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100 Million More Rea$ons for Term Limits!

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

A MASSIVE INCUMBENT PROTECTION PROGRAM

At least two influential unions will spend close to $100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents. Union officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen — who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country. The number will likely be even higher since the AFL-CIO declined to give its figures, says the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME):

Plans to spend in excess of $50 million during the 2010 campaign, part of which will fund “a massive incumbent protection program,” according to Gerry McEntee, president of the union.
The $50 million slated for the 2010 elections is the largest expenditure the union will make in a midterm election, according to union officials; the money will go to help defend the union’s top tier of eight Senate seats and 34 House members.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU):

Plans to spend $44 million in total on its 2010 election program.
The union spent $85 million on its 2008 campaign, according to union officials.

A third labor group said it plans to spend big in 2010 but would not get into specific numbers. Karen Ackerman, the AFL-CIO’s political director, said that the labor federation will be active in 18 states, will campaign in gubernatorial and Senate races, and will likely have a role in 60 to 70 House races this election.

Source: Brad Peck, “A Massive Incumbent Protection Program,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, May 24, 2010.

For text:

http://www.chamberpost.com/2010/05/a-massive-incumbent-protection-program.html

For more on Unions:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=43

Posted in Campaigns, Fundraising, Perspectives | No Responses »

Government Spending Squeezing Out Personal Earnings

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs…

Economist Veronique de Rugy of the free-market Mercatus Center at George Mason University says the riots in Greece over cutting benefits to close a huge budget deficit are a warning about unsustainable income programs.

Economist David Henderson of the conservative Hoover Institution says a shift from private wages to government benefits saps the economy of dynamism. “People are paid for being rather than for producing,” he says.

~Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

Posted in Socialism, Taxes, The Economy | No Responses »

Houston, TX and Its Thriving Economy: HOW?

Monday, May 24th, 2010

MODEL CITY SHOWS US HOW IT’S DONE

Politicians in big cities talk about jobs, but by keeping taxes, fees and regulatory barriers high they discourage the creation of jobs, at least in the private sector. A business in San Francisco or Los Angeles never knows what bizarre new cost will be imposed by city hall. In New York or Boston you can thrive as a nonprofit executive, high-end consultant or financier, but if you are the owner of a business that wants to grow, you’re out of luck, says Joel Kotkin, the Chapman University presidential fellow in urban futures.

Houston, however, has kept the cost of government low while investing in ports, airports, roads, transit and schools. A person or business moving there gets an immediate raise through lower taxes and cheaper real estate. Houston is just better at nurturing jobs, says Kotkin.

For example:

Last year Houston added 141,000 residents, more than any region in the United States save the city’s similarly sprawling rival, Dallas-Fort Worth.
Over the past decade, Houston’s population has grown by 24 percent — five times the rate of San Francisco, Boston and New York.
In that time, it has attracted 244,000 new residents from other parts of the United States, while older cities experienced high rates of out-migration.
It is even catching up on foreign immigration, enjoying a rate comparable with New York’s and roughly 50 percent higher than that of Boston or Chicago.
Between 2000 and 2009, Houston’s employment grew by 260,000; greater New York City — with nearly three times the population of Houston — has added only 96,000 jobs.
In contrast, the Chicago area has lost 258,000 jobs, San Francisco 217,000, Los Angeles 168,000 and Boston 100,004.

Houston, perhaps more than any city in the advanced industrial world, epitomizes the René Descartes ideal — applied to the 17^th century entrepreneurial hotbed of Amsterdam — of a great city offering “an inventory of the possible” to longtime residents and newcomers alike. This, more than anything, promises to give Houstonites the future, says Kotkin.

Source: Joel Kotkin, “Houston: Model City,” Forbes Magazine, May 20, 2010.

For text:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0607/opinions-houston-immigration-job-growth-on-my-mind.html

Posted in States, The Economy | No Responses »

Showing ID = Discrimination for us ALL (???)

