At its recent convention, National Education Association Vice President Lily Eskelsen publicly thanked students for raising funds for the union political action committee, known as the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education.

“We also want to recognize the great work of our student programs all year long they’ve been utilizing our member-to-member fundraising tool go.NEAfund.org to raise money from students all over the country.  Thank you retirees.  Thank you students!”

Aside from not being able to insert complete sentences into the teleprompter, Eskelsen is acknowledging that students helped raise money to elect union-friendly politicians.

Can’t the union for once just leave the children alone?  Can’t the union for once allow students to receive an education untainted by the gripes of unhappy employees?

Political action committees are only supposed to solicit funds from union or association members or employees.  So why are students participating in the first place?

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In a move that should outrage every freedom-loving American, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has decided that the way to correct the utter failure (and criminality) of Operation “Fast and Furious” is to punish gun store owners.

That’s right: in response to the growing public outcry over the hundreds upon hundreds of guns which illegally crossed the border into Mexico with the ATF’s blessing, the DOJ is requiring gun stores in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico to report individual purchases of multiple rifles of greater than .22 caliber to the ATF.  To quality for special reporting, the rifles also have to have a detachable magazine and be semi-automatic. (In other words, they are similar to many of the 2500 guns the ATF allowed “straw purchasers” to buy during Operation “Gunrunner.”)

Upon instituting this new rule late Monday night, July 11, Deputy Attorney General James Cole released a letter explaining that the new reporting mandate is due to the fact that such weapons “are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border.”

Cole added: “This new reporting measure…will improve the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations.”

The hypocrisy here is palpable, and it is as repugnant to the rational mind as the DOJ-approved smuggling of weapons across the border was to begin with.

Where’s the apology for Border Agent Brian Terry’s death?

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The ACLU of Wisconsin is using local food pantries as a means to gather data about the impacts of the recently passed voter ID bill. Outspokenly opposed to the voter ID bill in Wisconsin, the ACLU of Wisconsin called the measure the “the worst and most restrictive we’ve seen,” explaining that the bill would “deny potentially thousands of voters the right to freely cast a ballot based on the non-existent problem of so-called voter fraud.” When the bill was signed into law on May 26, the ACLU went right to work to prepare a lawsuit like the one they filed recently in Ohio.

Their first step was to gather data. And what better place to find all those “disenfranchised voters” than at a food pantry?

On Friday June 24, Director of Advocacy at the Hunger Task Force Jon Janowski sent an email out to the leaders of over 80 food pantries in Wisconsin to inform them of “a survey project that Hunger Task Force is working on with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).”

The email states:

The ACLU is surveying people all over Wisconsin to assess the impact of Wisconsin’s new voter ID law, and they want to hear from people who might be disproportionately impacted by the law’s new requirements.  We are asking your permission to allow Hunger Task Force staffer Mary Ryan and HTF intern Justice Bowers visit your program in the next month or two to conduct the attached survey.

Hunger Task Force attempted to distance themselves from the controversial left-wing group by stating that “participation in the survey is completely optional,” and that “Hunger Task Force takes no position on the ACLU’s work and on what the ACLU decides to do with this data – we are simply assisting them in the collection of the data and then passing the data directly to their staff.”

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When Ronald Reagan ran for President in 1980, it was said of him that he was not the “sharpest knife in the drawer.” The old joke went that in his role in the 1951 role in Bedtime for Bonzo, the chimp that played Bonzo was smarter than the presidential hopeful.

It’s true that President Reagan, for all his charm, may not have been a rocket scientist. However, what he did have – and what many politicians today lack – were defined morals, principles, and ethics. More importantly, he relied on those assets to guide him through many troubling times as President.

In 1981 when Reagan took office this country was in dire straits economically. Stagflation that resulted from Jimmy Carter’s pursuit of altruistic ideals had led to high unemployment, an energy crisis that culminated in gas lines, and awful prospects for future economic growth. Sound familiar?

Among Reagan’s actions as President that re-energized this country economically were tax cuts, deregulation, and interest rate hikes to kill inflation. All things considered, these policies worked phenomenally well, and the US entered a 20-year period of growth led by a manufacturing resurgence.

