Thursday, April 30, 2015

Report: Thousands of Lois Lerner emails recovered | TheBlaze.com

Report: Thousands of Lois Lerner emails recovered | TheBlaze.com:

"Federal investigators have found about 6,400 emails from disgraced former IRS worker Lois Lerner, and are in the process of getting those emails to Congress.

According to CNN, about 650 emails are from 2010 and 2011, and many of the rest are from 2012. Those are the years when the IRS has admitted to slow-walking requests from conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status."

The Climate Change War Heats Up

The Climate Change War Heats Up:

"We have to ask why our government is engaged in shutting down the coal-fired plants that provide the bulk of the electricity we use. This isn’t just a war on coal. It is a war on our entire economic system, capitalism. It is a war on Americans by their own government.

Lately, politicians at the federal level have declared war on those scientists whose research and findings have helped the public conclude, along with eighteen years of a natural cooling cycle, that “global warming” is no threat and that we have far greater threats to address than the vague notion that “climate change” is a problem we humans can affect in any way. We can’t and we don’t."

12 big car companies are trying to make working on your own car illegal

12 big car companies are trying to make working on your own car illegal - Watchdog.org
Going outside on a warm Saturday afternoon and working on your car is as American as apple pie, for now at least.
The Auto Alliance, a special interest group representing 12 big automobile companies from Ford to Toyota, is pushing an interpretation of a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that would put this do-it-yourself tradition in danger.
These 12 car companies are lobbying hard to make working on the electrical and computer components of your own car illegal. General Motors has told the Copyright Office that proponents of copyright reform mistakenly “conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle.”
General Motors also says that your car qualifies as a “mobile computing device.” Tinkering with it, therefore, could be a copyright violation because although you do own your car, you do not own the computer code inside it...
John Deere goes even further, making the case that you don’t actually own the tractor you buy. You’re just given a license to use it for an extended period of time. John Deere believes owners of tractors have “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.” 

Your tuition (and government money) at "work"---Due process for accused students would ‘chill’ assault reports, Texas Tech says

Due process for accused students would ‘chill’ assault reports, Texas Tech says
Texas Tech University doesn’t want anything to get in the way of students reporting their alleged sexual assaults. 
Not even a fair hearing for those they accuse.
The Daily Toreador reports that the administration wants students to see the disciplinary process as a “learning experience,” so giving them the common trappings of a courtroom would be harmful.
According to Dean of Students Amy Murphy:
Also a part of this model, she said, is the decision that students are not able to cross-examine witnesses, nor are the students’ advisers, during the hearing.
If cross-examination were to be allowed, she said, it would create a chilling effect for future possible reports.
“We want responding and reporting parties to talk to that investigator about the questions that they have for witnesses,” Murphy said, “the information that they want to see in that investigation report.”
That “investigator,” by the way, is “neutral,” according to Murphy.
Student Andy Johnson evidently has more intelligence than his dean:
“I can’t speak for other people and I’m only thinking about if I were accused,” he said, “but if it were me I’d be mad that no one could represent me. I’m a student. How am I supposed to know what to say and what not to say?”
He said if he could change the system, he would make it more like a court system because college is his real world right now, so it should resemble the real world.
In a related article, we’re told four times just how “unbiased” this investigator is:
The investigator, an unbiased fact gatherer within the Office of Student Conduct, will speak first with the student accused in the report or the person who initially filed the report, depending on the type of case, [Associate Director Brittany Todd] said. …
Susan Kruth of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education rips apart these justifications for depriving students of due process...

Senator Cruz Cosponsors Bipartisan Bill Protecting Individual Privacy

Senator Cruz Cosponsors Bipartisan Bill Protecting Individual Privacy:

"Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, released a statement about a bill which he co-sponsored, the USA Freedom Act of 2015, filed on April 28th, 2015. The bill works to reign in bulk record collection by the National Security Agency. His statement reads:"

Mo money for "edjukashun" gonna be the answer?---Not for the kids: 18 Detroit schools closed today because unionized teachers are at a rally

Marathon Pundit: Not for the kids: 18 Detroit schools closed today because unionized teachers are at a rally:
Not for the kids: 18 Detroit schools closed today because unionized teachers are at a rally
When public school teachers when they gather at rallies invariably they say their efforts are "for the kids."
Well, today thousands of Detroit students are staying home today because their teachers are at the state capitol for a protest.

