Saturday, March 12, 2011

Want to Earn a Little Cash For Yourself and Help Support Constitutional Conservatives? Join the Doug Ross @ Journal Advisory Board!

Don't say I never did nothin' for you. Biff Spackle and I have partnered with a market research group to establish the Doug Ross @ Journal Advisory Board. Serving on the Advisory Board helps put cash in your pocket and also helps fund conservative, Constitutional causes.

Here's how it works: you sign up and provide some basic demographic data about yourself (age, gender, etc.). Once in a while you'll receive a survey -- either from us or a market research firm. If you choose to respond to a survey -- usually they're short -- you can earn a little extra cash.

Isn't this better than playing Angry Birds or watching ESPN Classic during the NFL lockout?

We receive a small amount for each signup and each completed survey. This will help us support one of our favorite campaign committees -- Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund -- and, if they choose to run, the presidential campaign committees of Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and/or Allen West (who did I miss?).

You can sign up here -- it'll take between a few seconds and a few minutes, depending upon how much info you want to provide. The more precise info you offer (nothing personally identifying, of course, the more research you'll be included in.

Once you've signed up, you can click the button at top right to log into Advisory Board Central at any time. Or just click on the link when you receive an email. Spackle tells me it's easy and it's fun. And the money goes to a good cause (a portion of the proceeds will also help fund Biff Spackle's beer tab at the local watering hole). And you can earn a little extra dough in your spare time. What's not to like? So sign up now and get started.

And email me anytime with concerns, questions or comments. I thank you. Biff's bartender thanks you. And the Senate Conservatives Fund thanks you.


Larwyn's Linx: The ATF Lied, Mexicans Died

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Nation

The ATF Lied, Mexicans Died: TL in Exile
WI: Orgy of Death Threats and Pledges of Violence: RWN
Spencer Coggs – Socialist Affiliated Wisconsin State Senator: NR

Letter to Leadership to Defund ObamaCare Immediately: RedState
Tea Party group: CR must cut $105B from Obamacare: Hill
Bachmann increasingly serious about presidential bid: CNN

Moonbat Justice: Pedophile Cannibal Murderer Paroled: RWN
Palin's 'Weeks of Terror': Con4Palin
Cain: "What part of broke don’t they understand?": Cubachi

Economy

Wisconsin Unions Threaten Businesses: BigGovt
Jesse Jackson Jr. Violates His Oath of Office: RWN
A Good Summary of Government Unions: Boortz

Crony Capitalism: How a drug goes from $10 to $1,500: Howling
Government Shutdowns and Death Threats--Bring It On: NMJ
Homework: write letters supporting teachers' union: WyBlog

Japan

Meltdown May Be Underway; Reactor Containment Dome Blown Away: Ace
Red Alert: Nuclear Meltdown at Quake-Damaged Japanese Plant: Stratfor
Fears of meltdown calm after explosion at Japanese nuclear plant: Globe & Mail

Climate & Energy

Grist: Japanese Earthquake And Tsunami “What Climate Change Looks Like”: RWN
Greenie Tsunamania: Your Brain on Environmentalism: AmSpec
Pielke Defends Congress's legislated obsolescence of the incandescent light bulb: Cato

Media

Will Obama condemn the violent rhetoric by Wisconsin Democrats?: WashExam
Arianna Huffington to Bill Keller: Who you calling 'Oxpecker'?: CNet
The Smartest Administration in History: Driscoll

Michael Moore Film Used Non-Union Labor: S&L
A Wired World In Its Own Mirror: Belmont Club
Murkowski Lied, Now Babies Will Die: RedState

PolitiFact Has A Serious Problem, But I Repeat Myself: LegalIns
Author: ‘Third Terrorist’ Arrested in Quincy, Mass.: BMW
The Face Of Progressivism: Students Take Part In “I Have Sex” Video: RWN

World

A European's Warning to America: Hannan
Obama: Gee, it would be easier to be President of China: Hot Air
Horowitz takes on Muslim students at Brooklyn College: NoisyRoom

German authorities: fictional American 'atrocities', radical Islamic preaching led to Frankfurt shooting: PJM
Clapper Believes Russia, Not Terrorism, Poses 'Mortal Threat' To US: BlogProf
Bill Maher Debates Islam With Democratic Muslim Congressman: RCP

SciTech

My Visit to An American Rare Earth Metals Mine: PopSci
Did Chrysler overreact to accidental f-bomb tweet?: Ragan
Twitter tells third-party developers to stop building clients: CNet

Cornucopia

'Starting From Zero': Driscoll
The Objectivist with the Dragon Tattoo: PJM
Blacked up, bow tied: Eva Braun in party mood as ictures of Hitler's mistress are unearthed: Daily Mail (UK)

Image: Daily Bayonet.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Seattle-area call for help: Help us search for Marizela Saturday

Friday, March 11, 2011

Rep. Pete King: It's Not Islamophobia, It's Explodaphobia

Let me ask you a question.

