You’re going to see the below quoted text a lot, because it’s an excellent summation of the problem that we’re having with the Obama administration’s catastrophically incompetent Fast & Furious disaster*:

Let’s review: When we first learned about Fast and Furious, the news was that a number of assault rifles had been sold to straw purchasers. Soon, we learned that the number was approximately 2,500 and that some of those were .50 caliber sniper rifles. Then we learned that somewhere between 1,200 and 1,300 of the weapons were unaccounted for, and that the ATF had allowed another upstanding gentleman to walk grenade components into Mexico (I guess he ended up in Mexico: no one knows because the ATF lost him). And finally, we’re learning that just a few days ago, on our side of the border, U.S. Border Patrol Agents found rocket and grenade launchers, assault rifles, and C4 explosives.

(More here, including an observation that I’d rather not think about.)

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We’ve lost some battles lately. That’s what happens when we let a radical Democrat become President. We let Patrick Leahy’s America Invents Act pass, imposing on America a Euro-style patent system that rewards lawyering, not being the first to invent something. We let the FCC pass an illegal Net Neutrality power grab, and that will have to go to court soon.

We’re even seeing some nominally Republican-run states get on big government bandwagon against AT&T, sadly joining in the effort by the Obama administration and Sprint Nextel to hinder competition and pad Sprint’s bottom line. What are Ohio and Pennsylvania doing there? Come on.

But at least we’re on track to get meaningful 4G competition. Some question the firm’s ties with the Obama administration, but I welcome progress toward LightSquared launching its network. Unlike Obama and Holder, trying to prop up Sprint, I actually want competition and lower prices.

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We wish to welcome back a very special guest columnist to RedState!

I would like, to thank the editors of Red State.org, for inviting me back! It would seeming that my latest column (for which I was paid), has, in the hearts and minds of many people, questions been raising, in the ways that thoughtful pieces sometimes do, after all this time. So you can see that I was grateful that Erick was inviting me back to clear some of them up, although it seems that most of the answers were evident from the piece allready to those who were willing to open their eyes and see the truth.

Firstly in the first place, some people had a question about my very obvious statement, “I don’t necessarily agree that Rick Perry is George Bush on crack, but he could definitely be described as George Bush 2.0.” The question, I have most often, been asked, is why I did not include literally anything in the piece to back up this claim or point out, the places where Perry and Bush are similar, the reason for that being simple. Hello? They are both from Texas. I guess I should apologize for, assuming that most people knew that already, but I guess they don’t. Well I am here to tell you in case you didn’t know: both George W. Bush and Rick Perry are from Texas. Now, in the entire time I have been paying attention to politics, there has only been one President of the United States elected from Texas. And if electing someone, from Texas was a winning strategy, then obviously, there would have been more.

Some ignorant jerk, clearly who doesn’t know about the young people, pointed out that George W. Bush 1.0 won, two elections, which is two more than my dad did. Let me just respond to that jerk by saying that George W. Bush only won those elections because he didn’t have to go against my dad either time. FACE!

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When I was in high school, we had to read Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle“.  In that piece, Sinclair depicts the evils of the 19th/early 20th century meatpacking industry and how socialism and labor unions saved the day for the workers.  Now there were certainly times such as those when labor unions served a useful purpose in protecting the interest of workers, but…

Those times are past.

Today public opinion of labor unions sits at a historic low, despite having a very union-friendly President in the Oval Office.  According to Gallup

While Americans’ views of labor unions have held steady since last year, with more approving than disapproving, Americans remain less approving than in the past. Further, there is a greater divergence this year in Republican and Democratic approval of unions.

On Friday, Rasmussen Reports released polling data indicating similar results – about half of Americans “see no further need for labor unions”, with 30 percent in disagreement.  And they’re not exactly knocking down doors to unionize.  Rasmussen states that “Among working Americans who do not belong to a union, just 13% would like to join a labor union where they work.”

It’s fairly surprising that the approval of labor unions has dropped to its lowest point during the Obama presidency.  But why?  My suspicion is that Democrat control of the White House and both sides of Capitol Hill has given us an unprecedented view of the reality of organized labor.  It’s not that Obama and his party have necessarily strengthened the unions, although events such as the NLRB interference in Boeing’s business has given some hope to unions, but the Democrats seem to have given the unions license to show their colors.  Union thuggery has become an everyday event, and videos and stories of the disgusting behavior of union members are rampant.

So, let’s look at this new, true face of organized labor.

The most recent incident was that of the f-bombing longshoreman in Washington state.  (Video is definitely NSFW):

Lovely. Thankfully this darling person was arrested for several felonies after his assault-laced tirade.  But wait, there’s more!

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Tomorrow is Constitution Day, a day created to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. The above video from Heritage is designed to remind people what tomorrow means and why it’s important. You can read more from former Attorney General Ed Meese here.

Consider this an Open Thread.

When you point your finger
‘cuz your plans fell through,
You got three more fingers
Pointing back at you!

(“Solid Rock” – Dire Straits)

Trouble has found our current President Barack Obama. It’s rolling in waves. The number of initial default notices sent to homeowners with delinquent mortgages went up 33% in August. Initial jobless claims went up by 11,000 this last week. More worrying is the fact that they’ve been above 400K for nearly every week, all Summer long, except a brief statistical blip. Oh, and while you’re jobless, the economy has begun to inflate. The CPI went up 0.4% last month, for an annualized rate that rounds up to 5%.

