Andrew Klavan: Obama's Beach Blanket Recovery

PJTV's Andrew Klavan examines hard times under Dubya to the glorious times in America under Barry Hussein Obama.

PJTV: Obama's Beach Blanket Recovery: It's Happy, Snappy, and Incredibly Crappy

Country Club College Spending Out Of Control

The New York Times (yes, THAT New York Times) published a great piece last week on the exploding costs of higher education in America. Leftist-Statists keep telling us how we need to expand educational spending. Feckless Republicans usually acquiesce to this foolishness because "it's for the children." But, where does the money go? We are not supposed to ask because "it's for the children."

It seems that higher education is focusing on style over substance. Student centers and recreation facilities seem to be the biggest drains as the American university spends at a rate that outstrips inflation by a country mile.

Tuition, on average, increased more rapidly over the decade at public institutions than it did at private ones. Average tuition rose 45 percent at public research universities and 36 percent at community colleges from 1998 to 2008, compared with about 21 percent at private research universities.

But the trend toward increased spending on nonacademic areas prevailed across the higher education spectrum, with public and private, elite and community colleges increasing expenditures more for student services than for instruction, the report said.

The student services category can include spending on career counseling and financial aid offices, but also on intramural athletics and student centers.

“This is the country-clubization of the American university,” said Richard K. Vedder, a professor at Ohio University who studies the economics of higher education. “A lot of it is for great athletic centers and spectacular student union buildings. In the zeal to get students, they are going after them on the basis of recreational amenities.”

On average, spending on instruction increased 22 percent over the decade at private research universities, about the same as tuition, but 36 percent for student services and 36 percent for institutional support, a category that includes general administration, legal services and public relations, the study said.

At public research universities, spending for student services rose 20 percent over the decade, compared with 10 percent for instruction.

Even at community colleges, with their far smaller budgets, spending on students services increased 9.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for instruction.

My guess would be that if one digs into the increases in the instructional area there would be a mother lode of dubious majors and frivolous courses. Of course, one way to increase student enrollment (and keep them from failing) is to increase the amount of useless tripe that can be served up as education.

The study also said that the recession that began in the last months of 2008 had dramatically changed the economics of higher education, probably forever.

“The funding models we’ve created in higher ed are not sustainable,” Ms. Wellman said. “We ran up spending in the ’90s and early 2000s to levels we can’t maintain, and this is true not only in the elite privates, but in many of the public institutions, too.”

Now, with private-college endowments battered and state legislatures slashing university budgets coast to coast, “policy makers as well as university presidents and boards must learn to be better stewards of tuition and taxpayer dollars,” she said.

Let me translate. Now, these clowns might actually have to act like responsible adults and do their job! Why is that we have to be in an economic crisis before government agencies (and that is what most colleges and universities are) are expected to act responsibly? Could it be that their irresponsibility is a big part of WHY we have bloated budgets, out-of-control entitlements, and sentimental sacred cows that cannot be touched?

The Delta Project "Trends in College Spending, 1998-2008"

Financial Reform For Thee But Not For Congress

It was bad enough that the recent "financial reform" package passed by Congressional Democrats (with the aid of a three RINOs in the Senate) was written by the two men most responsible for banking and investment crash. While, Bahney Fwank and Christopher Dodd (who both should be bunking with Bernie Madoff), thumped their chests about the good and virtuous federal government having its boot on the throat of the financial industry it turns out one group is still unregulated. Go ahead, give it a guess. Robin Hanson's post at Overcomingbias.com provides the answer: It's Congress!

While the US Congress has found time to “reform” finance by preventing movie futures, they have not found time to regulate insider trading by Congress.

Ordinary folks are banned from “insider trading.” For example, someone who noticed a factory fire via an airplane window was convicted of insider trading for trading on this info before it was publicly announced. But Garrett Jones tells me that US Congressional representatives, and all their staffers, have long been explicitly exempt from these rules – the SEC is not authorized to regulate Congress, and Congress has not chosen to regulate itself. So Congress-folk regularly profit by trading on inside info they gain from interactions with industry representatives. So much so that their average return on investment (ROI) is far larger than the public’s.

So, while innocent conversations or helpful information that is incidentally discovered can land a person in prison, the gang of reprobates in the Kremlin on the Potomac can craft legislation to build their personal portfolios and cannot be investigated much less punished. Congress can do much more to impact market forces through their abusive legislative hammer than any financial manager can do. The difference is a rogue investment banker or portfolio manager can pay a severe price for their evil doings. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd can crash the housing market and demand more power over the banking industry.

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/07/financial-reform.html/trackback

George Steinbrenner Dead At 80

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner passed away this morning at age 80. Growing up in the 1970s as a hybrid Baltimore Orioles/Oakland A's fan, I was an avid Yankees hater. Of course, when I was first old enough to follow baseball the Yankees were in the midst of a long franchise drought. Bobby Murcer was supposed to be the new Mickey Mantle (an impossible pinnacle for poor Murcer, though he was a very good player). As soon as Steinbrenner bought the Yankees in 1973 it was clear the franchise of the Bambino, the Iron Horse, Joltin' Joe and the Mick had a new attitude and was poised for a return to prominence.

As a fan of two smaller-market teams, the dawn of free agency was a curse on the game. Steinbrenner was the most adept at using the new system to augment an improving team and make them contenders. Therefore, Steinbrenner became the symbol of the destruction of the old traditions that kept teams together for a longer time.

