On his Wednesday show, Adam Carolla interviewed Andrew Breitbart to discuss Andrew’s new book, Righteous Indignation.  Let me assure you, you’ll LOVE this duo. Andrew’s been a guest on Carolla’s show before, but this was hands down the most entertaining so far.

Check out some of the comments from Carolla’s regular listeners – not surprisingly, some aren’t exactly Breitbart fans (which makes it that much more enjoyable for me, at least).

Carolla tackled topics with Andrew on just about everything – from Righteous Indignation to Communism, the Left’s Racist meme, the racket of building permits and greenwashing, and unions, just to name a few.  And a whole lotta LA, which, as Andrew illustrates for us, ain’t what is used to be.  The two were on such a rant roll over our waning freedoms, Carolla, who has described himself as having libertarian leanings, almost sounded like another grassroots activist.  Who knows? Sounds like he may just have a bit of Presidential appeal.  Andrew certainly thought so!

“By the way, are you aware that the Republican Party has nobody running for the presidency right now, and if you had put that out there by mistake and people heard that, and that was your spiel, you would have gone up to Donald Trump level, you would have gone up to 17%?”

Oh yeah – Carolla’s also not a big fan of Maxine Waters.  Not. At. All.  Which reminds me, this audio is NSFW.

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Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is considering a run for President. Will he or won’t he?

With Chicago sitting in the heart the nation, and literally being the den of the progressive movement, is it any wonder that it is also known as the birthplace of the international labor and worker’s rights movement? If you were not aware of this, don’t worry, neither were we. And neither are most Chicagoans. But the truth is, the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago is credited as the place where it all began.

To most, May Day represents the victorious struggle for the eight hour work day. However, there is a deeper history to the international holiday. Striking workers marched all across the country on May 1st, 1886, and it was declared as the eight hour work day by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. But in Chicago protests escalated on May 3rd, at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant, as workers rushed the gates to confront strikebreakers. This lead to a police shooting of two protesters. At another protest the following day at the Haymarket Square, May 4th, 1886, an “unknown” suspect threw a pipe bomb at the police, resulting in an explosion, chaos and gunfire. Eight police officers were killed, sixty were injured and at least four workers were killed, and a number of other civilians were injured.

Albert Parsons, an anarchist and militant activist who lead an 80,000 person march down Michigan Ave. with his wife Lucy, was one of eight anarchists who were all directly or indirectly connected to the bombing, and tried and convicted in the incident. Seven of the men were sentenced to death, which sparked an international outcry, and movement declaring these men as martyrs to the workers of the world’s “never ending struggle.”

This past May Day marks the 125th anniversary of the “Haymarket Affair,” which was celebrated in downtown Chicago, on April 30th, with a full scale reenactment, where the riot actually took place in 1886. Labor leaders and anti-capitalist activists were also on hand for some disturbing speeches prior the reenactment. We would also like to point out, that we did not see any American flags at the event.

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So. With yesterday’s farcical Senate theater, the brain-trust begs a very basic question:

“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who presided over the hearing [said] ‘Businesses should make a profit. That’s what drives our economy. But do these profitable companies need taxpayer subsidies?’”

Huh. Sen. Baucus, you come out in the black, and every year, too. And it’s fair to say, you are somewhat subsidized by the taxpayer, non? The salary, of course. The car. The driver. Retirement lucre. The trips to and from the office and your home. Often, that’s ‘homes’.

Biiiiig taxpayer-subsidized (actually, provided) budget to underwrite  your work, which of course does nothing so harmful as produce a product driving our economy. More like slowing it down, if fiddling here and there in hope of engineering outcomes desired by your political class along the way.

Then there are the junkets, and for those you may bring with you. The per diems. The mail costs to promote yourself. Then there’s that health insurance. Yep. Really something when someone, who could pay for these things without the taxpayer propping it up, has hard-working people foot the bill for doing his business.

And as a result you’re now worth …ok, well, there’s a little confusion here, with you having reported a negative net worth, while buying a $900,000 home.

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One of the big threats from the global warming moonbat types is that a rise in temperature will melt the polar ice caps causing the oceans to rise, with the cataclysmic result of skyscrapers being under water.  Let’s face it, if you think that the commute into Manhattan is bad now….just wait.

There is only one problem with this scenario,  Mother Nature isn’t being cooperative.  You see it is true that sea level has risen during the 20th century and probably well before that.  Scientists estimate that sea level has increased by 7 inches during the 2oth century.

