This week, former Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (D) lead a cadre of small business owners from a number of states to Washington in an attempt to convince Congress that their commitment to over-regulating American entrepreneurs is a surefire way to destroy the American economy.

From The Hill:

Former Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Dan Danner, the chief executive of the National Federation of Independent Business, signaled Wednesday that taking some of the regulatory load off smaller companies would help in the current battle against high unemployment.

“The message that we’re trying to leave is that if we want to create more jobs and make the economy better, how do we somehow get this disproportionate burden of ever increasing new regulations off the backs of the people who create the jobs?” Danner said at an event launching his group’s Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations campaign.

According to the Small Business Administration, regulations on American small businesses, which comprise 60 percent of all private-sector jobs and account for about two thirds of jobs created each year, deprive the American economy of $1.75 trillion annually. By reducing – or at least compromising – on current regulations and letting go of the nearly 4,200 regulations on the table right now to be passed this session, Congress could stimulate one of the fastest-growing American industries. Unfortunately for Blanche Lincoln and her team of American business owners, Congress will be hard to convince.

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It’s sad that teachers – who have such an influence over the future of America – where right in the mix when the riots and vandalism broke out Wednesday in Oakland, California.  Obviously that’s where their hearts are at.

Trouble was brewing when the Oakland Education Association – an affiliate of the National Education Association – endorsed the #Occupy mob’s call for a national strike on Nov. 2.  One declaration from the union stated, “We must shut down the schools to save the schools.”

Huh?  Perhaps a more accurate statement would be, “We must shut down the schools to protect our pensions and power.”

According to sources within the union, its leaders – including OEA President Betty Olson-Jones – were a part of the plotting to confront Bank of America, Whole Foods, and the sea port.

Do the taxpayers or the media even care?  Or is this just how they roll in Oakland?

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Big Government has learned that a major internal fight has erupted among Occupy Wall Street organizers after activists began circulating an infographic published by FastCompany, the “progressive business” magazine.

The infographic in question depicts the results of an internal online survey conducted by Occupy Wall Street supporters at occupywallst.org.

The data, compiled by advertising analyst Harrison Schultz and Ford Foundation sociologist Dr. Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, were intended to promote the idea, as Dr. Cordero-Guzmán put it, that “the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%.”

Some activists were outraged, however, that the survey results and the infographic show Occupy Wall Street to be 81.2 percent white, and only 1.6 percent black.

By comparison, the U.S. population is 77.1 percent white and 12.9 percent black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau–making the Occupy Wall Street movement disproportionately white.

The infographic, depicted below, caused instant controversy when it was shared among Occupy Wall Street organizers. One activist reacted: “81% white protestors–and you actually made a flyer proudly advertising this lie, in a multicultural city like NYC? You must be crazy and blind.”

She later accused Schultz of “insidious racism” and “white supremacy,” and demanded “serious mediation” from organizers on the Safer Spaces working group, the internal security apparatus of Occupy Wall Street.

The argument then escalated, according to Big Government sources, with threats of intervention from the “people of color working group” and the sarcastic suggestion that the analysts “join the Tea Party.” (more…)

Today, in 2008, Barack Obama was elected President.

BILL DALEY: You shouldn’t have used the phrase “leading from behind” last spring when you spoke off the record about Libya, Mr. Vice-President.

BIDEN:  Well, I didn’t, Billy boy.  I said Hillary was leading with her behind.  Or maybe I said the whole NATO operation was like the blind leading the blind.  I don’t remember.  But the guy misquoted me.

OBAMA:  No lasting harm.  Research and Destroy knocked that off the front pages fast with the Cain revelations.

DAVID PLOUFFE:  Oh, Mr. President, the Smithsonian taxidermist just delivered Gaddafi’s head.

OBAMA:  Okay.  Tell Housekeeping to mount it above the mantel in the Residence, next to bin Laden’s.  And remind them to leave room for Baby Assad and Boehner.

VALERIE JARRETT:  Sir, the Libya bump is fading since Fox reported diehard Islamists have seized control of the country and Gaddafi’s massive stock of surface-to-air missiles.