Detroit Public Schools closed 18 schools today as hundreds of teachers headed to Lansing to rally against Gov. Rick Snyder's intended changes for the district.

"The union is up on its feet, ready to do what it takes to support our students and fight for their right to an equal, quality education," Steve Conn, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said in a news release.

The union said in the release that teachers were going to the Capitol to "express teachers' support for public education and determined opposition to Gov. Snyder's efforts to expand charters and the EAA [Education Achievement Authority] in Detroit."
"Hundreds of parents are probably taking an unplanned day off from work.
Why can't these teachers protest on the weekends when schools are closed?
Detroit parents should be rallying against their teachers."

I'm thinkin' the most hurtful trigger-word for liberal minorities would be "work"--- The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words

Michelle Malkin | » The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words:
Thumper the Rabbit’s parents always taught him, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” 
If the left’s self-appointed Omniscient Diviners of True Meaning have their way, conservatives in the public square won’t be left with anything at all to say. 
Ever.
It’s a treacherous business exercising your freedom of speech in the age of Obama. 
As a public service, I present to you: 
“The 2012 Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words.” 
Decoder rings, activate!
Angry. On the campaign trail this summer, President Obama has become — in the words of the mainstream Associated Press — more “aggressive.” But don’t you dare call him “angry.” According to MSNBC host Toure, that’s racist!
“You notice he said ‘anger’ twice,” Toure fumed in response to a speech last week by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man.” Or maybe Romney is just accurately describing the singular temperament of the growling, finger-jabbing, failure-plagued demagogue-in-chief. It’s about the past four years, not 400 years. Sheesh.
Chicago. The Obamas and their core team of astroturfers, pay-for-play schemers and powerbrokers hail from the Windy City. This is a simple geographic fact. But in progressive of pallor Chris Matthews’ world, it’s an insidious dog whistle. The frothing cable TV host attacked Republicans this week who have the gall to remind voters of the ruthless Chicago way.
“(T)hey keep saying Chicago, by the way. Have you noticed?” Matthews sputtered. “That sends that message: This guy’s helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods and screwing us in the ‘burbs.”
Actually, it’s a pointed reminder that the radical redistribution politics of Chicago-on-the-Potomac have done little to alleviate the suffering of impoverished Americans in violence-plagued, job-hungry inner cities everywhere. Racist!
Constitution. Fox News contributor Juan Williams, who proudly calls himself a “real reporter,” has apparently added real telepathist to his curriculum vitae. Earlier this year, he read the minds of Republicans and conservatives whom he accuses of deep-seated bigotry when they show any public reverence for our founding principles, documents and leaders.
“The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message,” Williams wrote. “References to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the ‘Constitution’ also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.'”
So, if you ever find yourself wanting to hum the “Schoolhouse Rock” version of the Preamble, heed these three words: Stop the hate!
Read 'em all!

Israelis Were Asked to Name the ‘Worst’ U.S. President for Israel of the Last 40 Years. Guess Who They Chose. | TheBlaze.com

Israelis Were Asked to Name the ‘Worst’ U.S. President for Israel of the Last 40 Years. Guess Who They Chose. | TheBlaze.com:

"More than 60 percent of Israeli Jews named President Barack Obama as the “worst” U.S. president for Israel in the past four decades, according to a new poll published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal."



Headbanger? Oh baby, the boyz in the hood ain't gonna like this------Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says

Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says - The Washington Post:
"BALTIMORE — A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him.
His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court.
The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van.
It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe."

