The ‘kinetic action’ in Libya is now in clear violation of the War Powers Act. One can argue whether or not the War Powers Act is sound law, but it is currently the law of the land. One could also argue whether or not the action in Libya is sound policy, but, it is currently, unmistakably, illegal.

Andrew Breitbart, proprietor of this here outlet, is already getting plaudits for his presentation at this year’s RightOnline convention (you can see his speech here). But the weekend event also held lots of policy and digital advocacy conversations, including one on the issue of union thugs trying to kill American companies and jobs.

A hot topic, of course, is the NLRB’s threat to kill jobs at a Boeing plant in South Carolina (because of which legislators are considering the Job Protection Act). But, sadly, there are many other concerns on the horizon, including “project labor agreements” that shut out the vast majority of the construction workforce and a host below-the-radar issues before the Big Labor-stacked National Labor Relations Board that threaten to kill jobs and slow our economy in the name of helping President Obama’s biggest political backer. For the latter, take a brief gander at a cleaned-up version of my presentation, which includes case citations for those who are interested in digging further.

Or you can check out the video in this post, which includes fellow panelists Brett McMahon of Miller & Long Concrete Construction and Halt The Assault and Don Loos of National Right To Work and my fellow blogger at Big Government.

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Under-appreciated and priceless.

Norman Rockwell-"Two O'Clock Feeding'

Norman Rockwell-"Freedom from Fear"

Norman Rockwell-"You Can Trust Me, Dad"

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Wait! Don’t build that fence along our southern border just yet. We may not really need it any more than we need one on the northern border with Canada. In order to fix the problem of illegal immigration we must first understand why we have an estimated 12 million illegals in the United States. A Risk-Benefit Analysis model provides insight into both the causes of the problem and the solution to it.

We all make risk-benefit decisions every day. “Should I have the apple or the cheeseburger for lunch?” Or, “Should I send a Tweet with a risqué photo of myself to that young coed?” Millions of people on our northern and southern borders face the decision to enter the United States illegally, but we don’t have a fence with Canada because we don’t need one. Canadians are not streaming into the USA demanding ice cold Molson beer and raising maple leaf flags in front of public schools. Why not? It’s simple: Canadians enjoy a good quality of life at home, so the perceived benefit in coming here illegally is not worth the risk.

But the same is not true for our southern neighbors. Life in Central and South America is…well…bleak. America sits like a shimmering jewel on the horizon where benefits abound: healthcare, education, citizenship, and jobs, to name a few. The risk in coming here is perceived to be low in comparison to the benefits to be had. So they come. Politicians puff out their chests, call it an outrage, and demand fences be built. Unfortunately, fences have never worked in the past. But we’re ignoring the obvious solution: end the benefits, ratchet up the risk, and we won’t need a fence for the same reason we have none with Canada.

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Note: This video contains graphic images of violence and mature language. Viewer discretion is advised.

“No Knock Raid,” written and performed by Toronto-based musician Lindy, is a searing indictment of one of the most aggressive, ubiquitous, and mistaken tactics in the War on Drugs.

Consider only the most recent raid to cause a national outrage: On May 5, 2011, 26-year-old Jose Guerena, who survived two tours in the Iraq War, was shot and killed during a raid on his house by a Pima County, Arizona SWAT team that fired dozens of bullets through his front door. Guerena, married and a father of two, had just finished a 12-hour shift at a local mine. Law enforcement sources claim he was involved in narco-trafficking but have yet to produce any evidence supporting that claim. Officers involved in the death have been cleared of wrongdoing.

Guerena’s death is not an isolated incident. As USA Today reports, an astonishing 70,000 to 80,000 militarized police raids take place on a annual basis in America, many of them on mistaken suspects and many of them ending with injury or death for police and citizens alike.

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To the Honorable Jose Longoria,

Recently, you sentenced a mother, Rosalina Gonzales, to five years probation, a fine, and parenting classes after being convicted of a felony charge. The heinous crime? Spanking her own child.

As you recall, the prosecution admitted that Ms. Gonzales did not use a belt, a switch, or anything else other than her hand. She didn’t hit her child in the face, head, chest, or anywhere but her rear end. She didn’t draw blood, break any bones, or even leave bruises—only some red marks. There was no injury.

This decision is manifestly absurd.

First, it represents an egregious judicial overreach. You should know the law: in Texas, spanking is not against the law. Your state’s Attorney General has even stated that disciplinary spanking confined to the buttocks, done with an open hand, and not resulting in injury should not be considered abusive. Ms. Gonzales evidenced self-control with all of these variables.

Before sentencing Ms. Gonzales, you chided her, “You don’t spank children today. In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?”

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Anytime I see a video show up on Facebook three times, there’s a pretty good chance I better write an article about it because more often than not they contain a lot of misinformation or oversimplification. In the case of the Robert Reich video, “What’s Wrong With The Economy”, it contains both.  This should not come as a surprise.  He makes a big deal about explaining how simple it all is and doing it in two and quarter minutes.

Folks, the economy cannot be explained in two and a quarter minutes.

