Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has entered the race for President. He has promised to go to Iowa and argue against farm subsidies. Color us at least a bit impressed. This is the first real test of the Tea Party. There is neither an economic nor constitutional defense of the subsidies. But, many tea party supporters are drawn from folks who benefit from these subsidies. Curious how this plays out.

[Madison, Wisc...]  At a hearing Monday morning, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board certified the recall petitions for Senators Olsen, Kapanke, and Hopper.

Some insiders consider these three Senators to be the most vulnerable in a recall election.

At the hearing legal counsel for the three Republican Senators stated the petitions were not valid. The lawyers argued that the individual who signed the statement of intent to recall should also be the person who filed the official recall committee registration paperwork. GAB rejected that argument.

The counsel also attempted to challenge a number of signatures on the petitions.  They argued some of the signatures were duplicates, did not include an address, or were added after the deadline on May 2^nd. However, even had GAB tossed all those signatures, there would still have been enough to certify the petitions.

Now that the petitions have been certified, GAB will file the petitions between May31st and June 3^rd. GAB will also hold a hearing on six more recall petitions on May 31^st.  Those involve Republic Senators Cowles, Darling, and Harsdorf, and Democrat Senators Holperin, Hansen and Wirch.

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We have seen a wide array of Barack Obama Administration wings make up jobs numbers and claims in an attempt to bolster un-bolsterable policies.

First there were the gigs – not created, but allegedly “created or saved” – as the supposed result of the simply awful February 2009 nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” bill.

That didn’t play very well – it was roundly, rightly ridiculed for its obvious absurdity.

So when it came to the recent General Motors – i.e. Government Motors – claims to job wizardry, the Administration masters knew they had to come up with something different.

They didn’t get very creative:

GM announces it will add or preserve 4,000 jobs

GM to add or preserve 4,000 jobs, invest $2B in plants

General Motors $2 billion investment expected preserve up to 2,000 local jobs

“Added or preserved” – not “created or saved.”  Get it?

The Obama Administration has reached a new zenith of ridiculousness with the latest from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Which is now trying to feed us jobs (and economic opportunity) to which Americans are “denied access.”

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If Obamacare reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, which it surely will, one key question may determine whether or not the president’s socialist healthcare takeover will remain the law of the land: Will Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan recuse herself from the case?

Kagan has said she was not involved in Department of Justice (DOJ) preparations for legal challenges to Obamacare. Moreover, the Supreme Court justice did not recuse herself from the High Court decision in April 2011 not to “fast-track” for Supreme Court review Virginia’s lawsuit challenging Obamacare.

But documents obtained by Judicial Watch as result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit suggest that Kagan helped coordinate the Obama administration’s legal strategy to defend Obamacare.

(Judicial Watch’s lawsuit has been consolidated with a similar FOIA lawsuit that had been first filed against the DOJ by the Media Research Center. The lawsuits are now both before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The documents referenced in this release were first produced in the Media Research litigation.)

According to a January 8, 2010, email from Neal Katyal, former Deputy Solicitor General (and current Acting Solicitor General) to Brian Hauck, Senior Counsel to Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Kagan was involved in the strategy to defend Obamacare from the very beginning:

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Around the world, Western nations that wish to remain culturally in tact or, in some cases, simply to survive, are currently bolstering their borders and revamping their immigration policies.

For example, the Danish government recently announced it will “reinstate guards along borders with Sweden and Germany and conduct spot checks designed to fight crime and illegal migration.” Said Danish Justice Minister Lars Barfoed: “Denmark should be a safe country, and we will do all it takes to fight the rise in cross-border crime committed within our borders.” (Both Italy and France have “have demanded the EU changes its rules to allow them to restore some border controls” as well.)

In Israel, where Palestinians frequently seek to breach the security fence on the West Bank, dogs are being employed to track (and deter) those who plan to cross the border illegally. Said an Israeli Army spokesman: “[the dogs] are only brought in as a way of protecting the sprawling separation barrier from Palestinian vandals looking to create openings which would allow ‘terrorists’ to infiltrate Israel.”

Of course, there are many who will consider Israel’s use of dogs in this instance to be too harsh, too draconian. In which case the larger point has been missed: and that larger point is that Israelis resort to such measures precisely because they place such a high value on their own security. (If, perchance, you’re wondering how successful such measures have proven to be, just consider the impression the dogs made upon a Palestinian who recently tried to cross the border illegally: “At about 5:00 am I got to the border to try and get through a hole in the fence when all of a sudden a dog attacked me and tried to savage my hand. When I managed to get my hand away, it bit my backside.”)

Two safe bets that could be made at this point:

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Today, when UFCW union member Chris Mosquera and his attorney from the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation file his lawsuit in U.S. District Court challenging the Obama-SEIU-AFL-CIO-UFCW Empire, Mr. Mosquera officially stands up to the Obama Administration. Mr. Mosquera challenges the Administration’s attacks on individual workers such as it usurpation of power from individuals through Administration’s new Big Labor Boss-friendly reg that helps conceal forced union dues shenanigans.

