Lee Fang: wrong again. “At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 27, 2012, when most civic-minded Americans were focused on the historic Supreme Court oral arguments about Obamacare, Lee Fang, a left-wing blogger for the liberal Republic Report blog, was posting yet another diatribe attacking Charles and David Koch. As usual, Fang’s piece stretches, distorts, ignores and misstates the facts.” So starts Cleta Mitchell writing in the Daily Caller piece Who’s paying Lee Fang and other left-wing bloggers to attack the Kochs? Readers should not be surprised that Fang is wrong again — it’s become his calling card. The political left doesn’t care, as long as Fang keeps up his attack on Charles and David Koch. Concludes Mitchell: “Fang, of course, gets away with making completely false statements because he sprinkles the Koch name as a negative modifier for every other noun in his blog, and the apparent rule is that there is no concern for facts or truth when a liberal attacks the Kochs. After reading Fang’s drivel, glancing at the Republic Report and United Republic websites and reading about their mission of getting money out of politics and exposing truth and corruption and all of that, here’s my question: Where do these sites get their money? And why don’t they publicly disclose their donors? Fang’s post and these projects are simply part of the massively well-funded liberal attack machine that is designed to vilify the Kochs and intimidate prospective conservative donors into staying on the sidelines. Indeed, Fang is hoping to intimidate all donors to conservative causes and organizations. … Whenever conservatives demonstrate the will and the resources to fight liberal orthodoxy, liberals become hysterical. The left tolerates diversity except when it comes to diversity of opinion. These ongoing attacks on the Kochs are outrageous and won’t stop until liberals have cut off conservative groups’ funding and silenced conservative voices. That isn’t likely to happen.”
Action on sustainability. Next week the Sedgwick County Commission takes up the issue of whether to participate in a HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant. Coverage of the last discussion the commission had on this matter is at Sedgwick County considers a planning grant. So that citizens may be informed on this issue, Americans for Prosperity, Kansas is holding an informational event on Monday April 2, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Spangles Restaurant, corner of Kellogg and Broadway. (Uh-oh. If the Kansas Jayhawks make it to the NCAA basketball title game, the television broadcast starts at 8:00 pm.) The meeting is described as follows: “On April 4, 2012 at 9:00 am on the 3rd floor of the Sedgwick County Courthouse, the Sedgwick County Commission will be holding a public hearing to consider approval of Sedgwick County’s participation as the fiscal agent on behalf of the Regional Economic Area Partnership (REAP) Consortium with an ‘in-kind’ commitment of $120,707 to implement a Regional Plan for Sustainable Communities Grant for South Central Kansas. Public comment will be invited. Learn about the Sustainable Communities Plan for South Central Kansas. Find out how you can get involved in this issue as a citizen. Consider testifying before the County Commission. Consider attending the Commission meeting as an interested citizen.” … For more information on this event contact John Todd at john@johntodd.net or 316-312-7335, or Susan Estes, AFP Field Director at sestes@afphq.org or 316-681-4415.
Economic fascism. From Independent Institute: “On Friday, March 16, President Obama signed an executive order on national defense that amends and updates the executive branch’s sweeping powers over energy, transportation, human resources, and raw materials. ‘It shows plainly that private control of economic life in the United States, to the extent that it survives, exists solely at the president’s pleasure and sufferance,’ writes Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs. ‘Whenever he chooses to put into effect a full-fledged operational fascist economy, controlled from his office, he has the statutory power to do so; all he has to do is to murmur the words ‘national defense’ and give the order.’ … Obama’s executive order sets no new precedent, Higgs notes. It’s just the latest in a string of edicts authorizing central economic planning that dates back at least to the Defense Production Act of 1950, a wartime statute that was never repealed after its passage during the Korean War. It’s also a classic example of how wars create new government powers that don’t go away after peace resumes.”
Immigration. From LearnLiberty.org, a project of Institute for Humane Studies: “Is it true that immigration raises the U.S. unemployment rate? Is it true that immigration affects U.S. income distribution? The conventional wisdom says that both of these things are true. However, economist Antony Davies says there is evidence to suggest that they are not. Looking at the data, there is no relationship between the rate of immigration and the unemployment rate, nor is there a relationship between the rate of immigration and income inequality. Further, there is evidence to suggest that immigrants actually create more American jobs.”