Subscribe to the Tea Party RSS feed
Archive
Hailing from
The Detroit Free Press recently reported the faintest glimmer of hope, though—tourism is expected to grow "modestly" this year. Maybe the tourists think they can snag more beach time? After all, with families and businesses leaving in droves, there will be much more space along the lakefront.
What kind of evil activities do you have to participate in to get Colorado State Rep. Mike Merrifield so upset that he says you deserve a "special place in hell ?"
I'll give you a hint: it's not hurting children or stealing from the needy. No, all you have to do to earn this kind of hatred is to try to increase educational options for children.He reserved this "special place in hell" for the local leaders behind the Colorado Charter School Institute!
So what exactly the Colorado Charter School Institute all about?
"The Mission of the Colorado Charter School Institute is to foster high-quality public school choices offered through Institute chart schools, including, particularly, schools for at-risk students."
They want to foster opportunities for at-risk students? Why, how dare they!
Chicago is famous for its hot dogs...but sometimes that passion gets, well, out-of-control. At least according to Chicago authorities , that is:
CHICAGO -- Chicago officials issued the first fine for violating the city's ban on the duck liver delicacy, known as foie gras, to the owner of a hot dog restaurant.
Doug Sohn, who runs Hot Doug's "The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium," agreed to pay $250 Thursday for the first-time offense. He had been openly serving foie gras-laced hot dogs for many months at his restaurant on the city's northwest side after the ordinance banning the delicacy took effect in August 2006.
Sohn acknowledged in February that he had taken the city's warning letter about the duck or goose liver delicacy, framed it and placed it on his counter. He also advertised ingredients for the specialty dogs on a board hung near the front door and on his Web site.
He was cited in February for serving the foie gras and city officials confiscated the meat.
...comes from the Center for Citizen Media. It can be found here.
TCS Daily recently featured an interesting commentary on the varying views of the appropriate role of the government, written by David Boaz of the Cato Institute.
He says it best here: Many conservatives want to be your daddy, telling you what to do and what not to do, and many liberals want to be your mommy, feeding you, tucking you in, and setting your curfew. But the proper role for the government of a free society is to treat adults as adults, responsible for making their own decisions and accepting the consequences.
Here’s to restoring that proper role, one Modern-Day Sam Adams at a time.
The Washington Examiner reported on Tuesday that the Senate’s emergency war bill will include $20 billion in pork, $100 million of which will go toward the Democratic and Republican 2008 presidential conventions.
This party pork—$50 million for each party’s convention—was listed under a section “described as ‘Katrina recovery, veterans’ care and for other purposes.’” Anyone care to venture a guess as to which category booze and balloons fall under?
Everyone seems to be for "full disclosure" of even the smallest campaign contributions. Viva la sunshine! Right?
Not quite so fast. I'm not. Because I see the chilling effect such laws haveon the ability of regular people to speak out and be part of the political debate. (There is a reason we have a secret ballot in this country.) The multi-billionaires can always afford to play ball by hiring the batteries of attorneys and accountants necessary to comply with the most maniacal matrix of modern campaign finance laws. But the little guy is often out of luck.
Now the Institute for Justice has published a new study showing that these campaign disclosure laws provide the public with very little information, at least not the kind the public deems important, while meanwhile creating a chilling effect for the majority of Americans, who might wish to contribute to a ballot measure campaign but fear public or private retribution should their contribution be disclosed.
More information, including the full study, is available here.
And government transparency...
The French government recently opened its UFO files to the public.
Bonus!
Answer: A government agency that's probably missing money but doesn't have any reckoning at all as to the amount.
"Huh?" you ask? Well, a recent audit of the Washington State Ferries shows that the public organization has a little problem of not being able to account for the amount of revenue taken in from ticket sales.
The Daily Herald writes:
"It might be zero. It could be some huge amount," said state Auditor Brian Sonntag, who released the report Friday. "We're not saying we know how much money is missing. We're saying the ferries department cannot identify if any is missing," he said.
Uh, right.
It's a tough job, being a Samployee. However, when we're not burning the midnight oil in a desperate search to find the ultimate photo to slap Sam's face onto or blogging to entertain our dear readers, we get to slow down enjoy our glamorous office.
As you can see in the photo to the left, we work in a VERY fancy place. What you probably can't see is that we're in downtown Chicago and in the Civic Opera building.
I really do enjoy working in the Civic Opera building. It's a beautiful structure that's shaped like a giant chair.
And today, I learned something cool about the Civic Opera building on the Heartland Institute's Free Market Tour of Chicago.
