What Was The Point Of This?

If you and your employer “Part ways,” you are entitled to file for unemployment compensation assuming the departure was not the product of gross misconduct.  That means you didn’t do something that forced the employer to fire you.  Sexual misconduct, irrational behavior, negligence, abuse, and theft are all possible examples, many subject to the possibility … Read more

Notable Quote – Coyote Blogger

I understand that this is exactly what the Left is shooting for – an environment where the competent have no advantage over the incompetent.  If employers are resorting to FICO scores, it just demonstrates how all the other reasonable avenues of obtaining information have been closed to them. The only saving grace in this country … Read more

Choices – by YOU and ME, or by Big Govt?

Professor Arthur Brooks started out as a liberal teaching at Syracuse University – and started to change his views when his data that formed the core of his book ""Who Really Cares-The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism"" showed that the liberal mantra of "we care for the poor – conservatives are the cold hearted ones!" turned out to have flaws and hidden problems (normally taken as "conventional wisdom") whose results hindered rather than helped.  In fact, he was one of our first guests on Meet The New Press back on December 2, 2006:

MEET THE NEW PRESS

Hosted by Granite Grokers Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy, along with Patrick Hynes of AnkleBitingPundits. We have an excellent lineup scheduled for today’s program…
 

=====================================================================

Guest: author Arthur Brooks
Conservative values make them more charitable than the libs

As always (and if Skip escapes Chicago) the podcasts will be ready within a day or so, and available on the GraniteGrok podcast page here.

The podcast with Dr. Brooks is here:

But I digress.  Dr. Brooks has a new book out that a lot of people are talking about due to the topic AND the current political climate "The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future"

He was interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie on this:

The longer version of the interview (about an hour) is after the jump…

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Hodespocrisy–The Max Baucus Edition

Money money money money...Max Baucus, Democrat Senator from Montana, is the chairman of the Senate Finance committee and his Glacier PAC has donated $10,000.00 dollars to Paul Hodes for Senate.  Baucus may be best known for his influence on Health Care reform or Climate change legislation.  But what he should be known for is his relationship with lawyer/staffer Melodee Hanes, (here, here and here) whom he left his wife for, and also nominated for a job as US district attorney from Montana. (then there’s this) Talk about inside baseball.  But banging a staffer, dumping your wife, and then trying to hook-her up with a well paying federal job–even if it is love–demands questions about your core values and integrity so it’s a good thing he’s a democrat.

If Baucus was Mark Sanford for example, the media would have hung him from the pillory by his man-parts and shamed him out of seeking higher office which makes you wonder if Mark Sanford would have faired better if he’d tried to get his Argentinean mistress a job at the State Department?  Buy her a blue dress and hello Oval Office?  I guess we’ll never know, but since Baucus is a powerful Senator and a democrat, everything about it is a non-scandal-scandal to the unbiased media so he was never in any serious danger over that cozy relationship; but should it make Paul Hodes think twice?

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Has this one finally realized what Congress has done?

The time on being on "government auto-pilot" is over.  We have seen what Government does when ordinary folks like us just merely voted and then dismissed government from our minds, feeling that we have done our civic duty.  Why not?  Government, GOOD government, should always be in the background, perhaps the "third" background, as we take care of the really important things in life: God, family, friends, jobs, and the like.  Most Conservative have, and still believe, that Government should be limiting itself to only a few things, and doing them well – but only those things.

So little we have realized that while we have done thought so (truly believing that government SHOULD be limited, thus it is, but now waking up to the fact that it isn’t), there are those that decided that their mission was to push the boundaries of government.  Like this yutz – Congressman Pete Stark of California. 

We now hear "The sleeping giant has awoken"; the electorate, those that still believe in the principles that drove the ideals in the Declaration and the Constitution, have come to the conclusion that WE are the responsible ones for OUR government and NOT just those we elect.  Simply just voting is no longer sufficient – because of Progressives, we are in a "Forever War" over what this country should be – lest they continue to move us to a totalitarian state, not at the barrel of a gun but by dint of a pen, laws, and regulations.

And we have become educated…and we have had to.  Ed Morrissey has it right:

Normally combative (and aggressively insipid in most cases), Stark seems to be collapsing in on himself as the woman builds an argument effectively enough to win applause from her fellow constituents. The bombastic Stark is almost inaudible when he admits that ObamaCare is a symptom of a federal government that no longer adheres to Constitutional limitations, and indeed doesn’t recognize them at all.

We were given a government that was meant to be limited.  Have we thrown that away? Or have we recovered our roots, and our senses, in time to save it for our children and grandchildren?

A longer version of the video after the jump:

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Welcome To The Hodespocrisy!

Hodespocrisy.jpg

On July 31st the New Hampshire Democrat Party declared open season on Paul Hodes political PAC money so I’m not wasting any time taking up the challenge.  The challenge?  Find hypocrisy in the donors or the donors to the donors—to Paul Hodes campaign.  Let me tell that it’s no challenge making Mr. Hodes and his NHDP supporters look like hypocrites.  So courtesy of the NHDP’s new ‘rules’ I am pleased to bring you an ongoing series of campaign finance investigations suitably called the Hodespocrisy.

