This week, President Obama is reportedly turning his attention back to jobs and the middle class for the 274th time since taking office in 2009. The Washington Post has the riveting details of this new & improved jobs push (emphasis mine):
President Obama will deliver a series of speeches this week designed to push the economy, and his proposals to ensure its long-term growth, toward the center of the national political debate after months of focus on other issues. [...]
White House officials said the three speeches will not offer new proposals or approaches, including the use of executive actions to sidestep congressional opposition. Instead, officials said, Obama will outline in broad terms his view of the economic debate ahead.
Fantastic.  Get ready for another week of Obama deflecting responsibility and lecturing about how Republicans are mean and Congress is ultimately to blame.

Update: The Washington Examiner has counted — this will be Obama’s eighth pivot on jobs.  For some strange reason it only feels like the 274th time…

http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2013/07/22/whos-ready-for-another-obama-jobs-speech-anyone/ 

Embattled IRS chief counsel met with Obama 2 days before writing new targeting criteria

The Obama appointee implicated in congressional testimony in the IRS targeting scandal met with President Obama in the White House two days before offering his colleagues a new set of advice on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, who was named in House Oversight testimony by retiring IRS agent Carter Hull as one of his supervisors in the improper targeting of conservative groups, met with Obama in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on April 23, 2012. Wilkins’ boss, then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, met with Obama on April 24, 2012, according to White House visitor logs.

On April 25, 2012, Wilkins sent Hull and fellow Washington-based IRS official Lois Lerner “additional comments on the draft guidance” for approving or denying tea party tax-exempt applications, according to the IRS’ inspector general’s report.

Between 2010 and 2012, the IRS sent letters demanding groups’ training materials, personal information on groups’ donors and college interns, and even the content of a religious group’s prayers.

Wilkins’ meeting with Obama on April 23 was attended by 13 people.


Wilkins, who is one of only two Obama appointees at the IRS, is a former lobbyist with the firm WilmerHale, where he spent his time “counseling nonprofit organizations, business entities, and investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions, and government investigations.” At the firm, Wilkins defended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Chicago-based United Church of Christ from a 2008 investigation into whether Wright violated his church’s nonprofit status by speaking in favor of Obama. Wilkins successfully defended Wright’s church pro bono.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

Report: US Marshals lose track of thousands of two-way radios

The U.S. Marshals Service has lost track of approximately 2,000 encrypted two-way radios worth millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. 

The paper cited internal records obtained through a public records request in their report, adding that the problems date back to at least 2011, when marshals were using new versions of the radios in the field. 

In interviews with the Journal, some marshals expressed concern that about the prospect of criminals getting hold of the missing radios and using them to gain intelligence on law enforcement activities. U.S. Marshals are responsible for protecting federal courts and judges; tracking, pursuing, and apprehending fugitives; and administering the federal witness protection program. 

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said that "poor record keeping" was to blame for the inventory shortfall, as opposed to an actual loss of equipment. The spokesman confirmed the Journal's report, but said he was not aware of any instances where public safety had been jeopardized as a result. 

The agency's Office of Strategic Technology raised another concern in a 2011 presentation, saying "It is apparent that negligence and incompetence has resulted in a grievous mismanagement of millions of dollars of USMS property ... Simply put, the entire system is broken and drastic measures need to be taken to address the issues ... The 800-pound elephant in the room needs to finally be acknowledged."

In all, the agency has concluded that around 2,200 communications items have gone missing or are otherwise unaccounted for. However, several officials told the Journal that one internal count has put the total number of missing devices at more than 4,000.

No Bailout for Detroit

President Obama may have no wish to think about Detroit, but Detroit is thinking about President Obama. Ingham County judge Rosemarie Aquilina has attempted to block the city’s filing for protection under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, accusing Michigan governor Rick Snyder and city emergency manager Kevyn Orr of “cheating good people who work” and—this is kind of outrageous—of “not honoring the president” and his bailout of Detroit’s automakers. It is far from obvious that a county judge in Michigan has the jurisdiction to block federal bankruptcy proceedings, or that “honoring the president” is a legitimate legal standard to apply to a municipal bankruptcy case. But if you are looking for the kind of political careerism and posturing that helped put Detroit in the tank, take a good long gander at Judge Aquilina’s little sermonette.