When the Civic Opera building was built back in 1929, Samuel Insull, the opera company’s president and owner of many utilities, deliberately chose to have the "back of the chair" face City Hall. Apparently, City Hall extorted payments from his businesses as a regular practice and he didn't appreciate it. And so, the "back" of the building was widely viewed as a message of contempt from Insull.
It's an interesting story, but Insull did one thing wrong - he should have had the Civic Opera building facing City Hall, with huge windows representing "eyes" watching whatever moves these public servants made. As much of a luxury it would be to just turn our backs against unaccountable government, it's really important to watch what they're doing.
Pretty soon, San Francisco shoppers won’t be hearing “Paper or Plastic?” from their grocers anymore, after city leaders approved a ban on plastic grocery bags. And, you know, “paper or plastic that easily breaks down to be made into compost?” doesn’t really roll off of the tongue quite as easily.
But, despite how ridiculous this latest government ban is, what really gets me are the cities cracking down on feeding the homeless. Yes, that’s right, some city governments have decided that private organizations helping those in need are just being too generous.
Orlando, Dallas, Las Vegas and Wilmington, N.C. are among those cities adopting rules that “restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide.” Dallas even forces those distributing food to take a “food handling course and get a city permit.” Government certification to help the poor…what’s next?!We all know that the latest "hip" thing for big cities is to make smoking in bars and restaurants illegal. However, I didn't realize that these paternalistic laws were going to be heavily ignored.
Welcome to the era of the smoke-easy.As Heather noted in a blog post a couple weeks ago, corruption in Chicago politics is pretty much par for the course—and from that file, here’s the latest: a man who, while a Secretary of State employee, took nearly three thousand in bribes from motorists to clear their records has been hired by the city again, this time as a policeman.
Jay Stewart, the president of Chicago-based Better Government Association called it “astounding, even by Chicago standards.” In a city where abuse of power is more often the rule instead of the exception, it’s wonderful to see an organization battling government corruption and promoting government accountability and transparency. You can even help them by keeping an eye out for government corruption, and reporting any foul play here.
Well done, BGA. Keep up the good work.....hails from Wisconsin, that mystical land to our north. (If you haven't visited Mars Cheese Castle, by the way, you're missing out).
Citizens for Responsible Government, a Wisconsin-based group, have been living up to their name--and today, they got a pat on the back from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
There's Wikipedia, Wikileaks (for government whistle-blowers) and even ultra-specified wikis for things like Star Trek...don't tell my boss that I get caught up surfing that one for hours at a time, OK?
Other than acting as excellent time-wasters, wikis allow users to collaborate on content dynamically, and have proven to be formidable sources of information, so much so that many college professors have taken to either banning and encouraging their use for course projects. Wikis are like peer-reviewed journals, except that anyone can be a peer. Wikis are the perfect example of Web 2.0 at their best...most of the time.
In keeping with the spirit and popularity of the wiki, a scholar at the Cato Institute has expanded on the people's want for transparent government and launched a brand-new wiki called WashingtonWatch.com. Its focus is on federal bills, with a mission to encourage discussion and debate on their pros and cons.
My feeling on this is that every level of government--from the school board to the state-level bureaucracy--should have a wiki on itself in order to encourage maximum accountability. Modern-day Sam Adamses with wiki expertise might take my cue and get crackin'.
Outrageous and tyrannical government bans used to be the stuff of science fiction novels like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. But now, they don’t seem all that far-fetched. Left and right, lawmakers are telling us to throw away the Krispy Kremes, turn off our phones when crossing the street, and turn in our aluminum bats. They’re also considering a ban on smoking in our own cars.
I don’t smoke, but it’s certainly none of my business if someone else wants to do so within their own property. This, sadly, is a concept the government has yet to learn.The tenants of a busy shopping center in Arlington Heights are fighting to protect their small businesses from an overzealous local government. The city wants to bulldoze this popular shopping center and to replace it with something that will generate more tax revenue - a Target.
Paul Jacob provides specific action you can take against this in today's Common Sense - click here to find out what you can do right now!Michael Reitz at the Washington State-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation has an excellent bit of commentary on his organization's failed attempts at getting public records about state hiring practices.
He writes:
The state was prepared to hand these documents over until several unions rushed to court. Reading the unions’ complaint, one gets the impression that unions consider taxpayer oversight to be a crisis of apocalyptic proportions. “Disclosing the information in question will fundamentally and irreparably harm the Plaintiffs’ collective bargaining relationship with the state,” says the union brief. “The information sought is of no legitimate concern to the public and not in the public interest.”
Read Michael's entire piece here.
Frequently, the best examples of government bureaucracies run amok can be found in local school boards. Because officials have little to no competition for their product--as well as a guaranteed source of funding in the taxpayers--waste runs rampant, and kids are the ones who stand to lose the most.
