According to the latest CNN/ORC survey, former two-term Gov. Gary Johnson (R-N.M.) is polling at 2 percent, neck-and-neck with pizza magnate Herman Cain and ahead of former Gov. John Huntsman (R-Utah) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Yet while Cain, Huntsman, and Santorum will mix it up with Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas), former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), and Reps. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) at the nextGOP candidates debate on September 7, Johnson has been told to stay home once more. This latest exclusion has prompted writers at National Review, which isn’t particularly amenable to Johnson’s libertarian-leaning platform, and elsewhere to wonder what’s going on with the selection process.

While Johnson may not make it to the Republican debate at California’s Ronald Reagan ranch, Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie caught up with him at FreedomFest in July to talk tax reform, cutting federal spending across the board by 43 percent (the amount currently being financed by debt), and how focusing on social conservatism could reduce the GOP to minor-party status.

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Time after time, we have found that this administration cares not one whit about following basic laws. What does it mean for Congress to pass and the president to sign a law banning a corrupt organization and its affiliates from receiving federal funds? Apparently the Obama administration could care less. As you will recall, the Obama Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded a grant of $79,819 to ACORN spin-off Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA), despite the fact that Barack Obama signed the ACORN funding ban in October 2009. (And despite the fact that the organization was nailed for misappropriating taxpayer funds!)

We want to know how the HUD can justify this decision. So we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on August 19, 2011, against HUD to obtain records related to the department’s approval of AHCOA as an official “housing agency.”

Pursuant to our FOIA request filed on June 8, 2011, we want access to the following information:

• Any and all records concerning or relating to the approval of Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) as a housing agency under Section 106(a)(2) of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. This request includes, but is not limited to, a copy of all HUD-9900 forms and supporting documentation submitted by, or on behalf of, AHCOA, as well as all records of communication regarding AHCOA’s approval.
• Any and all records of all applications(s) for grants submitted by AHCOA to HUD.

Judicial Watch’s FOIA request was received by HUD on June 13, 2011, (according to postal records). The agency was required to respond by July 12, 2011. This is about as narrow and simple a document request that Judicial Watch makes. But as of August 19, 2011, the date of Judicial Watch’s complaint, HUD hasn’t turned over a single document, or even indicated when a response can be expected.

AHCOA was previously known as ACORN Housing Corporation, Inc., an ACORN offshoot. ACORN filed for bankruptcy on November 2, 2010. However, as we’ve pointed out many times in this space, the organization lives on in the form of numerous state organizations and various ACORN-allied entities, such as AHCOA.

Importantly, none of these ACORN entities or spin-offs are supposed to receive federal funds! President Obama signed into law legislation known as the Defund ACORN Act on October 1, 2009, and other congressional actions that cut off most federal funds to ACORN “or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations.” Following an ACORN lawsuit challenging the funding ban, the federal courts in New York upheld the constitutionality of the restrictions on August 13, 2010. In June 2011, the Supreme Court refused to hear ACORN’s appeal of this funding ban.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by John Zmirak, to discuss if college is really necessary these days, how faith centered universities have developed and what will their influence be in the future.

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.

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There was an open revolt this summer against a local a teacher’s union and its school board accomplices in left-wing Berkshire County, Massachusetts.  This is news that does not bode well for public employee unions and their beneficiaries nationwide.  The Berkshires are a liberal fantasy camp in the “Rachel Maddow Belt,”  Michael Barone’s name for the Massachusetts’ 1^st Congressional District. Made up of wannabe and former hippies, ornery Bush-hating Yankees, artistes and transplanted New Yorkers the District gave Obama 64% of its votes.  It’s a made to order liberal electoral stew that usually loves higher taxes and government largesse.  Not this time though. While the people who went all “Tea Party” on the union might not want to be identified as such, they achieved Tea Party goals, spurred by a small band of fiscally conservative citizens who sounded the alarm and stayed engaged.

Without confusing and boring the reader I will say the process for approving budgets for our Southern Berkshire Regional School District is migraine inducing. Five towns make up the district, and towns must separately approve the budget in an anachronistic town meeting format, then, if a Proposition 2 1/2 override is required (Prop 2 ½ is a Mass law that prohibits raising property taxes more than 2.5% without a override vote) to pay for a town’s share, a ballot initiative is also required. Four towns out of five must approve to pass a school budget.