Poll: MSNBC least trustworthy source of news, Fox News ranked first---Fishwrap: Just 2% of younger Americans trust media to 'do the right thing'

Fishwrap: Just 2% of younger Americans trust media to 'do the right thing' | WashingtonExaminer.com
The media limps in dead last among institutions younger voters trust to "do the right thing," according to a new and massive Harvard University survey.
In the school's Institute of Politics poll of over 3,000 18-29-year-olds, a tiny 12 percent said they believe the do the right thing.
A whopping 88 percent said "sometimes" or "never."
Just 2 percent said they trusted the media to do the right thing "all of the time," and 39 percent said "never."
The poll is the latest nail in the media's coffin, a downward spiral that has resulted in fewer younger Americans reading traditional media and especially traditional platforms such as newspapers and magazines.
And for the industry, it could be even worse, coming in behind perennial last place finisher Congress, Wall Street and the federal government.
Topping the trust list were "scientists," the military and local police.

Venezuela Rations Electricity, Blames Climate Change

Venezuela Rations Electricity, Blames Climate Change - Breitbart
The Venezuelan government will begin rationing electrical supplies this week in response to high demand triggered by heat. 
Public employees will only have to work six hours a day until further notice, and police units will be sent to inspect private businesses to ensure they only use their allotted amounts. Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Arreaza blamed the measures on climate change.
El Universal reports that the rationing was described by Arreaza as a “preventive action” to avoid blackouts. 
The Venezuelan government is responsible for providing electricity in the socialist nation, and concerns that power is running out in the OPEC nation have triggered alarm that power may be next on a list of basic scarcities in Venezuela that include milk, laundry detergent, and vegetable oil.
...Vice President Arreaza also made a bizarre call for the use of “autogenerated” electricity to reduce demand on the government’s plants. 
“Both the public sector as well as large [private] consumers should opt for autogeneration,” he said in the statement announcing the new plan. 
“That is to say, that they use their own equipment and plants to generate electricity, especially in peak hours, and not use the National System.”
Arreaza blamed capitalism and climate change for the growing energy crisis. 
“This is, of course, linked to global warming and the excessive industrialization of capitalism, which never stops, nor has ever stopped, for the effects that it can have on the climate, on society and on Mother Earth,” Mr. Arreaza said in public statements quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
The Venezuelan government has blamed capitalism almost without fault in response to all the nation’s scarcities, though opponents of the socialist state suggest that government mismanagement is a far more significant factor in their economic decline. 
Venezuela boasts some of the largest oil reserves in the world, much of which is used to curry favor with Caribbean nations in exchange for public support. 
The result is a significant loss in resources that could have been sold at market prices or traded for the basic goods for which Venezuela installed ration cards in March 2014: cooking oil, flour, milk, and other household objects. 
At one point in the summer of 2014, the Venezuelan government was forced to begin rationing water. 
Supermarket lines to buy household items routinely last up to six hours as demand for products has failed to meet supply.

So Why Exactly Does Baltimore Own a Money-Losing Hilton?

So Why Exactly Does Baltimore Own a Money-Losing Hilton? - Hit & Run : Reason.com
In the comments of my previous post on Baltimore's corporate welfare-tastic Camden Yards, Plàya Manhattan wrote
"No mention of the City of Baltimore owned Hilton?... It only lost $5.6 million last year. That's practically making money!"
And OMG it's true. 
Here's The Baltimore Sun from three weeks back:
The city-owned Hilton Baltimore convention center hotel lost $5.6 million last year — a worse performance than 2013 despite its close location to Camden Yards and the Orioles' playoff run.
It was the seventh consecutive year that the hotel has underperformed financially, according to an audit of financial statements presented Wednesday to the city's Board of Estimates. Under the deal's initial projections, the hotel was supposed to be making $7 million in profit by now — pumping that mone into the city's budget.
Well, I hope we can at least blame a current presidential candidate. Oh look, we can!
The 757-room convention center hotel opened in August 2008, two years after then-Mayor Martin O'Malley and the City Council authorized more than $300 million in tax-exempt bonds to finance its construction. The interest rates on the bonds range from 4.6 percent to nearly 5.9 percent. The hotel paid $15.6 million in interest last year.
The hotel has lost more than $70 million since it opened.
Look, the economics on this stuff is not obscure. 
Reason was writing about the well-documented "municipal money pits" of publicly financed  convention centers in 2002
A search through our archives on "convention center" and "subsidies" begins spitting out stuff in early 1980s. 
Wasting money on government capitalism is a deliberate, conscious choice, one that does material damage to polities. 
Every dollar, every ounce of managerial effort wasted on these boondoggles is an energy unit not expended covering the basics—public safety, protecting citizens’ rights, a clear and hopefully low-hassle regulatory and tax climate that allows individuals and businesses to create their own success, and so on...