President Obama compounds his problems in several ways. His recent scandal over the loans he gave to a political buddy in The Solyndra Green Company is exploding in his general vicinity. An Office of Management and Budget staff member wrote the following email:

“The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad,” the Office of Management and Budget staff member wrote Jan. 31 in an e-mail to a co-worker. “If Solyndra defaults down the road, the optics will be arguably worse later than they would be today. .?.?. In addition, the timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up.”

(HT: Washington Post)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the markets rise this week, the possible moves of the Fed next week, and the latest developments in the broadening Solyndra scandal.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Solyndra’s woes worried White House, emails show
Treasury Inspector General Opens Probe Into Obama’s Solargate
Loan Was Solyndra’s Undoing
Did State Tax Dollars Go Into Failed Solar Company Tied To Tulsa Billionaire?
Testify: In 2009, Solyndra CEO Said Obama and Steven Chu Were Personally “Instrumental” In Securing Half-Billion In Loans for SCOAMF Boondoggle

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The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

These things usually come in threes.

• First and foremost is the highly embarrassing – and possibly expensive – Kinde Durkee affair. For those not following along with that story: Durkee was a Californian accountant used by numerous Democratic campaigns on the federal, state, and local level. Said campaigns are all now freaking out, because Durkee was just recently arrested on multiple accounts of mail fraud involving various politicians’ campaign funds*. Sen. Feinstein was one of the politicians who used Durkee; and aside from an at-the-time comment made to Politico about her being ‘wiped out,’ Feinstein is keeping mum about how much of her 5.2 million dollar war chest is still accessible to the campaign.
• Next up: this Field Poll about Senator Feinstein (via Andrew Malcolm**) give some pretty bad numbers, here. 41/39 approval/disapproval (a severe drop from her normal approval ratings) and she’s underwater (41/44) on her re-election numbers (also a severe drop). If you’re wondering whether this is a big deal, well, Reuters primly notes “A spokesman for Feinstein, who was first elected to the Senate in 1992 after a long career as San Francisco’s mayor, could not be reached for comment.” Also: Feinstein’s polling has been steadily getting worse since 2006.
• Finally, here’s an interesting rumor: former talk radio host and hard-line conservative Michael Reagan (adopted son of Ronald Reagan is apparently contemplating a 2012 Senate run. While the Feinstein campaign might argue that this is good news – Michael Reagan has never held public office, and the California of 2012 is not the California of 1966 – it remains true that Sen. Feinstein has not yet committed to running for re-election in 2012. The woman is 78 years old, has been in the Senate for almost two decades***, and it is considered unlikely that she will be the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee after next year’s elections.

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Today, we celebrate the 224th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution (September 17 falls out over the weekend this year).  On this day, it is imperative that we reflect on the importance of our constitution and celebrate the roots of our founding.  As our nation comes under attack from the forces of tyranny within, we must reaffirm our commitment to the ideals of our founders and founding documents.

Most people often mistakenly refer to our nation as the greatest democracy on earth.  They are mistaken because we are not an absolute democracy; we are a constitutional republic.  That is what makes our nation great, for if we were merely a democracy, we would be anything but great.  And to the extent that we no longer function as a constitutional republic, that greatness is rapidly ebbing away.

Why did we need a constitution?  Why are popular elections not a sufficient means of preserving liberty?

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RedState Morning Briefing
For September 16, 2011

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

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Facing a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit, and apparently figuring they were going to lose and lose big, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) agreed to end its massive corporate attack against Sodexo.

In exchange for the SEIU ending its corporate campaign, Sodexo agreed to dismiss its RICO suit against the SEIU.

Meanwhile, Sodexo employees maintain their right to secret-ballot election–something the SEIU has fought to take away with its attacks on the Company.

Below are the individual press releases issued by both Sodexo and the SEIU, respectively.

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For some time now, I and others have been documenting the relentless assault on economic growth by the EPA under President Barack Obama.  I feel like a broken record at times trying to beat this drum and get people to realize that while Obama doesn’t keep all of his campaign promises, destroying the coal industry is one that he has done everything he can to stay true to.

For anyone that paid attention during the 2008 presidential cycle, Obama made it clear that it was his intention to bankrupt the coal industry through regulation and legislation.  Think it’s hyperbole?  Listen to it from the horse’s mouth.

Obama’s dreams of green jobs have run into some snags lately.  The bankruptcy of solar panel company Solyndra, which received half a billion dollars in loan guarantees, is not good for the goal of greenifying our lives.  Objectively speaking, there is one simple reason that companies like Solyndra just couldn’t make ends meet: the prices that they need to charge for their products are simply too high to create true market demand.

However, market demand can also be altered by a lack of choice.  For instance, if there was a cheaper form of liquid that could fuel my car, I’d most certainly gravitate towards it as opposed to the $3.50 per gallon price I’m currently paying for gasoline.

Unfortunately for me, no alternative liquid exists that is as cost effective as plain old gasoline, and unfortunately for the green industry, gasoline exists.

In the world of energy and power plants, the big kids on the block are coal and fossil fuels.  They currently power the overwhelming vast majority of the country and despite rumors to the contrary, there’s still plenty of it to go around.  This poses a problem for Obama’s green agenda and unfortunately for him, his Cap & Trade initiative fell flat in the Senate and in this political climate, no one dares bring it up again.

So since that kills his ability to approach this from a legislative standpoint, President Obama has moved to his old standby: Regulatory.

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