That scenario happened three separate times this summer in a school budget tussle. The first school budget was larded with, among other items, retroactive raises for teachers – who hadn’t had the raises they were accustomed to in the previous two years and were trying to get them in addition to ones for the coming year. People at the town meeting were wondering aloud on what planet you get a retroactive raise in the worst recession in 60 years, when the people who you work for are unemployed, underemployed or suffering through a downturn in business. This is a school district with falling enrollments and above state average costs per student.

In my home town, New Marlborough, the budget was defeated in the town meeting and in the Proposition 2 ½ override ballot question a few days later was also voted down. The budget failed district-wide because one other town also voted against it.  In a contemptuous move, rather than cut the budget, the school board came back with a second budget identical to the first – in effect saying “screw you.” New Marlborough voted the budget down again in a second town meeting , and also on the override  ballot, this time by a 2 to 1 margin. The budget failed again district-wide with the help of  one other stalwart town. The third time the school board  decided to cut the budget by dipping into “rainy day funds.” Four of the five towns approved this irresponsible approach to funding a budget (which included teacher raises), thus passing it. New Marlborough, had to live with the budget because four other towns approved it. However, New Marlborough voted down the Proposition 2 ½ override which would have raised our taxes to pay for that budget and the raises.

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In June we reported on newly elected Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel using his clout to bring the 28-member NATO meeting and G-8 Summit to town in 2012. Also, in bringing the meetings to Chicago, the city will likely be confronted with the usual large-scale protests, which are most often comprised of violent anarchist revolutionaries.

The Chicago Tribune is now reporting that activists in Chicago are indeed planning large-scale demonstrations in Chicago, and have filed requests with the city to obtain protest permits.

From the Trib:

Activists are planning massive demonstrations to coincide with the G8 and NATO summits in Chicago scheduled for spring 2012, with crowds of protesters likely to reach “tens of thousands,” organizers said.

More than 160 members representing about 50 groups from across the U.S. and Canada gathered Sunday at the Chicago-Kent College of Law to discuss strategy and start planning two large-scale protests and a march during the weeklong joint summit, which is set for mid-May 2012.

Chicago could see crowds of protesters similar to the 35,000 or so activists who descended on St. Paul, Minn., during the 2008 Republican National Convention, said Joe Lombardo, co-coordinator for the New York-based United National Anti-War Committee.

Chicago activist Joe Iosbaker, who helped organize the RNC protests in 2008, and radical gay rights and anti-war activist Andy Thayer, whose homes were raided by FBI agents in October 2010 for suspected ties to funding Hamas and other terrorist organizations, are helping to organize the protests.

According to the Trib, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy recently stated that the department is preparing for “mass arrests” of protesters during the summit.

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A very curious, but not surprising, piece from Reuters this morning chronicled a speech by Michele Bachmann given to senior citizens this weekend in Poinciana, Florida.

This seemingly straightforward piece illustrates how bias toward evangelical Christians can work to marginalize their conservative views and potential candidacies.

Here are Congresswoman Bachmann’s words:

“Washington, D.C., you’d think by now they’d get the message. An earthquake, a hurricane. Are you listening? The American people have done everything they can, and now it’s time for an act of God and we’re getting it.”

We presume that Representative Bachmann’s comments were mostly, if not completely, tongue-in-cheek. Video of the speech shows that she was clearly joking. Reportedly, several audience members chuckled as if they understood it as humor; her spokeswoman has recently acknowledged that it was indeed a joke.

Reuters’ headline, however, painted a different picture:

For Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Hurricane Irene and last week’s earthquake in the eastern United States were a message from God that Washington needs to change its policies.

The article added that Bachmann asserted that that “the hurricane was an ‘act of God’ that Washington should heed.”

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is living in Big Labor’s head – rent free.

The state’s public sector employee unions recently suffered an embarrassing rebuke from voters when four of the six targeted Republican lawmakers survived their recall elections. Big Labor took back two seats, but it was not enough to regain control of the state Senate.

If you thought Big Labor would be chastened by the defeat, think again.

Do you recognize this thug unionist?

The unions are so angry and have become so obsessed with Scott Walker, that a contingency of union thugs followed him to Milwaukee’s Messmer Preparatory Catholic School last Friday where the governor was to read to students and tour the school.

An unidentified union thug tried to prevent the visit from occurring by tampering with the school’s door locks. Media reports indicate that the vandal put super glue and sticks in the locks of eight school doors late Thursday night. Things went downhill from there.

Protestors spent the day on the sidewalk outside the school, chanting and displaying anti-Walker signs, such as “War on Walker, not on workers.” One protestor was even arrested on battery charges.