First up is DANPAC, one of nine leadership PAC’s that have given Mr. Hodes $10,000.00 dollars this election cycle.  DANPAC is run by Senator Daniel Inouye, democrat from Hawaii, the chairman of the Senate appropriations committee.  DANPAC has given $10,000.00 to Paul Hodes, which Mr. Hodes has accepted despite glaring contradictions.

Contradictions you ask?  What might they be?

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Milton Friedman does a smack down of Michael Moore?

Did not have a lot of time for blogging last week, so I have a few bookmarks that I’m going through right no a w.  I watched this video and Friedman comes to the right conclusion: is the young man arguing about an absolute principle (the saving of a life) or simply some amount of … Read more

More on Anita MonCrief and Obama’s donor list

I did an interview with Anita MonCrief during the RightOnline conference concerning her role in whistleblowing on ACORN’s shady dealings with Obama’s campaign donor list.  Well, Warner Todd Houston (my interview with him is here) brings news of her new website: Now, that donor list is now available for scrutiny. Remember, the big deal during … Read more

“Jobs created OR SAVED” – Such a meme!

Saved or Created  vs.  Killed or Thwarted ?

Certainly, the first (Saved or Created) is what the Obama Administration has been talking up since the inauguration.  Sure, one CAN figure out when a new job has been created (although the Census job hiring / firing process certainly seemed to have monkeyed with the numbers with the rumored hiring people, firing them a few days later, and then re-hiring them with a bit different job). The absolutely insane measurement of "jobs saved" is completely insane and has been debunked several times.

However, I think this post that brings up a new meme:

Jobs Killed or Thwarted

that may well give the Right a chance to fire back – especially when unemployment has continued to be well above that promised by Obama if the Porkulus was passed and that the ONLY reason why it isn’t higher is that so many workers have just simply dropped out of the workforce.  And with the news that the private sector has $1.8 Trillion sitting on the sidelines, Caroline Baum writes:

When I heard last week that the White House would be announcing the number of “jobs created or saved” as a result of the 2009 American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, my first reaction was embarrassment.

Imagine how Christina Romer must feel. The chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors was dressed in a cheery, salmon-colored jacket, a complement to the upbeat news she had to deliver on July 14. The $787 billion stimulus enacted in February 2009, which subsequently grew to $862 billion, increased gross domestic product by 2.7 percent to 3.4 percent relative to where it would have been, and added anywhere from 2.5 million to 3.6 million jobs compared with an ex-stimulus baseline.

“By this estimate, the Recovery Act has met the president’s goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs — two quarters earlier than anticipated,” Romer said with a straight face. (More than 2.5 million non-farm jobs have been lost since ARRA was enacted in February 2009, all of them in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

And then the post goes on to describe that the numbers come strictly from computer modeling.  The money line, however, is this:

“If the administration wants to take credit for ‘jobs created or saved,’ it should also accept responsibility for ’jobs destroyed or prevented,’” said Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business. 

A politician not taking credit for downsides?  Oh, just slap me for my impertinence!

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Reducing Foreign Dependency On What?

Can we even count how many times our New Hampshire congressional democrats claimed that we needed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?  Twice?  A dozen times?  Hundreds?  Is it safe to say that among the lot there has been enough rhetoric on reducing foreign dependence to fill the Verizon center?

So why then have the House Democrats, Carol SEIU-Porter, and Paul ‘Sugar Daddy’ Hodes voted in favor of legislation (The CLEAR Act) that would tax domestic oil and gas even more?  Has it occurred to them that this will give foreign oil a distinct price advantage over domestic oil?  Probably not.

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RightOnline – the last of the vids

Finally – the last of the videos that we took at the RightOnline conference – and yes, this was a "busman’s holiday" – given the opportunity to go, the decision was made to go to work.  This post:

  • Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity
  • Dr. Joe Heck, Congressional candidate from Nevada
  • Steve Eggleston of NoRunnyEggs

First, Tim Phillips talking about wealth redistribution and that the fight still goes on, and must go on, concerning Obamacare as the freedom to make our own about our own decisions is at stake:

Next is Steve who is walking encyclopedia on all things politics in his state of Wisconsin.  He talks at length about the Congressional and Senatorial races in WI:

And since my interview with him, I’ve come across some info on the races in Wisconsin:

Ron Johnson is now polling AHEAD of Russ Feingold in the Senatorial race.

Was he right, or was he wrong – watch the video and decide!

And then Chuck Muth, Nevada conservative activist, introduces Dr. Joe Heck; befitting his status as a Col. in the US Army Reserves, his campaign theme for Nevada’s 3rd District is called Operation New Direction against the Democrat incumbent, Dina "Tax-us" Titus.  You bet – change from the Change that the Progressives brought that no one wants!

Sidebar: is it just me, or can a more inane label could not be found in politics than Progressives? It should be ridiculed as much as the other label from which they run from, Liberal, for both  represent, in the end, nothing more than an idea as old as humanity – the rule of a few against the freedom of the many.

