Archive for October, 2011

Media Trackers

Uncovering The Phony “Independent” Group Organizing Recall Of Scott Walker

by Media Trackers

By Collin Roth

On October 10, 2011, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Mike Tate announced on MSNBC that the long awaited Scott Walker recall will go forward, starting on November 15, 2011. But in Chairman Tate’s announcement, he referenced one organization as the de facto leader of the Walker recall effort.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has been working with grassroots activists from around the state. Groups like United Wisconsin, and the many other groups that have sprung up, to figure out the next step we can take to stop Scott Walker’s radical agenda. We have come through a series of meetings with all these grassroots activists and we have come to the conclusion that we do need to recall him from office. And we are going to officially file to recall him from office on November 15.

Other organizations including labor unions around the state have identified United Wisconsin, not the Democratic Party, as the leader of the effort to recall Scott Walker.

“The citizen’s group, United Wisconsin, announced today that it will lead efforts to recall Governor Walker.”- Wisconsin AFL-CIOPress Release October 11, 2011

“AFT-Wisconsin President Bryan Kennedy issued the following statement in support of United Wisconsin’s effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker…”- AFT Wisconsin Press Release October 11, 2011

“SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin is joining United Wisconsin in their efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker. The citizens group, United Wisconsin, will spearhead efforts to recall Walker and begin circulating petitions on November 15.”- SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin Press Release October 11, 2011

“WEAC, Wisconsin’s largest union representing teachers and other public school employees, released a statement of support today for United Wisconsin’s efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker.” -WEAC Press Release October 11, 2011

“Today, We Are Wisconsin announces our support of United Wisconsin in their effort to recall Scott Walker!”- We Are WisconsinWebsite Post October 11, 2011

So with all of this support from labor unions and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, who is United Wisconsin?

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Capitol Confidential

Will Sen. Rob Portman ‘Pull a Stupak’ and Cave on New Consumer Czar?

by Capitol Confidential

In the pitched battle over whether government should take over our health care system, a group of pro-life Democrat congressmen held the line to oppose the legislation because they knew the bill authorized funding for abortion.  Under intense pressure from the president and their pro-choice comrades in the Congress, the group, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) flip-flopped when they received a letter from the president ensuring that government would not spend money for abortion.  They were had.

Now Sen. Rob Portman appears ready to “pull a Stupak.”  Under pressure from Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, Portman appears ready to cut a deal to confirm former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to a five-year term to head the super-regulatory agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Word on Capitol Hill is that Portman has assured Cordray he has no problems with his nomination and is asking for assurances that his concerns about the Bureau will be address – not in legislation, but in a letter.  Has Portman learned anything from the Stupak incident?  Apparently not.

Unlike Portman, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is taking a principled stand against the creation of a new super regulatory agency and is not shaking in his boots.  Shelby has organized his colleagues who have pledged to oppose the nomination of Cordray or any other nominee unless the Bureau is reformed.  Unlike Portman, apparently, Shelby is smart enough to demand real statutory changes as opposed to “promised” changes.

The CFPB was structured in a way to give huge, and perhaps unconstitutional, power to its Director.  Alan Raul, who served as general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan, described the CFPB’s power as “an independent agency on steroids because Congress essentially exempted the director from any meaningful accountability or strong presidential oversight.”

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Liberty Chick

October2011.org: Anti-War Globalists Organize Occupation Movement, Push Democrats Further Left

by Liberty Chick

It’s relatively common knowledge at this point that AdBusters issued the first call for an American Tahrir Square-style protest; this has become #OccupyWallStreet and the Occupation movement.  But little has been said of October2011, an aligning organization that issued the same call shortly before AdBusters.  Most may think the Occupation gimmick is a new thing, but some of these organizers have been “Occupying” since at least 2007.  It’s a history rooted in the anti-war and anti-imperialist factions of the left, which today often brings together the anti-consumerist Green Party and some of the anarchist elements into the same circles of activism.

It’s an interesting alliance, to say the least, but with the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, the anti-capitalism momentum here in the U.S. appears to be building and bringing more of these factions into the mainstream left.  As Democrats fear more discontent in the next election, one can’t help but ask:  is the Democratic party more involved in the movement than the protesters are willing to admit?

It starts with October2011.org, a movement that aims to “Stop the Machine” and “Create a New World.”  Organizers talk of ending the wars in the Middle East, creating a single-payer health system, and tearing down the current capitalist order of society to institute a new economic system.  From October2011’s statement:

We call on people of conscience and courage—all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment—to join together in Washington, D.C., beginning on Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest awakening.