Steve Rattner, the Wall Street operator and Obama-administration car czar who in 2010 agreed to pay $10 million to settle a corruption-and-kickbacks case in New York, has called on the Obama administration to step in and bail out Detroit, which is in hock to the tune of billions of dollars in benefits promised to its public-sector unions. It is interesting that Mr. Rattner would weigh in on the question of public-sector pensions: As part of his settlement, he is legally barred from appearing in any capacity before any public pension fund in the state of New York.

Michigan law prohibits the reduction of benefits for government retirees. Detroit does not have the money to make good on its promised benefits, or anything close to the necessary resources. When a legal mandate meets a financial impossibility, that is precisely why we have a federal law on the books for city bankruptcies. We should let the legal system work, something we assume will include the reversal of Judge Aquilina’s ruling. 

When a Democrat-dominated city or state government sits across the table from its public-sector union reps, there is no adversarial party in the negotiations. Public-sector paychecks have grown, and the unions’ support for the Democratic party has grown in tandem. But shame is still a force to be reckoned with in politics, so rather than pump up the cash value of public-sector paychecks, governments deferred a great deal of that compensation, pushing it down the road in the form of extraordinarily generous pensions and other retirement benefits. Cities such as Detroit have simply promised more in retiree benefits than they have the ability to fund through taxes, even if taxes were raised to their highest plausible levels and basic municipal services radically pared back.

Detroit is not the only city in this situation—indeed, there are whole states in similar straits. The question is: Which precedent do we intend to set? A precedent of bailouts for profligate politicians and their clients, or a precedent that says when the political class promises generous benefits to itself, those promises have to be conditioned by economic reality? The answer is obvious.

The corruption and incompetence of Detroit are such that the city does not have to be made an example of—it is making an example of itself. All that is required of Washington is to let the federal courts work. Nobody is likely to get out of this unscathed: not government pensioners, not bondholders, not unsecured creditors, not secured creditors. There will be plenty of pain to go around, and the agency best suited to divvying it up is a federal bankruptcy court.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/354045/no-bailout-detroit-editors 

25 Facts About The Fall Of Detroit That Will Leave You Shaking Your Head

It is so sad to watch one of America's greatest cities die a horrible death.  Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States.  Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about.  On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.  It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States by far, but on Friday it was stopped at least temporarily by an Ingham County judge.
 
She ruled that Detroit's bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution because it would result in reduced pension payments for retired workers.  She also stated that Detroit's bankruptcy filing was "also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy", and she ordered that a copy of her judgment be sent to Barack Obama.  How "honoring the president" has anything to do with the bankruptcy of Detroit is a bit of a mystery, but what that judge has done is ensured that there will be months of legal wrangling ahead over Detroit's money woes.  

It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.  But one thing is for sure - the city of Detroit is flat broke.  One of the greatest cities in the history of the world is just a shell of its former self.  The following are 25 facts about the fall of Detroit that will leave you shaking your head...

1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.

2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.  That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.

3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.

4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000.

5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.

6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.

7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.

8) About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.


9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.

10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.

11) If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.

13) The city of Detroit is now very heavily dependent on the tax revenue it pulls in from the casinos in the city.  Right now, Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos.

14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit.

15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work.

16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running.

17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.

18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008.

19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.

20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond.

21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.

22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.

23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.

24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.

25) Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".

It is easy to point fingers and mock Detroit, but the truth is that the rest of America is going down the exact same path that Detroit has gone down.

Detroit just got there first.

All over this country, there are hundreds of state and local governments that are also on the verge of financial ruin...
"Everyone will say, 'Oh well, it's Detroit. I thought it was already in bankruptcy,' " said Michigan State University economist Eric Scorsone. "But Detroit is not unique. It's the same in Chicago and New York and San Diego and San Jose. It's a lot of major cities in this country. They may not be as extreme as Detroit, but a lot of them face the same problems."
A while back, Meredith Whitney was highly criticized for predicting that there would be a huge wave of municipal defaults in this country.  When it didn't happen, the critics let her have it mercilessly.

But Meredith Whitney was not wrong.

She was just early.

Detroit is only just the beginning.  When the next major financial crisis strikes, we are going to see a wave of municipal bankruptcies unlike anything we have ever seen before.

