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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Senator Jim DeMint to discuss the fallout from the debt ceiling debate, the danger of Congress’ new super committee and his new book The Great American Awakening: Two Years that Changed America, Washington, and Me.

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:

DeMint: Debt Deal Puts America at Risk
S.C. senators: Debt deal misses target
DeMint’s leadership PAC battles leaders’ in fight for future of Senate GOP caucus
The Great American Awakening: Two Years that Changed America, Washington, and Me
Senator Jim DeMint

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Here we go again, another sexting scandal perpetrated by a Democrat. But New Jersey Democrat Louis Magazzu, 53, had a darn good excuse for why his sexting of nude photos of himself should be ignored. He was set up, you see? Isn’t this like a crack addict blaming the crack?

Magazzu admitted readily enough that he sent to a woman he’d been texting for several years the nude pictures he took of himself with his cell phone. But apparently he felt we should cut him some slack because the woman gave the photos to one of his political enemies. She’s at fault… don’t you see?

Yep. She’s the bad guy here. “I did not know that she was working with an avowed political enemy to distribute these pictures,” Magazzu whined.

Magazzu, a Cumberland County Freeholder from southern New Jersey, resigned this week due to the scandalous photos. Freeholder Director Bill Whelan had been urging the sexting prone Democrat to resign for the past three weeks because of the mounting scandal. (more…)

Let’s talk about fairness. As President Obama himself explained in a debate back in 2008, the tax code isn’t and shouldn’t be structured for maximizing either revenue or economic growth.

It’s about fairness. And by fairness, he means a highly progressive system where a small percentage of the population known as “the rich” (a group continually being defined down) pays more and more of their income to the Treasury, ostensibly to be redistributed to those who “need it”, with need being defined by Obama and his gangs of central planners.

In the current “unfair” system Obama ostensibly disdains, the wealthiest 1% of households pay 38% of all income taxes, the top 5% (those earning more than $160,000) account for 59% of all federal income taxes, while a Tax Policy Center study showed the bottom 45% paid no income taxes in 2010.

Looking at these numbers, anyone truly concerned with fairness — not vengeance — must conclude the wealthy are shouldering an unfair burden in a system in which they stand to benefit the least.

Obviously we all pay taxes of one sort or another. There are payroll taxes, Social Security taxes, property taxes, sales taxes. At the local and state levels, the wealthiest pay a higher percentage of the tax burden, because they’re buying more expensive properties and purchasing a greater number of goods and services with their disposable income.

But they benefit equally from laws protecting their property, police and fire departments, roads, public schools, and public parks and institutions. (Those who send their kids to private schools pay the cost of those schools plus the cost of the public school, for which they receive nothing in return.) Those who pay less or nothing have equal access to these protections and services.

(more…)

After the birth of our second daughter, my husband and I knew we needed some sort of contraceptive. Not ready for #3, and unwilling to give up the very activity that could lead to another ankle-biter, we decided to take advantage of modern medicine and use birth control.

We settled on the Mirena (and now you know way more about my uterus than you probably wanted to), even though it wasn’t covered by our insurance plan. It cost close to $500, but was economically worth it for us for its longevity. The pharmaceutical company I bought it from negotiated a payment plan with me, and after $35 a month for a year, the thing was paid for.

Sure, it would’ve been nice if insurance had covered it, but it didn’t. It was their choice not to cover the device, and my choice to use it anyway. Key word? Choice.

Obamacare robs American individuals and businesses of free choice at every turn, in the name of the common good. Don’t want to spend money on health insurance? Too bad, now everyone has to buy it.

One of the latest requirements to hit insurers in the U.S. is the birth control mandate. Starting January 1, 2013, health care providers will be legally obligated to offer birth control-with no co pay-to anyone that wants it. This sanction falls under the umbrella of women’s preventative care as written in Obamacare.

Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius says:

“These historic guidelines are based on science and existing (medical) literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need.”

This isn’t about helping women obtain contraceptives; this is about exerting control over yet another portion of U.S. business. Women already have access to birth control for little or no money. Medicaid (government-sponsored medical care for those that meet income guidelines) covers contraceptives. Planned Parenthood hands out condoms like they’re candy. Walmart fills birth control pill prescriptions for as little as $9 per month.

