Small Business Owners to Washington: Stop Scaring Us to Death With Deficits, Where’s the Stimulus?

While guest co-hosting on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Rep. Paul Ryan asks the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Chief Economist : what is bothering them about what is going on with the federal government and why are they “holding back”:



Higher taxes, in the form of VATs, and skyrocketing deficit spending is bad for all business big and small. Who knew?

With all of this talk of coming out of Washington, it is making many business owners trepidatious about taking any risks, right now, like hiring more people, expanding their businesses or opening new ones. This is why the unemployment rate is going staying steady around 10%.

Supreme Court Security Officer Allegedly Told High School Students to Stop Praying in Front of Court

Was the first amendment repealed, while I slept last night? Did they take out the freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof clause out of the amendment?

A Supreme Court security officer allegedly told students to stop praying in front of the Supreme Court because it’s illegal. They had to move to the “gutter” in order to finish their prayer:

A group of Christian students was allegedly ordered to stop praying outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on May 5 because a court police officer told them it was against the law.

The students were part of a junior high school American History class at Wickenburg Christian Academy in Arizona. After taking pictures on the steps of the Supreme Court building, their teacher gathered them to a side location where they formed a circle and began to pray.

According to Nate Kellum, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a police officer “abruptly” interrupted the prayer and ordered the group to cease and desist.
“They were told to stop praying because they were violating the law and they had to take their prayer elsewhere,” Kellum told FOX News Radio.

Here is the response from the Marshal of the (Supreme) Court’s spokesperson regarding the allegation:

The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter to the Supreme Court urging them to stop their police officers from banning prayers.

A spokesperson for the Court said the Marshal of the Court will look into the events alleged by the ADF.

“The Court does not have a policy prohibiting prayer,” said public information officer Kathy Arberg in an email to FOX News Radio.

“The Court’s policy regarding the use of most public areas at the Court has been to permit activity related to the business of the Court, including traditional tourist activity and ingress and egress for visitors, but not to permit demonstrations and other types of activity that may tend to draw a crowd or onlookers,” she said. “In addition, under 40 U.S.C. section 6135, it is unlawful to parade, stand or move in processions or assemblages in the building and grounds, including the plaza and steps, but not including the perimeter sidewalks.”

But Kellum said the 15 students and seven adults did not constitute a parade.

“From what we gather, the police officer at the Supreme Court building determined that because they were bowing their heads, they were bringing notice to their Christianity which they considered a movement and thus violating this federal statute,” he said.

That is some jump that the cop made.

Kaptain Kickass channeled Sergeant Smartass

While in Holland, Michigan at the ribbon-cutting of a Korean electric battery plant, yesterday, Kaptain Kickass channeled Sergeant Smartass:

Obama couldn’t even get his manners right. Ever the partisan, he took a shot at his host, Holland Congressional representative Pete Hoekstra who was in the audience. Despite opposing the Recovery Act, Hoekstra attended the ground-breaking ceremony, he told The View, “out of respect for the office of president.”

The respect was not returned. "Some made the political calculation that it's better to obstruct than to lend a hand,” sneered Obama at the end of his remarks. “Now that doesn't stop them from being at ribbon cuttings, but that's OK."

Of course, while there he used the opportunity to show people that the country is in the right track, at least according to him. This is kind of ridiculous considering this:

West Michigan is suffering 12 percent unemployment yet President “Audacity of Hope” had the audacity to suggest that the stimulus “efforts we took we are no longer bleeding jobs." In fact, since his $1 trillion Recovery Act was passed a year ago, Michigan has lost nearly 100,000 jobs.

Don’t let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good talking point.

HT to The Anchoress

Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann Files Papers Seeking to Start a TEA Party Caucus in the House

Hmmmm:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Michele Bachmann today filed paperwork to form the House Tea Party Caucus.

The organization, she said, will be devoted to the Tea Party's principles of "fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government."

"This caucus will espouse the timeless principles of our founding, principles that all Members of Congress have sworn to uphold," Bachmann said in a statement. "The American people are doing their part and making their voices heard and this caucus will prove that there are some here in Washington willing to listen."

