Shout First, Ask Questions Later: 2011-07-10

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Blogging Hiatus

Ummm, just saw the last Harry Potter movie this morning. Am pretty emotional right now, between Snape and the Epilogue - good golly.

Not as roughed up by the film though as I was by Toy Story 3 (that one rocked my world), I am bittersweet about this last-but-fantastic film.

I came late to the whole Harry Potter thing, only purchasing and reading the first 6 books about two weeks before the last seventh one came out. I read the first three books in less than 24 hours and the next three at the rate of one a day.

Now the last movie and I am bummed this amazing all-you-can-read buffet is over.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Random Round-Up 07-15

Just an update.

House votes to save traditional incandescent bulb for 2012

Police in Ga. shut down girls' lemonade stand

Andrew Klavan: Michele Bachmann Makes a Gaffe!!!

Call Obama’s bluff

Dem Congresswoman Brings Obama's Race Into Debt Ceiling Fight

Grassley and Issa Should Include Obama and Clinton in Operation Fast and Furious Probe

ATF Florida Gun Probe Earns Congressional Scrutiny in Wake of 'Fast and Furious'

More ‘Gunwalker’ Emails Suggest Gun-Control Conspiracy. Plus: Congressional investigators ask Eric Holder if there is any other evidence that Gunwalker was an anti-gun PR stunt.

Save Our Secret Ballot Workers support it. States support it. The courts support it. Why doesn't the Obama administration?

Global Weirding Coming At Us All

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, and I Just Make Stats Up Out of Nothing AND “80% want higher taxes,” he lied

Obama Administration STILL Bankrolling ACORN

Sounds like Obama will not call his own bluff

Two Years, Two Obamas

IJ Scores Major First Amendment Victory For St. Louis Property Owner Protesting Eminent Domain Abuse

Emanuel sends layoff notices to city workers in union showdown

The Obama Downgrade The real reason the U.S. could lose its AAA rating.

Two Pictures that Perfectly Capture the Rise and Fall of the Welfare State

US Consumer Sentiment Falls To Lowest Level in Two Years

Inflation making a comeback?

Defense Budget: The Other Shoe Hasn’t Dropped Yet

Manufacturing Gauge Slumps as Core Inflation Gains

Labor-Management Dynamic Shifts in Wisconsin Schools, Taxpayers Reap Rewards

Stephen Marche Publishes Hilarious Parody On Obama Cult Worship In Esquire Magazine

Cool - 'Big Bang Theory' actress Mayim Bialik a real-life scientist

Daily Round-Up 07-15

Pravda Syndrome: MSM Can’t Stop Lying About ‘Gunwalker’ No shame: The body count may be in the hundreds, and they still scratch the president's back.

THE GOOD NEWS IS...

An Idea: Demand the Commerce Department Goes in Return for a Deal AND Re: An Idea

Gallup - "Republican Candidate" Extends Lead vs. Obama to 47% to 39%

What Was All That Ruckus About, Again?

What Really *Is* the Institution of Marriage?

One cheap pill protects healthy people from HIV

Why Minnesota matters

GENERAL BAD BEHAVIOR

ATF Florida Gun Probe Earns Congressional Scrutiny in Wake of 'Fast and Furious'

Rep. Issa, Where Is the Pigford Investigation?

Illegal immigrant working inside nuke plant arrested

IRS Fails to Properly Notify 36% of Taxpayers Whose Personal Info is 'Inadvertently' Released

Righthaven Fined $5000 For Misleading the Court

Bill Clinton Strikes Again With the Race Card AND Black Activists "Deeply Disappointed" in President Clinton's "Disingenuous" Racial Attack on Ballot Security Measures

Black Men Survive Longer in Prison Than Out, Study Finds. If true, it's sad.

Unsanctioned Polygamy Is Weird, but Is It the Government’s Business?

Syrian protests spread into the work week, but regime holds firm

AND THE GOOD GUYS ARE...