The protests got so raucous that at least one parent said that she felt unsafe entering the school with her child.

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There are no currently elected officials speaking at Saturday’s Iowa Tea Party event, Christine O’Donnell is slated to speak at some point before Sarah Palin. That’s drawing surprised reactions on Twitter. It’s not a Palin event and it’s unlikely she selected the list of speakers. Given that many on the Right were less than thrilled with O’Donnell after her failed run for the Senate, the media is sure to make the most of any potential comparisons.

The emcee for the Tea Party of America’s “Restoring America” event, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, will be Des Moines radio talk show host Simon Conway of WHO.

Other speakers will include Sioux City radio host Sam Clovis of KSCJ, Iowa tea party chairman Ryan Rhodes, Tony Katz of Pajamas Media and Los Angeles-based comedian Eric Golub, said organizer Charlie Gruschow, an Iowa tea party activist.

Twitter has hired former top FCC aide, Colin Crowell. Politicos have been quick to  seize on Twitter as a form of communication. Also, with increased focus on the regulation of Internet-based social media, Twitter seems to be firming up its ties with Wasington.

Crowell will be the second official D.C. hire for Twitter. Last November, the startup hired Adam Sharp as its first government liaison. Sharp was previously executive producer of digital services at C-SPAN, and since then, he’s been helping policymakers and politicians figure out how to integrate Twitter into their daily activities.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke passes the buck. Channeling Mark Twain, the problem with the Fed Chairman is what he knows that just ain’t so.

Barack Obama is flirting with a ‘jobs plan.’ It will be announced next week. No doubt it will be a mix of infrastructure and other centrally-planned spending. Scuttling several proposed new regulations would do far more for job creation, but such a move would reduce Washington’s power. That’s DOA.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s new memoir, “In My Time“ has Colin Powell upset over what he calls “cheap shots.” But then, Cheney has never been known to pull his punches, or be too concerned what others think of him. Chalk it up to another war Powell may come to regret. He’s not likely to find many allies on the Right given his 2008 support for Obama.

The death toll for Hurricane Irene now stands at 35.

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He has written about having sex with an underage girl, and claims he once threatened to kill a pregnant girlfriend unless she had an abortion. He claims to hate marijuana, but recommends heroin as the cure for suburban boredom. He mocks “Tea Baggers” and scorns “hippies.” His Russian newspaper was shuttered after a government crackdown, and he’s a regular on The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.

Meet Mark Ames, the provocateur who created the Koch brothers conspiracy theory.

Long before John Podesta’s Center for American Progress began targeting the Koch brothers for their supposed role in the Tea Party, and two years before the Kochs were cast as the villains of public sector union protests in Wisconsin, Ames had already shaped the Koch brothers meme.

Ames and co-author Yasha Levine launched the conspiracy theory–and its twin themes of drug abuse and gay sex–with a blog post (now removed) at Playboy.com in February 2009, entitled: “Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High on Koch?” They published almost exactly the same article at their own site, exiledonline.com, as “Exposing the Rightwing PR Machine: Is CNBC’s Rick Santelli Sucking Koch?”

Ames and Levine alleged that Santelli’s famous “rant heard around the world” that inspired the Tea Party movement “was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger” for an “anti-Obama campaign.” That campaign, they claimed, had been planned for months before the 2008 election, and funded by “the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups.”

Ames would later explain that he had been inspired to write about the Kochs by his experiences in post-Soviet Moscow, when he edited a sensational newspaper, the eXile–described last year by Vanity Fair as “arguably the most abusive, defamatory, un-evenhanded, and crassest publication in Russia” before it closed in 2008. (more…)

Today, in 1967, Thurgood Marshalll was confirmed as the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court. He left no mark on the Court. Clarence Thomas fulfilled the dream.

That is the question at the center of a new Judicial Watch investigation.

On August 19, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Obama U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain records related to the agency’s communications with Estelle Rogers, a former ACORN attorney who currently serves as the Director of Advocacy for the ACORN-connected organization Project Vote, President Obama’s former employer.

Judicial Watch is investigating the extent to which the Obama DOJ and Project Vote are partnering in a national campaign to use the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) to register more individuals on public assistance, widely considered a key voting block for the Obama 2012 campaign.

Here’s what we’re after with our FOIA request filed on June 23, 2011: “All records of communications between the Department of Justice and Estelle Rogers, Director of Advocacy for Project Vote. The timeframe for this request is January 2, 2009, to June 23, 2011.”