Dozens of caucuses exist currently, covering everything from mental health to microbrews.

The Tea Party caucus would be formed as a House member organization, open to members from either party.

H/T to Cubachi

Boehner: More Government, Less Jobs Equals Epitome of Failure For Obama

The Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio blasted Obama's economic policy in an editorial in Detroit News:

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomes President Obama to Michigan Thursday with a scathing critique of his economic policies.

“When President Barack Obama speaks in Holland today, I hope that instead of trying to convince the people of a city suffering from 11.8 percent unemployment that our economy is ‘moving forward,’ he will listen closely when they ask, ‘Where are the jobs?,’ Boehner wrote in an editorial that appears in Thursday’s edition of The Detroit News.

In the op-ed, Boehner said that since February 2009 the economy has lost three million private sector jobs while the federal government has added more than 400,000 jobs.

“More government, fewer jobs: This isn’t the picture of recovery; it’s the epitome of failure,” the top House Republican wrote.

Exactly!

Did Illegally Voting Convicted Felons Put Al Franken in the Senate?

A Minnesota conservative watchdog group has found that enough convicted felons illegally voted from heavily Democratic districts in the 2008 elections that it could have pushed Senator Stuart Smalley over the top:

The six-month election recount that turned former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities. 

That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. 

The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records. 

Furthermore, the report charges that efforts to get state and federal authorities to act on its findings have been "stonewalled." 

"We aren't trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can't be done," said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority's executive director. "We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn't compromised."

This alone may not have pushed him over the top. Franken would have had to have received ~62% of the convicted felon vote to have made the difference. This is obviously possible but not a certainty. However, if they found these 341 illegally voting felons, I wonder just how many there actually are that might not have been found, yet? If there are even a couple hundred more, that would of definately been enough to put him over the top.

Chicago Political Machine Kicks TEA Party Candidate, Black Mother of Three, Off the Ballot Over Minor Clerical Error

It appears that the Chicago political machine is hard at work keeping a TEA Party candidate off the ballot. This time they kept off black mother of three. Why did they kick her off? Did she not get enough signatures? No, it was because there was a sentence just with “slightly different wording” than it should have been:

Illinois, the vote is being denied to the voters of the 43rd State Senate District by a frivolous challengeChicago - On Wednesday, one of Governor Quinn's routine bill signing ceremonies turned into a debate over ballot access and the Tea Party in Illinois.

A supporter of Republican and Tea Party activist Cedra Crenshaw jumped up and demanded to know why Democrats supporting incumbent State Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi, who was at the bill signing, had worked to get Crenshaw kicked off the ballot.

Crenshaw, a 37-year old mother of three who studied accounting at North Carolina A&T, submitted hundreds more signatures on her nominating petitions than required. But Will County officials knocked her off the November ballot, saying one of the sentences in her filing should have used slightly different wording.

"I am angry," said Crenshaw, an African-American who rejects complaints that the Tea Party movement is racist. "And a lot of the voters are very angry, as well. Right here in the State of Illinois, the vote is being denied to the voters of the 43rd State Senate District by a frivolous challenge."

Now, both sides do kick people off the ballot for cheap technicalities all the time, and I think that it is ridiculous. We should let all the people run on the ballot that wants to run. Let the people decide who they want.

More Homes Are Being Foreclosed Than At Any Other Time in Our Nation’s History

There is more good news for “recovery summer”. Over the last financial quarter, more homes have been foreclosed on across the country than at any other time in our nation’s history:

Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes in the second quarter, but slowed new foreclosure notices to manage distressed properties on the market, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

The root problems of job losses and wage cuts persist, making a sustained U.S. housing recovery elusive.

Banks took control of 269,962 properties in the second quarter, up 5 percent from the prior quarter and a 38 percent spike from the second quarter of last year, RealtyTrac said in its midyear 2010 foreclosure report.
Repossessions will likely top 1 million this year.

"The underlying conditions haven't improved," RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga said in an interview.

The housing market still grapples with "unemployment, economic displacement in general, and still sits on over 5 million seriously delinquent loans that in all likelihood will at some point go into foreclosure," he said.

