From the category archives:

Politics

Wisconsin Controls Spending and Taxes, Goes from Deficit to Surplus

Not that we expect the clowns and criminals who run state government in neighboring Illinois to care, but we do hope, for a moment at least, they cast their collective gaze north of the border to Wisconsin.

Something is happening there that Illinois’ governor and most of its legislators no doubt will hardly be able to grasp. Ditto for legislators in California, New York and other fiscally dysfunctional states.

Wisconsin recently has been holding down spending and taxes, and the state has gone from a budget deficit of more than $3 billion to a projected budget surplus.

Imagine! Setting spending priorities and stopping further raids on the pocketbooks of businesses and individuals has achieved what more spending and higher taxes could not.

The Wisconsin-based MacIver Institute has the story, based on the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s latest budget projections.

{ 0 comments }

EPA ‘Crucifixions’ Nothing New

EPA Regional Director Al Armendariz

The blogosphere is all atwitter this week after the disclosure of  the “crucifixion” video, in which the director of U.S. EPA Region 6 in Texas urged his staff to “crucify” oil and gas companies in enforcement actions.

In the video, disclosed by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Regional Director Al Armendariz said:

It was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law. Find people who are not compliant with the law, and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them, and there is a deterrent effect there.

Sen. Inhofe calls this a “’rare glimpse’ into the Obama administration’s mindset” and is launching an investigation. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said: “I have spoken to Dr. Armendariz, I have made clear to him that I am glad he apologized because his comments were disappointing, they are not representative of the agency, they don’t reflect any policy that we have, and they don’t reflect our actions over the past two years.”

Don’t make me laugh.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Standing Up For ALEC

Recently “Color of Change,” Common Cause, the Center for Media and Democracy, and other extreme leftist groups’ have attempted to defame a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). These attacks are not surprising considering the groups that are making them. Rather than discussing and debating actual policy, these groups resort to ad hominem attacks and bullying tactics. What is downright shameful is their use of a tragedy like Trayvon Martin’s death to dishonestly attack an organization with which they disagree on policy.

Like ALEC’s corporate donors, The Heartland Institute’s supporters are under fierce attack by the same left-wing groups using the same tactics. While “Color of Change” uses the Trayvon Martin tragedy as cover for its ideological campaign, “Forecast the Facts” and its allies are using  our efforts to bring sound science to the debate over global warming. Such tactics have no place in the national debate over public policy.

Despite what these fringe groups want you to believe, ALEC is not involved in any black helicopter conspiracy. ALEC is in fact a very effective and respected public-private partnership that brings together state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public to openly discuss public policy and free-market solutions. It does not hide that its stated mission is to advance “Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty.”

As Georgia Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers put it, “I stand with ALEC, and together we stand ready to defend our guiding principles of free markets and limited government, which is what our nation needs now more than ever.”

The Heartland Institute stands with ALEC in support of free enterprise, limited government, and federalism, and asks that you do so as well.

{ 0 comments }

Heartland’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change, May 21 – 23 in Chicago

We’re doing it again … because it’s necessary to “think globally and act locally” about the climate — but with the truth, not propaganda and politicized reports passed off as rigorous science.

The Heartland Institute is hosting a conference aimed at having a real debate about the causes, consequences, and policy implications of climate change. And this year’s conference in Chicago May 21 – 23 dovetails nicely with the NATO summit in the Windy City (which ends as ours begins, on May 21). Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, will be our dinner speaker the first night.

Heartland has invited dozens of scientists who believe man is chiefly responsible for the fluctuations of the climate to debate those who disagree … again. We will be joined by dozens of think tank cosponsors and hundreds of scientists who understand the need to educate the public, and fellow scientists and educators, about what’s really happing to the planet’s climate. The world’s media will be there — and, we hope you will join us. Registration information can be found here.

Get Twitter updates of the conference by following @HeartlandInst and the hashtag #ICCC7.

This year’s conference theme is:

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Heartland Institute’s Weekly Podcasts

Welcome to the Heartland’s podcasts. This week, listen to a discussion on how to defend freedom in our personal and economic lives. Click the links below to listen, and subscribe on iTunes so you get the latest podcasts as soon as they are produced. (Search for “Heartland Institute” in the iTunes store.)

ON EDUCATION: While education reformers focus on big schemes like Common Core standards and teacher evaluations, little over the several past decades has seemed to change about American education. Author Beverlee Jobrack, a long-time textbook editor for SRA-McGraw Hill, explains in Tyranny of the Textbook that some of the reason why is that textbooks have not changed. Teachers keep teaching the way they always have, and publishers print books that make them happy, whether it’s based on research about how children learn best or not. Jobrack also explains why the Khan Academy and crazes over much education technology are non-research-supported fads. Listen here.

ON TECHNOLOGY: Eric M. Fraser discusses his extensive research and writing on municipal wi-fi systems, finding them to be more expensive and less effective than promised by governments willing to put taxpayers on the hook to pay for them. Fraser also addresses the technical and regulatory limitations of municipal wi-fi systems. Listen here.

