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- DOJ Not Even Pretending to be Nonpartisan Anymore
- Obama continues negative campaign – tries to trash Governor Romney
- Help Defeat International Regulatory Schemes for the Internet
- Sam Aanestad for Congress in California District 1
- OOPS: AFL-CIO Super-PAC Shares Name with Old Communist Newspapers
- Massachusetts Plans to Squeeze Doctors to Control Health Care Costs
- 54% of WI AFSCME employees voted with their feet in 2011. #wirecall
- Study Reveals the Gulf of Mexico Permitting Mess
- Colorado Democratic Spokesman Accuses State Parties of Money Laundering
- Changing Consumer Behavior
- Morning Briefing for May 31, 2012
- Tech at Night: Steve Scalise on a roll, Privacy hypocrisy, We’re proven right on AT&T/T-Mobile
- AP: Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms Wisconsin job growth. #wirecall
- Don’t Bring Back Earmarks!
| DOJ Not Even Pretending to be Nonpartisan Anymore Posted: 31 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT I’d read something about this several days ago, but for some reason, I decided not to post on it. Now, it’s surface again. The Obama Justice Department isn’t even trying to appear to be non-partisan anymore (did they ever try in the first place, though?). Eric Holder is doing his best to scare black pastors into encouraging their congregations to vote for Obama using the Voter ID ruse. Our “sacred” right to vote is in danger of being taken away thanks to evil Voter ID laws and other trumped up charges. Says Politico:
But this is just a classic example of projection. The only mass, organized assaults on voting rights today are being perpetuated by the Democratic Party.
But don’t take my word for it. Take the words of newly-minted Republican former Congressman Artur Davis, an erstwhile member of both the Democratic Party and the Congressional Black Caucus:
So what I’m trying to figure out is why a black Attorney General who serves under a black President is telling black ministers to tell their congregations to support what is essentially the disenfranchisement of black voters. Wait…what? Or perhaps they want it that way. Either way, that’s a discussion for another post. What is important is that our nation’s leading law enforcer is opposing the surest way we now have to ensure that people are who they say they are–that they are a living, breathing U.S. citizen who is qualified to vote. Somehow, this is discriminatory. Now, Mr. Holder might be telling them outright who to vote for, but by these scare tactics, he’s implying with all the subtlety of a dumptruck crashing through a nitroglycerin plant that voting Republican is definitely a no-no. Republicans support Voter ID laws, the evil racists. |
| Obama continues negative campaign – tries to trash Governor Romney Posted: 31 May 2012 09:30 AM PDT Having seen Mitt Romney, build a lead among the critical Independent voters and veterans, close the gender gap and improve his favorable ratings while the recently restarted Obama reelection campaign stumbles badly out of the gate. And as hid campaign suffers from the Democrats’ Bain mutiny and a campaign spokesman who bears false witness, Obama decides to continue his negative feedback loop by attempting to trash Romney’s gubernatorial record. That now seems to be the Obamacrats standard operating procedure. The first thing they do is go negative and try to demonize their opponents rather than stand on their record. Yesterday, Obama’s chief reelection campaign strategist, David Axelrod issued a five-page memo on Wednesday attacking Romney’s record on jobs, taxes, fiscal responsibility as governor of Massachusetts. All of the featured speakers are Democrats even though the video does not identify their party affiliations. Today the Obama campaign released a new four minute video and sent Axelrod to Boston to coordinate a press conference to try to build momentum for the desperate effort to demonize Romney. Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg responded to Obama’s Romney demonization effort:
The Romney Campaign also offered this comparison of Governor Romney’s record to that of President Obama: UNEMPLOYMENT Romney’s Record: Massachusetts' Unemployment Rate Fell From 5.6% To 4.7% During The Romney Administration. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12). Obama’s Record: President Obama's Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Lower Unemployment To 6% Today – But It Remains Above 8%. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) JOB CREATION Romney’s Record: Massachusetts Added Tens Of Thousands Of Net New Jobs During The Romney Administration. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12) Obama’s Record: Under President Obama, The Nation Has Lost 572,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 5/30/12) ECONOMIC GROWTH Romney’s Record: Boston Business Journal, January 2007: "Thousands Of People Are Re-Entering Massachusetts’ Work Force As Its Jobs Engine … Continues To Gain Traction." (Boston Business Journal, 1/1/07) Obama’s Record: Los Angeles Times: "GDP: U.S. Economy Expands At Lackluster 2.2% Rate In 1st Quarter" (Los Angeles Times, 4/27/12) BUDGET Romney’s Record: Governor Romney Closed A Nearly $3 Billion Shortfall Without Raising Taxes And Balanced Four Budgets. (Pam Belluck, “Romney Candidacy Puts Massachusetts Economy In Spotlight,” The New York Times, 3/16/07) Obama’s Record: President Obama Has Projected The "Fourth Straight Year Of Deficits Over $1 Trillion." ("Highlights Of Obama’s $3.8 Trillion Budget," The Associated Press, 2/14/12) FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY Romney’s Record: Governor Romney Left More Than $2 Billion In The State's Rainy Day Fund. (Editorial, "Vote For Romney On Saturday," Charleston Post & Courier, 1/20/12) Obama’s Record: By The End Of His Term In Office, President Obama Will Nearly Double The Nation's Debt Held By The Public. (Eric Stirgus, "Obama Setting Debt Record, Georgia GOP Says," PolitiFact.com, 2/1/12) There does seem to be at least some desperation to this second line of negative Obama attacks on Romney. As Michael Barone noted this morning “Axelrod is endeavoring not to panic.” That sounds a bit desperate. It must be hard for Axelrod not to panic. Polls show the Obama attacks against Romney’s private equity experience at Bain Capital are not hurting Romney, but the attacks have caused much dissension among Obamacrats. This morning we learned that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick joined the Democrats’ Bain mutiny. Appearing on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” Patrick called Bain “a perfectly fine company.” You can watch video of Patrick’s comments here. There is more to cause team Obama concern. Last night on Fox News’ Special Report, Ed Henry reported that “top advisors to the President privately admit they are bracing for…the monthly jobs report for May.” According to Henry, that is an indication that Friday’s job report will be bad news. |
| Help Defeat International Regulatory Schemes for the Internet Posted: 31 May 2012 08:15 AM PDT From the diaries… Today the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is examining a dangerous international attempt to regulate and tax the Internet. Several hostile countries are pursuing the expansion of a 1988 International Telecommunication Regulation (ITR) Treaty under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), an agency within the United Nations. Their preferred venue for this back-door power play is the December 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai. Make no mistake about it: our national sovereignty is at risk. If the expansion of a global legal regime for communication technologies gains traction, the effects to the global economy as well as our individual liberties will be severe. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has said that several foreign dignitaries personally spoke to him about creating a new Internet user fee to subsidize an international universal service fund at the expense of traditional end users. Countries like Iran and China support an Internet Iron Curtain that would censor political dissidents and deny anonymous activity online through mandatory registrations of IP addresses. Russia’s Vladimir Putin has even openly stated his intention to seek, "international control over the Internet using the monitoring and supervisory capabilities of the [ITU]." Thankfully, there's bipartisan agreement in Congress that we shouldn't give new authorities to the ITU. We're rallying behind the decentralized, multi-stakeholder models that have enhanced flexibility and innovation in the past. Even the Obama Administration should be commended for its efforts to help thwart this attempt. However, it's also frustrating to think about how this Administration undermined our nation's credibility in this developing fight against international regulations when it superimposed regulations over management of Internet networks in the United States. Because America leads the world by example it's no surprise that some might seek to imitate our domestic rules and regulations on a global scale. Despite our own failures to reign-in the regulatory Leviathan at the FCC, we now need a serious game plan that deals with those who would put international politics ahead of an open and prosperous Internet. We may have our differences on domestic telecommunications policy, but having those policies decided at the international level would be the worst thing for the Internet. Today's open and free Internet is an empowering force for good in our world. That's why we need your voice – tell your Member of Congress and this Administration to beat back any ploy to internationalize control over the Internet. When you do it also ask them to hold our domestic telecommunications regulators at the FCC more accountable, too. |
