Warning! The video above contains graphic language and is not suitable for children.

As we move closer to the inevitable passage of the state budget…and as the collective bargaining law dispute becomes resolved either via the Supreme Court or additional legislative action…as families across Wisconsin and the nation tire of the circus-like chaos in Madison… the protests are getting smaller, but much more intense.

From teacher walk-outs with their students, to doctors issuing fake sick notes, to ‘zombies’ disrupting a Special Olympics ceremony, The MacIver News Service has brought you the story from Madison, Wisconsin since the protests began in mid-February.

Tuesday afternoon we sent out an intern to gather video footage of the day’s protests. Several hundred had gathered, in public, on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol in anticipation of Tuesday night’s budget debate in the state assembly.  The video captures what happened after our intern answered the simple question: “Who are you with?”

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On May 16, 2011, the United States reached the current debt ceiling, $14.3 trillion. In essence, that number represents our national credit limit – the United States government is unable to borrow any more money unless Congress increases the debt ceiling. Thanks to a few short term accounting tools, the Treasury Department says that current funds will last until August 2nd. If the debt ceiling is not increased by that time the Administration warns of serious consequences, since other countries and individuals who have invested in U.S. debt may fear that they won’t recoup their investment.

Usually, when the federal government is about to reach the debt ceiling, Congress just raises the ceiling and continues spending dollars that future generations will have to pay back. That’s why I’ve voted “no” the last seven times the House has considered raising the debt ceiling, under both President Bush and President Obama. I voted “no” last year. I voted “no” again last month, when the House considered legislation requested by President Obama to increase the debt ceiling by $2.2 trillion without any reductions in spending.

The call to raise the debt ceiling is an obvious indicator of our national spending addiction. It is also a warning that our national credit card bill is coming due.

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Today, in 1775, George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Governor Scott Walker and the state’s legislators who passed the controversial union law that captivated the nation last February and March. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi previously ruled that the Legislature violated the state’s open meetings law in approving the bill. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Judge Sumi’s decision, ruling she had no authority to interfere with the legislative process. But this matter is about much more than a controversial state-level law and its meanderings through the court process. The original law itself, and its ultimate victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, has everything to do with elections.

In 2010, millions of Americans went to the ballot box and handed Democrats across the country election defeats at all levels. The GOP took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, won 29 gubernatorial elections, and established Republican majorities in several state legislatures. Exasperated with out-of-control spending and busted budgets, among other reasons, people wanted a change. The 2010 elections gave the GOP the mandate to effect change from the top down and laterally across the states.

In early 2011, Gov Scott Walker lived up to his campaign promise of pushing for legislation that would finally slow down the public sector union gravy train and empower local governments to negotiate with unions.  We all know the results: tens of thousands of well-organized protestors and union thugs descended on Madison while a dozen or so Democratic lawmakers fled the scene of the crime to stall the legislative process. The law passed in March, and it was quickly struck down by a County Judge.

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Since her national debut in August 2008, the mainstream media has been determined to destroy Gov. Sarah Palin. Journalists flocked to Alaska to dig up dirt. They spun smears about book bans and rape kits. Some even indulged conspiracy theories about the birth of her son. They showed no interest in her outstanding record.

They kept going after her long after the 2008 election, blaming her for the Tuscon shootings–and attacking her for defending herself.

But now her assailants must face reality. After poring over thousands of emails from Palin’s term as governor, the mainstream media has been forced to concede that Palin was a conscientious, transparent, and effective public servant.

The pending release of Steve Bannon’s documentary on Palin, The Undefeated, bolsters that narrative. Above all, Palin’s mere persistence has forced some journalists to realize that their strategy of smears has failed.

So the mainstream media has invented a new meme with which to attack Sarah Palin. It started with Joshua Green’s article in the Atlantic a few weeks ago, in which he lamented “The Tragedy of Sarah Palin.” (more…)

Tomorrow morning (Wednesday, June 15), BigGovernment will feature an exclusive Twitter interview with House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI).

We will post 20 questions to Rep. Ryan on the budget debate, Medicare, the presidential race, and more. All questions–and answers!–will be delivered in 140 characters or less.

The fun starts at 11am EDT. Follow BigGovernment on twitter here, or you can follow the interview at #ryanttv.

Also, follow Rep. Ryan here. We can guarantee his Twitter feed is safe for the whole family!

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Take a look at this video.

Doesn’t this sound like a nice guy? Isn’t this the kind of guy you’d love to have as your president? He sounds so…caring…even frustrated that he can’t make things better for us as soon as he’d like. He even sounds like he really believes that jobs should be created in the private sector. He just wants to help that along a little with things like…”partnering”…what a nice word…it sounds so…cooperative… and lets us know that the government is here to help us during this difficult time.

The president says, in his weekly address, that he wants to help create jobs by giving community college manufacturing students an extra little advantage of having a special seal of approval credential. This way, businesses who are hiring will know that the graduates with the credential are approved for their new jobs. Problem is, Mr. President, nobody is hiring…there are no jobs. And the reason for that is your policies have made a bad recession worse. Your policies have created so much uncertainty, so much ambivalence, and so much fear in small businesses and companies that no one wants to commit to hiring more employees. I believe you are referring to this phenomenon as “bumps in the road.”

