First, let me say that I respect Ron Paul a great deal. More often than not, he’s fundamentally right on the pressing issues of today and I believe that the modern political landscape is a better place because of him. Over the current president, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat.

That being said, regarding his online clan of “libertarian” followers… eeesh. Here’s a recent tweet that I received from one of his followers after I so much as barely criticized Dr. Paul’s foreign policy ideas;

“Hey neocon, how the h*** can you justify our costly empire overseas? Only Ron Paul will stop this!!”

Come again, dummy?

Listen, their heart is in the right place but here’s the concept that many of the younger, supposedly anti-establishment, self-professed “libertarians” can’t seem to grasp; by it’s very definition and historical precedent, an empire isn’t a costly endeavor. It’s a profitable one. Be it the Roman, Ottoman or English, all of these tyrannical government’s built their empire in order to expand their territory and reap the bountiful spoils of war.

The reason the United States supposed “empire” expanding abroad is so costly would be because it in fact is no empire at all. The United States boldly walks in through the front door of these countries, provides unprecedented aid and/or overthrows their evil governments in an attempt to rightfully give power back to its citizens, after which we ask for nothing more than the land needed to bury the bodies of those who died to provide them with that privilege.

Now is that a legitimate role of government? Should we really be playing “hero” to the world? Say! Now that’s a meaningful dialogue that deserves a spirited discussion!

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Until now the Solyndra scandal only reached the White House in the guise of e-mails from staffers fretting about the political implications of the disastrous bankruptcy and how it would reflect on the President’s “Winning the Future” rhetoric.

Until now, the Solyndra scandal was a circumstantial log of White house visits by a big Obama donor who also was the failed solar company’s chief investor (those visits occurring right before a half-billion dollar loan guarantee was awarded by Obama’s Dept. of Energy).

Until now, the White House’s direct involvement in the Solyndra scandal appeared to be over-zealous operatives looking to speed-up the loan so Vice President Biden could have a nice photo-op at the doomed solar firm.

Now, we know much more.

According to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times, President Obama was warned nearly a year ago that Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s department was not rigorous enough in vetting loan recipients and they ran the risk of funneling federal money to companies that shouldn’t receive it, or didn’t need it.  And the warnings came from the President’s top economic advisers Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner.

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From Rasmussen Reports:

Herman Cain did well in last week’s GOP debate and won a decisive straw poll victory in Florida, but his numbers in a general election match-up against President Obama are little changed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that Obama earns 39% support while Cain attracts 34%. In that match-up, 14% prefer some other candidate, and 14% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Pejman Yousefzadeh and Kevin Holtsberry are joined by Richard Brookhiser to discuss his new biography of James Madison, his battle with Hamilton, his break with Washington, and the last years of Madison’s life, when he foresaw the secession of states from the Union.

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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NewsObserver.com:

Gov. Bev Perdue’s off-the-cuff remark about suspending Congressional elections to focus on the economy went viral. Her aides tried to walk it back, calling it “hyperbole” and suggesting she was joking.

Was she? You decide.

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Democrats and Progressives are always screaming that requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls is discriminatory to minorities and the poor. The argument was always laughable on its face. As far as I can tell, photo IDs have nearly universal adoption; you need one to do just about anything. Write or cash a check, drive a car or, funny now that you mentioned it, apply for government benefits specifically designed to help the poor.

Food Stamp relief

As the press has reported, thousands of poor and low-income residents in Philadelphia are lining up to get supplemental food stamps to compensate for damages from Hurricane Irene last month. Theoretically, water damage from the storm may have destroyed food already purchased with food stamps. So, the government will give folks some extra food stamps to make up for the loss.

But, to get the benefits, in addition to proving storm damage, recipients will have to show a photo ID and prove they are residents of Philadelphia. In fact, in the application for benefits posted above, it is the FIRST requirement. Neither of which they have to do to vote.

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From Investors Business Daily:

President Obama faces head winds from independents, an important voting bloc for re-election in 2012. Many of them think well of him personally, but they are disenchanted. They don’t like his policies, and they see him as inexperienced.

And most daunting of all for the incumbent, only 38% of independents think he deserves to be re-elected, with 53% feeling that someone new deserves a chance.

These are key findings from an IBD/TIPP poll conducted in early September.

Independents are particularly harsh in their view of the president’s economic stewardship. Job losses have hurt independent households, and jobs will be their primary concern when they pull the lever in 2012.