As I got older, I remained a Yankee hater. However, I came to appreciate George Steinbrenner. He was a winner. He had a responsibility to his fans and his organization to put his team in a position to win. He was successful beyond measure. Steinbrenner was one of the game's great characters. How many other current baseball owners are household names? Steinbrenner will someday be enshrined in Cooperstown. It will be a great day for both the Yankee fans and the Yankee haters.

Jesse Jackson: The Real Plantation Owner

Self-appointed spokesperson for Black America, Je$$e Jackson, has again fanned the flames of racism and intolerance with an ignorant diatribe against Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert in the wake of Gilbert's disparaging remarks toward his former employee LeBron James. Gilbert took some vicious swipes at LeBron after "King James" chose to take his game to South Beach to combine with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh for the Miami Heat. Gilbert was angry and it could be argued that he acted childishly and unprofessionally in his very personal comments toward James. Still, this is an owner of an NBA franchise who just lost the reigning two-time MVP who happened to be a native of the region.

Gilbert probably should have taken another day and given his comments more thought. However, the race hustler Je$$e Jackson has no such excuse for his comments directed toward Gilbert.

"He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. "His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract."

Well, there you have it. Gilbert was not angry because the face of his franchise left his team without a star and the city of Cleveland without the belief that an NBA title might be in their new future. Gilbert just likes to control young black men.

This is about basketball and business. Yet, to Je$$e Jackson everything is a race hustle. Every disagreement involving a white person and a black person is an opportunity to widen a racial divide that keeps people like himself relevant to a mass that can be convinced that a return to slavery is one election away.

The irony of Je$$e's jive talking is that it is HE (as well as Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Maxine Waters, Tavis Smiley and others of that ilk) who are the modern-day plantation owners. They believe that their success as spiritual leaders, politicians or media figures sets them apart from the dumb masses. The rabble need not think for themselves. They are to be led by a race elite. Long ago, these "leaders" traded the interests of Black Americans for a seat at the Democrat party table. Make no mistake, the primary goal is to deliver Black votes to the Socialist-Statist party no matter how much their policies and principles have wreaked havoc on the Black family.

Evidence for this sick relationship can be seen in comments made by these and other Black "leaders" toward Black conservatives or any Black who expresses an opinion that deviates from the political and personal agenda of the Black Leftist elite. Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell (at least until they figured out he is also a Statist), J.C. Watts, Michael Steele, Judge Janice Rogers Brown and other Blacks who have rejected Leftist-Statist ideology are ridiculed as "Uncle Toms," "Mammies," and portrayed as ignorant puppets of whites.

Even Bill Cosby, who I would guess is largely a Democrat on most issues, was blasted by these self-appointed masters when he pointed out the negative impact of "hip-hop culture" on young Black men. Cosby spoke of personal responsibility, education, hard work, and presenting oneself in a positive way. He was blasted as a race traitor by the keepers of the keys.

Dan Gilbert's criticisms of LeBron James, fair or unfair, were born of the likelihood of professional and financial loss due to the free agent's departure. This was not a plantation owner seeking to keep the cotton picked. However, Je$$e Jackson's comments were just the latest barrage in his decades-old fight to keep Black Americans on the Democrat-Leftist-Socialist plantation. After all, if "King James" can be treated like a field hand all Blacks are in grave danger of similar treatment in their positions. It is time for Je$$e to heed his own words. Treat Blacks like men and women and allow them to think for themselves without muddying every issue with a racial fear mongering. Its time for Je$$e Jackson to realize he is not the slave master of Black America.

Donald Berwick: Barack Hussein Obama's Latest Radical Accomplice

Let's start with this truth. If you find yourself discussing politics with someone who STILL believes that Barry Hussein Obama is not the most radical President in American history, you should not waste your time. Your conversation partner is a half-wit and has no chance of comprehending your words anyway.

Michelle Oddis has a great piece on Human Events about Obama's "recess appointment" to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick. Remember when Statist/Leftists were whining about "dishonest" accusations from the Right concerning health care rationing? It was all lies, lies, lies! Now, Medicare and Medicaid are to be administered by one of America's foremost advocates of, you guessed it, health care rationing. That is just the tip of the iceberg:

Here are the TopTen things the Obama Administration didn’t want you to know about Berwick:

1. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to administer Medicare and Medicare, has stated openly that he favors rationing healthcare “with our eyes open.” He wants the government to be able to decide how much healthcare you and your family are entitled to.

2. Berwick believes for that healthcare to be effective we must redistribute wealth. “Any healthcare funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent healthcare is by definition redistributional,” said Berwick.

3. Berwick is “in love” with Britain’s National Heath Service. He called the British system -- that many here in the U.S. refer to as “free for all, but worthless to many” -- a “seductress” about which he is “romantic.” In an op-ed published in the Washington Post in 1992 Berwick stated about Britain: “At last, a nation where healthcare is a right and carrying a semi-automatic machine gun is a privilege. Berwick also described a “utopian” future in which the government is in complete control of the healthcare system.

4. Berwick believes that ultrasounds in normal pregnancies and cesarean sections amount to an “assault” and wants to cut prenatal care programs. “As many as 80% of hysterectomies are scientifically unnecessary, so are more than a quarter of the drugs used for ear infections, most of the ultrasounds done in normal pregnancies, and half of cesarean sections in the United States. Isn’t this, with all do respect, some form of assault and battery, however unintended,” said Berwick

5. Berwick has repeatedly expressed his support for a single-payer healthcare system. Berwick has stated that if he could “wave a wand…* Healthcare is a common good – single payer, speaking and buying for the common good;* Healthcare is a human right – universality is a non-negotiable starting place;* Justice is a prerequisite to health –equity is a primary quality goal.”

