El Rushbo at CPAC

A tour de force. First clip, the rest at HotAir. Watch and weep liberals--conservatives are on the march...for America!

Mitt Wins CPAC Poll

Mitt Romney wins CPAC poll, Jindal 2nd, Rush is up to get his award and give his speech, yeah!

...I'm watching it on FoxNews. Rush gives them a nod for airing it live, says it's his first address to the nation:)

Rush:...conservatives are for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...why each word being applauded?--because we conservatives see them under assault.

Yes.

...

Rush on the Dems...it is not their task to remake this nation in their image

Northern Trust Seeks to Repay Bailout

Rejecting the nanny state busybodies who are taxing and spending us into an early grave, Northern Trust is seeking to repay the bailout money. Crain's. HT tmpollard.

Gas Prices Creeping Up Again

Higher gas prices and we're looking this bad bill again? Stop Illinois from Adopting California’s Destructive Fuel Standards. RedState.

Sam Adams Speaks in Chicago

More: John Powers, The Chicago Daily Observer, "Our Increasingly Irrelevant Incumbent Newspapers and the Chicago Tea Party".

Previous posts: Illinois Review on Cavuto, Don't Mortgage Their Future, More Chicago Tea Party!!, Chicago Tea Party

Soak the Rich?

Soaking The Rich Means Crippling Churches, Charities, and Home Values

Illinois Review on Cavuto

Fran Eaton of Illinois Review was on Cavuto's show. Watch: Plus photos from Hillbuzz here. UPDATE: Tribune, responses to editorial on Santelli, What's on your mind?, ABC7, WBEZChicago (public radio--your tax dollars at work) audio. More: Diane, ResPublica with the St. Louis tea party. More: Founding Bloggers Chicago pix and video. Crowd estimate up again--it started at 200, then 300 plus, now 400 to 500. Poetic Largesse.

Previous posts: Don't Mortgage Their Future, More Chicago Tea Party!!, Chicago Tea Party

Mitt's Prescription for the Future

Jim Cramer on CNBC is mad as hell and is trying to protect his viewers from what he sees as an Obama disaster. Last night he suggested anywhere but the US, investing in an Australian Company. Last I knew Cramer was a Dem--remember Kudlow and Cramer used to be paired? Cramer has also described Mitt Romney as the best businessman in North America (to Chris Matthews). So here's Gov. Mitt Romney's speech at CPAC. Here's where he addresses the economy:

We‘re at one of those rare moments in history, when the biggest tests come all at once. We don’t have the luxury of taking them on one by one. We have to get a lot of things right, and all at the same time. We’re in the second year of a major recession, and if we don’t make the right choices, things could get worse. Americans have already lost some 12 trillion dollars in net worth. And the pool of our nation’s investment capital has also shrunk by trillions of dollars.

The President has already moved to stop our economy’s downward spiral. Parts of the stimulus will, in fact, do some good. But too much of the bill was short-sighted and wasteful. Every single Republican in Congress voted in favor of a better stimulus plan, one that focused on creating jobs immediately. But Congressional Democrats couldn’t restrain themselves from larding up their bill with tens of billions of dollars for their political friends. Republicans wanted to stimulate the economy, Democrats wanted to stimulate the government. Conservatives in the House and Senate stood their ground and voted no — and they were absolutely right.

So far, the Administration has been unclear on what it will do to address the huge decline in the pool of risk and investment capital. These losses will be felt in businesses that don’t start-up and grow, and in jobs that don’t get created. To grow the pool of investment capital, the last thing you’d do is to raise taxes on investment, as the President has proposed. The surest, most obvious course is to rule out higher taxes on investment. I would propose going one step further. For all middle-class Americans, we ought to abolish the tax on interest, dividends and capital gains.

This economic crisis has proven that government has an urgent obligation to address some awful abuses we’ve seen in the financial sector, particularly in housing finance. Free markets, properly regulated and allowed to work as they should, have propelled America to be the largest economy in the world. For years, Washington politicians did nothing to prevent the abuses at Fannie and Freddie, and in some cases they encouraged those abuses for political gain. Let’s be clear on this point: conservatives favor clear, streamlined and up-to-date regulations and laws that let the economy work, but we will vigorously oppose those politicians who are poised to use their own failures as an excuse to undermine the free enterprise system.

I know we didn’t all agree on TARP. I believe that it was necessary to prevent a cascade of bank collapses. For free markets to work, there has to be a currency and a functioning financial system. But we can agree on this: TARP should not have been used to bail out GM, Chrysler and the UAW. And this is personal for me, I want the U. S. auto industry to succeed. But as some of us pointed out last November, that can only happen if its excessive costs and burdens are restructured. And concessions are going to be few and far between if bondholders and unions already have your money when the negotiating begins. The right answer for Detroit is this: Fix it first.