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Viewed from outside of N.J., Gov. Christ Christie is seen a conservative champion, but it is worth recalling that he was actually challenged from his right in that state’s Republican primary for governor. While Christie certainly deserves credit for defying union bosses and for challenging N.J.’s highly activist court, the state still has a long distance to travel back in the direction of fiscal stability.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), in partnership with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), has just released a new report entitled: “New Jersey’s Long Road Ahead: Taxpayers vs. Politicians and Unions.”

The report opens with some sobering statistics:

“New Jersey residents pay the highest property taxes in the nation—averaging $7,300 per homeowner.2The state has the highest per-pupil spending at $17,600 per student. The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent and continues to exceed the national average. The state’s long-term debt is one of the highest in the country.”

A key culprit here is the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the power state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). While it has repeatedly cowed top elected officials in both major parties into supporting lavish taxpayer funded benefits, it would seem that the political climate has finally shifted in the direction of reform and fiscal renewal. NJEA demands did not sit well with the public.

That’s why Steve Lonegan, who heads up the NJ chapter of AFP, would like to see more done to scale back union power and prioritize taxpayer interests.

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NJ Gov Chris Christie is in the race for 2012, no wait, he’s out. It seems to depend on whom you ask. Judging from his remarks at the Reagan Library, he does enjoy being asked, if nothing else. Speculation continues to swirl around  Palin, as well. If nothing else, it all means that different factions of  the GOP base aren’t yet convinced they like what they see when it comes to those actually in the race. At this rate, and barring any new entries, that likely benefits Romney most at this point.

Did N.C. Democrat Governor Bev Perdue really suggest suspending elections until the economy improves? The seriousness of her statement seems to be being debated, as well.

For now, it seems, Perdue was only talking about Congressional elections. If Obama’s poll number continue to tank, however, Dems may soon talk about suspending all elections. A new IBD/TIPP poll finds that only 38% of Independents think Obama deserves re-election. 53% definitely want someone new.

Surprise: Its seems Solyndra violated the terms of its government loan:

Solyndra LLC had such steep financial problems in late 2010 that the company violated terms of its loan-guarantee agreement with the Department of Energy and technically defaulted on its $535 million loan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Defaulted and, yet, they were still able to draw down federal cash. Green energy is just the new term for good, old-fashioned corporate welfare.

Florida Republicans are poised to move up their presidential primary to January 31st. Colorado, Arizona and a handful of other states are also looking at moving their election dates, to try and have a greater influence in the nominating process. Of course, that will just spark the “official” early states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) to push up their elections.

Tax Hikes Don’t Work: Illinois hiked its income tax by 66%, but its still going deeper into debt because of overspending.

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Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern

Democrats have never been afraid to use the race card, but this is a new one. Senate Bill 5 and HB194 have nothing at all to do with race. But the union front group “We Are Ohio” and their Ohio Democrat lapdogs are airing a new radio ad that suggests that it is all about race.

As Democrats work to place Ohio’s Republican-backed elections law on hold through a referendum, they’re arguing that the measure is akin to poll taxes, grandfather clauses and other footnotes from America’s Jim Crow past.

But does the same argument apply to Senate Bill 5, the GOP-sponsored limits on collective bargaining for public employees that is currently subject to a referendum as state Issue 2 on the November ballot?

Democratic, labor and African-American leaders say yes.

We Are Ohio, the organized labor coalition seeking to repeal Senate Bill 5, is airing a radio ad that says “Gov. John Kasich and the Columbus politicians have passed two laws to take us back to the days of Jim Crow.”

Remember when we told you how the unions will say ANYTHING to hold onto their power? You’re witnessing that right now. Listen to some of the ridiculous justification for this outrageous ad.

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Saturday, I had a post on Big Government in which I argued that Gov. Rick Perry’s continued defense of tuition waivers for illegal immigrants had opened the door for Gov. Palin to enter the race. And facts being facts, he was dominating the field until the most recent GOP debate, where the audience booed him when he said: “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than that they’ve been brought there, through no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart.”

Well, consider me heartless because I still believe it’s wrong in principle and in practice to waive any part of tuition for illegal aliens. (And it seems the Floridians who voted in Saturday’s straw poll agree with me, because they handed Republican Herman Cain a whopping victory over Perry – 37% to 15%.)

As I wrote Saturday, Perry’s stance on this asinine practice is nothing less than an albatross around his neck.

