NYC's Bloomberg Coming After Your Soda!

Cross-posted at the the Left Coast Rebel

Freedom-obstructing road block ahead - beware the totalitarian nanny state!

Writes the New York Times (emphasis mine):

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity. The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.

I could go after every false assertion and misguided idiocy in this article (such as this being Bloomberg's effort to "combat obesity" or that even a ball-game soda will be illegal but beer won't!).

But I won't.

I'll just use this story as today's teachable moment in American Statism Gone Wild.

I'll start things with an honest statement: I don't drink sodas, sugary drinks, soft drinks, colas, root beer; in fact, save for a few spoonfuls in my morning coffee, I completely avoid sugar in toto as well.

I know, I know; I understand -- anything that deteriorates a penny in 24 hours can't be good for you. Soda rots your teeth, sugar in extreme amounts exacerbates diabetes and poor health.

But so what?

I will defend to my dying breath the freedom of my fellow American to drink as much soda as they wish. And shouldn't every American do the same?

When in the world did America go from our collective understanding and appreciation of, "that which doesn't interfere with my liberty or rights is none of my business," to, "hey look over there, a fat kid; it's time to ban soda!"

(Onion Image) If NYC's Mayor Bloomberg has his way, this guy could go to jail

Instead of becoming a freer society, America is heading in the precise opposite direction.

Instead of becoming more tolerant (real tolerance, not the mind-prison politically-correct kind), we are becoming more ready, able and willing to criminalize behavior that we don't like, or things, substances, behaviors et. al. that we think are damaging to our fellow citizens.

Instead of making societal judgement calls using individual liberty as our only guiding light, we castigate and legislate against those different than us. This has to stop. We have to regain the spirit of individual freedom and the freedom to fail or succeed that made America so great.


Nevertheless, if there is a silver lining to this story it is political for it demonstrates in Big Gulp-Red flying colors just what the progressive agenda is truly about.

In the 1920s, progressives gave us Prohibition and the mayhem that thus ensued. Among many other things, progressives then gave us the gift of failure that is the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty (both of which have done nothing to "solve" the problems they supposedly address, rather they have put into place multi-trillion dollar Industrial Complexes (untold incarceration costs, lost liberties and untold billions/trillions for the former and in excess of $9 trillion for the latter) that actually perpetuate a targeted issue. Dozens of additional government schemes fall into this category.

True conservatives abhor limiting individuals. It is the progressive left (and progressive Republican types) that wish to do so. In their sense of nannyism and elitism and I-know-better-than-you-ism they will stop short of nothing in taking away our once-cherished freedoms.

 Until we say enough is enough.

George Will on Creative Destruction

Wikipedia

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

From Will's excellent Washington Post column today on creative destruction:

Creative destruction continues in the digital age. After 244 years — it began publication five years before the 1773 Boston Tea Party — the Encyclopaedia Britannica will henceforth be available only in digital form as it tries to catch up to reference Web sites such as Google and Wikipedia. Another digital casualty forgot it was selling the preservation of memories, a.k.a. “Kodak moments,” not film.

America now is divided between those who find this social churning unnerving and those who find it exhilarating. What Virginia Postrel postulated in 1998 in “The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress” — the best book for rescuing the country from a ruinous itch for tidiness — is even more true now. Today’s primary political and cultural conflict is, Postrel says, between people, mislabeled “progressives,” who crave social stasis, and those, paradoxically called conservatives, who welcome the perpetual churning of society by dynamism. tasists see Borders succumb to e-books (and Amazon) and lament the passing of familiar things. Dynamists say: Relax, reading is thriving. In 2001, the iPod appeared, and soon stores such as Tower Records disappeared. Who misses them?

Theodore Roosevelt, America’s first progressive president, thought it was government’s duty to “look ahead and plan out the right kind of civilization.” TR looked ahead and saw a “timber famine” caused by railroads’ ravenous appetites for crossties that rotted. He did not foresee creosote, which preserves crossties. Imagine all the things government planners cannot anticipate when, in their defining hubris, they try to impose their static dream of the “right kind” of future.

Read The Rest.

Will is correct in that progressive tend to reject -- and even viscerally hate and/or loathe -- the dynamism of so-called creative destruction. But unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean conservatives understand the true brilliance of laissez faire capitalism; they are just less hostile to its tenets...

But just what is creative destruction, you ask?

Investopedia:

Creative destruction occurs when something new kills something older. A great example of this is personal computers. The industry, led by Microsoft and Intel, destroyed many mainframe computer companies, but in doing so, entrepreneurs created one of the most important inventions of this century.

Schumpeter goes so far as to say that the "process of creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism."

Why is it unknown?

A-ha! That's why progressives hate the concept of creative destruction: for the dynamism of free markets (and the symbiosis of rationally self-interested individuals that fuel the brilliance of free markets to work,) something "newer" needs to "kill" something "older."