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Gregg Goes For Kagen

Rumor has it the Senator from New Hampshire that is not a woman (by birth) plans to vote to confirm the activist train wreck Elena Kagen. That’s right, Judd Gregg has been outed as for Kagen.  But before he casts his vote, we should let him know how we feel about that.  I already have. … Read more

NHDP Cries Hypocrite!

The New Hampshire democrat party–in a typical game of misdirection–is all lathered up about some tenuous connections between Senator Gregg–leaving the Senate, John Sununu–no longer in the Senate, and Kelly Ayotte–not even in the Senate, accepting contributions from two billionaires from Texas who have been charged with securities fraud. The operative word is "charged" not convicted, but the NHDP is already calling them ‘Hypocrites.‘ They are hypocrites for compaining about Hodes and his Rangel cash, while the GOPers apparently have taken "thousands of dollars" of their own. Remember the word "Thousands" as we try to take a look at the cry babies complaint.

Hodes is on the hook for what $13 to $17K from a guy who wrote tax law, while violating tax law, and using his postion to enrich himself at the expense of the people he was representing. Rangel was dirty before Hodes hit the House, but Hodes still took his money. He took, tens of thousands of dollars from Rangel. And that’s just Rangel. Hodes has other dirty money but let’s stay focused for now.

And what about those "billionaires?" Sam and Chuck Wyly are "under investigation" by the SEC for securities fraud. And apparently back on March 31st 2003, one of them (Charles) gave Judd Gregg $3000– back in 2003. That is ‘thousands’ but it’s what, seven years ago? (Link may not work) Make another mental note.

The NYT article announcing the investigation of the billionaires just came out on July 29th, 2010. It’s been two days and the NHDP is crying about a 3000.00 dollar donation from seven years ago. (I was lucky to get that info by the way.) Still with me?

There’s loads more fun on the jump.

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RightOnline-General Session Speaker: Phil Kerpen

Phil Kerpen is the Vice President of Policy for Americans for Prosperity (sponsors of RightOnline) so it made sense for him to speak at his own conference.  The main thrust of his talk was summed up by a quote from Van Jones, that if green jobs are the death of capitalism, and he has been … Read more

How Obama has benefitted America…

…in an exceedingly small way. But still….                                                  

A GOP Heroine Speaks

Rep. Michelle Bachmann posted the following observations today at RedState.com. As usual, she hits the nail Right on the head: Democrats Underestimate the American People Once Again   Posted by Rep. Michele Bachmann (Profile) Thursday, July 29th at 4:24PM EDT 16 Comments Clearly, the Democrats think they have something here tying together the Republican Party and the Tea Party. However, it seems … Read more

RightOnline-Herman Cain radio show broadcast

During the RightOnline conference, Herman Cain broadcast his radio show and had several of the "names" at the conference on his show including Michelle Bachman, Sharron Angle, Tim Phillips, and Joe Heck.  TMEW decided that this was one of the events that she was going to go to, so recorded it.

Yesterday’s GOP: Sen. Judd Gregg

Senator Judd Gregg allows himself to be used by the dominant ruling party in Washington, DC? Is this why the GOP is called "the Party of Stupid"? Is this type of thing why the GOP has been called "the tax collector for the welfare state"? Sigh. This just in from Liberty Central via RedState.com:

Judd Gregg, Kent Conrad Push Massive Tax Increases in Lame Duck Session

 

 

Posted by Brian Faughnan (Profile)

Wednesday, July 28th at 12:00PM EDT

21 Comments

Cross-posted from Liberty Central.

Obviously, balancing the federal budget is a worthy goal – an extremely important one, in fact. Congress has massively increased spending, to the point that the United States is projected to run inordinately high deficits for years to come. The problem is one of historic proportions. It would be a welcome change if this Congress were to consider a package of spending cuts before the election, designed to restore the nation’s long-term fiscal balance.

But Congressional leaders and the White House recognize that it might be unpopular to push for spending cuts or tax increases before an election. They are deeply worried about the political impact of a controversial vote – one that might lead to catastrophic losses for the majority party. So rather than doing something gutsy, they are shifting responsibility to an unelected commission, and deferring a vote until a lame duck session of Congress:

Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad says a legislative session after the Nov. 2 election and before the new Congress is sworn in could be “one of the most significant lame-duck sessions in the history of the United States.”

In an interview with CongressDaily, Conrad referred specifically to the prospect of votes on the recommendations of President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission, which is due to report on Dec. 1. Conrad, who is on the panel, believes it could help lead the country to a sounder fiscal path.

That sentiment is echoed by Senate Budget ranking member Judd Gregg, also a commission member. Gregg even suggests the lame duck could trump the historic vote on healthcare reform, which he opposed, if the commission’s recommendations are meaningful and Congress embraces them.

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A small, lean military to protect us from foreign invaders….

This just in from Jamie Dupress at wsbradio.com. Please read the following list and explain why each of these military construction projects are necessary to protect the United States from foreign invaders. This is why they call it "the Welfare-Warfare State." We must dismantle both sides of the government spending-monster, or continue our spiral downward as a nation.

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