Guess Who the 1st Legal Slave Owner in America Was? Don't Expect the Media to Report This

Guess Who the 1st Legal Slave Owner in America Was? Don't Expect the Media to Report This:

"Many Americans think they know the history of slavery because it has been taught in schools, repeated through popular films, and mentioned on numerous occasions by those in the media.

But here is something you probably didn’t know: The first recorded American slave owner was a black man."



THE BLUE-CITY MODEL

Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE BLUE-CITY MODEL:  The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial today, explaining how the …:
THE BLUE-CITY MODEL:  The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial today, explaining how the Baltimore riots demonstrate the utter failure of progressivism in urban America:
The men and women in charge have been Democrats, and their governing ideas are “progressive.” This model, with its reliance on government and public unions, has dominated urban America as once-vibrant cities such as Baltimore became shells of their former selves. In 1960 Baltimore was America’s sixth largest city with 940,000 people. It has since shed nearly a third of its population and today isn’t in the top 25.
The dysfunctions of the blue-city model are many, but the main failures are three: high crime, low economic growth and failing public schools that serve primarily as jobs programs for teachers and administrators rather than places of learning.
Baltimore is not America’s problem or shame. That failed city is solely and completely a Democrat problem. Like many failed cities, Detroit comes to mind, and every city besieged recently by rioting, Democrats and their union pals have had carte blanche to inflict their ideas and policies on Baltimore since 1967, the last time there was a Republican Mayor. . . .
Liberalism and all the toxic government dependence and cronyism and union corruption and failed schools that comes along with it, has run amok in Baltimore for a half-century, and that is Baltimore’s problem. . . .
Poverty has nothing to do with it. This madness and chaos and anarchy is a Democrat-driven culture that starts at the top with a racially-divisive White House heartbreakingly effective at ginning up hate and violence.
"Nolte’s right:  The rioting in Ferguson and Baltimore isn’t driven by poverty, race, or even police brutality.  It’s driven by progressive culture, which teaches that successful business people “didn’t build that,” accepts abortion/divorce/children out of wedlock as normal behavior, proclaims that poor children (particularly minorities) cannot succeed, that police and authority in general are the “enemy,” and that law is rigged against minorities.  Urban music, “leaders” like Al Sharpton, and a Democrat strategy of balkanizing Americans through identity politics–echoed daily by mainstream media–has created a culture that has no respect for the rule of law.  In the eyes of progressives, the American Dream is dead, and they are literally dancing on its grave.
Until this progressive culture changes (if it ever can) or is marginalized politically, we will have lawless behavior every time these destructive, sociopathic cultural expectations are reinforced by tragedies like the deaths of Michael Brown or Freddie Gray."