BIDEN:  Damn Ailes, trying to make people think we shoulda known that could happen. (more…)

We at MRCTV were in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in late October, and one of the things we wanted to do was see how much the people protesting actually knew about…what they were protesting.

Shortly before we left, New York Magazine conducted an experiment called, “Are You Smarter than a Wall Street Protester?” in which they asked a series of questions to the brave soldiers in attendance.

Given the study was done with a pen and paper, Joe Schoffstall figured he’d ask questions and record it on video. In fact, the questions are almost exactly the same- so most of these people could have been polled by the magazine, having an advantage to this basic knowledge quiz.

Joe asked 6 questions to the protesters, in which we’re breaking down into 2 videos of 3 questions each for length reasons. The following questions are in this video (Part I):

1. What is the Dodd-Frank Act?

2. Who is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve?

3. Who is Elizabeth Warren?

Here are their responses:

The Answers:

(more…)

From Fox News:

A Republican-led House panel voted Thursday to subpoena the White House for records related to Solyndra, the solar company that collapsed after receiving a $528 million loan.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the resolution 14-9 after Democrats tried to delay the vote during a contentious debate.

Democrats argued the resolution was too broad and gave Chairman Fred Upton too much power. But Republicans said a subpoena was necessary because the White House has denied or delayed requests for thousands of documents related to Solyndra.

Upton, a Michigan Republican, said getting White House documents on Solyndra was like “extracting a tooth without anesthesia” — painful and time-consuming.

The White House immediately slammed the vote, saying it has “cooperated extensively with the committee’s investigation by producing over 85,000 pages of documents, including 20,000 pages produced just yesterday afternoon.”

“And all of the materials that have been disclosed affirm what we said on Day One: this was a merit-based decision made by the Department of Energy,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

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Read with caution. This is the kind of hell big government liberals can unleash on American citizens from their lofty perches in Washington DC.

In addition to having nearly unhindered access to our southern border, the most violent gangs in the Western hemisphere were armed to the teeth by the US federal government. The results are what one would expect. We know at least one US Border Patrol agent and hundreds of Mexican citizens were killed as a result. The guns are still out there and so are the gangs. Meanwhile, local law enforcement and border patrol agents must contend with the consequences created by elements outside of their control.

Their job is to prevent infiltration of guns, illegals, and drugs from entering our country and using local communities as bases of operation. Secretary Napolitano, with the approval from the Obama administration, has done her best to prevent border agents from doing their jobs. The Government Accountability Office estimated that only 15 percent of our southern border is actually operationally controlled. Inaction doesn’t do enough to explain this.

(more…)

Washington public policy is replete with examples of government regulators thinking they know best, imposing new government rules that then exacerbate the existing problems. As things become worse, they blame the free market and call for more government regulations to fix the burdens they created.  Of course, just as it was the first time, the cure is worse than the disease. And the vicious cycle continues.

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren could be the poster child for the law of unintended consequences.  Warren’s career was built upon advocacy of government regulations that created bigger problems than those she initially addressed.  As the problems compound, so does her call for even more government red tape.

All of this mader her a hero to the progressive community, a Harvard professor, an advisor to the president and a creator of a new regulation-pushing agency of government known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Maybe once, she will get something right but don’t hold your breath. The housing market collapse is a case in point.

In 1994, President Clinton and his cronies laid the groundwork for the creation of the Housing Bubble and the Wall Street crisis a decade later.  The Investors Business Daily uncovered a “smoking gun” memo that declared war on a near invisible enemy – racism is mortgage lending:

(more…)

From The Hill:

For the third time in four weeks, Senate Republicans on Thursday voted in unison to block a piece of President Obama’s jobs package.

The GOP senators were joined by one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) in rejecting a procedural motion on legislation that would spend $60 billion on transportation infrastructure programs. The vote was 51-49.

The spending was offset with a new tax on income earned above $1 million that Republicans oppose.

