A few weeks back, Hollywood movie stars and groups such as the Creative Coalition stormed Washington, D.C. to lobby for increased taxpayer funding of the arts. Most memorably, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey told Hardball’s Chris Matthew that Abraham Lincoln was a huge theater fan who “understood that he needed the arts to replenish his soul.” (Not surprisingly, Spacey didn’t mention where Lincoln was assassinated or the profession of his killer).

But funding the arts with taxapayer dollars is a bad idea for at least three reasons.

1. Publicly financed art is easily censored art. Last December, the National Portrait Gallery almost immediately pulled a four-minute video called “A Fire in My Belly” after complaints from the Catholic League and politicians such as Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who objected to images of ants crawling over a crucifix. It’s hard to imagine a private museum so quickly and cravenly pulling an offending piece. But when the taxpayer is footing the bill, the most easily aggrieved among us yields a thug’s veto. Indeed, in February, scandalized Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) even called for getting rid of a 1922 statue in New York City due to what he says is its sexist portrayal of women.

2. We’re broke.

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Have you seen the movie Dinner for Schmucks? Now we have a sequel, Twitter for Schmucks starring Congressman Anthony Weiner. I’m a Libertarian. I don’t want government in my bedroom, or my boardroom, so I’m generally hands-off (excuse the pun) about what politicians do in their private time. But this is different. Weiner must resign.

If this was just an affair…Okay. People have affairs every day. But what people- let alone Congressmen- don’t do every day is send photos of their penis to strangers. That’s far worse than an affair. It’s mental illness. Weiner is a pervert, an electronic, high-tech version of the naked man in the raincoat from yesteryear who walks up to pretty female strangers and opens his raincoat. Weiner is a schmuck- and for that he must go.

Here is what the case boils down to:

#1) Weiner thinks we’re the schmucks. Any man so sick he must send photos of his penis, bulging underpants, naked chest, and talk dirty over Twitter and Facebook with complete strangers has a deep-rooted sexual and mental illness. Since he claims he never had a physical affair, Weiner thinks he should be forgiven. I’d rather hear he’d slept with them. I can understand sex talk and photos between lovers. But a Congressman sending crotch shots over Twitter to complete strangers? This man is in dire need of mental help. He has an addiction or perhaps a deep-seated need to destroy his career. Either way, he’s too self destructive to be sitting in the United States Congress.

Remember, this is the Congressman who introduced a bill to loosen immigration requirements for foreign models. I can only assume his goal was more potential Weiner Twitter victims.

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Who thought it was a good idea to build a tent city on the concrete sidewalks of Wisconsin’s second largest city during 90 degree weather?

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QUESTION: What do you do if you are a Progressive supporter of Israel, and your Progressive fellow travelers are proudly organizing the American wing of the Hamas Flotilla movement?

ANSWER: Nothing. You are powerless to stop it.

It’s called the Schakowsky Conundrum, named after Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. Jan is fiercely committed to two things in this world, in no particular order: 1) Socialism 2) Israel. It must be torture for her to watch as her Progressive leadership supports the Flotilla.

Why is Jan Schakowsky a slave to her Flotilla-loving leadership? Because they are the co-sponsors of all of her pet legislation. For example, in the image above Rep. Grijalva is speaking glowingly of Jan and her proposal to raise taxes on the evil rich capitalists of America.

For those who have been keeping score, Rep. Raul Grijalva is the co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and a leading board member of the openly Flotilla-supporting Progressive Democrats of America.

Here is Rep. Grijalva unloading his love all over Rep Schakowsky:

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There’s a great scene in Sudden Impact, the second Dirty Harry film, in which Harry Callahan “handles” all the criminals.  But one bad guy, in the climax of the scene, decides to use a waitress as a human shield.

“Go ahead, make my day,” Harry tells him.  The criminal thought better and didn’t meet the fate of his counterparts.