6. Berwick will cut the number of cardiac centers, cancer-care centers, neonatal intensive-care units, and high-level trama centers.

7. Berwick doesn’t trust the free market. “Don't trust market forces,” instructs Berwick. Trust "leaders with plans."“When you rely on incentives, market forces, competition, and upward reporting for excellence you are playing with fire. I believe it is better to rely instead whenever possible on spirit, purpose, learning cooperation and joy in work.”

8. Berwick will cut preventative care in cases such as mammograms and ultrasounds. “One over demanding service is prevention; annual physicals, screening tests, and other measures that supposedly help catch disease early,” said Berwick in a 1998 Institute for Healthcare Improvement publication.

9. On “End of Life Care,” Berwick stated in a 1993 speech that “only a minority of patients, families, and clinicians support prolonged use of life-sustaining procedures and dramatic interventions in the terminal states of illness, yet substantial use of these procedures continue.”

10. Berwick, highlights race as a factor in healthcare reform. "It’s still true that race, minority race, especially being black in our country, is the strongest critique that we have about health,” said Berwick.

Yep, just your regular patriotic, liberty-loving American. In Obama's Amerika, the Donald Berwicks of the world exist to "transform" our lives, our values and our country. Yes, America, that is what Reverend Jeremiah Wright's protege' Barry Hussein Obama meant by "change." Had enough?

ABC Radio News Twists Roman Polanski Story

Today, Switzerland announced it will not extradite child rapist Roman Polanski to finally serve the prison term he plea-bargained for over 30 years ago. An ABC Radio news report on the subject stated that the Swiss decision was to prevent Polanski from facing charges in the child rape case. Sorry, ABC, that ship has sailed. Polanski raped a 13 year-old girl, faced overwhelming evidence and cut a deal that involved a prison term. The coward left the country rather complete the sentence to which he agreed.

The reporting of this story is baffling. It seems Big Media loves artistic creeps who rape children as long as they make anti-social films which attach life's mainstream. Polanski has made millions creating movies in Europe and that is considered a punishment. After all, its just child rape. It would be nice if the "compassionate Left" could muster the same anger for a violent pedophile that they do for law-abiding Americans who revere the Constitution.

No Match For Your Worker's W-2? No Problem!

This shocking story is relayed by Terry Jeffrey on Townhall.com.

A single employer filed 37,375 W-2 forms in tax year 2005 on which the Social Security Number and the name did not match. These "no-match" W-2 forms often -- but not always -- represent an illegal-alien worker fraudulently using someone else's Social Security number or a fake number.

An employer who files 37,375 no-match W-2s in one year is almost certainly employing many thousands of illegal aliens -- and knows it.

Yet there is no indication our federal government has taken any action to stop this employer from continuing to employ mass numbers of illegal
aliens.

The unemployment rate was 7.7 percent when President Barack Obama was inaugurated. It is now 9.5 percent.

The fact that a single employer filed 37,375 no-match W2s in 2005 was revealed in a virtually unnoticed Dec. 15, 2008, audit report from the inspector general of the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The purpose of this report was to examine the effectiveness of the so-called "Educational Correspondence" (EDCOR) that SSA sends out each year to all employers who file more than 10 no-match W-2s if those no-match W-2s also amount to at least one-half of one percent of the total number of W-2s filed by that employer.

These "no-match letters" list the Social Security numbers that were on the no-match W-2s the employer filed -- but only to a maximum of 500 Social Security numbers. Thus, if an employer files 37,375 bad W-2s, the letter it receives from SSA lists only the first 500 bad Social Security Numbers, not the other 36,875.

According to the inspector general, there were about 1,650 employers that filed more than 500 no-match W-2s in 2005. In fact, these 1,650 employers filed a total of about 2.6 million no-match W-2s in 2005, meaning they filed an average of 1,576 per employer.

The champion was the employer that filed 37,375.

To those unfamiliar with this issue, this might seem like an astounding number. If you care to double-check it, go to the Website of the inspector general of the Social Security Administration and look up the December 2008 audit report titled, "Effectiveness of Educational Correspondence to Employers." The number for the report is A-03-07-17105.

The acts described in this Social Security audit add up to felonies by both the employers and the workers who knowingly supply false information. Of course, we are told that illegal aliens (oops, I mean undocumented Democrats) are law-abiding citizens looking for an opportunity. This very act proves casts doubt on that rosy fallacy. However, the bigger question is why the federal leviathan that seeks to prevent border states from protecting their own citizens is unwilling to enforce its own laws? The criminality goes beyond the employers and employees. The government officials who possess this information and refuse to protect the interests of the American taxpayer are also guilty. I guess only suckers provide the feds with accurate information. The rest of Terry Jeffrey's column is here.

Obama's NASA Chief: NASA Faces Mecca

Once you have fallen down the rabbit hole that is Obamaworld, the word "absurd" loses some of its bite. However, this nugget from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden makes it clear that the parade of clowns that comprise Team Barack will keep the idiocy coming. For those who remember that the American space program began as a national security function in the Cold War, it is frightening to contemplate the new priorities of NASA.

