This video has been circulating around the Internet over that past week. It appears to be a situation of implied excessive police force against a simple harmless form of protest. However you can see Madea Benjamin (Co-Founder) of Code Pink appear in the video, and intentionally agitate the police officers on the scene.

The claim that this is somehow a violation of these individuals’ rights is a perversion of the First Amendment. The First Amendment does not grant the freedom to individuals to act like morons anywhere they wish at any time they please. The First Amendment says, the Congress has no authority to make laws regarding the freedom of speech, and the right of the people to peaceable assemble for a redress of grievances.

While there are examples of excessive police force in the United States of America, this simply is not one of them. The police in this video were doing their job. They clearly warned the people to stop what they were doing, in a memorial due only the highest respect of the citizens and guests of this nation who wish to visit it. It is highly doubtful Thomas Jefferson would have ever danced alongside these fools in order to prove a necessity for the freedom from the federal government to protest.

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MSNBC is taking a hard line against Sarah Palin for using the American flag to move merchandise and line her pockets. The “Lean Forward” network claims that Palin’s use of the flag in various circumstances “runs afoul” of the federal codes discouraging such displays for commercial and advertising purposes. “She drapes herself in the Stars and Stripes and makes millions of dollars in the process,” charges Martin Bashir.

You betcha. And we can only guess that when MSNBC wraps itself in the Red, White, and Blue – and it does – they’re doing it for charity.

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President Obama could learn a lesson from this fable about a great ship.

Having received ample warning of icebergs ahead, some of the crew of the HMS Titanic proposed changing course to avoid them.

But the captain objected.

“Making that maneuver would end this cruise as we know it.  It would disrupt the passengers’ peace of mind, discomfiting them as we turn and swerve, especially those below decks in steerage,” the captain told them.  “There is no immediate jeopardy and I am appointing a commission to consider other options.”

The captain then activated the ship-wide public address system and announced, “This is the captain speaking.  We are happy to have you aboard the greatest and most unsinkable ship ever built.

“I am told there are icebergs ahead, but as you can tell we have not hit any and we are still afloat.  To avoid them will require sacrifice, but not at the expense of our passengers in steerage, who include seniors, poor children, and the disabled.

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The election results of last week’s special election in NY-26 were 47%-D 43%-R 9%-Tea and 1%-Green. A disappointment for the GOP, of course, that has made the Left gleeful in their gloating over their victory, even going so far as calling it a ‘political earthquake.’ However, in looking at it from afar, it’s natural to see how Republican Jane Corwin lost the race and her loss has more to do with what the Left did—and what the Republicans did not do—than it was an earthquake, tsunami, or wave.

It is true that the Democrats have out-messaged Republicans on the Medicare issue [it is, apparently, far more effective showing grandma being pushed over a cliff than kids eating cat food because the country is broke--grandmas vote and kids don't, after all]. However, there was more to losing NY 26 than mere messaging.

For example, there was the third-party candidate, faux Tea Party guy Jack Davis, that sucked some of the votes from Jane Corwin. However, beyond the messaging and third-party candidate, as is often the case, it was the Left’s ground game left the Right’s in the dust and, quite frankly, it is the ground game that will make or break 2012 for Republican candidates—if the GOP, or individuals who do not want to see America overrun by Marxist union bosses, can learn from the NY-26 loss. (more…)

According to the House regulations, any Member “must immediately report any unauthorized access or unusual system activities to the House Information Resources Security Office (202-226-6448). HIR will investigate any breaches of the Internet security system.” This rule would apply to Rep. Anthony Weiner’s claim of a hacker gaining access to his official facebook and twitter accounts. Did Weiner contact HIR? Why is this important?

Any unauthorized access to Congressman Weiner’s equipment could very well have included the introduction of malware on his or a staffers electronic device. Such malware could, at this minute, be stealthy procuring information from his office. According to his official bio, “Weiner currently sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has the largest jurisdiction in the U.S. House, overseeing telecommunications, public health, air quality and environmental protection, the nation’s energy policy, and interstate and foreign commerce.” As such, he is privy to classified and extremely sensitive information that, if compromised, could threaten the security of out nation. In addition, malware is often designed to replicate and spread – if such a virus is introduced into the House network, it could wreck havoc that would dwarf Wikileaks.

