An Iowa straw broke the campaign’s back. From AFP:

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced on Sunday he is dropping out of the Republican presidential contest, after a distant third place finish in a key test vote.

Pawlenty made the announcement after finishing with 2,293 votes Saturday in Iowa’s Ames Straw Poll — seen as a key indicator of who will fare well in early nominating contests next year — over 2,500 votes behind winner Representative Michele Bachmann and second place finisher Ron Paul.

The Pawlenty campaign, officially launched in May, “didn’t get the kind of traction and lift we had hoped coming out of the straw poll,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

(more…)

Barack Obama, a man who listens to no one, is about to commence with his listen-to-me-or-else listening tour.  Although the president totes a Teleprompter with him everywhere he goes, like every seasoned thespian Obama knows that a dry run is necessary to ensure that when the show officially takes to the road the script flows naturally, which must be what the Holland, Michigan Johnson Controls rehearsal was all about.

Fresh off approving hidden camera photos of himself saluting dead American war heroes against the wishes of the surviving families and hosting an Iftar “there’s no them and us — it’s just us” Muslim-praising dinner at the White House, Barack felt it was imperative that he head to Michigan to lay the foundational tone of the tour.

What better place to prepare for the three-day trip than at a “global diversified company in the building and automotive industries” that manufactures “complete lithium-ion battery cells and systems for hybrid and electric cars.”  In other words, an automotive plant that makes batteries for electric cars that aren’t selling as briskly as overly optimistic analysts had originally predicted.

Not coincidentally, Johnson Controls is the recipient of $300 million of Obama’s stimulus money as part of the administration’s focus on so-called “green” technology and jobs.  Nowhere on the President’s Teleprompter was the part about the resulting “green” jobs costing about $2 million each.

(more…)

Following the fire storm over our call in Big Government last week-end for an investigation of potential Presidential and Administration leaking of the Standard & Poors downgrade of the AAA credit rating of the United States; the Securities & Exchange Commission has formally requested S&P disclose who at the company knew about the downgrade, “as part of a preliminary look into potential insider trading.”

According to the Financial Times:

“The inquiry was made by the SEC’s examination staff, which has oversight of credit rating firms, one person familiar with the matter said. The SEC examination staff has the power to make referrals to the SEC’s enforcement division if it believes any laws have been, but the inquiry might not result in a referral….

Proving someone leaked information about the downgrade, or traded ahead of it, could be challenging. Many traders anticipated the downgrade and bets could occur across numerous securities or currencies without inside information. In a traditional insider trading case, there is often a more predictable correlation between a company’s stock price and a particular development.”

An investigation coming so soon after a trading event, usually means that the SEC “Stock Watch” computerized surveillance system has discovered large concentrations of profitable trading activity involving “material non-public” information prior to an event.

By Tuesday the Daily Mail British newspaper published a story attributed to stock brokers in London’s financial district; that a secretive hedge fund turned an $85 million highly leveraged futures speculation placed a few days before the downgrade, into an $850 million profit. Rumors are now swirling that the name of that “lucky” investor was Obama Administration super-supporter, George Soros.

(more…)

Today, in 1935, the first entitlement, Social Security, was enacted. Chickens. Home. Roost. No one wants to admit it, but the overwhelming majority of government spending is transfer payments to senior citizens. No way to fix the budget until we address that. Or, where we are now.

Judicial Watch Director of Litigation Paul Orfanedes, along with Judicial Watch attorney Julie Axelrod, appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans last Wednesday on behalf Houston police sergeant Joslyn M. Johnson.

Houston, Texas, as you may recall, is a sanctuary city. And here’s the principal argument our client is trying to make in court, as described in our original complaint:

Sergeant Johnson challenges current policies, practices, and procedures of the Houston Police Department that substantially restrict, if not prohibit, Plaintiff from communicating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) about illegal aliens who are criminally present in the United States.

Plaintiff does not seek to detain or arrest persons in order to inquire about their immigration status. Rather, Plaintiffs seeks to use her professional judgment to determine when it is appropriate to contact ICE to inquire or provide information about a person’s immigration status if, in the course of carrying out her duties and responsibilities as a law enforcement officer, she has reason to believe a crime may have been committed.

Now I say Mrs. Johnson is “trying” to make these arguments because the lower court dismissed the lawsuit before the merits of the case could even be considered. (For more information on the “reason” for this dismissal, please read our latest court filing in the case.)