Study: 'Irreversible' Arctic Decline Is Totally Reversible

Study: 'Irreversible' Arctic Decline Is Totally Reversible | The Daily Caller:
"For years, scientists have been warning the Arctic was in a “death spiral” and could soon be ice-free during the summertime and shrink to unprecedented levels due to man-made global warming.
Such ice loss could be “irreversible,” some scientists claimed.
But new research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography says that predictions of an ice-free Arctic are based on “oversimplified” theories. 
..“Our results show that the basis for a sea ice tipping point doesn’t hold up when these additional processes are considered,” echoed Till Wagner, also a Scripps scientist.
“In other words, no tipping point is likely to devour what’s left of the Arctic summer sea ice...”
...“I would argue that, from a practical perspective, we almost have a seasonally ice-free Arctic now, because multiyear sea ice is the barrier to the use and development of the Arctic,” Barber said.
But such predictions have fallen flat, as the Arctic has seen a resurgence of multi-year ice since 2009...
NSIDC and European satellite data show that multi-year sea ice made a big comeback in 2013 and 2014 — increasing from 2.25 to 3.17 million square kilometers during that time and making up 43 percent of the north pole’s ice pack.
In fact, Arctic sea ice extent as a whole seems to be stabilizing despite this year’s record low maximum in February.
NSIDC data shows Arctic sea ice extent is currently within the normal range based on the 1981 to 2010 average extent.
“Global sea ice is at a record high, another key indicator that something is working in the opposite direction of what was predicted,” Dr. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, told the U.K. Express in January.
“Most people think the poles are melting… they’re not,” he said. 
“This is a huge inconvenience that reality is now catching up with climate alarmists, who were predicting that the poles would be melting fairly soon.”"

History for April 30


History for April 30 - On-This-Day.com:
Cornelius Vanderbilt 1898, Robert Shaw 1916, John (Johnny) Horton 1925 


Cloris Leachman 1926 - Actress ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Phyllis"), Willie Nelson 1933 - Musican, Kirsten Dunst 1982 - Actress ("Spider-Man") 


1789 - George Washington took office as first elected U.S. president. 


1803 - The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. 


1900 - Casey Jones was killed while trying to save the runaway train "Cannonball Express." 


1943 - The British submarine HMS Seraph dropped 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain. 


1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. They had been married for one day. One week later Germany surrendered unconditionally. 


1947 - The name of Boulder Dam, in Nevada, was changed back to Hoover Dam. 


1993 - Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a tennis match in Hamburg, Germany. The man called himself a fan of second- ranked Steffi Graf. He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and received a suspended sentence. 


1998 - United and Delta airlines announced their alliance that would give them control of 1/3 of all U.S. passenger seats.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2015/04/american-tyranny-by-tammy-derouin.html


American Tyranny

By Tammy Derouin

A friend of mine stopped me and asked what was new in politics.  I stated that lies have become normal acceptable practice. Lies and deceit are nothing new, especially in politics.  What is disturbing is how our attitudes have changed.  We accepted deceit.

Lying is now fashionable.  Politicians who have been caught in countless lies, questionable and unethical behavior, wear their deceit with pride. Actions which should have cost them their careers are seemingly prerequisites for their next post.  They smile as they have the audacity to ask the American people to trust them and elect them back into office. 


Shame on us!  We no longer distance ourselves from the shadowy figures.  We no longer demand accountability or punishment for those who conspire against us.  A lair is a liar and a thief is a thief. We have allowed our government to become both.  Because we decided to look the other way when things didn’t sound right or didn’t add up, we have created American Tyranny.  

Cleveland teachers union objects to basic dress code

Cleveland teachers union objects to basic dress code
Sometimes teachers’ unions have a beef with the most trivial of issues — in Cleveland’s case, a very basic dress code which would prohibit jeans and sweatpants (except on designated days).
Seriously.
“Students in the Cleveland schools have a dress code, said [District Chief Academic Officer Michelle] Pierre-Farid, so teachers should also follow some standard.”
Pierre-Farid and other administrators have seen “teachers in T-shirts and jeans – not just on school spirit days or and not just shirts with the school name or logo.”
Some of the shirts have been inappropriate, too, such as one “with a beer can on it.”
She [Pierre-Farid] has also seen teachers in short skirts and sometimes not wearing shoes, but “flip-flops” instead.
“Most of our teachers do dress professionally, so this is not an issue for them,” Pierre-Farid said. But all teachers should meet a standard, just like the students.
“To say that we will dress professionally, as well, is not too much to ask for,” she said.
CTU [Cleveland Teachers Union] President David Quolke said teachers believe in dressing professionally, but these Corrective Action Plans are not the place to do it.
He said: “There are some people, not just teachers, you want to say, ‘Aww, come on, spruce it up a bit.’ But it isn’t a pervasive problem. It’s not something that they can’t figure out on a school by school basis...”