Does the federal government have counter-terrorism units devoted to unearthing Islamic extremists in the U.S.?

Oh. And did the federal government just punish nine individuals for "administrative and leadership failures relating to the career of Maj. Nidal Hasan" who killed more than a dozen soldiers at Fort Hood?

And did legacy media just devote significant coverage to the spread of radical Islam in U.S. prisons?

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Which makes the despicably dishonest testimony of the traitorous Keith Ellison (D-MN) and the horrific Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) all the more egregious.

And I don't call Ellison a traitor because he's Muslim. I call him a traitor because he is one. There can be no other explanation for his behavior or that of the kook named Sheila.

Rep. Pete King is Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security; and he's holding public hearings on terrorism, not Islam.

Peter King isn't Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who imprisoned innocent Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Peter King isn't falsely accusing Islamists of an incessant series of terror attacks against the United States.

Peter King isn't holding secret hearings in some sort of "star chamber".

He's publicly investigating the known radicalization of young Americans in mosques.

The outrageous, anti-American rhetoric of Ellison and Jackson-Lee should be aired repeatedly in campaign commercials during the 2012 election cycle. They should be defeated and sent packing. Preferably to Somalia for a few months, after which they might appreciate this country a little more.

It's not paranoia if they really are trying to kill you.


Photos: As Day Breaks in Japan, Full Extent of Devastation Becomes Clear

As day breaks in Japan, Reuters reports on the shocking scene in northeastern Japan.

...Daybreak revealed the full extent of damage from Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake -- the strongest in Japan since records began -- and the 10-metre high tsunami it sent surging into cities and villages, sweeping away everything in its path.

...The government warned there could be a radiation leak from nuclear reactors in Fukushima whose cooling system was knocked out by the quake. Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered an evacuation zone expanded to 10 km (6 miles) from 3 km. Some 3,000 people had earlier been evacuated.

...In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out for rescue, Kyodo news agency reported. TV footage showed staff at one hospital waving banners with the words "FOOD" and "HELP" from a rooftop.

In Tokyo, office workers who were stranded in the city after the quake forced the subway system to close early slept alongside the homeless at one station. Scores of men in suits lay on newspapers, using their briefcases as pillows.

Kyodo said at least 116,000 people in Tokyo had been unable to return home on Friday evening due to transport disruption.

The northeastern Japanese city of Kesennuma, with a population of 74,000, was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water, Jiji news agency said on Saturday... The airport in the city of Sendai, home to one million people, was on fire, it added... TV footage from Friday showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near Sendai, 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

... The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.











Please donate to the Red Cross relief efforts here.

Did you know that a bill was introduced this week that would begin to save Social Security from financial collapse? Neither did I.

That's the genius of our legacy media: they don't tell us stuff that we don't need to know.

Consider, if you will, Lummis Bill Tackles Entitlement Reform.

U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has introduced H.R. 867, Alex’s Law. Alex’s Law, named after a four-year-old child of a member of Representative Lummis’ staff, helps ensure Social Security remains viable for all generations of Americans by slowly raising the retirement age starting in 2024.

...America’s debt has surpassed an astounding $14 trillion – and [f]or the first time since its reform in 1980, the Congressional Budget Office announced in January that [Social Security] is now permanently in the red. The Social Security trust fund goes broke in 2037, which means Americans will see a 22 percent cut in benefits, and the cuts will get worse if Washington continues to look the other way.

... In 2010, payroll taxes fell $37 billion short of what was required to pay out benefits. The Congressional Budget Office projects permanent Social Security deficits until the Social Security trust fund is exhausted in 2037. At that point, the Social Security Administration trustees estimate that Social Security payroll tax revenues will only be able to support 78 percent of benefits, leading to a 22 percent cut in benefits for all retirees.

Under H.R. 867, the retirement age increase would phase-in slowly over time:

• Today’s 50-year-olds and those older: NO CHANGE FROM CURRENT LAW

• Today’s 49-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 1 month

• Today’s 35-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 1 year

• Today’s 19-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 2 years

• Today’s 4-year-olds – Retirement age increase: 3 years

Let me guess: if the media bothers to cover this, Democrats will demagogue these trivial but important changes.

Because that's what they do.


Michele Bachmann's Letter to the House Leadership: Defund ObamaCare Immediately

Rep. Michele Bachmann posted an article at RedState this afternoon that all Americans should read. I am going to crib it in its entirety for one reason: to get the message out. It's that important.

Letter to Leadership to Defund ObamaCare Immediately


Last night my colleague Rep. Steve King (IA-05) and I drafted a letter to Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor and Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers urging them to include language to defund ObamaCare and rescind the $105,464,000,000 in funds already appropriated to implementing the health care law.