Like any other area where individual folks are left alone to pursue happiness, it is chaotic and in many cases not "fair" because someone eventually ends up with "more" than someone else!

This quote from Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, strikes a note on the creative destruction topic (hat-tip Adam Smith Institute):

A Bronze Age empire stagnated for much the same reason that a nationalized industry stagnates: monopoly rewards caution and discourages experiment, the income is gradually captured by the interests of the producers at the expense of the interests of the consumers, and so on. The list of innovations achieved by the pharaohs is as thin as the list of innovations achieved by British Rail or the US Postal Service.

FURTHER READING: At the Ayn Rand Institute, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal":

Readers of Atlas Shrugged are struck by the moral fire of Ayn Rand’s defense of business and capitalism. She does not regard capitalism as an amoral or immoral means to some “common good”—as do most of its defenders—but as a profoundly moral social system. It is, she wrote, “the only system geared to the life of a rational being.”

In Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, which Ayn Rand called “a nonfiction footnote to Atlas Shrugged,” she and others explain the social system that she held has “never been properly understood and defended—and whose very existence has been denied.” That system is laissez-faire capitalism: a social system in which the government is exclusively devoted to the protection of individual rights, including property rights, and therefore in which there exists absolutely no government intervention in the economy.

Capitalism is not a treatise on the economics of capitalism, but a collection of essays on the philosophy of capitalism: the basic truths and principles that make capitalism the only moral and practical social system—the only system consistent with man’s nature and the requirements of his life—the only one that enables each individual to reach his full, glorious potential.

We Didn't Either, Did You?

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

Spotted near Carlsbad Village Drive and the PCH this afternoon in San Diego, CA.

Since I am always looking for a bloggable photo-op, I approached the individual pictured above. I was just cooling down from a run and a bit out of breath. I immediately appreciated the guy's chutzpah; he was sporting his tea party-related signage on an extremely busy street...

When I saw him from a distance I had no idea what his statement was; for anyone that is familiar with the area, he was stoically standing at the corner of Pine Street and Carlsbad Blvd. You know what I mean when I say that this particular little slice of grass, benches and beautiful Pacific Ocean views attracts some pretty colorful characters and there's always a decent crowd. Over the years I've seen it all -- flaming-bowling-pin jugglers, New-agers, anti-war hippies, exercise freaks, magicians, artists, well-endowed girls showing their "stuff", dog-whisperers, New-age JESUS SAVES! followers, Buddhists, panhandlers... the list goes on and you never know just what you are going to get. That's the fun of it, I guess. It's kind like a family-friendly version of Venice Beach, California.

Anyway, I digress. I approached Bill (let's just call him that for simplicity's sake) and told him that I liked his sign and that I "didn't vote for the Obamanation either." As an aside, if anyone reads my rants and scribbles, recall that I refused to call Teh Won anything but The Obamanation for at least six months after the 2008 election. This little tidbit enraged the leftist trolls to no end... ah, the good ol' days.

I digress, again. Bill told me that he lost his house in 2009 and that he has plenty of time on his hands to try to save this country from Washington DC. I like that. He told me that he has a plan that he's cooked up, some type of three-tier system that he firmly believes will save the country. I'm not sure just how it works. But I like plans cooked up by ordinary folk with skin in the game. Unlike Washington, plans like that actually might work.

Bill owns and operates HelpUsSaveTheUsa.com. I couldn't find his plan but check it out when you have a free minute.

Oh yes, he told me he's been on O'Reilly's show 22 times. This is as of now unconfirmed.

Bill Maher Turns on #OccupyWallStreet? (Better Late Than Never)

By the Left Coast Rebel

"And this is the problem when you, you know, when your movement involves sleeping over in the park. You wind up attracting the people who were sleeping over in the park anyway.

...just a bunch of douchebags who think throwing a chair through the Starbucks window is going to bring on the revolution."



Does anyone other than the desperate, fawning left-wing press take #OccupyWallStreet seriously now?

Somewhere in between the rapes, private property trashing, incessant obnoxiousness, worthless marches, riot police rubber-bullet-sprayed mobs and homesteading -- which has absolutely nothing to do with free speech, zip, zero, nada -- Americans have gone from losing interest to becoming adamantly against the #Occupy "movement".

Why's that you ask?

As a personal aside, yesterday we spent a beautiful afternoon at Balboa Park here in San Diego. It was crowded but for good reason: the sun and sunny-70s temps were an irresistible Saturday afternoon draw for locals looking to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather.

Near sunset, as we were driving out of the park, I noticed a commotion on one of the main throughways heading out (Park Blvd, if you live here), there was a lot of traffic but something else was going on; a lot of braking and commotion. I thought it might be a clever homeless juggler guy (saw a few of those earlier), a roadside "magician" or God forbid, a bicycle accident or something.