However, the good people at the George-Soros funded MoveOn.Org, which commissioned the video, sure would like you to believe it can.  They specialize in spoon-feeding pabulum to Liberals who don’t know what they don’t know, all the better to keep them ignorant.  If you think George Soros and MoveOn don’t have an agenda, then you’ve been living under a rock.

This is not to say that Mr. Reich is 100% wrong.  He may have a few things right.  The problem is he oversimplifies things and deliberately misleads his audience.  (How do I know it’s deliberate?  It’s for MoveOn.org).  The key is to examine each statement made — but not only the text.  You must look at the subtext, context, and omissions to get a complete understanding.

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Happy Fathers’ Day, John.

Thursday:

Wow, you can really feel the energy here in Minneapolis at Netroots Nation 2011 – the vibe is so much better than at Starbucks where that fascist Mr. Rodriguez keeps oppressing me by insisting that I get to work on time!  Because of the capitalist system under whose yoke we all groan, I had to get the money to come from my parents, which is only fair since they have money and because of George Bush I don’t.  I heard Dad joking about how he was “delighted to have that 30-year old bum out of my basement for a weekend.”  Mom gave me a ride to the airport in the Explorer and on the 747 I had time to write up a Daily Kos post about the need to ration carbon credits to control global warming – I mean “climate change.”

I went to check into my hotel room and the guy at the front desk complimented me on my clothes.  “Nice Che tee,” he said.  “Funny coincidence – my family is from Cuba.  So, will you be wearing your Mao t-shirt tomorrow?”  How did he know?  Anyway, I was a little unhappy with my room – it was on the top floor between the elevators and a guy who turned out to be the drummer for Anthrax.  He sure had a lot of loud parties.

Off to the convention center for to help build a socialist future – oh wait, I’m not supposed to say “socialist.”  Andrew Breitbert’s operatives are in the area and according to Markos, “We’re still keeping our real goal on the down low until after the reelection.”   Shhh – mum’s the word, fellow “progressives!”

By the way, I thought I saw Markos himself, but it turned out to be a guy dressed as an elf from the Dungeons & Dragons convention down the street.  My mistake!

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Last month, Disney attempted to cash in on the Navy SEAL Team 6 name fame by submitting a US trademark application for the name SEAL Team 6.  The US Navy countered with their own trademark submissions and Disney backed down by abandoning its applications.

However, there are several other companies and individuals who continue to file applications in an attempt to trademark SEAL Team 6 and other variations of the name.  In examining the USPTO database, such companies and individuals filing applications include Metrogames, Justice is Done, AAAA World Inc., RESCO Instruments, The Outdoor Recreation Group (and this one), John Brokaw, and Jon Narmi–even a German company is trying to cash in.  There are others as well, but you get the picture.

It is not coincidental that all of the application file dates range from early May 2011 until present–obviously a direct link.  Additionally, Disney was met with public scorn and the Navy did strong arm Disney to protect its rights:

Navy spokeswoman Amanda Greenberg said the Navy already had rights to the SEAL trademark but recently submitted two new applications for trademarks of “Navy SEALs” and “SEAL Team.”

“The Navy is fully committed to protecting its trademark rights as it pertains to this matter and is currently examining all legal options,” she said.

Disney/ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said the company pulled the plug on its bid “in deference to the Navy’s application.”

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In response to the results of two recent polls of Connecticut voters which found that there is considerable dissatisfaction with Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, the governor’s special advisor said that Mr. Malloy has “made the tough decisions necessary to clean up the financial mess he inherited when he took office in January.” Roy Occhiogrosso added, “You can choose to be popular, or you can choose to lead. Governor Malloy has chosen to lead … he’s not trying to win a popularity contest.”

Yet, a Quinnipiac University poll showed just the opposite: that while Connecticut voters give Governor Malloy a 38% job approval rating, with 43% polled particularly “dissatisfied,” and 16% “angry” with his state budget, 48% of voters “like” him “as a person.” It would seem that, indeed, Mr. Malloy is winning more of the popularity, or “likability” contest. What most Connecticut voters do not appear to like is his leadership, which embraced the largest tax increase in the history of the state, one that included a retroactive income tax hike, and an aggressive legislative session that contained  a state version of the “Dream Act,” which allows in-state tuition rates for children of illegal aliens, a “transgender rights bill,” an “Early Release” for prisoners bill, and an “Amazon” tax bill.

Douglas Schwartz, the poll’s director, commented, “”Gov. Dannel Malloy should be doing better in a blue state like Connecticut, but he gets only a 52 percent approval rating among his base of Democrats.” Ironically, his high tax package was viewed as fair by more Republicans (27%) than Democrats (10%) or independents (19%).

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Swedish economist Johan Norberg is the host of the new documentary Free or Equal, which retraces and updates the 1980 classic Free to Choose, featuring Milton and Rose Friedman. Like the Friedmans, Norberg travels the globe to look at the conditions under which prosperity and freedom flourish – and under what conditions they wither and die. Made by the same producer who created Free to Choose, Free or Equal will be appearing on PBS in 2011. For more information, a clip of the new documentary and the entire Free to Choose series, go here.

