From our vault of classics, comes the "patron saint of Capitalism” - Milton Friedman in the following short clip from his 1979 interview with Phil Donahue on “The Phil Donahue Show".

It's an interview that remains especially salient now, in an inaugural year of a presidency whose signal achievements include the forced acceptance of federal loans by private financial institutions and the writing of rules by bureaucrats limiting the incentives and awards available for individual enterprise.

Friedman is beautifully persuasive in his simplicity and eloquence... "So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear: that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system."



Reason has a tremendous article regarding the Friedman clip and standing up for capitalism here.

Shutting Down Conservative Talk Radio: No Fairness Doctrine Necessary.

As we know under the Obama administration, the "fairness doctrine" will be one of the largest looming ideological battles for conservatives in years ahead.

Obama is on record as saying he does not plan an exhumation of the now-dead "Fairness Doctrine". And indeed, legal and policy experts from across the ideological spectrum agree that the constitutionally suspect, ineffectual Fairness Doctrine is likely gone for good.

Instead, the Democrats attack on free speech will be far less understood by the general public and accordingly, far more dangerous.

The late community organizer Saul Alinsky taught his followers to strike hard from an unexpected direction, an approach known as Alinsky jujitsu. "Alinsky jujitsu" as applied to conservative talk radio means using vague rules already on the books to threaten any station which dares to air conservative programs with the loss of its valuable broadcast license.

As such today's WSJ notes, the real threat to talk radio comes from regulators and activists who favor government control of broadcast content by other means. Most notable of these is the proposed "localism" policy now wending its way through the FCC rule-making process.

Unemployment has hit it's highest levels since 1983...
China continues challenging Navy ships in Yellow Sea....
Iran has has issued it's latest policy statement noting that it will take 11 days 'To Wipe Israel Out of Existence'...

But at home Obama has decided time is better spent threatening Chrysler creditors into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler or face the wrath of the White House press corps.

Neil Cavuto interviewed attorney Tom Lauria yesterday who represents creditors to Chrysler. Lauria said his clients were directly threatened by the White House and are scared:


Business Insider reports that more than one Chrysler senior creditor has corroborated Thomas Lauria’s allegation that the Obama administration threatened them with public attacks if they didn’t surrender their contractual rights. One of their sources says that the Obama team comprises some of the worst “ends justify the means” people he’s ever encountered:

Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as “a farce,” saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said. …

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person said described the administration as the most shocking “end justifies the means” group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama was “the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger.” Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration’s tactic was to present what one described as a “madman theory of the presidency” in which the President is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way. The person said this threat was taken very seriously by his firm.

Sadly, these allegations add to the picture of an administration willing to use intimidation to win over support for its Chrysler plans--and then categorically deny it.

UPDATE: Michael Barone of the WashingtonExaminer says White House is putting UAW ahead of property rights.

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The three inalienable rights of man as listed in our Declaration of Independence.

Now, if California has its way, we can soon add "high-speed Internet connection" to that famed list of inalienable rights.

That's right, via the availability of federal funds soon everyone in the Golden State will have that inalienable right to join facebook, tweet, or surf for porn.

According to the Sacramento Bee, California is now poised to grab as much as $1 billion in federal stimulus money (read: taxpayer funds) for closing what's referred to as a "digital divide" between Internet haves and have-nots.


The breakdown is as follows; 96% of California's households have access to a high-speed Internet connection. However, 45% of California residents – a number greater than the populations of all but five states – still don't have broadband connections in their homes because of geography, disabilities, a lack of English language skills or poverty.

The money that the state is poised to grab is part of $7.2 billion that was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in February. The money was dedicated to the simple proposition that getting as many Americans as possible hooked up – at high speeds – to the Internet is a good idea.

While it's true that the Internet access has been a monumental leap forward in terms of providng universal access to communication and information, has a fast Net connection become as essential a modern utility as electricity and running water?

It will come as no surprise that the United Nations believes it is as they are now striving to make internet access a human right. This push was made when it called for universal access to basic communication and information services at the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination. In 2003, during the World Summit on the Information Society, another claim for this was made.

Closer to home, the state of Kentucky also believes that a fast internet connection is a vital component of liberty. Taking an aggressive stance on the issue of the digital divide, the Kentucky Housing Corporation, or KHC, has listed broadband Internet access among the inalienable rights of its low-income housing residents.

