Tag Archives: Politics

Politics

Patrick Fitzgerald, Still The Prosecutor's Prosecutor?

Can we be confident that the man who prosecuted the Valerie Plame ‘leak’ incident, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, will get to the bottom of the bribery and racketeering scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich?

Patrick Fitzgerald had the reputation of being non-political and determined to investigate everything. To let the investigation take him where it will. That’s what he said he did in the Plame case (where he never had to answer why nobody was charged with the leak). This sounds good, but look at his record.

Continue reading Patrick Fitzgerald, Still The Prosecutor's Prosecutor? →

Economy, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Could Newspapers Be The Next Bailout?

That newspaper publishers are in tough times is nothing new. Circulation and advertising have been falling for a few years now. And when you consider what percentage of their advertising revenue depended on car dealers, they are seeing their difficulty being compounded.

A snapshot from today’s headlines should tell you how newspapers are going have to be creative, from a purely business standpoint, in order to survive.

The ill-advised bailouts we’ve already seen do not justify yet another one for this industry. Like automakers, this industry needs to change to meet the times as well. But not at taxpayers’ expense.

Some on the left are falling back to another FDR program, focusing on the writers that are finding themselves out in the job market. About 15,000 of them so far. So what kind of make-work program would this ‘Federal Writers Project’ look like you ask?

Right out of the Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers handbook . . .

Today, there are many dislocated “old media” journalists from newspapers, radio, and television on the street–here I declare my personal interest, as one of them–who could provide a skilled pool to staff a new FWP. But since these journalists represent only a fraction of the larger displaced workforce, it is fair to ask what the public benefit would be of money spent.

This time, the FWP could begin by documenting the ground-level impact of the Great Recession; chronicling the transition to a green economy; or capturing the experiences of the thousands of immigrants who are changing the American complexion. Like the original FWP, the new version would focus in particular on those segments of society largely ignored by commercial and even public media. At the same time, the multimedia fruits of this research would be open-sourced to all media, as well as to academics. As an example, oral history as a discipline has made great strides in the past 70 years, and with the development of video techniques, the forum of the Internet could make these multi-media interviews widely available to schools and scholars, as well as to average Americans.

And how it might work? According to Mark I. Pinsky at The New Republic, it would, naturally, involve colleges and universities, liberals’ home away from home to manage the program.

Administering the new FWP as an individual grant program through community colleges and universities could minimize bureaucracy and overhead. In consultation with the Obama administration–perhaps through the National Endowment for the Humanities–and Congress, guidelines could be established and a small staff assembled in Washington to oversee the projects, in the form of grants, rather than hourly wages. Projects could be pitched locally to colleges, or suggested and posted by them, vetted preliminarily and then approved or rejected by the national staff.

If the Obama administration decided to include the newspaper publishing industry in some kind of bailout, wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest?

link: Write Now

UPDATE: 17:20, This morning Tribune Co. was reported to be considering Chapter 11. They have now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2008 Election, Politics

What Obama's Change Is Like

From Barney Frank whining that Obama needs to start being President six weeks before his inauguration, to one campaign promise after another going by the wayside, to the CHANGE that Barack Obama will bring to Washington, here is what it looks like so far.

Overall, the people Obama is relying on to build his administration have represented unions; energy, environmental groups, insurance, and drug companies; Wal-Mart; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and the lobbying arm of the Washington-based Center for American Progress. The center is a think tank headed by John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and now co-chairman of Obama’s transition.

Had he told us the change he had in mind was to let lobbyists and special interests set up an administration for him, the election might have turned out differently.

What we have and what we are seeing, is what you get when you have a President-elect with no experience on the national stage other than running to be one.

link: AP IMPACT: Donors, lobbyists help Obama get ready

2008 Election, Politics

Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Ousted

Republican Anh 'Joseph' Cao waves as he holds his daughter Betsy Cao, 4, with his wife Kate Hieu Hoang, right, at his victory party after defeating Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

After losing his re-election bid in Louisiana’s 2nd district with a 50-47 percent result, indicted Democrat William (dollar bill) Jefferson did not concede his loss to the Republican challenger Anh “Joseph” Cao, the first Vietnamese-American in Congress.  Instead, he blamed the voters for not turning out.

‘I think people just ran out of gas a bit,’ he said. ‘People today flat didn’t come out in large numbers.’

Speaking to Jefferson’s bribery and racketeering charges, one Democrat voter who voted for Jefferson highlighted one of our key principles of the justice system afforded to Democrats who get into trouble with the law.

‘People are innocent until proven guilty,’ said Faye Leggins, 54, an educator and Democrat who moved back to the city six months ago.

