It’s civility week!  Another Twitter montage of #NewTone was just sent our way this afternoon.  Good timing, too, on the heels of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’s warm remarks yesterday.

Lets not forget the lessons in civility that our dutiful media and President Obama conveyed in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. The vitriol does not seem to have died down.  Perhaps this video will help remind people what’s lurking out there on the Twitter public timeline about all you “Sons of Bitches” and “Hobbits” of Terror.

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I don’t believe we’ve seen a more corrupt, politicized and incompetent Department of Justice (DOJ) in modern political history than we have now under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. And I never thought I’d write those words after suffering eight years of Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration.

But check this out as reported by The Associated Press:

The Justice Department replaced three officials Tuesday who played critical roles in a flawed law enforcement operation aimed at major gun-trafficking networks on the Southwest border.

The department announced that the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. attorney in Arizona had resigned and an administration official said a prosecutor who worked on the operation was reassigned to civil cases.

The operation, known as Fast and Furious, was designed to track small-time gun buyers at several Phoenix-area gun shops up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers.…

A congressional investigation of the program has turned up evidence that ATF lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation.

The ATF, with the full approval of the DOJ, allowed guns to be sold and sent to the Mexican drug cartels in the hopes of having them show up at crime scenes in Mexico! This reckless craziness seems to have resulted in, among other crimes, the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in a shootout with Mexican criminals in December, 2010. Fast and Furious guns were found at the scene of his death.

Last week the Acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson was transferred to a make-work position in the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix resigned.

But Eric Holder still has his job!

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From Reuters:

The powerful healthcare industry hopes a congressional “super committee” tasked with slashing America’s debt will fail and is lobbying instead for automatic spending cuts that will kick in if the panel deadlocks.

Much of the health sector believes the spending cuts, which will be triggered if the committee fails to find at least $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years, will be less draconian than any deficit-reduction deal, according to lobbyists and healthcare groups interviewed by Reuters.

Under the trigger mechanism — a process called sequestration — automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion will begin in 2013. But programs such as the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor and the Social Security retirement program are totally protected from cuts, while Medicare, the healthcare program for the elderly, would face only a 2 percent cut to providers.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Elizabeth Blackney and Benjamin Domenech walk through the latest poll numbers for Barack Obama. Hint: They’re really, really bad.

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:

NBC/WSJ Poll (PDF)
WaPo/ABC News Poll
The Atlantic: The Freelance Revolution
Hoffa: “Let’s take the sons of bitches out.”

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When Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress, it was assumed that whoever got the Democratic Party nomination would win the race to replace him. But you cannot assume when it comes to special elections, remember in 2009 when Ted Kennedy was replaced by a Republican?

The special election for NY-9 is also a strange one. With the vote just a few days away, on September 13th the race between David Weprin (D) and Bob Turner (R) is a toss-up and independents are breaking toward Turner, at least according to an internal Turner poll. That same study showed Turner down by eight in July.

NY-9 is a Democratic Party leaning district by non-partisan pundits as Democrat +5, which means that a generic Democrat would have a five point advantage over a generic Republican. The last time a Republican won the seat was in the 1920 election. On top of the district leanings, Weprin has raised more than twice the money ($450K) than Turner ($204K). The bottom-line is this election that should not even be close; Weiner’s lowest winning total was 61% of the vote. What exactly is going on?

There are three reasons this election is close.

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From AFP:

Republican US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney unveils his economic plan Tuesday, focusing on lower taxes, less regulation, scrapping the Obama health plan and ending trade “surrender” to countries such as China.

The former front-runner in his party, Romney said President Barack Obama “has had his turn at fixing the American economy” and has failed.

“For my part, I believe America can do better,” Romney writes in the USA Today newspaper ahead of a speech later in the day on his economic plan.

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For many Americans, Labor is the unofficial end of summer, but this year’s Labor was a chance for the Obama White House and Big Labor to demean and advocate violence against their political opponents, which happen to be Republicans and the Tea Party Movement.

President Obama traveled to the decaying city of Detroit for an astrotruf Labor Day Rally complete with Big Labor Boss Jimmy Hoffa Jr. and his stuffed labor shirts. In remakes before the President spoke, Hoffa warmed up the crowd with red meat stating personally that, “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.” President Obama in his remakes said that, “He was proud of Hoffa and other union leader.”