That's why I'm encouraged to see that proponents of Utah's new school voucher program have built a new website to inform parents and dispel some of the disinformation about this infant program. UtahVouchers.com discusses the Parent Choice in Education Act--which the governor signed into law last month--and gives parents basic information about how they and all Utah schools can benefit.
Check it out, and pay a visit to their brand-new blog, too.
One of my favorite magazine features is Reason magazine's Daily Brickbat, a nugget of government insanity that highlighting what can happen when we don’t pay attention to our public servants.
For example, a recent Brickbat told the story of a seven year-old kid who was sitting idly on a dirt bike when Baltimore police handcuffed him and hauled him off to be photographed and fingerprinted and the police station.
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I just can’t see how a child could be viewed as such an extreme threat. For more Brickbaty madness, click here.
Paul Jacob asks some interesting questions about climate change in this week's Townhall column. Here's a snippet:
Consider: one of the biggest problems for today's burgeoning space industry is all the space junk floating around the planet, left by astronauts in the early stage of our Space Age. And these missions were nearly all government-funded and government-directed! I've read a number of articles on the problems of space junk, but none call it a market failure, naturally. But, also, I don't recall the articles calling this problem a government failure, either. People are awfully reticent about blaming things on government, but not about blaming things on "the market."It's just human. The blaming.
And the pollution.
Click here for the full article.
BBC News brings an update from China, and the family whose home became the top of a concrete island. Despite developers’ attempts to seize her land, Wu Ping is standing strong:
“I'm not stubborn or unruly, I'm just trying to protect my personal rights as a citizen. I will continue to the end.”
We Americans ought to take a page from Wu’s book. Given the widespread abuse of private property rights across our country, we’ll need to be just as vigilant to keep our local governments accountable.
Calling all Modern Day Sam Adamses…
On Thursday, New York state politicians agreed to a deal that places a new check on their power to spend taxpayers' dollars. Under the plan, anyone who puts their hat into the ring for a government contract must disclose any potential conflicts of interest or financial relationships with government officials. It's only a small step in making New York government more accountable to the taxpayers, but it's a welcome move.
Politicians also discussed funding Project Sunlight, which will produce a website that will detail politicians' voting records and who have contributed to their campaigns, as well as information on lobbyists.
This morning's Wall Street Journal points out that good intentions don't always work...and sometimes they hurt.
There is a sad law I have noticed in my economics career: the poorer the country, the poorer the economic analysis applied to it. Sub-Saharan Africa, which this month marks the 50th anniversary of its first nation to gain independence, Ghana, bears this out.
There has been progress in many areas over the last 50 years -- life-saving drugs, the Internet, air conditioning, Powerpoint slides, the iPod, the acting of Penelope Cruz -- yet the same poor economics on sale to Ghana in 1957 are still there today. Economists involved in Africa then and now undervalued free markets, instead coming up with one of the worst ideas ever: state direction by the states least able to direct....
The free market is no overnight panacea; it is just the gradual engine that ends poverty. African entrepreneurs have shown what they are capable of. They have, for example,launched the world's fastest growing cell phone industry to replace the moribund state landlines. What a tragedy, therefore, that aid agencies have foisted the poorest economics in the world on the poorest people in the world for 50 years. The hopeful sign is that many independent Africans themselves are increasingly learning the economics of how to get rich, rather than of how to stay poor.
If you have a subscription, it's worth reading the whole thing.
If my landlord increased my rent every month, I don't think he'd be too surprised when I packed my bags and headed across town.
So when businesses and individuals leave the Mitten State in droves after repeated tax increases, why is Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm so upset?
She's got to see the pattern by now after four years in office...right?
Guess where store owners can go to jail if they charge the "wrong price" for products like beef, chicken and milk?
Find out in today's Common Sense.
George Will's latest column outs an alarming trend:
In New Mexico, anyone can work as an interior designer. But it is a crime, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in prison, to list yourself on the Internet or in the Yellow Pages as, or to otherwise call yourself, an "interior designer'' without being certified as such. Those who favor this censoring of truthful commercial speech are a private group that controls, using an exam administered by a private national organization, access to that title.
This is done in the name of "professionalization,'' but it really amounts to cartelization. Persons in the business limit access by others -- competitors -- to full participation in the business.
The Institute for Justice is taking on this issue in several states....Do you have a similar story? Send it our way!As a Hillsdale College graduate, my views on politics and the government are a result of four years of studying history. One of my favorite courses, “The Economic History of the United States,” (I know, it sounds like a snorefest, but it really was good!) focused on the successful work of various American entrepreneurs and, in stark contrast, government programs and their unintended consequences. Through these stories, we saw the growth of the government’s role over time.