FOXNews reports the following from an interview Charles Bolden granted Al Jazeera:

Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.

"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.

There you have it. Our space program is not about national security or scientific advancement NASA will now be spending billions with eyes on the true prize: reminding the Arab world that they invented Algebra. Pathetic!

Florida Moves Toward Nullification of ObamaCare

Florida will put ObamaCare to the voters this November. The Personal Liberty News Desk reports that Florida's legislature has voted to allow its citizens to send a message to Washington this November.

In an effort to blunt the impact of the sweeping healthcare reform passed by Congress and signed by President Obama late last month, the Florida legislature has passed an act that aims to protect the state’s healthcare system from interference.

Florida’s Healthcare Freedom Act (HJR 37/SJR 72), sponsored by Florida Representative Scott Plakon and Florida Senator Carey Baker, passed the House and Senate and will appear on the November ballot.

The legislation, which was inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Freedom of Choice in Healthcare Act, blocks a state or federal requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance.

"Protecting the individual freedom for people to make their own healthcare decisions is a priority," said ALEC health task force director Christie Herrera.

She added that "the amount of support from state legislators and policy makers for this legislation has been tremendous."

ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act has now been introduced or proposed in 42 states.

The Left has been slowly nudging the United States toward a combination of socialism and fascism for over a century. They have done so in small doses, usually masked as a heroic effort to avert some crisis. Liberty-loving Americans should have stood up more quickly, but they are standing now. The Obama administration mistook his carefully crafted electoral victory for an endorsement of a full-fledged move toward unquestioned statism. He was wrong.

Leftists can engage in all the name-calling and demonization they want. Bring it on! The stakes have never been higher. Individual liberty has never been more threatened by any American administration. The American people get it. The Statists are now experiencing the blow back. This November is shaping up as not only a major loss for the Obamacrats, but also a renewal of America's love of individual liberty and limited government.

The text of the Florida Healthcare Freedom Act (HJR37)

Bob McDonnell's Strange Reaction To Arizona Immigration Measure

I'm really not sure what to make of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell's comments about Arizona's controversial new anti-illegal immigration law. From Tertium Quids:

For those Virginians hoping the Commonwealth might adopt its own version of
Arizona's recent legislation designed to curb illegal immigration, Governor Bob McDonnell had some carefully chosen words on WTOP this past week.

I'm concerned about the whole idea of carrying papers and always having to be able to prove your citizenship. That brings up some shades of some other regimes that weren't necessarily helpful to democracy.

Leaving aside the fact that comparing one's political or ideological opponents (obliquely or not) to totalitarians is the most cliched of political tropes, the governor does raise an important question. What's the point of solving America's illegal immigration problem if it comes at the price of Gestapo-like squads of armed bureaucrats roaming the streets demanding "Papers, please" from every person in sight?

Of course, the problem with such an analogy is that Arizona's law only allows police to request proof of citizenship from people already involved in committing a crime.
But try explaining that to Al Sharpton. The governor went on to muse that

There's a divide, I'm finding, between Republicans who are ready to accept Rasmussen poll results as validation that the bill is a winner for them, and Republicans who see long-term damage in Arizona.

It's unclear what "long-term damage" Gov. McDonnell is referring to, unless he means Republican political fortunes in Arizona. In which case, he might be encouraged to note the law's effectiveness at helping illegal immigrants choose to accept the hospitality and public services of other states.

In other words, Arizona taxpayers are already seeing a benefit, and the law hasn't even gone into effect yet.

Meanwhile, Virginia taxpayers shell out $1.7 billion per year to provide for the needs of illegal immigrants here. Costs which our governor helps to cover by hiking taxes during a recession and cleverly calling them "fees."

Much like his temerity and failure to act with regard to repealing Virginia's corporate income tax, while unemployment sits at record levels and the budget drowns in red ink, Gov. McDonnell is once again so concerned with not rocking the boat that he can't be bothered to admit it may be sinking.

It is one thing to run as a Conservative and cultivate such a reputation in a heavily-Conservative state, especially one that has a serious case of buyer's remorse for its 2008 electoral vote for Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetoro Obama. It sounds as if McDonnell is channeling John McCain and Lindsey Graham in the land of the RINOs. Is McDonnell now trying to prove that he isn't TOO conservative? This bears monitoring.

A carefully crafted immigration law in Arizona | Washington Examiner

In today's Washington Examiner, Byron York addressed the uproar over Arizona's common sense to do the job the federal government refuses to attempt: deal with illegal immigration. York's article manages to refute the Statist Left's primary charges without once referring to anyone as a Nazi. If only Democrats and their Fellow Travelers could argue a point in such fashion.

York reveals what the Left has conveniently ignored: the actual text of the law as signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer:

Has anyone actually read the law? Contrary to the talk, it is a reasonable, limited, carefully-crafted measure designed to help law enforcement deal with a serious problem in Arizona. Its authors anticipated criticism and went to great lengths to make sure it is constitutional and will hold up in court. It is the criticism of the law that is over the top, not the law itself.

The law requires police to check with federal authorities on a person's immigration status, if officers have stopped that person for some legitimate reason and come to suspect that he or she might be in the U.S. illegally. The heart of the law is this provision: "For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency…where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person…"

This piece is an excellent analysis of the "controversial" attempt at enforcing existing law.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Byron-York/A-carefully-crafted-immigration-law-in-Arizona-92136104.html#ixzz0mRMnDOmW

A carefully crafted immigration law in Arizona Washington Examiner

Walter E. Williams : Salt Tyrants - Townhall.com

Dr. Walter E. Williams hits a home run with his dissection of the Statist-Progressive-Leftist jihad against salt. Yes, salt. The federal government wants to control salt. How far will the madness go?