A concert, rally and protest will kick off a powerful and sustained nonviolent resistance to the corporate criminals that dominate our government.

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Brett Healy

Occupy Nest Egg: Public Employees who Retired in 2011 Cashed Out Avereage of 43 Weeks of Unused Sick Leave

by Brett Healy

Look at what the MacIver News Service’s investigation on recent state employee retirements in Wisconsin: State Employees who retired so far in 2011 have converted more than $300 million in unused sick leave to pay for post-retirement health insurance.

Talk about two Americas. The public employees and their private sector counterparts. Once Governor Scott Walker and the Republicans in the legislature proposed and passed changes to Wisconsin’s public employee bargaining laws, we knew there would be an exodus. Gone is collective bargaining that rewards time over performance. Gone, too, are nearly 2,700 state workers who cashed in their lucrative sick leave benefits.

The results of our investigation are staggering.

State employees who retired between January and September converted more than $340 million of unused sick leave, which they can use to purchase post-retirement health care, the MacIver News Service has learned.

For this investigation, MacIver examined data provided by the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF). Nearly 2,700 new retirees had an average of 1,716.65 sick hours banked, the equivalent of nearly 43 40-hour work weeks, each.

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The New Ledger

Business Groups Blast Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan

by The New Ledger

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, growing criticism of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, and our drive to get Francis on NPR’s Marketplace.

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:

More Reasons Why Conservatives Should Take Occupy Wall Street Seriously
A few random thoughts on Occupy Wall Street, flash mobs, and 9/11
Spending on housing and vehicles
Business groups blast Cain’s 9-9-9 plan as job killer
Cain’s Sales Tax Would Hurt Consumer Spending ’For Some Years’
Let’s Start All Over Again
David Frum bids farewell to Marketplace
Email NPR and tell them you want our very own Francis Cianfrocca to replace David Frum on Marketplace
Sign up for Ben’s daily email: The Transom

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

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Brandon Darby

Emails Expose the True Nature of the #Occupy Movement

by Brandon Darby

My history with many of the key organizers of the “Global Movement for Peace and Justice” has allowed me to see right through the Mainstream Media and Democratic Party’s attempts to promote and build the #Occupy Movement as a “grassroots effort” which “spontaneously” arose.

I’ve known that the #Occupy Movement is nothing less than a current manifestation of an international revolutionary push in which I myself used to play a significant role. This “movement” holds at its core that America is the largest enemy to world peace and freedom. As many know, my views began to change in our movements’ efforts to help the residents of the devastated New Orleans 9th Ward. My experiences in leadership allowed me to meet and interact with many “relief” and “protest” groups from around the world. I ultimately came to the conclusion that many of these organizations and individuals were intent on destroying our country – I decided to expose them through working undercover with The FBI.

This movement has once again reared its ugly head and done just what it always does – convincing moderate Democrats to inadvertently provide cover, both physically and in the media, for radical efforts to damage our system and our nation. As can be expected, I’m part of a citizen-led effort to expose them for what they are.

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Don Loos

Union Boss Hoffa: Right to Work Freedom ‘Is a Conspiracy’

by Don Loos

The simple proposition that no one should be forced to pay tributes to labor bosses or they will lose their job, is not a conspiracy.  It is freedom from tyranny.  Using forced dues to finance politicians who vote to force citizens against their will to pay union bosses in order to keep their own jobs, is a conspiracy.


The fact is, until 1935, the United States Government did not force people to pay tributes to union bosses in order to get or keep a job.  If there was a conspiracy, it was between the AFL, CIO, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a Democrat Congress passed the Wagner Act, selling the concept as “workers rights.”  The Wagner Act foisted union servitude on millions of working Americans overnight.  We see the AFL-CIO, the president, and Congress attempting the same scam today.

The only workers who can escape from Wagner Act compulsion work in the 22-states which chose a Right to Work law to protect their citizens from this tyranny.  This Wagner Act forced-dues tyranny can be clearly blamed on Big Labor Bosses.

Then-A.F.L. president William Green boasted of Big Labor’s role in the Wagner Act in Liberty Magazine: “We helped write it. We thought of it as ‘Our Baby’.”  And at a union convention Green said, “The A.F.L. is wholly and fully responsible for the Wagner Labor Relations Act.”

Mr. Hoffa, freedom is no conspiracy.  Freedom is an ideal that both men and women aspire to obtain.

