Boston firm shifts 'green jobs' to China

By: Mark Tapscott
11/06/09 8:35 AM

President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress are spending billions of tax dollars to subsidize development of "green jobs" - positions for people and companies designing and manufacturing alternative energy sources such as biomass, wind and solar.

One of Obama's buddies, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, is also a vocal advocate of such subsidies. Last year, Patrick put Massachusetts taxpayers' money where is mouth is by backing a $58 million package of incentives and subsidies to Evergreen Solar, which manufacturers collector panels used in solar energy units.

Now barely a year later, Evergreen has announced that it is moving its final assembly phase to a factory in China, according to the Boston Globe. The firm's Devens, Massachusetts, plant currently employs 577 full-time and 230 contract workers in designing and manufacturing the silicon wafers and cells that are then assembled into panels.

A company spokesman declined to say how many jobs will be shifted to the new assembly plant in China, according to the Globe.

"In exchange for receiving $58.6 million in grants, loans, land, tax incentives, and other aid to build in Massachusetts, Evergreen pledged that it would add 350 new jobs, a goal that it has, to date, far surpassed. However, the company disclosed in a financial filing yesterday that it would write off $40 million worth of equipment at Dev...

China's state-owned energy firm buys U.S. off-shore leases UPDATED!

By: Mark Tapscott
11/05/09 8:22 AM

Gas prices here in the U.S. are creeping back up towards the $3-per-gallon mark even as news breaks today that China's state-owned energy firm just closed a deal to buy interests in four development leases on the American Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of Mexico.

The deal, which requires approval of the U.S. government, is between Norway's Statoil and China National Off-Shore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). This is the same CNOOC that would have bought Unocal four years ago for $18.5 billion but for pressure from Congress, according to The New York Times, quoting an energy industry trade publication.

Because it must be approved by the U.S. government, the Statoil/CNOOC deal puts President Obama and Ken Salazar, his Secretary of the Department of the Interior, which controls OCS leasing, in a difficult position.

If the administration approves the deal, it will be more vulnerable to charges that the White House is being careless with U.S. national security issues in the energy sector, and that it is putting the interests of a foreign power before those of U.S. energy consumers.

If Obama and Salazar reject the deal, it will likely complicate relations with China, the emerging Asian superpower that defense experts predict will be able at will to challenge U.S. legitimate national security interests around the globe in the near future.

The deal also focuses renewed attention on Sala...

So you want to know why Hoffman lost to Owens in NY-23?

By: Mark Tapscott
11/04/09 6:07 PM

Former Readers Digest editor-in-chief and Corporation for Public Broadcasting board chairman Ken Tomlinson explains everything about why Conservative Party of New York congessional nominee Doug Hoffman didn't quite pull off a "Buckley" - winning a three-way race.

It all goes back to Jim Buckley, Spiro T. Agnew, Charles Goodell, and Christine Jorgensen. And yes, I know I just revealed my age. Go read Tomlinson anyway, in The Weekly Standard. Actually, American Conservative Union chairman David Keene explained everything and Tomlinson provides a typically evocative report from an absolutely delightful lunch.

VA, NJ and NY weren't the only states with elections yesterday

By: Mark Tapscott
11/04/09 1:47 PM

Those high-profile gubernatorial and congressional races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York got most of the headlines, but the genuinely revealing contests may well have been some of the down-ballot contests held in Maine, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

In Maine, a referendum to repeal the state's recently enacted gay marriage law won 52-48 percent. despite a massive outpouring of resources by gay rights groups. Gay marriage advocates spent an estimated $4 milion defending the law, while opponents reportedly spent about $2.5 million.

Turnout was higher than expected for an off-year election, according to Maine officials, and there were about 100,000 absentee ballots cast in the election, an indication of intense voter interest. Maine is the 31st state to vote on the marriage issue, and in every case, the traditional definition of a man and a woman has won majority support, though not always by decisive margins.

In Pennsylvania, partisan control of the state's highest court was up for grabs in the contest between Republican Joan Orie Melvin and Democrat Jack Panella. It was a heated battle, with Panella raising in excess of $2.3 million just through Oct. 19. Melvin had raised only $733,000 by that point, but still won 52-48 percent, according to Judgepedia.

The Pennsylvania contest could have big national implications because the GOP will now have a majority of the state supreme cour...