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Posted in Illegal Immigration | No Responses »

Dr. Rand Paul’s Statewide Impact

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Posted in Campaigns | No Responses »

CITIZEN Profiling?!

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

As a U.S. Citizen, I MUST Show ID when…

1. Pulled over by the police

2. Making purchses on my credit card

3. Completing transaction at Dr’s Office

4. Filling out a loan application

5. Applying for a driver’s license

6. Renewing my car registration

7. Applying for a passport

8. Applying for any kind of insurance

9. Applying for college

10. Donating blood

11. Buying certain prescriptions

12. Making out-of-state debit purchases

13. Obtaining a boarding pass for air travel

14. Entering my voting precinct

There are other instances, too, where we as citizens are REQUIRED to prove who we are each and every day.

So, why shouldn’t people who have entered our country illegally, and many of them with criminal intent (or records!), be expected to do so as well? Heck, we can’t enter an airport without removing our belts, shoes and being completely scanned–just as law-abiding citizens who want to venture into another city within our OWN country.

Do we realize that we are the ONLY country in the WORLD who has this “issue?!”

Illegal Super-Highway for Smugglers, Just South of Tuscon

Posted in Illegal Immigration | No Responses »

“The Death Spiral of a Welfare State”

Monday, May 17th, 2010

AMERICA’S APPROACHING DEBT DISASTER

When the Greek economy melted down recently its citizens rioted in the streets. Some have called it “the death-spiral of a welfare state” — too much borrowing for too many social programs for too long. Eventually, the bottom falls out, says the Christian Broadcasting Network.

But if you don’t think the economic chaos in Greece can come to America, economists say think again. America is on a fiscal course economists warn is unsustainable — racking up debts we will not be able to repay. This nation, they warn, is already on the path to economic ruin.

Our national debt is out of balance:

Federal debt as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) now stands officially at around 60 percent.
But with the course the country is on, it will hit 150 percent in 10 years, and 300 percent by 2050.
By comparison, Greece began to melt down when its debt reached 115 percent of GDP.

There are many economic similarities between America and Argentina:

Before World War II, Argentina was one of the most prosperous nations in the world, with a strong industrial base and thriving middle class, it attracted immigrants much like America.
But within 15 years, Argentina went one of the richest nations to one of the poorest.
Argentina President Juan Peron fomented class warfare and bashed business, banks and the wealthy; he made labor unions his allies and unleashed massive social spending that the nation couldn’t afford.
As a result, one of the strongest nations in the world was ruined.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has laid out six future scenarios for America, and all of them are bad. The best case is long-term economic stagnation. The worst case — default — when the government can no longer pay its bills.

Another possible scenario is runaway inflation. What worries the experts is that Washington, D.C., has heard all the warnings and not only keeps spending, but spends more.

Brian Williams, legislative director for the National Center for Policy Analysis, said lawmakers would rather give their constituents government-financed freebies than a balanced federal budget.

“As long as the American electorate is in a mode of getting free education and free health care and free transportation and everything for free — somebody pays for it,” he said.

Source: Dale Hurd, “America’s Approaching Debt Disaster,” CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK, May 17, 2010.

Posted in The Debt | No Responses »

U.S. Taxpayers Should Not Bear the Burden of Bailing Out Greece

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

(Editor’s Note: Congressman Mike Pence (R)- IN, hits it out of the ballpark again. We can’t pay our own bills. We’re borrowing so we can–lend?? Our budget deficit in April 2010, nearly $83 billion, was the largest in American history. Is Spain or Portugal or Germany going to bail out California? Or New Jersey? Or Kentucky?? Click on the link below for the 90 second video…)

Pence: American Taxpayers Should Not Be Responsible for Bailing Out Europe

Posted in The Debt, Uncategorized | No Responses »

America’s Problem IS Racism-Just Not the Way You May Think!

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

(Editor’s Note: A refreshing and impassioned “rant” by one of the most gifted black conservatives in America, Kevin Jackson of “The Black Sphere.”)