Nope.

As we inched our way down Park, the cause of the fuss became apparent: a strangly-scraggly, beaded, dread-locked and jobless (by choice and drug use; both someone else's fault) dirty-hippy Occupier was taunting the peaceful Balboa Park families exiting the area with a large OCCUPY SAN DIEGO! sign.

She desperately flailed and flaunted said sign with her left hand (her good hand?) while also violently banging away on some sort of snare like a circus chimp on coke with her right hand. I assume that just like us, park visitors were not enamored, amused or sympathetic to this sad woman's cause. The bright side is that her effort was obviously playing a small role in the final discreditation of #OccupyWallStreet, at least locally.

OccupyWallStreet: "Brains"... and "We are coming for your money!"

It's no wonder that, according to Rasmussen, a clear majority of likely voters see #Occupiers as nothing more than drug-addled nuisances.

It's kind of like the windshield squeegee guys in Manhattan a few years back. At first they were a novelty and folks indulged them. But when they became belligerent -- and an incredible nuisance -- their welcome quickly faded.

President Thin-Skin's Brilliant Brewer-Book Stimulus Program

Obama and Governor Brewer on the tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona, 1/25/2011 (AP Photo)

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

Via Politico:

It was a tense moment on the tarmac.

President Obama, alighting from the stairs of Air Force One in Phoenix this afternoon, was greeted by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who handed him an envelope and the two exchanged what appeared to be some heated sentiments. At one point, she pointed her finger at him.

Asked afterward what happened, Brewer said, “He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast.

“I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt,” she said, according to a pool report. “He didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially. I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”

In the envelope she had given him was a handwritten letter, Brewer said — “an invitation that I’ve extended to him before with regards to coming to Arizona and going to the border with me. . . . We’ve had a remarkable comeback here and I want to share that with him.”

A White House official confirmed the invitation and described the encounter in more bureaucratic terms: “The President said he’d be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The President looks forward to continuing taking steps to help Arizona’s economy grow.”

The pool reporter, POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown, said the scene was far from the norm. Aside from the pointing, they appeared to talk over each other and he appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking.

My clear takeaway from this story is that President Thin-Skin couldn't stand the fact that Governor Real Leader's book has a (passage?) that is slightly less-than-rosy toward Him. They met on the tarmac, sparks of discontent flew, God forbid.

But just what did Governor Brewer say in her book?

Actor Mark Wahlberg: I Could Have Single-handedly Fought off Terrorists and Landed the 9/11 Hijacked Plane!

Marky Mark: Real-life, one-man, terrorist-plot-fighter

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

Some humility from Marky Mark:

Mark Wahlberg claims he could have done what hundreds of other doomed passengers couldn't ... fought off the multiple 9/11 terrorists and saved one of the hijacked planes.

Wahlberg just gave an interview with Men's Journal ... in which he states, "If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.'"

Ha! Apparently Mark Wahlberg is having a tough time separating fact from silver-screen fiction.

What is it about today's actors' bloated sense of importance, entitlement, omniscience and elitism?

Is it any wonder that the Hollywood Left has no problem forcing their socialist worldview on all of us?

More and more Americans are on to their gig, refusing to spend their hard-earned dollars to sponsor Hollyweird's twisted, overtly-political crap-fests.

Update (by Proof): Wahlberg has since apologized:

In his apology, Wahlberg said: "I deeply apologize to the families of the victims that my answer came off as insensitive, it was certainly not my intention.”

Mitt Romney for President? Say it Ain't So!

Go ahead: Ask Mitt anything because he'll tell you just what you want to hear
Graphic c/o ExposeMittRomney.com

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

The truth hurts. Mitt Romney stinks and is no conservative. And it's not that I am still debating whether he is a liberal or a Country-Club republican; it's that he simply stands for nothing and says whatever needs to be said to whatever group wants to hear.

And you know where standing for nothing gets us during these perilous times: more, more, more socialism like we see today. It is the path that Washington has thrust upon the nation and someone with no convictions or core will simply continue that trajectory.

This is something that us Tea Partiers (and indies, libertarians and conservatives) fear the most about the man: unlike Reagan and the tea party candidates elected last year, he has no core.

On this note, RedState's head cheese Eric Erickson lists most of the reasons that have brought us to this conclusion, writing:

Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeatedly. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he’ll part his hair in their direction.

Scathing.

More:

Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.

That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It’s not his fault though, it is the 75%’s fault.

The worst of it. Meet Mitt running for president, aka Mitt Inc.:

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.

I’ve been reading the 200 pages of single spaced opposition research from the John McCain campaign on Mitt Romney. There is no issue I can find on which Mitt Romney has not taken both sides. He is neither liberal nor conservative. He is simply unprincipled. The man has no core beliefs other than in himself. You want him to be tough? He’ll be tough. You want him to be sensitive? He’ll be sensitive. You want him to be for killing the unborn? He’ll go all in on abortion rights until he wants to run for an office where it is not in his advantage.

