I’ve written about the fiscal implosion in Europe and warned that America faces the same fate if we don’t reform poorly designed entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

But this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, narrated by an Italian student and former Cato Institute intern, may be the best explanation of what went wrong in Europe and what should happen in the United States to avoid a similar meltdown.

I particularly like the five lessons she identifies.

1. Higher taxes lead to higher spending, not lower deficits. Miss Morandotti looks at the evidence from Europe and shows that politicians almost always claim that higher taxes will be used to reduce red ink, but the inevitable result is bigger government. This is a lesson that gullible Republicans need to learn – especially since some of them want to acquiesce to a tax hike as part of the “Supercommitee” negotiations.

2. A value-added tax would be a disaster. This was music to my ears since I have repeatedly warned that the statists won’t be able to impose a European-style welfare state in the United States without first imposing this European-style money machine for big government.

3. A welfare state cripples the human spirit. This was the point eloquently made by Hadley Heath of the Independent Women’s Forum in a recent video.

4. Nations reach a point of no return when the number of people mooching off government exceeds the number of people producing. Indeed, Miss Morandotti drew these two cartoons showing how the welfare state inevitably leads to fiscal collapse.

5. Bailouts don’t work. This also was a powerful lesson. Imagine how much better things would be in Europe if Greece never received an initial bailout. Much less money would have been flushed down the toilet and this tough-love approach would have sent a very positive message to nations such as Portugal, Italy, and Spain about the danger of continued excessive spending.

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From MetroNY:

Occupy Wall Street protester Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, was arrested after making threats to “burn this city down” in Metro.

Tinsley gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday after the protesters’ eviction from Zuccotti Park, telling a crowd of his violent intentions.

“On the 17th, mark my words, we’re going to burn this city down,” said Nkrumah Tinsley, 29. “In a few days, you’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s.”

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In 2007 Google decided it wanted a more permanent role in the political game. The company launched its D.C. public policy headquarters the following January. Google and policy makers in D.C. were excited to see this step being taken by the tech giant; the expectation was that Google would take the system by storm.

Over the last three years Google has been highly invested in the public policy process and in many cases they have molded policy to their whims and desires. In 2008 Barack Obama ran as a pro-net neutrality candidate and Google jumped on that bandwagon donating $814,540  to the campaign.  His opponent, John McCain received less than $100,000. Additionally another million  dollars was provided by Google to MoveOn.org. This grand show of support was in hopes that it would ensure Google Federal Communications Commission support for Net Neutrality. For the most part they got it. And that policy looks to stick, for now, after last week’s inaction by Congress, allowing the FCC to start passing law for the United States.

Though recently it appears Google has begun to realize a valuable lesson about the world of D.C. politics, when the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission announced they would be investigating Google for monopoly practices.

Recently, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, spoke with the Washington Post after his first appearance for congressional testimony, and the “take D.C. by storm” expectation certainly appeared to be catching up with Google as Schmidt vocalized his frustration.

“So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. OK? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer,” Mr. Schmidt stated to the Post. “It’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to . . . lower than free? You see what I’m saying?”

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If Congressional Republicans want to know why people call politics the “second oldest profession” and view politicians with similar regard to used car salesmen, they need only look at the new mantra of Republican super committee members: “We will not raise your taxes as much as the other guys.” Congressional Republicans, who railed against President Obama for raising a trillion dollars of new taxes in the Obamacare legislation and professed that raising taxes in the middle of a recession is the surest way to prolong it, have pledged to raise half a trillion dollars in new taxes as their opening gambit in the super committee negotiations.

Congressional Republicans who refused to be sucked into the Marxist rhetoric of President Obama and the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd by voting down tax increases on millionaires and billionaires, have proposed raising taxes on families and small businesses making a fraction of that amount. Congressional Republicans who reminded us that we have a “spending problem” and not a “revenue problem” have thrown their lot in with Congressional Democrats. These Democrats mocked Republican Presidential candidates for refusing to accept a 10:1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases while being unwilling to accept the recommendation of the President’s blue ribbon commission when it proposed a 4:1 ratio of tax cuts to spending increases. While this is terrible economic policy, the political implications for Congressional Republicans and the Republican Presidential candidate are even worse.

Republican super committee members have reportedly proposed eliminating or scaling back itemized deductions for mortgage interest, state and local taxes and charitable deductions in exchange for the permanent extension or a slight reduction in the Bush era income tax rates. Make no mistake, this will be a NET TAX INCREASE at the federal level. Whether taxing income or property, most states levy taxes in the neighborhood of at least 5-10%. Reducing the highest income tax bracket by no more than 10% would likely result in a net tax increase for most Americans in this income tax bracket, especially when combined with the elimination of the deduction for mortgage interest.