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Today, in 1787, the Continental Congress limited the expansion of slavery in the U.S. This ‘compromise’ position set in motion the events that would lead to the Civil War.

Britain has gone completely mad over the Rupert Murdoch/News of the World hacking affair and the contagion is spreading to America fast.

I knew things were bad when I spoke yesterday to a normally reliably conservative US talk radio show. “But they say they may even have hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims,” said the appalled female co-host, as if this were the ne plus ultra of round, unvarnished evil.

Some perspective, please. I too respect and am moved by the plight of the 9/11 dead and their families. And of the murdered English schoolgirl Milly Dowler and of the servicemen who died in the Iraq war. (They too, apparently, may – and let’s stress that word “may” – have been targets of phone hacking by the now-disbanded Murdoch-owned tabloid newspaper the News of the World).

But then, so do you. So does everybody. No one in the world right now is sitting there rubbing his or her hands in glee and going: “Heh heh. 9/11 victims. Murdered schoolgirls. Dead Iraq servicemen. I’m so glad their mobile phones were hacked into by the News of the World.”

Yet you’d never guess this from the nauseating sanctimoniousness and cant of the left-liberal media, right now. You’d think this was a straightforward battle between good and evil: on one side a wicked, bullying, manipulative, right-wing Voldemort and his hordes of darkness; on the other, the forces of justice, truth and light whose only desire is that our newspapers and broadcast outlets should be transparent and caring and fair and kind to blind old ladies crossing the road clutching baskets of kittens with bandaged paws.

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Recently an aide of presidential candidate, Tim Pawletnty said: Michelle Bachmann is drawing attention in part because of her sex appeal. He later apologized for the inapropriate yet flattering statement. Was Pawlenty’s aide wrong in saying that? I think it’s a fair and true assessment.

Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite is intelligent and attractive. However, she makes some serious mistakes. The mix up in birth places for American icon and film star John Wayne with  pshycotic clown/serial killer John Wayne Gacy is noteworthy. If not moderately hysterical in a sick and perverse way. OK, everybody makes mistakes, but I’m thinking if she researched Mother Theresa. Bachmann would come back and say Mother Theresa worked in New Dehli and made some really good sandwiches.

Substance is far more important than flash and charisma. Too many Americans were lulled into the smooth operator Obama trance. Practically, everybody bought into that. Even Coinstar wanted change.

So what if Mr. Pawlenty is slightly mannequinesque. I like him.

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NOT GUILTY- SEIU GOONS CLEARED IN GLADNEY BEATING!

I just spoke with Kenneth Gladney and his wife outside the courtroom. Here is their first reaction—

“I couldn’t beat them; I didn’t have the resources they had. They had all the money in the world and the backing… I’m just an average man.”

Video of first reaction after the verdict:

** It was the prosecutor’s first jury trial.

The Kenneth Gladney beatdown case continued this morning in St. Louis County Court.
After a health care town hall meeting in August 2009 St. Louis native Kenneth Gladney was beaten, kicked and called racist names by Rep. Russ Carnahan’s SEIU supporters. Gladney spent the night in the hospital after the beating.

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In the aftermath of the California legislature passing and Gov. Jerry Brown signing into law an “Amazon Tax,” it looks like taxpayers unhappy about the Golden State’s pursuit of the almost certainly unconstitutional measure may get an opportunity to kill it off.

According to KQED, this week, a formal request for a referendum to overturn the law was filed in Sacramento.  In order to make it on the ballot, backers will have to get something in the range of 500,000 signatures once the petition is cleared by the state’s Attorney General.  One question that will need to be settled is whether the referendum is allowed in view of the fact that the Amazon Tax was included in the budget, but signs point to this being a possibility.

According to Amazon.com Vice President Paul Misener, “This is a referendum on jobs and investment in California.  As Governor Brown has made clear, it is important to directly involve the citizens of California in key issues and we believe that Californians will want to vote to protect small business and keep jobs in the state.”

If placed on the ballot, the referendum could have a good chance of success.

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The House of Representatives is expected to vote, on Tuesday, on a bill that has become a symbol of Americans’ freedom of choice versus government control in their everyday lives. The Bulb Act will repeal a section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 which would ban the traditional incandescent light bulb, beginning in January of 2012, with the 100 watt bulb. Currently, we are in what is known as the “phase-out” period of Thomas Edison’s bulb, to be completed in 2014, as the government forces us to purchase newer model incandescent bulbs that reportedly save energy but will cost about $1 more than the traditional models. The compact fluorescent light bulbs that the government has promoted contain toxic mercury and must be discarded as a special “hazardous” waste product.