Today, teachers unions have grabbed their own human shields.  They are using children in an attempt to stifle reform and preserve their pay and benefits.

The Carolina Journal reports State Rep. Mike Stone received a hand-written note from his 8-year old daughter asking him to “put the buget (sic) higher dad.”

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Weird. On this day, in 53 AD, Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia. Also, on this day, in 62 AD, Claudia Octavia is executed. And, on this day in 68 AD,  Emperor Nero commits suicide. Something about June 9th…

Here’s some completely depressing news. CNBC is reporting that President Obama is putting American taxpayers on the chopping block to bail out Greece’s corrupt politicians.

But, to show he doesn’t discriminate, he also encouraged the German Chancellor to rape her nation’s taxpayers for the same purpose.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday…pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country’s debt crisis. …After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stressed the importance of German “leadership” on the issue – a hint that he expects Berlin to help – while expressing sympathy for the political difficulties European Union countries face in helping a struggling member state.

The story doesn’t have much detail, but it appears that Obama is willing to brutalize American taxpayers directly (which is what he means by “on a bilateral basis”) and indirectly (i.e., the reference to “international and financial institutions like the IMF”).

…”we have pledged to cooperate fully in working through these issues, both on a bilateral basis but also through international and financial institutions like the IMF.”

What makes this development so unpleasant is that this new bailout (Greece already has been bailed out several times, with both direct and indirect handouts) will make things worse. Another bailout will be a case of throwing good money after bad. And it will exacerbate the economic damage by delaying the economic reforms that are needed to put Greece’s economy in better shape.

And to make matters worse, the other insolvent European welfare states will look at what’s happening in Greece and conclude that they also can avoid necessary reforms and wait for handouts from American and German taxpayers.

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From the New York Times:

Their marriage has become the subject of intense speculation and scrutiny amid an embarrassing online sex scandal.

Now, Representative Anthony D. Weiner and Huma Abedin are about to make news of a different kind: they are expecting their first child.

Ms. Abedin, 35, is in the early stages of pregnancy, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

The pregnancy, which the couple has disclosed to close friends and family, adds a new dimension to questions about the future of their marriage.

Mr. Weiner, 46, who has admitted to engaging in salacious online conversations with at least six women over the last few years, has declared that he and his wife have no intention of splitting up, even though some of the exchanges occurred during their marriage. (more…)

FOX News reported this afternoon that Andrew Breitbart is “mortified” after talk radio hosts Opie and Anthony snagged a photo of Rep. Weiner’s “junk” and posted it online today. Breitbart told FOX News it was a breach of contract. Breitbart said Opie Hughes secretly took the picture when he was on the show this morning.

“It was a complete violation of trust.”

Eric Shawn at FOX News reported:

Mr. Breitbart said he’s been holding it back and did not want to make it public.

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“I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we’re on is not producing jobs as quickly as I want it to happen,” Obama said at an appearance with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We don’t yet know whether this is a one-month episode or a longer trend.”

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh and Elizabeth Blackney discuss the exit of Austan Goolsbee from Obama’s economic team and the need for a QE3.

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:

Austan Goolsbee leaving White House
Austan Goolsbee Exit: Obama Adviser Leaves Behind Frustration, Political Dysfunction
Charlie Cook: Owning It
All eyes on Bernanke, but QE3 has sailed
The next Fed nominee

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The definition of the word corruption, according to Merriam-Webster, is an “impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle.” No, this isn’t a post about WeinerGate, that corruption is being exposed elsewhere…so to speak. This is about two stories of corruption that aren’t getting as much attention as they deserve but have real-world implications for the lives of Americans.

We’ve all heard the saying “The fox guarding the hen house,” right? It essentially means  putting someone with their own agenda in charge of making sure something contrary to their interest doesn’t happen. What’s happening at the Department of Education (DoE) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are similar stories of inappropriate interactions between bureaucrats creating policy and the appearance of partnerships with outsiders with their own agendas. It’s not the fox guarding the hen house, it’s closer to the fox designing the security system for the hen house.