The voters of Louisiana let Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) off the hook by doing what she should have done years ago. Of course, if Jefferson were a Republican, we wouldn’t be talking about this 552 days after an indictment.

link: Louisiana voters oust indicted Rep. Jefferson

Pensacola, Politics, Uncategorized

It's The Free-Market Stupid, Not The GOP

Most pundits on the far left, like self-described journalist Mike Papantonio, are really stretching the facts (like a slip and fall lawyer would) when he tries to whitewash the UAW’s role and its impact on the Big 3 automakers by saying that the GOP has always hated unions and that’s why, he asserts, they don’t want to bail out the Big 3. And he does this by saying that AIG, Freddy Mac, Fannie Mae are not unionized and they’re getting bailed out. Actually, none of them should be bailed out with taxpayer money. It was government intervention that put them in that position. The best thing the government can do now is to quit meddling with the free-market economy and let the market determine who wins and who loses.

So here’s my response to Mike Papantonio. AIG and the rest of Wall Street, they’re not unionized and they are failing. You say the Big 3 are failing too, but it’s not because of unions because Wall Street isn’t unionized? Nice try Mike.

I’ll tell you, Mike the journalist, what ALL of these failures have in common, in just two words. Government intervention. Intervention in a free-market economy. And there is one more commonality among all of them Mike, they are joined at the hip with Democrat lawmakers from the CRA to the UAW. That’s what they all have in common. That’s why all of them are in trouble. The Big 3 are unique however because they are unionized. For them, their problem is compounded because of the UAW and the agreements that the incompetent CEO’s signed on to. Granted it isn’t the only reason, the Big 3 have other problems as well, but it is the difference from operating in the red, or the black.

Their incompetence is echoed in their ‘plan’ before congress right now. Their plan includes the same cash-draining contracts that keep them from being competitive with the non-union automakers in the South. Because of that, they deserve and have earned the right to go bankrupt.

Reorganize, unload the union weight, be competitive, and prosper. And if it means going from Big 3 to Big 2, so be it. In a free market environment, the fittest will survive without putting taxpayers trillions and trillions of dollars into debt.

Bio: Mike Papantonio hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, the Ring of Fire, on Air America Radio and is the founder of GoLeft.tv. He is a partner in the Levin Papantonio law firm in Pensacola.

related links: GOP Blames Unions for Detroit’s Ills | What Caused The Economic Crisis?

Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Plan B For Automakers, Do Nothing

Executives from the Big 3 automakers are in Washington making their case for $34 billion dollars (up from $25 billion a week ago) to ‘bail’ them out.

Their plan amounts to things they should have done years ago, but still amount to nothing more than duct tape over a gaping hole in the hull of their ship. Not one of them mentioned bankruptcy or getting out from under their current union contracts. That’s where the hole is and that’s why any amount of money now is just duct tape. It will also be nationalizing an industry doomed to failure if it doesn’t cleanse itself of the unnecessary union overhead that a bankruptcy affords them. All for the express purpose of propping up a labor union. I’m sorry, I believe our economy comes before a labor union.

GM’s COO Fritz Henderson is only fooling himself when he says that there is no Plan B. Of course there is. In this case, when you have an operation that ‘can’t fund’ itself, bankruptcy is always an option.

“There isn’t a Plan B,” said GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson. “Absent support, frankly, the company just can’t fund its operations.”

These auto execs seem unwilling to cut the umbilical cord to the UAW. That leaves the only other option, doing nothing. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi will get them the money they want one way or the other, making the automakers’ appearance this week before congress the obligatory dog and pony show. Pelosi is out to protect and preserve the UAW, not the company that employs them, and these execs know it.

“I believe that an intervention will happen,” Pelosi said at a briefing in Washington. “Everybody is disadvantaged by bankruptcy, including our economy, so that’s not an option.”

Pelosi said Congress will either approve new loans for the auto industry or the Bush administration will provide funding through the $700 billion financial-markets rescue plan approved by Congress last month.

Unfortunately for us taxpayers, and fortunately for the UAW, they will get their (your) money. Don’t you just love it when free enterprise capitalism is interfered with by the government? What makes it worse in this case is that the motivation is only to help big labor, Democrats’ special interest group.

related links: Big Three survival bailout requests rise to $34B | Pelosi Says Bankruptcy by Automakers ‘Not an Option’

Media, Politics

Presidential Leadership, A Quiz

Here are two visions of presidential leadership. One is a top-down approach. The other is more of a collaborative approach. Let’s play pin the leadership on the candidate.