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Richard Trumka, that fearless leader of the AFL-CIO, is a strange bird indeed. He uses the lexicon of Marx and Lenin, has a mustache that looks like it’s glued on, and emanates a rage previously reserved for Alec Baldwin voicemails. As a union man, he’s accustomed to living off the public dole, and since Obama assumed the presidency, has enjoyed seeing billions of taxpayer dollars used to prop up union causes and industries (like the very Detroit automakers unions previously destroyed).

And although the money Obama threw at Detroit will result in a $23.6 billion loss for the American people, Trumka is unrepentant because it keeps his union operational and other Leninist outposts going strong as well.

Here’s the problem – Trumka is a taker. Take, take, take, take, and after taking, all he can do is demand more. (He’s like a kid whose parents never taught the meaning of “no.”) Thus it comes as no surprise he now stands in “solidarity” with the hippies and freaks that constitute #OccupyWallStreet, which is another group of takers. Rather than work they take over public parks, march in the streets, throw rocks through windows, all while moaning that the rich won’t hand over more of their money to the unwashed masses.

To date, the occupy movements have been marred by death, sexual assaults, kidnappings, drug use, attacks on policemen, masturbation in front of children, destruction of property, defecation in the streets, and a couple of bullets fired at the White House (all harmlessly enough I’m sure).  And through it all, these takers have been backed by unions who are best served by dividing one portion of Americans against another using the tired rhetoric of workers v. the rich or the 99% v. the 1% or the proletariat v. the bourgeoisie.

Of course Trumka isn’t without his supporters. President Obama lets him travel for free on taxpayer funded government jets in September and that freak of nature Michael Moore joins Trumka in outrage over the fact that the police in various cities are finally cracking down on occupiers.

Trumka’s latest stunt is to call for occupiers to fill up bridges in cities around the nation today at 4 pm. As part of “National Occupy Bridge Day,” the plan is to shut down traffic on bridges leading in and out of major U.S. cities in order to get Obama’s jobs bill passed. I wonder how creating a public nuisance certain to outrage people driving home from their jobs is going to raise support for legislation designed to dump more money into the pockets of union thugs and hippies like those in #OccupyWallStreet?

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This wrist slap won’t even require a bandage.

The State of Wisconsin Medical Examining Board has found fault with medical record keeping of the doctors who participated in the sick note scam first exposed by the MacIver News Service in February.

The Board issued formal reprimands for seven Doctors involved in the scandal and will require them to attend four hours of continuing education on the importance of keeping proper records.

Four. Whole. Hours.

No discipline was issued for the sham sick notes that were handed out on the street corner without having conducted a proper medical examination. The lawyers for the doctors played the pity card today, complaining about the threats and abuse the doctors suffered after we exposed their scam to the nation 9 months ago.

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Today, in 1800, the U.S. Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. No one was trading on inside information.

From BreitbartTV:

Because of the revelations in Peter Schweizer’s new book Throw Them All Out, a Tea Party group along with Big Government contributor Dr. Gina Loudon have called for the resignation of Senator Bachus. The Tea Party rally will be held on Thursday afternoon from Noon-1 p.m.

With Energy Secretary Steven Chu set to testify Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the government’s $573 million loan to failed solar panel maker Solyndra, an explosive new list of energy loan amounts to President Obama’s top fundraisers, bundlers, and supporters has been released by Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out.

As the list reveals, 80 percent of all $20.5 billion in Department of Energy loans went to President Obama’s top donors. Furthermore, some of those dwarf in size those given to Obama bundler George Kaiser, owner of the now defunct Solyndra.

The list—which features the likes of Google owners Larry Page and Sergey Brinn, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ted Turner, John Doerr, and Al Gore—raises new questions about the procedures used to administer the now-controversial DOE loans.

Obama Bundlers_ Large Donors_ and Supporters fixed pdf

Schweizer’s list stands in sharp contrast to President Obama’s promise that the allocation of all federal “stimulus” monies would be nonpartisan and fair: “Let me repeat that: Decisions about how Recovery money will be spent will be based on the merits. They will not be made as a way of doing favors for lobbyists,” Obama said in 2009.

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Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are uniting to put a stop to insider trading in Congress.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who is rising in Republican presidential polls this week, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that insider trading must be punished:

Meanwhile, from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs:

LIEBERMAN, COLLINS TO HOLD HEARING ON INSIDER TRADING LAWS AND CONGRESS

60 Minutes Story Sparks Examination

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced Wednesday they would hold a hearing to examine how insider trading laws apply to Congress.

The hearing, requested by Committee Member Scott Brown, R-Mass., and sparked by a 60 Minutes report, is intended to clarify the laws and rules that govern members of Congress who may profit personally from non-public information they learn in the course of their work.