Internet access is neither a natural right, nor a legal right. It is a priveledge - and one that millions of Americans choose to forgoe as they prioritize their mortgage, car payments, grocery shopping etc. In the midst of arguably the worst economy since the Great Depression is providing universal access to Broadband Internet truly the greatest use of taxpayer funds?

Although, if high speed access does become more readily available, perhaps more people will begin to understand how government is tossing their hard earned dollars into a giant money hole.

The Family Research Center released this powerful video discussing Obama's many lies on life issues and his disastrous trail of debt from the first 100 days of his administration.

The Cloak Room lists the tragic decisions from the first 100 days. And let us not forget that Obama's economic change has already quadrupled the deficit and is building a debt for future generations.

Change indeed.

Alarm, paranoia and even terror--such are the emotions that a pandemic brings out. And in human history, some pandemics have deserved their reputation. For example, the 1918 influenza pandemic killed somewhere between 20 and 40 million people, more than the Black Death.

Just four days ago, the World Health Organisation raised its alert over H1N1 flu (aka swine flu) to the second highest level, warning that the world is on the brink of a pandemic. I SAID PANDEMIC!!!! Yet experts still can't be sure what impact - if any - H1N1 will have as it spreads. Still the media and politicians continue fanning the flames of fear.

Now as Mexican officials are saying the epidemic is already past its peak, it bears asking whether the swine flu is truly a "pandemic" or nothing more than media hype and the politics of fear:

So far (updated May 3 14:45 GMT), there have been 26 confirmed deaths caused by swine flu. Globally. Compare that to the following statistics:

• 46 million unborn children are killed each year due to abortions.
• 36,000 Americans die of flu every year.
• 450,637 die each year from heart disease.
• 5,000 asthma-related deaths occur each year.
• 10 people day each day due to incidents of drowning.

The unscientific and unfounded swine flu fearmongering will provide plenty of PR, but does that really enhance our government's role as a trusted community leader?

So what's the real pandemic here Team Obama should worry about?

I'll give you a hint -- you can see it ticking here. But then again, never let a good crisis go to waste, right?

Previously we discussed Rule No. 1 of the Obama administration: Never allow a crisis to go to waste.

Now as the NYT points out, the tumultuous economy that Obama and the Democratic Congress helped shape remains the fulcrum for the legislative battle only now starting in earnest.

Team Obama casts his initiatives on health care, energy, education and the auto and financial industries as responses to the economic crisis. Meanwhile the GOP continue to call the recession merely an excuse for big-government ambitions that liberals have failed to achieve for decades.

But the tides are turning. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in February showed that 51 percent of Americans wanted government to do more to solve problems. Last week, the same survey showed that a 52 percent majority said Mr. Obama had taken on “too many other issues” besides the economy.

But the politics of distraction are already taking a massive toll on the American economy, and we are paying the price.

The New York Times reports today: As the Obama administration racks up an unprecedented spending bill for bank bailouts, Detroit rescues, health care overhauls and stimulus plans, the bond market is starting to push up the cost of trillions of dollars in borrowing for the government.

Already, in the first six months of this fiscal year, the federal deficit is running at $956.8 billion, or nearly one seventh of gross domestic product — levels not seen since World War II … Debt held by the public is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to rise from 41 percent of gross domestic product in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009 and to a peak of around 54 percent in 2011.

As the DC Examiner laid out, the Obama strategy has consistently been to use the current economic crisis as justification for his radical agenda. And when bureaucrats and politicians take advantage of a crisis, the result is always less personal and economic liberty.

The bottom line is this: By promoting an "economic crisis" to advance his policies, Obama's prediction of long-term economic crisis will be self-fulfilling.

The US economy enjoyed 7 straight years of unimpeded economic growth during the Bush years. The Bush tax cuts lifted the country out of its recession until the mortgage bubble erupted and the economy took a sudden nosedive in last half of 2008-- something Bush repeatedly warned Congress about. Unlike Bush, President Obama decided to spend his way out of his recession. Here's how it's worked out:Economists expected a 5 percent annualized decline in the first quarter but instead saw the economy drop by 6.1%. And for those (including Obama) who would try and lay blame on the Bush Administration for the current budget scenario, don't forget that it was Obama who helped shape the deficit he now disclaims.