The DOJ was required by law to respond to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request within 30 working days, or by August 5, 2011. (U.S. Postal Service records indicate the DOJ received Judicial Watch’s request on June 28, 2011.) As of the lawsuit’s filing, the DOJ has neither produced the records requested nor responded with the date when they will be forthcoming. (Nothing new there.)

Now, we already know that Project Vote is corrupt. We also know that the organization is putting a full-court press on key swing states to manipulate voter registration laws in order to “get out the vote” for Obama and the Democrats in 2012. And leading that charge is Estelle Rogers.

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Vernor Vinge is a former San Diego State University math professor and a Hugo award-winning science fiction novelist. In Vinge’s 1993 essay “The Coming Technological Singularity” Vinge wrote, “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”

We sat down with Vinge to learn more about his influences, his novels and the coming singularity.

Vinge’s latest novel, The Children of the Sky, will be released in October 2011.

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We broke it here, first. If you’ll remember, I wrote an early piece on the unique challenges Governor Perry must overcome in order to be President in this country. Over the following days just about everything mentioned came to pass. Believe it or not, a major Canadian news outlet – yes all the way up in Canada – contacted me over its content. I shared with them the ugliness and overt disdain Conservatives and Southern Conservatives must contend and overcome, especially in the arena of politics. It was so interesting to them they want to do a follow-up. I am more than happy to enlighten them. I could have continuously written on that subject but there is always more than one egg to fry in Obamaland. Secondly, the opportunities will present themselves. It’s almost predictable as to how the liberal media will behave.

However, the fact such open hostility by liberals towards Perry is so obvious; and, two, it’s totally acceptable as to be actually news worthy should be self evident of their bigotry. The Bush era gave the cultural elites considerable heartburn and there is no way possible for them to stomach Perry – considered Bush-lite. So how are they voicing their opposition to Governor Perry? It certainly isn’t his policies or record as governor of Texas. Of course those who are bold enough to go after Perry’s actual record, their complaint is he wasn’t imaginative enough from a legislative and government perspective. You know, because evidently government creates jobs.

No, Perry’s biggest sin is that he drops his “g’s.” He speaks with that nails-on-a-chalkboard Southern-Texan accent. I bet the big rube replaces his “s’s” with “z’s.” “Boy howdy, I declare this here chicken sure his greazy!”

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[Ed. Note: This article was co-authored with Clint Bolik.]

The Obama Administration has fired its opening salvo against a cornerstone of democracy: the right to secret ballot.

Last fall, voters in four states voted overwhelmingly to amend their constitutions protect the right of workers to vote by secret ballot in deciding whether or not to form unions. That right has been enshrined in federal law for 75 years but is threatened by bills pending in Congress.

Nonetheless, the Obama National Labor Relations Board has filed a lawsuit against Arizona seeking to halt its protection of the right to secret ballot. Federal law governs labor relations, the NLRB asserts, and states cannot provide greater security for worker rights.

Why is the Obama Administration taking such a profoundly anti-democratic position? The answer is simple: it’s pay-off time for the massive labor union support Barack Obama received in the 2008 election.

Private-sector unionization has been dwindling for a long time. To reverse that, unions pushed a “card-check” system that would replace secret-ballot union-recognition elections with a system by which unions are automatically created once 50 percent of employees in a workplace sign cards requesting them. The card-check system is an open invitation to intimidation by both unions and employers. Only in the privacy of the ballot booth can workers express their true views.

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You’ve heard the expression “building on success.”

Where you identify something that’s working – and work to maximize and further broaden its fruition.  In large part by determining what’s working – and seeking to replicate it.

The Left has always remained blissfully unfamiliar with this concept.

Probably at least in part because they are perpetually too busy building instead on failure.

Take the Barack Obama Administration and their D.C. Leftist cohorts.

They in 2009 spent nearly $1 trillion on an alleged economic stimulus.  Which would, we were told, keep unemployment below 8%.

Oops.

That having failed miserably, the D.C. Leftists built upon their failure by spending more “stimulus” coin on Cash for Clunkers, Cash for Caulkers and a whole host of other pitifully failed attempts at publicly invigorating the private sector.

Oops.

Building on failure.

We all now anxiously await September’s latest-in-a-long-line of famous President Obama problem-solving speeches.  In which, we are told, he will focus like a laser on creating the jobs they have thus far failed miserably at creating with their top-down, centrally-planned borrowing and spending.

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There are some very interesting numbers coming out of Alabama since their passing landmark immigration reform in June. How about decreasing unemployment and increasing passport applications?  Yes, Mexican nationals are overwhelming passport offices to secure passage for themselves and their “anchor” children BACK to Mexico.

