July 2010
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Elco-to-Lerner transformation continues

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The video here is only a taste of the outside activity.  For a really good look inside, check the project’s photo gallery at its website. Some great photos here  – only problem is you can’t stop the slide show and the pictures change a little too quickly.  But you’ll still get an idea of the scope of this wonderful project for the city of Elkhart.

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Obamacare’s unintended consequences – or are they?

WSJ commentary points how the IRS’ new role in our health care is likely to cause increased costs and burdens on both small businesses that create jobs, and the agency itself — for no good reason.

. . . starting in 2013 they will also have to report the value ofgoods they buy from a single vendor that total more than $600 annually—including office supplies and the like.

. . . the tracking costs for small businesses will be “disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance.”

Meanwhile, the IRS will be inundated with useless information, because without a huge upgrade its information systems won’t be able to manage and track the nanodetails.

In a Monday letter, even Democratic Senators Mark Begich (Alaska), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire) and Evan Bayh (Indiana) denounce this new “burden” on small businesses and insist that the IRS use its discretion to find “better ways to structure this reporting requirement.” In other words, they want regulators to fix one problem among many that all four Senators created by voting for ObamaCare.

The law that Republicans opposed amid ridicule is now showing us “what’s in it,” as Nancy Pelosi promised.  And the picture isn’t pretty.  Those of us in Elkhart County need to remember who foisted this monstrosity on us come November.

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Can the government tell us what to eat?

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It worries us that a Supreme Court nominee dodges this question about a fairly basic matter of freedom.

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The last name’s Reid, Rory (Sheesh)

Harry Reid’s son, Rory, doesn’t use his last name (same as his weasel-dad’s) anyhere in this campaign had.  He obviously realizes old Harry is bad baggage — why doesn’t Harry get it?

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Steny Hoyer has a word for you: SUCKER

Breitbart Reports: Just in case you thought you were under the threshold for a tax increase, Steny Hoyer has a word for you: sucker. See, even though Obama wants to extend the Bush tax decreases a little longer (say, until sometime after the election), Hoyer says we can’t extend them forever because that’s “too costly,” in light of the huge government debt we have.

I am forever sickened by the doublespeak that makes tax cuts costs and wasteful spending “investments.”  Hoyer and the gang are oblivious to the concept that the costs are in their own spending, not in citizens wanting to keep their own money.

Here’s the quote from Hoyer:

As the House and Senate debate what to do with the expiring Bush tax cuts in the coming weeks, we need to have a serious discussion about their implications for our fiscal outlook, including whether we can afford to permanently extend them before we have a real plan for long-term deficit reduction,

Of course. There’s NO PLAN for long-term deficit reduction.  So taxes increase, and the economy goes further into the tank.  For those who voted for Obama on the promise that 95 percent of us would have lower taxes, you’ve just been punked.  But you knew that already, didn’t you?

November can’t come too soon, in our opinion.

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The President’s Hate-speech Against the Private Sector

To us, Barack Obama’s dislike for business, regardless of who his animosity hurts, has been painfully apparent for a very long time.  Today in the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Heninger lays it out for anyone who might have missed it.

Money quote:

The agenda Mr. Obama described at (a speech at) Carnegie Mellon is so vast you’d think he’d at least enlist the private sector’s help. But there’s nothing in the speech’s enumerations to suggest any desire to have them along on these projects. If they contribute or comply, it will be out of intimidation. It’s all him or the government or its “investments.”

Some might say that instead of being a cheerleader for business, Mr. Obama is simply a tough-minded public official holding well-shod feet to the fire. I don’t buy it. His tone and vocabulary, in use since he took office, goes beyond public policy. It sounds personal. Too personal for a president.

Obama continuously reveals an ideological agenda that is devoid of any actual knowledge or experience.  He is a hate-monger against American business, and the people who make the American dream possible.  It has to stop.

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Elkhart not on list of top 20 most stressed counties

The Associated Press reports the most and least “stressed” counties in the United States, and Elkhart County isn’t on either list.

Elkhart County’s current stress index is 17.99, which is down about 3 points from this time last year.

AP’s most stressed county is Imperial County, California, with an index of 31.27. Number 20 on the most stressed list is Boone County, Illinois with an index of 22.59, or about five points higher than Elkhart.

The top 20 list is dominated by California, with three Michigan counties, Cheboygan, Iosco and Lapeer, also making the list.

No Indiana Counties made the “most stressed” list.

See AP’s interactive stress index map.

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Our Picks for Best Political Podcasts

Podcasting is a terrific medium for news, information and analysis of issues and a whole lot more.  For listeners, Apple’s iTunes makes subscribing and listening extremely easy, even for those who don’t have or want an actual iPod.  For producers, it’s so easy to master the basic technical issues that almost anyone with a pulse can record and distribute a podcast.

