A video surfaced on Wednesday showing a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his agency’s philosophy with respect to regulation of oil and gas companies to brutal tactics employed by the ancient Roman army to intimidate its foes into submission. EPA’s “philosophy of enforcement,” said EPA’s Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, is “kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean: they’d go into little Turkish towns somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they’d run into, and they’d crucify them.” “That town …
When insurance giant AIG paid lucrative bonuses to top executives after receiving federal support, President Obama asked, “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” But three years later, numerous green energy companies backed financially by the administration are paying out large salaries and bonuses to their executives, even as the companies struggle to stay financially solvent. Scribe recently reported that Ecotality, a stimulus-backed electric vehicle charging station manufacturer that has received about $141 million in Energy Department grants, increased “executive and director” …
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) swore to support and defend the U.S. Constitution upon taking office. The founding document weighs heavily on him with each vote, and it’s the reason Amash is the only member of Congress to justify each of those votes on his popular Facebook page. He’ll speak today at noon ET at The Bloggers Briefing along with Katie Pavlich, author of “Fast and Furious,” a new book about the Obama administration’s gun-walking scandal. Breitbart TV, in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, will air it live. Amash’s approach to …
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis described the states as “laboratories for democracy.” Policies enacted at the state level can offer insight into their likely efficacy on the federal level. Kirk Adams, the former Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, has authored legislation that pulled the state’s budget from billions in shortfalls into the black. He led the way in reforming the pension system for state employees — beginning with himself: he voluntarily opted out of the system in a symbolic gesture for reform. Adams was also instrumental in …
Sugar producers contribute only a small percentage of value to overall U.S. crop production, yet the industry continues to reap the rewards from government thanks to a significant lobbying presence and sizable campaign donations. The result is government interference in the sugar market, which dates to the 1930s Depression. American consumers pay the price in the form of higher prices. This week’s chart depicts sugar’s sweet deal. When the federal government hands out favors to sugar producers, they turn around and fund lobbyists and political action committees, leading to yet …
Talk-radio host Neal Boortz is no fan of the nation’s capital. “The place gives me the creeps,” he said on this week’s Scribecast. Boortz, a self-described libertarian who first visited Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, said federal bureaucrats have given the city a bad reputation. “I came to know Washington as a symbol of freedom, of liberty, of all that made this country great,” Boortz said. “And now when I come to this city, I see these people walking on the sidewalk and I just think, yeah, what cubicle are …
The Energy Department has yet to comply with a congressional request for information on a stimulus-backed company under investigation for insider trading and facing serious financial difficulties. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who chairs the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee on Science, Space, and Technology, asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu for “a detailed summary of the Ecotality project” in a letter in late March. Ecotality is a poster-child for the administration’s push to get a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. The company manufactures charging stations for those vehicles, …
On April 17 and 18, 2002, a number of Senators took to the floor of the upper chamber to decry efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to fossil fuel exploration and development. Their objections voiced a common concern: ANWR wouldn’t begin to produce oil for up to ten years. Here’s what some of the Senators had to say: “There would be no production out of [ANWR] for at least 7 years.” -Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) “Oil extracted from [ANWR] would not reach refineries for seven to ten years.” -Sen. …
Americans who are scrambling to pay their taxes by Tuesday’s deadline are in store for more depressing news: The tax burden on American families has risen dramatically and will continue to climb into the future without action from Congress. This week’s chart outlines the growth of taxes over the past 45 years. Large tax increases are just months away. Jan. 1, 2013, is already being dubbed Taxmaggedon. Seven existing tax policies will end and 18 new taxes from Obamacare will begin, leading to a $494 billion tax increase at the …
Invisible Children brought worldwide attention to Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army with a wildly popular documentary called “Kony 2012.” The 30-minute film depicted Kony’s violent militia in Central Africa. It currently has more than 87 million views on YouTube. The film’s success raised awareness about Kony and also inspired both positive and negative critiques of Invisible Children, a San Diego-based advocacy group that began its work in Uganda in 2005. Today the organization and its Washington, D.C., partner Resolve are preparing an advocacy event on April 20. This …
