Political Populism, Not Economics, Behind Minimum Wage Proposal

Richard Larsen  "Sleight of hand and illusion have their role in the entertainment world, but when the same tactics are employed in the real world, the stakes are much greater, and the intent more dubious. David Copperfield has met his match in fabricated magic and illusionary tactics. For as any illusionist knows, in order to avoid letting the spectator see what’s really going on, you distract the spectator’s attention. And none are better at that than those leading the country today."...

 

"There is another inconvenient truth that the advocates of raising the minimum wage need to address. Our de facto open border policy has depressed wages. Approximately a million low-skilled workers illegally come into the country every year, driving down wages, especially at the lower end of the spectrum. Harvard economist George Borjas has documented how our immigration policies have reduced American wages by $402 billion a year, while increasing profits for employers by $437 billion a year."

Associated Press award winning columnist Richard Larsen is President of Larsen Financial, a brokerage and financial planning firm in Pocatello, Idaho and is a graduate of Idaho State University with degrees in Political Science and History and coursework completed toward a Master’s in Public Administration.  He can be reached at rlarsenen@cableone.net .

Remember those War on Women guys yelling "Iron My Shirt" at Hillary in 2008?

http://legalinsurrection.com/tag/a-f-branco/

2008: Hillary Clinton ‘Iron My Shirt’ Stunt 

 

"AllahPundit then tracked these guys through MySpace and other far reaches of the internets and figured out that these clowns work for the “Toucher and Rich Show” in Boston, which apparently does this kind of thing with some regularity. SeeDubya has found instances going back to 2003."

Newsbusters backed this up in 2008.

 

Watch for the "War On Women" meme all this next year. 

Canadian commentator Rex Murphy: Putin and Obama

"Rex compares Vladimir Putin to Barack Obama and wonders whether either leader measures up?"

Rex Murphy (born March 1947) is a Canadian commentator and author, primarily on Canadian political and social matters.

Hat tip to Amanda Zurawski Kaffenberger at Chicks On The Right

Surviving Obama

Twitter suspends American Orthodox Jew for tweeting

anti-Obama cartoon about Israel

 

 Caroline Glick  "Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg (pictured here with the President) minced few words in discussing the interview that US President Barack Obama gave him on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s latest visit to Washington."

 

"Speaking with journalist Charlie Rose, Goldberg equated Obama’s threat to stop supporting Israel in international forums to the talk of a mafia don. Obama told Goldberg that if Israel doesn’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, “our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.” He added, “And that has consequences.”

 

"That statement, Goldberg noted, was a “veiled threat” and “almost up there with, ‘Nice little Jewish state you’ve got there. Hate to see something happen to it.’” Goldberg saw the interview as Obama’s way of showing that he is beginning to abandon the pretense of supporting Israel, now that he no longer faces reelection. In Goldberg’s words, “It’s not that the gloves are coming off. It’s more that the mask of diplomatic language is coming off a little bit.' ”

Full article

 

As we previously posted here: Only Americans (and our allies) Fear Obama

Victory! Senate Rejects Obama’s Choice of Cop-Killer’s Advocate As Head of DoJ’s Civil Rights Division

Atlas Shrugs  "The fact that Obama chose Debo Adegbile for this post in the first place shows how much of a subversive hater of  American values the

Faulkner, his widow, and Mumia

egotist in the White House really is. Mumia Abu-Jamal murdered a policeman in cold blood. He has been a cause celebre among the left, and they have tried numerous times to get him freed, but he is still in prison because the evidence is so overwhelming that he is guilty. And Obama wanted an advocate for this murderer to be head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. It shows how much he values our nation’s police officers."

....

"In a statement released following the vote, Obama blasted the senators who voted against Adegbile’s nomination, saying they “denied the American people an outstanding public servant.' ”

 

Explaining the Mumia Abu-Jamal Controversy   "Mr. Abu-Jamal is imprisoned for a 1981 shooting that left officer Daniel Faulkner dead. At traffic stop involving Mr. Abu-Jamal’s brother, police said, Mr. Abu-Jamal shot Mr. Faulkner several times, killing him.

 

"A revolver registered to Mr. Abu-Jamal was found at the scene. Mr. Abu-Jamal, a radio reporter and former Black Panther, also was a supporter of MOVE, a black separatist organization that clashed repeatedly with Philadelphia police.

 

"A jury convicted Mr. Abu-Jamal in the fatal shooting, and he later was sentenced to death. The case has drawn international attention as supporters argued he was innocent and that racism led to Mr. Abu-Jamal’s conviction."

 

How Mumia Abu-Jamal doomed Debo Adegbile in the Senate  "Following a morning vote on President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, vulnerable Democrats who voted for Debo Adegbile's confirmation were already in the line of fire."