In other words: If a woman really can’t afford contraceptives, she won’t have a problem getting them anyway.

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If you are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company that has received $50 billion in federal bailout coin, there are certain things that you realistically shouldn’t say or do.

Both from a substantive policy and an optics perspective, you should walk a pretty straight line until We the People are made whole.

Behold General Motors (GM) CEO Dan Akerson – a man who obviously doesn’t adhere to this philosophy.

As we said back in March, Akerson is a foundational part of the Washington, D.C.-Wall Street crony capitalism nexus.

Akerson is not – and never has been – a car guy.  He himself said so.  What is he?  He is a DC-connected, Wall Street hedge fund big coin guy.

Akerson’s immediately preceding gig was Managing Director and head of Global Buyout for the incredibly inside-the-Beltway-connected Carlyle Group.

This hip-joined relationship with the federal Leviathan means Akerson’s a cardboard cutout for the real CEO of Government Motors – U.S. Treasury Secretary (and yet another fellow DC-Wall Streeter) Tim Geithner.

And from all we have since seen, Akerson is one giant toe on the Huge Government, Obama Administration line.

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It’s almost expected anymore when the media does it but our elected officials aren’t supposed to turn on the constituency with bullying tactics.

From the St. Louis Tea Party:

ST. LOUIS TEA PARTY CONDEMNS “TERRORIST” REMARKS FROM VICE-PRESIDENT BIDEN, LAWMAKERS

It was revealed Monday by Politico that Vice-President Joe Biden, U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, and other lawmakers referred to the tea party as “terrorists” during a heated discussion on the debt ceiling debate. From Politico:

Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour,  closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.

“We have negotiated with terrorists, ” an angry Doyle said,  according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

Biden,  driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal,  responded: “They have acted like terrorists.”

The St. Louis Tea Party condemns the comparison of private citizens who desire fiscal restraint in Washington to murderous terrorists who have killed thousands of Americans world-wide.

“It’s reprehensible to me that our Vice-President and other elected leaders would make such a grotesque analogy when in just over a month we will mark the tenth anniversary of the worst attack on American soil,” remarks Dana Loesch, Co-Founder of the St. Louis Tea Party.

“It’s an insult to Americans and the Democratic process to refer to dissenting Americans in such a way,” says Bill Hennessy, St. Louis Tea Party Co-Founder. “Are our elected leaders so out of touch with what terrorism actually is that they are willing to defame, by way of analogy, a vast group of people? We have members who lost friends to terrorists in the 9/11 attacks. We do not have any members who have lost friends due to peaceful protest.”

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Milwaukee – Imitating the infamous “smokes for votes” scandal of the 2000 election, a small leftwing Wisconsin front group has been caught handing out barbecue chicken dinners to those who vote early in the Wisconsin recall elections. During the 2000 campaign a wealthy liberal activist was caught passing out cigarettes to Milwaukee’s homeless in exchange for their vote in the all-important presidential election. Over a decade later, Wisconsin Jobs Now!, a small group sponsored by the union umbrella Citizen Action of Wisconsin, hosted “block parties” in northern Milwaukee and essentially paid citizens to vote.

According to Wisconsin state law, it is illegal for anyone to pay or otherwise give someone something to induce or encourage them vote or not vote in an election. As the most recent round of Wisconsin Jobs Now! “block parties” took place on Monday, August 1, a Media Trackers source shared what happened. Voters were handed a ticket for the barbecue dinner and a raffle ticket after they signed in to the event. At some point each voter was asked to board a van with the organization’s logo emblazoned on the side. The vans ran round-trip transportation between the neighborhood party and Milwaukee City Hall, where there is an early voting location.

The shenanigans did not stop with the food and prizes give-away back at the party. Once voters were hustled upstairs in the City Hall to the election commission office, union volunteers affiliated with Wisconsin Jobs Now! carefully explained how the process would work. Because Wisconsin Jobs Now! has clearly aligned themselves on their website and in public statements with the partisan campaign of Rep. Sandy Pasch, their presence inside the polling place violated state electioneering laws. That was strike two.