Next Wednesday the House will consider another Continuing Resolution. Including language to defund ObamaCare is our opportunity to stop the flow of funds to ObamaCare once and for all. Our suggested language is, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any previous Act with respect to any fiscal year may be used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111-148, Public Law 111-152, or any amendment made by either such Public Law.”

All members of Congress are encouraged to contact my office to join us in the effort to prevent taxpayers’ money from going to the implementation of this unconstitutional program.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, and Chairman Rogers,

We very much appreciate your leadership in bringing H.R. 2 to the floor, which resulted in a unanimous Republican vote to repeal ObamaCare. This was an essential step in achieving our universal Republican goal to bring about the final, 100 percent repeal of this law. No strategy to accomplish this goal could succeed without this House vote.

From the moment legislation to repeal ObamaCare was first introduced, it has been widely discussed that a successful repeal strategy would center on first winning a Republican majority in the House, then holding a clean, up or down vote on repeal, and then prohibiting funding for the implementation or enforcement of ObamaCare. We must ensure that this strategy remains on track and on schedule.

The success of our effort to shut off funding for ObamaCare will hinge on the leverage points of this first session of the 112th Congress - namely the CR, which expires on March 18th, and the vote on raising the debt ceiling. We recognize the work to defund ObamaCare began with the inclusion of language in H.R. 1 to restrict annual appropriations from being used to implement the law. However, we also recognize that even this language, if enacted, leaves on the table $105.5 billion in automatically appropriated funds for the law’s implementation. We cannot successfully defund ObamaCare without shutting off these automatically appropriated funds.

While some have argued that our defunding efforts in the CR should be limited only to those annual funds actually provided by the CR, we disagree. If we do not stand our ground on the CR, leverage it as the “must pass bill” that it is, and use it to stop the $105.5 billion in automatically appropriated funds, ObamaCare will be implemented on our watch. We will also have conceded a significant amount of ground on this issue and will find it difficult, if not impossible, to regain the strategic advantage in future legislative vehicles.

Consequently, we ask that the following language, or more effective language, be added to the FY11 CR to cut off both the annual and automatic appropriations for ObamaCare’s implementation: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this or any previous Act with respect to any fiscal year may be used to carry out the provisions of Public Law 111-148, Public Law 111-152, or any amendment made by either such Public Law.”

It is essential that the above language be included in the CR. We, the undersigned, will not vote in support of a continuing resolution that is void of this crucial funding prohibition.

Sincerely,

Steve King Michele Bachmann

God Bless Reps. Bachmann and King.

They are, if you'll forgive the chauvinistic euphemism, manning up to face the most dire economic challenge this country has ever experienced.

Call your member of Congress now at 202.224.3121 and tell them, "Vote NO on the Continuing Resolution because it doesn't cut funding for Obamacare!" Be polite, but firm.

It's time to put our foot down and that foot is us*.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.
*Hat tip: Dean Wormer


Larwyn's Linx: Dem staff engineered WI capitol takeover by mob

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Nation

Dem staff engineered WI Capitol takeover by mob: B14
DOJ Tells U.S. Soldiers: Go Bother Someone Else!: Adams
CPUSA Calls for Stepped-Up Struggle in Wisconsin: Noisy

8 GOP Senators to Reid: Cut the Debt, Dammit: Cubachi
Levin Surge!: Mark Levin
House GOP Shuts Down Failed TARP Mortgage Programs: HE

Holder grilled about Gunwalker under oath: Sipsey
You know that Keith Ellison tear-jerker? Yeah, it's a crock: WZ
Ellision: Constitution Was a Racist Conspiracy: Tatler

Economy

Why I'm Fighting in Wisconsin: Walker
'New Civility' Update: WI DoJ Investigates Death Threats: Malkin
Mark Pocan: Chickens*** Punk: GWP

Six-figure bus drivers and other heroes: Coulter
Obama's America: A Welfare State: EIB
Solidarity and Sleepovers in Madison: Boston Review

Government Out of Our Bathrooms!: RWN
Violent Rhetoric, Unions and Wisconsin Democrats: Shayne
Libs don't like guns but they do love death threats: Glob

Climate & Energy

Gasoline Prices Take Off for the Sky: RWN
Latest Victim of Global Warming: Coffee: JWF
Time: Why Don't People Believe Our 'Climate Change' Meme?: RWN

Media

GOP: Full speed ahead on defunding NPR: York
Research: Medicaid Worse Than No Coverage at All: WSJ
Obama Calling Tea Party Racist Reveals A Far More Disturbing Reality: Marcus

For Republicans in 2012, it's Sarah Palin or another big fat L: LAT
The Racial Presidency: MenRec
This May Be Nothing, Or It Might Be Worth an Instalanche: RSM