Break the spend-and-borrow cycle

Cantor: ‘Not a Game’

On the Washington airwaves, Tito Muñoz fine-tunes a conservative Latino voice

Christie: Destiny Should Not Be Determined by Zip Code

Cantor emerges as player and pain in debt talks They refer to being a pain to the GOP establishment like it's a bad thing. It's not.

BAD POLITICIAN BAD

President Obama Job Approval

Latest Election Polls

President Obama vs. Republican Candidate

2012 Republican Presidential Nomination

Huge Obama birthday fundraiser day after debt ceiling deadline A tin ear and terrible optics.

Emails Show White House Targeting Fox News Despite Denial

Why 2012 is shaping up as an 'Anybody But Obama' election

Are Tax Increases More Important to Democrats Than Avoiding Default? Reid Won't Say

Big Drama Obama: ‘Don’t Call My Bluff’

Go Ahead, GOP, Make Obama's Day

National Standards and Tests: An Unprecedented Federal Overreach

The myth of Obama’s great temperament

Obama's multiplying Middle East failures.

Obama Tries to Resurrect ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ - Again Conservative homosexuals successfully repeal DADT and Obama tries to shut them down, hmmm. AND DOJ Tells Court It "Continues to Defend" DADT, Seeks Reinstatement of Law "By the Close of Business Tomorrow"

Newt Gingrich Calls Out Obama Over His Failure to Help Black Americans

Revenge of the Nerds? The political dangers of an intellectually superior attitude.

America's weak-kneed response to Assad's political street theatre

Pelosi: Obama More Patient Than Job of the Bible, or Something

Walker Committee Finds Huge Savings in WI; Dems Kvetch

Regime Change May Be Needed To Cut Deficit

Obama Uses Debt Crisis to Raise Taxes

IN ECONOMIC WOES

Never Did Get A Job From A Poor Man

Bush years imposed crushing regulatory burdens

Congress hears outcry from business lobby on debt ceiling and deficit

55% Oppose Tax Hike in Debt-Ceiling Deal

Manufacturing Gauge Slumps as Core Inflation Gains

Obama Figures Out How to Create Jobs! (in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Russia…)

The real reason the U.S. could lose its AAA rating.

Fair Tax or Foul? The promise and peril of changing the way we pay for government

Debt Endangers Growth AND ‘The Economy Can’t Grow’

Understanding the McConnell debt limit proposal

Why Wall Street doesn't seem worried about default

14 Cities That Are Being Eaten Alive By Public Sector Workers

The Truth About the Auto Bailouts

Why Are Economists Confused? Americans Aren’t

August 2nd no hard deadline on debt limit

Why there’s never been a better time to cut farm subsidies

S&P: U.S. Debt Could Reach ‘Junk’ Rating by 2030, Absent Entitlement Reform

A Capitol Hill Debate on Whether Fiscal Conservatives Should Support Higher Taxes

Europe's banks brace for clutch of health test failures AND Europe Banking Lies Coming Unglued

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Unaccountable and Costly

New Study from Swedish Economists Allows Us to Quantify the Cost of the Bush-Obama Spending Binge

OBAMACARE

Another provision of healthcare reform law comes under bipartisan assault

Big Government And Health-Care Stocks: A Happy Marriage?

States Moving Away from Government-Run Healthcare

Obama Creates Army Hidden In Health Care Bill

Follow the State's Lead to Better Medicaid

The Expanding Catalogue of Obamacare Fables

JUNK SCIENCE

Indoctrination Fridays: Green Curricula’s Real Target is Free Markets, Not Global Warming

The EPA's Regulatory Trainwreck

Spectacular Waste in Redwood Forests
Cars.com needs $14,187 to repair its wrecked Chevy Volt

Good news The Green Economy Withers

Politics has overtaken science at the EPA

Power Plant Shutdowns, Slowdowns May Follow New EPA Regs in Texas

Wanted: Objective government-funded scientists for objective government-funded study

GOP light bulb amendment likely to pass Friday after earlier defeat

MEDIA BIAS

Pravda Syndrome: MSM Can’t Stop Lying About ‘Gunwalker’ No shame: The body count may be in the hundreds, and they still scratch the president's back.

