Ever heard of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity?

Well, the ACILS is a cover from the AFL-CIO. Same group. Different name.

See, Congress can funnel money to the AFL-CIO through this front group and no one can attack the AFL-CIO because who the heck has ever heard of ACILS.

Well, the AFL-CIO is now endorsing health care deform despite the excise tax in the legislation that creates a HUGE tax burden on workers. In fact, the Machinists Union is wholly opposed to the health benefits tax. Tom Buffenbarger, the Machinists’ union leader, is flat out at war over this provision and lots of union leaders are wondering why the heck the AFL-CIO decided to line up behind legislation that taxes union workers.

“For decades, IAM members exchanged substantial wage increases for the best possible health insurance,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “Now, in a bizarre turn of events, their insurance premiums will be subject to a forty percent excise tax if the Senate version of health care reform becomes law. Democratic leaders have the power to stop this travesty and I urge them to do so, quickly and completely.”

Well, guess what? This leads us back to the American Center for International Labor Solidarity. Here is the ACILS’s 2009 annual report.

If you look on page 29, you will find that Congress funneled $28,475,408.00 to the AFL-CIO through the ACILS for the year in 2008. And I suspect if you dig around you are going to find that the AFL-CIO now stands to get more money.

In other words, the AFL-CIO’s leadership is getting federal money in exchange for supporting a health care proposal that will screw its workers.

Barack Obama is telling Democrats that to ensure the success of his presidency, they must vote to pass health care deform. It is, after all, all about him despite his protests to the contrary.

This argument persuaded Dennis Kucinich — well that and there are allegations about a job for his wife though I’m not sure if that’s true. But given the pattern it is easy to believe.

In any event, Obama is telling the Democrats that if health care deform passes his presidency is successful and if it does not, his presidency fails.

What he means is that in order for Barack Obama to be successful, the Democrats in Congress must fail. All politicians are survivalists. Obama has convinced the Democrats in Congress that they’ll all survive if health care deform passes. But in reality, Obama knows if health care deform passes, the Republicans will take back Congress.

If the Republicans take back Congress, Obama will have someone to actually run against. It is very hard to run against the opposition when the opposition controls nothing. So Democrats will pass health care deform. They will be crushed at the polls. This will give Barack Obama a second term — at least that is his calculus.

It’s pretty smart of him. It is also amazing to watch the entire Democratic caucus lay day willingly in front of Obama’s unsatiated bus to ensure Obama a second term at their own expense — not that he’ll actually get one, mind you. But that is his plan. It worked for Clinton afterall.*

*Of course, Clinton then tacked to the right, going along with welfare reform and a host of other centrist to right of center ideas. How’d that work out for progressives?

The left is using a person they, like most of us, rarely treat as credible these days to attack Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance.

The accusation basically amounts to the Freedom Alliance raising a bunch of money and barely using any of it for the Alliance’s primary purpose.

The allegations are based on IRS 990 forms, but the allegations do not hold water when you delve into the 990’s and the other Freedom Alliance information.

A statement is out from the Freedom Alliance. I’m putting it below the fold.

I know the value and necessity of cleaning up our own side. I regularly do it. But the good work the Freedom Alliance does means those who cast stones at it should check, double check, and check again before trying to smear it. Same with Sean Hannity. He does tremendously good work for our soldiers, sailors, and veterans.

Below the fold is the Freedom Alliance Statement.

Read More →

From CNN:

TUNE-IN ALERT: head to CNN.com or CNN.com/LIVE at 12:00 p.m. ET today for a special sneak peek at what we’re calling John King, USA BETA. It will be a true behind-the-scenes experience where internet users can see how a show comes together in the final stages. Guests include Ron Paul, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, Erick Erickson, Jane Hamsher and Aisha Taylor

Charles Krauthammer has the top story at Human Events today.

Why did President Barack Obama choose to turn a gaffe into a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations?

And a gaffe it was: the announcement by a bureaucrat in the Interior Ministry of a housing expansion in a Jewish neighborhood in north Jerusalem. The timing could not have been worse: Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Jerusalem is a touchy subject, and you don’t bring up touchy subjects that might embarrass an honored guest.

But it was no more than a gaffe. It was certainly not a policy change, let alone a betrayal. The neighborhood is in Jerusalem, and the 2009 Netanyahu-Obama agreement was for a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements excluding Jerusalem.