“Insider trading by members of Congress – if it occurs — is a serious breach of the public trust,” said Lieberman. “No one in Congress should be enriching themselves based on information to which the general public has no access. Our hearing will set the record straight about how existing laws and ethics rules apply to Congress and whether they are sufficient to prevent unethical market trading.” (more…)

The United Steelworkers (USW) Marxist president Leo Gerard believes if Big Labor can’t get what it wants through the ballot box it’s time to start cracking skulls.

The Canadian-born Gerard loves a brawl. In 1999 he helped the violent anarchists protesting in Seattle block access to the World Trade Organization meetings. USW sent 1,400 goons to shut the talks down. Gerard’s agitation helped to push Algoma Steel of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, into bankruptcy in the 1990s.

As the USW president since 2001, Gerard wholeheartedly supports the labor-backed Occupy Wall Street movement and wants it to become even more violent.

“You’re damn right Wall Street occupiers speak for us,” he recently told left-wing radio host Ed Schultz. “They do in Pittsburgh, they do in Chicago, they do in Oakland, they do in San Francisco, they do all across the country. And I think what we need is, we need more militancy.”

But occupying cities isn’t enough in the view of this man who began his career in labor activism at age 11 by handing out leaflets before a strike.

Gerard explained that the left needs to start a “resistance” movement. “If Wall Street occupation doesn’t get the message, I think we’ve got to start blocking bridges and doing that kind of stuff,” he said.

“And no wonder people are occupying. We ought to be doing more than occupying parks. We ought to start occupying bridges. We ought to start occupying the banks, places themselves.”

Gerard is a member of the AFL-CIO’s executive committee and chairman of its public policy committee.

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About a month ago, MSNBC hack and noted anti-hispanic racist Donny Deutsch said what the Occupy Wall Street mutants (what I affectionately call them) needed is a “Kent State moment.” That is a reference to the shooting deaths of 4 Kent State students in Ohio at an anti-war riot by the National Guard on May 4th, 1970. The photo of a screaming woman standing over one of the bodies became one of the iconic moments of the time and helped turn public sentiment to the side of the protesters.

It led to a popular song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and all manner of public outrage.

These “Occupy” mutants would like nothing more than to repeat that, especially now that the liberal Public Policy Polling firm found their movement to be less popular than the body lice with which they are infested.

But in the age of the Internet and camera phones, that’s just not possible.

In 1970 there were just 3 television networks, filming events was rare, grainy and encumbered by bulky, expensive equipment. A photograph, like one iconic one from Kent State, had no context beyond what a writer gave it. That’s no longer the case.

Everyone has a camera, video is not in short supply, context can no longer be given extemporaneously. If and when violence breaks out from the “Occupiers,” who’ve pledged to shut down parts of major cities around the country tomorrow, they won’t be able to spin the context of their actions beyond what is already on the public record.

When a protester says “You’re going to see what a Molotov Cocktail can do to Macy’s” on camera, their intentions are clear. The continual flow of threats of violence, and acts of violence, from these mutants is well documented online. They’re proud of it. That wasn’t the case in 1970.

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Lee Stranahan is literally on the front lines of clashes between police and Occupy San Francisco activists.

Watch live:

Occupy San Francisco activists have been joined by recently-evicted Occupy Oakland activists.
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There is a forgiving nature in the Southerner that surprises the occasional Yankee visitor. Doors are opened, ladies are escorted off of curbs, and conversation is edifying. There is a sharp but tailored critique of wrongdoing, and forgiveness comes as easy as the gentle southern gulf breeze—but only once. Part of the charm of the south is the genteel way they approach human interaction–until, that is, you cross them. Expect decisive correction. I have come to know that this is how the south “weeds” out its own bad, so that the genteel southern tradition continues.

The southern tradition of civility is deeply rooted. That is why the short selling of the American economy by Alabama Congressman Bachus, as described on 60 Minutes last Sunday, and his pursuant refusal to explain, apologize, or make reparations to his constituents strikes them as so abhorrent. Alabamians are asking for the honorable removal of the Congressman who did the dishonorable.

The following is a letter sent Monday to his office, after one sent Sunday evening went unanswered:

Mr. Staley:

This is my second attempt at communication to you and your Congressman’s office.

I am looking to give you and/or Congressman Bachus an opportunity to speak in his defense to his constituents before they organize an all out protest of his non-response on what appears to be a horrible injustice against the citizens of Alabama, and the American economy.  He is welcome on my show today any time between 4 and 7 pm.

I will be diplomatic to my guests, Mr. Staley, but non-response from an elected public servant and his staff is wholly unacceptable and will result in a relentless pursuit of the same.

I am not only an engaged Republican, Tea Partier, and show host, I am his constituent.