Hoffa calls for Big Labor to take out their political opponents AKA Son of a Bitches

Not to be out done by big labor the White House even unleashed Vice President Biden on Labor Day and the forever suffering Foot-In-Mouth Diseased Vice President did not disappoint at an astrotruf rally sponsored by AFL-CIO in Ohio. Vice President Biden boasted that, “It was big labor holding back the barbarians at the gate that is why they want you so bad.”

Vice President Biden tries to rally AFL-CIO support throught demeaning tactics

Big Labor has much to be angry about this Labor Day as its 30 million Dollar effort in Wisconsin was turned back by the Tea Party Movement, with public opinion in the State of Ohio favoring the governor’s efforts there to reform collective bargaining. The most recent job creation numbers should give Big Labor pause as President Obama has public stated that it has been Big Labor that has been advising him from the start on issues of job creation and stimulus spending, Americans are fully aware on how that has panned out with, “0” job creation last month and his upcoming speech before Congress, that most even the President’s own handlers have sought to downplay in recent days.

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From the Associated Press:

Public support for both President Barack Obama and the US Congress has hit news lows, as a pair of polls Tuesday reflected Americans’ frustration with the stalled economy and rancorous partisan squabbling.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll, released just days ahead of Obama’s planned major address on job creation, found that 53 percent disapprove of his job performance and 77 percent think the country is on the “wrong track.”

The poll found 35 percent of Americans believe they have become worse off financially under Obama’s presidency, the highest since the 1980s.

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You’ll want to read up on Media Matters for America (MMfA) editor, Erick Boehlert’s blunder this morning. Everyone knew he’d be big – and they were Right. Now, Boehlert has been left looking like the biggest dummy on the Internet in an attempt to push one more Soros funded Big Lie. The short story is that Union guru Jimmy Hoffa. Jr. made some ugly remarks regarding the Tea Party, the kind of talk the Left uses to attack the Right for allegedly encouraging violence. Hoffa’s remarks were that and more.

Per its usual M.O., don’t analyze, fantasize, MMfA concocted an alternate reality to get Hoffa off the hook, blaming it on that evil, lying Fox News. Unfortunately for MMfA, Hoffa later doubled-down, taking credit for the remarks and basically repeating them, making Boehlert and MMfA the laughing stock of the InterWebs. Good times! Good times! One of these days MMfA will go away and several small villages will get their idiots back. One can hope, anyway.

Meanwhile, 5 GOP candidates got together in a South Carolina forum. Perry opted out, heading back to Texas early to deal wit the state’s wild fire crisis. Sarah Palin attended a Tea Party event in New Hampshire and late last night news broke of a major campaign shake-up for Bachmann. Rollins and another senior staffer are out.

A Politico-George Washington University Battleground poll found 70% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Other results suggest strong gains for the GOP in Congress.

Over the holiday, a liberal protester acosted a reporter for “not helping.” Obviously, that’s one liberal who doesn’t read much news. How much more could they help Democrats  than they already do?

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By now we’ve all heard the reprehensible remarks made by Congressional Black Caucus Whip Andre Carson (D-IN) where he told the audience at a CBC Jobs Fair Town Hall in Miami that Tea Party Congressmen would like to lynch black people.  Given the opportunity to revise or retract his remarks, Carson instead stood by “the truth” of his comments.

So now it seems pretty fair to say that Andre Carson is a race-baiting bigot who has brought shame upon the U. S. House of Representatives. But any regular reader of Big Government knows that this is not new information.  In fact, Andre Carson’s despicable, divisive slander of August 22nd is just the latest of bogus attacks made by the 2nd term congressman against the Tea Party.  Andre Carson is the man who told the mother of all race-baiting lies against the Tea Party: That racial slurs were screamed “fifteen times” at he and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) in Washington DC on the day before the ObamaCare vote in 2010.

The headlines at the time (as well as Topic #1 on cable news and Sunday talk shows) was “Racist Tea Party Yells ‘N-Word’ at Civil Rights Icon John Lewis”.  Andre Carson’s name was hardly mentioned in any of the stories.  But a Big Government investigation revealed that it was he, in fact, who gathered Capitol Hill reporters around himself on March 20, 2010 and breathlessly told them what had happened “outside of Cannon (Congressional Office Building)” just moments before.  (audio courtesy Kerry Pickett, Washington Times)

By now you know the story become part of Democratic Party lore showing up in talking points as recently as just last week as Alan Colmes mangled the “facts” but still was able to perpetuate the lie on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor”. You should also know by now that Andrew Breitbart offered a $100, 000 reward for anyone who can produce video proof o the supposed racial hatred.  The only videos uncovered were found by the Big Government staff.  They show the exact moment Carson described, “down the steps of Cannon”, from four different angles.  Not only were there no slurs heard on any of the videos, but the scene is not at all how Carson described it to Capitol Hill reporters.