Of course Perry has his supporters here, like the Democrat legislator who sponsored the bill – the Texas Dream Act – that made the tuition reductions for illegal aliens possible to begin with. That legislator, Rick Noriega, believes the bill has been a great success and offers a defense of it that sounds very much like the kind Perry has been making:  “The alternative is to slam the door on any hopes and dreams. How are they going to perform in high school if they don’t even have a chance at higher education?”

So if conservatives oppose giving tuition breaks to illegal aliens we either “don’t have a heart” or we’re slamming a door on “hopes and dreams.”

Yet there’s no escaping Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s observation that this kind of legislation is just a “magnet” for illegal aliens (that’s costing someone a pretty penny).

For example, the Dallas Morning News reports that “the number of illegal immigrant college students paying in-state tuition and receiving financial aid at Texas’ public colleges and universities continues to climb.” And between fall 2004 and spring 2008 alone “Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students.”

You read it right – the number of illegal immigrant college students getting waivers on their tuition continues to climb so high that “those students” received $33.6 million in state and financial aid.

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bloomspot, a high-end GroupOn-like company headquartered in the U.S. that offers luxury travel and experiences, this morning promised to delight Americans with a glamorous trip to Cuba. For $2,988 bloomspot, through the Nevada-based Spirit Quest Tours, is selling a seven-night trip “cruising around in vintage American automobiles most likely powered by Russian-made engines, see the city as its natives do.”

bloomspot is known for offering unique (in this case, dubiously legal) trips, and prides itself on the cache of its luxury-level products. A testimonial on its website describes the bloomspot difference:

“We prefer working with bloomspot because they emphasize a high-end experience and target a very fitting clientele. It’s not the average discount seeking customer but rather those interested in trying a new luxurious experience with a small incentive….” –Carolyn Thalin, Le Cirque, New York, NY

Once you get past bloomspot’s paragraphs of descriptions of the food, the quaint culture, and the concert by the Buena Vista Social Club, you are left with visions of a luxury vacation to a land that time has barely touched. Nowhere does Bloomspot indicate that the trip is not for pleasure, but in fact a humanitarian mission, except in the pricing, which indicates a $75 fee for a humanitarian visa. Seemingly contradictory, in the “Why” section of their advertisment, bloomspot indicates these three reasons for the trip: ”Captivating driving and walking tours of Havana; Visit to UNESCO World Heritage city Trinidad, the city time forgot; and Concert by the Buena Vista Social Club.”

After substantial sleuthing, and following links OFF of the bloomspot site we finally came across the footnote that seemingly allows bloomspot and Spirit Quest Travels to send its high-end clientele to the island. In the midst of a packed eight-day schedule, there is this aside:

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Imagine this scenario:  a white Tea Party politician is keynote speaker, addressing an all-white political group with ‘White’ in its name.  Also imagine that same politician appealing to a singular, segregated racial group, telling them to lace up their combat boots and join the fight.

A strikingly similar situation took place at a Congressional Black Caucus dinner attended by 3,000 leaders, some of whom are disgruntled over an economy suffering from Barack Obama’s policy bungles. The President used the opportunity to acknowledge that blacks have “suffered mightily because of the recession, and are frustrated that the downturn is taking so long to reverse.”

In addition to commiserating, America’s “post-racial” president exploited the occasion to agitate a group of racially sensitive people who he must think would be ready to march at his behest.

Speaking passionately, Obama was so worked up that he failed to acknowledge the effect his detrimental ideological policy decisions have had on the people he claims he wants to help.  Rather than come up with viable solutions to the problems he created, Obama’s go-to defense, as usual, was to up the dissension level by reminding his audience, “So many people are still hurting. So many people are barely hanging on. And so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way.”

One thing’s for sure – Barack Obama is adept at pointing out problems, recognizing that ‘people are barely hanging on,’ and then misidentifying the culprit and trying to recruit fighters for a cause without direction.

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Today, in 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. Yet another world-changing innovation brought to the world by an individual.

In the wake of President Obama asking America’s richest and most successful to do their patriotic duty and contribute their fair share to our Nation, more and more are refusing to be content with merely ostentatiously asking to have their taxes raised.  The hot new trend in Democrat circles is taking personal action to show patriotism through concrete actions and real sacrifice.

“I had a net worth of $200 million, so I wrote a check to the federal government for $199,999,900!” said high tech legend Frank Spindleman.  The big-time Democratic contributor and pioneer in the field of foreign Internet drug store spam was inspired by the President’s call to action.  Sitting in the open door of his new home, a beige 1973 Ford panel van parked down by the river, Spindleman is proud that he put his money where his mouth was.