Government imposed power shortages on the way?---7 Consumers Energy coal plants to close in Michigan by 2016

7 Consumers Energy coal plants to close in Michigan by 2016:
"The problem Consumers Energy faces is coming up with replacement energy production to offset the loss due to the closing of the coal plants, according to Lewis.
Building a new power plant with all the Environmental Protection Agency standards in place can take more than a decade, she said.
“One of the reason we’re not replacing (power plants), EPA regulations are so costly to bring these 45-year-old plants up to standard, it is not cost effective for the company or the customer,” she said. “You have to get all sorts of permits.
If you ever dealt with the government at the state and federal level they move at their own pace. It takes a while.
Lewis reported that because of the loss of the power plants there will be a 3 gigawatt shortage in 2016 in Michigan.
“The big deal there is that 91 percent of that 3 percent is in lower Michigan,” she said.
“There’s a real concern there...”

School Has a Defiant Mother on Its Hands After Sending Her Daughter Home With Partially Eaten Lunch and This Note | Video | TheBlaze.com

School Has a Defiant Mother on Its Hands After Sending Her Daughter Home With Partially Eaten Lunch and This Note | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"But Pearson was stunned when her daughter returned home with a partially eaten lunch and a note from Children’s Academy in Aurora, Colorado. The mother claimed the girl was prohibited from eating her Oreos because they weren’t nutritious enough."

Add another word to "those words whitey must not say" list----Councilman Drops N-Word, Says 'Thugs' Not Right Term

Councilman Drops N-Word, Says 'Thugs' Not Right Term | The Daily Caller
Baltimore City councilman Carl Stokes said Tuesday that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and President Barack Obama should “just call” the rioters “niggers, not “thugs,” as protests continued in West Baltimore early in the evening.
Stokes made the comments during an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on the news network Tuesday night after both Obama and the Baltimore mayor used the term “thugs” to refer to those who destroyed property and parts of Baltimore Monday night.
ERIN BURNETT: Councilman, you know, it’s interesting because the mayor of Baltimore, who has come under a lot of criticism, scathing criticism, for her handling this, referred to the people who were doing this last night as thugs, and she got a lot of criticism about that. There were people I saw on Twitter who said why would you call them thugs? Now they’re not going to listen to you. President Obama also called them in his words ‘criminals’ and ‘thugs.’ He also carefully chose to use that word. Isn’t it the right word?
CARL STOKES: No, of course it’s not the right word to call our children thugs. These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us. No. We don’t have to call them thugs.
BURNETT: How does that justify what they did? I mean, that’s a sense of right from wrong. They know it’s wrong to steal and burn down a CBS and an old person’s home. I mean, come on.
STOKES: Come on? So calling them thugs — just call them niggers. Just call them niggers. No. We don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that. That is exactly what we have set them to. No. When you say come on, come on what? You wouldn’t call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would expect them to do.
BURNETT: Look, I respect your point of view. I hope I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing.

Sooo, do we REALLY need a $2 BILLION tax increase?-----Budget Cut to the Bone? It's Increased by $5 Billion the Last Three Years

Budget Cut to the Bone? It's Increased by $5 Billion the Last Three Years [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
ForTheRecord says: The trajectory of state spending tells a different story. 
Images from 
Budget Cut to the Bone? It's Increased by $5 Billion the Last Three YearsHere is the Michigan state budget by year, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency:
2011-12: $47.6 billion
2012-13: $47.8 billion
2013-14: $50.4 billion
2014-15: $52.3 billion

New tool for PC Nazis "Microaggression"---Chick-fil-A rejected for Johns Hopkins Univ., eatery called ‘microaggression’

