The arrest of 30 angry anti-capitalists from Art Uncut, the group who busted up a U2 concert at Glastonbury 2011 while toting a huge balloon insisting “U Pay Your Tax 2,” indicates that people are fed up with being dictated to by socialist-minded do-gooders who talk the talk but, in their own lives, refuse to walk the walk.

The target of Uncut’s “Pay Up” ire is U2’s lead singer Bono, a man who entreats international governments to support global aid organizations, but who allegedly refuses to contribute his share of the taxes needed to fund the good works he supports.

With the help of rock stars and Hollywood collectivists, Marxist-minded politicians have hammered home the message that only by “sharing” can a person truly be caring.  Without realizing the ramifications of the share-the-wealth philosophy, those who’ve worked hard to portray capitalism as evil and promoted the merits of reordering the economic structure have invited the turmoil currently raining down upon their own heads.

Presently, the message to pay up is being directed towards anti-capitalists whose extravagant hypocrisy is being called into question by the very people they’ve indoctrinated.

It’s the same story everywhere: the little people have shame heaped upon their heads for not doing enough, giving enough, caring enough and above all not sharing enough.  In the name of fairness and good will, those with plenty have insisted that those with less take a smaller and smaller piece of the pie while the ones doing the asking sacrifice little or nothing.

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Today, in 1917, the first American troops arrived on the Western Front of World War I. One year later, on this day,  the Americans defeated the Germans at the Battle of Belleau Wood. (One of our relatives was there. In your memory great-grandfather Price.)

Truther, Self-described communist, and former Obama Green Jobs Czar Van Jones has a new mission, to start a progressive version of the Tea Party movement.  Just like the real tea party, the Van Jones creation is based on economics.  There are major differences though, being a progressive movement its basic premise is a lie, and instead of being a bottom up grass roots organization like the tea party, the Van Jones version is top down similar to the progressive philosophy that everything must be run by a central government.

More than a month has passed since I published news about out-of-control agents from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service going after a couple in Nixa, Mo., for selling more than $500 worth of rabbits in a calendar year. Today, I offer an update likely to upset those who’ve been following the case of John and Judy Dollarhite.

On May 24, the Dollarhites were cautiously optimistic about their prospects after the USDA appeared to be rethinking their plan to levy up to $3.9 million in fines after some public attention — via more than a dozen posts here, at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and elsewhere as well as notice by Drudge Report and Rush Limbaugh — was cast on the matter. Now, it appears they had good reason to be cautious.

On June 21, I learned from Clay Bowler, the Springfield, Mo., blogger who was first to break the Dollarhite’s story, that the couple had received a foll0wup letter from the USDA. Based on the content of Bowler’s post about the USDA letter which stemmed from his conversation with John Dollarhite, I fired off an inquiry (below) to USDA APHIS Spokesperson David Sacks late that same afternoon:

Dave,

I understand John Dollarhite received a post-inspection letter from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, offering him a settlement based on a handful of conditions. Thought I haven’t yet seen the letter, I understand it requires the Dollarhites to do the following:

After confirming, denying or clarifying the information above, please explain the authority under which USDA officials believe they can issue such an expansive set of requirements and explain how those same officials plan to respond to the huge public outcry that is certain to follow when the contents of the new letter become public.

Sincerely,

Bob McCarty

Sacks responded almost 24 hours later:

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Some people can find an excuse for anything, including the ridiculous practice of “last in, first out,” which protects veteran teachers during periods of layoff in public schools.

We’ve heard unions complain that seniority must be maintained so that “administrators can’t discriminate against certain individuals (based on their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, for example) or play favorites…”

Further, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers theorized that efforts to dump the LIFO policy are “an effort to pit union members against each other, to get us sniping and backstabbing to keep our jobs.”

Perhaps the Philadelphia school board is simply interested in retaining the best teachers, regardless of seniority? Nah, that couldn’t be it.

Now consider this doozy from a Michigan newspaper reporter-acting-as-columnist, William F. Ast III:

“What’s wrong with observing seniority when forced to lay off some employees?