| Sam Aanestad for Congress in California District 1 Posted: 31 May 2012 07:48 AM PDT Editor's note: This is the next endorsement on behalf of The Madison Project PAC in a continuing series of conservative endorsements for the 2012 congressional elections. While we are all focused on the presidential campaign and some of the seminal battles in the Senate, the establishment is working overtime to fill the open House seats with like-minded candidates. Nobody is focusing on the California presidential primary next Tuesday because Romney already clinched the nomination. However, there is an important battle between the two factions of the party over an open House seat in the northeast corner of the state. California is often viewed as a deep blue state that is incorrigibly out of reach for Republicans. However, we must remember that there are large swaths of the state that still lean Republican. In those areas, we must fill the Congressional districts with conservatives. Let's be honest. Very few of the 19 Republicans representing California are conservatives. We need more insurgents to join the leading California conservative, Rep. Tom McClintock, in his effort to battle the moderate Republicans in California and elsewhere in the country. Due to redistricting and vacancies, there are a number of open seats, but few of them are attracting conservative talent. District 1, being vacated by Wally Herger (formerly named district 2), is an exception to this unfortunate reality. That's because former state senator Sam Aanestad is running for the seat. During his tenure in the state Assembly and state Senate, Sam has been one of the few bright spots in the California Republican Party. He has consistently supported the free-market from the nanny-state onslaught of both parties in this near-failed state.
He plans to substantiate his unvarnished support for free-markets by running on a platform to phase out farm subsidies and crop insurance, even though he hails from a farming district. It's high time we stop electing Republicans from some of our most conservative districts who claim to support the free market except for the aspects that are unpopular at home. Rural dependency is just as bad as urban dependency, and Aanestad, unlike his main rival, is willing to say such. His rival, Doug LaMalfa is a big supporter of government subsidies. Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy is also working overtime to ensure that he wins and that McClintock is denied a key ally in the state's delegation. Republican leaders don't want someone who will call them out for the debt ceiling like Aanestad has done.
In fact, it is precisely Sam's straight talk and disregard for political correctness that makes him such an attractive candidate. He is willing to tell the truth about our public policy problems without fear of reprisal from special interests. He has stood up to the GOP establishment in California, and we are confident he will do the same in D.C. The primary will be held Tuesday, June 5; however, due to the new election laws in California, Aanestad could very well face his big-government Republican rival in the general election. California recently adopted a "jungle primary" system in which the top two vote-getters, irrespective of party affiliation, will proceed to the runoff. In this strong Republican district, it is very likely that Aanestad and LaMalfa will move on to the general election. It is easy to ignore this race with the assumption that we will win the seat in the fall. However, it is precisely in districts like northeast Californian where we must elect a conservative, not just a Republican. That man is Sam Aanestad. Cross-posted from The Madison Project |
| OOPS: AFL-CIO Super-PAC Shares Name with Old Communist Newspapers Posted: 31 May 2012 07:20 AM PDT Workers’ Voices, a front group for the AFL-CIO, has been billed as the “largest union super-PAC” even though its own website declares it is not an exclusively union-oriented organization. “Workers' Voice represents and fights for all working families, union and non-union,” the site proclaims. It is no real secret, however, that the super-PAC is the creation of the AFL-CIO. Filings show that the group is housed in the labor union’s vast Washington, D.C. offices. Last year Eddie Vale, now Workers’ Voice’s communications director, made $81,274 working for the AFL-CIO. Vale is a former Democratic campaign hack. The super-PAC is poised to become one of, if not the, AFL-CIO’s top political tool for the 2012 election cycle. Focusing heavily on grassroots activities and supporter-driven priorities, they have purchased digital ads in key presidential campaign swing states in addition to focusing on the Wisconsin recall election. Their name, however, may not be the best-conceived political label for group seeking to sway voter opinion in an election. As it turns out, Workers’ Voices is a fairly routine and common name for propaganda newspapers and broadsides affiliated with the Communist Party. In Detroit, a group calling itself the Communist Voice Organization has for a long time published the Detroit Workers’ Voice. Worker’s Voice was also the name of an Irish newspaper with ties to the Communist Party there. Other Communist Party groups in other nations have also used the name frequently. |