And of course the biggest debt problem of all in this country is the U.S. government.  We are going to pay a great price for piling up nearly 17 trillion dollars of debt and over 200 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities.
All over the nation, our economic infrastructure is being gutted, debt levels are exploding and poverty is spreading.  We are consuming far more wealth than we are producing, and our share of global GDP has been declining dramatically.

We have been living way above our means for so long that we think it is "normal", but an extremely painful "adjustment" is coming and most Americans are not going to know how to handle it.

So don't laugh at Detroit.  The economic pain that Detroit is experiencing will be coming to your area of the country soon enough.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-21/25-facts-about-fall-detroit-will-leave-you-shaking-your-head


HUD's New 'Fair Housing' Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S


 To ensure that "every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of," HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in.

The goal is to help communities understand "fair housing barriers" and "establish clear goals" for "improving integrated living patterns and overcoming historic patterns of segregation."

“This proposed rule represents a 21st century approach to fair housing, a step forward to ensuring that every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of – where they have a fair shot at reaching their full potential in life,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.

“For the first time ever," Donovan added, "HUD will provide data for every neighborhood in the country, detailing the access African American, Latino, Asian, and other communities have to local assets, including schools, jobs, transportation, and other important neighborhood resources that can play a role in helping people move into the middle class."

Social engineering
According to HUD, long-term solutions include "helping people gain access to different neighborhoods and channeling investments into under-served areas." The mapping tool may guide development and zoning decisions, for example.

In a July 16 speech to the NAACP, Donovan said the American Dream still isn't within equal reach of all communities. He lamented the lack of diversity in America's boardrooms, schools, and the nation's "strongest neighborhoods."

"We have got to shape a future where ladders of opportunity are available for all Americans," Donovan said. "For African Americans, this is critically important.  Historically, for this community, the rungs on these ladders have been too far apart -– making it harder to reach the middle class."

Donovan said HUD's new neighborhood mapping tool, which uses Census data, will "expand access to high opportunity neighborhoods and draw attention to investment possibilities in under-served communities."

"Make no mistake, this is a big deal," Donovan said. "With the HUD budget alone, we are talking about billions of dollars. And as you know, decades ago, these funds were used to support discrimination. Now, they will be used to expand opportunity and bring communities closer to the American Dream."

Under the Fair Housing Act, HUD requires grantees, such as cities, that receive federal housing funds to "affirmatively further fair housing."

Under the proposed rule, the neighborhood data provided by HUD will be used to evaluate patterns of integration and segregation, racial and ethnic concentrations of poverty, and access to "valuable community assets." HUD wants to know if existing laws and policies -- such as zoning, financing, infrastructure planning and transportation -- create, perpetuate or alleviate segregation.

The proposed rule explicitly incorporates fair-housing decision-making into existing planning processes and "other decision-making that influences how communities and regions grow and develop."

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/huds-new-fair-housing-rule-establishes-diversity-data-every-neighborhood-us#sthash.UNMWoR11.dpuf

Chicago Hearing for Shooting Death of 6-Month-Old Girl Today; Left Silent

A Chicago man charged with murdering 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins as her father was changing her diaper will be back in court today for a status hearing. 



Koman Willis, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated murder, is believed to have committed the March 2013 murder in retaliation for a burglary the baby’s father allegedly committed at Willis’s mother’s house. One of the items taken was a PlayStation video game console. 



Willis maintains that the baby was not his intended target, and will be ineligible for the death penalty in Illinois, where it has been outlawed.



This past weekend, six people were killed and 21 injured in Chicago, including a little girl who was playing on her scooter while attending a memorial service for a man who was killed five years ago while sitting on his front porch.  



Local crime blogger “Second City Cop” wrote about the little girl’s murder, along with the wounding of her aunt, calling for more police presence and less talk from the city, writing:



Just riding her bike, catches a bullet through-and-through her chest.


We wonder where she fell on the "heat list." Maybe instead of making tenuous connections between assholes who probably deserve to get shot and drafting letters to them, the community ought to demand fewer "more with less" speeches and a couple more "hire police" commitments.



President Obama, who has continued to weigh in against gun violence, when it comes to the death of Trayvon Martin, stating over the weekend, Trayvon, “could have been me,” has remained largely silent regarding the ongoing war-zone that plagues Chicago’s mostly black and poorer urban communities.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/22/Chicago-Hearing-for-Shooting-Death-of-6-mo-Old-Girl-Set-for-Today-Left-Silent

Everything You Wanted to Ask About Common Core, and More

North Carolina's Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest has written a set of over 200 questions challenging the state superintendent of public schools to explain in detail the adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards -- before the State Board of Education's scheduled August 7-8 meeting.