The Nanny State Never Ends – The Healthy Media for Youth Act

Let’s play hardball

Emails reveal White House calling Fox News host Baier ‘a lunatic’

CNN launches full-scale assault on Rupert Murdoch’s ankles

White House Spokesman Crumbles Under Relentless Debt Questions -- "I Can't Choose."

Racial Violence and the Conspicuous Silence of the Media

Is Google spying on you? Again, whatever happened to do no evil?

BIG UNION/LEFTIE GROUPS

uh-huh. ‘FOX News Is a Criminal Organization,’ Says Protester Wandering Outside Murdoch’s Home

The Enduring Dangerous Legacy of the Sixties New Left

Busted Again: Union Workers Drinking and Smoking Pot On Lunch Break

14 Cities That Are Being Eaten Alive By Public Sector Workers

Where Does The UAW Stand On Fuel Economy?

Wikileaks ‘Assistant’ Hypes Expansion of Government Power to Aid…Wikileaks

Obama bailout chief changes story: Maybe I did say, 'I did this all for the unions'

Union Corruption: There’s No App For That

University Gone Wild: Senior UMSL Administrators Bare (Almost) All in Embarrassing Internal Emails

THE SCANDAL OF ABORTION

ADF letter to Wis. Attorney General: Stop UW Hospitals from illegally funding abortions

FIGHTING CORRUPTION/TEA PARTY NEWS

Running on Empty Tour makes its way through Michigan

Unmasking the "International Community"

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Daily Round-Up 07-14

Unhappy Bastille Day - Today, the French Revolution began. A flawed experiement with proto-socialism and Rousseau's philosophy, it remains a stunning example of naive idealism and the blueprint which all totalitarian and socialist/facist/communist societies inevitably follow.

THE GOOD NEWS IS...

GOP Wins Minnesota Shutdown Fight

Slim Majority Don't Want Wisconsin Lawmakers Recalled

The Democrats’ class-warfare rhetoric is too rich for most Americans.

New Reality Emerging on Illegal Immigration

GENERAL BAD BEHAVIOR

SEIU Dragged in Bogus ‘Witness’ Who Wasn’t Even at Scene of the Crime

The MSM’s ‘Media Matters’ Blackout. While they scramble to bury Rupert Murdoch, they ignore the blatant violation of tax-exempt status by George Soros' pet outfit.

America the Broken

Gunwalker: Justice Department Tampering with Witnesses? Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley demand to know about contact DOJ has had with committee witnesses. Also, a source tells PJM: DOJ has picked a new fall guy to target after they failed to topple ATF Director Ken Melson.

School District Admits 'Big Mistake' Over 'Get Rid of Snyder' Phone Alert

Even As They Devour Your Tax Dollars, the Deadbeat Thugs of ACORN Housing Owe $163,000 in Back Taxes

AND THE GOOD GUYS ARE...

Tell Darrell Issa To Stop The Pigford Perversion

Bachmann Leads Iowa Poll

Paul’s Conviction Ad

IN ECONOMIC WOES

Never Did Get A Job From A Poor Man

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT Read it and weep.

Weekly Claims Finally Show Decline in Weak Jobs Market

Summarizing Today's Economic Data Barrage

Gee I wonder why - U.S. Satisfaction Slides to Two-Year Low

Pessimism deepens as economic concerns rise

The Government’s Four-Decade Financial Experiment

Days of Economic Reckoning The U.S. and the EU alike are bungling colossally.

$22 Billion Housing Tax Credit Program Utterly Failed as Economic Policy

Obama’s Debt Rebellion

How Much of Federal Spending is Borrowed for Every Dollar?