Nor was the offense intentional. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not know about this move — step four in a seven-step approval process for construction that, at best, will not even start for two to three years.

RedState Morning Briefing
For March 19, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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As you know, Utah is having its caucuses next week. People will be picked as delegates to go to the State Convention. At the convention, if Bennett cannot get 60% of the delegates to support him, he will either be defeated at the convention or be forced into a runoff.

Bennett’s campaign is encouraging its supporters to show up at the caucuses and lie as best they can to become delegates to the convention.

Right now there is a heavy anti-Bennett bias even within the official Utah Republican Party. Having Bennett’s supporters come in and claim to be wholly undecided or hostile to Bennett could help send his brigade to the convention to protect him.

Desperate men do desperate things.

We have the video of Senator Bennett’s son encouraging supporters to hide their allegiance to the senator to increase their chances of becoming a delegate. Watch it and decide for yourself.

In the Colorado Caucuses earlier this week, Ken Buck beat Jane Norton. It was close. Very close. You might say they tied.

But that is still big news. Buck does not have a massive on the ground presence yet and Jane Norton is the former Lt. Governor of Colorado with already massive name identification, the backing of the Washington Republican crowd, and lots more money than Buck. It’s like the Crist v. Rubio situation, except I actually like Norton, think she’s more with us than against us, but believe very strongly that Ken Buck will be more with us and a stronger conservative less likely to get pushed into doing silly things by the leadership.

Ken is showing strong grassroots support in Colorado, but he needs our help. We need to help him get even better organized on the ground, but unlike some of our candidates, Ken Buck really does need our cash. If you can’t, give your prayers, time, or what you can. But we need to get him fully funded.

Beating the Colorado Lt. Governor in the Colorado Caucuses is a very positive sign. Now we need to help translate that into money for Ken to turn out the vote in the primary.

I know our dollars are all stretched thing. All of us. But if you can commit to just a little, all of us doing the same will really help.

Let’s get Ken Buck to Washington.

This time the Politico is reporting on Senator Inhofe’s attacks. Inhofe, occasionally rated as the most conservative senator in Washington, uses that label with pride to give cover to his huge porkfest.

As we’ve seen repeatedly, earmarks always lead to bigger government. Inhofe, betraying his “most conservative” label, just the other day sided with the Democrats on their jobs bill solely because it funneled gobs of money into Inhofe’s pet program — the highway trust fund.

Republican senators running to the Politico to anonymously attack Jim DeMint is as regular an earthly occurrence as the sun rising in the east. It is also part of their stages of grief as they realize their political capital is dwindling while DeMint’s is rising.

First they denied DeMint was relevant.

“The only one who cares about Jim DeMint’s opinion is Jim DeMint. He’s not burdened with having to win races,” said a senior Senate aide.

His endorsements don’t matter.

A GOP strategist, however, said the latest endorsement by DeMint “means absolutely nothing” in Texas and only serves to further the Democratic narrative that Republicans are at war for the future of their party.

Then the new attack became only crazy RedState readers know anything about Jim DeMint and the rest of the world doesn’t care for him.

“Oftentimes some forget that while Jim DeMint may have a small universe of followers who read RedState, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans, including in Florida, don’t have the slightest idea who Jim DeMint is.”

Now Jim DeMint is a selfish press hound who people should ignore.

But even as most in the party concede they lost their way during the Bush years, the mere mention of DeMint’s name in the Capitol is enough to get GOP eyes rolling. The common view, which no official will voice publicly, for fear of giving the South Carolinian a higher profile, is that DeMint is a caucus of one who relies upon old tricks to draw notice.

All from mostly anonymous aides. A good number have come from the NRSC. Meanwhile, DeMint-style candidates are surging across the nation.

Folks, we need to get Jim DeMint some real allies and friends in the Senate. We need to get him some comrades in arms who will not run off to the Politico to attack him.

We can change our side and we must if we want to change Americans’ opinion that the GOP is tired, out of ideas, and corrupt. We know we are better than the other side, but when our side cannot clean up its own house, we cannot sell ourselves successfully to the American people. We must and can do better. We need more Jim DeMint-style conservatives.

RedState Morning Briefing
For March 18, 2010

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

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This is interesting. The Club For Growth sent out a press release that gives some on the ground scoop out of Utah not too flattering to Bob Bennett.