Over at the DoE, they’ve been working with Wall Street short-sellers to push regulations that would all but destroy the for-profit education system. Short-sellers, who stand to make a fortune once that regulation is fully implemented and have zero expertise in education policy, have been intimately involved in the drafting “Gainful-Employment” rules that essentially mean a certain percentage of graduates have to get jobs related to their field of study in order for a for-profit institution’s students to qualify for financial aid.

Forget the fact that in this economy, state-run schools would have difficulty in meeting that criteria. Focus on the clear conflict of interest in having people who stand to personally benefit financially helping create rules to increase the chances of that happening and you begin to see why the Inspector General of the DoE opened an investigation into this.

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On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court handed proponents of immigration enforcement a tremendous victory when the High Court upheld the constitutionality of Arizona’s “Legal Arizona Workers Act,” legislation – crafted by Judicial Watch client Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce — to penalize Arizona businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens (Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Michael B. Whiting, et. al (No. 09-115)).

The decision also upholds the constitutionality of the provision of the law requiring all Arizona employers to use the federal “E-Verify” system to confirm the eligibility of potential employees.

To put this Supreme Court ruling into context: The High Court has once again validated the constitutional right of states to help enforce our nation’s immigration laws!

You may recall that on October 28, 2010, Judicial Watch filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of State Senate President Pearce with the United States Supreme Court. As you can see in the following excerpts from the majority opinion crafted by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court essentially echoed Judicial Watch’s principal arguments:

• “We hold that Arizona’s licensing law falls well within the confines of the authority Congress chose to leave to the States and therefore is not expressly preempted.”
• “Arizona’s procedures simply implement the sanctions that Congress expressly allowed Arizona to pursue through licensing laws. Given that Congress specifically preserved such authority for the States, it stands to reason that Congress did not intend to prevent the States from using appropriate tools to exercise that authority…And here Arizona went the extra mile in ensuring that its law closely tracks IRCA’s [The Immigration Reform and Control Act’s] provisions in all material respects.”
• In response to the Chamber of Commerce’s bogus argument that the law will force businesses to engage in discriminatory hiring practices, Justice Roberts wrote: “All that is required to avoid sanctions under the Legal Arizona Workers Act is to refrain from knowingly or intentionally violating the employment law…The most rational path for employers is to obey the law—both the law barring the employment of and the law prohibiting discrimination—and there is no reason to suppose that Arizona employers will choose not to do so.”
  Regarding the mandated use of E-Verify, a “fast, free and simple” service offered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to establish the eligibility of a job applicant, the High Court noted that the federal government has implemented a similar mandate for companies seeking to obtain a federal contract.

“Arizona’s use of E-Verify does not conflict with the federal scheme,” the Court concluded.  The Court also rejected the Chamber’s claim that the Arizona law, and those like it, will overload the federal E-Verify system.

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Recently, I got into a big fight with my cube-mate.  After attacking him for his listening to Bill Maher during the workday, he shot back and mocked my Glenn Beck listening.  As if there was some moral equivalence between the two.

“But Beck’s predictions have been right throughout the last two years.  Why would you not at least give him a listen?” I questioned.  My Georgetown-educated cube-mate shot back: “Because most of the people that listen to Glenn Beck are uneducated mid-westerners.”  Infuriated, I protested “Do you have any idea how arrogant and elitist you sound right now?”  Leave aside the irony that I was attacking his condescension while as a colleague of ours pointed out, showing beneath my loafers were our company holiday gift socks dotted with various currencies.

As my cube-mate went on to say, though he conceded that government should not be all-encompassing, “I want smart people to make decisions for people.”  In other words, us silly hicks are incapable of governing ourselves.  This is the fatal conceit of which F.A. Hayek wrote that reflects the attitude of the intellectual class today.  Why is it fatal?

