1. Dr. Gerard Lameiro: Why Is Unemployment So High This Labor Day?

2. Ronald Kessler: Half of Your Taxes Will Go for Interest Under Obama

3. Dave Bego: SEIU’s Persuasion of Power

Why Is Unemployment So High This Labor Day?

By Dr. Gerard Lameiro

In a detailed op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal this week, Robert Barro shows why he believes unemployment would be significantly lower if unemployment benefits had not been extended from the standard 26 weeks to 99 weeks.  His calculations indicate that unemployment might be under 7% right now if only the unemployment benefits had not been extended to 99 weeks.  Is he right?  Why is unemployment so high this Labor Day?  In economics, we know that when we tax something, we get less of it.  We also know that when we subsidize something, we get more of it.  It’s just common sense.  Taxing something like cigarettes discourages smoking because the price goes up for smokers.  Similarly, if we subsidize something, we encourage it because we create an economic incentive for that activity. Incidentally, that’s why we shouldn’t tax income, savings and investment because that is essentially taxing economic growth.  We want more economic growth and prosperity, not less. [more...]

Half of Your Taxes Will Go for Interest Under Obama

By Ronald Kessler

Congressional Budget Office forecasts of government deficits and debt are supposed to be authoritative. But Congress forces the CBO to make unrealistic assumptions when issuing those estimates. The latest assumptions include that the alternative minimum tax will not be adjusted annually for inflation and that discretionary spending unrelated to war will increase no faster than inflation. Brian M. Riedl of the Heritage Foundation has stripped out these and other assumptions to come up with a more realistic look at the government’s spending and debt. Based on realistic assumptions… [more...]

SEIU’s Persuasion of Power

By Dave Bego

It appears the SEIU is up to its old tricks again. Impatient with the President’s inability to ram through the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a/k/a. card check, the SEIU is once again taking to the streets. This time outside a prestigious retail and office building in Los Angeles  and utilizing its infamous “corporate campaign” mode to protect membership dues amid declining membership in California and other areas, the SEIU protested against the firing of 16 janitors at the adjacent Century Plaza building, a building owned by J.P. Morgan Chase. [more...]

1. Bill Glynn: I Would Like 2 Scoops of B.S. With My Recovery, Please!

2. Tim Connolly: Vote to Balance the Budget

3. Joy Tiz: But He Can’t Fire Soros

I Would Like 2 Scoops of B.S. With My Recovery, Please!

By Bill Glynn

Recovery?  I am really perplexed by the inaction and incompetence in D.C. in even having the gall to claim anything about a recovery whatsoever.  THIS IS NOT A RECOVERY! This is a crisis and the mess is far from being cleaned up.  After almost $2 trillion has been borrowed, then loaned and spent, the economy is barely alive.  The life support it needs isn’t reaching consumers, PERIOD!  Mark my words: the economy will never recover unless people are shored up and able to buy again. 

“Summer of Recovery?” NOT! “The economy was in a ditch and we are pushing it out.” NOT!  “The economy is headed in the right direction.” NOT!  “The Democrats will keep a majority in the House and Senate.” NOT!  Pile it on my plate and yours, too.  Oh, and add some incompetence gravy and a side of housing mess and hopelessness.  Tastes good, doesn’t it?  “Choke on it!”  That is what the chefs in the D.C. kitchen say. [more...]

Vote to Balance the Budget

By Tim Connolly

When will we take the hard steps necessary to stop bankrupting the USA? We have blindly increased our budgets over the years since the last surplus during the Clinton administration. This dubious accomplishment was done with the full participation of BOTH the Democrat and Republican parties, and must be brought to a halt sooner rather than later. My friends and associates know I am an independent fiscal conservative, and believe that we must balance our nation’s budget in order to rebuild America and assure our future prosperity. (Go to the “Freeze the Budget Now” link at www.winningstrategies.net for more complete info on this). A typical example of the insanity we are now engaged in was e-mailed to me this morning from a Florida emergency room physician – see his on-the-ground insights here and then make sure you vote in November for candidates who VOW TO BALANCE THE BUDGET, regardless of party affiliation! [more...]