The climate change hoaxers use computer models to predict that sea levels would rise anywhere from 15 inches to 2o feet because of global warming in the 21st century (the consensus number is closer to 3 feet).

But Mother Nature was never good at computer science.  Satellite data proved that the first decade of the 21st century sea level grew by only 0.83 inches (a pace of just 8 inches for the entire century). What’s even worse (for the global warming hoaxers) there has been no rise since 2006.  Now I know that some Democrats believe that Obama is a miracle worker, but even the the crazies at the Daily Kos would admit that controlling sea level is way above his pay grade. So the scientists at the University of Colorado’s NASA-funded Sea Level Research Group did what any other self-respecting cult members would do, they fudged the numbers.  They simply added .3 millimeters per year to its Global Mean Sea Level Time Series. That way they could report that the sea level rise was accelerating, instead of  what was actually happening–decelerating.

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Last week, my organization praised the Indiana lawmakers for passing some of the nation’s most significant education reforms.  In one of Education Action Group’s weekly newsletters, we said that Indiana’s new voucher program and its decision to lift the cap on charter schools will transform the state’s public education system, to the benefit of all Hoosier families and students. (An EAGtv report that details Indiana’s education reforms can be found here.)

Well, EAG’s audacity in celebrating the idea of school choice generated a number of hateful email responses – from unionized Indiana teachers.

The writers (all with the telltale “k12.in.us” in the email address) accused us of “attacking public education” and “bashing” teachers. One writer blamed us for demoralizing “those of us in the trenches and on the front lines of the classroom.”

Anyone who dares challenge the status quo of Big Education can expect such name calling.

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When President Obama gave a speech about “comprehensive” immigration reform on May 11^th in El Paso, Texas, one thing was certain: he was in no hurry to close the border.  Instead, he seemed focused on playing politics by offering an emotional appeal to Hispanics and Latinos in a bid to keep their vote for 2012. This is why his so-called immigration reforms center around legalizing the 11 million-plus illegal immigrants “undocumented workers” who are already in this country, and it goes a long way in explaining why Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) describes the president’s rhetoric as “purely political.”

Yet the bigger problem we face as a result of Obama’s willingness to leave the border porous isn’t political so much as practical. In other words, a border that isn’t secure translates into a country that isn’t secure either.

If you think I exaggerate the dangers of an open border then here’s a little experiment for you: Tonight, when you’re headed to bed, lock your front door but leave your back door wide open (and if you really want to emulate what Obama has done by advertising our open border, put a sign up in your backyard that says “back door open for your convenience.”)

I dare say not many among us could sleep well under such conditions, yet those are the exact same conditions Obama places our nation under when he turns a blind eye toward our faltering southern border in order to secure a few hundred thousand votes for the coming presidential election.

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From WMAR:

“People are agreeing with what I’ve been saying for the past thirty years.”

Big Government has previously covered efforts led by California liberals, including Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, to force out-of-state, online-only retailers with no physical presence in California to collect and remit California sales tax where they sell into the state, based purely on them advertising with or enabling their store to be accessed via an independent website based in California.  Such efforts are likely unconstitutional.  The most prominent example of such a website would be eBay, the Internet auction giant.

Unsurprisingly, eBay has not been enamored with such efforts which would hit eBay sellers, and has been seeking to work into legislation a threshold designed to ensure that at least some of its out-of-state sellers will not be subject to California sales/use tax collection and remittance obligations where they sell to customers in the Golden State (California-based sellers who sell to Californians are already on the hook).

A possible threshold of $10,000 a year or less in sales to Californians has been reported, but sources say that eBay and/or some of its sellers want that limit raised higher– potentially up to $2 million per year.

EBay has its California sellers engaged in a grassroots lobbying effort aimed at forcing amendments to the legislation, which would defang it.  No doubt eBay sellers located outside of California, who are currently not obliged to collect and remit sales tax on purchases made by Californians, are ecstatic about this. California-based sellers would not benefit from building in a sales threshold, though, especially a high one that could tilt the eBay marketplace distinctly to the advantage of out-of-state sellers. However, their legislators are being urged to make amendments that, if put through, could seriously reduce the already rather pitiful revenues that backers of the legislation claim they would obtain by ramming it through.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Mitt Romney’s disastrous health care speech and the grilling of oil executives on Capitol Hill.