Boehner says NY GOP ignored warnings from NRCC

By: J.P. Freire
11/04/09 11:31 AM

At a meeting of Washington conservatives this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, expressed pride over GOP success in last night's election. But questions about NY-23 remain -- so I asked him whether there was an effort to get New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in that race, to endorse Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. "There was a huge effort," he replied. When asked about rumors that the New York Republican Party picked Scozzafava because of the advice of Washington insiders who felt she would be a more electable candidate, Boehner rolled his eyes. "We told them to hold off on a decision, to work with us, but they went ahead and did it." So if she was a rotten egg, why spend money? "All the money spent on that race was anti-Owens money, not pro-Scozzafava money." UPDATE:

Boehner's response obviously doesn't cover for the anti-Hoffman web ads put out by the NRCC, accusing the third-party candidate of only being in it for himself. Or the active ripping on Hoffman, like in this statement to National Journal:

"[Conservative] Party bosses in New York have been sold a bill of goods in the form of Doug Hoffman's deceptive smoke-and-mirrors campaign, but fortunately they aren't the ones deciding this election," said Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the NRCC, which has produced Web ads attack...

Nothing purple about Virginia now

By: Mark Tapscott
11/03/09 10:28 PM

One year ago, Barack Obama did something that no Democrat had done since LBJ, carrying Virginia for Democrats in a presidential race, garnerng 53 percent of the vote in a record turnout. Democrats everywhere pointed to Virginia as the bell-weather state, moving from being solidly red to purple and on its way to being fully blue.

What a difference one year makes! Or more precisely, what a difference is made by a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a complete government take-over of the one-sixth of the economy represented by the health care system, and a world apology tour in which an American president repeatedly confessed the nation's alleged international sins.

Bob McDonnell appears headed to winning 58-60 percent of the vote, as are both of two GOP running mates, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli, as Attorney General. The GOP almost certainly will gain seats in the state House as well, perhaps as many as 10.

What does it mean for next year's congressional races? Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform offers this thought:



“Obama received 53 percent of the vote in Virginia in 2008. Watch what percentage of the vote the Democrat gubernatorial candidate Deeds receives. Then compare the drop off in Democrat vote percentage to the winning margins of sitting Democrats. That will tell you how many Dems may lose in 2010--No popular Obama on the ballot and no Bu...

32 years for Uncle Sam to recoup cost of job created by economic stimulus

By: Mark Tapscott
11/02/09 2:02 PM

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air did some calculating on the time required for the federal government to receive back in taxes what it cost to create each job under President Obama's economic stimulus program. Here's what he found:

"At an effective tax rate of 15%, it would take 32 years and five months — almost the entire career of the person holding it. At an effective tax rate of 20%, it would take less … just 24 years, four months.

"Or let’s consider the administration’s wildest claim, that of a million jobs saved or created at $159,000 per job. At the 15% effective tax rate, it would still take almost 21 years to pay back the principal; at the 20% rate, 15 years, seven months. And bear in mind that this calculation applies all of the federal taxes paid to paying back the cost of the stimulus that created the job."

Go here for the rest of Ed's analysis. See especially his observations regarding the apparent absence in the Obama White House of anybody with any genuine private sector management or budgeting experience.

Obama now a 40 percent president?

By: Mark Tapscott
11/02/09 1:35 PM

It's the last frantic day before Election Day 2009 and the question on everybody's mind in the nation's capitol is simple - What will tomorrow's results indicate about the political status of President Obama and the Democratic majority in charge of Congress?

Republican pollster Brad O'Leary took at a look at the latest data on the Virginia and New Jersy gubernatorial races, plus the NY-23 special congressional election in upstate New York and offered the following possibility:

“New York’s 23rd is a high priority for the White House, and still the Democrats can’t top 35% in that race. And it’s looking like the Democrats’ gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey won’t top 40%. This shows that Obama’s new level of support among all American voters may be about 40%. Americans are definitely hungry for change, but it isn’t the brand of change Obama is selling.”

Tuesday will tell the tale.

If Interior Department can't stop off-shore energy, NOAA has a backup plan

By: Mark Tapscott
11/01/09 3:47 PM

Urban zoning in cities and suburbs divides land up into bite-size parcels and typically makes their use and development dependent upon securing approval from multiple levels of planning bureaucrats in government. But imagine if government tried to apply the same nghtmarish process to the ocean floor.

Sound outlandish? Don't bet on it. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) administrator Jane Lubchenco is working with the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) on just such a plan, according to WhatAboutAlaska.com. The plan would seek to impose on 1.76 bilion acres of the American Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) the same sort of block-by-block bureaucratic controls that environmentalists and others have used for years to stifle development on land.

Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is clearly slow-walking his department's proposed five-year plan for developing the immense oil and natural gas resources under the OCS. So the NOAA/CEQ initiative might be seen as the backup plan for preventing off-shore drilling should the five-year plan somehow fail to throw sufficient obstacles to development.

The CEQ is headed by Obama appointee Nancy Sutley, a former Clinton administration appointee under EPA Administrator Carol Browner, who is now director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.

'Republican' Scozzafava endorses Democrat against Conservative Party's Hoffman UPDATED!

By: Mark Tapscott
11/01/09 2:49 PM

Only hours after suspending her campaign for the good of the Republican Party, liberal Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava has now endorsed Democrat Bill Owens for in Tuesday's special election to fill the upstate New York congressional seat vacated by Rep. John McHugh, R-NY.

In a statement published by the Watertown Daily Times and linked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee web site, Scozzafava encouraged voters to support her former Democratic opponent instead of Conservative Party of New York nominee Doug Hoffman, who is in a dead heat with Owens, according to polls. "I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," Scozzafava said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first." In her statement Friday announcing suspension of her campaign Scozzafava said "I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger ..." UPDATE: No surprise, says CP head Mike Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York is not surprised to hear of Scozzafava's endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens: "We a...

Scozzafava suspends campaign in face of declining support

By: Mark Tapscott
10/31/09 11:20 AM

It's official now, liberal New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava has suspended her campaign as the Republican nominee to succeed Rep. John McHugh, R-NY, in the Empire State's 23rd congressional district.

Scozzafava released the following statement earlier this morning: "Today, I again seek to act for the good of our community," Ms. Scozzafava wrote in a letter to friends and supporters. "It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. "I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger and our district and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations." Scozzafava's wthdrawal came hard on the heels of a Sienna Institute poll showing her campaign had imploded in barely a week since her husband called the cops on John McCormack, a reporter for The Weekly Standard, who persisted in asking her questions about her support for abortion on demand and granting of legal rights on the basis of an individual's sexual preference. The Sienna poll show the race in a dead heat between Democrat Bill Owen...

Pelosi bill creates Health Care Super Czar

By: Mark Tapscott
10/30/09 5:31 PM

President Obama has appointed more than three dozen "czars" to oversee various parts of the federal executive branch, but none of them would have power even remotely like that to be granted under the latest House version of Obamacare to the newly created position of Health Choices Commissioner.

The Colossus of Rhodes allegedly stood astride an entrance to the harbor of a great Greek shipping city as one of the ancient world's seven wonders, but not even that guy could match the reach of Pelosi's HCC, who would be responsible for:

* Managing both the government-run health insurance program and the regulations overseeing all health insurance plans offered by private insurance companies, including those sold to individuals and those offered through employers.

* Negotiating rates to be paid to the nation's 788,000 practicing physicians and 5,708 hospitals.

* Create and then assess fines for individuals and companies that fail to comply with the new government-run health care program's multitude of regulations.

In other words, Pelosi's HCC will be the boss, judge, and jury presiding over one-sixth of the U.S. economy. If you think I am making this up, perhaps you will find a former congressman's analysis to be more persuasive. Check out these and more facts about Pelosi's Health Care Super Czar at the Heritage Foundation's Foundry blog in a post by former Rep. Ernest Istook of ...

Paranormal legislative activity captured on video in nation's capital

By: Mark Tapscott
10/30/09 2:54 PM

Sure, it's Halloween and weird stuff happens just in the normal course of things in Washington, D.C., but this extraordinary video of an alien concept stalking an innocent couple on Capitol Hill has to be seen to be believed. And trust me, if you watch it, you will believe.

Newly disclosed emails link White House directly to NEA politicalization scandal

By: Mark Tapscott
10/30/09 12:02 PM

Former actor and present White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi was directly involved in planning the controversial conference call hosted by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) flack to encourage tax-supported artists to create propaganda for President Obama, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The emails reveal that Modi worked with now-former NEA national communications director Yosif Sargant in planning the August 10 conference call that was first revealed by Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood.com web site. Participants in the conference call were encouraged to use their talents to generate public support for the Obama agenda in Congress.

Here are four of the most illustrative emails, according to Judicial Watch:



· August 10, 2009, 10:23 am. Email from Yosi Sergant to Kalpen Modi: “[The call is] organized by me…I’d ask you to come on and give the exact spiel you gave on Saturday. Walk them through the WH Arts Policy. They won’t know it. Then I will take them into United We Serve and the NEA.” · August 10, 2009, 10:29 am. Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Oy. This would be awesome to be a part of. Let me know if you think it’s going long, or maybe I can get someone from here to do it if I can’t because of the ...