Lt. Gov. Forest's bold approach to finding the underlying cause of the CCSS in his state no doubt will be answered with attacks, as speaking truth to power rarely results in transparency on the latter's part.  By questioning authority, the Lt. Gov. is showing us how to resist the tyranny of the minority.

Dr. June Atkinson, NC Superintendent of Public Instruction, in a June 12 letter defending CCSS, has already begun a counterattack on why "a pause in the implementation of the Common Core" would be detrimental.  She implies that the entire educational structure would fall apart and that such an action would lead "to not teach students how to read, write, speak, listen, and learn math such as adding, multiplying, dividing, subtracting, etc."  To which Forest in #26 returns with "North Carolina did not use the CCSS standards until this past school year. Do you believe that we have not been teaching our students to read, write, speak, listen, and learn math for the past several decades?"

Then, this past Friday, the Department of Public Instruction returned another volley at the Lt. Gov.  On his Facebook Forest writes, "DPI asked that I supply 10,000 pieces of paper so that they could answer my questions."  He sent them the requested reams.  DPI could be pulling all-nighters.

It doesn't appear that anyone checked out the ramifications of the CCSS before the state adopted them in 2010.  The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers released the standards on June 2, 2010, and North Carolina's SBE adopted them two days later.  There was no legislative debate and no real public debate (there was a two-month window for public comments, but who knew?).

In his inquiry, Lt. Gov. Forest broaches the topic of international standards under the section entitled "Development of Standards" when he asks, "Who created the international standards to which the CCSS is benchmarked?"  Maybe he knows the answer already, but he wants to see if the chief of schools knows it.

CCSS has been in the works officially at least since 2005, when the document Benchmarking for Success became the blueprint for comparing U.S. standards to international benchmarks.  Achieve Inc., the same nonprofit that helped the National Governors Association create the CCSS, wrote this report because states' "policymakers lack a critical tool for moving forward -- international benchmarking."

In a chilling quote from a globalist who is head of "Indicators and Analysis Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development's Directorate for Education," we read the ideology behind the rhetoric:

It is only through such benchmarking that countries can understand relative strengths and weaknesses of their education system and identify best practices and ways forward. The world is indifferent to tradition and past reputations, unforgiving of frailty and ignorant of custom or practice. Success will go to those individuals and countries which are swift to adapt, slow to complain, and open to change.

So tradition, custom, and practice must be thrown into the trash bin.  The report is rife with language more appropriate to a socialist state than a republic.  The opening statement in the report claims, "We are living in a world without borders."  Really?  Tell that to China and Finland, the two countries to whom education reformers constantly compare the U.S.  Then the report goes on to offer five "Actions" which turn out to be exactly what we are experiencing today.

You can also read about the necessity of federal involvement and a blueprint of Race to the Top:

The federal government can play an enabling role as states engage in the critical but challenging work of international benchmarking. First, federal policymakers should offer funds to help underwrite the cost. As states reach important milestones on the way toward building internationally competitive education systems, the federal government should offer a range of tiered incentives to make the next stage of the journey easier, including increased flexibility in the use of federal funds and in meeting federal educational requirements and providing more resources to implement world-class educational best practices. Over the long term, the federal government will need to update laws to align national education policies with lessons learned from state benchmarking efforts and from federally funded research.

Here's proof that all those reformers pushing the CCSS, including both Democrats and Republicans -- thank you, Jeb Bush -- are lying when they say that the standards are state-based, state-led, and voluntary.  According to Benchmarking for Success, the federal government plays an integral role in developing policies and laws that cause states to buckle under federal authority.

The federal government's intrusion into states' rights gives rise to the question of collection of student data in order to equalize learning outcomes.  Detailed data on students would be necessary to an overreaching government to make all states uniform so that the U.S. as a whole can be compared to other countries.  And so it is with CCSS.  The Lt. Gov. brings up the question of data-mining and its implications on students' private information.  He cites a speech given by the architect of the Common Core, David Coleman, at a Harvard forum, where "he specifically spells out how the College Board is partnering with the Obama campaign to data mine education databases[.]"