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Rebel Pundit

#OccupyChicago Joins ‘Destroy Israel’ Anti-war, Anti-America ‘Peace’ March

by Rebel Pundit

In our continuing coverage from last Saturday’s anti-war protest and march organized by the left-wing ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, and the Gay Liberation Network, we have more alarming video to share. Alarming, but not surprising, given our footage of the same groups’ joint demonstration last March.

Organizers and protesters from Occupy Chicago joined these groups and provided support to last Saturday’s anti-war gathering. The protest carried a strong anti-Israel/anti-America message, a theme that both served as a rallying cry for the day and, more ominously, a call to action for the organization of massive demonstrations in Chicago next May during the G-8 and Nato summit. Bringing more socialist economics to the United States, was also high on the agenda for the day.

Hatem Abudayyeh, a local pro-Palestinian agitator, rose to stage to address the crowd regarding Israel and American imperialism. He referred to Benjamin Netanyahu as a “fool” for his recent address to the U.N. General Assembly, and cheered the effectiveness of the global boycott and divestment in Israel, which he said was successfully putting a “dent in Israel’s indemnity over Palestine and the Arab world.” During the speech, members of the radical left-wing Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization on which noted socialist Noam Chomsky happens to sit on the board, passed out flyers that read at the top, “Be a Passivist (sic), be a Nonviolent Activist, Refuse to Pay Taxes, Destroy Israel!”


Abudayyeh is not a rookie in the activist business. He is the executive director for the Arab American Action Network, which was founded by radical PLO propagandist Rashid Khalidi. When President Obama was on the board of directors for the Woods Fund, they gave a $40,000 grant to Abudayyeh’s group, and the group has also received close to $500,000 in federal tax dollars.

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Thomas Ryan

The Email Archive of the #OccupyWallStreet Movement: Anarchists, Socialists, Unions, Democrats and Their Plans

by Thomas Ryan

[Editors' Note - Crowdsourcing: At the end of this post, you will find links to download the #OccupyWallStreet email archive described earlier today by Andrew Breitbart. Send your thoughts, observations, and findings to feedback@breitbart.com, or post them in the comment section.]

On August 10, 2011, the hacker group “Anonymous” announced that it would join the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. That’s what sparked my interest in monitoring #OccupyWallStreet.

I reached out to a colleague and asked if he would be interested in studying the protest with me. At first, it seemed disorganized, and we believed it would only be a few hundred protestors.

As we engaged in monitoring its growth, we recruited other people to help us begin the collection of data available via social media. We began mapping out key players, and monitored Anonymous’s efforts to organize protests in the San Francisco Bay area public transportation system (#opBART) in order to detect patterns and key influencers.

Then, at the end of August, we were alerted by a fellow researcher that information about USDoR (U.S. Day of Rage, to which Occupy Wall Street is connected) had been posted on Shamuk and Al-Jahad, two Al-Qaeda recruitment sites. We began to take the “Occupy” protest more seriously, and dedicated more time to research and monitoring.

Days later, Anonymous announced that it would be releasing its new DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) tool. Because of the Al-Qaeda posting, we contacted the New York Field Office of the FBI so they could investigate the potential threat. From that point on, we decided we needed to include the Human Element of Intelligence (HUMINT), and to infiltrate the protestors to map their ties to Anonymous, and to the postings on Shamuk and Al-Jahad.

A few of us had attended several of the pre-protest meet-ups and training classes. The Civil Disobedience training was taught by Elliot “Smokey” Madison, a New York-based anarchist who is a member of the People’s Law Collective, a voluntary group that advises protesters on legal issues arising from their actions. The Media training was taught by Vlad Teichberg, a New York based anarchist who is a member of the Glass Bead Collective, an artistic activist group.

After attending these meetings and socializing with those present, several of our team members were added to all the mailing lists of the “Occupy” group. That is how we created the email archive that we are sharing with you (see below). In addition to the involvement of socialists, anarchists, and other radicals, the emails also reveal heavy union involvement from the beginning of the “Occupy” movement, as well as discussion about the role of the Democratic Party, and how the movement should respond to President Barack Obama.

The emails also reveal that the Occupation attempted to provoke the New York Police Department prior to some of the clashes that occurred with activists.

Additionally, the emails reveal the many failed efforts of the hacker collective Anonymous. If those efforts had succeeded, they may have damaged the global economy.

Some examples are:

We are sharing the email archive because we believe the public needs to know the hidden agendas behind the Occupation–the socialist, anarchist, and other agendas that have not been reported in the mainstream media.