Norberg is the author of numerous books, including In Defense of Global Capitalism (2002) and Fiscal Fiasco (2009), a look at how the U.S. government’s policies contributed to and have exacerbated the length and intensity of the Great Recession.

Reason’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Norberg to discuss how the changes in the world since the Friedmans’ earlier documentary effect their basic argument that individual economic freedom is a building block for a prosperous and open society. Overall, says Norberg, the Friedmans’ basic insights hold true and some of the places they celebrated – such as Hong Kong, then under British protection and now part of the People’s Republic of China – are still flourishing. But in countries and regions that continue to constrain economic and political liberties, reports Norberg, fear and privation still dominate.

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By now, most people have heard about Obama’s comments on unemployment from this past week essentially saying ATMs have taken jobs away from people. He said, “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. You see it when you go to the bank and use an ATM — you don’t go to a bank teller.”

<embed flashvars=”file=http://mrc-tv.s3.amazonaws.com/sites/default/files/videos/converted/102415.mp4&image=http://mrc-tv.s3.amazonaws.com/sites/default/files/video_thumbs/102415/102415_0002.jpg&dock=false&controlbar=bottom&skin=http://www.mrctv.org/jwplayer/skins/modieus/modieus.zip&plugins=yourlytics-1,sharing-2&yourlytics.callback=http://mrctv.org/postback/remoteview?nodeid=102840&sharing.link=http://www.mrctv.org/videos/save-economy-ban-atms&sharing.code=%3Ciframe+title%3D%22MRC+TV+video+player%22+width%3D%22640%22+height%3D%22360%22+src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mrctv.org%2Fembed%2F102840+frameborder%3D%220%22+allowfullscreen%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E&autostart=false” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” id=”player1″ name=”player1″ src=”http://www.mrctv.org/jwplayer/player.swf” width=”640″ height=”360″ />So, are people trying to create some jobs? Take a look:

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Joe Kernen, co-anchor of CNBC’s  Squawk Box and his daughter, fifth grader, Blake Kernen, have teamed up for YOUR TEACHER SAID WHAT?!: Defending Our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism, a primer to push back against what Kernen perceives to be an anti-capitalist bias within our public education system – a bias some believe begins in the earliest grades.

Is that even a point for debate at this point?

In YOUR TEACHER SAID WHAT?!: Defending Our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism (Sentinel, May 2011), Kernen recounts the challenges of teaching the value of free market capitalism to someone who still gets an allowance. He looks at the world through a fifth grader’s eyes and discovers the countless ways our education system and pop culture attack capitalism. As Joe tackles Blake’s tough questions, they cover tricky topics such as:

· The plusses (small) and minuses (huge) of unions — including the unionized teachers who disparage the same free enterprise system that pays their salaries.

· The truth about so-called “Fair Trade”: Rather than help poor farmers, it keeps them poor.

· The differences between Europe and America, and why free health care isn’t really free.

With statism on the rise and Free Market Capitalism, a cornerstone of liberty and democracy under assault from the highest levels of politics, to the earliest grades in our schools, one less reading of Goldilocks replaced with a straight-forward, easy to understand primer in Free Market capitalism, doesn’t sound like such a bad idea from a conservative perspective. Homeschoolers may find it especially interesting and useful.

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Today, in 1815, Great Britain and its Allies defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Enjoy the recent Piers Morgan interview with Chris Christie and his family:

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In the 26 months since the stock market bottomed in March of 2009, stocks have risen 80%+ as the economy regained its footing after the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing market crash.

As impressively, the market has made such tremendous gains with only one significant correction, which ironically began almost a year to the day before the one in which we now find ourselves. Now, with the markets tumbling, many are unsure of why or how far they will fall.

To be blunt, the basic problem with the markets at present is that since the bottom investors haven’t been adequately compensated for the risks they’re taking in the markets. Sure stocks prices have risen, but that buying has been in anticipation of growth in revenue being passed onto shareholders. After all, when investors buy stocks what they’re really paying for is a share of dividends to be paid in the future (plus the break-up value of the company).

Unfortunately, since the bottom of the 2008 crash interest income paid to Americans has made almost no recovery (thanks to the Fed’s policy of maintaining low interest rates for “an extended period of time”). Dividend income, meanwhile, has ticked up just slightly and is still nowhere near pre-crash highs, and Personal Income Receipts on Assets has completely failed to keep pace.

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Conservative Andrew Breitbart was just gang-rushed by a mob of racist-hurling gay-hating leftists at the Nutroots 2011 Convention.

Andrew Breitbart decided to go chat with the enlightened leftists at Nutroots 2011 today. The annual leftist online convention is being held a couple of blocks from the Right Online convention.

The leftists immediately swarmed him and attacked him.
They couldn’t help it.

That’s when things got really ugly.

The leftists led by Ryan Clayton from US Uncut called him a racist and homosexual. They accused him of quoting gay rags and sending employees out to abuse innocent Muslim women.

Of course the gay-hater had no facts to back him up. Nothing.

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