Billionaire George Soros gave advice and direction on how President Obama should allocate so-called “stimulus” money in a series of regular private meetings and consultations with White House senior advisers even as Soros was making investments in areas affected by the stimulus program.

It’s just one more revelation featured in the blockbuster new book that continues to rock Washington, Throw Them All Out, authored by Breitbart News editor Peter Schweizer.

Mr. Soros met with Mr. Obama’s top economist on February 25, 2009 and twice more with senior officials in the Old Executive Office Building on March 24^th and 25^th as the stimulus plan was being crafted.  Later, Mr. Soros also participated in discussions on financial reform.

Then, in the first quarter of 2009, Mr. Soros went on a stock buying spree in companies that ultimately benefited from the federal stimulus.

• Soros doubled his holdings in medical manufacturer Hologic, a company that benefited from stimulus spending on medical systems
• Soros tripled his holdings in fiber channel and software maker Emulus, a company that wound up scoring a large amount of federal funds going to infrastructure spending
• Soros bought 210,000 shares in Cisco Systems, which came up big in the stimulus lottery
• Soros also bought Extreme Networks, which, months later, said it was expanding broadband to rural America “as part of President Obama’s broadband strategy”
• Soros bought 1.5 million shares in American Electric Power, a company Mr. Obama gave $1 billion to in June 2009
• Soros bought shares in utility company Ameren, which bagged a $540 million Department of Energy loan
• Soros bought 250,000 shares of Public Service Enterprise Group, 500,000 shares of NRG Energy, and almost a million shares of Entergy—all companies that  came up winners in the Department of Energy taxpayer giveaway that produced the Solyndra debacle
• Soros bought into BioFuel Energy, a company that benefitted when the EPA announced a regulation on ethanol
• Soros bought Powerspan in April 2009.  Just weeks later, the clean-energy company landed $100 million from the Department of Energy
• In the second quarter of 2009, Soros bought education technology giant Blackboard, which became a big recipient of education stimulus money
• Soros also bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe and CSX, both beneficiaries of Mr. Obama’s plans for revitalizing the railroads
• Soros bought Cognizant Technology Solutions, which scored stimulus funds in education and health care technology
• Soros also bought 300,000 shares of Constellation Energy Group and 4.6 million shares of Covanta, both of which landed taxpayers’ money through the stimulus, the former of which bagged $200 million

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Contrary to ongoing media reports, the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment is safe for use.

The company is caught in a perfect storm of faulty private and government studies, absurd regulatory definitions, environmentalist hoopla, Liberal politics, and verifiable governmental incompetence.  Add in the tsunami of a mainstream media eager to fearmonger and water-carry for anti-capitalist environmentalists, and Franz Kafka would’ve been proud.

Brazilian Blowout Passes All Air Sampling Tests

The controversy surrounds the allegedly dangerous levels of formaldehyde that are released during a Brazilian Blowout treatment — allegations for which there remain no scientific basis.  In fact, every single correctly performed test has fully acquitted the company and its product.

The first study was conducted jointly by the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET), Oregon Health & Science University, and Oregon OSHA.  In what appears to this reporter as a blatant attempt to manufacture results unfavorable to Brazilian Blowout, air monitoring sample tests were carried out in time periods that vastly exceeded federal OSHA short-term exposure testing protocols of 15 minutes.  Instead, Oregon OSHA took samples of 26, 20, and 19 minutes.

Despite the apparent rigging of the experiment, the results still acquitted Brazilian Blowout regarding formaldehyde released during treatments.

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Faced with a $315 million budget shortfall, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has proposed serious changes to how county officials spend taxpayers’ money. She’s challenging the public employee union bosses to come to the negotiating table. She aims to utilize private sector contractors to keep costs low. These all are necessary and commendable steps. Less so are the tax increases she has proposed: hiking the vehicle tax, raising county taxes on beer, wine and liquor, and redefining certain tobacco products (like cigars and smokeless) so taxes could be levied on them.

Last Monday, the four Republican members of the county board signed off on increases and provided the necessary margin for passage in the finance committee. The package of fee and tax hikes will cost residents an astounding $51 million, even as taxpayers are still reeling from January’s state income tax hike.