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While Bob Dylan wrote, “No one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell,” it can be said, “No president can prolong the blues like Barack Obama.”

He must be a glutton for punishment – why else would his campaign pick the House of Blues to raise money?

On September 26, Obama will make two stops in Los Angeles, first at the House of Blues, and later at a tony restaurant where donors will plop down a cool $35,800 to attend, Bloomberg reports.  Don’t you have $35,800 just lying around?  If so, the president would like to meet you.

Pictures with Obama at the House of Blues are at a cut rate – a paltry $10,000, according to ANSWER LA.

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Can’t remember what Barack Obama said when he spoke in Tuscon, Ariz., at the Jan. 12 campaign rally disguised as a memorial service to honor the people killed in Tucson four days earlier? You’re not alone. After hearing AFL-CIO President Jimmy Hoffa call for war on the Tea Party Monday, the president seemed as if he had forgotten his words, too. Those words, by the way, surface at the 1:01:19 mark of the video below:

His exact words:

“But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

Now, fast forward to Monday when AFL-CIO President Jimmy Hoffa spoke to a mostly-union crowd at a Labor Day rally in Detroit before introducing President Obama. The video below captures the first “lowlight” of the event:

Hoffa used the following inflammatory rhetoric:

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No doubt, Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa Jr meant his declaration of ‘war’ against the tea party metaphorically. Because the Teamsters have no history of violence. Metaphor. Yeah, that’s it.

“There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” – Linus van Pelt in “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”

Facebook has been great for me.  I’ve reconnected with many people I haven’t seen in years, made many new friends, and have found yet another method of procrastination.  The downside — or maybe it’s an upside — is that it’s revealed some very troubling things about the social media platform, and personal relationships.

I refer to the not-yet-codified protocol for political posts.

If a friend posts something political, you might reasonably assume that (absent prior agreements not to discuss politics), that dissenting views are welcome.  After all, this is your friend.  Friends can, and often do, disagree.  If your friend only wanted to hear views that concur with her own, then one might reasonably assume that she would announce this.

So imagine my surprise, and subsequent disappointment, that twelve Facebook friends have de-friended me because I dared disagree with their posts.  Now, in real-life, when I have disagreements with friends on matters of politics, we may yell and scream and jump up and down, but when all is said and done, we pat each other on the back and say, “I don’t agree with you, but I love you.  Let’s not discuss politics anymore”, and we have a beer.

But in cyberspace, there is a dual sociological phenomenon at work.  The first was posited by Dr. Stanley Milgram in his famous obedience experiment, which effectively showed that one is able to do something they might not normally do if they can do it anonymously.  While de-friending is not exactly an anonymous act, the fact that it can be done remotely, without warning, without hearing an appeal, demonstrates how cyberspace contributes to the dehumanization of mankind.   A de-friended friend is not a person.  They are nothing more than a button that can be pressed and — POOF — they’re gone.

Can you imagine a more cowardly act?  Before Facebook, before Email, if you got angry with a friend, you would actually have to have a conversation with them.

But now?  Poof!

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A small business owner and self-described “recovering politico,” Philip Guthrie couldn’t resist the urge to poke fun at the Obama Administration. That’s why the 37-year-old developed SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND, a board game that “exists to train you bitter clingers to practice the art of class warfare, dodge death panels, cheat on your taxes and do your small part to increase our national debt.”

Recently, Guthrie began shipping copies of “The Unauthorized Obama Board Game” to like-minded individuals around the world. My copy arrived last week, and I have to say it made a good first impression.

Pulling it out of the padded shipping pack, I found the likeness of President Barack Obama dressed as Uncle Sam and pointing his tax-and-spend finger in my direction. A synopsis of the game tells you a lot:

Choose membership in one of four organizations: Public Service, ObamaCare, Big Labor or Wall Street. From your perch atop the ruling class, you’ll bankrupt other players, drag them before show trials, carve them up in unnecessary surgery or just get one of your big labor goons to wack ‘em in Rocko Roulette.