I Hope I’m Wrong, But Here’s Why Republicans Will Lose the Debt-Limit Fight

The End of the Affair The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of economics. It’s a tragic romance, whose magic was killed by bureaucrats, bad taste and busybodies. P.J. O’Rourke on why Americans fell out of love with the automobile.

We already were headed for a downgrade because of too much, not too little, debt

Moody's warns it may downgrade US credit rating

OBAMACARE

Obama lied about a central fact about his own life which he used — powerfully — to push health care reform.

Paul Ryan Schools Sebelius on Medicare Reform Well she does need a lot of schooling.

JUNK SCIENCE

Hooray! House votes to take EPA off clean water beat

Energy and Poverty in China

A US oil boom -- unless greens abort it. Well those greenies do like their eugenics and abortion.

FTC Ban on Junk Food Ads Would do More Harm than Good

MEDIA BIAS

I'm Trying Not to Start Crying About This

David Cay Johnston Apologizes

The MSM’s ‘Media Matters’ Blackout. While they scramble to bury Rupert Murdoch, they ignore the blatant violation of tax-exempt status by George Soros' pet outfit.

BIG UNION/LEFTIE GROUPS

Obama administration labor rule changes unfair to employers

BREAKING ON GLADNEY TRIAL: SEIU Dragged in Bogus ‘Witness’ Who Wasn’t Even at Scene of the Crime

Even As They Devour Your Tax Dollars, the Deadbeat Thugs of ACORN Housing Owe $163,000 in Back Taxes

Obama’s Labor Board: We Prosecute Dead People Too…

Leader Admits in Email: Teachers Union ‘Stands Up For Adults’

Internal Emails Reveal UMSL Cover-Up: Administrators Targeted Student, Misled Public, Backed Radical Course

Bad Politician Bad 07-14

President Obama Job Approval

Latest Election Polls

President Obama vs. Republican Candidate

2012 Republican Presidential Nomination

Unbelievable. GOP Debt Ceiling Ace in the Hole: Obama’s Birthday Bash That's an impressive set of tin ears you've got on you Mr. Obama.

Gunwalker: Smoking Gun Email?

Obama Exposes Social Security's Big Lie

America Tunes Out Why is Obama such a bore? There's always the possiblity Obama wants you to stop paying attention...

Why O's debt stance is a joke

‘Don’t Call My Hand’? AND Obama warns Cantor: 'Don't call my bluff' AND The Country’s In The Very Best Of Hands

Obama Owns the Debt-Ceiling Fiasco It doesn't help that he's declared high-speed rail and even unspent stimulus funds as untouchable.

The only thing worse than starting a stupid war is losing it.

Gunwalker: Justice Department Tampering with Witnesses? Darrell Issa and Charles Grassley demand to know about contact DOJ has had with committee witnesses. Also, a source tells PJM: DOJ has picked a new fall guy to target after they failed to topple ATF Director Ken Melson.

The Vicious Jackals Are Planning to Screw Us Over (But You Already Knew That)

Prosecutors defend House steroid hearings that ensnared Clemens

Blagojevich Convicted—Is Accountability in the Offing for Rep. Jackson, Jr.?

In Economic Woes 07-14

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Stealing Your American Dream

My husband's book is out as are some reviews.

Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You

Book Description:

They’re Stealing Us Blind
Remember when we used to call government employees “public servants”? They’re servants no more—now they’re bureaucratic masters of the universe, claiming inflated salaries (up to two times as much as private sector employees) and early retirement with unparalleled pensions and benefits. And how do they spend their time? When they’re actually working, they spin red tape and regulations that make your life harder (and their lives easier), your taxes higher, and your share of the nation’s debt unsustainable.

Like true bureaucrats they like to scurry around in the dark, doing their mischief outside of public scrutiny. But no longer: Iain Murray—author of the rollicking exposé The Really Inconvenient Truths—knows all about bureaucrats and their lairs, because he used to be one himself. In Stealing You Blind he blows the whistle on the out-of-control bureaucracy whose greed could actually tip our country into a financial abyss.