You mean having Obama and the Democrats pass the stimulus package and throw money at the problematic economy didn’t help the foreclosure rate any?!? Shocking!!!

Good News: Obama Flips on Federally-Funded Abortions

I guess that Executive Order forbidding taxpayer- abortions was just lip-service:

Boehner and other Republicans point to reports that the Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.
 
"The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable," Boehner said in a statement on Tuesday.

Courts Have Delivered Another Blow to Obama: Rejected Appeal to Allow Him to Reinstate Drilling Moratorium

The courts have delivered another blow to Obama on Thursday as they declined to allow him to reinstate the off-shore drilling moratorium:

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the federal government's effort to restore an offshore deepwater drilling moratorium, opening the door to resumed drilling in the Gulf while the legal fight continues.

The ruling is not the final word on the Obama administration's fight to suspend new drilling projects so it can study the risks revealed by the disastrous BP oil spill.

The same appeals court is expected to hear arguments on the merits of the moratorium case in late August or early September.

Just because it is legal for them to start drilling and allowing people to go back to work that doesn't mean that it will happen immediately. Since it is likely that Obama would appeal, some companies would rather not drill if they would just have to stop have to stop in a few months:

While it's possible that 33 exploratory wells suspended by the moratorium could resume drilling, companies might not bother with the expense while the ultimate future of the projects hangs in the balance.

Hopefully, this can be resolved soon as the people that rely on this industry for jobs to feed their families need to get their lives back to normal as soon as possible.

Top GOP Black Candidate(Allen West-FL) Slams Obama Over How Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case Was Handled

One of the black GOP candidates running for the House this November had some stark criticism for Obama regarding his handling of the Black Panter voter intimidation case:

One of the GOP's handful of black candidates for Congress condemned President Barack Obama of exploiting race for political gain.

Allen West, the Republican challenging Rep. Ron Klein (D) in Florida's 22nd congressional district, sharply criticized the Obama administration for having allegedly declined prosecuting the New Black Panther Party on voter tampering charges for political reasons.

For an Administration that promised a new era in race relations, Obama and the Democrats in Congress have demonstrated that race will continually be exploited for political gain, West, who is one of two African-American Republicans running for Congress who have survived their primaries, said in a statement.

West was picking up on a meme that's made its way through conservative blogs in recent days, based on whistleblower claims made by a former Justice Department employee. Charges against the Black Panthers for their actions on Election Day 2008 weren't pursued because of racial politics, the employee charged. The Justice Department says charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

West drew on his own history with race to condemn the Black Panthers, as well as other black Democrats, who he said had remained silent when he'd been called racially-ringed names during the course of his campaign.

The dye has been cast in this election cycle - Democrats and their liberal progressive socialist allies will continue to play the race card when it is politically expedient, West said. I demand an investigation of the New Black Panther Party and the placement of it, along with any extremist group, onto the Terrorist Watch List if warranted. If that it not done prior to my taking the oath of office as a United States Congressman, it will happen soon thereafter.

Jerry Brown and Chris Mathews Talk Down to Voters During Hardball Interview

Jerry Brown, who is the Democrat that is running against Meg Whitman in the California gubernatorial election, was on Chris Mathews’ Hardball program. During the interview, both Mathews and Brown had some derogatory things to say about the right. While this, on its own, is not really shocking news, it is still noteworthy.

From the beginning, Mathews called Meg Whitman an outsider. At about the 1:36 mark, Mathews calls Whitman, along with Dubya and Palin, "know-nothings" especially about government. He goes to insult Americans by questioning why the hell they would ever vote for Bush:

What is it in the American psyche or character that says that if you don't know anything you're somehow an average person or average guy, and you have horsesense. What is about people that they keep picking people like George W Bush to be president? And you see someone like Sarah Palin have fans. Why would anybody like somebody who the campaign manager for John McCain said, "She doesn't know anything."? Why is not knowing anything; why is the know-nothing candidate like Meg Whitman, a person who doesn't have any government experience, have the appeal to be even with you in the polls, the person who doesn't know anything about government?