It was especially easy to see this government expansion at the federal level. Nearly every twentieth century president furthered what political philosopher Walter Lippmann called the “dominant dogma of the age”—that through the power of the government, people can be made happy. In other words, government became the great provider and problem-solver.
But this problem didn’t stop in Washington. Once the public’s perception of the government’s role had shifted, governments of all levels, including local and state, embraced the idea—which is why, now, there are countless "nanny laws" before city councils and state legislatures across the country.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine someone driving down the road while playing a trumpet, but apparently lawmakers are concerned enough to consider a bill banning it. As a history student, I guess I should have seen it coming—intrusive government has been more than a century in the making, which is why I’m so glad we’re connecting citizen leaders across the country to fight back. I hope you’ll join us.If you're in West Haven, CT tomorrow you might want to stop by Italian-American Club/Westwoods for a little jazz music get-together hosted by the West Shore Taxpayers. Proceeds will benefit the organization whose mission is to promote government transparency, lower taxes and municipal accountability.
One of their main campaigns is to "encourage the elected commissioners of the Fire District to work in the best interest of the entire district of the taxpayers in the West Shore who have elected them and not one group or union."
Here's the info for tomorrow's event from the New Haven Post: March 23, from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Italian-American Club/Westwoods, 85 Chase Lane. Tickets are $30 per person, including open bar, coffee and dessert. Membership applications with optional dues will be on hand. For tickets and more information, contact Michelle at 203-641-6906.
I really dig this group.
The Bristol News highlights a fantastic story on how one person can make a real difference in the journey toward a more open government.. Frosty Landon, a former journalist worked tirelessly for more than fifty years to defend the public’s right to know the actions of the government.
"For a decade, anyone who has cared about open government could sleep better at night knowing Frosty was on the case. His legacy will benefit generations to come," said David Poole, executive director of the Virginia Public Access Project.
To read the full profile, click here. To visit the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, click here.
Paul Jacob shares his thoughts on balancing environmentalism with property rights in today's Common Sense.
There's a battle raging on citizens' right to petition for constitutional amendments in Florida right now.
Florida State Representative Pat Patterson says, "I don't want somebody coming and standing outside my office and pushing something I don't agree with," says Rep. Pat Patterson in a Southwest Florida Herald-Tribune article.
This politician doesn't want citizens to be able to express their voice near his office, which is presumably on taxpayer-funded property. Hmph. Well, I don't want my public servants acting like local leaders need to shut up and go home if they happen to disagree with the politicians.
Fortunately, other elected officials in Florida have a better perspective.
"When you talk about making it harder to amend that constitution, don't forget whose constitution that is," says Governor Charlie Crist. "It's the people's, and they have the right to change it."
Click here to read the full article.
From the "did he really say that?" files:
CHICAGO--The governor says he has heavenly help as he pushes for the largest increase in taxes and spending in the history of Illinois.
“This is Armageddon, and we are on the side of the Lord,” Blagojevich said.
Hmm...but wait...there's more!
“I would be careful that the governor or others say that in this specific tax plan God is the co-signer because in looking at the tax plan, it’s one of several good plans out there,” said Rev. Phil Blackwell of First United Methodist Church.
In other words, God may be still undecided. Stay tuned.
Why not get ready for the season with this list of handy deductions?
My personal favorite? Body oil.
In Sarah’s post yesterday, she highlighted Paul Jacob’s Common Sense about the “Race Against Time” in Ohio. Although Mayor Michael O’Brien of Warren, OH is hoping to use eminent domain for private redevelopment before voters can curb eminent domain abuse, it looks like he’s going to have one heck of a fight ahead of him.
In a poll released today by the Cincinnati Enquirer, a whopping 78 percent of people want to restrict the government’s ability to use eminent domain. The measure that the Legislature is considering for the Nov. 6 ballot would do just that, preventing the government from taking property simply to boost tax revenues.
If I were a betting woman, my money would be on Ohioans—they’re not going down without a fight.
There's a group in Gardena, California called NoGRAB (No Gardena Redevelopment Agency Boondoggle) that has taken a stand against the formation of a city "redevelopment agency"...and won.
They've convinced Gardena's citizens to vote against forming the agency whose mission would have been to mark homes and communities for condemnation and transfer the land to private developers--classic eminent domain abuse.
But they're not stopping there. NoGRAB is sticking around, continuing to raise public awareness of the issue. They're now supporting candidates for their city council who are against the use of eminent domain, and working with state legislators to change state law.
Watch this group and attend one of their two monthly meetings to get involved.
There are people in Ohio worrying about whether they will be able to keep their homes. Paul Jacob discusses the situation and the local leaders who are working to curtail eminent domain abuse, in today's Common Sense.