But, something that I disagree with:

Conservatism is already dying. Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to raise taxes on the American people with this Super Committee, but they’ll say they are just “raising revenue,” not taxes. Conservatives will give them a pass as they have on virtually every other major issue. Conservatives keep giving passes to people who shouldn’t be given passes because conservative in Washington have been there so long, they’d much rather get invited to the cocktail parties and avoid awkward encounters.

I don't think that conservatism is dying. In fact, the ethos of self reliance, responsibility, the abundance of free markets and the founding concepts of this nation (like the banner at the top of this site) have never been more desired by the public. It's the republican party that is dying (and has been since the end of Reagan's presidency). There's is a big difference: The republican party is not conservatism. If anything (as you see with leadership such as statist John Boehner and the other clowns in leadership positions), the party has done almost irreversible damage to the conservative political cause. For they tell conservative America what they want to hear (to get elected) then do the precise opposite and offer the nation no true alternative to the socialist democrats.

In other words, the legacy of "conservative" George W. Bush.

Erickson sees this too:

Washington, D.C. conservatives will also rally around Mitt Romney, just as they kept doing over and over and over with George W. Bush even after steel tariffs in Pennsylvania, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the GM Bailout, and TARP. At some point the public will cease taking conservatives seriously when the most prominent conservatives — those in Washington who pose as the faces, voices, and writers of the conservative movement at large, keep throwing their lot in with a guy who keeps selling out the very principles conservatives claim to hold dear.

Unfortunately, Erickson's conclusion is laughable at best:

I’m starting to think I need to walk it back on my rejection of Jon Huntsman. Because I’m starting to think even he would be more faithful in his conservative convictions than Mitt Romney.

Then again, he may have a point: perhaps even John Huntsman would be more faithful in his convictions than Mitt Romney. And that is truly pathetic.

Check out NotMittRomney.com and spread the word. Head over to RightKlik for more on the pretzel candidate.

Via Memeorandum.

VIDEO: Peter Schiff Debates Zucotti Park Occupy Wall Streeters

Crossposted at the Left Coast Rebel

This is simply just too cool. You can almost hear the collective "Occupy-I-am-entitled-to-everything-I-want-simply-because-I-have-a-pulse" synapses misfiring in the crowd as Peter Schiff engages them (poor saps have probably never even heard his viewpoint that he aptly expresses).

There are too many quotable moments from Schiff here, "WalMart doesn't hold a gun to their head" may just go down in interweb infamy:

I love how Allahpundit notes that Schiff pulls this thing off like an Austrian-school ninja.

Indeed.

More from Nick Gillespie at Reason.com:

"Did a corporation end slavery, or did the government end slavery?!?!"

That's the sort of question investment guru and radio show host Peter Schiff fielded as he debated Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters last week in New York's Zuccotti Park.

Schiff is no ordinary observer. As the prinicipal of the financial firm Euro Pacific Capital, he's a full-fledged and unapologetic member of "the 1 Percent." As an outspoken radio show host (listen online here) and commentator, he not only predicted the housing crash and financial crisis, he railed bank and auto-sector bailouts as they were happening. Schiff believes that capitalism offers is the only hope for young, frustrated people to have a vibrant and prosperous future (get information on his latest book, How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, here). So he went to Occupy Wall Street to engage and debate the protesters.

Touring the Occupy Wall Street scene in New York with a sign that read "I Am the 1%, Let's Talk," Schiff spent more than three hours on the scene, explaining the difference between cronyism and capitalism, bailouts and balance sheets, and more.

"The regulation we want is the market," said Schiff. "That's what works."

Via Memeorandum.

New Orleans Liberals Violate Free Speech Rights, Demand Anti-Obama Private Property Signs be Taken Down

Cross-posted at the Left Coast Rebel

If you really want to see what generations of the liberal mentality does to an individual's brain and soul simply (especially in the African-American community) watch this video:



So... a private citizen is displaying private property anti-Obama signs and local Jesse-Jackson-type libs want it taken down. Even shameless race-baiter Ray Negin showed up to "discuss" the situation with the property owner.

Memorable quotes taken from the video:

Local media: "what some say is in bad taste, others call free speech." (Could the media be any stupider? Bad taste = free speech. Good taste = free speech. Free speech = free speech. End. Of. Discussion).

Local citizen: "It disrespects the nation and President Barack Obama represents our nation... everybody, not some people." (In other words, I don't like it so it needs to come down).

Local citizen #2: "He wouldn't do dat to dah Bush, it's insulting and we mean that it's going to have to be taken down." (translated: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton told me so).

Local citizen #3: "This is nothing but pure Raaaaaacism!" (but of course, the first and last refuge of libtard scoundrels).