Does the president really want to help Americans find jobs? To be sure, the president would say, “Of course.” What he might not say, but think, is, “I want to help people find the right kind of jobs, like green jobs that help me to achieve my green energy agenda, because that is what is really important to me.” And that is what the president actually does.

Ah, the difference between what the president says, and what he does!

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This past weekend the walls, doors, public art and walkways outside the state chamber of commerce in Madison, Wisconsin were vandalized.  Today, the offices were the staging area for the liberals’ stunt of the day. A throng of protesters chanted, “Cuts? No way. Make the corporations pay!” as they took the half mile walk from the State Capitol to the offices of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

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Last September, federal agents conducted a search of the homes of 23 left-wing, anti-war activists, several of whom are union activists from Illinois and Minnesota.  The searches were in execution of warrants “seeking evidence in support of an ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation,” stated Steve Warfield, a spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis, at the time.

In Chicago, among those whose homes were searched was Joe Isobaker and his wife Stephanie Weiner (a founder of AFSCME Local 3506). Isobaker was, at the time, a Chief Steward with the 24,000-member SEIU Local 73 and an activist, as well as a writer for Fight Back, a Marxist magazine.

According to the Star Tribune, the search was part of a “mysterious, ongoing nationwide terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers, a number of them in Minnesota.” (more…)

***UPDATE: The DNC just released a video that makes my case perfectly. CNN asks a series of dumb questions that have little to do with the important issues of the day and the DNC exploits this with a viral-video mocking  our candidates for ignoring the most important issues of the day.

If you think this is by accident, you haven’t been paying attention:

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ABC’s Jake Tapper sees through this but unfortunately there’s only one Jake Tapper.  END UPDATE

Laugh at Democrats all you want but their decision during the last election to stay away from Fox News’ debates was brilliant. No one at Fox would’ve been unfair, but they most certainly would’ve asked tougher questions than anyone in the MSM. That’s not a cowardly decision on the Democrats part, it’s a tactically brilliant decision. Why would anyone interested in winning an election willingly put themselves in a less than ideal situation? Unfortunately, the only people who can answer that question are those currently running for the GOP nomination.

Nothing is more important than getting our failed president out of office in 2012 and therefore nothing is more important than nominating someone who can win. This is why the number one quality we should be looking for among our otherwise superb field is someone who understands that when it comes to removing Barack Obama from office, the MSM is the existential threat of 2012 — not the President. In a just world, Obama would have almost no chance of winning re-election, but we don’t live in a just world. We live in a world where Obama’s MSM Palace Guards have set their phasers to kill and intend to take out any threat to Their Precious One without prejudice.

And so last night when I saw our esteemed candidates voluntarily lined up like so many ducks in a MSM shooting gallery, I died a little bit inside.  It’s a trap, GOP!, and you can laugh at moderator John King’s questions all you want but I’m guessing that’s exactly what the MSM wants us to do. That way we don’t see the Matrix of what they were really up to. Ed Morrissey writes at Hot Air:

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Rep. Jan Schakowsky is trying to break free of the ‘Schakowsky Conundrum.’ For anyone unfamiliar with this syndrome, here is a description:

Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky finds herself in the unfortunate position of battling the very Progressive movement she has done so much to help shape. You see, she is a Progressive Zionist, and that puts her in direct conflict with her most radical Progressive colleagues, many of whom equate Zionism with colonialism and racism.

Over the weekend, Jan Schakowsky condemned the Progressive Democrats of America for their role in the coming Hamas Flotilla 2, set to launch June 20, 2011.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Kathleen Hartnett White to discuss the Left’s smear campaign against fracking and how the technology can open up large tracks of oil and natural gas right there in the U.S.

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:

The Fracas About Fracking (Excerpt)
The Fracas About Fracking (subscription required)
The Fracking Panacea?
Ben: Gasland’s False Fire Water Claims
Gasland director tries to ban journalism
Fight goes on against Gasland censorship
Kathleen Hartnett White at the Texas Public Policy Foundation

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From Fox Nation:

President Obama explained to NBC News that the reason companies aren’t hiring is not because of his policies, it’s because the economy is so automated. … “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. (more…)

Once the light bulb represented ideas; today, its shoddy, government-mandated replacement, the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), has come to represent everything that is wrong with the GOP leadership in Congress.  It’s time to get rid of the dim bulbs, figuratively and literally.

The problem is not just one more idiotic, nanny state proclamation from a Congress that generates almost as many idiotic, nanny state proclamations as it does creepy texted self-portraits.  The bigger problem is the conservative base’s crisis of confidence in our pseudoconservative Congressional leadership brought on by its utter failure to get the message from the base and act on it as it promised.  And the symbol of this bait-and-switch Republican Congress is the light bulb.