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:

Mitt Romney’s Illogical, Terrible Health-Care Address
Romney’s theory
What Romney Said This Afternoon
Senators scold oil executives on Hill
Cutting Oil Subsidies Discriminatory: Conoco CEO
Where do your gasoline dollars go?

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On April 15, a day now known as “Black Friday”, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) effectively shut down three major online poker websites by seizing their domain names. The DOJ’s heavy-handed prosecution of the websites, all of which are based abroad, has made a mockery of America’s stated commitment to Internet freedom. The seizures have also hindered the online gambling operations in nations where Internet poker is completely lawful and the U.S. government has no jurisdiction.

Given that the seized poker websites are housed and regulated by foreign nations—Poker Stars is registered in the Isle of Man, Full Tilt in Ireland, and Absolute Poker in Antigua—how could the U.S. government unilaterally seize their domain names? The short answer is that all of the sites end in “.com.” All such domains are registered in the U.S. and, hence, are subject to U.S. civil forfeiture laws.

Author and legal scholar Larry Downes has critiqued civil asset forfeiture laws on the Technology Liberation Front blog. He argues that the laws are actually intended to punish suspects before they are convicted. “The purpose of forfeiture laws,” Downes laments, “is to help prosecutors fit the punishment to the crime, especially when restitution of the victims or of the cost of prosecution is otherwise unlikely to have a deterrent effect.” Domain name seizures often occur without a trial and often without any warning to the owners, as was the case in Black Friday’s seizure of poker domains.

The government’s move has reignited the controversy over U.S. federal agencies using domain seizures to punish foreign entities allegedly in violation of U.S. laws. While the DOJ did not technically “take down” the poker websites, federal agents obtained a court order that compelled Verisign, the global operator of the .com registry, to reroute the poker sites’ domain names to a government page featuring intimidating federal logos notifying users of the seizure. As a result of the seizure, no computer in the world—even those in countries where poker is explicitly legal—could access the poker sites via their domain names.

This latest round of seizures follows a series of similar actions taken in recent months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has seized the domain names of dozens of websites alleged to be engaged in copyright infringement. One such site, the Spain-based Rojadirecta.com, had actually been deemed legal by Spanish courts.

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Potential Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was in his home state of Michigan yesterday and gave a much-anticipated address on the health care plan he implemented while Governor of Massachusetts.  “RomneyCare” has been cited as one of the models for much of ObamaCare including the very unpopular and (probably) unconstitutional Individual Mandate provision.

RomneyCare is seen as Romney’s biggest obstacle in pursuit of the GOP nomination.

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The White House visitor logs reveal a lot of things.  For example, there are a heckuva lot of people that like to bowl at the White House lanes.  Also, Richard Trumka had an Oval Office meeting with the president on October 4^th, two days after the unions’ “One Nation Working Together” event.  Who knew a representative of the middle class was such a “high roller,” as my grandfather used to say?

The logs also reveal three “POTUS” meetings with Organizing for America, the community organizing arm of the Democratic National Committee.  OFA of course had previously been Obama for America, the president’s campaign committee.

Two of the meetings are listed as “OFA TAPING” in the logs.  Several new media and video people are listed as participants.

A DC Insider with White House experience told me this is not unusual. My source said it’s often easier to bring film crews into the White House complex, as opposed to having the president go to them.  While I don’t think the White House should be used for such purposes, it makes sense from a logistical and security perspective, I suppose.

But a December 15 meeting, listed as “OFA VOLUNTEER MEETING” caught my eye.

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Yesterday, the House voted to end the Obama Administration’s ban on off-shore drilling. Unfortunate that Senate Democrats won’t go along with this, because this would be a really good time to increase the supply of oil.

So, recently we told you about the files we’d found on SEIU’s financial management. As we said, considering the volume of information present there, it would take us some time to explore everything. Well, it appears that we’ve had time to find some more interesting tidbits of information in that gigantic pile of financial statements.

As you may remember, last year SEIU announced it was launching a campaign against Sodexo. The union’s official position was that, outraged by gross mismanagement and faults at Sodexo, it wanted “Clean Up Sodexo”. With unabashed statements and brazen declarations about the state of things at Sodexo, the Union meant to stir workers -with mixed results – into demonstrating against the company and pressuring management for a change.