But He Can’t Fire Soros

By Joy Tiz

House minority leader, John Boehner called out the community-organizer-in-chief for his calamitous management of the nation’s economy: “I have had enough – and the American people have had enough – of Washington politicians talking about wanting to create jobs as a ploy to get themselves re-elected while doing everything possible to prevent jobs from being created.” Not that the moribund media would tell you, but Boehner delivered his remarks at a speech before the City Club of Cleveland.  Noting the current administration’s highly effective “war on jobs,” Boehner reflected on Obama’s recent visit to Ohio while a few blocks away, Ohioans were standing in line at a job fair, waiting to be told that companies are not hiring. They’re frozen. Or, as the organizer of the job fair put it, employers are – and I’m quoting now – ‘scared to death.’ [more...]

1. John LeBoutillier: Carter-Reagan Redux?

2. Bill Glynn: Finally a Financial Heavyweight Understands My AMERICAN REFINANCE PROGRAM

3. Kyle Olson: Billions for Teacher Unions, Bupkis for Students

4. Joy Tiz: Chris Christie: Jersey Heartbreaker

Carter-Reagan Redux?

By John LeBoutillier

Barack Obama’s presidency is quickly descending into Jimmy Carter territory. That means he is not only out-of-the-mainstream and out-of-touch, he is now being seen as an incompetent president. And once that happens, the vultures begin to circle. All of this makes political professionals scratch their heads. The smooth-running 2008 campaign operation has not translated to a well-run White House. He is indeed incompetent. He fumbles each issue – and reacts to criticism with lightning speed by often reversing himself. If we use the Jimmy Carter analogy, then let us follow it all the way. By 1980, Democrats were split over re-electing Carter. And the GOP had an establishment candidate in George H.W. Bush versus the outsider, Ronald Reagan. Reagan trounced Bush and then trounced Carter. So, is something similar shaping up for 2012? [more...]

Finally a Financial Heavyweight Understands My AMERICAN REFINANCE PROGRAM

By Bill Glynn

Everyone reading this knows I have been promoting a massive two-step program to refinance ALL Americans’ debt if they choose to opt into the program I am suggesting.  Note: this does not cost the government a dime.  Here are the facts: the government is on the hook with a $5 trillion guarantee to Freddie and Fannie.  The government is on the hook with TARP.  This is a fact!  Consumers, vital to our recovery, are in debt already.  This is a fact – credit addicted or not!  Interest rates are at an all-time low, but 46 million consumers have credit scores under 600, and 70 million with credit scores under 650.  They are credit unworthy today and financial reform will make that worse.  Therefore, they have little chance to get those great rates, refinance or borrow.

So we are here with massive spending and guarantees by the government and Main Street twisting in the wind.  Well, there will be no sustainable recovery until we attack the root of the problem.  PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY THEIR BILLS!  The plan is so simple it makes me wonder why it has taken so long for the “big dogs” to step it up a notch, and thank God they are.  I’m suggesting that we redirect up to half of the government’s $5 trillion guarantee to support the program.  Not a dime of money needs to be spent and they are already on the hook, as I said before, so it is just taking the same guarantee and splitting it up. [more...]

Billions for Teacher Unions, Bupkis for Students

By Kyle Olson

Here’s a story problem to get kids ready for the new school year:

If Congress borrows $10 billion to bail out the public schools, and if toilet paper costs fifty cents a roll, how many rolls of toilet paper will each of the nation’s 132,000 K-12 public schools receive?

The answer: Zero. Zip. Zilch. The average American can be forgiven for thinking that the $10 billion “edujobs” bill signed into law last week by President Obama would directly benefit the nation’s school children.  That’s certainly how the National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel spun it: ”As a result of this vote, we expect to see less crowded classrooms, reinstated bus routes and restored education programs and services,” Van Roekel said. What a windfall for the kids, right? [more...]