| Massachusetts Plans to Squeeze Doctors to Control Health Care Costs Posted: 31 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Josh Archambault to discuss the Massachusetts effort to manage health care costs by squeezing the state’s doctors, how it will impact the quality of care, and whether the national discussion on Obamacare will influence the legislature’s final product. We’re brought to you as always by Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show. Related Links: Massachusetts Moves Toward Global Payment Contracts Follow Brad on Twitter The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 54% of WI AFSCME employees voted with their feet in 2011. #wirecall Posted: 31 May 2012 06:30 AM PDT I am going to try to avoid too much hyperbole and sarcasm for this one; this is one time where the situation requires neither. When Scott Walker and other Republicans instituted labor union reforms in 2009, one of the basic planks of such reforms – the one that was quietly and viciously fought, tooth and nail, by the unions – was removal of mandatory dues collection for public sector union employees. In fact, from the union leaderships’ point of view this was THE reform that needed to be killed; if the Republicans had compromised on it then there probably wouldn’t have been a Wisconsin recall movement at all. But Walker and the Republicans didn’t compromise… and what was the result? DOOM.
This should shock nobody, but it will undoubtedly surprise people anyway. Particularly, say, The American Prospect also made this stunning tacit admission of epistemic closure: “Public Policy Polling numbers showed that 39 percent of union households still plan to vote for Scott Walker. That’s a stunning number given Walker’s anti-union stance (most recently highlighted in his ambiguous support for “right-to-work” laws).” I would suggest that it is not a stunning number; merely one that reflects the reality that mandatory participation in a labor union does not change your politics or your opinions. It merely stifles contrary opinion. Well – more accurately, it masks it. To give a deliberately obnoxious, yet essentially accurate, example (which violates my no-hyperbole promise: sorry about that): if you went by official records and elections then the inhabitants of the old East German regime just loved them some Marxist puppet-state style government. And this remained self-evidently true right up to the second when the East Germans realized that their ‘government’ wasn’t going to shoot them if they went over the Berlin Wall. Whereupon the East Germans proceeded to do just that, and come back with jackhammers and demolition equipment to make it easier for everybody else to flee. Because you can’t make people stop thinking stuff just by banning their ability to effectively say it. So it’s not so bad for AFSCME, really. At least they don’t have to watch their entire political and economic philosophy/worldview/religion get turned into a Pepsi commercial*. Moe Lane (crosspost) PS: AFSCME no longer speaks for Wisconsin public employees, by the way. It only speaks for about half of them. They need to recalibrate their rhetoric accordingly. *…CAPITALISM IS AWESOME. Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. |
| Study Reveals the Gulf of Mexico Permitting Mess Posted: 31 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT In a rational world, the Federal government would act as a motivated lease owner who was interested in promoting the safe and environmentally responsible development of his mineral resource, consistent with sound conservation practice. That’s why there’s a permit process in the first place. Since Macondo, that’s backwards. Operating practices must conform to the permitting process that has, um, evolved in a purely political environment: practical considerations, economics and common sense be damned. And while the politicians proclaim a concern for production levels, product prices and jobs, their actions and policies tell another story. A study (pdf link) of Gulf of Mexico activity released on Wednesday by the Gulf Economic Survival Team (GEST) indicates that much of the progress claimed by the Obama Administration is illusory. The Administration is putting a lot of time and effort into buffing the statistics to make it appear as though things are going swimmingly. (Just like in kids’ sports, ownership of the official scorebook can be a significant advantage. It never hurts to keep one eye on the scorekeeper.) The study was performed by Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein of SMU’s Cox School of Business.