Chick-fil-A rejected for Johns Hopkins Univ., eatery called ‘microaggression’
At Johns Hopkins University this week, capitalism was trumped by political correctness.
The Student Government Association there approved a resolution that called on administrators to put to a halt any discussions or plans to bring a Chick-fil-A to campus, citing the company’s support of traditional marriage and saying the restaurant, if allowed at Johns Hopkins, would be a campus “microaggression.”
“The SGA does not support the proposal of a Chick-fil-A, in a current or future sense, particularly on any location that is central to student life,” states the resolution passed by the student government, which noted “visiting prospective and current students, staff, faculty, and other visitors who are members of the LGBTQ+ community or are allies would be subjected to the microaggression of supporting current or future Chick-fil-A development plans.”
...That student, junior Andrew Guernsey, president of Johns Hopkins University Voice for Life, wrote about the recent decision on National Reviewstating
“The JHU student government’s vote this week to ban any hypothetical future Chick-fil-A outlet from campus because of the company owner’s support for traditional marriage … sends a clear message that students who disagree with liberal orthodoxy are not welcome on the Hopkins campus.”...

Exposed: Obama's Massive New Program To Stack The Deck Against The GOP In 2016 And Beyond

Exposed: Obama's Massive New Program To Stack The Deck Against The GOP In 2016 And Beyond:

"Now, given what the current president is doing in an apparent effort to stack the deck against Republicans in 2016 and beyond, a former Justice Department official is warning that there’s something very wrong with what Obama and his DHS are trying to pull off."

Economic disaster!!---US 1Q GDP up 0.2% vs up 1.0% expected

US 1Q GDP up 0.2% vs up 1.0% expected
U.S. economic growth braked more sharply than expected in the first quarter as harsh weather dampened consumer spending and energy companies struggling with low prices slashed spending, but there are signs activity is picking up.

Gross domestic product expanded at an only 0.2 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. 
That was a big step down from the fourth quarter's 2.2 percent pace and marked the weakest reading in a year.

Only 1 in 5 expected to vote on Michigan roads, sales tax

Only 1 in 5 expected to vote on Michigan roads, sales tax:
"LANSING – An elections expert is projecting that 1.5 million Michigan voters will turn out for the May 5 road funding special election on Proposal 1.
That's less than the 2.4 million in Michigan who voted in the Proposal A special election of 1994, but higher than some analysts have predicted.
..."If I have to guess, I'd pick 1.5 million, as of right now," Grebner, a political consultant whose firm is known for its extensive voter lists, said in an e-mail to the Free Press. "But nothing between 1.2 (million) and 1.8 (million) would surprise me."
Proposal 1 would hike the state sales tax to 7% from 6%, take the sales tax off fuel sales, and hike fuel taxes — raising close to $1.3 billion extra for roads.
When fully implemented, the plan would also generate about $200 million a year more for schools; $116 million for transit and rail; send $111 million more to local governments; and give a $260-million tax break to low- and moderate-income families through restoration of the Earned Income Tax Credit.
If 1.5 million people vote, that would equate to a turnout of about 21% of registered voters -- similar to the turnout in many primaries. 
About 1.3 million people voted in the 2014 primary, for an 18% turnout; about 1.5 million voters in the 2012 primary (21%); and about 1.7 million voted in the 2010 primary (23%)."

How the Clinton Foundation Spent its Money in 2013

Doug Ross @ Journal: STUNNING NEW CHART O` THE DAY: How the Clinton Foundation Spent its Money in 2013:
"Before Hillary left office in 2013, the Clintons appeared bound and determined to slurp up as much money into their Foundation as possible, spending as little on direct aid as one could imagine for a "charity". The New York Post reports:
The Clinton Foundation's finances are so messy that the nation's most influential charity watchdog put it on its "watch list" of problematic nonprofits last month."

Bush Rips Obama, Left Has a Cow - The Rush Limbaugh Show

Bush Rips Obama, Left Has a Cow - The Rush Limbaugh Show:

"He also said Obama was misreading Iran’s intentions while relaxing sanctions on Tehran too easily." How can anybody see it otherwise?  This isn't even bashing.  This is just correct observation and commentary.  "Bush said that Obama’s plan to lift sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at any time was not plausible. He also said the deal would be bad for American national security in the long term: 'You think the Middle East is chaotic now?