Of course, behind SEIU’s official reasons for starting its smear-campaign laid several, more or less visible, causes. Causes we’ve repeatedly explored in these pages, as it appeared that SEIU had launched the campaign not so much for its alleged humanitarian motives but rather for capitalistic and strategic intents. The union, historically foreign to the catering services workers’ demography wanted to set foot on the market and spur concurring union UNITE-HERE – with whom it shared a history of bitter rivalry. SEIU wanted to expand, more than that, it needed to expand, maintaining membership growth meant increasing fees collected and, in the end, enriching the union.

In order to give some tangibility to its claims against Sodexo, SEIU needed two things: backup data (however legitimate) and larger support. To accomplish the first of these goals, it ordered the realisation of a report on working conditions at Sodexo. The report’s final draft showed up in October 2010, largely fed with interviews obtained “on behalf of SEIU” by some unknown actor. Looking at the financial files, it appears that these interviews were the product of local union Sinaltrainal, who received a hefty $20,000 “organizing” donation from SEIU in October 2010.

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Oh, and making them obey the law.

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The Barack Obama Administration has at their dictatorial behest a LOT of rogue Agencies, Departments and Commissions.

Wings of the Executive Branch Leviathan that have – under orders from the President, his Czars and his minions – spent the last two-plus years illegally imposing Big Government regulations and rules – without benefit of Congress and in direct opposition to the will of We the People.

And since November’s election – in which the American populace overwhelmingly demonstrated their desire for smaller, more accountable government – these agencies have kicked their authoritarian power grabs into overdrive.

The anti-energy Cap & Trade Tax doesn’t pass Congress?  No problem for the Administration – they’ll just have their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) start unlawfully enforcing it anyway.

The uber pro-union, anti-free market and anti-First Amendment Card Check doesn’t pass Congress?  No problem for the Administration – they’ll just have their National Labor Relations Board start unlawfully enforcing it anyway.

The autocratic examples are myriad.

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In a BigGovernment.com post April 7, I shared news that videotapes recorded in downtown Oklahoma City April 19, 1995, were set to be the subject of a federal court hearing. Today, I share an update about the hearing that took place in Salt Lake City yesterday.

Judge Clark Waddoups, presiding in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, “was all over (the) FBI,” according to Jesse Trentadue, the Utah attorney who used the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt three years ago to compel the FBI to turn over copies of surveillance video captured April 19, 1995, by more than 20 cameras operating in the vicinity of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

Not only did Judge Waddoups deny the FBI’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Trentadue said, but he gave the Bureau until June 30 to do the following:

1. Confirm that FBI Information Director David Hardy told the truth in declarations he submitted to the court;

2. Describe the S-Drive and why it was not searched;

3. Explain why Evidence Control Units at Oklahoma City Field Office, FBI Headquarters and FBI Crime Lab were not searched; and

4. Describe how burdensome it would be to search OKBOMB case file entries for two weeks after the bombing for missing tapes?

Once Judge Waddoups gets the requested information/answers from the FBI, Trentadue said, he will revisit the motion to order the FBI to conduct additional searches.

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The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, (H.R. 2454), sponsored by Representative Henry A. Waxman, CA, was passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009, with a vote of 219 – 212, and was received by the Senate on July 6, 2009. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, (S.1733), sponsored by Senator John F. Kerry, MA, was introduced on September 30, 2009. The House bill is 1428 pages and the Senate bill is 1758 pages.

This is another bill that has so much regulation attached to it, no one knows what all is included, and no one can say for certain how it will affect states, businesses and individuals. One thing is sure, this bill will put in place strict regulations for carbon emissions at all levels of our lives. According to The Pew Center, “It covers producers of generators of electricity, petroleum fuels, distributors of natural gas, producers of certain fluorinated gases (F-gases), and other specified sources. Greenhouse gases that are limited under the bill include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons, nitrogen fluoride, and hydrofluorocarbons emitted as a byproduct.”

These new regulations are intended to mandate that all energy providers and large manufacturing facilities will be limited as to how much carbon dioxide they will be permitted to emit into the atmosphere. This article relates strictly to carbon dioxide emissions, as this is the majority of the gases being emitted and of our principle concern. The energy companies will be required, on an increasing scale, to reduce their CO2 emissions and retrofit their operations to be “cleaner”. They will be required to provide some of their energy using wind, solar, nuclear, and other cleaner and greener energy sources.

Many countries in the EU and states here in America have already had such regulations in place and they have failed miserably.

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