The Bulb Act was introduced by Representatives Joe Barton (R-TX), Michael Burgess (R-TX), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). It is significant legislation not only because of its emphasis on the degree to which the federal government has overreached into the everyday lives of Americans, but also because it marks a concrete conservative shift in House Republicans. The Energy Independence and Security Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush and supported widely by both Republicans and Democrats in the House.

But don’t get too excited about getting back your light bulb freedom yet. The House will need a special two-thirds majority to pass the repeal and, of course, most Democrats will vote against it. If it fails, House Republicans may take up the bill again under the regular rule which would require a simple majority. However, even with passage in the House, the repeal will likely not pass the Senate at this juncture.

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This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is likely to pass legislation—dubbed the “Better Use of Light Bulbs Act,” or BULB Act, for short, that will repeal the now infamous ban on the incandescent light bulb.

I’ll resist the temptation to offer a “How many congressmen does it take to change a light bulb law?” joke, and just say that any bill that has to reference the definition of “medium screw base” as stipulated in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act is kind of complicated.

Still, the BULB Act is only two pages in length.  And its constitutional justification is simple:  the law enacted in 2007 that put Thomas Edison’s light bulb on course of ultimate extinction is an unwarranted federal intrusion into a matter better left to free markets and individual choice.

Yes, it’s come to this:  Congress must pass a law that undoes another law so that the plain old 100-watt light bulb can survive to see 2012.  (Sixty-watt incandescents are set to dim by 2013, and 40-watt bulbs will be extinguished by 2014).  As of now there is little chance that the Senate—which has gone 800 days without passing a budget, much less a light bulb bill—will adopt the BULB Act.  Even if both chambers pass the Act, there is even less likelihood that President Obama will sign it into law.

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In a Dec. 3, 2009, article about the announced resignation of Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Perez wrote that Ogden hasn’t been identified with any major Justice Department policy initiatives. Now that this C-SPAN video from March 24, 2009, is making the rounds anew, it appears Ogden’s name — and that of President Barack Obama — is going to be associated with one now.

That initiative — which could go down in the annals of presidential history as “Obama’s Watergate“ — goes by the name, “Operation Fast and Furious,” and it’s an offshoot of “Project Gunrunner.”

Ogden is shown in the video that resurfaced Friday as he addresses reporters at a Department of Justice briefing.

“The president has directed us to take action to fight these cartels,” Ogden begins, “and Attorney General Holder and I are taking several new and aggressive steps as part of the Administration’s comprehensive plan.”

He goes on to outline that plan, using the exact words below:

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The latest from the Big Labor efforts to strip Republicans of control of the Wisconsin state senate. State labor unions have always been major players in elections here, however, this kind of outside influence on Wisconsin legislative elections is unprecedented. Six million dollars from one interest group for only nine legislative elections? Note thate most of the recalls are not for a month yet, so this totall is sure to increase, perhaps 2-3 times….

[Madison, Wisc…] MNS …In the first eight days of July nearly three million dollars has been sent to Wisconsin by national liberal organizations and individuals, with more than two million dollars coming from large national labor unions.

Big Labor has now sent more than six million dollars to finance recall efforts in Wisconsin according to a review of campaign finance reports conducted by the MacIver News Service. The figures only account for disbursements reported to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board; these organizations do not have to report expenditures made for efforts to communicate with their own membership.

The contributions can come in the form of monetary contributions like wire transfers and checks or in-kind contributions. Wisconsin statutes define “in-kind” contributions as a disbursement by a contributor to procure a thing of value or service for the benefit of a registrant who authorized the disbursement.

All told, Big Labor has spent more than $6,419,000 in the recall efforts this year, having delivered $2.2 million to the state since July 1.

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If you live in California’s 36th Congressional district or in one of the 6 state senate districts targeted by Big Labor in Wisconsin, please vote today. If you don’t live in one of these districts, but know someone who does, call them and urge them to vote today. These are important skirmishes in the battle for liberty.