Chris Christie: Jersey Heartbreaker

By Joy Tiz

So his comments about immigration were a little iffy with his “commonsense path to citizenship.”  And he won’t commit to joining the states fighting health care “reform.” But there’s always been so much to appreciate about Christy, particularly the fact that he’s not Jon Corzine.  He’s gotten it right so many times; it’s painful to be shaken out of our collective infatuation. But, now he’s getting warm fuzzies from the criminal enterprise known as CAIR for his completely wrong-headed comments about the proposed Victory Mosque at Ground Zero. Playing politics?  Hardly.  Obama scares the hell out of us.  Radical Islam scares the hell out of us.  And we’ll be damned if we are going to sit idly by while a crafty imam builds a giant monument to the barbaric slaughter of innocents 600 feet from where their remains are buried. The bloom is off the rose. [more...]

1. Bill Glynn: ‘Generation Z’ – for Zero

2. Joy Tiz: Victory Mosque: Are We Being Played?

3. Wayne Allyn Root: The Mosque at Ground Zero: So Now Obama Cares About the Constitution? 

‘Generation Z’ – for Zero

By Bill Glynn

If you are 18-50, you fall into what I call “Generation Z” – for zero – a generation that will soon be known as “less than zero.”  Our social fabric and the American flag have become a tattered piece of burlap.  Our judicial elections are bought off with hundreds of millions.  The laws of the land bend to the billions spent to influence the outcome of those laws.  Elections and power are definitely for sale.  We’ve got a multi-hundred-billion-dollar pornography industry, deficits, debt, a floundering education system, bankruptcy, out of control spending – and these are just a few of the reasons our society is bankrupt.  Where there is big government, there are big problems! [more...]

Victory Mosque: Are We Being Played?

By Joy Tiz

The entire Victory Mosque affair has created quite a commotion.  But is it for real or are we being played by master manipulators? The president was well aware that an overwhelming majority of the American people were strongly opposed to the construction of a monument to Jihad a mere 600 feet from Ground Zero.  So what?  Most of his policies are strongly opposed by the American people.  He was not, however, prepared for the force of the resistance following his statements in support of the Victory Mosque. Until the president spoke in support of the mosque, the issue was emotional but hadn’t escalated into a genuine calamity.  Something more primal than moral outrage is at work.  When our president openly sided with the ideology that gave us 9/11, our survival instincts kicked in.  It’s no longer an abstract argument about values.  Barack Obama scared the hell out of us. [more...]

The Mosque at Ground Zero: So Now Obama Cares About the Constitution? 

By Wayne Allyn Root

This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad and hypocritical. When it comes to the Mosque at Ground Zero, Obama is suddenly concerned with the Constitution? Why now? This mosque will never be built. When you have the police, mafia, Village People, AND Harry Reid all aligned against it, it’s safe to say it’s not going to happen. And I think it’s also safe to say Obama just waded into the biggest mistake of his political career. He just cemented his fate as a one-term president by ignoring the opinions of about 70% of 300 million common-sense, deeply-offended Americans. Let’s take a look a look at just a few of the cases where Obama has ignored or violated the Constitution as President: [more...]

1. James Hirsen: Obama Reality Star

2. Joy Tiz: Obama Okays Victory Mosque

3. Ronald Kessler: Why Democrats Are Obsessed With Race

Obama Reality Star

By James Hirsen

In an unsettling sign of the times, it seems that we have rapidly mushroomed into a reality show culture, with all of the attendant celebrities such as Kate Gosselin, Kim Kardashian and the cast of “Jersey Shore,” who for no justification are outrageously overpaid and for no reason are ridiculously famous. Interestingly, the last presidential election had many of the same elements that we see in reality show programming. As a matter of fact, President Obama was swept into office thanks, in large part, to reality style wardrobe, makeup, lighting, scripting of lines, staging of events and mainstream media editing. For over a year and a half, to the dismay of many who are still waiting for him to govern, the president has acted as if he is starring in his own reality show. [more...]