If Judicial Watch is successful at the appellate court level, the lawsuit would be remanded to the district court level again where Sgt. Johnson could make her case.

This sanctuary policy issue personally affects Sgt. Johnson. Not only because she serves in the Houston Police Department and sees the potential dangers of allowing illegal alien criminals to roam free, but because Mrs. Johnson is also the widow of former Houston police officer Rodney Johnson, who was murdered by an illegal alien during a routine traffic stop on September 21, 2006.

(more…)

From The Associated Press:

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won a test vote of Iowans on Saturday, a show of popularity and organizational strength for the tea party favorite five months before the state’s caucuses kick off the GOP presidential nominating season.

The result is the first indication of what Iowans think of the field of Republicans competing for the chance to challenge President Barack Obama next fall. But it’s hardly predictive of who will win the winter Iowa contest, much less the party nod or the White House.

Rather, Saturday’s outcome suggests that Bachmann has a certain level of support and, perhaps even more important, the strongest get-out-the-vote operation and widest volunteer base in a state whose caucuses require those elements.

(more…)

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held on June 14, 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  At this conference, referred to as the Rio Earth Summit, the participants crafted a blueprint for the world, commonly known as Agenda 21.

In its preamble, Agenda 21, Chapter 1 states “Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being.  However, integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future. No nation can achieve this on its own; but together we can – in a global partnership for sustainable development.”

In other words, the goal of the United Nations is social and economic justice through a redistribution of wealth scheme using the threat of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming or climate change to implement the market based solution of carbon emissions trading. The International Monetary Fund has proposed a plan for a Green Fund to achieve this goal.

Following this Earth Summit President George H. W. Bush declared:

“Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced –a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level.”

–signed by G.H. Bush, 1992

Despite pressure from the United Nations partners, U.S. delegates did not sign on to the convention.

(more…)

Voting has just wrapped up in the Ames straw poll. Beyond some limited bragging rights for the winner, there really isn’t much as stake. For some candidates, though, today is the beginning of the end.

In light of today’s worldwide anti-capitalist rumbling and renewed feverish interest in leftist redistributive systems, one wonders– just how old is the collectivist idea?

I’ve been reading “Who Murdered Chaucer?” by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame).  It’s a wonderfully detailed, realistic, careful expansion of available data on a historical period, and yet because of the author’s lifelong passion for his topic it’s anything but DULL.  Jones has literally rewritten the history of the late 14th century English court of King Richard II, a time presumed fully known by historians for going on six hundred years.

While exploring how Richard was influenced by the thinkers of his age (including Chaucer), Mr. Jones chanced upon the writings of Philippe de Mezieres, a French clergyman, a proponent of the Crusades, an author and thinker who in his later years presented the young Richard with a book.  As an advocate of Christian crusader war, de Mezieres was an unlikely source of proto-communist thinking; nevertheless it is there, as Jones describes it:

“(de Mezieres) Proposed the abolition of all personal property, on the grounds that the King serves as the ‘father’ to the people and has complete responsibility for their welfare.”

Of course, without the context that the future Republican age would provide, de Mezieres is understandably unable to imagine a working government without a king, and so he weaves one into the fictional utopia he invented to educate the young English monarch.  There in the “Delectable Garden”, as de Mezieres himself puts it:

“All fruits were held in common by the inhabitants, to each according to his need, and the words ‘my own’ were never heard.  These people lived so happily together, they never seemed to grow old.  All tyranny and harsh rule was banished from the Garden, though there was a king, who stood for authority and the common good, and he was so loved and looked up to that he might have been the father of each and all.  And no wonder, for he had such concern for the welfare of his subjects, dwellers in the Garden, that neither he nor his children owned anything in person.”

Given what we know of prideful and competitive human nature, this is of course wishful thinking.  But did you see it?  “To each according to his need.”  Karl Marx would famously expand upon that phrase five centuries later with “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”  It is of course highly doubtful that Marx read de Mezieres, who did not remain known after his time.