An informational essay for all patriots – Please share: RWB
Obama's Make-Believe Life: FNF
Obama: Hey, Everyone Has to Make Sacrifices. . . Except Michelle, She Gets to Sport a $1,000 Handbag: WZ

HuffPo Responds to NPR Taking It in the Neck: RWN
Cartoon o' the Day: That's Racist!: RWN
Irony: Failed MI ex-Gov Granholm calls successful WI Gov Walker "lazy": BlogProf

World

France Fills Leadership Vacuum; Recognizes Libyan Rebels As Legitimate Government, Lobbies For Air Strikes: Ace
Congress must pass the FTAs with Colombia and Panama: Fausta
Barack Obama's Libya straitjacket: WaPo

Massive Earthquake Off Japan’s Coast; Magnitude 8.9: Tatler
Severe earthquake leads to tsunami, death and destruction in Japan: Post
Final Nail in the Coffin: Cube

SciTech

Full Body Scanners: Wired
Toxins Move Up On Worry List: RWN
Where's my flying car?: Slate

Cornucopia

American Asshat: Michael Moore: Diogenes
When a Picture Truly Is Worth a Thousand Words: Ricochet
Home Schooling Ingalls Family Wins Presidential Commencement Speech Challenge: IMCFT

Images: Gateway Pundit.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Marizela Perez: Still missing

QOTD: "Because of the insane union contracts in Wisconsin, one Madison bus driver, John E. Nelson, was able to make $159,000 in 2009 -- about $100,000 of which in overtime pay. Jackie Gleason didn't make that much playing bus driver Ralph Kramden on "The Honeymooners." Seven bus drivers took home more than $100,000 that year.

When asked about the outrageous overtime pay for bus drivers -- totaling $1.94 million in 2009 alone -- Transit and Parking Commission Chairman Gary Poulson said: "That's the contract."

It's ludicrous to suggest that these union contracts were fairly bargained. Only one side was at the negotiating table. Ordinary people with jobs were not at the meetings where public sector compensation was discussed." --Ann Coulter

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Green Joblessness: Hundreds of Energy Projects Stalled Indefinitely in Regulatory Limbo

True, the situation in the Middle East is troubling, especially when it comes to oil prices. Thankfully, all of those Green Energy Projects™ promised by the Obama Democrats should pick up the slack.

The Chamber of Commerce released a report Thursday that found 351 energy projects around the country were in regulatory limbo last year because of regulations, environmental protests, or lawsuits... None of them include drilling for oil or gas and remarkably, almost half of the delayed projects involved renewable energy.

"There are hundreds of laws with thousands of provisions, all of which can stop a project," said William Kovacs of the Chamber’s Environment, Technology & Regulatory Affairs Division... [and the] delays are costing the economy dearly... the stalled projects cost the economy $1.1 trillion in economic activity last year and would have provided 1.9 million jobs in each year of construction.

The report said that once constructed, the projects would have supplied some 791,000 jobs per year over 20 years and added $3.4 trillion to the GDP, and that’s without taking into account lower energy prices that could result from the completed projects.

Kovacs said the purpose of the report is to urge a more rational permitting process, such as a 180 day statute of limitation for protests similar to the process used in federal determinations on highway projects.

...A partial list from the report shows the stalled or delayed proposals included 22 nuclear projects, 1 nuclear disposal site, 21 transmission projects, 38 gas and platform projects and 111 coal projects... [and] renewable energy isn’t exempt from the slowdowns either. Included are 140 renewable energy projects, notably 89 wind, four wave, 10 solar, seven hydropower, 29 ethanol/biomass and one geothermal project.

In fact, Pociask, the study’s author, said that of the projects studied, 45 percent were renewable energy projects... “We would think that if we want cleaner energy, the process should be working for it,” Pociask said. “What we demonstrate in the study is that it is broken for everyone."

Gallup reports that the average American consumer believes gas prices will soon rise to $4.36 a gallon.

That could be a best-case scenario now that we're seeing "the Obama Doctrine" (i.e., voting present) spread to Saudi Arabia.


Hat tip: D&S. Linked by: Weasel Zippers. Thanks!

Legacy Media: Death Threats Against Political Figures Are Now Perfectly Fine and Unworthy of Notice

...that is, so long as it is conservatives who are receiving the death threats.

...left-wing filmmaker and propagandist Michael Moore appeared yesterday on “The Rachel Maddow Show” and all but incited violence... “Really, this is a war,” Moore told Maddow. “This is a class war that’s been leveled against the working people of this country.”

...Thus, the danger in using such extreme and over-the-top rhetoric is that some people will take Moore’s rhetoric literally and act accordingly. The result, tragically, could be incidents of violence that result in murder and mayhem... Unfortunately, this is no phantom worry. It’s happened before in American history, thanks to violent union thugs, and it could happen again. And of course, it doesn’t help when Democratic members of Congress such as Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) urge union goons to take to “the streets and get a little bloody…”

So it isn’t surprising that, as Wisconsin talk radio host Charles Sykes reports, there is “growing intimidation and escalating threats of violence” in Madison.

