In a perverse way, I’m glad that there are places such as Greece and Illinois. These profligate jurisdictions are useful examples of the dangers of bloated government and reckless statism.

There also are some cities that serve as reverse role models. Detroit is a miserable case study of big government run amok, so I enjoyed a moment or two of guilty pleasure as I read this CNBC story about the ongoing decay of the Motor City. Here are some excerpts.

Detroit neighborhoods with more people and a better chance of survival will receive different levels of city services than more blighted areas under a plan unveiled Wednesday that some residents fear may pit them against each other for scarce resources. …the boundaries of the 139-square-mile city aren’t receding. The plan also backs away from forcing the redistribution of what’s left of the population into areas where people still live and where the houses aren’t on the verge of caving in. …Detroit’s population of about 713,000 is down about 200,000 from 10 years ago, according to U.S. Census figures, and has fallen more than 1 million since 1950. Some areas have fewer occupied homes than vacant ones. …A 2010 survey found Detroit had 33,000 vacant houses and scores of empty, weed-filled and trash-cluttered lots.

How predictable, I thought. This is what happens when vote-hungry politicians adopt policies that reward people for riding in the wagon and punish the folks who are pulling the wagon.

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News that Google’s Street Car Program collected locations of millions of cell phones, laptops and other Wi-Fi devices from around the globe has raised further privacy concerns about the policies of the corporate Giant.

Google’s Street Car program was ostensibly designed to collect and catalog public Wi-Fi locations but instead the company also recorded the addresses and unique identifiers of computers and other devices using those wireless networks and then made the data publicly available through Google.com until just a few weeks ago.

Sound familiar? It should. This isn’t the first time Google has been caught driving around capturing private information from unsuspecting citizens.

Last year, Google’s Streetview cars captured personal information including passwords from Wi-Fi networks in every home the cars drove past.

The last time this happened, Google claimed it was a  “mistake” and blamed a rogue employee. But it seems like there are an awful lot of “mistakes” that result in Google’s acquisition of massive caches of otherwise unobtainable personal data.

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Rep. Issa; I’ve shot about 30 hours of video so far for the documentary Pigford Blues. And since you’ve voted to keep funding Pigford and there’s still no investigation, you have questions to answer–perhaps as much as President Obama does right now.

In this segment, Thomas Burrell, the head of the Black Farmers Agricultural Association, explains the low bar for proof in the Pigford settlement — using the excuse that no records were kept, simply saying you attempted to farm means the claimants and their lawyers win. Guess who loses, Rep. Issa?

Despite a high unemployment and a sputtering economy, a new report reveals how the government may be making things worse by imposing bigger burdens on business. A new video from the Heritage Foundation highlights this explosion of government red tape.

And while this problem is not new—over $60 billion in new burdensome red tape was imposed under the previous Bush Administration—the explosion of new regulations under President Obama is unprecedented.

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As we tick-tock toward August 2nd, the day President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have set as the day the Executive Branch will have to start prioritizing expenditures – establishing what programs are covered exclusively by actual tax revenue and not borrowed money, we approach an artificial deadline for a secondary issue created by a much more systemic national malady. Where the news media and elected officials argue, whine and mislead on the issue of raising the federal debt limit ceiling, the debt ceiling isn’t even close to the issue that all inside the beltway, but for the TEA Party, are refusing to address seriously: overspending.

Many on the Left side of the aisle have been caught rationalizing the need to raise the debt ceiling by noting it has been raised 78 times since 1960 – 49 times under Republican presidents, and 29 times under Democrat presidents, an irrelevant attribution due to the fact that Congress holds the power of the purse, not the Executive Branch. In fact, if one wants to split hairs about which party has presided over the majority of debt ceiling raises, and, consequently, which party has presided over the most deficit spending, it would be more accurate to point out that Democrats, from 1960 to 2010, have held the majorities in the Senate for 36 years and the House for 41 years. Ergo, Democrats and Progressives are far more to blame than Republicans for bringing the nation to the precipice of financial ruin.

Truth be told, both sides of the aisle are to blame for spending beyond their means, the honest man – or woman – recognizes and acknowledges that Congress has been spending more than it takes in for generations, whether under Republican leadership or Democrat leadership. That said, our nation would be infinitely better served if the news media and the elected class abandoned the blame game and political gimmicks – something that Progressives and especially Pres. Obama are not wont to do, to focus on the urgent need for them to commit to balancing the budget.
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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 crumbling “Boehner Plan” in the House, how Obama may circumvent it, and who’s to blame for this mess.

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:

The U.S. Treasury has less cash on hand than Apple Inc.
3 ways Obama could bypass Congress
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President Obama this Tuesday stated his case for increased taxes on “the rich” as part of his solution to balance the deficit. “Keep in mind,” he assured the American people, “that under a balanced approach, the 98% of Americans who make under $250,000 would see no tax increases at all.”

I have a very basic question that I am not sure anyone has pressed Mr. Obama to answer: Where did this figure of 250k, north of which one is considered by him to be among “the rich” even come from?  Its very roundness tells me that it was the result not of a detailed actuarial analysis but rather some sort of arbitrary caprice that only those completely isolated from any private sector experience can conjure up.  I almost get the feeling it was something as off-hand as: “Hey 250k sounds right to me.  Nice number.  So whattya think?”  Sure write it in there.