After getting fed up with the local politics and the local media, a few leaders in Western Michigan started a blog and a website . I only visited these websites for the first time today, and, I'm not sure about the details of the issues as hand as a result, so I'm not commenting on their actual issues and problems.
What I do like about these websites is that citizens who were unhappy found a forum where they could share their opinion on the issues - and people in the community responded. One of the websites came up with a list of ten things the school district could do to improve. That's fantastic. Meanwhile, the other blog functions as a successful place for people to meet online and discuss "the sordid scandals and slimeballs" in their area.
If you're interested in starting a blog, one place to start is our action toolkit. Click here for our blogging guide.
Public employees in
Michigan's in a tough place right now, and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is apparently itching for his state to rival it in terms of job losses, a mass business exodus and various other economic nasties.
Of course, he'd never admit it, but the governor's new "gross receipts" tax increase will be the largest state-level tax increase yet this decade, raising taxes on Illinois citizens by $6 billion. It would tax all business transactions, including business-to-business sales and purchases, and, according to economists across the spectrum, would harm the economy due to its inherently flawed design.
Not content to stop there, the governor also advocating a new payroll tax that will raise the tax burden on workers by $7.1 billion in 2008.
Read more about the Illinois tax increases and gross receipts taxes in reports by the Tax Foundation.
In a once-thriving city in my home state, houses are now cheaper than cars.
Detroit, which has lost more than half its population in the past 30 years and struggled with rising crime, failing schools and other social problems, largely missed out on the housing boom that swept much of the country in recent years.
Michigan was the only state to see home prices fall in 2006. The national average price rose almost 6 percent but prices slipped 0.4 percent here, according to a federal study.
The state's jobless rate of 7.1 percent in January was also the second highest in the nation, behind only Mississippi.
Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has a, well, interesting solution to the state's problems: a tax on services! Stay tuned...
Realtor Ron Walraven had a three-bedroom house in the suburb of Bloomfield Hills that had listed for $525,000 sell for just $130,000 at the auction.
"Once we've seen the last person leave Michigan, then I think we'll be able to say we've seen the bottom," he said.
Why, you ask? Well, according to CA Attorney General Jerry Brown's office, then-Mayor Brown didn't "generate many records to begin with," as reported by the Contra Costa Times on Monday. No matter that a "public record" in California is defined as anything hand-written, typed, photocopied or faxed.
California's AG is the officer who is responsible for setting the example on enforcement of the public's right to government documents.
"I think people are going to be less willing to believe [Brown] (if) he says enforcement of open government laws are a priority," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. "This is very regrettable. The former mayor's official records were not his to throw away. They belong to the citizens of Oakland."
Let's hope that sunshine is the best disinfectant here, too.
Paul Jacob praises the value of sunshine in government in today's Townhall column. Sunshine Week doesn't have anything to do with beautiful spring days or flowers. Instead, it is all about our government’s sunny disposition and its openness to us and whether citizens can obtain the information they need from their allegedly public servants to play the part of fully engaged citizens.
Click here to read the column!
Peggy Noonan writes a great piece in today's Opinion Journal about why it's not the people in politics who deserve loyalty, but instead the ideas they're representing and the principles motivating them.
She says, "It is better to see activists driven by philosophy than by personalities. Better to be faithful to the cause than to individuals with whom you merely have a history. Better to have fidelity to principles, and not to political figures, no matter how interesting or compelling they are."
Click here for the full article.
The stench of scandal fills the air of D.C. - it always has, and it always will unless real reforms are made. In today's Common Sense, Paul Jacob explains that current reforms are like trying to cover up a smell with a spritz of perfume instead of with a shower. Click here to find out what it will really take for Congress to clean up its act.
I caught part of “Super Size Me,” the 2004 Academy Award-nominated documentary chronicling one man’s 30-day McDonald’s diet, on TV last week and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to eat at McDonald’s again.
That got me thinking, though—in the end, the problem isn’t whether a steady diet of Big Macs and fries will trigger liver failure, but whether people have the foresight and willpower to make better decisions about their own health. Freedom goes hand in hand with personal responsibility, a concept all too often missing in today’s society.
Wikipedia has the full story behind the documentary, in which it explains Morgan Spurlock’s inspiration: “The driving factor for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared “epidemic,” and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was claimed, became obese as a result of eating too much McDonald's food.”
We’ve moved light years away from accountable government because people have come to believe that nothing is their fault or responsibility. They sue McDonald’s for making them fat, and they expect the government to provide every need and solve every problem. That’s not what America is supposed to be about…and if we want to restore an accountable government, we’ve got to get back to the basics—taking responsibility for our own actions.For news on the latest battle for educational freedom.
