing Medicare spending. The panel is is given certain spending targets that kick in in 2014. At first those targets are on a sliding scale, but by 2018 the spending targets are set at the rate of GDP growth with an additional half of a percentage point tacked on. (Originally, it was GDP plus a full percentage point, but according to the “framework” released prior to the President’s speech the spending target has been reduced.)

Any recommendations IPAB makes about Medicare spending automatically become law. Congress can only override IPAB with a three-fifths majority vote, which is a very high legislative hurdle, or they can pass their own Medicare plan that meets the same spending target. There’s no administrative process for doctors or citizens to challenge the board’s decisions. There’s a school of thought that says IPAB is even more blatantly unconstitutional than the individual mandate, as its power sounds legislative in nature — its declarations would have the force of law — and therefore cannot legitimately be delegated to an executive entity.

In short, the IPAB would give power to unelected bureaucrats the make life or death decisions about Medicare – and probably private insurance – coverage without any way for patients to challenge the decision of the board.  Rationing would be implemented without a vote of Congress.

Writing in the National Review, James Capretta, points out that the Administration will not only use the panel to ration care but it’s real purpose is to build a stepping stone toward a nationalized health care system.

(more…)

Outrage over the video posted on YouTube of a six-year old girl being “patted down” by a TSA employee triggered this potential change to TSA procedures:

In response to a YouTube video of a 6-year-old girl receiving a pat-down from a Transportation Security Administration officer, Congressman Jason Chaffetz is drafting legislation that will require parental supervision during the pat-down of a child.

“They claim there is a modified pat-down for 12-year-olds and younger, but when you see those videos, you realize that just isn’t true,” Chaffetz said.

The proposed legislation would require that a parent must give their consent before a child receives a pat-down, and that the child must remain with the parent while the pat-down is performed.  emphasis mine

While the outrage continues over the pat-downs of minor Americans for “security” purposes, what is ironic about this new concern is that the parental consent/notification issues are completely dismissed and ignored when dealing with abortions.  Most recently, LifeNews reported that a 16-year old girl was sent to the hospital after a botched abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility in Everett, Washington:

The Planned Parenthood caller, in the 911 phone transcript, says, “We have a patient bleeding. She’s 16. We just did an abortion on her.”

(more…)