(more…)

Gold has a long history of being many things to many people.  To some, it is a shiny bauble, to others a commodity, and to still others a currency.  To financial economists, gold is the traditional hedge against inflation.  This month, however, it appears to have assumed a new role: The gold market is now the mirror image of the broad equity markets. And while the tight inverse correlation in day-to-day trading is unlikely to persist for long, this general relationship may be around for quite some time.  Why?  Because headlines notwithstanding, the rapid rise in gold prices is not a short-term speculative bubble, but rather a necessary consequence of our previous bubbles and an appropriate response to the shakiness of sovereign debt.

Contrary to convenient metaphor, financial bubbles do not “burst” when they end.  They unwind.  Consider the plight of the “Internet Bubble” of a decade ago.  As 1999 drew to a close, all seemed rosy in the world of dotcoms.  Christmas shopping brought droves of new consumers into the world of e-commerce, as the amount of business conducted on the Internet skyrocketed, along with e-tailer revenues.  But that revenue growth, while significant, fell far short of the amount necessary to pay outstanding bills.  In other words, folks who had relied upon future revenues to pay past bills were unable to do so.

The suddenly underfunded e-tailers, beset with disastrous balance sheets, had no choice but to defer their IPOs.  Even worse, within a few months they had to turn to their suppliers, mostly web developers and software companies, and offer them a choice: Either defer due dates on all outstanding receivables and allow them to age gracefully, or sue for collections and risk a countersuit.  With their eyes on their own IPOs, the web developers and software companies had little choice but to age their receivables—and pass the dilemma onto their own suppliers, including web hosting services and ISPs.  They too had assumed that future revenues would cover past bills, and they too were disappointed.  As month followed month, the problem flowed outward with each turn of unpaid receivables.  From software it spread to hardware and eventually to telecom.

The demise of large, well-funded companies like Global Crossing and Worldcom—roughly two years into the unwind—finally diffused the losses sufficiently for the broader economy to swallow them.  Investment picked up again, and the economy recovered—with a disproportionate share of the investment flowing into real estate.  Why real estate?  Largely because government policies arising from numerous corners and serving numerous goals made real estate investing appear to combine low risks with high rewards, and low down payments with sizable future debts.  The specific causes of the real estate bubble—like those of the Internet bubble—form a fascinating tale, but one that is tangential to understanding its unwind.  The key to both unwinds was the assumption that lager revenues tomorrow could fund today’s spending, or in a word, leverage.

(more…)

Recently, David Axelrod announced that President Obama would start targeting would-be Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney via various types of media. The tenor of the announcement made it sound like they were doing the smart thing: going after the presumptive candidate instead of wasting time going after other candidates who might not have a chance of securing the nomination.

This all seemed innocent enough at first, but after I heard Axelrod’s announcement for the 8^th time over the course of a couple days it became evident that he and Obama weren’t picking the presumptive Republican candidate as much as they were picking the candidate they hoped they would get a chance to run against. (Seriously folks, if you’re Obama, what could be better than to run against a candidate who instituted his own form of Obamacare in Massachusetts, who still supports subsidies for ethanol, and who refuses to sign pro-life pledges when presented with them?)

But things don’t always go as planned. And on August 12^th, students of American politics learned this lesson anew when Sarah Palin rolled into the Iowa State Fair unannounced.

People who long ago realized Romney is just John McCain in taller boots flocked to Palin. They crowded around her at the fair and asked the very question the MSM has labeled passé – “Are you running for president?”

The New York Times covered her appearance with this headline: “Palin Spotted – and Swarmed – at Iowa State Fair.”

Reuters said, “Palin Stokes 2012 speculation with Iowa appearance.”

And RealClearPolitics.com reported that Palin’s appearance gave voters a glimpse at “what her campaign would look like.”

Question for Axelrod: Romney who?

(more…)

In my recent post, “Is Revolution in the Air? If So, Let It Be an American Revolution,” I tried to articulate what makes us – American-minded patriots – different and uniquely equipped to respond to the growing mess around us that we did not create, nor give our consent. Since posting it, there have been other commentaries on the possibilities of a looming breakdown in our society. In fact, some mayors of American cities are already taking precautions in light of the hellish scenes coming out of London. The Philadelphia mayor has been in the news lashing out at black-youth “flash mobs” that are wreaking havoc in the city. We have tent cities popping up here and there throughout the country. First jobless and then homeless, these unfortunate souls have completely bottomed out in a land that is the most prosperous and promising in the entire world. When I think of their children, then mine, it’s more than I can bear. It is an ugly stain on the fabric of America.