Obama Okays Victory Mosque

By Joy Tiz

Americans are aghast that the president approves of the construction of a Victory Mosque by a pro-terrorism imam six hundred feet from Ground Zero.  Revolting, yes.   Shocking, no.  One thing we know about Barack Obama is that he is committed to ruling in direct opposition to three-fourths of the American people on all core issues. Reread his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam, while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical Muslim ideology after 9/11.  Obama’s boss, George Soros, has always thought we made too much of a fuss about 9/11, an event he found “inspiring…” [more...]

Why Democrats Are Obsessed With Race

By Ronald Kessler

Republicans stand for smaller government, a strong national defense, and traditional values. Democrats stand for bigger government, wealth redistribution, and race baiting. That’s the conclusion one has to draw from the constant stream of racially tinged comments we hear from some Democrats. If nobody referred to skin color or thought about it, we would have a truly discrimination-free society. Instead, we have Sen. Harry Reid saying, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay? Do I need to say more?” [more...]

1. John LeBoutillier: Obama Out of Touch With Voters

2. James Hirsen: Sean Penn Slams Haitian Presidential Candidate Wyclef Jean

3. Joy Tiz: Rauf Swears No Fundraising on Taxpayers Dime

Obama Out of Touch With Voters

By John LeBoutillier

Do you want to know why the American electorate is simultaneously furious, disconsolate, pessimistic and at times beyond hope? Because our government(s) – federal, state and local – are on the wrong side of numerous issues and against the majority of Americans! It’s crazy that in America the majority of Americans are ignored – repeatedly – and arrogantly by the very people they elect! All of these examples show why the American voter is so ornery this year, and why November 2, 2010 will be a seminal day with many incumbents being voted out of office. However, one election does not a problem fix. No, we need the same spirit to be in effect in 2012 to go after the other Senators who are up for re-election and to defeat an out-of-touch, too-far-left, and inept President Barack Obama. [more...]

Sean Penn Slams Haitian Presidential Candidate Wyclef Jean

By James Hirsen

Wyclef Jean, an internationally known hip-hop artist and sometime partner of Shakira, is now the frontrunner in Haiti’s upcoming presidential election. Born in Haiti and raised in Brooklyn, the former Fugees frontman has risen to become one of the most famous names in his native country and has put forth a detailed plan to rebuild the Haitian economy. Surprisingly, Jean is getting a bit of criticism from, of all places, Hollywood. It arrived courtesy of Sean Penn – the same Penn who typically has words of praise for Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez. Penn accused Jean of not spending enough time in Haiti after the earthquake and of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jean’s charity, Yele Haiti. Speaking on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Penn said he suspects that Jean may be backed by corporate interests and opportunists who want to take advantage of his celebrity. [more...]

Rauf Swears No Fundraising on Taxpayers Dime

By Joy Tiz

The State Department is sending ”distinguished cleric” Feisal Abdul Rauf on a jaunt to the Middle East at the taxpayers’ expense.  Our State Department believes that the imam who wants to build a monument to jihad six hundred feet from Ground Zero is the ideal delegate to “help people overseas understand our society and the role of religion within our society.” This is merely the latest imbecility from pro-terrorist Soros serf, P.J. Crowley.  Prior to joining his comrades in the Obama administration, Crowley was Senior Fellow and Director of Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress (CAP), a George Soros cabal. [more...]

1. James Hirsen: ‘The Expendables’: Schwarzenegger, Stallone Ham It Up

2. Kyle Olson – Malkin: Stop the BigGovJobs Bill

3. Joy Tiz: Brewer: I Am Governor, Hear Me Road

‘The Expendables’: Schwarzenegger, Stallone Ham It Up

By James Hirsen

These days the news can be really depressing. The economy is getting kicked around and our quality of life seems like it’s going in the tank. Time for a good escapist movie. Just our luck! A throwback flick arrives this week, and it captures the excitement of the 1980s action movies. It’s called “The Expendables,” a film co-written and directed by Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone has been able to gather together a group of action movie veterans to join him in the tribute to the genre. The cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke and Jet Li, as well as some additional action-flick leads like Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, and Steve Austin. Stallone recently had some choice comments about his fellow actors. “I thought we had the ugliest group of guys on the planet in one movie. That is what I am so proud of. We all look like horseshoes or catchers’ mitts,” he told Fox News. [more...]