Yesterday, 15 Republican state senators received a chilling, death threat-laden email from a union supporter.

This is how the civil society frays before it unravels altogether.

And legacy media -- which helped an inexperienced crypto-Marxist achieve the nation's highest office by completely failing to vet him -- is once again culpable.

Once so concerned with civility and the attitude of non-violent Tea Party protesters, The New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC, CBS and MSNBC have all fallen silent when confronted with real incivility and real violence on the part of the radical Left.

There is no media left in this country, save a few radio talk show hosts, Fox News, some intrepid bloggers, and a handful of digital gurus like Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart.

One gets the feeling that James O'Keefe could have successfully run the NPR sting operation against any of the best-known legacy media outlets.

They're all pathetic and disgraceful.


Image credit: Sad Hill News.

What the hell is the matter with John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the rest of the House GOP leadership?

Our country is on the edge of a financial abyss.

That's not my opinion. That's the official position of the Congressional Budget Office in 2009, reiterating its warning in 2010, and repeating it last month.

Bill Gross, the world's most powerful bond investor, recently shed all U.S. debt from his $1 trillion-plus portfolio. He warns that "there is no way out" of the Democrats' debt trap and that American living standards are destined to plummet.

Gross further states that interest rates will almost certainly rise much faster and much higher than official government projections. The amount of federal spending to service that debt, then, will be unsustainably high: "...these [federal] projections, which show an explosion in the amount of money needed to service our debt, underestimate the problem, since any decrease in economic growth resulting from higher interest rates — or any other cause — is not accounted for. Bottom line: This could be really bad."

The Medicare Trustees have repeatedly warned that their health care system is headed for "collapse".

Social Security, according to the Office of the Chief Actuary, will become insolvent years ahead of schedule.

And while the existing entitlement programs are headed for certain catastrophe, Medicare's Chief Actuary issued his own official warning: "[Obamacare] won't hold costs down, and it won't let everybody keep their current health insurance if they like it."

It, too, is on an unsustainable path.

Billionaire Carl Icahn just returned nearly $2 billion to investors, warning of a 'renewed market dislocation'.

In other words, the support beams of the American financial system are splintering.

To the House leadership: what the hell is the matter with you? Afraid you won't get invited to the best cocktail parties? That you'll get snubbed by that idiot at Meet the Press? Who gives a flying crap!

The future of our children is at stake! Start fighting! The Left is destroying the foundation of this country -- the Constitution -- and it is destroying our currency. The full faith and credit of the American system hangs in the balance and you're whittling around the edges? What the hell!

$61 billion? When the budget deficit is $1.65 trillion? Cut a trillion! Refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless all of Obamacare is defunded! What do you have to lose? The entire system is headed for collapse! Is that reason enough?

Start fighting or we promise -- we pledge -- to devote the next 18 months to primarying your asses and defeating you.

Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor and the rest of the you old guard Republicans: as a presidential candidate once said, "Get in their faces!"


Chart: Gateway Pundit.

If James O'Keefe continues at this pace, de-funding NPR will be unncessary because it won't have any employees left

Investigative journalist James O'Keefe just released Part II of his NPR Housecleaning Tapes. And he promises more to come.

An NPR fundraising executive said her organization would be willing to shield a would-be donor from a government audit by keeping the donor's name anonymous, according to a series of surreptitiously recorded phone calls released on Thursday... Betsy Liley, NPR's senior director of institutional giving, made the comments to a man posing as a trustee of a fictitious Muslim charity, which the man had said had connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based group that has suspected ties to terrorists.

...O'Keefe [also] secretly videotaped Liley's boss, Ron Schiller, making demeaning comments about conservatives during a luncheon meeting set up to discuss what the NPR managers believed was a potential $5 million contribution. Liley was also at that meeting and briefly comments on the video.

Ron Schiller resigned from NPR on Tuesday for his role in the video scandal. The video's release also led to the resignation on Wednesday of his boss, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller.

In a lengthy follow-up phone call with Liley after the lunch, an O'Keefe associate posing as "Ibrahim Kasaam " of the Muslim Education Action Center (a fictitious entity) expressed concerns that NPR, which receives government funding, would be subject to government audits or would have to disclose the source of its donations.

Liley responded, "If you were concerned about that, you might want to be an anonymous donor and we would certainly, if that was your interest, we would want to shield you from that."

At another point, Kasaam asked Liley, "It sounded like you're saying that NPR would be able to shield us from a government audit, is that correct?"

"I think that is the case, especially if you were anonymous, and I can inquire about that," Liley said. She later informed Kasaam via e-mail that NPR's management had cleared an anonymous donation from his group.