Consider: if you are living in Little Rock, Arkansas  and make $249,000 according to the president you are not “rich” and thus do not need to kick in more.  Yet if you live in, say, New York City and make $251,000 you are “rich” and so it’s time to ante up.  Is that how it works?  Again I ask:  what is so magical about $250,000?  Why is the cut-off  not $246,500 or $310,231?  Isn’t anyone curious about how this man creates economic policy?

Let’s look at it this way.  Someone in the New York metro area making $251,000 need only make $100,000  to garner the same standard of living in Little Rock, Arkansas.  For instance, a family of four searching for a two-bedroom apartment  in Manhattan can expect to pay anywhere from the low end of $2,100/mo in Harlem to $6,700/mo+ in Tribeca.  (That of course makes the two kiddies double up in one room).  In Little Rock you can find a comparable apartment for an average of $700/mo.  New York’s low end is three times Little Rock’s average.     (This standard of living discrpency, in fact, serves as an indictment of the unfairness of our entire messed up tax code but I digress.)

So again I ask where does this $250,000 level come from?

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On July 28, 2011, former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones attended the Rebuild the Dream rally held outside the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and said Americans don’t bow down to “hostage taking tactics” and the GOP is putting “a gun to the head of 310 million people”, in regards to the current debate on the debt limit.

Jones told MRCTV’s Joe Schoffstall:

“Any faction in America that would put a gun to the head of 310 million people and say ‘If you don’t do it our way, we will blow your dreams away, we will blow a hole in the American economy’, that is un-American. That is not how we do business, and we refuse to bow down to those tactics.”

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From Reuters:

The data was released Friday along with the government’s first estimate of second quarter GDP, which advanced at a meager and weaker-than-expected 1.3 percent rate

Not only did the economy skirt perilously close to a contraction in the first quarter, growth in the fourth quarter of last year was at a tepid 2.3 percent annual rate, not the solid 3.1 percent pace that had been believed.

The downward revision to the first quarter was even sharper.

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To the unrestrained amusement of the completely disengaged Democrats in the Senate and White House, the House Republican Leadership spent all day yesterday, indeed all week, beating the heck out of their conservative, Tea Party contingent to vote for an ineffectual debt ceiling plan from Speaker John Boehner.

There aren’t the House votes for it – as demonstrated by last night’s postponements.  There aren’t the Republican votes for it – there aren’t even the five Democrat votes for it that were cast for the far, far better Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) plan.

Why is the House Republican leadership going to such great lengths to get this far lesser plan passed?  Working far harder for it than they did for CCB?

When the Boehner plan faces the same defeat as CCB in the completely unproductive Senate.  A defeat with less Senate votes than CCB received.

The House has done its work.  Twice – CCB and the Paul Ryan plan.  It should not spend one more second contorting the arms of their own to try to pass a third, tepid alternative to the two fine plans they have already put forward.

In a sane, good world, the House leadership would first thing this morning issue the following statement.  Then adjourn and go home.

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The Tea Party movement, which was so heralded in 2009 and 2010 and played a large role in motivating voters and candidates to move to the right, is dead.  It’s chief accomplishment was to elect enough Republicans to the US House of Representatives that John Boehner was elected Speaker. But make no mistake, the movement—as it was known then—is dead. And it is becoming painfully embarrassing to watch groups prop up the corpse and parade around like it was still alive—an electoral version of Weekend at Bernie’s.

The Missouri chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which—when led by Carl Bearden in 2009 and 2010—adroitly harnessed grassroots angst and helped organize voters and give them voice. Alas, Bearden has left AFP, and the organization recently held some non-ironically named “Running on Empty” rallies featuring a large inflatable gasoline pump… and little else. Attendance was anemic in Kansas City and it is not evident what, if anything, was accomplished.

The Freedom Jamboree slated for Kansas City was cancelled due to lack of interest. It was originally presented as the National Tea Party Straw Poll Convention, and guest speakers were to include Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum.  Less than 20% of the organizer’s attendance goal was reached, and so they pulled the plug.

And now we learn from the leader of the St. Louis Tea Party, Bill Hennessy, that the August 4 Tea Party in Kiener Plaza is likewise cancelled. In his post explaining the cancellation, Hennessy allows, “other cities have had a hard time getting people enthused about rallies since last year’s election.”

Not to be outdone, the Left has hopped aboard the Tea Party train just as it is running out of steam.

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This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum, much of it geared towards elementary students.  For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com.

Leftist educators will take just about anything and turn it on its head to fit their agenda.  Even children’s fairytales don’t escape the slaughterhouse.

Ellen Wolpert, a longtime “early childhood educator” in Massachusetts, penned an article entitled, “Rethinking ‘The Three Little Pigs.’”

You’re probably familiar with the story: a big, bad wolf threatens to destroy the homes of three individual pigs. There’s a lot of huffing and puffing on the wolf’s part, but he can only blow over the two homes that were constructed with straw and sticks.