For political listening there are a lot of choices on all sides of the spectrum, and a lot of them are garbage.  But here are several podcasts that we think are best of the best, from our conservative/libertarian point of view.  All of these can be found in the iTunes store or from the respective websites (just click on the pictures), and they’re FREE.

Official Mark Levin Show Audio Rewind

Mark Levin

Levin is an American treasure.  For those of you who listen to his radio show and find him to be a shouter and hanger-upper, you haven’t listened long enough.  Rush Limbaugh has always said you won’t really “get” his (Limbaugh’s) show in less than six weeks,  and that’s true of Levin as well.  Maybe it’s true of all radio hosts with substance. Give them time. They’ll grow on you if their aim is true.

The left tends to dismiss conservative radio hosts as mere “entertainers” (while deifying actual entertainers such as Sean Penn as deep thinkers).  But while Levin is incredibly funny at times, he’s mainly a passionate voice for America who happens to be entertaining.  He’s a constitutional scholar with a Jon Lovitz delivery.  He’s Gilbert Gottfried with a law degree and a deep sense of morality.

Levin is also the head of Landmark Legal Foundation, a group that actually holds government’s feet to the fire on matters of vital constitutional importance.  And he’s the author of Liberty and Tyranny, the brilliant million-selling treatise on the meaning of America.

The podcast is basically Levin’s  radio show (heard 6-9 pm Eastern on WABC in New York and at various times around the country), with most of the commercials removed.  It’s usually added to the podfeed about an hour after the live radio show ends.  It’s well worth the listening, as Levin bemoans our present political situation, not from a strictly partisan viewpoint, but from the point of view of a true patriot who understands in detail the legal and moral framework of America.

Even though the subjects are weighty, Levin is lots of fun to listen to, and while his anger can be palpable at times, so is his compassion for his country and its people.  This is a truly accomplished guy who has the ability to communicate his passion and knowledge in a fun, interesting way.  Spend some time with him.  http://www.marklevinshow.com

KCRW’s Right, Left and Center

Photo from L-R: Matt Miller, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer

RLC is an NPR show hosted by Matt Miller, who is supposedly a centrist (we respectfully disagree, since he’s a fellow at John Podesta’s decidedly lefty Center for American Progress), with a panel of three: progressive Robert Scheer of Truthdig.com, conservative Tony Blankley from The Washington Times and Arianna Huffington, from The Huffington Post.  Huffington is away from the show a lot (but from our point of view, she’s mentally absent even when she’s present.)

Ok, so it’s NOT a conservative podcast per se, but Dave listens to it every week (the podcast version comes out on Friday, after the NPR show runs).   Blankley is usually alone in his opinions, and plays the role of the articulate smart guy (a la Wm. F. Buckley), to Scheer’s socialistic curmudgeon.  Arianna is there for comic relief — she seemed a lot smarter when she was a conservative — and Matt Miller plays cat-herder to this diverse bunch.

Dave listens for the fun of the arguments, as well as for the fact that (mostly) the participants don’t cut each other off in mid-sentence with weird non sequiturs, etc.  It’s good to hear the opposing points of view, and although it’s not often, Dave even finds himself occasionally agreeing with Scheer.

http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/lr

No Agenda

Adam Curry & John C. Dvorak

Dave’s current fave, No Agenda, comes from an  outside-the-box,  “makes ya think don’t it?” sensibility that really can’t be pinned down.  The hosts are media veterans Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak.  Curry is the former MTV Vee-Jay who originated the idea of podcasting and is one of the driving forces behind the online media company Mevio.  Dvorak is a longtime tech journalist and podcaster who knows his tech, and apparently, his politics as well.

As Crackpot and Buzzkill (their nicknames, not ours), Curry and Dvorak research stories and angles on stories they believe the the MSM ignore, and if there’s any political “ism” involved it’s “No BS-ism.”  Curry and Dvorak don’t suffer fools or political hacks gladly.  It’s fun and fast-paced, produced by Curry with the same manic panache baby boomers heard in the likes of Murray the K and Larry Lujack.   Dave has to laugh every time Curry hits the “douche-bag” button and, well, you get the idea.

But again, the show isn’t all fun-and-games.  Not by a long shot. Curry and Dvorak ask some serious questions about some very  important issues. For example, in a recent episode they lamented that the media and politicos (on the right AND left) prefer not to discuss the fact that Arizona’s  immigration law is a response to criminal activity that’s far more heinous than just walking across the border.  Just for starters, Arizona is the second-most kidnap-prone place in the world.

While they may not have all the answers, they call things as they see them. Besides the fact that these are both pretty smart guys, what makes the show work is the juxtaposition of personalities — Curry as the conspiracy theorist with an actual point, and Dvorak as the shrewd curmudgeon who cuts through the memes-of-the-moment.

It’s recorded (with live listening possible at mevio.com) Thursday and Sunday mornings, and it’s really great radio conversation.

NOTE: No Agenda does have a bit of crude language, mostly from Curry.  So f***ing get over it.

http://noagenda.mevio.com

Robert Scheer

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