NPR had previously said, in the wake of the luncheon video, that it had "repeatedly refused" to accept donations from the organization.

NPR put Liley on administrative leave as a result of the video.

I guess we could call this a "citizen's de-funding".

Well done, Mr. O'Keefe.


Hat tip: Tom. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Action in Madison, Without Democrats

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Nation

Action in Madison, Without Democrats: Pundette
WI Dem 'drove 80 mph' to try to stop tonight’s vote: Tatler
Preserve Talk Radio From FCC Assault: Morris

Dozens of Liberals Call for Walker's Death: PunPre
Unions' Nuclear Response: Stop Assembly From Voting?: Ace
Blue Corruption puts Wisconsin in Red: AT

Obama: America Isn’t Fair: Nation
Palin vs. Christie: Hill
Entire State of Maine Gets Obamacare Exemption: SAB

Economy

‘No Way Out’ of Debt Trap: NRO
WI Dem to Union Members: Pay Dues or Lose Jobs: RWN
Labor’s health care trick: Globe

Socialized health care: HMOs with Guns: BSF
World's Largest Jailer By Far: Carpe Diem
Firehouse Flunkies: Times

Climate & Energy

When the Water Well Runs Dry: Garden Serf
Can government tell us what light bulbs to buy?: IBD
Gasoline cost to jump $700 for average household: Reuters

Trash Collectors Refuse to Pick Up Toxic Eco-Bulbs: RWN
Global AGW Conspiracy? Why, Only Neandethal Right-Wing Troglodytes Believe That, Not Real Skeptics: CBullitt
Oh, Noes! Climate Change Could Affect Even Sweet, Sweet Love: RWN

Media

All Things Considered, NPR Board Decides it’s Best to ‘Oust’ CEO Vivian Schiller: Malkin
Another MSM report on NPR that manages to hide the anti-Semitism, but does reveal funding lies: Bookworm
Morning Bits: Fast Enough: JRubin

Oops: PBS Got Stung, Too: RSM
Justin Elliot of Salon Is Idiocy Distilled Into Powerful Pill Form: iOTW
Janet Napolitano’s DHS Undercover Website Shutdown By Host For Pedophilia: SHN

Mr. President: Lead or Get out of the Way!: Reagan
Dear Ezra Klein: Would you please name the Christian equivalent of OBL?: Toldjah
They're Never Wrong, They Never Resign: C&S

Three Cheers for Jack Cashill: AT
Telling the Truth: NoisyRoom
Justice Alito Was Right: AmSpec

World

King receives threats on hearing's eve: Hill
North Korea Nears Completion of Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb: ABC
Bill Gross Dumps All Treasuries, Brings Total "Government Related" Holdings To Zero, Flees To Cash: ZH

Leftist Propaganda From Hollywood May Have Triggered Frankfurt Terror Attack: RWN
Turkey and the Restoration of the Caliphate: AT
Karl Marx: 'Racial Trash Will Have to Be Destroyed': NoisyRoom

SciTech

Anonymous Vows Personal Attacks on U.S. Military Families, "War" on U.S.: DailyTech
Comscore’s Latest Stats Show Android Wiping The Floor With Its Competition: ZH
VMware launches virtual desktop app for iPad: CNet

Cornucopia

‘Game Change’: Julianne Moore Will Play Sarah Palin: POH Diaries
Obama Born In Hawaii, Because He Says So: Case Closed – Whew!: SHN
Cops: Orlando Man Sabotaged "Whac-A-Mole" Games: WFTV

Image: MacIver Institute
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Missouri Right to Work Conference: Friday

QOTD: "Remember when ObamaCare passed, and Tea Partiers went nuts, stormed the hill, took over the building and handcuffed themselves inside? Yeah, me neither, because the Tea Partiers are civilized and didn’t do any of that. Wisconsin’s leftist union thugs, not so much.

Meade called back to say, some of the doors are handcuffed shut and some are wide open. “ANYBODY CAN GET IN AND ANYBODY CAN BRING ANYTHING IN. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY WHATEVER.”


If the police are being so lax in their security out of political spite, and someone gets hurt, well I don’t want to think about what follows that." --Bryan Preston

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Eradicating Collective Bargaining Isn't the Endgame

As Steven Malanga points out in City Journal, eradicating collective bargaining isn't the endgame -- it's just the beginning.

Who needs collective bargaining if you’ve got legislators in your pocket?

