Could be, could be: “The White House is expected to name a new U.S. attorney for Chicago soon from among four finalists. Whoever it is will be an insider compared to the man he or she will replace, Patrick Fitzgerald.” Basically, Fitzgerald is leaving the position after over ten years of putting governors (note plural) and other corrupt Illinois state officials (yes, I know, redundant) | Read More »

With much drama and suspense, John Boehner was reelected as Speaker of the House today by the slimmest of margins.  The entire focus of the vote was centered on the brewing conservative rebellion.  Ultimately, only 12 Republicans either declined to vote or voted for someone other than Boehner (Garrett, Bachmann, and Blackburn initially declined to vote, but voted for Boehner upon the second call), just | Read More »

Before the fiscal cliff nightmare came to a head, families across the globe were celebrating the holidays; thoughts of politics being far from the minds of many.  Spending extra time with family is often one of the beloved highlights of the holiday break.  Yet for so many families in the United States, this past season was heartbreaking.  46 families in particular were forced to focus on | Read More »

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech discuss the new Obamacare taxes which begin in 2013, how they impact the average American family and why the definition of “affordable” may mean unaffordable insurance coverage for families.

From the diaries…

When conservatives complain about the federal government, we all know the usual litany. The government spends too much, taxes too much, borrows too much, and regulates too much. But there is another “too much” most people don’t even know about: The federal government controls too much spectrum.

Why is this important? Well, when you make a call on your cellphone, you’re using spectrum. When you listen to the radio or watch broadcast television, you’re using spectrum. And when you surf the Internet, send a text, download an app, watch a movie, or play a game on your smartphone or tablet, you’re using spectrum. Put simply, our daily lives are ever more dependent on the airwaves over which communications signals travel.

But guess who controls a majority of the best spectrum, the spectrum most suitable for mobile broadband? It’s the federal government itself. Almost 60 percent of that spectrum is in federal hands, primarily used by federal agencies for their own purposes.

Throughout the tax debate, we heard righteous indignation from both parties regarding the need to close up special interest loopholes in the tax code.  Yet the special interest loopholes were the only items preserved in the cliff tax bill.  The entire package of over $40 billion in corporate subsidies and green social engineering was taken from a Senate Finance Committee Bill, which unfortunately, was supported | Read More »

Hey La-Mulanites! I’m Neil, and let’s play Tech at Night.

Anyway. Yeah, I took a break, as you may have noticed. It turns out between Christmas, New Year’s and the Fiscal Cliff, not much happened for me to cover, anyway! So let’s get started.

Two legislative notes: the outmoded video privacy law passed, while the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act is dead in the water. I always said its best chance was President Romney and a Republican Senate, but now that’s not happening. Poor Amazon, bargaining with states on the assumption this would happen.

And in case you forgot, a Cybersecurity executive order would be a bad thing, per Marsha Blackburn and Steve Scalise.

First of all, I hope so. But have they boxed themselves in? Consider that the fiscal cliff deal is playing badly with lots of folks, not just partisan Republicans and partisan Democrats. Congress playing brinksmanship with nothing to show for it really is aggravating the American public. If both sides are going to play at brinksmanship, at some point the base of the parties and | Read More »

The Washington Post is almost believably shocked to discover that the practice of rendition has returned to Clinton-era levels: …it is not known how many renditions have taken place during Obama’s first term. But his administration has not disavowed the practice. Hot Air called this a ‘surprise.’ I know that they’re being sarcastic, because those folks were as aware of the situation with regard to | Read More »