Malkin: Stop the BigGovJobs Bill

The Democrats call their $26 billion, Big Labor/bankrupt states’ bailout legislation the “EduJobs” bill. Kyle Olson of the Education Action Group argues the bill is payback to unions that have supported congressional campaigns. The Muskegon-based union watchdog estimates the NEA would get about $36 million in dues from the bill, and the American Federation of Teachers would realize about $14 million. “It’s not about student achievement. It’s about protecting the adults,” he said. “Public schools have a spending problem, not a funding problem. Pelosi and her regime are perpetuating the problem at a time America literally can’t afford it.” [more...] [Watch Kyle on Cavuto]

Brewer: I Am Governor, Hear Me Road

By Joy Tiz

Drawing the copious gobs of venom normally reserved for Sarah Palin, Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer is standing by her audacious step of outlawing crime.  Brewer’s refusal to back off of her position on illegal immigration has the left, including the White House, in complete delirium.   

The same herd that firmly believes the federal government has an unassailable right to regulate what you eat, what you drive, the temperature in your house and what you breathe are squealing like stuck pigs because the citizens of Arizona want the federal government to exercise one of the very few powers it legitimately has.  In fact, the Constitution mandates that the federal government regulate immigration and protect the individual states against invasion. [more...]

1. Kyle Olson: Dems School Bailout Deception

2. Bill Glynn: Unemployment Will Go Up and Taxes Will Too

3. Joy Tiz: Ground Zero? Nothing Historic There

4. Ronald Kessler: Chelsea Was the Best

Dems School Bailout Deception

By Kyle Olson

Senate Democrats were set to vote on a $10 billion bailout for public schools, claiming all along the measure was “paid for with spending cuts.”  When the Congressional Budget Office revealed it was going to add $5 billion to the deficit, the vote was delayed until Wednesday. The National Education Association, the biggest beneficiary of the legislation, perpetuated the lie on its Web site.  The NEA stands to gain about $36 million in dues dollars. While news reports indicate it could come up again Wednesday, here’s to hoping it won’t see the light of day again. [more...]

Unemployment Will Go Up and Taxes Will Too
By Bill Glynn

Did I hear right?  Timothy Geithner just said that unemployment is going to go up and the Bush tax cut will stay for 95%.   I don’t even need to write one more sentence.  This is financial discrimination and a death knell for recovery!  It couldn’t come at a worse time for the “shaky” economy.  This is pandering for political gain.  They are playing Russian roulette with the economy and how many bullets can you dodge? 

The Bush tax cuts are the news of the day, but taxes in so many forms are coming.  50 to 60% of your hard earned income will go to pay for everyone else in America if you are part of the 5% that have been categorized as a separate class – treated differently, discriminated against, and the critical component to the recovery.  Career politicians, academics, socialists and Marxists are busy plotting how to redistribute your wealth, how to use class warfare to maintain power through elections, and how to stomp out the capitalist heart and soul of our country. [more...]

Ground Zero? Nothing Historic There

By Joy Tiz

The useful idiots of the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0, a unanimity SCOTUS can’t muster, to deny Ground Zero historic status.  Some may recall Ground Zero is the site at which 3,000 innocents were slaughtered in the name of Islamic Jihad.  Bits and pieces of the victims remain buried, never to be recovered.  Muslim extremists are now taking the altogether customary step of building a monument to jihad at the site of their conquest. Those debilitated by Political Correctness – a Marxist construct, by the way – are devoted to forcing this blight upon us with great urgency.  Pamela Gellar points out that the St. Nicholas church was also destroyed in the attack but has yet to be rebuilt due to multitudinous obstructions concocted by the city.  The Monster Mosque, however, is being expedited, breaking all records for piercing red tape. [more...]