(more…)

For years we’ve been preaching the same fundamental message – public schools have more of a spending problem than a revenue problem.

And the spending problem is largely caused by skyrocketing labor costs and stubborn unions that refuse to make any concessions during hard times.

The union’s answer, of course, is to raise taxes to provide more revenue for public schools. As long as struggling taxpayers cough up more money, teachers won’t have to give up their perks, and everything will be back to normal, right?

Not according to the voters of Colorado, who had the good sense to soundly reject a ballot proposal Tuesday that would have increased income and sales taxes to help fund public schools. The proposal died an ugly death, with 64 percent of voters saying no.

The main supporters of the measure were the usual suspects: School boards, the Colorado Education Association, and one very wealthy state senator, Rollie Heath, who can afford higher taxes.

(more…)

The headline in today’s ClimateWire (subscription required) blares “U.N. says turning lights on for world’s poor need not boost CO2.” That is, we can provide electricity to 1.5 billion people who have never flipped a light switch and not see an increase in emissions of carbon dioxide (until the global warming fad/excuse for doing things statists like to do, this was called plant food, the driver of photosynthesis).

CO2 is released not just by oceans when they warm (absorbed when they cool) or decaying plants, or people exhaling, but combusting “fossil fuels” like the coal, gas, and, in some places, oil used to create electricity. CO2 emissions generally correlate with economic prosperity–more on that, momentarily.

But there is even less to this absurdity than meets the eye. Here’s how the ClimateWire story opens: (more…)

The Occupy Oakland protest took another violent turn in the dusk hours today when protesters went head-to-head with riot police after a series of defiant actions.  According to the Associated Press, some of the protesters  “broke into a vacant building, shattered windows, sprayed graffiti and set fires” as well as “threw concrete chunks, metal pipes, lit roman candles and Molotov cocktails.” Police indicated that an estimated 3,000  protesters had gathered earlier in the day at the port, the 5th busiest in the nation, “effectively shut[ting it] down.”

Many of the Occupy Oakland movement protesting at the city’s port declared their solidarity with the Longshoremen’s union in Washington state.  In September, longshoremen Port of Longview in Washington stormed a grain shipping terminal, cut the brake lines on rail cars and held security personnel hostage, resulting in violent clashes between union workers and police.  The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on August 31st had issued a complaint against the union, condemning its “violent and aggressive” actions.

From the Monthly Review, John Hamilton interviews Oakland, CA International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 member and co-chair of the Million Worker March Movement, Clarence Thomas (not the SCOTUS Clarence Thomas), who explains why the Occupy movement is supporting the ILWU and closing of the port:

The partial transcript from Monthly Review is below:

“One of the reasons why they are doing it is because they are trying to defend ILWU workers in Longview, Washington, who are facing a behemoth of agribusiness, EGT.  The driving force behind EGT is a leading agribusiness concern called Bunge. . . .  Longshoremen have a debt of gratitude to the people who have organized this action today. . . .  30% of the funding of our pensions comes from that grain operation in the Pacific Northwest.  This is an attempt to rupture the jurisdiction of longshore workers that we’ve had for over 77 years in this country.  Wall Street is on the move, on the waterfront, looking for new profits, and the community are standing with the ILWU.

(more…)

From FoxNews:

Officials with the revamped ACORN office in New York — operating as New York Communities for Change — have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources.

NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing out photos of Fox News staff with a stern warning not to talk to the media, the sources said.

“They’re doing serious damage control right now,” said an NYCC source.

(more…)

It’s not just Oakland, folks.

Our team at the MacIver Institute for Public Policy in Wisconsin have put together this handy interactive map of the violence and hate of the #Occupy movement.

Click on Map to Activate, Enlarge (more…)

From Western Farm Press:

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack

Racism is dead at USDA. Discrimination has gone the way of the dodo. Since 2009, when Secretary Vilsack called for a new era in civil rights, racism and discrimination have been banished to the scrapheap of USDA history.

