The Educated Idiots Award (Vol. 1, No. 2): ‘Hurt so Good’

The people have written!

After sorting through scores of nominations from readers, I am dyspeptic to present another recipient of the “Educated Idiots Award” (EIA), which is given to the arrogant intellectuals unacquainted with real life who foist their insane ideas upon the “unenlightened” rest of us.

Nominated by former State Department Official, John Tkacik, this week’s EIA goes to the Obama Administration’s “smart power” savants. (Okay, that’s not quite what John called them, but the sentiment is simpatico.)

To witless:

Per a March 5th Washington Post article, the Obama Administration’s “smart power” savants want the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to get a sweetheart sanctions deal: If the Beijing regime relents and supports tightened UN sanctions against Iran, the PRC will be exempted from tightened US sanctions against Iran.

This dysfunctional case of “the enemy of my enemy is my enemy” bemuses our allies who have steadfastly supported sanctioning Iran due to its nuclear program; and have already been divesting from the mullah’s murderous regime.

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Tags: educated idiots award, Heritage Foundation, intellectuals, Iran sanctions, john tkacik
Posted Mar 12th 2010 at 6:15 am in Culture, Education, News | 8801891 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tgmccotter/2010/03/12/the-educated-idiots-award-vol-1-no-2-hurt-so-good/The+Educated+Idiots+Award+%28Vol.+1%2C+No.+2%29%3A+%27Hurt+so+Good%272010-03-12+14%3A15%3A12Rep.+Thaddeus+G.+McCotter+%28R-MI%29

Barack Obama’s Land of the Mostly Free

Freedom took a hit in 2009.  One year into the Obama presidency and America is no longer classified as having a “free” economy, according to the 16th annual Index of Economic Freedom, a joint report by the The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.  The land of the free and the home of the brave is now only “mostly free” for the first time in the report’s history.

Now ranking as just the 8th freest nation in the world, the United States saw scores decline in seven of the 10 measured categories, including government spending, property rights and business freedom.  These results are significant because freer nations have proven more resilient and thus fared better during the current global recession.

The study also vindicates the Tea Party movement.  Despite the attacks lodged by the likes of Chris Mathews, racism and intolerance toward our nations first black President are not needed to explain the movement’s sudden emergence.  Rather, the loss of freedoms feared by Tea Party participants is real, and more than explains the anxiety so acutely expressed at rallies and townhalls throughout 2009.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Heritage Foundation, Index of Economic Freedom, scott brown
Posted Jan 21st 2010 at 8:03 am in Economics, News, Obama | 6298278 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bgarst/2010/01/21/barack-obamas-land-of-the-mostly-free/Barack+Obama%27s+Land+of+the+Mostly+Free2010-01-21+16%3A03%3A16Brian+Garst

OMB’s Orzag Was Against Deficits Before He Was For Them

Just came across some rather grim analysis of the economic impact of massive, ongoing federal budget deficits from a group of prominent economists. It’s a little dated (2004) but still highly relevant considering that the deficit situation has dramatically worsened since then. Some highlights:

Substantial ongoing deficits may severely and adversely affect expectations and confidence, which in turn can generate a self-reinforcing negative cycle among the underlying fiscal deficit, financial markets, and the real economy:

• As traders, investors, and creditors become increasingly concerned that the government would resort to high inflation to reduce the real value of government debt or that a fiscal deadlock with unpredictable consequences would arise, investor confidence may be severely undermined;
• The fiscal and current account imbalances may also cause a loss of confidence among participants in foreign exchange markets and in international credit markets, as participants in those markets become alarmed not only by the ongoing budget deficits but also by related large current account deficits;
• The loss of investor and creditor confidence, both at home and abroad, may cause investors and creditors to reallocate funds away from dollar-based investments, causing a depreciation of the exchange rate, and to demand sharply higher interest rates on U.S. government debt;

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Tags: Allen Sinai, Brookings Institution, budget, Cato Institute, Deficit
Posted Dec 11th 2009 at 11:29 am in Congress, Economics, News, Politics | 4462612 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2009/12/11/ombs-orzag-was-against-deficits-before-he-was-for-them/OMB%27s+Orzag+Was+Against+Deficits+Before+He+Was+For+Them2009-12-11+19%3A29%3A21Morgen++Richmond

Remembering the Victims of Communism

Twenty years ago today, the Berlin Wall was breached and Soviet communism, at long last, entered its death spiral.