All 40 GOP senators want Reid Obamacare draft posted on web

By: Mark Tapscott
10/30/09 11:26 AM

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a copy of the draft Obamacare bill drawn up behind closed doors in his office to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring. That sparked a letter signed by all 40 Republicans in the Senate asking that the full text of the bill be posted on the Internet for public examination.

Here's the text of the letter, which was initiated by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC:

"On Monday, you announced that you had sent health care legislation to the Congressional Budget office (CBO). As you know, this legislation will have a profound impact on the lives of every American, including the next generation who will be forced to pay for it. Our national debt stands at nearly $12 trillion, with a deficit of $1.4 trillion. The health care bill will likely be more than 1,000 pages long and is the single most important legislation we will consider and debate this year in Congress.

"With an issue this large and complex, we need full transparency at every stage in the legislative process. President Obama was elected, in part, on his promise to bring greater transparency to the workings of the federal government. The American people and every member of Congress should be allowed to read the bill that was sent to CBO. The bill should be made available for taxpayers to read and learn how the federal government is spending their money. We are writing ...

Which part of judge's decision does Obama White House not understand?

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 9:00 PM

Last year, federal Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) is covered under the Privacy Act. In that decision, Lamberth tartly added that “...this court holds that under the Privacy Act, the word ‘agency’ includes the Executive Office of the President, just as the Privacy Act says.”

So this year, the Obama White House comes back in the same case and asks Lamberth to grant a motion for summary dismissal, arguing that “the White House is not an agency under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and it necessarily follows that it is not an agency subject to the Privacy Act.”

Amazing, but true. This exchange is the latest installment in one of the longest-running courtroom dramas from the Clinton administration,Alexander v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, aka "Filegate." Remember that one, when 400 FBI highly sensitive background investigative files on Republican luminaries mysteriously turned up in the Clinton White House.

Just "a bureaucratic miscue," explained President Bill Clinton at the time.

One of those luminaries sued for invasion of privacy, and with the active participation of Judicial Watch, the case has remained alive for all these years since it was first filed in 1996. If Judicial Watch wins this case, the White House and the FBI could then be held liable for damages for viol...

13 new tax hikes found in 1,990 page House Obamacare text

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 5:34 PM

Here's the list of tax hikes included in H.R. 3962, the revised House version of Obamacare, otherwise known as "The Affordable Health Care for America Act." The text of this bill runs to 1,990 pages, all of which can be read here in pdf format. The page number references to each of the tax hikes noted below correspond to those in the pdf.

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently un...

Which is the bigger hoax, cap-and-trade jobs or balloon boy?

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 5:24 PM

This just in - a cap-and-trade balloon carrying millions of new jobs for unemployed Americans has been sighted. Go here for the full report, produced by American Solutions for Winning the Future.

New Sunlight Lab iPhone app brings home stimulus spending

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 11:44 AM

Being yet a Blackberry kind of guy, I have little experience with the iPhone, but so far I have heard nothing but excited exclamations of "cool" from folks who do use Apple's ubiquitous device when they see a new application developed for it by the Sunlight Foundation's Sunlight Lab. It's an Augmented Reality Mashup of stimulus spending data from recovery.gov.

What is so cool about it? Well, let's say you are walking down the street, iPhone 3GS (or Android) in hand in downtown Pittsburgh, arguing with your best buddy from Philly about which town got the most stimulus spending. If you've downloaded the app from Sunlight, you can do a search for either "recovery" or "sunlight" and it displays waypoints for all stimulus projects in the area where you happen to be standing. Click on the waypoint and you get the data about the particular project.

There are some limited sorting capabilities with this mashup. Go here for more info. And by the way, if you are walking down the street, any street, arguing with a buddy/enemy/stranger/in-law/whatever about whose town got more stimulus spending, you are probably seriously in need of a vacation.

Number of stimulus jobs created overstated. Imagine that!

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 8:36 AM

Obama administration claims to have created at least 30,000 jobs as a result of the $787 billion economic stimulus program were over-stated by about 5,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

There was no evidence the administration purposely sought to inflate the jobs creation data, AP reported, but its own numbers suggest otherwise:

AP said it "found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

"For example:

· A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

· A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.

· A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees."