As that wasn’t enough, Media Trackers unearthed last week that Rep. Sandy Pasch (D) the liberal candidate running against Sen. Alberta Darling (R) (who supported Gov. Walker’s collective bargaining reforms) sits on the board of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Translated, that means that the front group helping the liberal candidate is sponsored by the union umbrella organization that the same liberal senate candidate and incumbent state representative sits on the board of.

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Today, in 1944, a Dutch informant led the Gestapo to Anne Frank’s hideaway. Neither she nor her family would survive the war. The informant, however, probably lived a long and, hopefully, miserable life.

From AFP:

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country’s spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

(more…)

From FoxNews:

David Brock, chairman and chief executive of Media Matters for America, told a news website earlier this year that his nonprofit is now moving to “sabotage” FOX News because it says the network is now the “de facto head of the GOP,” among other things.

Anchors and guests appearing on FOX News have said because of such statements, the nonprofit is violating U.S. tax law.

There is no indication the IRS is auditing or probing Media Matters for these alleged violations.

However, interviews with current and former IRS officials, tax lawyers and tax experts, as well as a review of Media Matters’ IRS documents and its activities indicate the nonprofit has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy for reasons beyond those allegations.

(more…)

Today, we reached out to John Rizzo, business manager of IBEW Local 1220 and asked for his reaction to President Obama’s birthday bash being staffed by non-union labor. His response:

As President Obama’s 50th birthday celebration is being held in Chicago, IBEW Local 1220 would be highly disappointed if the decision to record the event or provide video support was done with non-Union labor.

When we contacted Mr. Rizzo, he was unaware that President Obama was even visiting Chicago today. Interesting. Stay tuned for further developments.

Look leftists, you’ve taken every good word that use to mean something and run it into the ground. Because of your overuse brought on by your hysteria and uncontrollable tantrums, the once strong words that specifically defined someone has been rendered impotent – much like your brains.

Here are a few examples of watered-down words in modern American lexicon.

Fascist. That was a good one. But no, you went and watered it down. It was once a serious word that described a real threat and a growing ideology. Now it’s used to describe those who believe that “In God We Trust” on our currency is OK. Or simply just happen to disagree with you over the right to prayer at a high school graduation.

Nazi. A little more nuanced than fascism but doubly meaningful when directed at someone. Nazism was the closest thing to the Devil’s army that man has ever produced. Writers have been trying for over 60 years to understand its origins and existence. It’s so deep and dark and evil that it was really a rare phenomenon in human history. So inhuman were their actions, we still can’t grasp it all. Now ironically, if you are pro-life, you are a Nazi.

Racist. Ah, now there’s a word you never get tired of hearing. Racism is a clinical condition. I personally think you have to be somewhat insane to fully subscribe to it. That’s not to say there aren’t real differences between cultures and values. And certainly some are indeed better than others. See, I’m a racist. I just held and expressed a less than flattering idea. Ergo, racist! That’s not its only use, though. If you are pounding a liberal opponent in debate, you can expect to be called racist. For instance, if you hold the view that lower taxes are better than higher taxes, you run the danger of being a racist. It is like the nuclear bomb in the liberal arsenal.

Which now leads us here.

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I’m looking for some advice. It’s about money.

I don’t need to tell you that times are tough. It seems like half the experts think we are about to plunge into the second part of a double-dip recession and the other half think that we’re there already. Like a lot of people, the week to week struggle is tiring me out and it’s not just about me, either. I have a wife and kids to think about, too.

I won’t lie; the idea of getting $50,000 tax-free sounds pretty good to me.

I know exactly how I can get it, too. It wouldn’t take more than a few hours of work. All I need to do is fill out some forms and talk about the time that my sweet, dearly departed mother tried to get a farm loan from the USDA.

You may be thinking that it sounds too good to be true.

Trust me, it’s not. This is the real deal. I’ve been working on a documentary about the USDA’s “black farmers” settlement for months now. I’ve interviewed dozens of people and it’s very clear that you can collect a $50,000 check if you know how to fill out the paperwork correctly. And I know how to fill that paperwork out.