Chelsea Was the Best

By Ronald Kessler

Chelsea Clinton was the best first child, according to Secret Service agents interviewed by Ronald Kessler for his book “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect,” out this week in paperback.

“In my career, Chelsea Clinton did it the best,” says an agent familiar with both her detail and the Bush twins’ details. “Treated the detail right, told them what was going on, never gave problems that I knew of.” In contrast, Jenna and Barbara Bush would try to lose their agents and would not tell them where or when they were leaving. Jenna would go through red lights trying to evade her agents. She would call her father and complain that agents are following her too closely.

“I think she has a hard time grasping how easy it would be to pick her up, throw her in a van, and next thing you know she’s on Al Jazeera,” an agent says. “And we’re out there, we’re trying to do the right thing. And I don’t think she understands it. She definitely didn’t respect what we’re out there trying to do for her.” Susan Ford and Amy Carter also gave their agents a hard time, Kessler says.

1. Wayne Allyn Root: Obama is a Colossal Failure

2. James Hirsen: Subversive Historian Howard Zinn Duped Hollywood

3. John LeBoutillier: What the GOP Should Be Looking for in its 2012 Candidate

4. Kyle Olson: Impending Senate Vote for More School Spending Won’t Improve Education

Obama is a Colossal Failure

By Wayne Allyn Root

As one of America’s strongest critics of President Obama, I am constantly asked, “What would you do differently if you were president?” The answer is simple:  EVERYTHING! Every decision he makes poisons America. Obama is killing the American dream. To save America, we have to do the opposite of everything Obama is doing. Obama’s agenda of big government, big spending, big unions, and big debt are driving the American economy to never-before-imagined levels of economic disaster, debt, unemployment, and small business failure. [more...]

Subversive Historian Howard Zinn Duped Hollywood

By James Hirsen

The FBI recently released a 423-page file on so-called historian Howard Zinn. They actually started tracking Zinn back in 1949 during the “Red Scare” era. Zinn passed away in 2009. It turns out that FBI suspicions about Zinn’s communist connections were well founded. He categorically denied being a member of the Communist Party, and he even did so to FBI agents. However, the file indicates that he was affiliated with many radical groups, and several informants confirmed that he was a very active Party member. Zinn is the author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a purported history book that has been made into a cable TV production by Artfire Films. The movie has been shown on the History Channel under the title “The People Speak.” Thanks in large part to intense promotion by left-wing groups, educational institutions across the nation have used Zinn’s book as a textbook, and many continue to do so. Some are also using “The People Speak” DVD as a video history of America. [more...]

What the GOP Should Be Looking for in its 2012 Candidate

By John LeBoutillier

All the so-far mentioned 2012 GOP candidates – Romney, Palin, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, Daniels and Barbour – have some good points. But none of them are sincere or talented. Our fear must be that through the 2012 primaries and caucuses, the winnowing process will bring the GOP back to its boring, staid old self – and thus turn off the Tea Party fervor which is the hottest political movement in decades. What we should be looking for in our 2012 candidate is a conservative who can sell conservatism – and also attract middle-of-the-road independents – all the while being pleasantly on the attack against the liberals, using humor and a light touch to harness the underlying fear and anxiety we are all feeling about our country’s future.  A tall order indeed. [more...]

Impending Senate Vote for More School Spending Won’t Improve Education

By Kyle Olson

The two top teachers unions and Senate Democrats are proving the old adage that dead bodies float to the surface.  Just when we thought the wrong-headed “Education Jobs Fund” was dead, it comes back to life. The U.S. Senate is poised to vote today on the “public school bailout,” the brainchild of teachers unions to stave off tens of thousands of school employee layoffs.  Progressive blogs say it will come at 5pm. When Democrats realized the bailout wasn’t going to pass attached to the Afghanistan War spending.  It’s now riding on a Federal Aviation Administration bill. [more...]