Orwellian New Orleans city councilwoman Susan Guidry: "We have to determine that there is a zoning law that prohibits perhaps the size of the sign; the way that it is erected, perhaps that it is leaning over onto public property, whatever we can use, we will." (Translated: meet the pinched-face of fascism, her name is "zoning law").

These people are no different than the "home of the 1960s free speech movement" Berkeley-types here in California that scream "1st Amendment!" yet rabidly decry against anything their close-minded pea-sized brains don't comprehend, insisting that "hate speech" is not "free speech."

Holding my breath waiting for the ACLU take up the property owner's case.

View photos of the anti-Obama signs here.

Hat-tip: Memeorandum.

Brandon Wright, Rescued Utah Motorcyclist, Gives Interview

LCR posted the video of Brandon Wright's amazing rescue yesterday. Here, he talks about the experience:



Cross posted at LCR.

Gibson Guitar Company in Fed's Crosshairs

By the Left Coast Rebel

Is it any wonder that American business is dying? Is it any surprise that China and India (not to mention several European nations, Asia et al.) are eclipsing the United States in entrepreneurial activity, wealth creation and business friendliness?

A story like this tells us everything that is wrong with the federal government:

(WSJ) (Memeo) Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

(SNIP)

In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name "United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms."

....But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether some wood sourced from India met every regulatory jot and tittle.

Cross an international border with an instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution.

Potentially illegal Indian ebony wood? Oh my.

The WSJ also includes an extremely spooky, related story in the link above:

Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique Bösendorfers. Mr. Vieillard asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species how to fill out the correct paperwork—which simply encouraged them to alert U.S. Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny.

There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn't have his paperwork straight when two-dozen federal agents came calling.

Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr. Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.

The delicious irony here is that a lot of musicians -- and creative musical types -- are raging libs that vote in ludicrous gunpoint-enforced laws like this.

Now, when their houses are raided (or companies) and they face airport coercion and molestation, they know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of government largess.

A conservative is a liberal musician who's
been mugged by the federal government

Update (by Proof): I saw this story. I started to comment and then the comment kept growing. Full disclosure: I owned a Gibson twelve string back in the early 80's.

It's sad that the oxymoron known as the Obama Justice Department won't protect the integrity of our voting system by prosecuting hate crimes committed at polling places (if the offender is a certain race or color), won't uphold the integrity of our borders against illegal immigration, failed miserably against tracking illegal gun sales to Mexico, (even encouraging and expediting them), but will enforce laws against raw milk producers and now, regulations about where wood comes from for a musical instrument.

Note to guitar pickers: The cost of your next Gibson just went up.

Note to Gibson employees: The Feds just gave your boss another reason to ship your jobs overseas.

Have a nice day!

Update II (by Proof): According to Doug Ross, campaign contributions (or the lack thereof) may have contributed to the raid(s).

One of Gibson’s leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles. According to C.F. Martin’s catalog, several of their guitars contain “East Indian Rosewood.” In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson’s guitars.

It's good to know that the oxymoronically named Obama Justice Department is above being used to punish one's political opponents or reward partisan political support. /sarcasm


Cross posted. More at Memeorandum

Meredith Whitney, "Tea Party = Freaked out White Men Who are Unemployed" Rick Santelli, Tea Party Movement Founding Father, Responds

By the Left Coast Rebel

Banking analyst Meredith Whitney thought she could impress the limo-lib, I'm-already-rich-but-support-policies-ensuring-you-will-never-be cocktail crowd, disparaging Tea Party Americans as "unemployed freaked-out white men."

How nice:



Rick Santelli doesn't take this disgusting jab sitting down; rather he strikes right back at Whitney's vile comment. This is just what patriots must do in today's world -- stand up, fight back, never letting leftist -- whether they are "banking analysts," SEIU members, Marxist college professors, spoiled-brat youth screaming, MINE, MINE, MINE! -- intimidate or belittle you.

Also, Santelli's King George comment is simple and absolutely correct.

I have said here many time in the last several years that today's statists -- in both political parties -- operate from a governance worldview that puts King George to shame. For example, my wife and I took a historic tour here in downtown Philly. We passed several colonial homes, several still even had the Benjamin Franklin Insurance plaque above the home's entrance.

Our tour guide noted that property owners faced exorbitant King George levies for various things -- steps leading up to their homes, windows, closets, essential living items, etc. I commented to my wife that we haven't learned anything from history and that, in fact, today's socialist-progressive is likely far worse than King George's tyranny; the difference being that we let it happen on our watch.

Aside from race-baiting limo-lib Tea Party swipe from some stupid lib banker, the bigger truth is that black Americans -- by sheer percentages -- are the Great Recession's most adversely-affected group.

I wonder what the response would be if a conservative said that this recession/depression only truly affected "freaked-out black men?"