“Employees with seniority are more likely to be established in the community. They are more likely to be paying mortgages. They are more likely to have children, with all the expenses and responsibilities associated with parenthood. Surely that’s worth some consideration, and I’m a little tired of those who say loyal workers deserve no loyalty from the top.”

So teachers with mortgages deserve special job protections.

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This is a subject I’ve taken a few days to look into. It interested me for a couple of reasons: To highlight the president as a national leader; and, to show how they articulate and carry out their political values. For this I chose Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. Johnson because he reinforced the Roosevelt paradigm and cemented modern liberalism with the “Great Society” program. Reagan, because he led a reactionary conservative revolution against that paradigm. A revolution in the making since the time of Johnson. This isn’t to offer any critiques but is more along the lines of presenting history and appreciating the times, differences, and evolution of our nation’s politics, leaders, and ideology. And it certainly isn’t an all encompassing, exhaustive piece of analysis. I didn’t intend for it be.

Presidents differ greatly in their views on the proper role of government. Lyndon Johnson had a strong liberal ideology when it came to domestic affairs. He believed government was legally bound and obligated to take care of the disadvantaged and protect the welfare of society. In his inaugural speech, Johnson laid out his vision by using the words justice and injustice as code words for equality and inequality. Those words were used six times in his speech. The word freedom was used only once. It is here that he was articulating his goal for a “just” America. His “Great Society.”
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Don’t believe all of the public fighting by Republican and Democrat leaders over the past week on increasing the debt limit.  My sources on Capitol Hill tell me that many conservatives believe that the fix may be in on a deal to increase the debt ceiling in a manner that allows both sides to save face.

Here is a theory that many believe on Capitol Hill.  The walk out by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) from the Vice President’s debt limit negotiations on Thursday was staged and agreed to by both parties as a means for Republicans to look tough before they cave on increasing the debt limit.

Vice President Biden has been meeting behind closed doors with a bipartisan bicameral group of politicians for weeks in an effort to cut a deal on a package to increase the statutory $14.3 trillion debt limit.  These meeting have been extremely secretive and not many specifics of the negotiations have been provided to the public.  One of the few details leaked was that liberals were putting tax increases on the table as a means to balance the budget.

The Hill reports:

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Today, in 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, sparking the Korean War.

Via Roll Call:

A collection of 15 Republicans — all former Members of Congress, governors or Environmental Protection Agency administrators — called on the president Wednesday to set aggressive auto emission and fuel efficiency standards beginning in 2017.

“I’m just very passionate about the environment,” said former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who spearheaded the letter to President Barack Obama. “We want the administration to know there are serious-minded Republicans who are well informed on the issue who urge him to take aggressive action.”

Other former House Members who signed the letter were Michael Castle (Del.), who is now a partner with the lobbying and law firm DLA Piper; Vernon Ehlers (Mich.); Wayne Gilchrest (Md.); Benjamin Gilman (N.Y.); Amory Houghton (N.Y.); Connie Morella (Md.); Chris Shays (Conn.); Jim Ramstad (Minn.); and Peter Smith (Vt.). Former EPA Administrators Christine Whitman, Russell Train, Bill Reilly and Bill Ruckelshaus also signed the letter, as did Jim Douglas, a former governor of Vermont.

[...]

In their letter, the Republicans wrote that annual increases of about 6 percent through the year 2025 would be acceptable.

What does that 6 percent number equate to in real terms?

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently complained about the food trucks lining the streets of his city.

“The little [food] stand is now getting to be these enormous trucks with generators . . . and they take up parking places and they block traffic,” Wall Street Journal recorded the mayor as saying.

It’s hard to believe Mayor Bloomberg’s tiff with food trucks has anything to do with the lack of parking spaces available in New York City.  His record for new laws and regulations affecting the eating habits of his constituents precedes him—and it would come as no surprise if New York’s food trucks were his next victims.

The trucks would only add to the long list of imposed dietary guidelines Americans must now follow.

Call it the rise of the nanny state.