When the skyrocketing cost of public employees’ salaries and benefits helped push New York City to the brink of bankruptcy in the mid-1970s, state and local officials put together a bailout that reduced pension and benefits packages for Gotham’s workers. But by 1987, with the city out of the crisis, New York’s unions were again demanding better pensions and benefits. When Mayor Ed Koch balked, the union simply abandoned the bargaining process and went to Albany, where it offered state legislators its political backing in exchange for enacting generous new benefits. “It’s the same old story,” said a frustrated Koch. “Giving in to the unions will help Assembly members and senators stay in office.” The mayor decided to go to Albany too and dissuade the legislators from granting the new benefits—but they told him to stay home. “They sent [labor leader] Barry Feinstein to see me,” Koch told me several years ago, recalling the incident. “He told me that there was nothing I could do to stop the bill.” The cost to the city’s taxpayers: $101 million annually.

The situation that Koch faced back then is familiar to many mayors, city council members, and even governors today. This year’s face-off in Wisconsin between Governor Scott Walker and unions has generated an unusual, and long overdue, debate over collective bargaining rights in the public sector. But few seem to realize that when public-sector unions can’t win at the bargaining table, they have other ways of getting what they want—above all, exerting their muscle on legislators.

California is getting a taste of this now with union leaders unwilling to give an inch on any aspect of their rich compensation packages.

A coalition of influential labor groups in California opposes some public-pension changes that Gov. Jerry Brown has considered as part of a compromise with Republican lawmakers, further complicating the governor's hope for a quick resolution to budget talks to close a $26.6 billion deficit, said people familiar with the matter.

In a letter to Mr. Brown and legislative leaders, the group plans to say it "simply cannot stand for any attempts to leverage the budget crisis in order to circumvent the collective bargaining process" and "must draw the line at some proposals that would unduly harm working families..."

By that, I assume they don't mean the taxpayers. There are currently over 15,000 retired state workers in California who receive over $100,000 annually in pension payments -- and that number grows 40% a year!

In Illinois, the state pension system is devoting nearly four times the average to its pension obligations -- hardly a sustainable model.

Most states, on average, have to devote only about 4 percent of their budgets to pensions for government retirees... But Illinois, in the upcoming fiscal year, will devote what amounts to roughly 15 percent of its budget toward the pensions of its retirees.

In essence, most other states are able to spend much larger chunks of their dollars on roads, public safety, education, health care, assistance for the poor or the elderly and other government services.

...Illinois government employees, state legislators, judges, university staff and public school teachers outside the Chicago area have been promised $139 billion worth of retirement benefits, but the five state pension systems have assets of only $63 billion.

In New York, the public pension systems are literally imploding as we speak.

At a time when public school students are being forced into ever more crowded classrooms, and poor families will lose state medical benefits, New York State is paying 10 times more for state employees’ pensions than it did just a decade ago.

That huge increase is largely because of Albany’s outsized generosity to the state’s powerful employees’ unions in the early years of the last decade, made worse when the recession pushed down pension fund earnings, forcing the state to make up the difference.

Although taxpayers are on the hook for the recession’s costs, most state employees pay only 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions, half the level of most state employees elsewhere. Their health insurance payments are about half those in the private sector.

In all, the salaries and benefits of state employees add up to $18.5 billion, or a fifth of New York’s operating budget. Unless those costs are reined in, New York will find itself unable to provide even essential services.

And to think that the people who run these bankrupt 'Blue States' actually go to Washington and control the federal purse-strings.

It's time to decertify all public sector unions.

Every one. They serve no useful purpose except as fundraising arms for the Democrat Party -- using taxpayer dollars against our wishes.

Public sector unions must go.


Walker Wins, Government Unions Lose, Fleebaggers Throw Temper Tantrum, President Obama Votes Present #wiunion #SolidarityWI

It turns out President Obama's efforts to foment civic unrest organize government unions against taxpayers were just as successful as his laser-like focus on jobs.

Which is to say: the result was an epic fail.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate have voted to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers after discovering a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget repair bill" -- a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later.

The move set up a vote in the Senate, which voted mere moments later.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald blasted the fleebagging Democrats:

After nearly a month of debate on the budget repair bill, nearly three weeks of childish stunts and delay tactics from the Democrats, the longest public hearing in state history and the longest Assembly debate in state history, the Senate met tonight to pass the non-fiscal items in the Budget Repair Bill...

Before the election, the Democrats promised “adult leadership” in Madison. Then a month and a half into session, the Senate Democrats fled the state instead of doing their job... In doing so, they have tarnished the very institution of the Wisconsin state Senate. This is unacceptable.

This afternoon, following a week and a half of line-by-line negotiation, Sen. Miller sent me a letter that offered three options: 1) keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 2) take our counter-offer, which would keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 3) or stop talking altogether.

With that letter, I realized that we’re dealing with someone who is stalling indefinitely, and doesn’t have a plan or an intention to return. His idea of compromise is “give me everything I want,” and the only negotiating he’s doing is through the media.

Enough is enough. ...The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can’t act on our agenda.