In Stealing You Blind, you’ll discover:

Why the wealthiest congressional district in America is in a recession-proof suburb of Washington, D.C.

How the Department of Transportation went from having one employee making $170,000 or more to having nearly 1,700 making that much—during the peak of the recession

Why even FDR thought federal workers shouldn’t be allowed to unionize

How state, local, and federal bankruptcy could be coming your way thanks to public employee union greed

Why bureaucrats regard taxpayers as sheep to be shorn—and how they do it

Ten steps to fight back and regain control of our government from the parasitic bureaucratic class
Filled with devastating facts about how government workers are living large off the rest of us and driving our country to financial ruin, Stealing You Blind is a rousing call to reclaim our rights as taxpayers and save our economy from the bureaucrats who are choking it to death for their own benefit.

Customer Reviews from Amazon.com are here.

Editorial Review quotes below:

“Where do all your hard-earned tax dollars go? You don’t know the half of it! . . . This must read manual takes you on a maddening tour that starts at Al Gore’s mansion, winds through the ever-expanding empire of Nanny State busybodies in Washington, and dives into bloated municipal payrolls from the Big Apple to Bell, California. Murray outlines imperative reforms to rein in these new robber barons. If you believe public servants should serve the public and not themselves, get this book.”
—Michelle Malkin, Fox News Contributor and author of Culture of Corruption

“A powerful government, the liberal myth goes, places a check on special interests and provides a counterbalance to the power of the wealthy. In truth, government growth instead creates a new class of Robber Barons—handsomely paid ‘public servants’ who soon monetize that service to become obscenely paid revolving-door lobbyists and ‘consultants.’ Recovered bureaucrat Iain Murray paints the unseemly picture of ‘our new leisure class’ in vivid—and often rage-inducing—detail.”
—Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics and Senior Political Columnist, The Washington Examiner

“Iain Murray eviscerates what he calls the new robber barons, the great empire-builders of the public sector. It is a story of greed, arrogance, and power that would make even a domineering nineteenth-century industrialist blush. This isn’t just a smart and entertaining take-down, but a call to action.”
—Rich Lowry, editor of National Review

Reviews from the Internet
Red Tape, Druggie Monkeys Bankrupting US

'Stealing You Blind': How 'Public Servants' Sponge Off the Private Sector

10 questions with ‘Stealing You Blind’ author Iain Murray

Article by my husband in the Washington Examiner - Bureaucrats are stealing Americans blind

Stealing You Blind, Book Review With the Author Iain Murray

Daily Round-Up 07-13

Republicans want records from Justice officials about botched gun operation

THE GOOD NEWS IS...

Senate stops Reid's millionaire tax measure

Hollywood Finally Admits It Discriminates Against Conservatives -- Could This Be the Start of Something Big?

The End of Subsidized Loans?

Voter photo ID laws are good protection against fraud

The IRS's Temporary Political Retreat on Taxing Donors to 501(c)(4) Groups

GOP Candidates: Sharpening the Knife

RNC ad: Change Direction

Wis. Democrats Defeat 'Fake' Candidates in Primary. The "fake" label is stupid. What were Wis. Republicans supposed to do? By putting up candidates in this primary, the conservatives force the democrats to spend money they'd presumably prefer to save for the general recall election. "Fake" or not, this was a smart move on the conservatives' part.

Wall Street Journal Backs McConnell Plan I'm not sure how I feel about this plan but anything that forces Obama to show his hand isn't a bad idea.