Please respond to my Producer, Jason (cc’d), ASAP.

Thank you,

Dr. Gina Loudon

The congressman’s office sent a written statement in response to the interview request as follows (edited for brevity): (more…)

While the teacher unions of Oakland, California are enjoying the Occupy protests, just down the road in the Alameda school district, the teachers union has been busy working on behalf of its top priority.

Surprise, surprise – students are not at the top of the union concern list.

It seems the district was in the rare position of having $1.1 million left over from last year’s budget.

Alameda school board members, being the student advocates they are, voted 4-1 on Oct. 25 to use the money to purchase textbooks, fund programs aimed at boosting math, reading and writing skills, pay for after-school programs at two underperforming schools and establish a program designed to encourage parents to be more involved in their kids’ education.

That certainly sounds like a reasonable use of school funds, particularly during a period of economic distress and lackluster student performance.

But the Alameda Education Association, the district’s teachers union, objects to that plan. Union leaders want the money spent on bonuses for teachers.

School board members say they will take care of the teachers in the next round of contract negotiations, which are scheduled to begin in January. But that’s not good enough for the union.

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This afternoon, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)–a left-wing think tank based in Washington, DC–held a conference call to coordinate strategy among Occupy organizers, activists and supporters in the aftermath of the eviction of demonstrators in several cities.

From the Institute for Policy Studies website

IPS Executive Director John Cavanagh posed the following questions:

1. “How do we support the actual Occupy movement at this time… especially when some of the encampments have been shut down?”
2. “How do we expand the space for the ideas…that have been opened up by the Occupy movement?”

Cavanagh discussed the daily conference calls that Occupy organizers have been holding to coordinate strategy across the country, and urged participants to join in a national day of protest in solidarity with the activists who had been removed from Zuccotti Park in New York.

One of the sites providing information about local protests is november17.org, which is apparently affiliated with Van Jones’s Rebuilding the American Dream organization.

Cavanagh compared the Occupy protests with the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression, and suggested that both were protests against difficult economic conditions that the government failed to address. He also claimed that the Occupy movement was taking on the small-government, free-market legacy of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. (more…)

It’s either a hack into their website, or a deeply revealing Freudian slip. Appearing briefly on the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s website this morning was an event billed as an opportunity to gather signatures to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker from a cemetery. According to the listing, “We will be taking names from headstones and making recall petitions with the names we find.”

Anti-Walker activists and groups have 62 days in which to gather the over 540,000 signatures required to force a recall election of Governor Walker. In order to keep their pledge to recall both the governor and lieutenant governor, the groups will need to gather close to 1.1 million signatures in that 62-day period, which started on Tuesday.

The cemetery from which the names were to be taken and placed on recall petitions does exist in downtown West Bend, right next to the West Bend School District’s administrative office building.

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Operation Fast and Furious has left a hideous scar on our nation to date. It should result in the prosecution of Attorney General Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, and a slew of ATF supervisors who oversaw the ridiculous operation from the word go. As a result of their foolishness and criminality, taxpayer money was used in the purchase of weapons intentionally passed to criminals, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is dead, hundreds upon hundreds of Mexican citizens have been killed, and over one thousand firearms are still unaccounted for. (Although the lion’s share of those weapons will probably be found in Mexico, we know some are undoubtedly in the U.S. because they keep showing up at crime scenes in Arizona and Texas.)

Yet as bad as Fast and Furious was, and will continue to be when as more facts unfold, I am persuaded that Obama’s clear usurpation of the Constitution via his misuse of Executive Orders is worse.

In other words, although Fast and Furious was a completely lawless situation that has endangered both Mexicans and Americans physically, and which is being used even now to push for more gun control, it was largely conducted under a cover of secrecy. But Obama’s attempts to legislate from the White House are being done right in the open and pose a clear violation to the separation of powers established by our Founding Fathers nearly 225 years ago. This strikes at the very core of our nation’s foundation by disrupting the pattern and order of government set forth in the Constitution, as well as the customs and conventions we’ve trusted heretofore.

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Prior to the release of Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer’s blockbuster book, Throw Them All Out, legislative efforts to pass a bill banning insider trading by members of Congress had floundered.

But all that is changing—and fast.

Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN) says that before the 60 Minutes report on Schweizer’s book, his STOCK (Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge) Act, H.R. 1148, had only garnered four cosponsors in Congress since he and Rep. Louise Slaughter  (D-NY) re-introduced the legislation on March 18, 2011.

In the two days since the 60 Minutes program aired, Walz says the number of House members supporting the bill has shot up to thirty-five, and climbing.

“I’m coming from the perspective of ‘Are you kidding me?  This isn’t a law already?’” Walz told Minnesota’s Mankato Free Press. (more…)