All of these measures are meant to confront the current economic peril. Properly guided, Washington could in fact speed the recovery. So far, some of the actions it has taken will help, and some will hurt. But we can be certain that the American economy will recover. The invisible hand of the market is more powerful than the lumbering machinery of government. In the final analysis, we know that the private sector — entrepreneurs and businesses large and small — will create the millions of jobs our country needs.

Earlier this week, the President addressed not only the current economy, but also his broader goals. I was pleased that he put healthcare, education, and energy on the agenda. The direction we take on these issues will profoundly shape the future of the nation. I’m afraid I know where the liberal Democrats want to take us. And as they try to pull us in the direction of government-dominated Europe, we’re going to have to fight as never before to make sure that America stays America.

President Obama was awfully vague about some of his plans, but I think I heard him say that government is responsible for educating a child from birth — from birth — to its first job. Universal pre-school and universal college. And there were hints as well of universal health care and a universal service corps. It all sounds very appealing, until you realize that these plans mean universal government. That model has never worked anywhere in the world. America is great because our society is free and the power of government is limited by the Constitution.

For the last several years, we’ve heard liberals moaning about the 700 billion dollars that have been spent over six years to win freedom in Iraq. They have now spent more than that in 30 days. And with a government almost 12 trillion dollars in debt, any unnecessary spending puts at risk the creditworthiness of the United States. If the world loses confidence in our currency, that could cause a run on the dollar, or hyperinflation that would wipe out savings and devastate the Middle Class. President Obama says he hopes to cut the deficit in half after four years—does that mean a deficit in 2012 of 600 billion dollars? No president should accept such a staggering deficit, much less hold it up as a national goal. This is the time to pare back government spending. It is not the time to fulfill every liberal dream and spend America into catastrophe.[snip]

What America does need is a commitment to reforming entitlements. I believe that Medicaid should be capped and put in the hands of the states; Social Security benefits for high income citizens who are now age 55 or younger, should grow with the consumer price index, not the wage index; and Medicare should be reformed with a dose of free-market reality. These and other reforms are essential, because if we stay on the same road, the next generation could see tax rates 50 percent higher even than ours — and that’s to pay the bills we’ve racked up for ourselves. Passing on that kind of debt to our children is not only fiscally irresponsible, it is morally wrong.

Jim Cramer: Romney "Best Business Man in North America"
by GovMittRomney

Don't Mortgage Their Future

I don't recognize my country any more. Don't mortgage (steal) my grandchildren's future.

These women stood right in front. I saw them and spoke up about it, one took notes she was so intent, and came up to me afterwards. They were so worried. So I zoomed in on the picture. Don't mortgage my children's future Mr. President. Nancy Pelosi. Dick Durbin. This is wrong. This is so wrong. This is the legacy we leave them? Everlasting debt? What will they call our generation?

Bad Odor from The Swamp

The obligatory “nutroots tries to smear Jindal over Katrina” post. HotAir. In response to The Swamp

HT Reverse Spin.

Jake's Chicago Tea Party Video

By Jake of Freedom Folks.

More Chicago Tea Party!!!

More pictures and links: WLS commentator Dan Proft fires up the crowd!The head of the University of Chicago Young Republicans makes the case with style!
Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica calls to action!
Many thanks to Eric Odom and Julie Johnson, of Don't Go!

Chicago Tea Party

It was cold but there was quite a crowd. I passed an Obama banner by City Hall on the way in, walking from the train with two brothers from Kenosha. A couple traveled from southwestern Michigan, a family from Indiana. People of all ages gathered from the city and suburbs.
There were flags flying, American and early American--Don't Tread on Me. I met Sam Adams. I met my fellow blogger Flying Debris in his Paul Revere hat, to mark the occasion.
And there were signs everywhere. We had news cameras from ABC, NBC and Fox; WBBM, WLS and NPR radio.
Then as we marched toward the Chicago River, cars honked in support. We were at least 200 strong [400 the update] and stretched a block or two,rallying in the plaza by the Tribune tower, site of the McCormick Freedom Museum. Next to a statue of American Gothic, Sam Adams reminded us of the first tea party--where Americans refused to knuckle under to onerous taxation and began the fight for the freedoms we still hold dear today. So there you go--the Chicago Tea Party--and the snow held off for us. We were tempted to throw tea in the river but instead we roared a whole lot.More pictures and links update momentarily.

UPDATE: More Chicago Tea Party!!!
More: Marathon Pundit interviews NPR. Freedom Folks here (check back, they'll have video). Chicago News Bench with post up at 7 pm including video.
--crossposted at #TCOT Report.