The house standing left standing is made of brick, leaving readers to conclude that careful planning and hard work (as represented by the brick house) leads to success. The pigs’ definition of success, of course, is to avoid being eaten by the wolf.

That’s how normal, well-adjusted people interpret the story. But Leftists, by and large, are dour, unhappy people who see oppression and bigotry around every corner. So it’s no surprise that Wolpert sees a dark and malicious subtext to the simple fairy tale.

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Will he or won’t he? Should he or shouldn’t he? The eyes of the world’s financial markets will be on DC today.

In our next life, we hope to live in a world where the GOP realizes that the Left never negotiates in good faith. In our life after that, we hope the GOP realizes the Media is actively working against them.

From The Associated Press:

An intensive endgame at hand, Republican leaders abruptly postponed a vote Thursday night on legislation to avert a threatened government default and slice federal spending by nearly $1 trillion.

“The votes obviously were not there,” conceded Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., after Speaker John Boehner and the leadership had spent hours trying to corral the support of rebellious conservatives.

The decision created fresh turmoil as divided government struggled to head off an unprecedented default that would leave the Treasury without the funds needed to pay all its bills. Administration officials say Tuesday is the deadline for Congress to act.

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A few weeks ago, I told you that Judicial Watch is investigating a decision by the Obama Justice Department to shield from prosecution a radical terrorist who was involved in financing the terrorist group Hamas. His name is Omar Ahmad and he is one of the co-founders of the radical Council on American Islamic Relations (known as CAIR).

We think it’s important that the American people know why our federal government is protecting terrorists and terrorist-fronts (such as CAIR) here at home, while our men and women in uniform continue to spill their blood fighting terrorists abroad. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of our military and military families, and represents a nonsensical approach to national security to say the least.

This is a battle we have been fighting for a very long time. Judicial Watch has been heavily involved in exposing the financial networks that make terrorism possible going back almost ten years now. In the days after 9/11, Judicial Watch called on the Bush administration to investigate and, if necessary, shut down terrorist front groups. (We listed them by name.) We also published a special report demonstrating how these terrorist financial networks operate and who operates them.

Perhaps most importantly, we took on the case of two FBI agents — Special Agent Robert Wright and retired Special Agent John Vincent — who were silenced by the FBI when they attempted to expose the government’s mishandling of terrorism investigations in the days before 9/11.

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There’s no way to appreciate fully the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who would have turned 99 years old this weekend, to the growth of libertarian ideas and a free society.

This is the man, after all, who introduced the concept of school vouchers, documented the role of government monopolies on money in creating inflation, provided the intellectual arguments that ended the military draft in America, co-founded the Mont Pelerin Society, and so much more. In popular books such as Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, written with his wife and longtime collaborator Rose, he masterfully drew a through-line between economic freedom and political and cultural freedom.

Yet his ultimate contribution to freedom and liberty is found less in any of the specific argument he made and more in the ways he made them. Friedman provided an all-too-rare example of a public intellectual who was scrupulously honest, forthright, and fair in every debate he entered. Whether he was duking it out with fellow Nobel Prize winners and other high-profile economists or making the case for the morality of capitalism with TV hosts such as Phil Donahue and angry students, he always argued in good faith, admitted when he was wrong, and enlarged the circle of debate.

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Terrible news surfaced Wednesday: The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal of Michael C. Behenna of Edmond, Okla., and upheld his murder conviction and 15-year prison sentence at the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

1st Lt. Michael Behenna

Who is Michael Behenna? He is the Army Ranger first lieutenant who, on July 31, 2008, was charged with the premeditated murder of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda agent operating near Albu Toma, an area north of Baghdad. He is the one-time leader of the 18-member Delta Company, 5th Platoon of the Army’s 101st Airborne Infantry Division who, seven months later, was convicted of unpremeditated murder and sentenced to 25 years confinement — later reduced to 15 — at Fort Leavenworth.

Why do I staunchly support Lieutenant Behenna? Because even the government’s top witness, Dr. Herb MacDonell — a man who wasn’t allowed to testify after new evidence was shared with him and he told prosecutors he believed the young officer was innocent.

Below is an excerpt from a Dec. 12, 2009, post at BigG, one of the more than four dozen posts I’ve written about Lieutenant Behenna’s case, that outlines the forensics expert’s position:

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Think the Wisconsin Teachers’ union is worried that Wisconsin’s new labor law will lead to a dramatic decline in union membership? They’re going all in on the August recall campaigns, spending nearly a half million dollars in just one day. For radio ads only. In Wisconsin. Clearly, for now, they have a lot of money to burn. They’re not going to go down without a fight.

[Madison, Wisc...] WEAC, Wisconsin’s largest teachers’union, spent nearly a half million dollars in one day on behalf of Democratic candidates through their political aciton committee, the MacIver News Service has learned.

According to records on file at the Wisconsin Governement Accountability Board, on July 22 WEAC PAC spent  $424,000 on a radio ad buy to support two Democrat State Senators being recalled, and five Democrat candidates who are challenging Republican incumbent Senators.

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