After claiming approximately 100 million victims in the 20th century,communism was dismissed to the ash heap of history. But those who suffered under its boot heel have largely been confined to the history books when not forgotten altogether.

Author and historian Lee Edwards set out to correct this oversight with the creation of the Victims of Communism memorial and online museum, dedicated to those who perished because of Communist regimes between 1917 and 1989.

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Tags: Berlin Wall, Cold War, communism, Gulag, Heritage Foundation
Posted Nov 9th 2009 at 9:17 am in Culture, History | 2766611 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ngillespie/2009/11/09/remembering-the-victims-of-communism/Remembering+the+Victims+of+Communism2009-11-09+16%3A17%3A19Nick+Gillespie

The Orchid Police: Criminalizing Everything, Everyone

Brian Walsh with the Heritage Foundation has this hilarious, ridiculous, depressing story at the Washington Times:

“You don’t need to know. You can’t know.” That’s what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.

The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris’ longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.

The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with – get this- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.

That’s right. Orchids.

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Tags: Brian Walsh, federal prosecutors, Heritage Foundation, House Judiciary Committee, Kathy Norris
Posted Oct 6th 2009 at 3:15 pm in Congress, Justice/Legal, News | 1364660 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/10/06/the-orchid-police-criminalizing-everything-everyone/The+Orchid+Police%3A+Criminalizing+Everything%2C+Everyone2009-10-06+22%3A15%3A22Publius

Defunding ACORN: Necessary and Proper, And Certainly Constitutional

On September 22, the Congressional Research Service issued a report that asserted that a bill voted on by the House of Representatives on September 17 to defund ACORN was possibly unconstitutional as a prohibited “bill of attainder.”  However, as the Heritage Foundation demonstrates in a new WebMemo  , that legal analysis is wrong.

 The Defund ACORN Act does not meet the legal definition of a bill of attainder.  There is no valid reason why the courts would not defer to the legislative judgment of Congress as to the regulatory purposes of the statute.  Congressional concern over an organization that receives taxpayer funds engaging in numerous violations of the law is more than enough justification to meet any test applied by a court trying to determine the reasonableness and rational basis for such legislation. Even the CRS recognizes the tenuousness of its claim of unconstitutionality when it admits that a “court would most likely be able to discern a rational, non-punitive purpose for [the Act]: a desire to prevent federal funds being used for activities that violate federal or state laws.” 

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Tags: ACORN, Bills of Attainder, Congressional Research Service, Heritage Foundation, Supreme Court
Posted Sep 26th 2009 at 9:30 am in ACORN, Congress, Justice/Legal | 922247 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/hvspakovsky/2009/09/26/defunding-acorn-necessary-and-proper-and-certainly-constitutional/Defunding+ACORN%3A+Necessary+and+Proper%2C+And+Certainly+Constitutional2009-09-26+16%3A30%3A36Hans+von+Spakovsky

Understanding ACORN’s Taxpayer Scheme

In my last post, I noted the millions of taxpayer dollars flowing into ACORN’s housing corporation and that at least twice, Democratic administrations have caught ACORN misusing taxpayer money allocated for community work. To understand ACORN’s repeated scams, it’s important to know that the group has again and again been accused of funneling government grants to ACORN’s political and labor activism (in effect using our money to fund their growth).

It didn’t take long after the group’s founding in 1970 to work its way into the radical Left and sign up for government largess. After Jimmy Carter took office, the group used its connections to win a contract worth almost $500,000 to train community volunteers under the VISTA program.

It took virtually no time for the group to show its true colors. The grant was no small thing; the Heritage Foundation concluded, “It appears that the VISTA grant was crucial to the survival of ACORN.” The money may have helped the far-left group, but the results, as you might imagine, were not pleasant:

Under the ACORN/CORAP grant, VISTAs engaged-in blatantly political activity in Arkansas and Missouri, while five VISTAs were active in a labor organizing campaign in New Orleans.

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Tags: AmeriCorps, Andrea Kydd, Arkansas, Arkansas Democrat, Corporation for National Service
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 8:00 am in ACORN, Congress, History, Politics | 279836 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bjacobson/2009/09/17/understanding-acorns-taxpayer-scheme/Understanding+ACORN%27s+Taxpayer+Scheme2009-09-17+15%3A00%3A25Bret+Jacobson