What the anti-tobacco zealots established is that government had the right to forcibly control our lives if it was done in the name of protecting our health. In the Foundation for Economic Education's Freeman publication, I wrote a column titled "Nazi Tactics" (January 2003): "These people who want to control our lives are almost finished with smokers; but never in history has a tyrant arisen one day and decided to tyrannize no more. The nation's tyrants have now turned their attention to the vilification of fast food chains such as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, charging them with having created an addiction to fatty foods. ... In their campaign against fast food chains, restaurants and soda and candy manufacturers the nation's food Nazis always refer to the anti-tobacco campaign as the model for their agenda."

Sadly, we live in a country that includes too many people who have no problem allowing the government to tyrannize their neighbors with good intentions. There is no tyranny like one carried out for the "good" of the victims. It is all well and good to call attention to healthy habits, but there can be no liberty in a country where the government passes laws governing what the people are allowed to eat.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Salt-tyrants-92316249.html#ixzz0mRlcgTnK

Walter E. Williams : Salt Tyrants - Townhall.com

Roanoke City Council: Vote For Tea Party candidate Mike Powell On May 4

WSLS Channel 10 in Roanoke just ran a story about the fundraising efforts of Democrats for the Roanoke City Council. It is pretty amazing that an individual raises over $70,000 to run for a part-time job that pays $15,000 per year. Of course, it is a city and most of the money is raised by Democrats who pander to the poor voter, but push policies that do damage to the common folk.

If you live in Roanoke City, be sure to take a good look at candidate Mike Powell. Mike Powell believes in restrained, responsible government. Many people are looking at November to begin making a dent in Congress' Leftist delegation, however the people of Roanoke can send a message to the mavens of Big Government in their own city council by voting for Mike Powell, the candidate endorsed by the Roanoke Tea Party.

If you want to bring the founding principles of limited government into the 21st century, vote Mike Powell for the Roanoke City Council.

ObamaCare Mulligan: Readying Price Controls for Insurance - WSJ.com

Gee, that didn't take long. The realities of ObamaCare are already starting to reveal themselves. Here is a fun little nuggest from the Wall Street Journal:

The official who will preside over this fiscal trainwreck is Donald Berwick, the Harvard professor and chief of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement who the White House has nominated to run Medicare. Dr. Berwick explained in an interview last year that the British National Health Service has "developed very good and very disciplined, scientifically grounded, policy-connected models for the evaluation of medical treatments from which we ought to learn." He added that "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care—the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly."

Wait, I thought the notion of health care rationing was just a scare tactic devised by talk radio to undermine the first Black president? But, there you have it. Dr. Berwick admits that the forty years during which Americans were promised old age medical security by their good and benevolent government were a lie. To make the Progressive-Socialist-Fascist omelet, you gotta break a few old people.

Get ready, folks. This won't be the last broken promise from Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetoro Obama and the Marxist Democrats. They are just getting warmed up.

ObamaCare Mulligan: Readying Price Controls for Insurance - WSJ.com

FOXNews.com - ACORN CEO: Tea Parties a 'Bowel Movement,' Future Will Be Worse Than Segregation

Bertha Lewis does a better job of making the case that Obama universe is full of nuts and extremists than any Tea Party gathering could do.

McCarthyism? Jim Crow? Segregation? Japanese internment?

Child's play. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis says the times people are living in now will "dwarf" all those stains on America's history. And she points to the Tea Party movement -- or "bowel movement," in her words -- as a harbinger of the persecution to come.

Let's see: the Obama adminstration attacks and smears political opponents and Leftists seek to revive the mis-named "Fairness Doctrine" in order to silence conservative talk tadio. Who are the McCarthyites?

Jim Crow? A young black lady was the most impressive speaker and drew the biggest applause at the Roanoke, Virginia Tea Party on April 15. Blacks are more than welcome at Tea Party, but when they do express conservative ideas they are called every manner of vile name by so-called black leaders. By the way, how many black hosts are on MSNBC or CNN? Conservatives care about ideas not race. Leftists define everyone by race, gender, religious or sexual preference categories. Who are the Jim Crowers and segregationists?

Japanese internment? Are you crazy? The separation of people into enclaves by characteristics is a Leftist impulse.

"They are coming. And they are coming after you," the embattled head of ACORN said during a talk last month to the Young Democratic Socialists, the youth branch of the Democratic Socialists, the U.S. branch of the Socialist International.

During the address, Lewis praised the group's members for calling themselves socialists, and warned that undefined forces are plotting their doom.

Batty Bertha was right on this one; at least to a point. We are after the socialists, whether young or old. Not to do physical harm, but Conservatives are through negotiating with socialist terrorists. The baseline should be absolute liberty, but feckless Republicans have allowed the country to slowly creep toward the tyranny of statism. No, we aren't physically coming after the socialists, but we will no longer bow and scrape in the arena of ideas.