These are terrible ingredients — a volatile mixture sitting dangerously close to open flames. There are those who wish to do nothing more than to fan these flames. “Destroying America will be the culmination of my life’s work.”~ George Soros. In their twisted view, in order to create a New America, the old one must be destroyed and erased. These are the veterans and decedents of the Radial Left from the 1960’s. Others are merely useful idiots in this plot who have fallen victim to the visions of utopia of a completed society of equals in every way imaginable: equal in squalor; equal in misery.

Defense cuts would allow the United States to tend to a few other priorities, which just might take Americans’ minds off the fact that their country is no longer No. 1. Perhaps the United States could focus on constructing a high-speed rail line or two, or maybe even finish the job on extending health care. After all, of the large economies that enjoyed a AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s last week, the United States ranked at the bottom of the list in terms of life expectancy, and it was the only country without universal health care. Perhaps America could also spend a little more on basic education; the United States was at the tail end of the AAA club when it came to believing basic scientific truths like evolution, and it scored lowest out of all those countries on international tests of students’ math skills. Charles Kenny, Foreign Policy Magazine

The rest are incompetent boobs with no direction, no solutions, and no sense of soul. They are equally dangerous. In over their heads nincompoops who think by defending the very programs and policies that promise to destroy our nation, they are being good stewards of government. That is to say nothing of the run-of-the-mill thieves and prostitutes who plunder our treasury for votes and comfortable seats in power.

There is an alternative to this, though.

(more…)

Today, in 1961, East Germany sealed its border with the West, imprisoning millions of Germans behind the Iron Curtain. Also today, in 1962, the Roman Catholic Church promised not to condemn Communism. (In return, members of the Russian Orthodox Church would attend some of their meetings.) There is a lot of blame to go around.

Based upon research and exclusive documentation provided to Big Government, it’s believed that dated allegations of sexually aggressive behavior by former Penthouse Pet and stripper Tammy Chapman against prospective Republican gubernatorial candidate, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, do not hold up under scrutiny. Along with that, it appears steps may have been taken to cover any tracks leading to who is behind the bizarre smear campaign.

Chapman has alleged Kinder is guilty of said behavior 16 years ago, as well as recently offering her a place to live. Kinder has dismissed the allegations as bizarre. In fact, evidence suggests it may be an intentionally false political smear propagated with the help of a somewhat prominent Democrat.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has responded to a story in the local alt-weekly, in which a bartender and former stripper alleged she once cut off all contact with him because he was too agressive.(sic) “Like most people I am not proud of every place I have been, but this woman’s bizarre story is not true,” Kinder said. He accused his likely Democratic rival in the 2012 gubernatorial election, Gov. Jay Nixon (D), of making up “false stories about the past.”

Chapman made the assertions below in her initial claim. The claims were initially raised three years ago when Kinder ran for Lt. Governor but were mostly ignored by the media for lack of substance. It appears a recent cellphone photo of Chapman and Kinder together, one requested by Chapman and taken with her cellphone in a restaurant where she was waitressing at the time, may have provided what appeared to be a valid news hook to re-assert the old attack.

Chapman tells Daily RFT, Kinder was obsessed with her nearly sixteen years ago, when she was a young stripper … to the point that she cut off all contact. … “He became very aggressive with me,” she says. “I couldn’t tolerate what he was making me do.” Alarmed by his conduct and the letters he was writing, she told him not to come in any more. “I was willing to give up the money he gave me,” she says simply.

Chapman alleges that while she gave the state senator private dances, he would grab her by the shoulders and aggressively try to force her head into his lap. “He’d pull me down to his groin — really, really hard, to the point that it hurt me,” she says

She saw him four years ago at an NRA convention: Their eyes locked, and Chapman confided to a companion that this was the creepy guy she’d told him about. But the two never spoke.

As for that famous photo, she’s mystified as to how it got out. She took it, she says, and she e-mailed it to him before deleting it. Kinder, she says, is the only person she e-mailed it to; she has no idea how it wound up being sent to Riverfront Times.

Chapman says she’s speaking out because she’s disgusted by Kinder’s behavior, both in the mid-’90s and today. “He uses his political business card to get women,” she says.

She adds, “He is not fit for public office.”

Yet, according to sources it was Chapman who actually approached Kinder at the restaurant and requested to have her picture taken with him – a man she now claims physically hurt her years ago.