Targeting politically incorrect products may seem easy, but that doesn’t make it right. When you buy a bottle of liquor in Chicago, you already pay eight taxes: a county sales tax of 1.25 percent, county excise tax of $2/gallon, city sales tax of 1.25 percent, city excise tax of $2.68/gallon, state excise tax of $8.55/gallon, state sales tax of 6.25 percent, federal excise tax of $13.50/proof gallon, and a transport tax of 1 percent. Add these all together and it turns out a whopping 58 percent of the average bottle cost goes to taxes and fees. One sip for Uncle Sam, one sip for you.

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Last month I introduced you to the It’s Working educational effort. The clip below is our second 60-second television commercial that is airing across the state of Wisconsin. Together with the Americans for Prosperity Foundation – Wisconsin, the MacIver Institute has crafted this educational effort in an attempt to rise above the heated rhetoric and engage in an informed, fact-based debate.

As you can see on the ItsWorkingWisconsin website, the results of the recent labor and budget reforms in Wisconsin are quite impressive. We had heard some say the sky would fall, that there would be massive layoffs of state and local government workers and teachers. Some asserted that Wisconsin’s budget reform would mark the end of the state as we know it. But the sky’s still there, and Wisconsin is stronger than ever, thanks to Wisconsin’s budget reform. (more…)

In a move that grabbed attention among the technology and retail business communities, three senators—Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)—introduced legislation aimed at allowing states to require online-only, out-of-state retailers to collect and remit to states tax on sales made to residents of those states.

In a press release, the three senators touted their legislation as an effort to give states “the option to collect sales and use tax revenues from out-of-state sellers through a new, simplified tax system,” but “only if they adopt certain minimum simplification requirements and provide sellers with additional notices on the collection requirements.”  The Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill also “exempts sellers who make less than $500,000 in total remote sales in the year preceding the sale.”  It reportedly has the support of big bricks-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, as well as Amazon.com.

In multiple states around the country over the past year, legislators and officials have been looking to sales made by out-of-state, online-only retailers as a potential revenue stream capable of being tapped in order to help fill budget holes. California has been notably aggressive in pursuing a so-called “Amazon Tax,” which would force retailers like Amazon.com and O.co to collect and remit to the state sales tax on sales made to Californians.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss calls for Obama not to seek reelection, the striking amount of American’s who struggle to feed their families, and the millions now classified as “near poor.”

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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The Hillary Moment
Poll: Mitt Romney’s net unfavorability doubles in swing states
America’s new poor
Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census
An Unprecedented 26 Million Americans Are Now Underemployed

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From #OccupyWallSt.org:

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

Occupy Oakland expands this call to the entire West Coast, and calls for continuing solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview Washington in their ongoing struggle against the EGT. The EGT is an international grain exporter led by Bunge LTD, a company constituted of 1% bankers whose practices have ruined the lives of the working class all over the world, from Argentina to the West Coast of the US. During the November 2nd General Strike, tens of thousands shutdown the Port Of Oakland as a warning shot to EGT to stop its attacks on Longview. Since the EGT has disregarded this message, and continues to attack the Longshoremen at Longview, we will now shut down ports along the entire West Coast.

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From the New York Post:

Meanwhile, Dutro, 35, one of only a handful of OWS leaders in charge of the movement’s $500,000 in donations, checked in on Wednesday, the night after police emptied Zuccotti Park.

While hundreds of his rebel brethren scrambled to find shelter in church basements, Dutro chose the five-star, 58-story hotel, with its lush rooms and 350-count Egyptian cotton sheets. He lives only a short taxi ride away in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

“I knew everything was going to be a clusterf–k in the morning,” he told The Post, alluding to Occupy’s own disruption plans. “How would I get over the bridge when they were shutting it down?”

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Answering a question from Bill O’Reilly, Texas Governor Rick Perry created a buzz by responding that President Obama is a socialist, though the GOP candidate was quick to add that the president loves his country and simply doesn’t understand how America’s market-based economy works. If the president understood the private sector, Governor Perry explained, he wouldn’t pursue tax and regulatory policies that crush job-creators and prevent wealth creation.

There are two types of socialism. One is authoritarian socialism seen in the Eastern Bloc countries (many of which are now free-market economies) and some nations in Central and South America. It’s used by harsh and oppressive authoritarian regimes that repress their people.

The other type of socialism is a big-government philosophy that uses wealth redistribution to fund a massive nanny state of cradle-to-grave entitlements. We see this type of socialism in many Western European and Mediterranean countries that are friends and allies of our country, such as Spain, Italy, France, and Greece.