Dr. Weinstein’s executive summary highlights the problems with permitting and transparency:
The study further confirms what has previously been reported in these pages: current levels of oil production (in blue) from the Gulf are running 30% below what was expected in the last pre-Macondo production forecast (in red):
That shortfall is nearly 10% of domestic production. According to Dr. Weinstein, it affects the consumer’s price at the gasoline pump. He concludes:
Emphasis mine. Cross-posted at Maley’s Energy Blog. |
| Colorado Democratic Spokesman Accuses State Parties of Money Laundering Posted: 31 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT The top spokesman for Colorado Democrats told a local paper that both parties in the state engaged in financing activities that resembled money laundering. In an interview with the Colorado Independent, Matt Inzeo, the communications director for the Colorado Democratic Party, said, “In most other lines of work, moving money from committee to committee and finally using a brand new committee no one has heard of to buy the ads would be called money laundering.” The Internal Revenue Service In 2010, the Denver Post looked into the various liberal 527′s and so-called Super Political Action Committees, or Super PACs, comparing their cash haul to that of conservative outside groups. Their analysis showed a glaring disparity, giving Democrats a clear advantage that year.  Liberal vs. Conservative 527 Money Via The Denver Post While the comparison in this chart is stunning, the Denver Post also provided readers with a glimpse into the “money laundering” operations of the Left — operations that should stun campaign finance skeptics like Inzeo.  A Liberal Flow of Political Cash Via The Denver Post Colorado liberals are no stranger to the various ways of shuffling money between finance committees. In fact, they have managed rather well, turning a once-solid red state into a purple state. Accountability for Colorado, a liberal 527 whose top donor is the Colorado Education Association, and which the Pueblo Chieftan called “despicable” for their ads in the 2010 election cycle, gave $250,000 in a single check to the Neighborhood Project, a liberal 527 that received $100,000 checks from teachers unions and AFSCME according to a 2010 Denver Post article . The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) gave Accountability for Colorado $200,000, also in a single check. These charts barely scratch the surface of the vast liberal financing network in Colorado. As previously reported by Media Trackers, well-funded national organizations are regularly used by the Left to coordinate and fund progressive “grassroots” efforts in states like Colorado. Money flows into the coffers of special interests and candidates from such sources as State Voices, the General Service Fund, Democracy Alliance, and more. Based on the last election cycle, Democratic leaning 527′s totaled 99% of all non federal 527 activity in Colorado political races. Matt Inzeo should be careful about throwing around legal terms like “money laundering”. Especially when the actions he seems so critical of are relied upon so heavily by those funneling money to Democratic and progressive candidates. Originally posted at Media Trackers Colorado |
| Posted: 31 May 2012 04:45 AM PDT This morning I’m talking about the reauthorization of the Ex-Im Bank and how it’s a great example of the hypocrisy of President Obama. I’ll also talk about the banning of plastic bags and now the potential ban of soda. The world is determined to make me not fat and I shall continue to steadfastly deflect their attempts. Listen. Share. Then listen again. Today’s show will also be broadcast on FTR Radio at 11 am. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Morning Briefing for May 31, 2012 Posted: 31 May 2012 01:45 AM PDT
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge. 1. The Extraordinary Nature of the Texas Runoff2. AP: Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms Wisconsin job growth.3. Don't Bring Back Earmarks!4. Law of Sea Treaty A Back Door For Cap And Trade
1. The Extraordinary Nature of the Texas RunoffIt is hard to overstate just how extraordinary Ted Cruz's underdog entry into the Texas runoff is and just how the odds are still stacked against him unless conservatives rally quickly with lots of money. David Dewhurst has been Lt. Governor of Texas for more than a decade. He has massive name ID throughout the state. Ted Cruz started this race with a three or four percent showing in polling. More so, Dewhurst is a multimillionaire who can write large sums of money to fund his campaign. Ted Cruz cannot. Texas has several of the most expensive media markets in the country and the state is too large to go door to door across the state. Please click here for the rest of the post. 2. AP: Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms Wisconsin job growth.Readers might remember – certainly The Weekly Standard [TWS] did – that beleaguered Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial recall candidate Tom Barrett has called into question Republican Scott Walker's contention that the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] had