As you know, Utah is having its caucuses next week. People will be picked as delegates to go to the State Convention. At the convention, if Bennett cannot get 60% of the delegates to support him, he will either be defeated at the convention or be forced into a runoff.

According to the Club for Growth, Bennett’s campaign is allegedly encouraging its supporters to show up at the caucuses and lie as best they can to become delegates to the convention.

Right now there is a heavy anti-Bennett bias even within the official Utah Republican Party. Having Bennett’s supporters come in and claim to be wholly undecided or hostile to Bennett could help send his brigade to the convention to protect him.

Desperate men do desperate things.

The Landmark Legal Foundation is prepared to fight the Slaughter Solution.

God bless Mark Levin.

Here’s the money quote:

“Landmark has already prepared a lawsuit that will be filed in federal court the moment the House acts. Such a brazen violation of the core functions of Congress simply cannot be ignored. Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution is clear respecting the manner in which a bill becomes law. Members are required to vote on this bill, not claim they did when they didn’t. The Speaker of the House and her lieutenants are temporary custodians of congressional authority. They are not empowered to do permanent violence to our Constitution.”

By the way, you can make a donation to the Landmark Legal Foundation to fund this fight and their other fights.

• Why Recalls of U.S. Senators Are Unconstitutional
  I get this question a lot. Hat tip to Instapundit to the link to Eugene's post. Precise, I say.
• Slaughter strategy ripped by … Blanche Lincoln
  Holy Razorback Batman! Lincoln is going to use the Slaughter Solution *against* Halter in the Democratic Primary. This is amazing.

We’re going to have a cover-it-live chat with Tim Burns at 11:30 here at RedState. Tim is running for Jack Murtha’s old seat in Pennsylvania. He is the Republican choice for the special election and is running in the GOP primary for the regular election.

Tim will take your questions and weigh in on his race.

See you at 11:30.

Fifteen Republican Senators voted against Jim DeMint’s measure to ban earmarks in the Senate.

Those fifteen were:

1. Alexander (R-TN)
2. Bond (R-MO)
3. Bunning (R-KY)
4. Cochran (R-MS)
5. Collins (R-ME)
6. Gregg (R-NH)
7. Hutchison (R-TX)
8. Inhofe (R-OK)
9. Lugar (R-IN)
10. Murkowski (R-AK)
11. Roberts (R-KS)
12. Shelby (R-AL)
13. Snowe (R-ME)
14. Voinovich (R-OH)
15. Wicker (R-MS)

Senator Bob Bennett, who denounced the measure to a RedState contributor, did not vote at all.

Friends, we can change the Republican Caucus in the United States Senate. But we have to unite behind the real small government conservatives out there. We must get on the same page to improve our own.

Here is the list. We need these guys:

Ken Buck in Colorado
Chuck DeVore in California
Michael Williams in Texas
Marco Rubio in Florida
Rand Paul in Kentucky
Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania
Danny Tarkanian in Nevada
Marlin Stutzman in Indiana
Mike Lee in Utah

And if we can, I say we go with Ovide LaMontagne in New Hampshire and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware. Let’s go all and all in for small government conservatives. This year is our last best chance in a long time to get a slate of solid conservatives.

We’ve been after Mitt Romney for a while for not going all in for Doug Hoffman or Marco Rubio then coming out for Bob Bennett.

Today he is really redeeming himself. Romney is going all in for Nikki Haley in South Carolina. The endorsement comes today. Huge news. CNN is now reporting on it (insert disclosure here related to post below).

Haley is going up in the polls thanks to RedState support.

What do we have to do to organize a money bomb for Nikki Haley? We need to make this happen folks. We need Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion.

I hope other 2012 potentials will take note of this. Palin and Pawlenty may have led in on Doug Hoffman, but this is a truly gutsy move for a 2012 candidate to involve himself in South Carolina, given the importance of South Carolina in 2012. Taking sides here is BIG.

On March 23rd, if you live in Utah, you can show up at your local precinct caucus meeting and become a delegate into the convention process. You will have the power to boot Bob Bennett from his seat.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is the penultimate reason.

Bob Bennett voted for TARP. But he did not just vote for TARP, he made money off of the TARP recipients.