Governor Perry was referring to this Western European socialism. Those who support Western European-style socialist policies don’t understand the power of private markets, or government’s inefficiency and incompetence. President Obama believes that government has all the answers if led by enlightened leaders (as he fancies himself), and believes he will improve everyone’s lot. Perry referenced Obama’s infamous exchange with Joe the Plumber, where Obama infamously said when government spreads the wealth it’s better for everyone. (more…)

Some people have asked why I’m so agitated about the possibility that Republicans may acquiesce to tax increases as part of the Supercommittee negotiations.

Rather than get into a lengthy discourse about the proper role of the federal government or an analysis of how the Bush-Obama spending binge worsened America’s fiscal situation, I think this chart from a previous post says it all (click to enlarge).

Republicans are considering a surrender on taxes because they are afraid that a deadlock will lead to a sequester, which would mean automatic budget savings. And the sequester, according to these politicians, would “cut” the budget too severely.

But as the chart illustrates, that is utter nonsense.

There are only budget cuts if you use dishonest Washington budget math, which magically turns spending increases into spending cuts simply because the burden of government isn’t expanding faster than it potentially could.

If we use honest math, we can see what this debate is really about. Should we raise taxes so that government spending can grow by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years?

Or should we have a sequester so that the burden of federal spending climbs by “only” $2 trillion?

The fact that this is even an issue tells us a lot about whether the GOP has purged itself of the big-government virus of the Bush years. (more…)

On the evening of November 17th a number of Occupy protesters in Milwaukee gathered on a bridge over I-43 as part of a nationwide effort to draw attention to the Occupy movement’s agenda. The protesters succeeded in shutting down the bridge for several hours during rush hour causing traffic snarls and generating media attention. In a memorable moment, Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn refused to mass arrest the protesters saying, “they can sit and freeze their butts off.” A mass arrest was what protesters wanted.

In the midst of the larger story, another side drama seems to have been unfolding. The bridge protest was held a mere three days into the official period to circulate petitions to force a recall of Governor Scott Walker. Lately, Walker recall supporters have moved to make the Occupy movement an extension of the recall Walker effort and on the bridge recall petitions were circulated among protesters.

An anonymous individual attending the protest captured on camera some potentially disturbing tactics used by the Occupy/Recall Walker petition circulators. The video (posted below) and pictures show a young female signing a recall petition and taking a cigarette offered to her by a person standing near the petition. The individual who recorded the video and took the pictures could not be reached for comment on Saturday evening.

In order for the incident to be a bribe, the cigarette would have had to be offered in consideration for the signature on the recall petition. Wisconsin law does not prohibit anyone from offering something of consideration in exchange for a signature on a recall petition. However, it is illegal to bribe someone in regards to voting. In 2000 the infamous “smokes for votes” scandal caught a Democratic operative handing out cigarettes to Milwaukee’s homeless in exchange for their vote in the presidential election, and earlier this year Wisconsin Jobs Now! came under scrutiny for their tactic of offering minority voters a barbecue chicken dinner if they voted early in a local state Senate recall election.

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The landslide loss of Issue 2 this month prompted glee from Ohio leftists, whose contribution to the state in the past year has been to smear and sue conservatives at every turn. The Ohio Democratic Party, the unions, and Progressive fellow-travelers want desperately to believe their $30 million anti-reform campaign killed Governor Kasich’s entire agenda so they can resume demanding tax hikes.

As indicated by the bigger landslide passage of the Healthcare Freedom Amendment and the failure of 78% of all new tax levies, Issue 2 numbers don’t tell the whole story. The party of limitless government is free to count their chickens… but counting is hardly the Democrats’ trademark.

Although Governor Kasich is frank about the need for public union reform, he has not blamed Ohio’s problems on public workers. Again and again, Kasich portrayed Senate Bill 5 as one piece of the puzzle – a tool to enable local officials to deal with the cuts necessary for a balanced state budget. For proof, just look at the governor’s YouTube channel: Kasich made this case during a Feburary event, a February Fox News segment, a March presser, an April 700WLW appearance, and on dozens of other occasions in the past 10 months.

As I wrote back in January:

Crippling the ability of public unions to hold Ohio taxpayers hostage will not solve Ohio’s budget crisis – and, though you wouldn’t know it from listening to his detractors, Governor-elect Kasich has been clear about that. Nonetheless, it’s an important step to fiscal sanity. Faster, please… there’s plenty more to do.