Merely raise my marginal rates a little?  That’s nothing to me.  I wanted to really make a difference, so I gave the country everything.  Sure, it’s a little less comfortable here than my mansion, and I’ve got fewer and lower quality hookers hanging around, but it’s worth it for the personal pride I feel in not being one of those loudmouth jerks pretending to sacrifice in order to impress the media!

One of the founders of leading Internet search engine Gaggle felt the same.  Chet Vingly sold off his 401’ yacht, his Ferrari collection and his prized unicorn herd and sent all his cash to Uncle Sam.

I was listening to the President at a Beverly Hills fundraiser and lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills when it hit me – he was right!  The people who rely on government support – cowboy poets, performance artists, people who have better things to do than supporting themselves – these are the people we need to really focus on.  They deserve my money, not me.  I only earned it, but they really, really want it.  So, I think it’s pretty clear who’s entitled to it.

But for some, just giving away all their money isn’t enough.  Democratic impresario and synergy industry mogul Lance Gordon gave up his corporate jet.  He’ll be taking no more trips to his houses in Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard.

Thanks to the President’s warnings about the threat posed by global warming deniers, I bike everywhere now.  I mean, if you really, really believe that the science is settled and that climate change is real, you’ll absolutely stop flying around on private jets.  I’d be an incredible hypocrite if I believed in global warming but still jetted everywhere.  People would look at me and wonder why, if global warming was such a threat, all I was doing about it was having my butler separate my garbage into trash and recyclables.  Heck, if I was such a blatant poser jerk as that I couldn’t look myself in the mirror.

But for some prominent and wealthy liberals, President Obama’s inspiring call to patriotism demanded even more sacrifice.  Steve Berkley was a big-time Democratic bundler and the owner of the ubiquitous Buckstar’s Coffee shops.

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It’s widely known that the media has a liberal bias. But how do we prove it exists?

Tim Groseclose, political scientist and Professor of American Politics at the University of California at Los Angeles, has proven that this liberal bias does in fact exist. His method – called “Political Quotient” – uses statistical research to compare media outlets and the political leanings of Americans.

How liberal is the media? In his book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, Groseclose reveals which media companies are more liberal than others. After examining 20 news outlets, 15 were more liberal than the average American. Surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal was not excluded from having a liberal bias.

Does the media’s liberal bias affect how people vote? Without a doubt. Groseclose argues that media bias “aids democratic candidates 8 to 10 percentage points in general elections.”

To learn more about how to combat and expose liberal media bias, watch the full interview below.

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Last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) reviewed the reforms Indiana has instituted since he took office in a wide-ranging speech at The Heritage Foundation. From education reform to challenging public employee unions, Daniels has strived to make government work well. In an interview following his speech, Daniels discussed the reforms he made to state government, the Democrats’ walkout from the legislature this year, and what the federal government can learn from Indiana.

And the effort seems to have paid off. As we discussed in the interview, a recent Manhattan Institute poll revealed that 77 percent of Hoosiers rate Indiana’s government as “efficient.” That’s the highest percentage of any state surveyed and a stark contrast to neighboring Illinois’ 23 percent.

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There were a lot of things wrong with the presidency of Bill Clinton. I would have much rather preferred a second term of Bush 41. But comparing the Obama presidency to Clinton’s accomplishments of the 1990s, and it’s easy to see why the travails of President Clinton were good “problems” to have.

I never thought it would come to this. I never imagined a time post 2000 when I would actually lament a return to the past. But here we are, facing a recession as deep and even longer than the one in the early 1990s. A recession that ushered in none other than the Comeback Kid – President William Jefferson Clinton.

His was a presidency that brought us DNA samples; Don’t ask, Don’t tell; school uniforms; and wagging fingers regarding a certain intern.

But set all that aside (if you can), and recall some of the fiscal successes of his presidency, and it’s easy to long for those days again.

Yes, the United States enjoyed years of growing surpluses during the Clinton presidency – many of which could be attributed equally to the Republican Congress – but pair them together, and it’s easy to see why the country could use another Bill Clinton in place of the current Oval Office occupant. Here’s why:

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From The News & Observer:

Speaking to a Cary rotary club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that,” Perdue said. “You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”

The comment — which came during a discussion of the economy — perked more than a few ears. It’s unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious — but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea.

Read her full remarks below.

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