More from Batty Bertha Lewis here: FOXNews.com - ACORN CEO: Tea Parties a 'Bowel Movement,' Future Will Be Worse Than Segregation

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Barack Obama Will Decide Who Can Visit You In The Hospital | RedState

Despite what most knee-jerk Leftist-Liberal-Progressive-Democrats believe, most Conservatives don't have a problem with gays visiting each other in the hospital. This canard is always brought up to defend the notion of same-sex marriage or state-sponsored same-sex unions. This is really a strawman argument as most hospitals do not prevent same-sex partners from hospital visitation rights.

The problem with Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama's grand announcement on this policy is that the President does not have the authority to determine the internal policies of every hospital in the country. The implications go way beyond Ace spending time with Gary in the hospital. If Obama (or any president) can meddle in this, what is off limits? People are all too often short-sighted on these issues. If a decision supports their goal or desire they are all for it regardless of the process or the precedent. The precedent, in this case, sets the stage for any number of abusive intrusions into private affairs.

Dan McLaughlin's piece at RedState provides some important context to the implications of this particular intrusion.



Barack Obama Will Decide Who Can Visit You In The Hospital RedState

CNSNews.com - Biden Goes to Bat for ‘Equal Opportunity in Athletics’

Equal opportunity? Tocqueville once said of America that it is a nation that would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. If that was true in the mid-19Th century, it is even more so in the 21st. Title IX is only a small factor in the increased participation of women in intercollegiate athletics, however it is a primary reason for the demise of many men's sports programs. Women have plentiful opportunities to participate in college athletics. However, the hairy armpit, angry feminist crowd revels in the destruction of men's programs in order to achieve "equality."

Maybe the rules of the game need to be changed. Instead of allocating programs based on which bathroom the athletes use, let's make it truly fair: base it on which one brings more money into the university. If we go that route, women's intercollegiate athletics will go the route of the Mainstream Media's credibility (nonexistent). At most schools, men's football and basketball are the money makers. If, with the incredible opportunities afforded today, the feminist loons want to continue this nonsense let's make it all about the Benjamins!

Do I want to see women's sports programs eliminated? Of course not! What I want to do away with is the never-ending bleating of grievance politics. Whether its from some man-hating shrew in NOW or from a blowhard vice-president who gives less to charity than a homeless person, I'm over grievance politics. This is not about female opportunity. It's about denying male opportunities to satisfy a loud, detestable constituency. This is a nation built on liberty NOT equality. It is time for the radical egalitarians to move on.


CNSNews.com - Biden Goes to Bat for ‘Equal Opportunity in Athletics’

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Morning Bell: The Crony Capitalist Threat to Our Economic Freedom | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Time to start sending the emails and making the phone calls to Senate Republicans on this phony financial "reform" bill. As the Heritage Foundation points out, the Democrats are hardly the enemy of Big Banking:

As evidence and logic clearly demonstrate, the left’s harsh anti-business rhetoric and glee for expansive regulation is a boon to their campaign coffers. As USA Today reports, Goldman Sachs alone has given nearly $900,000 since January 2009 to congressional candidates, and according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, 69% of the firm’s contributions went to Democrats while 31% went to Republicans.

In fact, Goldman is not opposed to Obama’s Wall Street Bailout Bill at all. As a Goldman official told Politico Monday: “We’re not against regulation. We’re for regulation. We partner with regulators.” This echoes reporting done by The Huffington Post on loopholes in the banking bill. HuffPo was told by a financial services lobbyist: “Obtaining a carve-out isn’t rocket science. Just give Chairman Dodd (D-CT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) a ****load of money.” And loads of money is what Wall Street has been giving to the authors of the Wall Street Bailout Bill. The Wall Street banker at the center of Goldman’s SEC fraud complaint recently solicited
money from his banker friends for Sen. Schumer describing him as “one of the few members of Congress that has consistently supported the hedge fund industry.”

Sens. Dodd and Schumer are not the only ones colluding with bankers to profit from American taxpayers. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) scored $37,000 from a January fundraiser that included Goldman executives. And The Washington Examiner has detailed that not only did President Barack Obama receive seven times as much money from Goldman employees as President Bush did from Enron employees, but then-candidate Obama’s $950,000 2008 total from Goldman executives and employees is the most a politician has raised from a single company since campaign finance reform. It’s also more than the combined Goldman haul of every Republican running for president, Senate and the House

The corruption and dishonesty of President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama and the Kremlin on the Potomac knows no bounds. Read more about Democrat "crony capitalism" at
Morning Bell: The Crony Capitalist Threat to Our Economic Freedom The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

The Liberty Manifesto by P.J. O'Rourke -- Even More Relevant in 2010

P.J. O'Rourke is one of the great voices of real liberty in modern America. In 1993, he gave a speech to the CATO Institute title "The Liberty Manifesto." While the speech made many references to the Clinton administration (and to Bush 41), it could very well be about the political scene circa 2010.

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences...

...There are just two rules of governance in a free society:
Mind your own business.
Keep your hands to yourself.

Direct and succinct. The difference between liberty and tyranny explained in a few short words. This is so simple even the typical college student can understand it.

We have a group of incredibly silly people in the White House right now, people who think government works. Or that government would work, if you got some real bright young kids from Yale to run it.

We're being governed by dorm room bull session. The Clinton administration is over there right now pulling an all-nighter in the West Wing. They think that, if they can just stay up late enough, they can create a healthy economy and bring peace to former Yugoslavia.

The Clinton administration is going to decrease government spending by increasing the amount of money we give to the government to spend.

Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money -- hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

The Clinton administration is putting together a program so that college graduates can work to pay off their school tuition. As if this were some genius idea. It's called getting a job. Most folks do that when they get out of college, unless, of course, they happen to become governor of Arkansas.