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Many conservatives and even some liberals have complained about Obama’s penchant for appointing “czars” in order to avoid accountability under law. One of his most notorious is the Consumer Czar, Elizabeth Warren, who was appointed by Obama to help set up and, many fear, to eventually run the monstrous new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

We recently uncovered documents indicating the CFPB has been intensely involved in a 50-state settlement discussion underway with the nation’s largest mortgage lenders regarding alleged improper foreclosure procedures. (Anti-business zealots in the Obama administration and state attorney general offices are trying to extract a $20 billion “settlement” from banks to settle paperwork issues related to foreclosures.)

The documents, obtained in response to open records requests with CFPB and the offices of attorneys general from all 50 states, seem to contradict Warren’s statements before Congress suggesting her office merely responded to requests for advice, but did not seek to push its views. (We initiated our investigation into the controversies surrounding Ms. Warren and the CFPB on March 22, 2011.)

During a March 16, 2011, hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, Ms. Warren downplayed her agency’s involvement in the state settlement negotiations: “We have been asked for advice by the Department of Justice, by the Secretary of the Treasury, and by other federal agencies. And when asked for advice, we have given our advice.”

But this does not come close to telling the full story.

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Here’s Reason.tv Producer Jim Epstein’s account of what happened:

On June 22, 2011, I attended a meeting of the D.C. Taxi Commission for a story I’m currently working on about a proposed medallion system in the district.

About 30 minutes into the meeting, I witnessed journalist Pete Tucker snap a still photo of the proceedings on his camera phone. A few minutes later, two police officers arrested Tucker. I filmed Tucker’s arrest and the audience’s subsequent outrage using my cell phone.

A few minutes later, as I was attempting to leave the building, I overheard the female officer who had arrested Tucker promise a woman, who I presumed to be an employee of the Taxi Commission, that she would confiscate my phone. Reason intern Kyle Blaine, overheard her say, “Do you want his phone? I can get his phone.”

(The woman who was given assurances by the officer that she could have my phone can be seen at the end of the video telling me, “You do not have permission to record this!”)

As I tried to leave, I was told by the same officer to “stay put.” I told her I was leaving and attempted to exit the building. I was then surrounded by officers, and told to remain still or I would be arrested.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the Congressional Budget Office’s scathing report on the debt, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner’s call for higher business taxes.

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:

CBO: Time to wake up!
The scariest U.S. budget chart out there
CBO head: Government policies, debt may be slowing growth
Geithner: Taxes on ‘Small Business’ Must Rise So Government Doesn’t ‘Shrink’

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Democratic National  Committee (DNC) Chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz has never been known as the sharpest pencil in the box, but since she took over as the head of the DNC she has added nasty to her profile. Her latest project is to try and water-down the impact GOP votes by allowing voter registration fraud across the country, and she is using the ‘Republicans are bigots” card to do it. She wrote an op-ed in US News and World Report claiming that Republicans are trying to restrict voting, especially minority voting with laws aimed at reducing voter fraud and requiring people to show ID when they show up to vote.

California lawmakers thought they were targeting Amazon.com, the out-of-state giant, when they voted last week to force Internet retailers to collect sales tax.

It turns out eBay Inc., California’s own golden child of e-commerce, isn’t so thrilled about it, either.

The San Jose online auction company says the legislation would hurt its business model, which relies on thousands of entrepreneurs who sell goods on its site.

The intent may have been to go after Amazon, but “we’re literally caught in the crossfire,” said David London, senior director for state government relations at eBay.

From The New York Times:

New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday approved a broad rollback of benefits for 750,000 government workers and retirees, the deepest cut in state and local costs in memory, in a major victory for Gov. Chris Christie and a once-unthinkable setback for the state’s powerful public employee unions.

The Assembly passed the bill 46 to 32, as Republicans and a few Democrats defied raucous protests by thousands of people whose chants, vowing electoral revenge, shook the State House. Leaders in the State Senate said their chamber, which had already passed a slightly different version of the bill, would approve the Assembly version on Monday. Mr. Christie, a Republican, was expected to sign the measure into law quickly.

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