Bennett and his leadership PAC have accepted PAC contributions from TARP recipients in the amount of $125,800. They are:

• Hartford Financial Services ($7,000)
• Metlife ($2,000)
• Bank of America ($18,000)
• JP Morgan ($8,000)
• Citigroup ($15,000)
• Morgan Stanley ($17,000)
• Zions Bancorp ($5,300)
• American Express ($13,000)
• Capital One Financial ($11,000)
• Chrysler ($4,000)
• Goldman Sachs ($9,500)
• Discover Financial Services ($3,000)
• AIG ($1,000), Investco Ltd ($2,000)
• Wells Fargo ($5,000)
• Merrill Lynch ($5,000)

This does not include the money Bennett has taken from lobbyists representing TARP recipients.

Bennett also holds stock in Morgan Stanley. He earned money from Wells Fargo & Co. last year via capital gains. He holds stock in Pimco Income Opportunity Fund, which invested in a heck of a lot of the TARP recipients.

On September 30, 2008, Bob Bennett went to the floor of the Senate and said, “Some will feel very virtuous about having voted against Wall Street and then turn around and find that their constituents generally have paid a huge price for that vote. The stock market took over $1 trillion worth of value out of the American economy in a matter of minutes on Monday afternoon. We must do everything we can to make sure that does not turn into $2 trillion, $3 trillion or $4 trillion wiped away because the Congress was not willing to stand up to its responsibilities.”

The stock market continued to fall well after Bennett voted for TARP. Nonetheless, Bennett told the Salt Lake Tribune on October 1, 2008, that “he $700 billion Wall Street bailout would make [the recession] less severe.” He has had no regrets.

Bennett has a long history of bailing out financial entities. He voted for the Resolution Trust Corporation Completion Act, which transferred RTC authority to the FDIC back in the day. He voted to require the feds to reimburse insurance companies for terrorism losses in 2002. He voted to establish a $1 billion emergency loan guarantee program to the steel industry, and an additional $500 million loan program for the oil and gas industries, as if they needed help.

He voted for a continuing appropriations bill that added billions in new spending, adding to the deficit, and also included $7.5 billion to finance $25 billion in Energy Department loans for the auto industry.

Since 2005, Bennett has taken in over $1 million from financial firms, banks and other companies that have a direct interest in the work of the Senate Banking Committee, on which he serves.

The Hill noted on July 12, 2000, that Bennett blocked efforts by the SEC to impose stricter reporting regulations on Arthur Anderson, before they went belly up.

Bob Bennett is bad for the free market and Bob Bennett must go.

A week after Christy decided to be a stay at home mom back in December, I got a call from CNN and was asked to meet some people in Atlanta.

Since that time, as you all know, I’ve been on more than a few times.

Well, CNN made an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’ve joined the network. Starting next Monday, you’ll be seeing a lot of me. I’m very excited by the opportunity. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. This is the path God put me on and it was totally unexpected, but I go where the good Lord leads.

Here’s the full release from CNN:

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, it was announced today by Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. Erickson will appear weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22, as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across the network.

“I grew up in Dubai and then in rural Louisiana as an obsessive news junkie. CNN was the only place to go for nonstop news,” said Erickson. “Joining CNN is like coming home and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family.”

“Erick’s a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach,” said Feist. “With Erick’s exceptional knowledge of politics as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN’s ideologically diverse group of political contributors.”

Erick Erickson currently serves as editor-in-chief of RedState.com, a property of Eagle Publishing, Inc. Under his leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed a number of political campaigns, and he currently serves as a member of the Macon, Georgia city council. He studied political science and history earning a bachelor’s degree at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Erickson also earned his juris doctorate from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

Phillip Jennings has the top story at Human Events today.

As you prepare for your imminent deployment to Afghanistan, I guess it’s inevitable that I’m thinking of that time forty five years ago that I prepared for my deployment to Vietnam as a young lieutenant of Marines. We’ve talked about the similarities in our respective wars, but there’s a lot more I could say. The concurrent publication of my Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War has sharpened our discussions and my ability to comment on your questions.

First, it is critically important for Americans to understand the true history of our involvement.  Most important is the fact that the U.S. military fought brilliantly and defeated the Communist aggressors in Vietnam.  Yes, that’s right.  We won the war.  And then we saw the Congress of the United States throw away that victory by abrogating our obligations to continue support of the South Vietnamese.

Why is that so important? Simply because that fact illuminates the only way we can similarly lose in Afghanistan. You will not be defeated on the battlefield. Of that, there is no question.