Why is it that the first black president in this nation's history gets a pass on creating the worst African-American job market this nation has seen witnessed the Great Depression?

Hmm?

Via Newsbusters, hat-tip WC Varones.

Cross-posted.

Is CA-36 up for Grabs? Follow Robert Stacy McCain's Coverage of CA-36

By the Left Coast Rebel

This morning (Saturday) is the first time I have been able to sit down and check out the blogosphere....I'm behind on a lot of things, like the details and updates in California's 36 Congressional district race.

Robert Stacy McCain called me on Thursday and I promised to give him a big hat-tip and put my Google-search-engine-stamp on the salacious CA-36 story.

Here's the lede (the meat and potatoes) of the story, from Stacy, last month:

Janice Hahn is the Democrat running for Congress in the July 12 special election in California’s 36th District, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Jane Harman.

As a member of the Los Angeles City Council, Hahn promoted a program to use taxpayer money to hire convicted criminals as “gang intervention specialists.” Predictably, Hahn’s government employment program for gangsters amounted to a taxpayer subsidy for violent crime.

A potential California liberal congress-critter (I know, that's redundant) that hired convicts? Sounds juicy indeed. It doesn't stop there, though. Stacy has followed with several updates from mid to late June:

• June 22: Ladd’s Ad Gets Results
• June 21: Conservative PAC Asks Law Enforcement to Investigate DOS Attack on Web Site
• June 16: CA-36: The Facts of the Case
• June 15: CA-36: Hahn’s Bad Rap?
• June 15: CA-36: Anti-Hahn Video Draws More Than 75,000 Viewers in First 18 Hours
• June 14: BREAKING: Democrats Call on GOP Candidate to Denounce PAC Video

Are you up to speed?

The plot thickens, keep your focus, this is crazy stuff.

Apparently this Democrat -- Janice Hahn -- was not happy with a particular L.A. news station coverage of her involvement in the convicts-for-hire program. Hahn's lawyers issued a cease and desist order against the station! Again, Stacy writes:

When Janice Hahn’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to KTTV Fox 11 — trying to stop the Los Angeles station from following up on its 2008 investigation of Hahn’s controversial “gang intervention” progam — they probably didn’t expect this. “Large mistake, madame,” says the award-winning Ace of Spades. Because KTTV and Chris Blatchford not only stood by their original coverage, they followed up with an in-depth eight-minute report that devastates Hahn’s credibility.

Here's the video from KTTV that Stacy eludes to:

Whiskey, tango, foxtrot! Hahn is facing her Republican candidate, Craig Huey on Tuesday. Does this lunacy mean that a G.O.P'er actually has a shot at a congressional seat here in the People's Republic of Kalifornia?

Stranger things have happened, like pigs flying and cows jumping over the moon...so we can all cross our fingers for next week's results. A Huey victory would be a pleasant palate cleanser after the November, 2010 Democrat rout here in California.

Follow The Other McCain's coverage of CA-36 here.

(PHOTO) Irony: 'To Catch a Predator' host Chris Hansen a Predator Himself, Caught Cheating on Wife with 30-year-old Blonde Kristyn Caddell

By the Left Coast Rebel

The host of 'To Catch a Predator' seems to be inspired by his own show (not in good way).

What Chris Hansen did was legal because the blonde reporter Kristyn Caddell that he was cheating on his wife (pictured at the left of this post) and family with is 30 years old -- but it doesn't mean it's not sultry, bizarre and deliciously ironic.

Hansen is in his 50s.

From the Mail Online:

He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings.

But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end of his own hidden camera tactics, after the married NBC anchor was secretly filmed on an illicit date with a blonde television reporter 20 years his junior.

Hansen, 51, has allegedly been having an affair with Kristyn Caddell, a 30-year-old Florida journalist, for the last four months.

I wonder if Chris Hansen will himself be featured as a predator in a new season of 'To Catch a Predator'?

Via Memeorandum and cross-posted to LCR.

New York's Gay Marriage Vote Glosses Over the Fact that Obama Punted the Issue

By the Left Coast Rebel

On Friday, New York legalized gay marriage. Frankly, my only question on this news is why did it take so long? One would figure that a state dominated by the metropolis New York City would have taken this stand years ago. Is upstate really that commanding of New York politics? Judging by how liberal-Democrat-dominated the state's politics are, I didn't think so.

As historic a moment in New York as it is, the issue has made everyone -- including the left -- forget that Obama can't even stand by the gay constituency:



Obama seeing the light on states' rights for the first time? Yah, that's called punting an issue and throwing a key constituency under the bus, this certainly won't help him in 2012, either.

Also read: At American Power, "Obama Heckled at LGBT Democrat Fundraiser in Manhattan!"

Via Memeorandum, cross posted to LCR.

AlGore Inc.: Bad for the Green Agenda?

By the Left Coast Rebel

I don't have a problem with Al Gore being a problem for the quest-for-global-domination greenie-weenie agenda.