(Updated) Remember all the reporting of the Issa-Cummings kerfuffle is to make you forget the IRS hearings

Cartoon update by Tony Branco

 

Democrats Unleash the IRS Tyrant   ... "The Democrat answer to the voter’s revolt is the IRS.  From now on, the IRS will openly suppress the conservative vote. 

" 'The White House is working to make permanent the IRS targeting of opposition groups before the 2014 election.  According to Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal, “Treasury appears to have reverse-engineered the carefully tailored rule—combing through the list of previously targeted tea party groups, compiling a list of their main activities and then restricting those functions.' ” ...

 

Texas's Ted Cruz offered an amendment to prohibit IRS employees from deliberately targeting individuals or groups based on political views. It was unanimously rejected by every member of the Democratic majority.

 

The IRS Outrage  "Behind the Obama administration's sham inquiry."

"The choice of Bosserman to lead the IRS investigation made headlines in January when it was revealed that the career DOJ lawyer had contributed thousands of dollars to Obama’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. That obviously raised red flags with Republicans—Rep. Darrell Issa called it a “startling conflict of interest”—but perhaps the more important question was, why Bosserman?

 

“ 'It’s very odd,” one source familiar with the congressional investigation said of Bosserman’s selection for the job. “Out of 10,000 attorneys at the Department of Justice, why was she chosen?' ”

Legal Insurrection

 

Mona Charen; For Democrats, anyone who disagrees is a racist — even other Democrats.   "There is still some real racism in America. It is found among all racial groups, but is no less ugly for that. The false accusation of racism is just as despicable. Republicans have let Democrats get away with slander for too long."

 

Lerner Pleads 5th AGAIN--All Hell Breaks Loose!!   "...Lerner swears (again) to tell the whole truth and nothing but it, but as she's questioned about her IRS-led probe into conservative organizations, she pleads the fifth. Issa shuts down the hearing while Elijah Cummings (D-MD) tries to defend Lerner. Issa shuts off his mic and leaves the room. Cummings gets his mic back on and continues his defense of Lerner proclaiming that there was "no conspiring against conservative organizations" by Lerner's IRS. As Cummings spoke, Lerner appears breathless."  Watch it all here. 

The scorched earth tyranny of Obamacare

 

Another Illegal Obamacare Edict?    "President Obama is planning to break the law, once again, in an effort to protect vulnerable Democrats in the Senate. According to news reports, “the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet Obamacare’s minimum coverage requirements.” In the absence of this “directive,” health insurance companies would have to cancel millions of health policies just a few weeks before November’s congressional elections. Obama’s edict would theoretically forestall, until after those crucial midterms, a tsunami of voter outrage that would inevitably drown the reelection prospects of many Democrats."

Obamacare and the politics of deception   "American liberals see their work as a heroic struggle — both noble and arduous — because, in the words of The New Republic’s John Judis, “since the country’s founding, Americans have always had an abiding distrust of the federal government.” There have been occasional breakthroughs — in the 1930s and, more briefly, the 1960s and after Obama’s election in 2008 — but the default setting is the public’s robust skepticism of government."

 

 

Should Republicans have demanded Pelosi's resignation for this?

First this: Dems Want Issa Stripped Of Chair For Disrespect
All to make us forget Lois Lerner taking the 5th about turning the IRS on us. And the press is the willing enabler of this corruption.

Now, on to this:
2 Flashbacks: Dems Cut Off Lights, Lock Out GOP  

(All emphases in the original)

August 01, 2008

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House… They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m…"

 ....

"Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt [sic], and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker’s Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers. “You’re not covering this, are you?” complaing [sic] one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans “morons” for staying on the floor."

 

"And from the 2009 archives of a highly amused Washington Post:

"Partisan anger in House brings lockout of committee Republicans

"By Ben Pershing | Friday, October 23, 2009

… Democrats on a House committee changed the locks on a hearing room door in retaliation for an embarrassing video posted online by panel Republicans…" 

 

So much for a wise governing body. TD

Krauthammer: Obama, Russia, and the Wages of Weakness. Dana Milbank disagrees.

"The American president’s feckless foreign policy is a boon for Vladimir Putin’s ambitions."

Charles Krauthammer ...“ 'That is not 21st-century, G-8, major-nation behavior,” says Kerry. Makes invasion sound like a breach of etiquette — like using the wrong fork at a Beacon Hill dinner party."

....

"How to figure out Obama’s foreign policy? In his first U.N. speech, he says: “No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation.” On what planet? Followed by the assertion that “alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone Cold War” — like NATO? – “make no sense in an interconnected world.”

 

"Putin’s more cynical advisers might have thought such adolescent universalism to be a ruse. But Obama coupled these amazing words with even more amazing actions." Read the rest here.