The Obamaist Manifesto

Charles Krauthammer, "The Obamaist Manifesto".

Chicago Tea Party today at 11, Daley Plaza. A march for your freedoms.

It's Dear Leader Obama spreading panic. Dick Morris:

So, having inherited a recession, his words are creating a depression. He entered office amid a disaster and he is transforming it into a catastrophe, all to pass every last bit of government spending and move us a bit further to the left before his political capital dwindles.

Stand up! Make your voice heard! Now is the time to defend the America we know and love!

Alternative Energy Solutions

Cap and trade as energy policy is an invitation to corruption. Steve Huntley explores the alternatives in his Sun Times column today.

Military Spending Creates Jobs

UPDATE: Jewish leaders--this is not the Hillary we knew.***Our safety should come first. Our common defense is the primary obligation of the federal government. President Obama characterized our Cold War arsenal as useless the other night. IBD:

Perhaps the reason we don't need to use some weapon systems is because we have them. President Reagan won the Cold War in part because we had Pershing missiles to deploy in Europe and were serious about defending America against missile attack with the Strategic Defense Initiative. Deterrence works.

As President Kennedy said when he called on us to "bear any burden" and "pay any price" in the defense of liberty, "only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt they will never be employed.

Barney Frank wants to cut the military budget dramatically even as we are being tested by new threats--North Korea, Iran. This is a time when we should be rebuilding our military, an enterprise that creates American jobs, already geared up to support our troops in the field, an immediate boost to our flagging economy.

More: Russian bomber neared Canada on eve of Obama visit.

Embrace Golf

John Powers, Chicago Daily Observer, "Northern Trust Should Embrace Golf and Renounce TARP":

Judging from the Presidential election results in New Trier Township, voters were confident enough in Barack Obama and the Democrats to support him by a 63-35 margin. During the election season, I would occasionally mention to my neighbors that Obama has promised to raise taxes on them...

More: Dem backlash to Obama tax plan?--hits high tax blue states hard. Almost one TRILLION in tax increases--an end to home mortgage interest deduction.

Tea Party Today

Chicago Tea Party today, here and nationwide!!!

More: Economists question Obama budget assumptions--the return of Rosy Scenario. Megan McArdle, Obama's Big-Bath Accounting. WSJ, "The Obama Revolution: Paid for by the people":

In the closing weeks of last year's election campaign, we wrote that Democrats had in mind the most sweeping expansion of government in decades. Liberals clucked, but it turns out even we've been outbid. With yesterday's fiscal 2010 budget proposal, President Obama is attempting not merely to expand the role of the federal government but to put it in such a dominant position that its power can never be rolled back.

Chicago Tea Party 11 am Daley Plaza, march to the Michigan Ave. bridge for the rally. It's a rally for our freedom, folks.

More Illinois Excitement

Federal prosecutors plan to move an alleged al-Qaida sleeper agent out of a Navy brig in South Carolina and send him to federal court in Illinois to face trial.

Rum and Coke Zero

I'm watching FoxNews, having a rum and CokeZero. With a wedge of lime. Comfort food in the oven.

P.S. Tax increases as "savings"? It's enough to drive a person to drink.

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Honk

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Unimaginable Debt

Remember that graphic from a few weeks ago? It's worse now. Via Powerline.
Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Lauer Lashes Santelli

Matt Lauer lashes Santelli--why is Lauer so upset about this? Watch:
If I were Santelli's wife I would take it personally too. My initial reaction was that Gibbs was being a thug. Just the wording he used invited people to look up where Santelli lived--I saw some search engine traffic coming through on his name after that. Lots of Obamabots around Chicago.

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Related posts: A Million a Day for 2,000 years, Santelli on CBOT floor--Chicago TEA PARTY!!, Are you listening President Obama?!!!, Barack to America: Bleep YOU!, My mini Chicago Tea Party

Obama Breaks Another Promise

A tax cut deferred, Ben Smith, The Politico:

The focus on tax cuts was central to Obama's campaign against John McCain, and his surprising strength in polls on the question of taxes.

One of those promised cuts -- the second bullet point in his campaign economic plan -- was a pledge to "eliminate all capital gains taxes on startup and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation."

That cut has been deferred, a Republican source notes: The elimination only begins phasing in, according to the budget overview (page 122) in 2014, well into Obama's second term.

Barack Obama breaks another promise, and this is a big one. He wants us to reelect him I guess, yeah that's it.