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It is going to be a long hot summer as Congress and the Obama Administration debate how best to bring down America’s $14 trillion debt. Our crushing debt is as much a national security threat as it is an economic disaster. Many nations own our enormous amounts of debt, some of these entities are nefarious in nature – like China, Russia, and OPEC. If these nations sell off our debt, they can wield great power over America.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said last year, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” The Obama Administration must find a way to cut trillions – not billions – when it comes to our crippling debt. America is at a crossroads, where we can act boldly now, or put our security at risk by doing nothing.

According to President Obama’s own budget, interest payments for the national debt will quadruple from $186.9 billion in 2009 to $768.2 billion in 2020. That equals $2,500 for every man, woman, and child to pay off just the interest to our national debt every year. The American taxpayer will be drowning in the interest we pay. Remember, the $768.2 billion Americans will be paying in 2020 does not bring down our national debt; it just pays off the interest the debt has accrued!

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MSNBC is reporting that, this afternoon, Rep. Weiner will offer interviews to two TV Networks. Presumably, he doesn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s disastrous press conference. Also, presumably, he’s realized that he can’t simply “choose” to not talk about this incident. So, maybe, having exhausted all other options, he has simply decided to answer the questions directly.

There really aren’t that many that need answering. In the interest of being helpful, I’ve put together my own list of nagging questions:

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“If I was giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone stood up and heckled in the back I wouldn’t spend three days talking to him.”

Congressman Anthony Weiner spoke these words to DC journalists including CNN’s Dana Bash yesterday, explaining why he will no longer answer any questions about the social media scandal known as Weinergate. He continued, “I’ve participated in the story a couple of days now. Given comments on it. This is a distraction and I’m not going to let it distract me.”

Representative Weiner’s statements could not be more wrong. A “heckler” on Twitter would be someone in his mentions feed giving him grief, who he can easily block and forget. What happened last Friday was more akin to someone jumping on stage, grabbing his mic and shouting an obscenity to the crowd, if we assume his “prank” story is true. To continue looking at it via his analogy, no one is asking him to prattle at length about the heckler; the press is asking him to tell security to find the guy. That’s all.

The beleaguered Congressman could have avoided this media frenzy with only minutes of activity on his end. He could have even told a staffer to take care of it. Within hours, the technical support of Yfrog, Twitter, or Facebook could have verified Weiner’s “hacked” claim and released a public statement corroborating his story. Alternatively, if he had reported the incident to law enforcement and told the press an investigation was underway, he wouldn’t find Dana Bash confronting him on the House steps. With all this in mind, who is prolonging this “distraction”? The reporters who confronted him yesterday explicitly said, “All you have to do is say is ‘No’ to the question [of whether he sent the photo himself].” (more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson is joined by Pejman Yousefzadeh and Elizabeth Blackney duke it out about whether or not Congress should raise the debt ceiling and what may happen come August 2nd if they don’t.

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:

House votes against raising debt ceiling, 318-97
THE HILL POLL: Voters oppose raising the $14.3T debt ceiling
White House Turns to Reagan to Make Point on Debt Ceiling Vote
Explaining the House Debt Ceiling Vote Charade
The Day the United States Defaulted on Treasury Bills

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In conducting our investigation, we reached out to many legal, computer and security experts. One of these experts was Hemanshu Niagm, a former US DOJ prosecutor against computer crimes and online crimes against children and, from 2006-2010, Chief Security Office for MySpace and NewsCorp. When asked about WeinerGate, Mr. Niagm responded:

I was looking at the articles related to Congressman Weiner’s Twitter issue and found a few things that seem ‘off.

If this were an unauthorized access to Congressman Weiner’s Twitter account, more likely it was someone who had ‘phished’ Congressman Weiner’s account rather than hacked into it. In other words, someone had convinced Weiner to give up his username and password to Twitter. If true, the good thing is that Twitter keeps a running log of every account access made to a particular account and what time and date it was made and from where it was made – the IP address. This information can be obtained in a very simple police/FBI investigation and provide the answer to who did this ‘phishing’. Hack means someone actually broke Twitter’s many layered security defenses and got into this particular Congressman’s account – a very unlikely scenario. Either way, the perpetrator would have committed a few federal crimes that are relatively easy to investigate even if this was done via phishing.

The other thing that seems off is that the Congressman can easily and should refer that matter to the FBI who has the capability to conduct such an investigation and has the jurisdiction to do it. When crimes against federal officials are committed, this is standard practice and one followed many times by others in similar situations.