Political opponents use Kasich’s landmark budget as a foil for their caring (and idiotically unaffordable) policies, but this isn’t the governor’s first budgetary rodeo. During his time in Congress, Kasich wrote a deficit-cutting bill that garnered only 30 votes and then a bipartisan plan that narrowly failed before shepherding a balanced budget as House Budget Chairman in 1997. He didn’t quit then, and we shouldn’t expect him to now – regardless of how Progressives slam Kasich’s woefully unicorn-deficient agenda.

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Over the last five months the strength of the United States economy has surprised on the up-side. America posted its strongest quarterly economic growth since the end of 2006 and U.S. corporate profits hit an all-time record high. But with the end of 100% “bonus depreciation, government spending shrinking for the first time since the 1940s and rising tax rates”; I project America is falling into a recession that will drive up unemployment to a new highs during the 2012 election.

Although the U.S. economy officially emerged from recession twenty-six months ago, most Americans report that they believe there has been little or no growth and 75% believe the nation is headed down the economic wrong track. The “Great Recession” of 2007 to 2009 was the longest since the Great Depression and was the first time U.S Gross Domestic Product actually fell in any year since 1948. Unemployment according to the Labor Department peaked in October 2009 at 10.1% and then declined to 9% last month. But this statistic does not include those unemployed who have been out of work for so long they no longer “participate” in registering for unemployment benefits. As shown below; labor force “participation” shrank by 2% since 2009. Add in these jobless and real unemployment rate is at a record 11% right now:

The stimulus that has recently been driving GDP growth is a provision contained in the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. This tax incentive allows businesses to book 100 percent “bonus depreciation” for any qualified capital expenditures purchased and taken delivery by December 31, 2011. This explains why the industrial production index has jumped back up to its average level for the last 40 years. The good news is businesses substantially increased capital investments in everything from $25,000 new Ford cars to $335 million Boeing 747 airplanes. The bad news is that business investments are being pulled forward into 2011 and 2012 suffer an off-setting fall in demand. Next year the U.S. economy will surprise on the down-side and unemployment will be on the upswing.

To fund spending increases on salary and pension benefits during the Great Recession; state and local governments raised taxes so much the effective percentage of all taxes paid by the average household in America jumped from 17.5% to 17.9%. This $247 billion tax increase more than off-set the stimulus effects of the last year’s federal payroll tax cut stimulus; but was not enough to prevent the lay-off of over 900,000 workers. But with voters in revolt and tax collection falling; state and local governments will cut spending this year for the first time since 1944.

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During the 2004 presidential election, President Clinton’s former chief of staff and President Obama’s current Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta offered Sen. John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry a sage piece of advice. The Senior Senator from Massachusetts would do well to heed it now:

“[The Kerrys] will have to seriously consider putting [their investments] in a blind trust,” Panetta said. “All of us who have served in government have had to do that.  In the end, it is the better way to go, because it removes any suspicion that a decision is self-serving. You have enough problems just making a decision, without dealing with the concern you may be putting money in your pocket.

Secretary Panetta is right. In the spirit of transparency and maintaining the public trust, Sen. Kerry must place his assets in a blind trust.

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Today, in 1620, settlers of the Plymouth Colony signed the Mayflower Compact.

Monday night’s episode of The O’Reilly Factor, the number one show in cable news, features an unusual collaboration between FOX and CBS as Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes joins Throw Them All Out author and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer to discuss insider trading in Congress.

In less than a week, Schweizer’s book–which documents suspicious trades by members and leaders of both parties has upended Washington, DC, prompting hearings to be scheduled in both the Senate and House and shining public scrutiny on a previously hidden avenue of potential corruption and political self-enrichment.

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The Quarterly Report issued in October 2011 by the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) reveals the utter lack of oversight and mismanagement of funds in excess of $700 Billion Dollars.  The 316 page report begins:

Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”), the American taxpayers became investors in hundreds of financial institutions, the auto industry, and cer­tain markets for asset-backed securities, and the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“SIGTARP”) serves on the front line to protect those investments. SIGTARP is the only agency solely charged with a mission of transparency, oversight, and enforcement related to the taxpay­ers’ unprecedented investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in the private sector…. This month…the first criminal charges were filed against senior executives of a TARP bank when two senior executives of United Commercial Bank (“UCB”) were charged in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud investors. The Department of Treasury (“Treasury”), and by extension the American taxpayer, became investors in UCB’s holding company when it received more than $298 million in TARP funds. UCB was the first TARP bank to fail and the taxpayers’ entire TARP investment is lost.