While radical leftist groups have joined with the Obama Administration Justice Department to assail Alabama for doing locally the job the Feds refuse to do, common sense law and order types now have numbers to show who is right.

Teresa Ferguson is a Mama Grizzly who had never been involved in politics until she singularly took on the challenge of ending the devastating effects of illegal immigration in her community.  After getting hit and run by an illegal in a town in which the majority of kindergarteners are children of illegals and brothels and methamphetamine are rampant, she decided to take action.  She began by reaching out to candidates for statewide office, insisting they visit her county to see the damage first hand.

One candidate for governor actually took an entire day out of his schedule to visit Marshall County.  Alabamians now call the responsive candidate Governor Bentley.  He signed the legislation in June.  Another lawmaker who visited with Mrs. Ferguson, State Senator Scott Beason called on Alabamians to get serious and “empty the clip” on the issue.  He joined State Representative Micky Hammon in passing HB56, the most comprehensive, common sense illegal immigration law in the country.  The law, despite being enjoined by the courts, has nevertheless produced amazing results yet to be reported anywhere.

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The White House has announced that it is nominating Alan Krueger, a professor at Princeton, to be the new Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

In a Freudian copy-editing slip, the Fox News story (at least as of 8:44 a.m.) says “Krueger’s job will be to provide policy prescriptions on ways to spur unemployment.”

That’s obviously tailor-made for a joke about the Obama Administration not needing any help when it comes to stimulating joblessness.

On a more serious note, though, I’m worried about Krueger’s sympathy for a value-added tax (VAT). Here’s what he wrote back in 2009.

…a 5 percent consumption tax would raise approximately $500 billion a year, and fill a considerable hole in the budget outlook. In addition, a consumption tax would encourage more saving in the long run. Many economists consider a consumption tax an efficient way of raising tax revenue, especially in a global economy. The prospect of greater revenue flowing into federal coffers would probably help lower long-term interest rates because the government would need to borrow less down the road, and further bolster the economy.

To be fair, Krueger was very careful to leave himself some wiggle room, even going so far as to write that, “I’m not sure it is the best way to go.”

But it seems rather obvious that Krueger, like other leftists, wants this giant new source of revenue. Heck, President Obama also has semi-endorsed a VAT, saying it is “something that has worked for other countries.”

The President’s assertion is especially foolish. After all, European nations imposed VATs about 40 years ago, which simply encouraged more spending and more debt – and now several nations are on the verge of bankruptcy.

If that’s “something that has worked,” I’d hate to see the President’s idea of failure.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Alan Krueger, Barack Obama’s nominee to the Council of Economic Advisors, corporate earnings and Francis’ take on Hurricane Irene in NYC.

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.

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Labor Economist to Fill Key Post
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Robust Profits Face Hurdles

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Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford is attempting to derail a move that would finally make Illinois a major player in Republican Presidential politics.

The dispute revolves around a proposed rule change to the process of selecting delegates to the Republican National Convention.

To understand the situation, you must understand the Illinois system.  Currently, the Presidential Primary in Illinois is a so called “beauty pageant” – meaning the winner of the Primary election does not receive ANY delegates to the Convention.  Under the current rules, delegates run individually and are not bound to any candidate.  In addition, each delegate and alternate delegate is required to collect hundreds of signatures to qualify for the ballot and then run a campaign in an area the size of a Congressional district.  This process makes Illinois irrelevant in Republican Presidential Primaries.

First, on the surface, this may seem like a system that allows maximum participation from Illinois citizens.  But, in reality, collecting signatures and running a campaign in a Congressional District is an expensive operation. Only 4 states in the entire country even use this archaic 19^th century process. It ensures that the only people who have the resources to qualify for the ballot are well known and well funded – and where does this funding come from?  The Presidential candidates who run slates of delegates that will be loyal to them.  Excluded from this process are hardworking Republican loyalists with “low name ID,” Tea Party activists, and anyone else not deemed a high value asset.

Second, and most damaging, is the system ensures that once the delegate slates have been filed, the Presidential campaigns disappear from Illinois.  The Presidential election, as stated, is irrelevant when you are counting delegates.  Why waste the money to win nothing? And it’s a drain on resources to attempt to run 60+ individual delegate races. So the campaigns allocate the resources to help high profile delegates get on the ballot. And then they are gone by December – weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

But recently, new rules have been proposed that would instantly make the state relevant – really relevant.

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