Frankly, if Gore is ineffective, if he is hypocritical and off-putting, if he has discredited the green agenda; setting it back due to his caustic-alarmist personality and AlGore Inc. billionaire-esque lavish, carbon-chomping lifestyle then I'm all for it.

No movement today poses a bigger threat to take away our quality of life and liberty like the "watermelon: green on the outside, red on the inside" environmental movement. I stand by anyone that discredits it, intentionally or not.

Why am I mentioning this? Walter Russel Meade got me thinking this morning writing an outstanding barn-burner piece up at The American Interest today:

Once out of office, he assumed the leadership of the global green movement, steering that movement into a tsunami of defeat that, when the debris is finally cleared away, will loom as one of the greatest failures of civil society in all time.

Gore has the Midas touch in reverse; objects of great value (Nobel prizes, Oscars) turn dull and leaden at his touch. Few celebrity cause leaders have had more or better publicity than Gore has had for his climate advocacy. Hailed by the world press, lionized by the entertainment community and the Global Assemblage of the Great and the Good as incarnated in the Nobel Peace Prize committee, he has nevertheless seen the movement he led flounder from one inglorious defeat to the next.

(....)

You can be a leading environmentalist and fail to pay all of your taxes. You can be a leading environmentalist and be unkind to your aged mother. You can be a leading environmentalist and squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle, park in the handicapped spots at the mall or scribble angry marginal notes in library books.

But you cannot be a leading environmentalist who hopes to lead the general public into a long and difficult struggle for sacrifice and fundamental change if your own conduct is so flagrantly inconsistent with the green gospel you profess.

There's lots more at the link so READ THE REST. Discussion via Memeorandum, cross posted to LCR, graphic via Saberpoint.

And All I Got Was This Crappy $30 T-shirt?

By the Left Coast Rebel

My local San Diego Tea Party compatriots with the Southern California Tax Revolt Coaltion are a smart bunch. Many of them sign up to leftist newsletters and email alerts from various nutroots/Obama/Soros-funded outfits. It's a great way to feel the pulse of the far, far, left. What better way to know what is worrying them than to sign up for their "alerts" and such?

Having said that, this little gem was in the inbox of a San Diego Tea Partier, an alert from Obama's "Obama for America" re-election outfit:

Dear Obama supporter -- We just launched our full 2012 campaign online store, where you can pick up new shirts, stickers, signs, mugs, water bottles, and all sorts of other gear. Those '08 bumper stickers and t-shirts are a source of pride, but getting your 2012 stuff now can show your determination to see through all the work we've started together. Donate $30 or more today and get your 2012 T-shirt: https://donate.barackobama.com/2012Shirt There's a lot to do in the coming months to build this campaign, and the President's counting on us to be the ones to get that work started. How about a new 2012 shirt to wear while you're out there at phone banks, knocking on doors, or just going about your day? Donate $30 or more today to get your T-shirt: https://donate.barackobama.com/2012Shirt Thanks, Julianna Julianna Smoot Deputy Campaign Manager Obama for America

Contributions or gifts to Obama for America are not tax deductible.

"Thirty bucks and all I got is this crappy shirt?"

I can hear it right now as Teh One goes down in smoldering electoral flames, November 4, 2012.

Methinks these won't sell nearly as well at the ObamMao t-shirts that were flying off the shelves in Shanghai (the Chinese, of all people, know a Dear Leader type when they see one) or perhaps the post-election Obama-mania merchandise for sale near a few blocks away from D.C.

Exit question: Anyone want to make millions opening a shop that does nothing more than laser removal of Hope and Change tramp-stamps?

Related: At Politico, via Memeorandum, "Poll: 3 in 10 sure they'll vote for Obama." Cross posted to LCR.

John Edwards Weird Connection to Gazillionaire Heiress Bunny Mellon

By the Left Coast Rebel

The weird gets weirder. A few weeks before John Edwards (smiling mugshot, right) was indicted on six felonies, prosecutors found that he was "requesting" millions of dollars from an heiress named "Bunny" Mellon (her full name is Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon).

"Mellon" sounds like a porn star, doesn't it? I'm cross posting this and thought that Proof would be happy to see a post that ties in a hottie named "Mellon" in another post about the Edwards scandal.

You'd be sorely mistaken, Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon is a 101-year-old (in August) heiress who thought that John Edwards was the second coming of JFK.

Daily Beast:

Back in 2003, when Edwards was in the midst of his first presidential campaign, the widow of billionaire art collector, National Gallery patron and racehorse breeder Paul Mellon (Bunny’s second husband) had fallen hard for the handsome, thick-maned senator. She told intimates that he strongly reminded her of her old friend John F. Kennedy. She impulsively bought a full-page ad in the local newspaper celebrating Edwards as “a new wind” in American politics, and placed “John Edwards for President” yard signs along the roadside of the sprawling Mellon estate, Oak Spring Farms—an act not calculated to ingratiate herself with her snobby Republican neighbors in Upperville, Virginia.