Basically, you tell the USDA that you or a relative attempted to farm during a certain period of time but that you or the relative were a victim of discrimination and the USDA didn’t even give out the loan paperwork. No proof one way or another. The claim is judged by an “adjudicator” who looks at your paperwork and if it seems specific, detailed and believable, they approve the claim and you collect a $50,000 check tax-free.

In the Pigford black farmers settlement, over 15,000 people collected these checks and I’ve been told by a number of people that over 80% of them collected on this “attempted to farm” standard. If you’re still skeptical, here’s the official government accounting. The U.S. government paid out over billion dollars in claims and most of it didn’t go to farmers.

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A few weeks ago I told you that the Obama administration has nearly tripled the amount of taxpayer funds given to the radical Mexican separatist group the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Not coincidentally, this increased generosity commenced after Obama tapped one of NCLR’s former top officials (Cecilia Munoz) to serve as his Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Well, following on that story, President Obama delivered a high-profile speech to NCLR last week, letting the radicals know he plans on giving more to them than just cash. Now, to be fair, this organization has for a long time had friends in high places in both political parties and enough pull to secure speeches from such political heavyweights as Governor Rick Perry (R-TX).

The Chicago Sun-Times has the full transcript of Obama’s speech. However, I thought I would share with you a few of the key excerpts and headlines:

1. Obama noted the influence of the NCLR within his administration.It is good to be back with NCLR. It is good to see all of you. Right off the bat, I should thank you because I have poached quite a few of your alumni to work in my administration.
2. Obama promised to complete his mission to pass the Dream Act, another of his “stealth amnesty” initiatives that would provide permanent residency to illegal alien high school graduates as long as they go to college or join the military:I promised you I would work tirelessly to fix our broken immigration system and make the DREAM Act a reality. And two months ago…I went down to the border of El Paso to reiterate…my vision for an immigration system that holds true to our values and our heritage, and meets our economic and security needs. And I argued this wasn’t just the moral thing to do, it was an economic imperative.
3. Obama stated that he is very tempted to “bypass Congress and change the laws on [his] own”:Now, I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know very well the real pain and heartbreak that deportations cause. I share your concerns and I understand them. And I promise you, we are responding to your concerns and working every day to make sure we are enforcing flawed laws in the most humane and best possible way. Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. And believe me, right now dealing with Congress…[The audience began to chant: “Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can!”]

   Believe me, believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting.

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There is always a danger in only listening to one side of a story and assuming everything you hear is true. The citizens of New York City, and the media, learned this lesson the hard way, but not more than 20 years later, it seems precious few remember it.

I have been having a strong sense of déjà vu in recent weeks, as I’ve watched the media and the public take sides in the Dominique Strauss-Khan case. In 1987, many of us listened to the harrowing story Tawana Brawley was telling and assumed the worst of our law enforcement, public servants and neighbors. She said she had been raped by six white men, including police officers and a New York prosecutor. She said she had been smothered in feces and left for dead. It was unfathomable that a young woman would make up such a story. So we believed her, and we rallied behind her. It became black versus white, rich versus poor, and it was bad for our city.

But Brawley did make it up, most of us have concluded. She had her own motives, probably fear of being abused by her mother and stepfather for skipping school. Maybe we couldn’t have known that then. But having lived through it, we should all know better than to assume that a victim’s sad story is absolutely true.

The very fact that DSK’s alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo has taken her case to the media, rather than work her way through the court system, should raise red flags. Any lawyer will tell you that putting an alleged victim in front of television cameras before a trial only creates another version of events for defense attorneys to pick apart and use against her. Prosecutors couldn’t have been happy with her decision, because it hurts her chances of achieving justice.

Instead, Diallo is throwing a hail-Mary, hoping to galvanize enough sympathy through “Newsweek” and “Good Morning America” to press Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr. into taking the case to trial.

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So we got ourselves a Super Congress…hopefully, Boehner will put himself, Paul Ryan, and Joe Walsh on it.  I want the imperfect Tea Party freshman who allegedly owes child support to have a voice.   They are all likely imperfect; I prefer one who has already been sullied, and argues well on MSNBC.    But if not Joe Walsh, then tap Ron Paul.

Job #1 of the Super-Congress is Tax Reform.  This is our best chance to simplify American tax policy so a second grader can explain it.

Grover must pledge: Cutting the Tea Party's taxes matters most!