 

 Dana Milbank from the same WaPo wonders how such a decisive president can be referred to as Obama, the feckless tyrant.    "Six weeks ago, Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a Senate candidate, posted a photo of Obama on Facebook with the messages “Stop the imperial president” and “Stop the Obama power grab.” Now Cotton has issued a statement accusing the president of “trembling inaction.”

"Grabbing power with trembling inaction? Only the most diffident of despots could pull that off."

Mr. Milbank, as has been posted previously in this blog, only the American people and our allies have cause to fear this president. Take a map of the world and place a red dot on each country that is the home of  people who desire to kill as many Americans as possible.

Then place a green dot on each nation that Obama has apologized to for any reason.

How many are the same country?

Conservatives and businesses in the US are  the only ones to have seen this presidents decisiveness close up. TD 

CBC asks that Issa be stripped of gavel; more coverage on this to come in the Tunnel Wall

Smokescreen to hide the main story: Lois Lerner taking the 5th.

 

The Hill

 

... "Issa has suggested that Cummings, the Oversight panel’s top Democrat and a CBC member, is the one who should be apologizing.

 

"The Oversight chairman told reporters that he had already told Cummings that there wouldn’t be opening statements, because Wednesday’s hearing was technically a continuation of Lerner’s earlier appearance.

 

"Issa also said that Cummings has gone to great lengths to impede the committee’s oversight efforts."

That CBC’s outrage was echoed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

 

Ron Fournier takes on both factions

Conservatives are applauding Issa for shutting down a Democrat. Without evidence, the Right has convicted Lerner, the IRS, the White House, and President Obama of abuse of power.

• Liberals are applauding Cummings for standing up to Issa. Without evidence, the Left exonerated everybody. The fact that liberal nonprofits also were targeted is relevant, but not conclusive.

If Issa had been a Democrat and Cummings a Republican: FLASHBACK: Henry Waxman Threatens Issa During Hearing, “I Will Have You Physically Removed If You Don’t Stop”…

"The Congressional Black Caucus oddly enough didn’t call Waxman a “disgrace” and demand Pelosi remove him as House Oversight Chairman."

MSNBC's Mr. Farrow and the Obama Syndrome

Liberalism breeds mediocrity; extreme liberalism breeds extreme and widespread mediocrity. TD

 

Victor Davis Hanson  "Young, charismatic, good-looking, hip, and glib are all superficial traits that supposedly cerebral liberal elites have a bad habit of believing trump experience, knowledge, humility, and what the Greeks called pathei mathos, learning through requisite pain. Once someone is acclaimed as a liberal prodigy by elites, stamped with the right Ivy League brand and aristocratic contacts that resonate through networking and cocktail parties along the Boston to D.C. corridor, all normal cross-examination seems to end.

 

"He is anointed a genius—and then usually Nemesis strikes, in the fashion that the once just-about-to-be-appointed New York senator Caroline Kennedy could not find a polling place or finish a sentence without a “you know” (142 times in an interview), or Barack Obama became Phaethon, his crashing chariot our presidency, and his collision scorching those below him. Harvard Law can teach one everything one needs to know except how to pronounce corpsmen, establish a deadline, red line, or step-over line, and why not to be post-election flexible with Vladimir Putin who really was America’s chief conventional worry all along.

 

"So too Mr. Farrow, who is suddenly supposed to be a seasoned celebrity pundit with good ratings. He may prove just that in time. But for now take away his degrees, his parentage, and his contacts, and he is a twentysomething earnest young fellow who knows almost nothing about the real world outside his social-economic-political embryo, and nothing about the world of TV. He would have profited enormously from a different sort of ten-year apprenticeship bouncing around local Midwest stations, earning the requisite beat experience—and safely distant from his mother’s insider friends.

 

"The irony is that all this used to be called “privilege” or perhaps, in this particular case, even “white privilege.”

 

MSNBC's Newest Host Mocks Soldier in Tasteless Tweet   "This latest gaffe comes after the highly publicized and embarrassing staff problems NBC and MSNBC recently faced with Melissa Harris-Perry, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Bashir. Baldwin and Bashir were forced to resign while Harris-Perry had to make a tearful apology to the family of Mitt Romney after guests on her show mocked their adopted black son."

Only Americans Fear Obama

William L. Gensert  "To paraphrase Lincoln, it is better to shut up and be thought weak than to open your mouth and prove it.  Someone should tell Barry.  Every time his mouth writes a check his butt won’t cash, he weakens America and makes the world a much more dangerous place for everyone.  Does anyone really think that if the Chinese attack Japan over the Senkaku Islands, Obama, even though treaty-bound, will come to their aid?  If the Iranians declare they have a nuclear weapon, will Obama do one damn thing?"   Emphasis mine, TD

....

"Other countries see this and understand.  There is no point in not arming to the hilt.  You can see it now in Southeast Asia where there is a mini-arms race in the face of Chinese aggression."