Listening to the video you can really hear the venom come out of Mathews’ mouth as he spits the name Bush and Palin.

Mathews continues to show his disdain for the everyday Californian by calling them amateurs and wondering if letting them vote on specific issues is really a good thing? After all, most people can’t be as smart as the politicians are. So, we can’t possibly know what is good for us. Right, Chris?:

The people of California haven't had alot of faith in politicians over the last 20-30 years. They've gotten their fingers in actual legislature, not just saying who should do it but doing it themselves...Has that been good for California, all this effort to keep refining and refining and messing with it as amatuers? Has it been a good political system for California?

The real gem comes from Jerry Brown at about 6:15:

Don't you just say that unions are a powerful force. Wall St. destroyed $11 Trillion worth of wealth. That's pretty powerful. No union could ever do that. (M-Yeah, I know) Then, there is the teabaggers. There is the Chamber of Commerce. (M-giggles)

Now, Chris did ask a good question about unions there, and but Brown quickly dismissed that question and changed the topic to those who he really blames for the recession. All Mathew can say about that is, “Yeah, I know”. First of all, unions have destroyed the auto industry in Detroit, which in turn helped tank the market. That is an over trillion dollar industry in itself. So, unions are just as influential in the long run as the evil stock brokers are.

Second, TEABAGGERS?!? Really? Haven’t the Democrats gotten past using juvenile insults, yet? I guess not. Of course, Chris doesn’t challenge him on that he only giggles like a junior high school boy.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jindal Signs Bill That'll Allow People to Bitterly Hang Onto Their Guns With Their Bibles While in Church

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill into law today that would allow people to bitterly hang on to their guns and their Bibles in church (excluding churches with schools on the premises) at the same time:

Gun control supporters are up in arms over Louisiana's new law allowing churchgoers to pack heat along with their Bibles.

Gov. Bobby Jindal gave his blessing this week to churches, synagogues and mosques to allow concealed handguns on their premises, overturning a state ban....

Supporters of the measure say it can be a deterrent against criminal activity in church and will give an option to ministers and pastors to incorporate concealed handguns into their security plans.

Opponents argue it's inappropriate to have concealed handguns in church.


"The question Louisiana residents need to be asking themselves is: Is someone who takes a single eight-hour class fit to defend themselves should a crisis situation arise in the church?," said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "We would say no."

The Supreme Court gave individuals back the right to bear arms last week, and this is another extension of that right in Louisiana.

Good News: Government Raises Natl Debt $166B in One Day: More Than We Spent All of 2007

This is change from the Bush years?!?:

The nation's debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground.
 
The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 - bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 and larger than the $140 billion in savings the new health care bill will produce over its first 10 years. The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or more than 10 times the median daily household income.

To be fair, the government under Bush spent more than was spent on June 30 on two other days, but was Obama supposed to put an end to all of that?

New Finance Bill Would Create Offices of "Minority and Women Inclusion", Quota-Like Policies-600th Post

The new financial bill that is being mulled upon by the Senate has apparently has some Easter eggs for the left. It would create at least 20 Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion that would implement policies that sound suspiciously like quotas:

In addition to this bill’s well-publicized plans to establish over a dozen new financial regulatory offices, Section 342 sets up at least 20 Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion. This has had no coverage by the news media and has large implications.

The Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the 12 Federal Reserve regional banks, the Board of Governors of the Fed, the National Credit Union Administration, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…all would get their own Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.

Each office would have its own director and staff to develop policies promoting equal employment opportunities and racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of not just the agency’s workforce, but also the workforces of its contractors and sub-contractors.

What would be the mission of this new corps of Federal monitors? The Dodd-Frank bill sets it forth succinctly and simply – all too simply. The mission, it says, is to assure “to the maximum extent possible the fair inclusion” of women and minorities, individually and through businesses they own, in the activities of the agencies, including contracting….

Lest there be any narrow interpretation of Congress’s intent, either by agencies or eventually by the courts, the bill specifies that the “fair” employment test shall apply to “financial institutions, investment banking firms, mortgage banking firms, asset management firms, brokers, dealers, financial services entities, underwriters, accountants, investment consultants and providers of legal services.” That last would appear to rope in law firms working for financial entities.