As reported by Michael Patrick Leahy (with a hat tip to the incomparable Instapundit), Congressman Fred Upton really, really wanted to be the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee after the 2010 turnover, but there was a problem.  Upton had been part of the cadre of nimrods who introduced the ban on incandescent light bulbs back in 2007; they are to be completely banned effective January 1, 2012, in favor of CFLs.

Now, for a truly conservative party, this unbelievable misjudgment would disqualify Upton from any position of responsibility above that requiring the operation of a mop and pail.  It demonstrates an arrogant, petty fascist commitment to telling fellow Americans what is best for them.  Strike One.  It demonstrates a belief in the voodoo religion of global warming.  Strike two.  And it’s just plain obnoxious – what kind of half-wit thinks it’s a bright idea to force all Americans to abandon safe, cheap incandescent bulbs in favor of overpriced, toxic mercury-harboring devices whose dank glow brightens nothing but the hearts of hair-shirted enviro-wackos, crony capitalist CFL manufacturers, and gloom-adoring emo kids.  Strike three.

If the Republican Party can’t make a stand at the government telling us what kind of light bulbs to use, what good is it?

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One of the prevailing debates in the GOP these days (if not the only one) is whether or not Governor Sarah Palin will, or should, run for president. Not only should she, she must if the GOP has any hope of having a legitimate nominee whom everyone can support for the 2012 election.

Why? Without Palin in the race a massive segment of the GOP base—Tea Party patriots and other independent conservatives—will find themselves once again with the prospect of choosing from a manipulated field of Next-In-Line GOP establishment liberals.

And make no mistake—that is exactly who will prevail. Despite the desperate and not surprisingly shallow belief by the boys in control of the GOP, Palin cannot be replaced by another woman, or another Tea Party supporter, or another Brunette (no matter how much they think a Stalking Horse will split the Tea Party vote).  Palin’s impact is unique, significant and deep. Her influence rests on background, experience, legitimacy and most important of all—trust. These are the reasons why Palin matters, the same reasons why the GOP machine appropriately sees her, and no one else, as an existential threat to their status quo.

Despite this, if the GOP truly wants to win 2012 (of which I’m not entirely convinced, after all, I hear Jeb Bush would love to beat Obama in 2016) they should be begging Palin to enter the race. Considering their portrayal of her, why not? Look, if you can’t beat Sarah Palin what makes you think you can beat Barack Obama? What are they so afraid of? Do they so not trust the decision-making of the American people they want to make sure you have no choice at all? Those lingering questions would eventually be answered—by an Obama victory on November 6, 2012.

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Labor unions and leftist activists are expected to once again descend upon the Captiol in Madison, WI on Tuesday. They plan to protest Governor Scott Walker’s first 2-year budget proposal, which seeks to cap entitlement programs and make cuts in education while expanding school voucher programs, in an attempt to close a $3 billion budget deficit. Republicans also expect to add the collective bargaining provisions that were passed in March, unless the State Supreme Court issues a ruling before then.

Opponents of Walker’s proposal view their side as an issue of human rights and a statement against corporations, and have not surprisingly ratcheted up the rhetoric. On its website announcing Tuesday’s protest, the Wisconsin state AFL-CIO posted:

Debate will be limited, democracy will be circumvented and the balance will greatly tip in favor of ramming through an anti-worker, anti-family, anti-community agenda. Come bear witness to this denial of democracy… Please take part in democracy and bear witness to the extreme attack on the people of Wisconsin. Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14, as we continue to stand strong against a budget that guts public schools, attacks health care, raises taxes on workers and seniors, and jeopardizes public services like police and fire. All while handing over $300 million a year in tax breaks to the rich.

Oh, the drama….

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On Tuesday, the Boeing Company will be heading to the NLRB’s kangaroo court in Seattle, Washington to be prosecuted by an agency controlled by pro-union extremists. The outcome, as far as the NLRB hearing is concerned, is already a foregone conclusion. The hearing is a procedural nuisance that Boeing will have to endure to eventually have its case heard in the federal courts—which is likely where the case will end up, barring any “face-saving” settlement negotiated with the union and the NLRB.

In an interview last week, Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes CEO, Jim Albright indicated that, for now, a settlement is unlikely.

“If there was a way we could come to a settlement and get this off the table, that would be great,” said Albaugh. “Do I think we are going to be able to arbitrate a settlement? My guess is, probably not.”

“We’ve got a lot at stake here,” he added. “Let’s let this get decided in a court.”

Beyond the initial flurry of presenting the case to a NLRB Administrative Law Judge, until the Judge issues his recommended decision and order in the case, there will not likely be much to report on. Bearing in mind that the National Labor Relations Board’s Acting General Counsel has already stated that he believes Boeing violated the law and has stated what he believes the remedy should be, it is hard to imagine anything will be different in the Judge’s recommended decision and order/remedy. (more…)

Today, in 1800, Napoleon defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo, allowing him to reconquer Italy. It is one of the least appreciated battles in history. In it, Napoleon snatched victory from the certain jaws of defeat, which gives us comfort after last night’s lackluster GOP debate. Always forward…