"'Imagine what it looks like for our grandchildren. That’s how Americans should view the deal.' Bush then went into a detailed criticism of Obama’s policies in fighting the Islamic State and dealing with the chaos in Iraq. "

The Other Clinton Foundation Scandal

The Other Clinton Foundation Scandal - Investors.com:
Corruption: If the Clintons haven't used their foundation as a favor bank for foreign governments and businessinterests, what was it for? It couldn't have been about helping people.
In the wake of revelations about the curious timing between donations to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation and favorable policies during Hillary's tenure as secretary of state, the foundation has admitted to making a couple bookkeeping "mistakes" involving foreign donations.
But the foundation, the Clintons and their phalanx of defenders all insist there's absolutely no evidence of any quid pro quo. If that's the case, just what were these foreigners donating money for?
The foundation's annual report talks about "improving global health, increasing opportunity for women and girls, reducing childhood obesity and preventable disease, creating economic opportunity and growth, and helping communities address the effects of climate change." And its website is full of photos and stories showing how the great work is being done.
Even the spending looks above-board: $68.3 million in 2013 for "program services expenses," equal to 80% of total expenses, according to its Form 990, which non-profits submit each year to the IRS.
But a closer look at the numbers shows a mere 13% of program expenses — and just 10% of total spending — went for grants and aid. And despite its global pretensions, most of the aid stayed in the U.S. The rest went to salaries, conferences, travel and other overhead costs.
In fact, the Clinton Foundation was more generous to conference organizers than the poor. The IRS filing shows it spent $9 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, compared to $8.9 million in aid...

Michigan Voters Faced With $2 Billion Tax Hike on May 5 Ballot

Michigan Voters Faced With $2 Billion Tax Hike on May 5 Ballot | Americans for Tax Reform
In a few weeks Michigan voters will go to the polls to decide the fate of Proposal 1 – a $2 billion tax increase referred to the ballot by the state legislature. While most polls show this massive tax increase trailing, crony-spending interests are making a last ditch attempt to increase support for Proposal 1.
The ballot measure would amend the Michigan Constitution, increasing the sales and use tax rate to 7 percent. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy also notes:
These changes are “tie-barred” with eight legislative bills that will go into effect if voters approve of Proposal 1. These laws would hike the sales and use tax to 7 percent, create a new wholesale fuel tax of 41.7 cents per gallon and earmark this revenue for roads, increase the state’s earned income tax credit, boost spending on one public school program and create new rules pertaining to road construction projects for the Michigan Department of Transportation. 
study on the impact Proposal 1 would have on taxpayers has revealed that the sales and use tax increase would amount to a $1.4 billion tax increase and the new, higher fuel tax would amount to a $463 million tax increase (also outpacing the rate of inflation).
James Hohman from the Mackinac Center has produced an excellent study detailing the flaws of Proposal 1, including serious concerns with how Michigan’s road funding works. Hohman notes:
Road construction in Michigan is primarily paid for with revenues from fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees. Since these taxes are paid by people driving vehicles on public roads, they function as a user fee.
Taxes motorists pay do not meet the strict definition of user fees, however. Vehicle registration taxes for passenger vehicles, for example, are based on their value rather than their estimated wear on the roads. Further, hybrid and electric cars tend to be heavier and thus cause more wear on the roads, but owners of these vehicles buy less fuel and pay less in fuel taxes. People purchasing fuel for use in lawnmowers, snowmobiles or other recreational vehicles also pay for road maintenance.
Despite these divergences, the bulk of taxed fuel in Michigan is purchased for use by vehicles operating on government-funded roads.* But these taxes also can be appropriated for other purposes, which reduces their functioning as user fees. For instance, 10 percent of fuel taxes go to transit operations.
Americans for Tax Reform urges Michigan voters to oppose Proposal 1 and tell the Michigan legislature to find cost effective and pro-growth ways to fund the state’s transportation needs without lining the pockets of crony-spending interests.