  1. But I understand where the — the vision for change comes from first and foremost. It comes from ME. That’s my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure then that my team is implementing it.
  2. I am going to surround myself with the brightest and the best advisers from all over the country. With competing ideas on how to solve our nations problems. And together we will come up with solutions to our nations problems.
Enter Number 1 2
Barack Obama
John McCain

It would seem that a number 1 man would not need advisers, but yes-men and/or pit bulls around him. A man that knows where he’s going and how to get there. Quite a contrast with a number 2 man, who would more or less govern by committee. That’s why you might be surprised to learn that one of these two men are actually both. Hint: If you are not surprised then you probably voted for President-elect Barack Obama.

Type 1 Obama was borne out of criticism that he has surrounded himself with Clinton administration operatives and what we have is a Clinton third term, only without the sex. Apparently not worried that he totally dissed democrats outside of the Clinton administration by wrongly assuming that there isn’t any talent out there. Just one way that inexperience on the national stage manifests itself. And type 2 Obama was borne out of what he ran his campaign on, CHANGE. He was the one that would bring in disparate groups of advisers and wise men, to get all sides of an issue, then give an informed decision.

If we’ve learned nothing else about Barack Obama, it is that he is an expert at being able to be on all sides of every issue and get away with it.

related link: Obama’s Rich Revelation

Politics

Charles Rangel (D-NY), Should Step Down

Black activist Bishop Council Nedd II, a member of Project 21’s national advisory council, is calling for Rep. Rangel (D-NY) to step down from his position as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee until the House Ethics committee completes its investigation. Nedd said . . .

It’s galling that the head of the committee in charge of levying taxes has either a profound ignorance of tax law or a disinterest in adhering to the laws he wants others to follow.

In your wildest imagination, do you think that if Rangel was a Republican that he would still be Chairman, if not still in the House itself? It isn’t going to happen, but wouldn’t it be cute to see a reporter ask Rangel how many homes he has? Oh, and whether he is paying the proper taxes on them? The double standard is more than a little obvious.

link: Black Activist Calls for Rangel’s Ouster from Congressional Leadership

Economy, Politics

The Fair Tax, Economic Recovery

7 Comments

The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.

Do yourself a favor and get educated on The Fair Tax. The Fair Tax is the result of $22 million worth of research by credible economists from around the country whose task was to come up with another way to fund the operations of the country. The task was qualified to the extent that the result would be ‘revenue neutral.’ That is to say the system must be able to generate as much money as the government is currently generating with the current system through federal withholding and payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, alternative minimum tax, estate and gift tax, and capital gains tax, all of which would be replaced by the Fair Tax. And from that point as the economy grows, so grows the treasury. It is a pro-growth, as opposed to punitive growth, taxing system.

Consequences paramount to converting to the Fair Tax system are three-fold.

First, your individual take-home pay increases dramatically. Without the federal withholding and payroll taxes being deducted from your pay, you get all your pay in every paycheck. This alone is the biggest stimulus to your personal economy as well as our national economy. And it doesn’t put the nation further into debt in the process. Because the taxing revenue is generated by consumption, the tax base includes everyone who buys anything new, not just the working people in America. ‘Everyone’ includes citizens and non-citizens including illegals, foreign diplomats and tourists. And because it is a sales tax, the so-called underground economies are no longer exempt from contributing. Everyone will contribute to funding the government and our Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.

Secondly, it takes the ‘tax hammer’ away from politicians who use it to control every aspect of our lives and business and industry in the United States. It transfers the power from Washington politicians directly back to you. It is this stripping of power from the political class that generates the most objection from the political class, and the most outrageous criticism and unfair demagoguery, of the Fair Tax. Under the Fair Tax, our politicians will be left with nothing to do except their job of governing and living within their means, just like you and I have to do. And since filing of your personal income taxes will cease, April 15th becomes just another day to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

While it is still fresh in your memory, take a look back at the presidential campaign and the amount of press and attention that was given to taxation by both candidates. Besides energy, the other topic was ‘my tax plan is better than your tax plan.’ And polarizing political tactics like class envy and class warfare became all too prominent. Absent tax laws to talk about, the voters would have learned more about the candidates and ‘the real issues.’

Third, but certainly not last, the change to the Fair Tax alone would bring back foreign-held capital, estimated at between $10 to $15 trillion, that economists predict will flow into the US economy with enactment of the FairTax. That is trillions of dollars of business that has fled this country because of its taxing system, the second highest in the world. As an added bonus, companies looking to do business in the United States that have not yet come here, would have the incentive to come here. The job creation and wealth creation associated with it will spur the economy more than any tax-and-spending Democrat or Republican in Washington could dream of.

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