You may remember that within hours of arriving in the Oval Office, President Obama dispatched orders to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). These orders were not to immediately begin turning around the economy or start finding ways to encourage employers to hire more people. No. Obama’s orders were much less bold and more typical of Tammany Hall payback to Big Labor Bosses who threw a billion dollars’ worth of forced-dues assets (Time, Talent, and Treasure) behind Obama and Democrat political campaigns.

Before the Big Labor insiders at DOL made time to “help” employees and the unemployed, they set about rescinding the January 2009 union financial disclosure reform; they declared the agency would no longer enforce the 2008 union officer conflict-of-interest reports; they stopped state teacher unions’ financial disclosures; and they rescinded the requirement that unions disclose non-union enterprises that they control.

Mr. Mosquera’s actions are both courageous and necessary, not only for workers who live in forced-unionism states such as Maryland and Indiana, but for any employee who is or may be covered by a collective bargaining contract with an LMRDA-covered labor union.

Mr. Mosquera stands as a shining torch to light way for others across the U.S. to challenge the Obama Administration in court whenever the Empire exceeds its authority.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Greek debt crisis and Francis’ thoughts on the 2012 race for President.

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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Daniels Is Out, in Another Jolt to G.O.P. Field
Behind Mitch Daniels’s family’s veto
Herman Cain announces presidential bid

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Just over a year ago, we broke the exclusive story that Mullah Omar had been taken into custody by the Pakistani Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).  We also predicted that Mullah Omar would never be seen alive again.

Today, news outlets are reporting Afghan intelligence claims that the Pakistani ISI has killed Mullah Omar.

Are these reports accurate, or is this some sort of a disinformation campaign, launched by the ISI, in order to make Pakistan look like it is cracking down on terrorists who heretofore have been given safe haven in Pakistan?

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Today, Tim Pawlenty officials enters the race for President. Yesterday, his campaign released this pre-announcement video. It is very well done.

If the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner were remade today (I’ll leave that to Michael Bay), Sydney Poitier’s character ought to be replaced with C.L. Bryant, Herman Cain, Larry Elder, or Alfonzo Rachel. One watching would think that nothing has changed since 1967.

This is because the institutional left has not changed, and by its very nature, cannot change–this despite its virtual corporate ownership of the term “change.” It is defined by intolerance, division and xenophobia, and not as unfortunate side effects, but as structural pillars. Without these pillars, there would be no structure.

Be it “socialism,” “liberalism” or “progressivism,” as the left repeatedly changes names like an escaped convict fleeing from state to state, perhaps the most accurate denotation, aside from Mark Levin’s “statism,” is “collectivism.” This is due to the apparent inability to register persons as individuals, with the dignities afforded the description, but as nameless molecules of more relevant “collectives.”

It is a movement which seeks to retard discourse and critical thought to a vegetative state, resisting dissent from every corner by the strength of the establishment press. Via community organizing, it plays upon the unassuming optimism of its grassroots to empower the ever-assuming opportunism of its elite. It runs intellectual deficits as swiftly as it runs economic deficits, feeding on knee-jerk emotionalism, hobgoblinism, and manufactured xenophobia as its lifeblood.

By trade, the institutional left preys on populations, herds individuals into respective factions; convincing them against their individuality so as to organize them into groups that will congregate into strategic alliances as soon as wage internecine warfare against one another on cue. Its message to the black “community” is a paraphrase of a Jerry Maguire line: “Help us help you!”

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One day last week Phil Christofanelli, the student whistleblower behind the UMKC/UMSL union video story, was sent a certified letter from UMSL.

Is the university attempting to intimidate Christofanelli?

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The most popular parlor game among the cool kids these days is “Find the Apostasy.” You just fire up The Google, type in a potential candidate’s name and pick from a list of current ‘third rail’ conservative policy positions, e.g. cap and trade, earmarks, individual health insurance mandate, or amnesty. Within a nano-second you’ll have a host of quotes from five, ten or even twenty years ago with something far less than a full-throttled opposition to these policies. You may even hit the jack-pot and find a potential GOP nominee downright supporting one of those ‘third rail’ positions. Fire up a short blog post, toss in a couple “RINOs” and…presto…comment crack.

Don’t get me wrong; I am absolutely opposed to those positions and have been for the 20+ years I’ve been in this game. I also absolutely believe that the GOP nominee in 2012 must also be opposed to these positions going forward. However, I think we have to be careful about firing up the way back machine unless we recognize that, even 5 years ago, the political climate was very, very different.

Obama didn’t invent deficit spending, burgeoning debt, new entitlements or wasteful government boondoggles. Those have all been around for decades. Obama just found a V-8 booster we didn’t know our fiscal engine had. He seized a rare moment to implement almost the entire Progressive wish list and failed so spectacularly and exposed its false assumptions so clearly that even the most wishy-washy “independent” could recognize it was a false religion.

So, today, the American public, and especially the average GOP primary voter,  is in the mood for a policy rumble. They want to dramatically cut spending, reform entitlements and, to varying degrees, scrap the tax code and start over. They are more aware of the challenges we face and better educated on the policy implications than I’ve seen in my lifetime. They are ready for a very adult conversation on the tough choices our nation has to make.