Tea-Party Senators Plot with House Allies

Time to get ‘serious’ on illegal aliens

GENERAL BAD BEHAVIOR

“Trying to ease our own guilt feelings is very different from trying to advance those less fortunate.” – Thomas Sowell

ACLU Using Food Pantries To Undermine Voter ID In Wisconsin

Allegations of corruption, fraud, tears town government apart

Police charge mother in Nashville airport altercation. Woman refused to let officers screen daughter AND New Port Richey couple says TSA search went too far

Suspect Allowed to View Child Porn in Washington Jail

Harvard Researchers Accused of Breaching Students' Privacy

Kindergarten nightmare grips NYC parents

Our Frivolous Approach to Citizenship

A shamefully wrong decision. NOT GUILTY!…SEIU Thugs Cleared in Brutal Gladney Beatdown!…Update: Gladney Reaction (Video)

AND THE GOOD GUYS ARE...

Boehner Boosts the BBA

Sen. Inhofe places hold on Obama's nominee for commerce secretary

Herman Cain - I’d replace the income tax with the Fair Tax

David Mamet's Conversion

What ‘constitutional conservatism’ means to me

OBAMACARE

Liberty Is at Stake

Will Washington Find the Cure for Cancer? Government boards and drug price controls threaten to throw sand in the gears of medical progress.

Rolling Back the Obamacare Banana Republic

US to Clarify How Insurance Exchanges Will Work

FDA Proposes Targeted Drug Testing Guidelines

Huntsman, Pawlenty Also Toyed With Healthcare as Govs

AARP assails Medicare benefit cuts

Should Parents Lose Custody Of Obese Kids? This is a ridiculous intrusion by the government into the family.

JUNK SCIENCE

National Academy of Sciences warns EPA to get its science straight or risk irrelevance

Supreme Court deals major blow to environmentalists

Global Warming: Cities, Too, Are Carbon 'Sinks'

Let There Be Light…And Freedom To Choose Its Source

Taken for a Ride. Underhand attempts by the US Congress to bypass regulatory decisions made by federal agencies erode science-based policy.

MEDIA BIAS

Hollywood Finally Admits It Discriminates Against Conservatives -- Could This Be the Start of Something Big?

I'd agree with this statement - The BBC Is at Least a Thousand Times More Evil and Dangerous than Rupert Murdoch

Erring and forgiving, &c.

Who's Burning D.C. Down?

David Mamet's Conversion

THE SCANDAL OF ABORTION

Live Action Needed: Planned Parenthood’s Mission Creep and the Congressional Imperative

A Victory for Life, and for Free Speech

Three Cheers for AUL’s Exposé of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood’s Non-Response to AUL

FIGHTING CORRUPTION/TEA PARTY NEWS

Something is brewing - Tea-Party Senators Plot with House Allies

The Tea Party Is Ceiling the Deal

Tea Party Groups Target Lawmakers on Debt Ceiling

Time to get ‘serious’ on illegal aliens

Republicans want records from Justice officials about botched gun operation

Bad Politician Bad 07-13

President Obama Job Approval

Latest Election Polls

President Obama vs. Republican Candidate

2012 Republican Presidential Nomination

Romney Beats Obama in Hypothetical Race

Obama 2012 Fundraising Behind 2008 Pace

The Presidency Matters, But How Much Does Obama?

US too dumb to know O is always right

Issa, Grassley name 12 senior Justice officials in Fast and Furious letter

Department of Justice Finally Responds to ‘Fast and Furious’ Accusations, By Mandating More Gun Control

‘Gunwalker’ Deepens: Agent Zapata Killed By Gun From … Texas? In addition to Phoenix and Florida, it appears the U.S. government had gunwalking operations based in Houston and Dallas.

Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to Promote Gun Control By giving Mexican drug lords guns with which they can kill Americans?

Operation Fast and Furious is looking more and more like a set up from the beginning to push Obama and Holder's radical anti-Second Amendment agenda as they used law abiding gun shop owners to enable government officals to break the law, then turned around and blamed the very same gun shops for illegal gun trafficking, despite those shops being forced by ATF to help ATF agents carry out Operation Fast and Furious, and now, those shops are being punished through new Justice Department gun control measures.