In his State of the State address last week, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland announced that he is ending funding for the year-old EdChoice school voucher program. The program provides scholarships to 2,829 students in underperforming school districts to attend private schools.
"To me, vouchers are inherently undemocratic because they allow public dollars to be used in ways and in settings where the public has little or no oversight," said Strickland in a recent interview with the AP. (I added emphasis on the one word on which Strickland is basing his entire opposition to the program...at least in public.)
But answer me this, Mr. Governor: Why have nearly 3,000 students' parents decided to take their children out of failing government schools and, instead, send them to private schools? Could it be because "public oversight" was failing their children, and that they have more faith in their own oversight in matters having to do with the education of their children?
A monopoly of any size or industry cannot accurately gauge the needs of its customers, and Ohio's government school system is no different.
Here's to the promise of educational competition everywhere, even if Governor Strickland can't (or won't) see it in Ohio.
So says Mike Rosen of Utah educrats in the Rocky Mountain News:
The state of Utah has just passed a landmark educational voucher program under which every family, depending on its income, will be reimbursed between $500 and $3,000 per child for annual tuition paid to the private school of their choice....This will now give parents of modest means options that the well-to-do have long enjoyed.
Predictably, the educratic establishment is in full counterattack. The Utah teachers' union has launched a campaign to repeal the new law. If that fails, they'll try their luck in court. Their resistance is bred of desperation.
Read more for details on Utah's upcoming battle for educational freedom.
If you don’t know much about the Institute for Justice, you’ll want to check out their website. They’re a great organization whose “Merry Band of Litigators” work hard to defend everyday citizens whose most basic rights are being trampled by the government.
And this week, they’ve helped ZeroBrokerFees.com, a
However, IJ filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s anti-competition scheme, which a federal court upheld, dismissing the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission’s motion to dismiss the case. Click here for the whole story.
Yeah, the saying's trite and you've heard it before, but French media researchers have actually come public with preliminary conclusions about animals' political preferences, specifically those of cats and dogs.
If you've not been following it with bated breath, the French are holding their presidential election next month, and the current battle is between the conservative candidate Sarkozy, and the socialist candidate Royal. According to this BBC News video report, French dogs prefer the conservative candidate, while cats are more mixed, slightly preferring the socialist.
"[It's] more traditional for dogs [to be] more conservative; and more diversified and more eclectic for cats," says a French media agent.
I don't really buy that particular agent's association of diversity and eclecticism with socialism, but whatever, it is France, after all. Any way you cut it, French pets are paying attention this election season, and goodness only knows whether their interest will swing the French electorate to the right or the left come election day.
Want to see Exhibit A in convoluted legal analysis? Yesterday's Washington Post carries an op-ed by Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor of law and political science at Duke University, regarding the recent decision by the DC Court of Appeals to strike down Washington, D.C.'s gun ban.
Let's cut to the chase: Where does Professor Chemerinsky's argument lead?
He writes: "...the regulation of guns should be treated the same as other regulation of property under modern constitutional law: The regulation should be allowed so long as it is rationally related to achieving a legitimate government purpose." [Emphasis is mine.]
Chemerinsky then concludes that even if the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does indeed protect an individual's right to bear arms, this Washington, D.C. statute banning an individual from actually possessing those arms, is "certainly reasonable."
Reasonable? I can't think of any constitutional construct more unreasonable than to assert that individuals have rights but these rights are so flimsy that government can at anytime swipe them like someone dusting a bit of lint off their suit. Yowza. In other words, our rights can and should be tossed aside whenever government legislators say so.
Let's hope the Supreme Court can connect reality with rationality in this case, upholding the DC Circuit and striking down DC's gun ban.
The 2007 Congressional Pig Book is here! To see how your tax dollars are being wasted, er, spent, click here to see Citizens Against Government Waste’s compilation of pork barrel projects in the federal budget for fiscal 2007 (and past years).
Call me crazy, but it seems to me that married couples should be the ones making the decisions about the fate of their relationship. Tennessee legislators, however, disagree.
Its name doesn't quite roll off of the tongue, but the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007--phew!--appears like it will add a little more kick to the federal level Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Co-sponsor Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) puts it succinctly:
"Our government is not based on the need to know but the fundamental right to know. Open government is vital to a healthy democracy."
Now if only the states would follow suit and close the loopholes and inefficiencies in their own FOIAs, we might have a little more to celebrate this Sunshine Week.
Maybe it's just because I'm a FairTax groupie—and we do debate these things around here—but I think that this new Flash animation ad from Americans for Fair Taxation is pretty good.
Check out FairTax Jack, then answer the question for yourself: Which do you think you'll see first in your lifetime, meaningful tax reform or a jackalope?
We pose the hard hitting questions on this blog, I'll tell ya.