But, this wasn’t always so.

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Surprise! Vladimir Putin would like to be President of Russia again. There was a time that Russia seemed on the cusp of unprecedented opportunity. That time has passed.

From the Associated Press:

President Obama and the first lady boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base late Sunday to begin a six-day trip to Europe. Their first stop is Ireland, and the president will also meet with leaders in Britain, France and Poland.

From Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times:

Last week, I found myself cruising the website of the California prison guards union. I was curious about whether the $7 million the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. spent on last year’s elections — including $2 million on Jerry Brown’s governor’s race alone — might have had something to do with the contract the union just scored.

And right there at ccpoa.org, I saw a video called “Winners.”

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This article may need a bit of contextualization first: almost two years ago, the SEIU launched a corporate campaign against Sodexo. It’s not particularly uncommon of unions to engage in vociferous campaigns against a corporation to obtain unionization rights. However, SEIU’s campaign against Sodexo differed on two notable counts. First, the scale of the campaign, with SEIU student organizations and international unions in several States as well as in other countries and spending several thousand dollars in the process. Second, and perhaps most important, the viciousness of the motives behind the campaign.

You see, in a “normal” union-driven corporate-campaign, a union backed up by company workers which are not or poorly represented, will fight to obtain the right to represent these workers. In SEIU’s case, the situation is rather different. The union has traditionally always been foreign to the catering industry. In accordance with its growth strategy, it decided to penetrate the sector. After all, unions are corporations like any other, and they make their money on the paiements of workers they represent.

In SEIU’s case, to try and secure greater financial growth (in spite of the fact that the union is already filthy rich) meant striking big. That’s why it went for Sodexo. Sodexo is the second largest company in the food-catering industry in the world and employs close to 380 000 people worlwide. For the workers-hungry union, it represented a tasty treat.

Only problem was, Sodexo has no problem with workers’ rights and is already in agreement with several unions in the United States and worldwide. Basically, noone there really needed SEIU – as a matter of fact, few workers have come forward during the campaign to specifically ask for the union to representent them. So SEIU went at it alone.

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OBAMA:  So I said, “Damn right, George.  The Force is with me.”  Anyway, it’s official: Lucas will produce and Spielberg will direct Barack CoJones and the Compound of ISI, with Denzel Washington playing me and Cat Stevens as Osama. Release date: October 2012.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS:  I’ll announce healthcare waivers for Paramount, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Amblin Entertainment at 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning, Mr. President.

DAVID PLOUFFE: We should beef up your macho bona fides in the short term, sir.

VALERIE JARRETT:  And tie it into family values.  Visit your destitute brother in Africa and give him a few bucks, sir.  Then go into the bush without your Secret Service detail and kill a lion with a spear.  Gutsier than Palin shooting a moose with a 30-06 at two hundred yards.

OBAMA:  Maybe I’ll do just that once I force Netanyahu to risk national suicide for a shot at peace.  Leon, where’s Iran at right now.

PANETTA:  [checks wall map] Same place as yesterday, sir.

OBAMA:  Militarily, Leon.

PANETTA:  Oh.  We estimate they’ll have one Hiroshima-level nuke by Labor Day.  As you ordered, sir, our forces in the region remain on alert and are prepared take out Israel’s air force if an attack on Iran appears imminent.

JARRETT:  That would certainly give the lie to wingnuts who say you don’t have the guts for preemptive action, sir.

BILL DALEY:  Biden’s here . . . I think.

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So, with Mitch Daniels out of the Presidential race, what do we make of the GOP field? Daniels, despite some possible quibbles, had a very compelling argument for his candidacy. First and foremost was his solid record as Governor. He cut government, curtailed the power of public sector unions and, just in the last few weeks, won groundbreaking education reform. Sure, he was a bit boring and something of a technocrat, but after 3+ years of flim-flammy flash and dash, a little adult supervision seemed in order.

A more compelling case, I believed, was where Daniels was from. Indiana sits in that great swath of the industrial heartland of America. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, among many other cities and towns are the bed-rock of America’s industrial might. The West Coast may have the glitz and the East Coast may have the financial power, but neither is possible without the hard toil of the lunchbox crowd in the Midwest. It is the “America that works.” Unfortunately, the Midwest is also the region that has been most battered by the failed policies of the last few decades. Look no further than Detroit to see what happens when progressivism’s “best intentions” crash upon the rocks of economic reality.

It has been a long time since America had a President who knew and understand our industrial heartland. (Yes, I realize Barack Obama is from Illinois, but c’mon…is there any evidence his presidency-as-academic-symposium understands the first thing about how the private sector works?) A candidate from this region would not only have an innate understanding of the proverbial “Joe Six Pack”, he or she would also appreciate how over-taxation and over-regulation can stifle an economic engine. A candidate who has lived among abandoned factories and shuttered steel mills would understand that the policy whims of the mandarins in DC have real-world consequences.

Daniels understood this world. But, he’s out. However, based on growing on-line chatter, someone else from America’s shop-floor may be about to enter the race: Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, from Michigan.

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