Email archive:

.pst format: primary and alternate

.csv format: primary and alternate

Meredith Dake

An Occupied Nation: What Happened While You Were Sleeping

by Meredith Dake

At around 6:15 a.m. ET the owners of Zuccotti Park and the government of NYC gave into the union-supported, trashy homeless people living on private property. The police waited so late to respond and to clear out the protesters that it gave time for large numbers to gather far beyond what the police could control. Hoping to fight another day, the owners of the park capitulated to the community-organized demands (to allow them to stay in deteriorating living conditions). An analyst for “Russia Today” reported that union “workers” showed up to Zuccotti Park with signs reading “NYPD protects the rich.” She tweeted, “Entire #OWS crowd erups in deafening cheers + applause.” The cheers heard of the crowd over the live stream after it was announced the cleaning would be “postponed” sounded like that of a pro football game.

The Occupy Denver protesters were almost as lucky. It was equally awe-inspiring and scary how organized and coordinated these protesters were in tracking the Denver Police Department’s every move via twitter. User “OccupyIntel” as well as the official OccupyDenver twitter accounts were tweeting updates from a police scanner. Yes, the protesters were actually listening to the police scanners to see where and when the police were moving next. In some cases they were providing direct quotes of what law enforcement officials were saying.

From 4-5:30 a.m. CT I watched a live stream of the clearing of the Occupy Denver protest via News9-Denver . On live television I watched as, what the reporter described as “dozens”, officers dressed in full riot gear calmly walked through the streets and began tearing down tents. The reporter had been there since earlier in the evening and revealed some very interesting facts about how the protesters prepared for this early morning’s events:

  • Protesters had multiple lawyers on site for days offering legal advice. Those lawyers were there and shown on camera documenting and monitoring police actions.
  • Protesters dipped their bandanas, which they used to cover their face, in vinegar in order to negate the effects of tear gas.
  • Protesters distributed a number to call in case of arrest. Several of the protesters sharpied the number on their arms and legs.

I’ll have to check my notes, but can someone remind me the last time a Tea Party protest required on-site lawyers and tear gas prevention?

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AWR Hawkins

Mitt Romney: Just John McCain with Better Hair?

by AWR Hawkins

I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that. …It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.

I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past but I believe we contribute to that. And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.

Although those words sound like they could have come straight from Obama’s mouth teleprompter, they didn’t. Rather, they were spoken by Mitt Romney on the campaign trail over the last few days and months.

I know he’s trying to pawn himself off as a conservative right now – because he wants to be president – but he’s not conservative, and since the Republican field appears afraid to point that out, I’m doing it for them.

While you’ve got to credit Romney for acting like a conservative during debates, if you really look at him, it’s easy to see he’s a big government moderate who’s susceptible to fallacious arguments any honest observer can see through.

For example, said Romney in June 2011: “I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer.”

(I should add that I once read that Elvis was serving hamburgers at a Burger King in Kalamazoo, MI. I can’t prove that, but I read it in 1994.)

If it bothers you that I described Romney as a big government moderate, just think about it: Number one, he is a moderate (no conservative would have ever supported Romneycare). Number two, what, other than government, will he rely on to fix the so-called global warming problem?

And I haven’t even mentioned his abortion problem.

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Andrew Breitbart

‘Crowdsource’ This: Emails Expose #OccupyWallStreet Conspiracy to ‘Destabalize’ Global Markets, Governments

by Andrew Breitbart

We’re in this for the long haul. There are no “solutions” that can be presented quickly to make us go away. And so there will be moments where our presence is no longer an uncomfortable and unknown variable, but rather is normalized and integrated. It’s in those moments that we have to push the envelop [sic], pry open the space of possibility even farther. We go as far as we can to destabalize [sic], but maintain momentum. And when that’s the new “normal” then we go farther. That’s how change happens, how we shift the terrain and the terms of the game.

- Email in “Occupy” archive, “Re: Can OWS be turned into a Democratic Party Movement?”; Wednesday, October 12, 2011

In keeping with the new media notion of crowdsourcing–enthusiastically embraced by the mainstream media when trawling through Sarah Palin’s emails–Big Government will be providing readers later today with links to a document drop consisting of thousands of emails.

The email archive, created by a private cyber security researcher, appears to contain messages shared by the left’s anarcho-socialist activists during the strategic and daily tactical planning of the “Occupy Wall Street” and broader “Occupy” campaign this fall.