And what a costly scrapheap — more akin to gold than garbage. A rough tally of USDA discrimination settlements: $1.15 billion for black farmers; $760 million for Indian farmers; and $1.3 billion for Hispanic and women farmers combined. If legislative and man-hour costs are tacked on, that towering scrapheap reaches well over the $3 billion mark. Settlements? Makes you wonder what the high-water mark was for the plaintiffs’ lawyers if they ‘settled’ for $3 billion.

As the green is doled out to a conga line of aggrieved farmers, ‘The Last Plantation’ atmosphere is apparently no more at USDA; buried in an act of monetary absolution. A contrite USDA wishes to be absolved of past sins. But sins require sinners. Where are they? Has USDA fired anyone? Have the guilty been named? Years and years of bias reportedly inflicted on over 100,000 U.S. famers — and no perpetrator to show for it? USDA admits guilt to the tune of billions in discrimination claims — and no heads roll? (more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Elizabeth Blackney are joined by Gabriel Stauring, to discuss the latest atrocities in the Sudan, how non-profit groups are working to bring attention to the issue and the need for international relief efforts and how the 2012 presidential race might impact America’s involvement in the region.

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:

Act for Sudan
White House: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Sudan
Report: Sudan Gov’t Forces Kill, Rape Civilians in Blue Nile
Bashir: Sudan Armed Libyan Revolutionaries
Libya: Weapons being smuggled to Darfur
Army accused of assaulting refugees
Act for Sudan’s letter to President Obama
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If the Occupy movement and the GOP primary haven’t become hostile enough for you, there is news of other potentially even more significant possible hostilities to report. At the same time, were there a Republican in the White House, this would be being called Wag the Dog, blood for oil, or some such nonsense by the usual suspects.

The UK and U.S. are drawing up plans to attack Iran amid growing tensions in the Middle East, it was claimed last night. Barack Obama and David Cameron are preparing for war after reports that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, that’s not the only international news not getting all the attention it deserves just now.

(Reuters) – Greece’s government was on the brink of collapse on Thursday, casting doubt on plans to hold a referendum on staying in the euro zone, as European leaders contemplated a Greek exit to preserve their single currency.

If domestic strife is more your style, scroll down the front page for several Occupy reports, or check the latest on the Occupy Rap Sheet – 128 incidents and counting at this point.

Here’s a recent report from the L.A. Times:

Riot police from a number of Bay Area departments fired tear gas and other projectiles early Thursday and arrested dozens of demonstrators to break up Occupy Oakland protests that had drawn thousands of participants Wednesday.

(more…)

If there’s one thing about the Marxists controlling today’s unions, it is that they are predictable. If you watch them long enough, the pattern is always the same: Demand the extreme with something attainable in mind as the fallback position.

In labor relations, the making of outrageous demands is a classic negotiating tactic at the bargaining table because union negotiators know company negotiators will only agree to what they are willing to based on business economics. In politics, however, the union tactic is an absolute winner because their prey (politicians, many of whom are bought by unions anyway) always fall for it and, besides, it’s only the taxpayers who are stuck with the tab. One thing though, whether at the bargaining table or in politics, unions always reveal their hidden agenda—eventually.

In the case of the #OccupyWallStreet, union bosses were eager to capitalize on a slick ad campaign and some miscreant professional protesters to create a “movement” to aid their own sagging fortunes. Despite the multiple rapes, the assaults and drug dealing, open sex, public masturbation,  anti-American rants, and violence, from the beginning, unions were eager to jump on board with the Neo-Communist squatters, their anti-Semites and their useful idiots in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. Since then, unions have paid for protesters, water, food, legal fees, advertising and, in West Virginia, the AFL-CIO has even offered its property to use as a new “occupy” site.

Despite their more ambitious young allies who have called for the seizing private property and the “de-privatization of everything,” however, unions have known that their movement wouldn’t lead to a fully Marxist nation (yet) and, as a result, have had a more attainable goal in mind from the beginning. In addition, with winter approaching, union bosses know they need to being this movement to a close sometime soon and, up until now, they haven’t formally issued their real demands. (more…)