Rather than accumulate wealth in Spread the Wealth Around, you’ll rack up mountains of debt – just like Obama’s America. Scam dead people and collect their Social Security in Public Office. Unplug granny and play the lawsuit lottery in ObamaCare. Gamble and go burnin’ and lootin’ with Big Labor. Cut in line for your Wall Street bailout – it’s all for the children.

Spread the Wealth Around is the perfect gift to cure that troglodyte Republican friend or conservative relation. No need for sensitivity training or coaching on tax and spend Obamanomics. Put away those teacher’s union pamphlets and Mao’s little red book. Play the political game that’s making the world safe for socialism!

Do you believe everything you see in the mainstream media, or just feel like you missed out on Cash for Clunkers and ACORN brothels? Do you want to take other people’s money for the nanny state and social justice? You’ll play this political game like any pro in Washington.

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Get a load of how some in the Left view the role of the media:

While covering the latest demonstration outside the office of Congressman Paul Ryan, MacIver News Service’s Bill Osmulski learns some protesters are upset that he has not been helpful to their cause. Because he has consistently and accurately reported what’s been going on in Wisconsin, some liberal activists attempted to prevent him from working.

Their idea of a real journalist is apparently someone who is ‘helpful.’

“Obviously you’re doing something wrong as a journalist if people don’t want you here that badly,” one protester told him.

That some protesters think a reporter’s job is to be helpful to their liberal cause should be offensive to every traditional, mainstream, journalist.

Well, you’d like to think so.

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From the Associated Press:

World stock markets took a beating Monday over fears that the U.S. economy was heading back into a recession just as the European debt crisis was heating up and the eurozone’s economic indicators were slumping.

Any troubles in the world’s largest economy cast a long shadow over the markets, and a report Friday that the U.S. economy failed to add any new jobs in August caused European and Asian stock markets to sink sharply Monday.

But the news from Europe was also discouraging. Wall Street, which was closed Monday due to the Labor Day holiday, braced for losses Tuesday after the yields in so-called peripheral eurozone countries—Greece, Italy and Spain—rose sharply against those of Germany, whose bonds are widely considered a safe haven.

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Burning Man has entered the mainstream.  Not only did the event sell out for the first time in its history, but the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both gave it prominent coverage.

What is Burning Man? For the still uninitiated: “Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.  They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.  Burning Man is also an ever-expanding year-round culture based on the Ten Principles.”  Those ten principles, in turn, are: (i) Radical Inclusion; (ii) Gifting; (iii) Decommodification; (iv) Radical Self-Reliance; (v) Radical Self-expression; (vi) Communal Effort; (vii) Civic Responsibility; (viii) Leaving No Trace; (ix) Participation; and (x) Immediacy.

According to the WSJ, this “mantra is so compelling that some 50,000 participants have gathered in this rustic setting for the 25^th annual rite,” but a more honest count might conclude that it draws about 1,000 people eager to explore the philosophical implications of alternative socioeconomics, and 49,000 people looking for a good party.  Yet, with all the potential to report about alternative events and lifestyles, both papers focused on the incursion of capitalist trappings into this supposedly non-capitalist venue: the NYT wrote about the for-profit nature of the parent corporation, while the WSJ described the emergence of a class structure among Burners.  The irony falls equally on the newspapers and the Burners, however, because far from presenting an alternative to capitalist socioeconomics, Burning Man is a glorious, joyful expression of them.  And therein lies the true story.

Three years ago, I attended Burning Man for the first (and so far only) time.  Like many virgins, I was unaware precisely what to expect—or how I could contribute to the community.  After all, as a professional technology lawyer and an avocational political philosopher, the demand for my skills in an alternative art city appeared somewhat unclear.  Fortunately, a chain of telephone referrals led me to a long-time Burner organizing an “academic style” conference on The Future of Art.  I volunteered a presentation on contemporary copyright issues, reasoning that the ways that we regulate art would have a profound effect on the art we get.

On my second day on the Playa (as the grounds of Black Rock City are known), I thus found myself in a scorching shade structure addressing a scantily clad crowd curious about art and its future.  I spent my twenty minutes running the crowd through a series of hypotheticals designed to illustrate the profound effect that the regulation of art can have on determining whom we motivate and what we motivate them to do.  The next speaker, a fine Marxist graduate student in I forget what at I forget where U, read a paper to the crowd extolling the gift culture at Burning Man as an appropriate curative to the rapacious excesses of capitalism—as exemplified by that most imperialistic of all evil empires, the United States.

That’s when the real fun started.

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