In California, voters will determine the successor to retiring Representative Jane Harman. The deeply indigo district ought to be a calk-walk for Democrats, but they went with their inner crazy and nominated LA councilwoman Janice Hahn. She championed the ‘novel’ program of giving taxpayer money to gang members to…well, I’m not really sure what they were supposed to do. Not do gang stuff, I guess. What used to be called “protection money” is “gang outreach” in Democrats’ bizarro world. Of course, these gang members continued to do what gang members do. Hahn shouldn’t be in the same hemisphere as the U.S. Treasury. Please support her opponent, Craig Huey.

In Wisconsin, Big Labor has targeted 6 GOP senators for recall. (Sure, there was an election just a few months ago, but Big Labor doesn’t like those results so they want a do-over.) Today is the primary for those recalls.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Doug TenNapel to discuss Ratfist, his new socioeconomic satire of the modern world, what it’s like to be a conservative in liberal Hollywood, and his upcoming book, Bad Island.

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:

Wide World of Webcomics: Doug TenNapel Has a RATFIST
Ratfist
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Doug TenNael’s Website
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Doug’s work at Big Hollywood

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To any lucid observer of politics in America, it should be obvious that the two political figures whom the mainstream media (MSM), the Republican establishment, and the Democrat leadership currently despise more than any others are Gov. Sarah Palin and talk show giant Rush Limbaugh. In general, the reasons Palin and Limbaugh are despised is because they are both disciples of Ronald Reagan, they unabashedly view America as exceptional, and they refuse to back down even in the face of the most ridiculous shame tactics imaginable.

For example, shortly after Obama took office, Limbaugh told his listeners of the dangers Obama posed to this country, and then uttered the now famous words: “I hope he fails.” Members of the MSM went apoplectic, the Republican establishment, led by then RNC Chairman Michael Steele, criticized (and ostracized) Limbaugh for the comment, and the Democrats maligned Limbaugh by taking his words out of context and trying to convince everyday citizens that Limbaugh wanted this nation to fail.

Anyway, long story short: Limbaugh did not back down, and he’s still on the air every day to a growing audience but Michael Steele has been relieved of his duties as RNC Chairman. Moreover, the past two years of Obama’s rule have proven Limbaugh 100% correct in his analysis of the danger Obama posed to this country.

Or think about the way the same people have tried to shame Palin into silence.

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The chart below represents dollars flowing to politicians from the “Top-100” special interest donors over the last 20 years.

The blue skyscraper on the left of the chart is the money spent by Big Labor – it exceeds all other special interests combined.

Further investigation reveals that the money represented on this chart is only the tip of the iceberg.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Big Labor spent $2.2 Billion on political activities during the 2008 & 2010 election cycles alone — eclipsing by four times the 20-year $1/2 Billion from the chart.

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Today, in 1804, Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel against Monarchist Aaron Burr.

The International Baccalaureate Programme was founded in 1968 in Geneva, Switzerland, by Alec Peterson.  According to the IBO.org website Alec Peterson “was born in Edinburgh in 1908 and entered the teaching profession in 1932.  During the Second World War Peterson was deputy-director of psychological warfare (writer’s italics) for South-East Asia Command, serving on Lord Mountbatten’s staff; and from 1952–54 he was director general of information services during the Malaysian emergency.  This military background was to provide him with contacts at the highest levels—contacts that greatly assisted the acceptance of the IB by ministries of education and governments.”  Its mission is to create a better world through education.  In 2010 it implemented a five year strategy to establish its leadership in international education.

Although IB began as a secondary level education program, they now have three programs:  the Primary Years Programme (PYP) beginning with children aged 3 to 12; the Middle Years Programme (MYP) for children from 11 to 16 years old; and the Diploma Programme (DP) for students from 16 through 19 years old.

The IB has been recognized as a non-government organization (NGO) of UNESCO since 1970 and currently has the status of “formal consultative relations as a network” with UNESCO.  Representatives from IB participate regularly in UNESCO meetings and comment on UNESCO proposals in education in their Education for All initiative.  Although the IB programme initially began in private schools, today over half of all IB World Schools are state schools.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was established on November 16, 1945.  The goal of this organization is to work “to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values.  It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO’s mission and activities.”

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