Alright, I have to admit: As of yesterday, I had yet to fill out my office's NCAA bracket, and it's probably going to get me into a smidgen of trouble with the boss. But it would have been a far better use of my time, I think, to have joined the folks at Americans for Prosperity who had a bit of fun yesterday shooting hoops outside of the legislative building in Raleigh, North Carolina.
A USA Today study shows colleges and universities spent at least $75 million in 2005 for lobbying. Current policy says tickets can't be given out specifically for the purpose of lobbying. It all depends on if your definition of luxury box seats with free food and drinks is a form of lobbying, or just a nice perk.
Yep, that's $75 million...and it's all out of the taxpayers' pockets. Score 3 points for the tax man!
The Sarbanes-Oxley bill, passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom collapses, remains on the books. As economists warned at the time, and has been demonstrated since, it’s done a lot of damage.
Michael Oxley is now out of the Senate's august chamber, but is still having to answer some tough questions. Like, well, would he have written the bill differently, now that he’s seen the consequences?
His answer: Yes.
But he has an excuse for its badness.
If there's anything the political scene in Chicago is known for, it's corruption. Thousands of dollars turn up missing? Yawn.
However, according to Kevin Robinson over at The Chicagoist, this doesn't have to be the way things are--and regular citizens are the ones who can change things.
"But we here at Chicagoist have always had a sneaking suspicion that an engaged and informed voting population could make a difference, even when the powers that be are so, well, powerful. We suppose that somewhere deep down inside of us is a true believer, a little voice that says that we can change things, if we just stand with the good guys, even when it seems like they aren't winning."
Help us show Kevin that he's right, and take the first step toward leading the way to local change--wherever you live--by joining the Sam Adams Alliance today.As you’ll learn by looking around our site, we believe we must tackle politics at the local level if we’re going to restore a government that’s accountable to the people. The Left, meanwhile, has got this strategy down cold, with a widespread network of local supporters—many of whom are tied with public employee unions and other national lobbying groups. Here are ten prime examples of their taxpayer-funded antics, originally posted by Human Events and ranked by Freedom Works.
Regular patrons of
"Ooh, tough luck...Scandal, old age, and falling anvils are all part of the risk you take into account when you draft your team!"
That's right...it's Fantasy Congress!...a record-setting one. And it's brewing right here in Illinois.
Claiming a "moral imperative"...The governor's massive new wish list would be paid for primarily by $7 billion in new business taxes, the potential $10 billion lease of the state lottery and $16 billion in new borrowing.
Reactions have been "lukewarm" across the aisle, according to the Sun-Times--and we hear that local groups are getting together to spread the word.
Apparently when Colorado Governor Bill Ritter says so.
The governor--no doubt under pressure from school union bosses--yesterday announced a plan to tax the people of Colorado an additional $84 million this year to, as he says, "pay for schools." The problem is, Colorado has this pesky little thing called a budget, enacted by the voters as the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. Under that law, politicians may not raise taxes or abscond with the citizens' refunds without their approval.
Governor Ritter says that his plan is not a tax hike, but, according to the AP, Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute disagrees:
"Let me make it very clear: That's called a tax increase. If taxes were going to go down and action is taken to prevent them from going down, that's a tax increase. Get used to it. Democrats are in control. This is the first of many."
Yes, Governor Ritter, it's true: An $84 million tax increase by any other name is still an $84 million tax increase.
A pair of Nevada State Senators, Valerie Wiener and Dennis Nolan, introduced a bill that would require individuals under 18 to wear a bicycle helmet. If your 17-year-old fails to comply, you could be hit with a fine.
The editorial writers over at the Las Vegas Review-Journal comment on this display of paternalism, saying "What will this pair come up with next? Laws to protect children from the dangers of crossing their eyes, dangling their arms out of car windows, or playing with sharp objects?"
America isn’t the only place where citizens are fighting to protect private property rights. In China, a debate over the need for legal protection of private property has been raging for a decade. And, in one case, a family has escaped the bulldozers for now. However, I’m not sure this was quite what they had in mind.
Needless to say, China has its own problems. But right here in America, citizens across the country are fighting property rights abuse cases every day. After the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned eminent domain abuse with the Kelo decision, citizens fought back and the Castle Coalition reported that 34 states passed laws aimed at preventing eminent domain being used for private development. However, that still hasn’t solved the problem—Utah, for example, was one of the first states to act after Kelo, and now they’re singing a different tune.
Join our network of local leaders to keep state and local governments accountable—on private property rights, and many more important issues. Become a Modern Day Sam Adams today!Last week, Diane Rado at the Chicago Tribune reported:
The biggest advocates for Illinois' school boards and administrators have been making millions of dollars off school districts and taxpayers, court and financial records show.
The Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Association of School Business Officials and the Illinois Association of School Administrators set up a non-profit energy company in 1999 to help school districts get better deals on electricity and gas.But to the surprise of many school officials, the Illinois Energy Consortium, as the company is called, has been charging the districts fees that have nothing to do with utility service. The financial details are disclosed in a Cook County Circuit Court lawsuit filed in June.
How did this get unearthed? An effort driven largely by the hard work of several Illinois residents who decided to tackle government accountability at the local level. Read the whole story to learn more.
In Columbia, Missouri, a group called the Boone Liberty Coalition has launched an effort to persuade city council members to change an ordinance that allows the city to condemn land and transfer it to private developers. If their government leaders fail to act, the coalition will put their proposed ordinance to a public vote, the result of which would likely be stronger property protections and a kick in the pants for politicians whose current plan may actually violate a new state law.
Matthew LeBlanc at the Columbia Tribune writes:
Missouri lawmakers last year passed a measure that beefed up state condemnation laws to prohibit cities from taking property solely for economic development. Columbia leaders say they are bound by those changes regardless of whether the municipal law is changed. However, that doesn’t mean the city will not use eminent domain to secure land for projects included in the [developer's] plan.
The Boone Liberty Coalition's preemptive action to protect homes and businesses in Columbia should be applauded.
Lately, it seems like everybody is jumping in the race to become America’s next president. I can’t pick up a magazine or turn on the television without seeing another story about the latest new contenders.
The thing is, none of them really impress me.
Oh sure, most candidates have one or two things I can support. Mitt Romney wants to reform entitlement programs. Barack Obama stood with Tom Coburn in the battle against wasteful Congressional earmarks. Rudy Giuliani supports school choice and vouchers. Unfortunately, they also all have flaws--and, as no one ever gets tired of pointing out, they're not my favorite president of all time, Ronald Reagan.
On Facebook, the social networking site, there's even a group dedicated to drafting the "Zombie of Ronald Reagan" to lead the way in 2008. I'm personally not a big fan of zombies, but that did get me thinking….are we in that dire of straits? Are we in for months upon months of obsession and wacky arguments?
If we're going into zombie territory, I'd like to throw a few more candidates into the ring. Some of my favorite ideas: Yoda (qualification: small, green Jedi Knight); Keanu Reeves (qualification: wore futuristic outfits; saved the world in a movie); and Jennifer Hudson (qualifications: Cut from American Idol, proceeded to conquer America’s entertainment world and became the first Vogue cover girl who knows how to conquer a sandwich).
Stay tuned for more...
Ah, the speed with which the government sector races to make its work more efficient and transparent...NOT!
A mere ten years after the Congress passed the E-FOIA (electronic Freedom of Information Act amendments), a new George Washington University study finds that most federal agencies are not following the law.
- Only one in five federal agencies (21 percent) posts on the Web all four categories of records that the law specifically requires;Only one in 16 agencies (6 percent) posts all ten elements of essential FOIA guidance;
- Only 36 percent of agencies provide the required indexes of records;
- Only 26 percent of agencies provide online forms for submitting FOIA requests;
- Many agency Web links are missing or just wrong - one FOIA fax number checked in the Knight Survey actually rang in the maternity ward of a military base hospital.
If only someone could have the fortitude to check on how many local and state governments follow their own FOIAs. Now, that would be fun.
What’s the real problem with public education? Phil Power writes that one solution could be turning all school employees into state employees. Paul Jacob disagrees. Click here to find out why.
In the Sam Adams Alliance's home state of Illinois, Governor Rod Blagojevich is ushering in a new era of government secrecy and special privileges for government employees and contractors. The AP reports today that Blagojevich–-who conveniently ran twice on a platform of greater government transparency and accountability-–has embarked on a new reign of laying down the red tape.
Meanwhile, a watchdog group called the Better Government Association has filed lawsuits requesting to see subpoenas issued to the governor's office by the feds.
The public's right to know, ''includes the good stuff and the bad stuff,'' BGA Executive Director Jay Stewart said. ''We're just trying to hold (Blagojevich) up to his own standards, his self-reported standards of excellence.''
All of this is why this week's model specimen of SECRETUS POLITICUS is Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, for putting the executive branch on super-secret lock-down and making it so that the state government's left hand–much less the people of Illinois–has no idea what the right hand is doing.
As you'll gather from reading anything on our website, the Sam Adams Alliance is all about government transparency and accountability. We advocate openness among government institutions and workers because they work for us and on our dime.
But although there should be very little secrecy in government, secrecy is of the utmost importance when individual citizens cast their ballots, whether in government or even union elections.
Which is why Sen. Ted Kennedy's latest bill to require that union me