Contracts are defined expansively as “all contracts for business and activities of an agency, at all levels, including contracts for the issuance or guarantee of any debt, equity, or security, the sale of assets, the management of the assets of the agency, the making of equity investments by the agency, and the implementation by the agency of programs to address economic recovery.”

This latest attempt by Congress to dictate what “fair” employment means is likely to encourage administrators and managers, in government and in the private sector, to hire women and minorities for the sake of appearances, even if some new hires are less qualified than other applicants. The result is likely to be redundant hiring and a wasteful expansion of payroll overhead.

The big question is: what is “fair” employment to these new departments, and how would you enforce such fairness? Does it mean that they just make sure that there is no discrimination or does it mean that their businesses should have a certain “ratio” that would be proportional reflection our society?

This bill will give the office an unprecedented ability to pressure CEOs and other people in leadership positions to terminate any contractor within a company, if they don’t like what they are seeing:

If the director decides that a contractor has not made a good-faith effort to include women and minorities in its workforce, he is required to contact the agency administrator and recommend that the contractor be terminated.

Yet again, the Democrats are trying to grow government bigger, and over step their authority.

BP's Fails to Pay Oil Spill Clean Up Crew Their Wages

BP has another blackmark on their stellar reputation. Apparently, the crews that are helping with the clean up of the oil spill have had their check lost in the mail or something:

Hundreds of fishermen from Lake Charles to Moss Point, Miss., were supposed to get checks from BP on Wednesday but didn't.

Wednesday night, their lawyer wanted answers.

Jeffrey Briet represents more than 500 fishermen, and he said the payment system he set up with BP required his clients to be paid every 30 days. Now that process has suddenly changed without warning, Briet said.

 

"Not only did they spring it on us that the process has changed, but the people I've been dealing with for six weeks who've done a good job said, 'We don't know what the process is going to be. We're not authorized to talk to you about it. Someone from BP will contact you,'" he said.

But Briet said he hasn't heard from BP or its lawyers. He said the claims people have been given so much conflicting information about the process that they can't provide answers.

H/T to Ed Morrissey

Sarah Palin’s PAC Releases Video With “Campaign Feel”

This video just came out on Sarah Palin’s YouTube channel. It doesn’t mention a candidate by name. This seems to be a generic spot is for the many female GOP candidates running for federal office this November. but it, also, feels like she may be testing the waters and laying the groundwork for herself 4 years from now.

It’s probably both:



Exit question: What is Sarah Palin’s fascination with Mama Grizzlies?

More Proof that Eric Holder Doesn’t Know What He’s Doing: Black Panther Released By Holder Expresses Desire to Kill Whites

Via Naked Emperor News and Ed Morrissey of Hot Air: This is a video of one of the Black Panthers that makes you wonder even more what the hell was Eric Holder thinking dropping the charges against him for voter intimidation?:

Too Dumb to Ingnore: Steele Said That Obama Chose Afghan War, Nearly Impossible to Win

At a RNC fundraiser in North Carolina, Michael Steele was caught on tape chastising Obama on the war in Afghanistan by saying that....Obama chose to be there? Ugh:



This is from The Hill in response this video:

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) pushed out the video, which shows Steele saying that the war is of Obama's choosing and that it is nearly impossible to win a land war in the Central Asian country.

"Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in, he said. But it was the president who was trying to be cute by half by building a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he is such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?"

The war started with Bush 9 years ago, and Obama start the war. Bush did because we were attacked by Al-Quaeda, which were stationed in that country. They attacked us first.

Regarding his comment that it's "nearly impossible" to win a war in the Central Asian country, he referencing the history of the region. Invaders from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union in the 1980's haven't had trouble conquering and holding onto the mountainous country. He isn't saying that it is impossible for the US to. win, but it doesn't sound that way from how he said it.

This is just another gaffe in the long line of gaffes from the leader of the RNC. He's quickly becoming the Republican answer to Joe "FDR is 1st President to address the nation via TV" Biden Hey, maybe Steele will be VP in two years.