TARP included $45.6 Billion to fund the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) of which only $2.5 Billion (5.4%) has been spent.  SIGTARP addressed its concerns about the poor performance of the HAMP program to the Treasury Department, but states that “Treasury has determined not to take any further action to implement SIGTARP’s recommendations. Treasury is giving up a chance at mean­ingful change and sadly, it is struggling homeowners who have the most to lose.”

The housing and mortgage crisis was a direct result of the increasing deregulation of the mortgage industry enabled by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and the federal government’s ideological philosophy that everyone should and must be afforded their dream of home ownership, regardless of their credit worthiness or their ability to repay the mortgage. The federal government, through coercive threats of lawsuits for discriminatory lending practices, forced these lenders to make these risky loans.

The feeding frenzy of easy money, teaser interest rates, one hundred percent financing (generally involving two mortgages, a first mortgage for eighty percent of the purchase price and a second for the remaining equity, thereby eliminating the necessity for private mortgage insurance), no income or asset verification of the homebuyer and, in many cases where homebuilders were involved, up to one full year of mortgage payments paid in advance by the builder at closing in addition to the payment of all of the closing costs, increased the demand for new homes and drove up home prices.  An additional caveat of the 80/20 scheme eliminated the requirement that the homebuyer escrow money with the lender for payment of property taxes and homeowners insurance.  This resulted in massive losses of revenue at the city, county and state level.

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Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is the most liberal member of the United States Senate, according to NationalJournal vote rankings. Senator Brown supports the freaks of Occupy Wall Street, opposes free trade, and was the deciding vote for Obamacare.

That vote could be… problematic, as explained by likely 2012 challenger Josh Mandel:

We must not overlook the truly significant blow that Ohioans dealt Obamacare last week, with a mix of 2.2 million Democrats, Republicans and Independents rejecting this intrusion on individual liberty and family control over health care decisions.

Indeed, you would be pressed to find a statist boondoggle Sherrod Brown doesn’t love. Check out this rant from a Q&A session Sherrod held this spring with Ohio’s largest government union:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LOxe7Hs5Q5s

According to Senator Brown, privatization is always driven by “greed” and always makes “the services get worse.” Hearty red meat for a government union crowd, but keep in mind this was an unscripted response. Bigger government, higher taxes, and demonizing The Rich are the only things Sherrod knows.

Sadly for Sherrod, every county in Ohio voted to amend the state constitution against Obamacare’s individual mandate – even after a $30 million Progressive smear campaign against union reform. With huge turnout for an off-year election, the citizen-driven Health Care Freedom Amendment passed by a wider margin than the union issue failed! Brown claims the amendment was “confusing,” which would be a great explanation for the opposite result.

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“Workers of the World Unite”

Karl Marx, the infamous German political philosopher had a vision.  Marx, together with Joseph Engels, predicted and even called for the dismantling of capitalist economic systems worldwide into a socialist and ultimately classless communist world.  24thState will be asking the question of the late Mr. Marx, “How is that working out for you?”

In a series of columns, we will expose the 5th column in the United States.  We will name names and expose the ties from David Axelrod, who just visited St. Louis referring to some GOP presidential contenders as “nutty folks,” to active Marxists and communist party loyalists in Congress and even the Missouri General Assembly.  We will expose their plans and how even their favorite Republican member of Congress (yes, they have one) works to fulfill them.

If we contemplate for a second, whether it is realistic to assume that the Marxists quit being Marxists, in Russia, China and even the U.S., can we assume that the workers of the world decided to not unite?  Did they pack up their tents and go home?  Are Russian and Chinese leaders relinquishing power and creating new constitutional republics?  Did the Communist Party USA shut their doors or just change their tactics? The answers to these questions are unquestionably obvious but uncomfortable to contemplate.

First published in 1848, the Manifesto had ten very specific goals (briefly examine their progress in the U.S. here).  The most alarming tenet however, may be the assertion that communism will never really work until the entire world is communist.  In other words, the true believers have a duty to spread it.  What then is the duty of those opposed to it?  What is IT?

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