A White House spokesman told AP that all of the errors identified by the news organization had been fixed, but as of this morning the government's Recovery.gov web site is still claiming to have created 30,383 new jobs via the stimulus program.

Cash-for-Clunkers debacle generated few new sales

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 8:12 AM

Nearly 700,000 new vehicle were sold using incentives provided by the government's $3 billion Cash-for-Clunkers program that was intended to spark the sagging fortunes of the U.S. auto industry and put legions of newer, more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles on the roads.

But an analysis by Edmunds.com found that the program actually generated only about 125,000 sales that wouldn't have happened anyway in the normal course of things, meaning each new sale cost taxpayers $24,000 instead of the $3,500 to $4,500 rebates that were offered.

Predictably, rather than responding to the specifics of the Edmunds.com' analysis, a spokesman for the Transportation Department, which administered Cash-for-Clunkers, dismissed it, telling CNN Money that Edmunds has "had only negative things" to say about the program.

Heritage to EPA, Boxer, Kerry: Show us (and the world) the bill

By: Mark Tapscott
10/29/09 7:58 AM

There are four key players in the following scenario:

* Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, is chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the title sponsors of the Obama-Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming energy bill approved earlier this year by the House.

* Bill Beach is director of the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank, which does widely respected, exhaustively detailed econometric studies of proposed legislation.

* Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, is chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, and a name co-sponsor of the Senate version of Waxman-Markey.

* Sen. John Kerry, D-MA., was the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and, with Boxer, a name co-sponsor of the Senate version of Waxman-Markey.

Now, earlier this month, Congressional Quarterly reported that Boxer and Kerry had given the EPA a copy of the "semi-final draft" of their bill and asked the agency to conduct an econometric analysis. That elicited a request from Heritage for a copy of the bill so that CDA could do its own econometric study of its likely impact on jobs and the economy, as it had done on Obama-Waxman-Markey.

The Heritage request to Boxer and Kerry was instantly rejected by their staffs, so Heritage wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson asking for a copy of the legislation submitted to her agency for c...

Surprise! Tax-supported press covers government corruption less often

By: Mark Tapscott
10/28/09 11:36 AM

Wow! Can you believe? A new multiple regression analysis-based study of four Argentine newspapers found journalists there provided less coverage of government corruption as their newsrooms received more government support in the form of official advertising and other forms of public revenue, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab.

The study was conducted by Harvard’s Rafael Di Tella and Northwestern’s Ignacio Franceschelli. "Their analysis found a 'huge correlation' between, in any given month, how much money went to a newspaper and how much corruption coverage appeared on its front page. For example, if the government ad revenue in a month increased by one standard deviation — around $70,000 U.S. — corruption coverage would decrease by roughly half of a front page," according to Nieman.

House panel makes ACORN eligible to share regulatory authority

By: Mark Tapscott
10/27/09 5:53 PM

Besides giving advice on avoiding taxes and fraudulently getting home loans for brothels featuring 13-year-old Salvadoran girls illegally smuggled into this country, ACORN officials could soon be helping regulate your local bank, thanks to an amendment adopted by Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee.

The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and provided that five slots on the oversight board for the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency be reserved for representatives of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages."

Waters is among ACORN's longest and most faithful congressional supporters, and her amendment reads like it might well have been written for her by an ACORNer, or a staffer formerly associated with the controversial community organization.

Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-AL, the Ranking Minority Member on the Frank Committee, says there is a whopping potential conflict of interest as a result of the amendment:

"By making representatives of ACORN and other consumer activist organizations eligible to serve on the Oversight Board, the amendment creates a potentially enormous government sanctioned conflict of interest. ACORN-ty...

China, Iran steal U.S. technology most often, documents show

By: Mark Tapscott
10/27/09 5:26 PM

China and Iran are the most frequent international thieves getting their hands on classified U.S. military technology, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

"In October 2008, the Department of Justice announced that criminal charges had been issued against more than 145 defendants in the previous fiscal year. Approximately 43% of these cases involved munitions or other restricted technology bound for Iran or China," Judicial Watch said.

FEMA says it can't show return on $29 billion in spending

By: Mark Tapscott
10/27/09 4:38 PM

Federal Emergency Management Agency deputy administrator Timothy Manning told a congressional panel today that his organization had spent $5 million during the last 18 months reviewing how it spent $29 billion since 2002, but still doesn't know what it got for the money.

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Emergency Communications subcommittee, Manning said he is confident the $29 billion was well-spent but "existing data tells us very little about the return on investment."

In response, subcommittee chairman Rep. Henry Ceullar, D-TX said: "Free advice: For $5 million, I think we can do better," according to Congress Daily's Terry Kivlan.

What a difference five years makes on flu vaccine shortage

By: Mark Tapscott
10/26/09 6:53 PM

Hardly a negative word has been uttered in the mainstream media this week about President Obama and the shortage of swine flu vaccine shots, despite assurances from his administration in September that an "ample supply" would be available by "mid-October."

But five years ago when it was George W. Bush in the White House and sufficient supplies of flu vaccine were not available in a timely manner, folks in the media were jumping all over the administration. Earlier today, a friend pointed me to a bunch of examples of such coverage, including these two:

“While many Americans search in vain for flu shots, members and employees of Congress are able to obtain them quickly and at no charge from the Capitol's attending physician, who has urged all 535 lawmakers to get the vaccines even if they are young and healthy… But people of all ages who are credentialed to work in the Capitol can get a shot by saying they meet the guidelines, with no further questions asked… The practice appears to directly contravene the instruction being given by the government's executive branch.” --- Charles Babington and David Brown, The Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2004.

"Yesterday, on the way from St. Petersburg to New Port Richey, the presidential entourage stopped at the Paradise Restaurant in the little town of Safety Harbor, where the president and his bro...

New survey has Hoffman leading in NY-23

By: Mark Tapscott
10/26/09 11:45 AM

It has a small sample of only 300 likely voters, but a new survey finds Conservative Party of New York congressional candidate Doug Hoffman leading for the first time over his Democrat and Republican rivals in the special election to fill the 23rd district congressional seat vacated by Rep. John McHugh, R-NY.

The survey was conducted by Basswood Research pollster Jon Lerner and has a margin of error of 5.66 percent, which is rather wide. Even so, the results are consistent in terms of overall trend with recent surveys by other pollsters that showed Hoffman's support heading upwards.

Basswood's results show Hoffman leading with 31.3 percent, while Democrat Bill Owens is second at 27 percent and Republican Dede Scozzafava third at 19.7 percent. A little more than one in five voters remain undecided, according to the survey, at 22 percent. Basswood conducted the survey for Club for Growth, a conservative activist group that is spending several hunded thousand dollars on advertising for Hoffman.

Scozzafava, a liberal New York Assemblywoman who has run in prior elections with the endorsement of ACORN's Working Families Party, was annointed by local Republican leaders as the GOP candidate after McHugh announced his acceptance of President Obama's appointment as Secretary of the Army. Hoffman had sought the GOP nomination but opted to run as the Conservative Party candidate after Scozza...

Prosecutors subpoena journalism students' grades

By: Mark Tapscott
10/25/09 2:05 PM

Chicago prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades and other material regarding the classroom performance of Northwestern University journalism students, according to The New York Times. Seems the prosecutors are tired of being second-guessed by the J-students, who are participants in The Innocence Project.

The Innocence Project is an effort by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism to provide students with real-life experience in scrutinizing the actions of police and prosecutors in old cases. Their work has led to the release of at least 11 inmates who were shown to have been wrongly convicted.

It's that success rate that has the local DAs filing motions with little precedent, according to the Times: the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves.

"But as the Medill Innocence Project is raising concerns about another case, that of a man convicted in a murder 31 years ago, a hearing has been scheduled next month in Cook County Circuit Court on an unusual request: Local prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves."

Whatever one thinks about the death penalty, everybody agrees that innocent people should not go to jail for crimes they didn't commit. That Chicago prosecutors are going after the messe...

From the people who brought us the swine flu vaccine shortage - Government-run health care! UPDATED

By: Mark Tapscott
10/24/09 12:25 PM

President Obama's late-night declaration of a nationwide public health emergency last night shouldn't be allowed to obscure the most important lesson of the developing swine flu crisis - The same government that only weeks ago promised abundant supplies of swine flu vaccine by mid-October will be running your health care system under Obamacare.

On Sept. 13, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, told ABC's This Week program that the government was on schedule to deliver an "ample supply" of swine flu vaccine by mid-October:

"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line."

But here we are five weeks later and news reports are coming in from across the nation of long waiting lines of people wanting the shot, but being turned away because of grossly inadequate supplies. The typical explanation from public health offiials is that the swine flu vaccine requires more time to be cultivated than seasonal flu vaccine.

That's no doubt true, but did federal public health officials just discover that fact? These are the same government officials who will be in charge of your health care under the government-run health care system being sought by Obama and Democratic leade...