reported Wisconsin had actually gained jobs in 2011, instead of the loss of jobs that had been previously reported from another source. Actually, 'called into question' is too mild a term; Barrett more or less called Walker a liar. Please click here for the rest of the post. 3. Don't Bring Back Earmarks!Some members of congress are trying to reopen the earmark ban through an obscure legislative process. For many conservatives, the two-year moratorium on the practice of earmarking was the signature accomplishment of the new House majority elected in 2010. Yet, the current legislative push by involving Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTBs) is being used by the Washington establishment to reopen that moratorium and roll back conservative advances. Please click here for the rest of the post. 4. Law of Sea Treaty A Back Door For Cap And TradeConn Carroll had an excellent piece at the Washington Examiner yesterday titled "Obama's Lame Duck Plan To Pass Cap And Trade." Carroll makes the case that Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) may use the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) as a back door to implement cap and trade regulations on United States citizens. Mike Brownfield of The Heritage Foundation (my employer) wrote a short history of LOST the day before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last Wednesday. Please click here for the rest of the post. |
| Tech at Night: Steve Scalise on a roll, Privacy hypocrisy, We’re proven right on AT&T/T-Mobile Posted: 31 May 2012 12:30 AM PDT
Gotta love it when Tech at Night is declared because Comcast, despite telling me they’d auto-bill my card, choose not to do the auto-bill and instead just shuts off my Internet out of the blue. Lovely. So anyway, I’m unfortunately now low on time to create lengthy narratives, so we’ll do what we can. So, Steve Scalise, a rising tech star in the House, is at it again. HR 3310 passed I believe through suspension, and now it’s up to the Senate to move on the bill. It’s a simple, but effective concept: Take 8 separate reports the FCC is currently making, and turn it into one report. Efficiency and transparency rolled into one.
Of course the FCC isn’t the only one who studies the market. And that market is doing fine, even for older people. Wireless is the way to competition, and that’s why we need spectrum. Which is why it’s insane that FCC stalls and Herb Kohl wants to make it worse on the spectrum secondary market. Stop allying with this man, Mike Lee! LightSquared has become a lobbying firm, as it’s getting rid of everyone but the lobbyists. That’s the Obama era in an nutshell, folks. Losers petitioning the government to become winners. Which to me is the key argument against the broad-based reform of broadcast and cable television being pushed by Jim DeMint and Steve Scalise, which is being debated under the banner of Retransmission Consent reform. The old laws were written with the intent of protecting over the air broadcasters from wired competition. That’s wrong and harms the public. We ned all the security information sharing we can get, people. Internet attacks continue to mount, and no, we can’t trust government on this. To those who say we need government to act on privacy: No, you can’t trust them on it, as the EU is showing us. Remember how the AT&T/T-Mobile deal had to be blocked to promote competition? Well, told you so: T-Mobile USA can’t compete. I was right. We were right. I’m all for opposing UN Internet regulation, but can we admit it’s just as wrong for Obama to do it, too? |
| AP: Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms Wisconsin job growth. #wirecall Posted: 30 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT Readers might remember – certainly The Weekly Standard [TWS] did – that beleaguered Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial recall candidate Tom Barrett has called into question Republican Scott Walker’s contention that the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] had reported Wisconsin had actually gained jobs in 2011, instead of the loss of jobs that had been previously reported from another source. Actually, ‘called into question’ is too mild a term; Barrett more or less called Walker a liar. From TWS’s interview with Barrett:
Well. Turns out that the AP kept on the story, and we’re now seeing this being reported:
Note, by the way, that the second sentence is not appearing in a lot of articles on this development, which is potentially going to provide a lot of confusion for people trying to figure out why the articles based on the AP report have titles like “Feds confirm Gov. Walker's job-growth data.” Well, more accurately, it’s going to create a lot of false hope in people who have an emotional investment in somehow salvaging the Wisconsin recall movement, given that it is promising to be one of the most epic wastes of time in American political history. Truth of the matter is, if the BLS told the WI state government via email that the job numbers were verified, and the WI state government passed it along to the AP, and the AP accepted it… well. Pretty straightforward, that. And just in case you were wondering whether this was an attempt to run out the clock by the Walker administration, yet another version of this report states that “Dipko said the numbers would be provided to the AP on Thursday and published on the state’s website Friday.” To put it simply: this is not the way that an administration trying to cover up something would try to cover up something. It’s the way that an administration goes about burying a political opponent. It, of course, wounds me mightily to sabotage a potential left wing talking point like this at the exact moment that Wisconsin recall forces are desperately scrabbling for anything that might keep them from sliding off of their electoral cliff, but I suppose that I will simply have to grin and bear it. Moe Lane |