I had discovered this speech while researching Coleman for a blog post for American Thinker, and I transcribed most of Coleman's words because they were so revelatory.  When I first found the video, there were only 7 views on YouTube.  After clipping out three minutes, which show Coleman's deceptive practice of slipping CCSS under the radar into governors' laps and his remarks about Obama's data campaign, the video got wider viewership, and the lieutenant governor's office must have picked it up.  I am happy I could play a part in getting essential information to someone who could use it.

Lt. Gov. Forest lays bare the trouble with the Common Core Standards in his lengthy questionnaire to the superintendent.  We will have to wait and see if Dr. Atkinson sees the wisdom in reassessing the SBE's decision to adopt the standards, but from the initial snarky response of needing thousands of pieces of paper to print their answers on, it doesn't look promising.  Lt. Gov. Forest should keep the pressure on and keep the citizens of North Carolina informed no matter the outcome.

Dan Forest's letter is a breath of fresh air.  In fact, I would suggest that every state that has a problem with the Common Core use his set of questions as a benchmark and send it on to each of its chief state school officers.

Defending American Principles Is Now a Revolutionary Act

The liberal elite is still in shock that six Americans resisted the relentless pressure of its hack politicians, slavering mainstream media mediocrities and progressive hustlers in order to acquit George Zimmerman. Consciously or not, the jurors’ verdict was an act of rebellion against the progressives who wants to jettison our most sacred principles.

The case was a joke, but you wouldn’t know that if you only listened to the mainstream media. The media’s rank speculation, mischaracterization of the evidence and outright lies were designed to replace the strict adherence to law and the rules of evidence that for a thousand years have protected the accused from the mindless fury of the mob.

Progressives needed Zimmerman to be guilty, so when mere facts and laws got in the way of the predetermined narrative they could be dispensed with. Luckily, no one told the jury they were not supposed to take seriously all that stuff about the State having to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

But the undermining of the rule of law in criminal cases is just one component of their insidious strategy. The elite and their slobbering minions are growing more and more frustrated at the obstacles the American principles embodied in our Constitution and our traditions place in the pathway to their hideous progressive Utopia, so they seek to undercut these principles at every turn.

They don’t even try to hide it any more. Here are just a few examples:

The First Amendment, the cornerstone of our nation’s great experiment in freedom, is a prime target. Progressives want to limit the freedom of the press to only those designated media outlets they know will back the status quo, calling their censorship “campaign finance reform.” The government, defending the McCain-Feingold Act, once even told the Supreme Court that it was perfectly constitutional to charge an American citizen with a crime for writing a book critical of a politician.

Think about that. Our government actually argued that it was A-OK for the feds to stick you in jail for writing a book.

Fortunately, the conservatives on the High Court rejected that insanity. The liberals? Don’t think they would not happily give the power to bureaucrats to decide who can and cannot say what. In fact, in their dissent in Citizens United they argued hard that the First Amendment should come with an asterisk.

How about the right to petition the government? The IRS launches a campaign of harassment and intimidation designed to silence opponents of the regime and the elite thinks that it’s perfectly all right.

Freedom of religion? Obamacare is designed to target religious groups, to force them out of the health care field by making them to choose between their principles and their charities. That’s not a bug. That’s a feature designed to eliminate faith-based competitors to the government in providing health care to the poor.

Need we even mention the liberal hatred of the Second Amendment? The same people who scoured the Bill of Rights to find a right to an abortion up until junior gets his driver’s license can’t manage to find a right to keep and bear arms in the text guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms.

How about the Fourth Amendment? You have a right not to have the government poking around your stuff without probable cause unless, of course, the government decides it feels like it.

Astonishingly, the government has now even managed to infringe on the Third Amendment. How the hell do you even do that? 

Too bad the government isn’t even a hundredth as creative and competent its actual duties as it is in engaging in petty tyranny.

This is not a matter of a few rogue villains lurking out in Cincinnati. This is a systemic attack on our nation’s basic principles led by the reigning progressive elite and abetted by its mainstream media buddies.
It’s time to resist. It’s time to say “Hell no!” 

When you get called up for jury duty, don’t weasel out of it. Proudly sit as a juror, and if the State fails to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, proudly acquit. If the case was so weak it never should have been brought, after giving your verdict tell the judge what you think on the record. Let’s deincentivize overcharging by embarrassing abusive prosecutors.