It's raining in Chicago. Are you crying yet? Or are you mad as hell. Barack Obama wants to kill our dreams and wants us to smile while we salute the Dear Leader.
Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Chicago 3/3: Life Without Lawyers

Philip K. Howard, The nation’s most prominent advocate of litigation reform on his latest book, LIFE WITHOUT LAWYERS

Liberating Americans from Too Much Law

Noon, Tuesday, March 3, Heritage Room, Union League Club of Chicago. Luncheon $35 per person. Books available for purchase, Mr. Howard will inscribe books after his remarks. RSVP crobling@jaynethompson.com

Sponsored by: Illinois Civil Justice League, Madison County Record, The Heartland Institute, The Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, Sam Adams Alliance, Lincoln Legal Foundation, Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago Townhall Meeting, Jayne Thompson & Assoc., Ltd.

Obama Earmarks in Bill After All

Despite his campaign pledge of no earmarks this year, and his sleight of hand in his speech the other night to somehow ignore the thousands of earmarks in the $410 billion spending bill just passed by a Dem majority yesterday, the president (and his inner circle) have earmarks in the omnibus bill after all. Congressional Quarterly.

Oh, and remember in the speech the president promised no earmarks next year. Really?

As the president himself has said:

“We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project,” he said last April in making his announcement.

So much for transparency and reform.

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez, Investor's Business Daily.

Will he spill his guts?

Read John Kass today. More amazing culture of corruption in Chicago.

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

Lisa Madigan: Yes to Special Election

I heard Illinois AG Lisa Madigan on WLS' Don and Roma show this morning state her legal opinion in favor of a special election. More here.

UPDATE: Burris Son Got State Job From Blago that pays $75,000. What else? Sun Times:

Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10 -- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II's employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.

You can't make this stuff up. I guess it was Gov. Blago's especially targeted mortgage bailout plan.

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow at 11, Daley Plaza.

More: Tribune editorial, "Burris? He's all theirs"

A Radical Presidency

As Americans absorb President Obama's speech the other day, some ask if we can afford his expansive vision for government. The Tribune headlines, "Is it a fiscal fantasy?" and consumer confidence is at an all time low. I was at the low end of pundits asked by the Tribune to rate the president's speech, but I don't think I'm alone.

The WSJ makes this frightening point, which illustrates the enormity of the debt we are facing and the fragility of the economy. When you crush success you crush job creation, "Obama's 2% Illusion":

But let's not stop at a 42% top rate; as a thought experiment, let's go all the way. A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.

Fast forward to this year (and 2010) when the Wall Street meltdown and recession are going to mean far few taxpayers earning more than $500,000. Profits are plunging, businesses are cutting or eliminating dividends, hedge funds are rolling up, and, most of all, capital nationwide is on strike. Raising taxes now will thus yield far less revenue than it would have in 2006.

Then there is the president's talk of a cap and trade regimen. This is a huge tax on energy production in this country which will be added on to nearly every product we consume and shock us all with higher utility bills. The costs would force some companies out of business, killing yet more jobs (counteracting the few we get from the porkulus package), and despite the president's confident promise that Americans who make less than $250,ooo will not pay a dime more in taxes this year--cap and trade is a punishing tax on everyone and hits low income consumers the hardest. And it hasn't worked when it's been tried.

But all this does not deter our president, who speechified with the zeal of a prophet. Daniel Henninger, "A Radical Presidency":

In fact, people would probably coronate Mr. Obama if he merely revived the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow's fall since the Sept. 14 collapse of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America has eviscerated the net wealth of Americans across all incomes. Many are in the most dispirited state in their lifetimes.

Yesterday, the post-Obama Dow lost another percentage point. No matter. In his worldview, "short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity." His speech did include a plan to address the market crisis. It consists of a program to support consumer and small-business loans; a mortgage refinancing mechanism; and the "full force of the government" to restart bank lending. Mr. Obama delivered that last element with a rather crude pistol-whipping of the nation's bankers and CEOs, thousands of whom have been operating their companies in a responsible, productive way.

This was just the prelude.

This is change. But is this the change America voted for? Is this the change we believe will lead to a better future for us and our children?

Chicago Tea Party tomorrow. Start at Daley Plaza at 11, march to the Michigan Ave. bridge for a rally. Bring signs, wear black. National Tea Party info here, simultaneous protests across the nation.

P.S. Tribune sampling of opinions, including mine on our Sen. there's always Paris Burris.

More: Veteran Washington Post's David Broder is unnerved, "Obama Rolls the Dice":

The size of the gamble that President Obama is taking every day is simply staggering. What came through in his speech to a joint session of Congress and a national television audience Tuesday night was a dramatic reminder of the unbelievable stakes he has placed on the table in his first month in office, putting at risk the future well-being of the country and the Democratic Party's control of Washington.

Broder says the country didn't know what a gambler they were getting. Really? And why is that Mr. MSM? There was his voting record. There were his radical friends, unprecedented for any national politician. And there were his own pronouncements.