And the Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue, why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?

You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal.

Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have.

Government contains impure ingredients -- as anybody who's looked at Congress can tell you.

On the basis of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign promises, I think we can say government practices deceptive advertising.

And the merest glance at the federal budget is enough to convict the government of perjury, extortion, and fraud.

There, ladies and gentlemen, you have the Cato Institute's program in a nutshell: government should be against the law.

Term limits aren't enough. We need jail.

Wow. If you want to see the Leftist-Progressive-Faux Liberal mindset reduced to its core, P.J. O'Rourke has done it. The answers to the sophomoric bleats of your Leftist co-worker are right here. Have fun watching their heads spin.

The Liberty Manifesto P.J. O'Rourke Cato Institute: Speeches

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"Oh No He Didn't" City Insider : SF crime is down -- as long as you aren't talking rapes or homicide

Yep, that is how San Francisco's police chief celebrates decreased crime numbers over the first three months of 2010. This from Nanette Asimov in The San Francisco Chronicle:

The bottom line at Chief George Gascon's news conference today was that crime dropped 13 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with last year.

But turn off the slide projector and look at the rapes, robberies and homicides not featured on the big screen. All were higher in the first three months of 2010 than during the same time last year.

Rape was up 33 percent, from 33 incidents last year to 44 this year. Robbery was up 13 percent, from 744 to 844. Homicides were up 9 percent, from 11 to 12.

"We're obviously concerned about it," Gascon said of violent crimes. The increase in rapes could be due to increased reporting, he said. "We don't know."

Yeah, Chief Gascon, it could just be that those pesky women are reporting more rapes this year instead of staying silent. That kind of thing can skew one's statistics. Somehow, I don't think anyone is going to mistake San Francisco for the Garden of Eden.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=61672#ixzz0lgWYOMFp



City Insider : SF crime is down -- as long as you aren't talking rapes or homicide

Nullification 2010: We Refuse! | Tenth Amendment Center

Despite the hatchet job that the principle of nullification receives in most history books, the idea is one that was endorsed by the Thomas Jefferson (author of The Declaration of Independence) and James Madison ("Father of the Constitution"). Though the typical history or government instructor will falsely tell children that "states rights" and "nullification" are simply euphemisms for slavery, segregation and racism, the truth is that the maxim was used by northerners to reject enforcement of federal fugitive slave laws prior to the War of the Rebellion. It is time for state governments to reclaim their position in the federal system and wave a giant foam middle finger in the direction of the Kremlin on the Potomac. Read more at: We Refuse! Tenth Amendment Center

CNSNews.com - NYT/CBS Poll: 52% Say Obama Moving America Towards Socialism

Can we dispense with the notion that only a handful of "dittoheads" or fringe extremists believe that Obama and the Leftist-Progressive-Statist Democrats are marching American toward socialism? As many people believe President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama is a socialist as pay income tax (53% pay some federal income tax while 52% believe President Barry is moving the U.S. toward socialism).

CNSNews.com - NYT/CBS Poll: 52% Say Obama Moving America Towards Socialism

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Violent Leftists Attack Jindal Aide--Where Is the Mainstream Media?

For the last two weeks, the Leftist Lap Dogs in the Mainstream Media have bellowed constantly about the dangerous undercurrents of the Tea Party protests and other "anti-government" movements. So far, the only violence committed was by Leftist protesters against an aide of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal along with her boyfriend.

UPDATE: Mother of Beaten Jindal Staffer Breaks Silence to Fox News (TRANSCRIPT)

Where is the Mainstream Media? Every little old lady and nuclear family that believes in limited government is a Timothy McVeigh in training, but a vicious attack on an aide to the conservative Louisiana governor is ignored.

Allee Bautsch, 25, a top fundraiser for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and her boyfriend, Joe Brown, 29, were verbally assailed as they left the event, followed to their car then savagely beaten.

Bautsch’s leg was “stomped” by her assailants causing breaks in four places that required surgery, a steel rod and seven screws to reconstruct. Brown suffered a broken jaw and nose, a brain concussion and black eye.

The assailants were described as five Caucasian males, the main assailant looking “dirty” (but not homeless), with dark red ponytail and a beard.

Patriotic Americans protesting excessive government are labeled dangerous. Beating two people to the point they have to be hospitalized is a non-story. Here's the latest on the developing story from Human Events.

The Mainstream Media is complicit in the attack on Allee Bautsch and Joe Brown and they will be partly liable for any violence that is committed against Tea Party Patriots or any other Conservative. The Lap Dog Media blames Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Sean Hannity and others for "potential violence." However, these people go out of their way to DISCOURAGE such behavior while encouraging citizen activism. That stands in stark contrast to semi-human agitators like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Ed Schultz who reguarly advocate violent acts being committed against Conservatives. They are never asked to apologize and are never accused of inciting violence. If the Mainstream Media continues to smear regular Americans as dangerous while giving a wink and a nod to brutal behavior by Leftists, it is THEY who are the domestic terrorists attempting to subvert civil society.

Obama Abolishes Internships--No, It Is Not A Joke

The internship is an honored tradition that allows young people (or older people in career transition) to gain practical and useful experience to further their chances to obtain gainful employment in the future. Unfortunately, the internship represents ideals that President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Obama abhors like the free market, individual choice, and, well, WORK!!! As Eric Erickson points out at RedState.com, the Obama Labor Department intends to abolish private sector internships.