The cry of racism created the so-called war on poverty and is estimated to have cost America over $9T since the 1970’s. Social engineering they call it. But the engineering was never meant to provide a way for minorities to succeed. In fact the success of minorities had nothing to do with it. The engineering was structured to line the pockets of the elite for decades, and it worked.

Here’s the wrap:

We’ve allowed a group of flower-children, drug-abusing ex-hippies to ruin our country, and for the most part we are still letting them get away with it. Their weapon is racism. They use the one thing that defines America’s greatness—America’s willingness to accept anybody and everybody—and they wield it recklessly, and for their own political agenda. Because we don’t confront them, we find ourselves debating the absurd.

For example, there is not ONE country in the world who allows for illegal immigration, and you certainly can’t expect ENTITLEMENTS! Yet we find ourselves discussing this subject with the Left as if it’s rational.

We have a new Supreme Court pick who, like Obama…has no experience! Then again, why should experience matter, when you are hell bent on the destruction of America?!

The recent incident where the kids were suspended for wearing American flags on Cinco de Mayo, as if American children should sacrifice our sovereignty, because Mexicans want to celebrate something meaningless to us. And there are dozens of other examples.

Simply put, racism by the Left is killing America. It’s costing TRILLIONS, and I suggest somebody out there heed my warning, and help us—DONATE—to stop these morons.

Try to imagine a political process where race is truly not an issue.

That’s my rant!

www.theblacksphere.net

Posted in Perspectives, Racism, Socialism | No Responses »

Rand Paul’s Un-Common Sense Under Attack

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

(Editor’s Note: We are happy to carry Dr. Paul’s response to the Courier-Journal’s latest attack on his policy re: the federal budget and national debt. We have carefully weighed, sifted and inquired personally as to Rand’s stance on these and other key issues and found his platform the only one that we can unreservedly endorse, in large part because of this statement at the end of paragraph two–”restoring limitations on government functions to within the boundaries explicitly imposed by the U.S. Constitution.”)

Rand Paul’s credibility as a government reformer has taken on a life of its own, growing with each new establishment-inspired smear. Today, Louisville Courier Journal columnist John David Dyche swings and misses at Rand’s solid position on balanced budgets:

“Dr. Rand Paul says he will not vote for any budget that is not balanced. Secretary of State Trey Grayson rightly responded that Paul’s position “is not practical” and explained why. Now Paul is airing an ad attacking Grayson as if Grayson is altogether opposed to balancing the budget.”
“Paul has neither outlined a balanced budget nor detailed how he would eliminate this year’s projected $1.5 trillion federal deficit in one fell swoop. Any combination of spending cuts and tax increases doing that would choke even the most highly caffeinated tea partiers.”

Actually, Rand Paul has discussed deficit elimination many times and with more-than-sufficient specificity. He has suggested passing an old federal budget from a prior year, but one that matches current revenues. Also, he has discussed closing multiple government agencies and — this is the important part going over some well-educated heads — restoring limitations on government functions to within the boundaries explicitly imposed by the U.S. Constitution.

Even more fundamental to the question at hand, though, is the value of a “no” vote even if it is the only one for a while. “Practical” Republicans talk about “spending less” and may even give lip service to a balanced budget ideal, but recoil in horror at the practical realities involved in actually cutting even a single well-intentioned but wasteful government program. Rand Paul’s campaign has succeeded in exposing this feel-good phoniness that has wrecked our nation’s finances with bipartisan back-slapping. Establishment politicians and scribes have staked out their positions yet again in opposition to basic common sense.

Rand Paul will withstand this latest attack because too many Kentucky Republicans appreciate reality enough to seriously consider the hard choices that lie ahead of us. (David Adams)

www.randpaul2010.com

Election day in Kentucky is May 18.

Posted in Campaigns, Media Coverage | No Responses »

Louisville TEA Party

Restoring America By Returning to the Constitution