It's becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction, and unfortunately the media has a strong bias. They spin stories to make conservatives look bad and will go to great lengths to avoid reporting on the good that comes from conservative policies. There are a few shining lights in the media landscape-brave conservative outlets that report the truth and offer a different perspective. We must support conservative outlets like this one and ensure that our voices are heard.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

As debt crisis looms at state level, Illinois identified as a ‘sinkhole’

U.S. debt has been downgraded, and a budget deal is left to a “supercommittee.” The world holds its breath to see if Greece, Italy, Spain or Portugal will default and destroy the Euro. China is letting its currency rise, making exports more expensive. Americans have lost confidence in the economy amidst bankruptcies and foreclosures.

What else could there be to worry about in the world of money and finance? Well, there’s one more catastrophe waiting to happen.

The disaster revolves around the overwhelming, and mostly hidden, financial woes of many states.

Since states don’t have the option of “printing money” — an option that gives some breathing room to the United States and the European community — state budgets are coming to grips with huge shortfalls. This, despite the fact that 49 of the 50 states have balanced budget amendments.

According to a new report just released at TruthinAccounting.org, the states have used accounting trickery to conceal a total of $1 trillion of outstanding bills. The report identifies five “Sinkhole” states and five “Sunshine” states. Truth in Accounting is a national, non-profit advocacy group dedicated to “promoting honest, accurate and transparent accounting.”

Juan Williams: Explaining exactly what I meant

Editor: Samuel E Burns

Juan Williams should be enough of a professional to say what he means the first time around and not have to back up and further explain his comments the next day. What he said on Wednesday night, said a lot about where Juan Williams stands. I am deeply concerned with the positions he has taken in the last few weeks. When he was fired by NPR he had my support, but with his latest comments, I am not so sure how unbiased he really is. Read the article below and make up your own mind.

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Ann Romney, me and her convention speech

By Juan Williams

Last night on Fox’s special coverage of the Republican Convention, I said that Ann Romney reminded me of a corporate wife during her speech. In the hours since I made that comment, I have gotten a lot of static and a flurry of negative feedback through Twitter and Facebook.
Many people took offense to that criticism so I think it is worth explaining exactly what I meant.
First, I was making a criticism of the speech -- not of Mrs. Romney.
My wife and I have dined with Mitt Romney. I have met Ann. They are very nice people.
She is a very real person who has faced all of the struggles that attend to being a wife, a mother and a cancer survivor. She is an attractive, energetic and engaging presence on the campaign trail. She is the type of woman that any man - corporate executive or not - would be proud to present as his wife.
My reaction was to the political speech. It was intended to help the presidential candidate with women voters. The goal was to let the audience know he is a caring person and not a hardened businessman lacking a heart.

French PM: 75% Tax Will Not Define Government

France’s Prime Minister has told CNBC that his government will work hard with businesses to avoid major job losses and dismissed claims that his government is anti-business and driving away investment with a 75 percent tax on high earners.
"This is not what is going to sum up our policies,” Jean-Marc Ayrault said in his first interview with CNBC since taking office earlier this year.

As Ayrault met with business leaders in Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, he said that the rich had to do their part to help France’s economy back onto its feet.

“This exceptional contribution is going to be a request to the ones who have extremely high salaries to take part in a collective effort for a national recovery. It is a shared effort, it is not going to solve every problem,” said Ayrault, who claimed business leaders understood this.

The CEO of Societe Generale, Frederic Oudea told CNBC the 75 percent tax is highly symbolic and could stop people coming to and investing in France.

“Of course there is this question of 75 percent which can be effectively an obstacle for people to come to France, to create jobs etc. And is seen sometimes from outside not as the right incentive to create initiatives, to create business,” said Oudea, who thinks supporting investment is crucial.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48837971

Bernanke's Words Could Make or Break Market Rally

Whether it’s disappointment or a hint that a further monetary boost to the economy is on its way, the speech on Friday from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is likely to trigger a strong swing in either direction in U.S. stock, currency and bond markets, which are sitting on critical technical levels, one analyst says.
Bernanke delivers a widely-anticipated speech on Friday at the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and for weeks now markets have been pondering whether or not the central bank chief will use the address to pave the way for another round of monetary stimulus via quantitative easing or asset purchases.

Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppy Traders, says because U.S. equity markets are hovering around key chart levels, investors can expect a big move up or down in response to Bernanke’s speech.

“Technically, on the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq we are sitting on resistance levels and what that means is if the news is good we will have an exceptionally strong break out above the resistance levels,” Guppy told CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box on Thursday.

“Equally if there is a bad news we will get a powerful retracement, so we are looking at high volatility going into Bernanke,” he added.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48836111

Jobless Claims Hold Flat; Spending Tops Income Gains

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits was unchanged last week, pointing to a labor market that was treading water.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were a seasonally adjusted 374,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised up to show 2,000 more applications than previously reported.

In a separate report, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in July, the best showing in five months and ahead of the 0.3 percent income gain.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dipping to 370,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, rose 1,500 to 370,250.

Jobless claims have risen by 10,000 in August, suggesting some moderation in the pace of job growth this month after payrolls increased 163,000 in July from 64,000 in June.

The state of the labor market, particularly the unemployment rate, could determine whether the Federal Reserve will offer additional monetary stimulus to the economy at its Sept. 12-13 policy meeting.

Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48840584

The Green War on the Poor

In a nearly full-page op-ed appearing in the business section of the August 25 New York Times, Cornell professor Robert H. Frank lays out the new green agenda for tax policy.

According to Professor Frank, stopping global warming may require carbon taxes of about $300 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted, and by implementing such taxes, we can also balance the federal budget. “If such a tax were phased in,” Frank says, “the prices of goods would rise gradually in proportion to the amount of carbon dioxide their production or use entailed. The price of gasoline, for example, would slowly rise by somewhat less than $3 per gallon. Motorists in many countries already pay that much more than Americans do, and they seem to have adapted by driving substantially more efficient vehicles. . . . many budget experts agree that federal budgets simply can’t be balanced with spending cuts alone. We’ll also need substantial additional revenue, most of which could be generated by a carbon tax.”
In addition to increasing the cost of American goods through carbon taxes, Frank recommends jacking up the price of imports through carbon tariffs, and he suggests that the U.S. government use such tariffs to force other nations to impose carbon taxes on their own citizens. “Some people argue that a carbon tax would do little good unless it were also adopted by China and other big polluters,” Frank says. “It’s a fair point. But access to the American market is a potent bargaining chip. The United States could seek approval to tax imported goods in proportion to their carbon dioxide emissions if exporting countries failed to enact carbon taxes at home.”

Read more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/315369/green-war-poor-robert-zubrin

Romney’s welfare ad is accurate

Poor Mickey Kaus. He’s the liberal intellectual (not an oxymoron — he’s the last known living “liberal intellectual”) lefties on TV are usually stealing from, but now that this welfare reform maven has concluded that Romney’s welfare ad is basically correct, liberals refuse to acknowledge his existence.
The non-Fox media have formed a solid front in denouncing Romney’s welfare ad for daring to point out that Obama has gutted the work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform bill.
The New York Times claims that Romney’s ad “falsely” charges Obama with eliminating work requirements. CNN rates the ad “false.” Underemployed hack Howard Fineman says Romney’s ad “is just flat out wrong on the facts” and “that every fair analyst, every fact checker” has said it’s “just factually wrong.”
When a campaign ad induces this much hysteria, you know Romney has struck gold. On closer examination, it turns out that by “every fair analyst,” Fineman means a bunch of liberals quoting one another.
This is how the media’s “fact checkers” operate when it comes to a Republican campaign ad. One not very well-informed person (or a heavily biased person) announces that Romney’s welfare ad is false, and the rest of the herd quote him, without anyone ever bothering to examine the facts, much less citing anyone who knows what he’s talking about.
It is striking that everyone who actually knows something about the 1996 welfare reform law says that Romney’s ad is accurate.
One of the principal authors of the 1996 welfare reform, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, and Douglas Besharov, who advised Hillary Clinton on the 1996 welfare reform law, say Romney’s ad is accurate.

Elections have consequences, so it is important that voters who want to save our democracy, should v