Handsome, thick-maned senator? And...it gets weirder:

In 2007 and 2008, at the height of his crusade against the “Two Americas,” Mrs. Mellon secretly gave Edwards a total of $700,000 for his personal use—paying required gift taxes of up to 45 percent—at the behest of Young, who was acting as Edwards’ bag man. Young told her that the senator had an urgent “personal need,” according to a knowledgeable source. Bunny Mellon’s friends say Young didn’t reveal that the so-called “need” apparently was Edwards’ sex partner, New Age videographer Rielle Hunter, the mother of his love child—and they claim Mrs. Mellon was shocked, shocked, when she finally learned the truth.

Yes, this disgusting, shameless man was the sugar daddy of a 100-year-old lady with incredibly poor judgment and taste. Then again, she was in her nineties at the time, begging the question: what kind of man would take advantage of the generosity of a very, very, old lady?

Answer: someone like John Edwards, Anthony Weiner, and the Republican equivalents of Newt Gingrich, Vitter, et al.

Because of her "relationship" with Edwards, Bunny is now in hot water.

ABC News:

But the government alleges that Mellon also was the principal source of money that enabled Edwards to conceal his affair.

Identified in the criminal indictment against Edwards only as "Person C," Mellon provided more than $700,000 that the government alleges were unlawful contributions that went to pay the living and medical expenses of Rielle Hunter while Edwards continued his pursuit of the nomination.

Memo to century-old heiresses -- choose your friends wisely.

Via Memeorandum.

More Bad Economic Numbers

Keynsian econonmics prolonged the Great Depression, too. Image c/o Wayne State U.

By the Left Coast Rebel

Had CNBC on this morning and caught the fugly results on the jobs front. Even the talking heads noted the failure of QE2 (thereby Keynsian economics).

WC Varones has the basics on today's numbers:

• May Nonfarm Private Payroll 83K vs 180K consensus (triple ouch)
  

• May Nonfarm Payrolls 54K vs 169K consensus; prior revised to 232K from 244K (ouch)
  

• March Nonfarm Payrolls revised to 194K from 235K (double ouch)
  

• May Average Workweek 33.6 vs 34.3 consensus (ouch)
  

• May Unemployment Rate 9.1% vs 9.0% consensus (ouch, ouch, ouch)
  

As WC notes, fascism doesn't work. The markets have not been allowed to heal on their own, the federal government (and Fed) have created more debt and even that hasn't improved conditions today.

We need a complete makeover in our government and takeover by those who understand and respect the free market.

More economic news from CNBC:

U.S. employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent as high energy prices and the effects of Japan's earthquake bogged down the economy.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday.

Private employment rose just 83,000, the least since last June, while government payrolls dropped 29,000. Economists had expected payrolls to rise 150,000 and private hiring to increase 175,000 in May.

The government revised employment figures for March and April to show 39,000 fewer jobs created than previously estimated.

The job creation slowdown confirmed the economic weakness already flagged by other data from consumer spending to manufacturing.

Hope and Change!

The good news about data like this is that it makes it really, really, really hard for Teh One to achieve reelection, assuming of course that the Republican party does not nominate a squishy RINO with no fiscal conservative bona fides -- a distinct possibility -- given their track record in the last few cycles.

Via Memeorandum, cross posted to LCR.

Meet the 77,000

By the Left Coast Rebel

77,000 Federal employees that make more than the governors of their respective states, that is.

All aboard the Gravy Train:

More than 77,000 federal government employees throughout the country -- including computer operators, more than 5,000 air traffic controllers, 22 librarians and one interior designer -- earned more than the governors of the states in which they work.

The findings, from a Congressional Research Service report requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, were released at a time when public workers' salaries and benefits are under scrutiny across the country as governments try to streamline.

CRS reviewed 2009 salary figures, the most recent available, and found 77,057 employees who earned more in annual pay than their respective governors. Of those workers, 18,351 were doctors -- the highest percentage. The second-highest total was for 5,170 air traffic controllers -- likely both front-line controllers and their supervisors.

In Maryland, 7,283 federal employees -- about 7 percent of all full-time federal employees in the state -- earned more than Gov. Martin O'Malley's $150,000 salary. Maryland was topped by Colorado, which in 2009 had 10,875 employees who made more than the $90,000 salary of the governor, Bill Ritter.

When in the hell did so-called "public service" (a flagrant misnomer in itself) end up being a 1st-class ticket on the gravy train? It won't be pretty when a majority of Americans wake up and figure out what our own "benevolent" government -- in cahoots with public sector unions -- has done to fleece our nation.

Image via Freaking News.

Via Memeorandum, cross posted to LCR.