And exercise your other rights – exercise the hell out of them because if you don’t you will lose them. Speak out, loudly and proudly, and refuse to be silenced. When the government annoys you, petition it for the redress of your grievances. Petition it until the bureaucrats shiver when they see you coming.

Demand your right to live according to your conscience, and refuse to abide by the oppression of other people based on their religion or lack thereof. 

Own a gun and ammunition, and be prepared to defend yourself, your family, your community and our Constitution. 

When some government flunky gets into your private affairs without a warrant based upon probable cause, drag his sorry rear into court.

And when some agent of the government attempts to quarter troops in your home during peacetime, you tell him to get off your lawn.

Americans are citizens and not subjects because our forefathers refused to countenance the abuses of far-away elites who sought to control their lives. That’s our heritage, and that’s our duty. 

Let’s get back to where standing up for our American principles, as the Zimmerman jurors manifestly did, is no longer courageous but a minimum expectation.

http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2013/07/22/defending-american-principles-is-now-a-revolutionary-act-n1644675/page/full

DC Politicos Block Walmart, Help Special Interests, Hurt The Poor

Why, when there is no question that nothing has created more wealth and eradicated more poverty than capitalism, do left wing politicians hate it so much?

After all, it’s supposed to be the left that cares about the poor.

The latest chapter in this ongoing saga of economic perversity is action being taken in Washington, DC, to prevent Walmart from opening stores there.

The District’s city council has passed a bill, awaiting signature of the Mayor, specifically targeted to block Walmart. It raises the District’s minimum wage 50 percent to $12.50 per hour only for stores with more than $1 billion in sales and store size of more the 75,000 square feet.

Unionized stores in the District with these characteristics are exempt. In other words, the bill protects special interests and blocks who politicos don’t want -- Walmart.

Walmart promptly announced that if the Mayor signs the bill into law, they will cancel plans to open three stores, each of which would create around 300 new jobs.

Walmart’s “low prices every day” business strategy is one of the greatest success stories in American history.
Opening its first store in 1962, it has grown and grown and grown. Today Walmart has sales of almost a half trillion dollars, putting it number one on the Fortune 500 list.

According to the company, it now has over 10,000 stores around the world, employs 2.2 million people, and serves 200 million customers per week.

Is anyone forced to shop at Wal-Mart? Of course not. Is anyone forced to work at Wal-Mart? Of course not.

This mind-boggling growth happened as result of freedom. Walmart’s huge success is one hundred percent the result of delivering products that people freely choose to buy.

Critics of Walmart claim that the company doesn’t pay enough. The company responds that its average pay is at or above the industry average.

But the real issue is, what is it the business of politicians what Walmart pays? Unlike government, that fines you or jails you if you don’t do what lawmakers want, people work at Walmart because they choose to do so.

Walmart says it gets anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 applications for 300 to 400 job openings when it opens a store. That’s more than 25 applicants per job.

Doesn’t appear to me like Walmart has trouble convincing people to work there.

Washington, DC, is more than 50 percent black. Its unemployment rate is above the national average. Its poverty rate is above the national average.

Yet Washington, DC’s politicians would rather have no new jobs at $12.50 per hour than 900 new jobs at $10.00 per hour.

Some claim that big discount stores like Walmart go into cities and displace small businesses. This is a claim. There is no definitive study that proves this claim.

But again, even if it were true, it would only be true because free people choose it to be so. What business is it of politicians to tell free people where to shop? What business is it of politicians to deprive people the freedom to go to a store that sells them products at the lowest prices they can find?

Low-income earners, the ones that supposedly the left wing politicos care about, happen to appreciate Walmart’s low prices.

One thing I particularly appreciate about Walmart, where I certainly shop, is the greeters. They are often disabled and other hard to employ individuals. Walmart gives them a chance to work.

Capitalism has been the great success it has because it rewards creativity and hard work.

Socialism has been a failure because it deprives freedom, stifles creativity, encourages envy and covetedness, and it rewards sloth and corruption.

American success is about the miracle of freedom. When freedom is displaced by political power, everyone suffers. In this case in Washington, DC, where politicians are blocking Walmart, those who will suffer the most are the poor.

http://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2013/07/22/dc-politicos-block-walmart-help-special-interests-hurt-the-poor-n1644615/page/full

 PK'S NOTE: For fun, Bloom County from when Prince William was born: