You did it. Thank you to those of you who heeded the call to contact U.S. Senators to encourage them to oppose the nomination of Goodwin Liu to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Senate refused to end debate (or end the conservative-led filibuster) by a vote of 52-43.

Not only did liberals fall eight votes short, but the final tally suggests that Democrat-controlled Senate would be unable to confirm the Obama nominee even if Liu did get an up-or-down vote. Liu was one of Obama’s most radical and inexperienced judicial nominees. Our members (and thousands of other grassroots conservatives) mobilized, and we stopped this judicial disaster in the making. After the vote, Prof. Liu asked President Obama to withdraw his nomination. Victory achieved!

(more…)

An incredible story, even by Weinergate standards:

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork) — Congressman Anthony Weiner said Thursday he’s finished talking about the lewd photo sent from his Twitter account.

But he still wouldn’t say whether he’s the one in the picture.

So CBS 2 political reporter Marcia Kramer decided to go to his office on Capitol Hill to try to get you some answers.

You’ll never believe what happened.

Kramer tried to get an interview with the six-term New York Democrat and as a result had the cops called on her.

Kramer walked in to Weiner’s office, announced herself as being from CBS 2 in New York City and said she’d like to see the congressman. Those few words created quite the stir. Doors slammed and people pretended she wasn’t there.

Finally, brave press secretary David Arnold arrived. The following is the exchange Kramer had with him: (more…)

Rest easy America, for not only is the EPA busy saving the planet, it’s taken on a new responsibility: saving the economy. The Departments of Commerce and Energy can close up shop and Treasury Department better start investing in some new equipment to count all of the riches that are going to flood into America’s coffers now that EPA is on the job.

How can an agency charged with protecting human health and the environment that’s famous for placing obstacles in front of industry that Evil Keneval wouldn’t be able to clear succeed in jump starting the economy, when the rest of the Obama administration has failed so miserably at the task? It’s a complicated formula, but it all boils down to this for EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson: what’s good for the environment is good for the economy.

Really.

Forget all that rubbish you may have heard that suggests that piling more and more regulations on American industry inhibits economic growth. It’s actually quite the opposite, and we know this because Ms. Jackson assures us it is so: the more environmental regulations, the more money we’ll all make. Don’t you worry for a moment about abandoning the use of the cheapest, most abundant energy resource we have, for example. America will be far better off burning less coal and generating electricity by using… er… uh… Well, we’re still working that out, but the less coal we use the more money we’ll make and we’ll also reduce our dependence on foreign oil – or something like that. They’re still working up the figures summarizing coal imports from Saudi Arabia, apparently.

(more…)

From The Hill:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Thursday pressured Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to “come clean” about his Twitter controversy.

Cantor said Weiner has a responsibility to his wife and constituents to get the facts straight.

“My advice would be to come clean and clear it up. Again, perhaps he’s trying, but I know there’s a lot of explaining going on but without a lot of clarity,” he said on Fox News.

(more…)

This New York Post article might finally move this story forward.  About that investigation… is this a good enough time for everyone?:

The furious mom of the Seattle college coed at the center of Weinergate yesterday demanded that the cocky congressman come clean about the lewd photo.

“I’m really upset. I feel like he’s a person of power and influence, who can make a statement and make all this go away,” Carol Mizuguchi said, blasting Rep. Anthony Weiner for his continued snarky sidestepping.

“As her mother, I’m really upset,” Mizuguchi told The Post. “I’m pissed off at that.”

Mizuguchi’s 21-year-old daughter, Gennette Cordova, got the surprise package — a close-up of an underwear-clad crotch — over the weekend in a tweet from Weiner’s account.

After days of dodging, Weiner yesterday admitted he “can’t say with certitude” that the photo isn’t of him.

But he continued to deny he sent the picture.

The pol’s refusal to clarify things has made a bad situation more difficult for her daughter, Mizuguchi said. (more…)

From National Journal:

The cost of official time used by federal employees participating in union activities increased nearly 7 percent between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009, according to a new report from the Office of Personnel Management.

The report, the subject of a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill, found that federal employees spent nearly 3 million hours of official time on union activities in 2009 at a cost of $129 million to taxpayers, an increase of $8 million from fiscal 2008. The number of official time hours used per bargaining unit employee on union matters during fiscal 2009, however, decreased slightly from fiscal 2008. “Official time costs represented less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the civilian personnel budget for federal civil service bargaining unit employees,” Timothy Curry, deputy associate director of partnership and labor relations at OPM, testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and Labor Policy.

(more…)

Good news! We’re all one step closer to being able to call socialism by its name! According to a Bloomberg report, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka “said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.”

Trumka added that “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”*

Glad we’ve cleared that up!

(more…)

Donald J. Trump and Ross Perot are both billionaires- but that’s where the similarity ends. Perot is erratic, cranky and conspiratorial while Trump is outspoken, blunt and charismatic.

Ross Perot actually became a legal candidate for President, withdrew and became a candidate again in 1992. Even with his late re-start and with ballot access laws harsher and more difficult than they are today- after a decade of election law reform-Perot got on all 50 state ballots. Trump flirted with running-took himself out and now is sending signals he may still just jump in.

Talking of running a late Independent campaign for President ,Trump told Fox News,  ”If I’m not happy with what I see, I can very easily change my mind. I’m not happy with what I see, and I will make a determination sometime into the future, absolutely. There is no deadline. If I did it as an independent, I could do it very much better.”

Trump was preparing to show a net worth of $7.5 billion worth with over $350 million cash on hand, in his federal disclosure form. Trump’s companies are privately held. Clearly Trump has both the $5 to $7 milion it would take to get on the ballot in all states and the $200 million for an intense paid TV and Cable and innovative new media campaign.

Trump also had some tough talk for the GOP, saying they are setting themselves up to lose the next election. Trump seemed to be positioning himself for a Independent run.

(more…)

Rep. Anthony Weiner has done himself no favors with the way he has handled the #WeinerGate scandal. For this reason, we have put together a 3 minute compilation of reporters asking if that were him in the photo given his refusal to directly answer the question. Watch as Weiner flops back and forth throughout the interviews.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Hadley Heath, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum and HealthCareLawsuits.org, to discuss the many court cases challenging Obamacare, where they stand in the legal process and controversy surrounding their eventual hearing at the Supreme Court.

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:

Health Care Lawsuits
Sixth circuit hears Obamacare appeal
The Real Mediscare
Goldwater Sues Obama
New documents suggest Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan involved with crafting legal defense of Obamacare
Hadley Heath at the Independent Women’s Forum

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From CBS News:

New York City Congressman Anthony Weiner has not asked the FBI or U.S. Capitol Police to investigate a bizarre Twitter incident in which a lewd photo of a man’s groin was sent to his 45,000 followers from his account.

Weiner told CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes in an interview Wednesday he has asked a law firm and an Internet security operation to “give advice” on the situation.

He said, “I don’t believe this is a federal case, I don’t believe that this is a capital crime. I believe this is a bit of mischief.”

But why is Weiner so seemingly reluctant to involve law enforcement authorities in the case?

On “The Early Show” Thursday, CBS News Legal Analyst Jack Ford said if he’s not pursuing official assistance in this situation, it’s about not getting wrapped up official statements.

“If I’m a lawyer, and I’m representing a politician, in general, it’s not against the law to lie to the media. It’s not against the law to lie to your constituents. It is against the law to lie to law enforcement authorities,” he said. “Martha Stewart went to jail not for insider trading, but for lying. Barry Bonds gets charged, goes to trial, not for using steroids – for lying about it. So if I’m a lawyer looking at a case such as this, I’m going to be real careful before I let my clients talk to law enforcement authorities, because I don’t want to find my client, you know, jammed up here criminally because, despite what happened here, they’re not telling the truth.” (more…)

I am a successful small businessman and a patriot who loves America and always sees its greatness. I am also an optimistic, positive thinker who always sees the glass half full.

But not this time.

I predicted doom if Obama was elected. Sadly the results are far worse than imagined. The economy is in shambles. America is staring at economic disaster — Armageddon. Even me, the eternal optimist is scared at what the future holds. We are the Titanic, headed straight for the iceberg.

America has always been a land of boom and bust. It’s just part of business cycle. But Obama and his socialist cabal have channeled Hoover and FDR, who turned an ordinary bust into The Great Depression with a toxic strategy of more government, more spending, more debt, more rules and regulations strangling business, higher minimum wages, more power to unions, more entitlements, higher taxes, more printing of money by Fed, and trade tariffs. This is the Obama blueprint squared.

The question this time is, is Obama doing it because he understands nothing about business? Or does he understand exactly what he’s doing? Is Obama’s goal to overwhelm the system, incite crisis, sow doubt about capitalism, and force the citizens to beg for government to save them, thereby opening the door to Socialism? Is Obama’s plan to redistribute the wealth, and at the same time to bankrupt the people with wealth and power, thereby crippling his political opposition?

Does it really matter?

(more…)

In the May-June 2011 issue of Moment Magazine, Wiener bragged: “I’m a big deal.”

And yet, when his email is “hacked” it’s no big deal and not a federal matter, even after he boasts that he was appointed to the Homeland Security Task Force after 9-11.

Its the usual bravado followed by backfilling or lying that is his stock in trade. Rep. Weiner also has a history of unethical behavior that he corrects only after publicly shamed.

Here are few examples:

• A month after fighting for a bill to up the numbers of supermodel visas in New York City, Rep. Weiner’s “campaign admitted it had mistakenly deposited illegal checks made in the names of the foreign models.” (April 4, 2009, New York Post). Weiner initally denied ever taking money from the foreign workers in the first place at a fundraising put on by an immigration lawyer. (No conflict of interest there!) But according to the Post on March 10, 2009, “Weiner’s camp insisted it hadn’t deposited the checks, but offered no explanation for why it included them in the filings.”

• After campaigning hard against U.N. bureaucrats racking up parking tickets in NYC, he racked up an impressive $2180 in parking tickets in D.C. Aides claimed the D.C. authorities sent the bill to the wrong address. (He later paid them when public scrutiny came to bear.)

• In the 2009 spending bill Weiner sponsored $18.4 million in earmarks for 22 groups and projects, over $500,000 of which went to campaign contributors.

(more…)

With a flamboyant downgrade of the outlook for economic growth, jobs, and profits, Wednesday’s 280 point Dow plunge to launch the so-called June stock swoon is a warning shot across the bow.

The Dow tanked alongside a batch of dismal economic data. The ISM manufacturing index, ADP employment, Case-Shiller home prices, and consumer confidence are all pointing to 2 percent growth or less, rather than the kind of 5 percent growth we ought to be getting coming out of a deep recession.

The economy now looks like a Government Motors engine that’s stalling out. Or perhaps, with energy and food inflation, and housing deflation at the same time, the economy is acting like a pinball machine on permanent tilt.

There’s a key message here: Big-government stimulus never works.

(more…)

Now we know why unionists were fighting so hard for a federal “card check” law.  Organizers can unionize private and public employees, forcing them to pay hundreds in union dues, before they even know anything about it.

That’s the situation at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, Massachusetts.

Last week news broke that the reputable charter school was the second in Massachusetts to be organized by the American Federation of Teachers.

Various sources indicated that the unionization effort was somewhat less than forthright. Several teachers complained that they were never informed about the process and were never asked to vote on the issue.

“The union effort was coordinated by group of teachers and staff that did not include all employees,” one teacher wrote. “In fact, a number of employees were not approached at all and found out, quite by accident, that a union had been formed without our input.

“A full vote of the faculty and staff was never taken and plans to unionize went ahead, anyway.”

Unionization without a vote of the staff? That sounds like the nasty little practice of “card check,” which allows pro-union employees to gang up on co-workers and pressure them to sign a union membership card. Once 50 percent of them do so, the union is automatically certified.

There are no private ballots involved in the process. Those who refuse to sign are exposed to all the pressure and intimidation that the union can muster. Under those conditions, it probably doesn’t take very long to gain 50 percent approval.

(more…)

At this point in time, the main stream media has gone apoplectic. Why? Because just when they thought they’d finally done enough dirty work to stop Sarah Palin’s momentum in its tracks, she popped up at a Memorial Weekend biker rally looking more confident than ever, more beautiful than anyone the left has to offer, and even more beloved by the people than when we last saw her. In every picture from the rally participants were pressing toward her, asking the same question over and over: “Are you going to run for President?”

And to make matters worse for the media, Palin left the motorcycle rally to embark on a bus tour of historical American landmarks in the northeast without giving CBS, NBC, ABC, or CNN any kind of itinerary whatsoever. Now they’re literally chasing her bus down interstate after interstate and highway after highway trying to guess her next stop. They’re crying about how she’s not playing by the rules because she’s not kowtowing to Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Keith Olbermann (My bad, I forgot Olbermann doesn’t have a real show any more.)

This just doesn’t compute in their liberal brains. How could someone they’ve so staunchly opposed ever have a chance of holding favor with the American people?

Sadly, even conservative intellectuals like George Will spent Memorial Weekend trying to kick Palin out of the picture. In a Sunday morning appearance on ABC, Will said, in effect, “turn away folks, there’s nothing to see here, Palin isn’t fit for the presidency.” (By the way, he’s said worse in the past. Like in February 2010, when he said: “[Palin] is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose [big].”)

Although I hate to be the one to break it to Mr. Will, he’s missed the point completely.

(more…)

Today, in 1980, CNN began broadcasting.

“No it wasn’t deceptive, that’s what everybody’s saying about it. I saw the first version of it, and it told pretty much the whole story, of how that woman had gone through an epiphany of understanding how race works.”

Related:
Nolte: Who Got to Chris Matthews?: ‘Hardball’ Defense of Breitbart Memory-Holed (July 30, 2010)
Marlow: WaPo’s Kurtz “dishonestly suggests Matthews had gotten his facts wrong regarding Breitbart including footage of Shirley Sherrod’s redemption” (August 3, 2010)