Big Government received a tip about the existence of the archive, and we were able to contact the individual who compiled and posted it. He will describe the archive, and how he obtained the emails, later this morning exclusively on Big Government.

Through “crowdsourcing,” the media and the public will then be able to discover the truth behind the “Occupy” movement.

The archive includes emails, for example, from radical anarchist organizer Lisa Fithian, who was profiled earlier this week at Big Government, and who is one of the leading organizers behind the Occupy movement.

In one email, dated October 1, Fithian applauds the launch of “occupations” throughout the country. She also highlights an ACORN-style illegal home occupation in California, linking to a television news story that reveals the involvement of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), which is apparently the reconstituted version of ACORN in California.


OWSMailList_0001-3

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Publius

Friday Free-for-All: Cubs Edition

by Publius

Today, in 1908, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. They haven’t won since.

Larry O'Connor

Surprise! Warren Buffett’s Company Has $1 Billion Federal Tax Obligation

by Larry O'Connor

“It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
- Warren Buffett, NY Times Op-Ed August 15, 2011

Those high-minded and selfless words from one of the nation’s richest men inspired the Democrats’ latest push for higher taxes on job creators.  It also sounds like one of the creepy slogans chanted and repeated by the aromatic “Occupy Wall St” protesters when they decry corporate greed and the doomed capitalist system.

Yes, Mr. Buffett has entered his ninth decade of this mortal coil as somewhat of a folk hero to progressives and leftists who would normally be revolted by a multimillionaire investor.  But Buffett (whose many holdings include the GEICO insurance company) has purchased a little media insurance by speaking out against his own tax rates and has practically begged the government to take more of his money and money from the rest of us who are business owners and are trying to be next decade’s Warren Buffett.

Meanwhile, according to research done by Americans for Limited Government, Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, has a decade-old dispute with the IRS over its corporate tax bill, an obligation worth $1 billion dollars, so far.

“The company has been short-changing the tax collection agency for much of the past decade. Mr. Buffett’s company has not fully settled its tax bills from 2002-2009. Yet he says he’d happily pay more. Except the IRS has apparently been asking him to pay more going on nine years.”

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Warner Todd Huston

Pipeline Explosion Highlights Incompetence, Cronyism at CA Public Utilities Commission

by Warner Todd Huston

Another in a long line of explosions and other catastrophic safety failures occurred at the end of September when a natural gas pipeline built and owned by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) ruptured in Roseville, California. This is just of a piece of the failure of PG&E to ensure public safety, a failure that the so-called government watchdog agency set up to watch the utility, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has seemingly done little to mitigate.

Now, not only has PG&E failed to safeguard the public, but the company is insisting that ratepayers foot the bill for repairs and new safety programs to the tune of some $2.2 billion. Government watchdog CPUC seems wholly content to stand aside while they do it.

Michael R. Peevey, President of the CPUC, has been at the helm of the regulatory commission during many of the worst failures of public safety. Yet, even as he’s claimed he intends to make major changes in the agency, Governor Jerry Brown has not sacked Peevey, whose term ends in 2014. Taxpayers are left asking, why not?

Peevey has been a disaster. He has reigned over some of the most disastrous failures which have caused the deaths of nearly a dozen Californians. His soft stance seems to have allowed PG&E to act with impunity and arrogance, all to the detriment of ratepayers’ pocketbooks and their very safety. (more…)

Uncommon Knowledge

Repealing ObamaCare with Congressman Paul Ryan

by Uncommon Knowledge

“Approximately one-fourth of government spending goes towards healthcare.” And it is our responsibility to fix a broken system.

What’s the first step? The full repeal of ObamaCare.

Congressman Paul Ryan argues that what is needed is increased choice and competition in healthcare. It’s time to turn ideas into policy, and transition from a benefit-oriented system to a market-based system.

So what is stopping us from repealing ObamaCare?  Many people recognize that Obama’s health care law is inherently flawed.  In fact, ObamaCare even dismantles basic programs related to health savings laws.

Paul Ryan, representing Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, met with Hoover Institution to discuss why Obama’s health care law isn’t working and why we need to replace it. To hear more of Paul Ryan’s argument, watch the full episode below.


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Dan Mitchell

Freedom and Prosperity vs. Big Government and Stagnation

by Dan Mitchell

The folks from the Koch Institute put together a great video a couple of months ago looking at why some nations are rich and others are poor.

That video looked at the relationship between economic freedom and various indices that measure quality of life. Not surprisingly, free markets and small government lead to better results.