Crucial point: Grover Norquist is a good guy, but my main concern is not do taxes go up overall?

What I care about is: Do the Tea Party’s taxes go down a lot?

If we see overall tax revenues increase because GE is not getting green dollars, while all the small business owners are paying MUCH MUCH less – we have a winner.   You hear that Pelosi?  I just gave you some solace; render unto the patriots their due, and at least you can show your team some Fortune 1000 scalps.  Of course they won’t donate to your team any longer, but you should only get donations from the lower classes anyway.

Let’s be straight forward about what we want to see in a new tax policy:

1. The bottom half of America must pay at least as much as they pay now.
2. The Wall Street investor class and the Fortune 1000 management can pay more.
3. The owners of small businesses across the US, the savers, the scrimpers, the Tea Party faithful pay MUCH LESS.

Because when we say “broaden the base, end the loopholes, and lower the tax rates” – the above is exactly what we really mean.    And we can’t let Grover Norquist’s Tax Pledge screw us up.

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Fellow Friends of Barack:

I join all liberals and progressives in condemning the terrorism of the Tea Party, just as we condemn terrorism in all its forms. We need a Local War On Terror (LWOT) to replace the futile Global War on Terror (GWOT) of George W. Bush.

As we pursue this great LWOT, we will show conservatives that we know, better than they, how to defeat terror in a way that preserves human rights and American values.

We must address the root causes of Tea Party terrorism. There is nothing intrinsic in the beliefs of the Tea Party that promotes the kind of terrorism we saw on Capitol Hill for the past several weeks. Indeed, there are legitimate grievances that create the climate of frustration that Tea Party leaders exploit. These grievances include: growing national debt, government deficits, job-killing taxes, heavy regulation and economic stagnation.

The American flag is apparently sacred in Tea Party beliefs. Let's avoid offending their sensibilities. (Source: http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=24413)

We should acknowledge blame for Tea Party terrorism. The debt ceiling debate was simply America’s chickens coming home to roost. For decades, the federal government has behaved in an imperialist manner, imposing its mandates on states and individuals. The U.S. shoved the stimulus down the people’s throats–and called them un-American when they resisted. They don’t want to destroy us; they want us to leave them alone. (more…)

One party rule in both St. Louis city and county has atrophied the heartland of America. That one party, the Democrat Party, has built a machine lubricated with crony capitalism that bends justice to further its own political ends. We’ve witnessed the effects of this machine on the national stage a couple of times. In one instance we watched as justice was delayed for Kenneth Gladney only to eventually be denied as the Rev. Elston McCowan and Perry Molens were exonerated of assaulting Gladney. In another instance, the University of Missouri St. Louis’s (UMSL) course in Labor Studies seemed to advocate violence as a tactic in union negotiations yet no charges are brought when one of the professors is alleged to have assault someone. Those two cases are emblematic of the crony politics that reaches from St. Louis to Missouri’s capitol in Jefferson City and even to Washington, DC.

St. Louis has a long history of voting irregularities including dead people and pets casting ballots. While the situation has improved, there are still concerns about vote fraud. More worrisome is the collusion between Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s (D-MO) office and ACORN:

A staffmember of the Missouri Secretary of State was directly contacted by ACORN to secretly coordinate a press strategy for the suing of the state of Missouri.

This email thread is the clearest proof that Robin Carnahan was not only aware of, but her staff colluded with Project Vote to sue the state of Missouri, without harming Robin Carnahan.

That suit would provide $500,000 to the left-wing lawyers at ACORN and Project Vote (sister organizations) from the state of Missouri.

Robin’s brother, Tom, does not hold public office, but he did receive $107 million dollars from the stimulus bill to build wind farms:

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Somebody’s Having a Birthday Party and You’re Not Invited
That is, if you belong to a union.

In case you live under a rock and haven’t heard, Barack Obama turns 50 today. And, the place to be tonight is the Aragon. The party starts at 7:00. But don’t bother to show up if you’re a union member. The White House hired a non-union crew for the event tonight.

A confidential and trusted union source contacted me today to report that the crews called in to work Obama’s birthday bash are non-union. Union members are OUTRAGED that Obama would turn his back on them.

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