Tonight, the Senate will be passing the items in the budget repair bill that we can, with the 19 members who actually DO show up and do their jobs. Those items include the long-overdue reform of collective bargaining needed to help local governments absorb these budget cuts, and the 12 percent health care premium and 5 percent pension contribution.

We have confirmed with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau that every item in tonight’s bill follows the letter of the law.

The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job. Just because the Senate Democrats won’t do theirs, doesn’t mean we won’t do ours.

Well done, Leader Fitzgerald. Well done.

Well done, Governor Walker. Well done.

One wishes that the Republican leaders in Congress were this brave.


Hat tip: D&S.

An Illustrated Guide to EMP

North Korea has a nascent EMP weapons capability that should trouble anyone concerned with national security. Please consider ABC News' North Korea Nears Completion of Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb.

Since March 4, Pyongyang has been trying to disrupt GPS receivers critical to South Korean military communications... Strong jamming signals were sent intermittently every five to 10 minutes... The scope of the damage has been minimal, putting some mobile phones and certain military equipment that use GPS signals on the fritz.

...The jamming, however, has raised questions about whether the Korean peninsula is bracing for new electronic warfare.

The North is believed to be nearing completion of an electromagnetic pulse bomb that, if exploded 25 miles above ground would cause irreversible damage to electrical and electronic devices such as mobile phones, computers, radio and radar, experts say.

What is an EMP?

Brian T. Kennedy, president of the Claremont Institute, offered an ominous warning in a in 2008 Journal op-ed. Entitled "What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do", it described exactly why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense system to protect the country against a particularly deadly form of attack called EMP.

On July 9, 1962, a high-altitude nuclear test named Starfish Prime was conducted by the United States military above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. Its unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects caused disruptions in electrical systems and equipment in Honolulu 700 miles away.

The EMP shut down long-distance telephone calls and disabled three satellites in low earth orbit. Radiation resulting from the test destroyed a total of seven satellites by knocking out their solar arrays or electronics.

A massive current of EMP could be unleashed with catastrophic effect on the United States if a nuclear weapon were detonated high above the center of the country. The energy of this pulse would disable and possibly destroy any unshielded electronic device and power grid in line-of-sight of the detonation.

Cars.

Buses.

Trucks.

Planes.

Trains.

Any vehicle with an electronic ignition or engine control system could be rendered useless.

The lifeblood of America -- food, energy, goods and services -- would be gridlocked.

The power grid: knocked out.

The phone system: gone.

All computer-based systems wiped away in the blink of an eye.

The United States -- dispatched back to the 19th century?

Several years ago, an Iranian military journal publicly considered the idea of launching an electromagnetic pulse attack as the key to defeating the world's lone superpower.

Yet, Copperhead Democrats call the threat of Iran "hype" and "fear".

Frank Gaffney, author of Warfooting, states "If [an EMP weapon] hits the electrical grids of the United States... if it hits electronic devices, computers, chips of various kinds--the things, in other words, that power our society--they're likely to be severely damaged, if not destroyed."

This would wreak havoc on the country's electronic systems, and plunge much--if not all--of the continental U.S. into a pre-industrial state. A blue-ribbon commission created by Congress confirmed this danger in a report submitted in August 2004.

At a height of 300 miles, the entire continental United States would be exposed to EMP attack, along with parts of Canada and Mexico. Congress was warned of Iran's plans by Peter Pry, a senior staffer with the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack in a hearing of the subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security.

Pry pointed out the Iranians have been testing mid-air detonations of their Shahab-3 medium-range missile over the Caspian Sea. The missiles were fired from ships.

"A nuclear missile concealed in the hold of a freighter would give Iran or terrorists the capability to perform an EMP attack against the United States homeland without developing an ICBM and with some prospect of remaining anonymous," said Pry. "Iran's Shahab-3 medium range missile mentioned earlier is a mobile missile and small enough to be transported in the hold of a freighter. We cannot rule out that Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism might provide terrorists with the means to execute an EMP attack against the United States."

It is worth pointing out that North Korea and Iran have been collaborating on missile and nuclear technologies for years despite "sanctions" and harshly worded memos.

Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the Congressional commission, noted in 2008 that such an attack – by Iran, North Korea, or a terrorist entity acting on their behalf – could cripple the U.S. by knocking out electrical power, computers, circuit boards controlling most automobiles and trucks, banking systems, communications and food and water supplies.

"No one can say just how long systems would be down," he said. "It could be weeks, months or even years." Wood said he could think of no other reason Iran would be experimenting with high-altitude detonations of missiles besides planning for an EMP attack. The same goes for North Korea.

One nuclear weapon. One missile. One motivated maniac.

Those are today's realities, immutable facts, no matter how the Copperhead Democrats try to delay, demoralize and dismantle our missile defense efforts.


Sources: WSJ: What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do, Warfooting: Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the US from EMP Attack and Joseph Farah.