First, the “highly educated intellectual” today routinely receives a subpar education.  Believe me, I went through it at Columbia, one of the few remaining schools with any semblance of a valuable curriculum.  A real education is about teaching the pupil to think critically.  Routinely, education today is more about spending time in science classes listening to professors talk about the merits of joining the Peace Corps (yes, this happened to me), iconoclastic gender, race and political studies courses and cultural Marxist programming of the heirs apparent of the political, economic and cultural hierarchy of the country.

Of those who graduate from these institutions and matriculate to the political realm, the progressive ethic pervades.  And what is this ethic?  The elite must decide for the sheep.

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From The Hill:

Senate Democrats were also distancing themselves from the embattled New Yorker on Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) paused for several seconds when journalists asked if Weiner should resign.

“I know Congressman Weiner — I wish there was some way I can defend him,” Reid said, plainly not defending the embattled congressman.

When a reporter persisted in asking whether Weiner should resign, Reid said: “I’m not here to defend Weiner. That’s all I’m going to say.”

When another reporter asked what Reid would say if Weiner called him for advice, Reid said he would tell him to “call somebody else.”

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California’s proposal to institute an “Amazon Tax” took another major step forward last week.

The last of three bills aimed at getting the Seattle giant and other out-of-state online retailers to pay sales tax passed the Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for years,” said Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who authored the bill. “But this is the first time that so many businesses up and down the state are supporting it.”

A companion bill, authored by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), passed the full floor on a 47-16 vote on Tuesday.

“This bill levels the playing field for businesses in California,” said Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, R-Ceres (Stanislaus County). “Not a day goes by when I don’t hear from businesses about their ability to compete.”

Which is what supporters of the so-called e-fairness legislation have been shouting from the rooftops for years, despite vetoes from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and dire threats from Amazon.com (2010 profit: $34 billion) and Utah’s Overstock.com to pull their affiliate business out of the state.

Assemblyman Berryhill was the lone Republican to back the bills; now both AB 153 and 155 will head to the Senate for approval, while Senate bill 234, another “Amazon Tax” bill, is anticipated to be taken up by the Assembly.  Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown still hasn’t voiced an opinion either way on any of the bills.

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The Democrats in Congress are crowing about the upset victory by Kathy Hochul in the special election to fill a Congressional seat in upstate New York, which has been consistently held by Republicans.  Ms. Hochul based almost her entire campaign attacking Paul Ryan’s plan to fix Medicare by giving every taxpayer a voucher to purchase his or her own health insurance in a competitive marketplace.  While it is not clear that Ms. Hochul’s victory was solely attributable to that issue (there was in fact a well‑known third candidate in the race) we will assume for purpose of this essay that the Democrats are correct.

As a result of the outcome in this special election Democrats, and the entire political left think they have a winning issue, which will allow them to take back control of the House of Representatives in 2012.  Frightening seniors and those who are close in age to being eligible for Medicare might actually work unless the GOP can demonstrate that Medicare is imploding and that the Democrats are prepared to let it continue to implode for the crassest of reasons − short term political gain.  Many Democrats seem to prefer that for political expediency.

The Washington Post in its May 24^th edition editorialized, “ . . . the threat is that this victory will carry an enormous cost for the country, with both sides taking the lesson that bravery in tackling entitlements is foolhardy.”  Former President Clinton who attended a summit on fiscal responsibility hosted by the Peterson Foundation last week said “I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.”  He and a bipartisan group of past and present government officials and academics all warned that we are approaching a permanent fiscal deficit (emphasis added.  Senator Mark Warner of Virginia put it very succinctly “Congress is Thelma and Louise in that car headed for the cliff.”  Peggy Noonan reported about the same conference in the May 29^th weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, noting “no one said we can grow our way out of this, or that the negative effects of chronic debt are exaggerated.”

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Today, in 1949, George Orwell’s 1984 was published. Yeah, both Republicans and Democrats are pushing this towards a reality.