Now they have a new video that looks at recent developments in the United States. Unfortunately, you will learn that the U.S. is slipping in the wrong direction.


The entire video is superb, but there are two things that merit special praise, one because of intellectual honesty and the other because of intellectual effectiveness.

1. The refreshingly honest aspect of the video is its non-partisan tone. It explains, in a neutral fashion, that Bush undermined prosperity by making government bigger and that Obama is undermining prosperity by increasing the burden of government.

2. The most important and effective argument in the video, at least from my perspective, is that it shows clearly that a larger government necessarily comes at the expense of the productive sector of the economy. Pay extra-close attention around the 2:00 mark.

It’s also worth pointing out that there are several policies that impact on economic performance. The Koch Institute video focuses primarily on the key issues of fiscal policy and regulation, but trade, monetary policy, property rights, and rule of law are examples of other policies that also are very important.

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John Horton

EPA Admits Air Pollution Data Errors, Texas Gets No Extra Time to Comply with Regulations Based on That Data

by John Horton

The EPA just revealed revisions to the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) that they say will give more flexibility to states for implementation of the rule. I applaud the EPA for finally admitting its errors in calculations and flawed methodology, but I am not sure about the motives behind this move. The EPA’s admission that they have to go back and make “technical corrections” to CSAPR highlights that the original rule was based on flawed math.

The EPA was in a rush to implement these rules and failed to consider the sweeping job loss that would result. There was a complete lack of consideration for the possibility that the information upon which the rule was based may have, in fact, been inaccurate. Now the EPA is citing incorrect assumptions for the “technical corrections.” Well, these “technical corrections” will do little to put to rest the fears of Texans who will potentially be out of work as a result of this rule.

The changes are very minimal, and they have only happened because the EPA was repeatedly called out for faulty calculations. But what is most troubling is that the changes do nothing to reduce the time crunch that Texas is under in order to attempt to comply with the rule by January 2012. With such an unrealistic timeframe to comply, jobs will likely still be lost. Donna Nelson, the Chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission remarked that she “would be thrilled if they were to change their position or to give Texas the due process they were required to do under law, [but] it looks like they are tinkering around the edges, not making big changes.” (more…)

John Nolte

Watch Your Back, Joe: NBC’s ‘Today Show’ Pushes Hillary to Replace Biden

by John Nolte

Along with their White House pals, the MSM is currently freaking out over the prospect of Obama losing his bid for reelection and nowhere is that more apparent than on the “Today Show” where, out of whole cloth (or not — more on this below), they’ve decided to float a narrative that says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might be replacing Vice President Joe Biden on the Democrat’s 2012 ticket.

Like the rest of America, the “Today Show” is looking at President Obama’s lousy poll numbers, brewing White House scandals, and one lousy jobs report after another. But unlike, oh, 62% of Americans, the MSM is panicked at the thought of Obama not winning a second term. And since the President has already failed and is unlikely to un-fail over the next 13 months, the MSM is looking for what’s known in the political business as a game-changer.

And so, the charlatans disguised as journalists over at NBC are trying to craft one:

The White House is getting irked about persistent speculation in the media that President Obama might dump Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate in 2012 in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After hosts of NBC’s “Today” show questioned both Mr. Biden and Mrs. Clinton on consecutive days about a possible switch, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer posted this on his Twitter account Tuesday morning:

“I have noticed a weird @todayshow obsession with faux story of Sec. Clinton replacing @VP…Have asked both about it last 2 days on the show.”

This is also a welcome distraction for NBC. This kind of ginned-up speculation allows the “Today Show” to pretend the biggest political story of the day is anything but Fast and Furious, Solyndra, and another lousy jobs report issued just this morning. MSM-created distractions are a very large part of the MSM’s 2012 gameplan.

But is this really just the desperate MSM acting desperate and is the White House really as put-out over this as they seem?

(more…)

The New Ledger

Scrutinizing Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan

by The New Ledger

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Francis Cianfrocca are joined by Daniel Mitchell, to discuss Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, the pitfalls of instituting a national sales tax, and the reality that 9-9-9 will probably end up more like 12-12-12.

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:

Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan Is Great in Theory, but…
Look Before You Leap on Cain’s 9-9-9 Tax Plan
Cain’s ‘9-9-9′ tax reform plan under fire from both left and right
Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan gets lukewarm reviews from conservatives — and a Cain consultant
Daniel J. Mitchell at CATO Institute

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