| Posted: 30 May 2012 05:01 PM PDT From the diaries by Erick (The Conservative Action Project, chaired by former Attorney General Edwin Meese, is designed to facilitate conservative leaders working together on behalf of common goals. Participants include the CEO's of over 100 organizations representing all major elements of the conservative movement—economic, social and national security.) MEMO FOR THE MOVEMENT RE: Some members of congress are trying to reopen the earmark ban through an obscure legislative process. For many conservatives, the two-year moratorium on the practice of earmarking was the signature accomplishment of the new House majority elected in 2010. Yet, the current legislative push by involving Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTBs) is being used by the Washington establishment to reopen that moratorium and roll back conservative advances. ACTION: With the Federal government saddled with trillion dollars in deficits and $16 trillion in debt bringing back earmarks would only compound Washington's spending problem. We urge all organizations and individuals concerned about the size of the federal government to issue op-eds, alerts, blog posts, releases, and other communications warning about the implications of ending or modifying the earmark ban. Earmarks should be permanently eliminated, not resurrected. Time is short, therefore please do not delay. Congress needs to live by the Earmark Moratorium it put in place. Clearly, the practice of putting thousands of earmarks in spending bills, many for projects of a purely local nature, did not originate with the Founding Fathers—it is a recent phenomenon. Congress never extensively earmarked until the 1990s; it is neither necessary nor traditional to buy elections with pork. "…federal money should be limited to great national works only, since if it were unlimited it would liable to abuse and might be productive of evil." –President James Monroe, 1822 "Earmarking" is not just the normal legislative process or Congress using its "power of the purse." The term "earmark" does not attach to every Congressional funding decision. Earmarking is a phenomenon whereby legislators direct pork barrel spending to their districts outside of a statutory formula-driven or competitive award process for a federal program. The growth in earmarking has directly coincided with the growth in government. A returning to earmarking would mean a return of outrageous taxpayer funded projects like: $2 million for the Vulcan Statue in Birmingham, $1 million for the Woodstock Museum in New York, $200,000 for the study of lobsters, $50,000 thousand for the National Mule and Packers Museum, and $500,000 for hops research. ISSUE IN BRIEF: In 1970, there were 12 earmarks in the defense spending bill. In 2010, there were 1,752 earmarks. The first federal aid-highway bill in 1916 had zero earmarks; the bill to create the Interstate Highway System in 1956 had two projects suggested by members of Congress. President Reagan vetoed a surface transportation bill in 1986 when it had 152 earmarks worth $1 billion, while the most recent highway authorization bill in 2005 had more than 6,300 earmarks worth $24.5 billion, including the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. SOME EARMARK "CLASSICS" ARE UNFORGETABLE:
An Earmark is an Earmark is an Earmark House Rule XXI, clause 9 explicitly defines a congressional earmark to include: Limited tariff benefit- a provision modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States in a manner that benefits 10 or fewer entities. Republicans maintained "limited" MTBs in the earmark definition because the process of requesting an MTB, the lobbyist involvement and potential for corruption, are similar. Alarmingly, the Ways and Means Committee is asking lawmakers to self-certify that their requests are not in violation of the very specific language of the moratorium. It is a nearly impossible task for small congressional offices, which must then rely on the assertions of the very lobbyists whose companies would benefit from the sought-after MTB. Already, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is hitting Republican freshmen, saying they have been "caught begging Republican leaders to bring back earmarks." Memo signed by the following conservative leaders Tom Schatz, President, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
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