Barack Obama is telling teenagers and college students, who are now suffering through a 26% unemployment rate, that they are not allowed to volunteer their time in the free market in exchange for acquiring valuable and relevant job skills that might, just might, get them off the unemployment line — and that ignores the ability to make valuable connections through networking in the workplace and build relationships for future careers and opportunities. The lost opportunity just of the loss of networking and relationship building is overwhelming and will put some college students who did not go to the right school or belong to the right fraternity or sorority or come from the right town at a serious, serious disadvantage.

“If … you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” the Labor Department’s Nancy J. Leppink tells the New York Times.

The Times also quotes Trudy Steinfeld, director of New York University’s Office of Career Services, regarding opportunities for unpaid internships. “A few famous banks have called and said, ‘We’d like to do this,’ said Ms. Steinfeld. “I said, ‘No way. You will not list on this campus.’” To be fair, she doesn’t want a Labor Department enforcer knocking on her door next week. But we wonder what NYU students trying to get their feet in the doors of financial firms think about Ms. Steinfeld rejecting opportunities on their behalf.

How all of this helps young people who are trying to develop marketable skills is a mystery.

Every day it becomes harder to tell if Obama is simply an overmatched imbecile or the most dangerous radical to ever occupy the White House. The results are the same: a great country's institutions and freedoms reduced to rubble. If you aren't involved, get there. If you have been involved, don't get tired--there is a long fight ahead to slow the long march.

Onerous New DOE Regulations Headed Our Way

For those who continue to claim this administration isn't a threat to individual liberty and private property.

Onerous New DOE Regulations Headed Our Way

Bill Clinton Compares Tea Party Protesters To Timothy McVeigh

Disgraced ex-president William Jefferson Clinton has stirred the pot by alluding to a link between the Tea Party movement and the kind of anger that led to the Oklahoma City bombing. Slick Willie, of course, tried to slander the Tea Party while claiming that wasn't what he was trying to do.

"What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that
we should reduce our passion for the positions we hold - but that the words we use really do matter, because there's this vast echo chamber, and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike," he said.

My question to Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend is this: why not make such statements when Leftist-Statist-Progressive-Democrats are calling Conservatives racists, sexist, homophobes, murders, Klansmen, thugs, etc.? Why is it that everyday Americans angry about a government that has rejected the Constitution are to be feared, but Black Panthers wielding weapons outside a voting precinct are not a big deal?

Clinton went on to further demonstrate his ignorance about the Constitution.

Clinton argued that the Boston Tea Party was in response to taxation without representation. The current protesters, he said, are challenging taxation by elected officials, and the demonstrators have the power to vote them out of office.

This lame excuse for constitutional abuse never holds water. Constituents have control over their congressman and senators, but not the other 532 members of Congress. Our government is a constitutional republic NOT a democracy. If citizens elect a congressman to go on a looting raid against the rest of the country, his mere election does not give the act legitimacy. All members of Congress (as well as the President) take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. Their constituents wishes to abuse the Constitution are irrelevant. If Bill Clinton wants a primer on the Constitution, I will be glad to sit down with him and explain it.

Hey, Bart, Your Yellow Streak Is Showing...Bart Stupak Retires

Well, that didn't take long. Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, fresh from his cowardly capitulation on ObamaCare, has announced that he will not run for re-election. Stupak was the voice of so-called "pro-life" Democrats who claimed they would not vote for a health care bill that allowed for federal funding of abortion. Yet, there they were, a gang of lying reprobates, voting for an ObamaCare bill that did not prohibit federal funding for infanticide.

Of course, that was OK according to Bart the Bullcrapper. President Barry Obama promised that he would take care of that with an executive order. And who is more honest than President Barry Vladimir Hussein Soetero Alinsky Obama? One little problem. Executive orders cannot overrule laws passed by Congress. Executive orders can be issued to direct the work of federal agencies. How can an executive order have any sway unless the government is taking over the health care industry (which the Big O, San Fran Nan, and Former-Senator-Walking Harry claim it is not)? You see, they say whatever is convenient for a particular constituency.

Stupak simply wanted the Fascist-in-Chief to supply cover as he claimed to be a "pro-life Democrat." Stupak was a phony and political opportunist. The reaction to his gutless turn has been massive and ol' Bart didn't want to spend the next seven months fighting a GOP challenge while trying to justify his Judas turn against the unborn. Good riddance, Bart!

Rep. Bart Stupak won't seek reelection - Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

Nullifying Federal Tyranny | Tenth Amendment Center

Clyde Wilson connects to the historical relevance of nullification. American History textbooks have worked hard to attach the principle of nullification to slavery and segregation. While nullification was used to protect those less savory institutions, the idea was largely introduced to the American political system by Thomas Jefferson (author of the Declaration of Independence) and James Madison (also known as "The Father of the Constitution"). In other words, the notion that states have the authority to reject unconstitutional actions of the federal government is grounded in the ideals of the Founders.


Nullifying Federal Tyranny Tenth Amendment Center

Edgycater Is Back!!!

It has been nearly five months since my last blog post. The primary reason involved health issues in my family. That subject will be addressed sometime in the future, but for now I plan to dive head first into the on-going anti-liberty jihad being perpetrated by American Leftists. Hopefully, this blog can make a positive contribution to the real change America needs--a return to the principles of limited government and individual liberty that made this country the envy of the world.