ON ENVIRONMENT: International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) executive director Tom Harris explains how ICSC is turning Earth Hour into Energy Hour. Listen here.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

ReasonTV: The Case Against Obamacare in Under Two Minutes

The U.S. Supreme Court this week is hearing arguments about the constitutionality of Obamacare, with a decision is expected this summer. But, as hard as it may be, let’s put aside for a moment whether the law adheres to the Constitution. No matter what the Supremes decide, Obamacare is very bad law — one shoved down the throat of an unwilling American public by the narrowest of margins via budget reconciliation trickery, the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, and instantly broken promises to congressional dupes.

Nick Gillespie — whom Heartland hosted for a great book event last summer in Chicago with his Reason compatriot and co-author Matt Welch — outlines just how bad this law is. In short: If it survives Supreme review and is not repealed, any attempt to get back to the limited government our Founders intended is over. As Gillespie says:

There’s no question that if the government can force you to do something simply because you exist and draw breath, then the American experiment in limited government is over and done with. Whether it’s the mandating of eating broccoli or buying insurance, a government that can make you do whatever it wants just ain’t in the American grain.

This is a much-watch video below the fold. Short and sweet (1:44):

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Anniversaries for Obamacare, and Patrick Henry

Today marks the second anniversary of the signing of President Obama’s health care takeover, a law which now hangs in the balance before the Supreme Court. But there is another anniversary too, and one far more meaningful in the course of human events.

It was 237 years ago today, in Virginia, that Patrick Henry gave a speech that rang out through the colonies and urged the people to stand up for their liberty. The speech is doubtless familiar to all of you. But there is a line that comes before the more famous conclusion which I have always loved.

In making his case that the colonists should be willing to stand even against the armed might of the British Empire, which had put down so many colonial rebellions in the past, Henry urged the Virginians on, saying:

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

To which I would add: Whether this younger anniversary matters a few years from now depends in large part on us remembering the counsel of the older one.

{ 0 comments }

On Fakegate, Science and Ideology

To me, science is a process of continuous discovery.  So when casted alongside of ideology let alone political ideology it doesn’t exactly pass the smell test. Science ebbs and flows with new ideas, innovation, technology, intellect, verve and excitement, and passionate curiosity.   It requires an openness of mind and heart and debate is its most trusted ally.

Among The Heartland Institutes’ many recent disappoints is any prominence that Peter Gleick (and ostensively his supporters and sympathizers) once received as a thoughtful scientist(s) will be forever tainted.  More is the pity, thoughtful debate took a nose dive.

Heartland values rigorous and honest debate. Gleick’s action clearly did not demonstrate a retaliatory frustration in opposing scientifically challenging literature rather it promulgated a vulgar immaturity.

Too often organizations are attacked for preserving the privacy of its donors, and crying foul over anonymity is nothing more than a “Red Herring” when either fearing or ignoring debate, and only serves to reduce the space where legitimate refuting science can be heard from both sides of the issue.

[click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Fakegate versus Climategate

Peter Gleick, disgraced by Fakegate

Peter Gleick, disgraced by his own actions in Fakegate

On February 14, environmental groups and sympathetic journalists reported that confidential documents were stolen from The Heartland Institute. It soon became apparent that one of the documents, a supposed memo describing Heartland’s communication strategy on climate change, was a fake document, leading British journalist James Delingpole to label the affair “Fakegate.”

On February 20, Peter Gleick made a partial confession, saying he stole the documents but claiming he received the fraudulent emo “in the mail” from an anonymous source. An international search is underway to identify the true author of the fraudulent memo.

Surprisingly, Gleick has defenders. Those willing to use their real names on blogs and in comments to articles include James Garvey, Tyler Hamilton, Mark Alan Hewitt, John Horgan, Greg Laden, Stephan Lewandowsky, Patrick Lockerby, and Michael Tobis. For a summary of their comments, see Donna Laframboise’s excellent post.

Several of Gleick’s apologists say Heartland has no right to cry foul, since Climate Change Weekly, Environment & Climate News, and other Heartland publications have reported extensively on the two Climategate scandals.

“I still can’t get over how hypocritical Heartland Institute is being about this, given how it delighted in seeing climate scientists’ e-mails hacked in the 2009 ‘Climategate’ non-scandal,” wrote one Gleick partisan, Tyler Hamilton, at theenergycollective.

While Fakegate and Climategate have some things in common – most obviously, both expose the moral and intellectual corruption of the global warming movement – there are also important differences that clear Heartland of any claims of hypocrisy. Those differences include:

[click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Heartland Institute Responds to Stolen and Fake Documents

Yesterday afternoon, two advocacy groups posted online several documents they claimed were The Heartland Institute’s 2012 budget, fundraising, and strategy plans. Some of these documents were stolen, at least one is a fake, and some may have been altered.

The stolen documents appear to have been written by Heartland’s president for a board meeting that took place on January 17. He was traveling at the time this story broke yesterday afternoon and still has not had the opportunity to read them all to see if they were altered. Therefore, the authenticity of those documents has not been confirmed.

Since then, the documents have been widely reposted on the Internet, again with no effort to confirm their authenticity.

One document, titled “Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy,” is a total fake apparently intended to defame and discredit The Heartland Institute. It was not written by anyone associated with The Heartland Institute. It does not express Heartland’s goals, plans, or tactics. It contains several obvious and gross misstatements of fact.

[click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

← Previous Entries