Unfortunately for Steele, this won't be the case because he has an unforgivable flaw that Biden doesn't have. He is a Republican. So, the mainstream media won't let him forget his gaffes like they have done w Biden.

There have been increasing calls from the right that Steele should resign for a while now because of his foot-in-mouth affliction. This comment is just making it worse.

Clinton: Come On, Byrd Being in KKK Isn’t a Big Deal, He Only Did It to Get Elected

While in Charleston, West Virginia, Bill Clinton tried to explain away why we should just ignore that the late Senator Byrd was a member of the KKK:



Um, Bill, It is hard to believe that Bobby didn’t join the Ku Klux Klan back in 1942, a full four years before that he ever ran for anything, only to help himself get elected to office in a southern state. Furthermore, he recruited others to join them. One don’t actively urge other people to join an organization that one doesn’t believe in at all, and he raised in the ranks up to an Exalted Cyclops of that terrorist organization, as well. It doesn’t seem like he just had a “fleeting relationship” with the KKK.

Are we, also, supposed to forget that he, along with many other Southern Democrats, filibustered and arguing AGAINST the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for 14 hours? Is that how he “spent his life making it up”, Mr. President? Now, it is true that there are no perfect politician, but come on, this is more than just a slight oversight. It was a pattern of conduct that lasted decades.

He seemed pretty adamant about his disdain for blacks. He even went so far as to send a letter to the then-Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi expressing his contempt for blacks:

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.
— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944

Come on stopped trying to put sugar on this and calling it candy.

Pelosi: Unemployment Benefits Is the Best Way to Create Jobs

Nancy Pelosi an interesting claim that handing out unemployment benefits is not just a great way to create jobs but the best way evah. Ed Morrissey breaks this absurdity down nicely:



The entire clip with the reporter’s question and her full answer can be found here.

Orlando Sentinel: Rep. Alan Grayson (D) Gives $28K to His Opponent & Tea Party Candidate

This is coming from Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel.) Apparently, Rep. Alan Grayson has been playing a little divide and conquer:

Among the most tantalizing accusations is that Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando is funding the Tea Party movement — or at least those involved with it.

On some levels, this is true.

As previously reported, Grayson's campaign has directed nearly $28,000 to a candidate and member of the newly formed Florida Tea Party — the party that has also fielded a candidate against Grayson.

The philosophy behind why Grayson — or any Democrat — would want a Tea Partyer in their race is that, when both a GOP and Tea Party candidate are in a race, the two candidates split the conservative vote, giving the Dem an edge.

How could he possibly come up with an excuse as to why he would possibly give money to his opponent? Surely, he had some well-thought-out backstory that would explain all of this, but alas, I was wrong:

Anyway, Grayson claimed he paid this Tea Partyer for polling services. But when I asked Grayson if he could give me a single example of successful polling work this unknown pollster had performed in the past, he could not. In fact, he chastised me for expecting him to know anything about the pollster's resume.

Silly me. I mistakenly thought that, before Grayson handed over nearly 30 grand, he would have asked for evidence that it would be money well spent.

Grayson is too smart to act that dumb.

Apparently, he is not.

Govahvanatah Pulled the Trigger: Lowers Most State Employees Down to Minimum Wage, Some Down to Nothing

Well, the Govahvanatah did it. He lowered most state employees to minimum wage and others down to zero. Of course, as I mentioned last time and Ed Morrissey reiterated, State Controller John Chiang will ignore the order from the governor:

The Schwarzenegger administration today ordered State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

The instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration exclude roughly 37,000 state workers in six bargaining units that recently came to tentative labor agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Some employees, such as doctors and lawyers, would get no pay because federal exempts them from any minimum wage requirement. Managers, supervisors and others who don't get paid for working more than 40 hours per week would receive $455 per week until a budget deal got done.

This didn’t work the first time that he tried it, and it was written on the wall on the titantron in big, bold letters that the State Controller John Chiang was going to ignore the executive order. So, why do it? It looks like kabuki to me.