(more…)

Since breaking news about a July 21 raid on a farm 12 miles north of Denver that resulted in local law enforcement officials seizing 193 rabbits from a nationally-recognized rabbit expert, I’ve learned more disturbing details about the case. Perhaps least shocking was my discovery that members of the Denver-area news media appear to have swallowed everything thrown at them by the Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office.

Before pressing on, I’ll recap the lowlights of what transpired after someone placed an anonymous call — the first ever, according to officials with the Sheriff’s Office — to a new statewide Crime Stoppers hotline that had been set up in June, specifically to take reports from citizens of suspected animal abuse:

1. Without a warrant, officials with the Sheriff’s Office descended upon Debe Bell’s Six Bells Farm Candle Factory and Rabbitry at approximately 10:30 a.m., accompanied by three veterinarians and several volunteers from the local branch of the House Rabbit Society — a nationwide group comprised of people who, according to Bell, think rabbits need to be raised like small children.

2. During the next three hours, according to Bell, the throng of law enforcement officers, veterinarians and volunteers opened the doors of her 600-square-foot barn, turned off the water to the swamp cooler (an air conditioning system for the barn) and caused the temperature in the barn to rise to 84 degrees.

3. Some six hours after they arrived, Sheriff’s Office officials produced a warrant which spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said was obtained after they convinced a judge that they had seen “what they believed to be some issues” at Six Bells Farm.

4. During the next four hours, according to Bell, the same throng loaded her rabbits in cardboard boxes, put them in a horse trailer and hauled them off to the county fairgrounds. There, the rabbits were placed in dog and cat crates with solid-bottom floors, meaning, “The minute they urinate, they’re standing in their own urine.”

5. For several days after their arrival at the fairgrounds, Bell said, the crated rabbits were kept in a non-air conditioned concrete-stalls horse barn until officials with the Foothills Animal Shelter — a group tasked by the Sheriff’s Office with caring for the animals — decided that wasn’t working out and obtained a swamp cooler.

(more…)

Academic debates occasionally get pretty ugly, and that is just the way it is. Sometimes they get really very ugly. There is one case that has bothered me for several years.

James Q. Wilson is now 80 years old, and for decades he has been the most prominent criminologist in the country, responsible for a number of important ideas, such as the Broken Windows theory, which argues that urban disorder and vandalism produce additional crime.

Undoubtedly, Wilson has made a number of enemies as he has taken positions that upset some on the left. One such issue was Wilson’s involvement with the National Academy of Sciences panel on Firearms and Violence. The panel was set up by the Clinton Administration and contained many outspoken gun control proponents (e.g., Steve Levitt argued that theoretically the presence of firearms leads to greater levels of violence and Richard Rosenfeld argued that those opposed to the Brady Law were “immune to scientific assessment”); nevertheless the final report refused to take a stand on whether right-to-carry laws reduce crime.

Dissents for National Academy of Sciences reports are very rare. Being on a panel is a cushy, prestigious position, and there is a lot of pressure to sign on to any conclusion. Those who don’t aren’t invited back to be on future panels. Over the ten years prior to the Firearms and Violence report, there were only two dissents out of the previous 236 reports. Wilson himself had been on four of these panels and never previously wanted to write a dissent, including the previous panel that attacked work showing that the death penalty deters crime.

But for Wilson, the firearms panel was different. Wilson’s dissent was not only rare, he was also forceful: “In view of the confirmation of the findings that shall-issue laws drive down the murder rate, it is hard for me to understand why these claims are called ‘fragile.’”

(more…)

This WaPo article — “Obama tries to change subject back to green jobs” — is an instant classic of a new, Obama-era genre: cheerleading for expensive schemes which exist solely due to political whimsy and consideration, and are therefore little more than make-work.

The item begins, “After spending weeks talking about topics he probably would have preferred to avoid — debt limits, deficits, a plunging stock market — President Obama will hit the road Thursday to talk about jobs. Specifically, about how his administration is trying to create more of them.”

The green ones. Which schemes failed where the president used to tell us to look but no longer does because the failures were exposed. As his spokesman admits “the White House doesn’t create jobs”.

And his critics say he’s out of ideas! But, hmm. Yes. I suppose that ‘green jobs’ thing went over well last time he led with it. Still, if ending up as a punch-line is victory, what does defeat look like?

(more…)