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I’ve been battling the Organization for Economic Cooperation for years, ever since the Paris-based bureaucracy unveiled its “harmful tax competition” project in the late 1990s. Controlled by Europe’s high-tax welfare states, the OECD wants to prop up the fiscal systems of nations such as Greece and France by hindering the flow of jobs and capital to low-tax jurisdictions.

Guided by a radical theory know as Capital Export Neutrality, the OECD wants to impose global tax rules that would prevent taxpayers from ever having the ability to benefit from better tax law in other jurisdictions. This is why, for instance, the international bureaucrats are anxious to undermine national tax laws – such as America’s favorable treatment of bank deposits from overseas – that enable people to escape onerous tax regimes.

Bolstered by support from the Obama Administration, the OECD now is taking its campaign to the next level. At its Global Tax Forum in Bermuda, which ends later today, the bureaucrats unveiled a new scheme that effectively would result in the creation of something akin to a World Tax Organization.

The vehicle for this effort is a Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. This may sound dry and technical, but the OECD wants all nations to participate in this pact, which has existed for a couple of decades but was radically expanded last year to give high-tax governments sweeping new powers to impose bad tax law on income generated in low-tax jurisdictions.

But the real smoking gun is that the OECD has put itself in charge of the “co-ordinating body” that will have enormous powers to interpret the agreement, modify the pact, and resolve disputes – thus giving itself the ability to serve as judge, jury, and executioner.

This is a profoundly dangerous development with all sorts of very troubling implications. Since I’m in Bermuda trying to destabilize this effort, I don’t have time for extensive analysis, but here’s a press release from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and here are some of my immediate concerns.

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If someone wrote this as fiction, they’d be laughed at. As the liberal special interests adjust noisily to being out of power in Wisconsin, events have now gone beyond parody. The latest from the “You can’t make this stuff up” file:

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has delayed action regarding the potential recalls of three Democrat State Senators. Since the GAB moved swiftly to certify the recalls of six Republican State Senators, some are reasonably raising the claim that the GAB is showing partisan favoritism.

They had publicly stated a desire to hold all the recall elections on the same day, however, because of the lack of action on the part of the GAB, the Republican Senators are scheduled to face the voters on July 12th. The earliest the Democratic Senators would be on the ballot would be July 19th, if at all.

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Donald Trump may not be finished in the 2012 Presidential race after all.

Trump has been telling freinds that he would not rule out launching an Independent big for President as late as June of next year if the economy is still sour and no Republican has demonstrated the ability to defeat Obama.

Trump recently teased a possible late blooming candidacy when he sent a hand-written note to MSNBC’s Lawerence O’Donnell, a vitriolic Trump critic that said -”Thanks for all your help–see you in the Spring.”

“Trump’s $60 million contract with NBC would expire in time for him free to lauch a bid June 1 of next year. Clearly Trump has the $5 million to $7 million it would take to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot in all 50 states” one Trump supporter told BIG GOVERNMENT ” Those who think Trump would draw only from Republicans are wrong-blue collar Catholic Democrats would also defect to Trump if gas is $6.00 a gallon and unemployment is still high.”

Trump met yesterday with former Governor Palin for a private 45 minute session in which she told Trump she hadn’t decided yet whether to run for the Republican nomination and Trump told her that many of his supporters are urging him to launch an independent bid next year and thsat he hasn’t ruled it out.

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Respect is earned, not demanded, unless of course you’re Al Capone.  That apparently is a difficult concept for the Michigan Education Association to grasp.

Last week, Michigan teachers appeared at a state board of education meeting to vent their anger at a series of proposed education reforms.  Like several other states, Michigan legislators are debating a host of sweeping reforms to get Michigan public schools on a better financial and academic footing.

A Grand Rapids high school teacher told the state board, “I feel like I’m the gum on the bottom of everyone’s shoe,” according to the Grand Rapids Press.

Perhaps he would gain a little more sympathy if two days prior, his union, the MEA, didn’t have a dunk tank on its lawn with a Gov. Rick Snyder look-alike.  See the exclusive video provided to EAGtv here.

It is hard to respect an organization that stages such a tacky display.  If the union wants to be taken seriously, it should engage in a serious debate.  Instead, it’s resorting to childish antics that do nothing to elevate the debate.

During the entire legislative session, that has been the modus operandi for the union.  It’s staged protest after protest, to the point that the largest newspapers in the state aren’t even covering them anymore.  And perhaps even worse for the union, is for all its bluster, it’s failed to stop a single piece of reform legislation.

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Today, in 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy.

(Happy Birthday, Alana!)