THE PUBLIC SECTOR is killing the private sector. “”[T]he public sector has become the one growth industry in the Great Recession, with hardly a blip in its job expansion. But it comes at the expense of the private sector.”



“[W]hat’s more, it creates a permanent lobbying class for even more government expansion. Here’s the Reason TV report.

Via Hot Air.

IT TURNS OUT there really is growing inequality in America. It’s the 45% premium in pay and benefits that government workers receive over the poor saps who create wealth in the private economy.

Instapundit thinks public sector unions should be banned.

ADDED: even Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell kow-towed to the public sector unions this morning on WTOP radio’s “Ask the Governor” program.

MORE VIOLENCE FROM THE LEFT: The man arrested for threatening Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) is an Obama donor. But at least he’s an equal opportunity idiot, as he apparently also threatened Attorney General Eric Holder and his family.

Maybe he just doesn’t like men named Eric ....

MSNBC HUGS UP TO OBAMA. His message to America (paraphrasing from Chris Stirewalt’s daily email):

Those who oppose his policies (say, 54 percent of the electorate) have been led astray by radical and racist xenophobes who hate him personally and have no legitimate reason to dissent.

It’s the fault of the [Fox?] news media for spreading these bitter, clinging instincts to other succeptable minds.

If you think that spending $2 trillion when we’re already $12 trillion in the hole and that putting a government that has failed to steward the existing welfare programs in charge of the rest of health care sound crazy, you’ve probably been misled by a birther and may soon unwittingly join a militia.

You can subscribe to Stirewalt’s daily email here.

LIBERTY, NOT GOVERNMENT: "Our political debate has been transformed into an argument between the heirs of two fundamental schools of political thought, the Founders and the Progressives. The Founders stood for the expansion of liberty and the Progressives for the expansion of government."

I stand with the Founders.

OBAMA PROMISES STILL EXPIRING: “President Obama used his recess-appointment power to place four former federal lobbyists in top policy jobs. Obama's maneuver dodges a Senate floor debate and sweeps under the rug an inauspicious milestone: The appointment of the 50th lobbyist to a policymaking job by a president who claims he's ‘excluded’ them.”

NOVEMBER IS COMING - even in relatively apolitical states.

WELL, IT SOUNDED GOOD INITIALLY: Obama to open offshore areas to oil drilling for the first time ... if the Senate is willing to get on board with global warning legislation.

STUPIDITY, DUPLICITY, AND HYPOCRISY? Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general produced a stampede of criticism from the usual suspects by “advis[ing] the state’s public colleges that they don’t have the authority to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, saying only the General Assembly has that power.”

Cuccinelli’s response:

A review of the law and the opinions of no less than five of my predecessors — Democrats and Republicans alike — demonstrated that any decision regarding the creation of a specially protected class belongs exclusively to the General Assembly. A public university simply lacks the power to create a new specially protected class under Virginia law. …

As a legal matter, this statement of Virginia law has not been seriously challenged. While issues related to sexual orientation are among the most emotional and controversial, they do not change this fundamental proposition of Virginia law. My now well-publicized letter simply stated the current state of Virginia law; it did not advocate for any particular legislative position. Should the General Assembly change the law, my advice will be consistent with it.

The General Assembly has considered and defined the protected classes for purposes of nondiscrimination statutes. It has specifically defined unlawful discrimination at educational institutions. The Virginia Human Rights Act states that it is the policy of the commonwealth to “safeguard all individuals within the Commonwealth from unlawful discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, or disability, in places of public accommodation, including educational institutions.” In addition to this affirmative statement, the General Assembly has on numerous occasions, including this session, considered and rejected creating a protected class defined by sexual orientation. No state agency can reach beyond such clearly established boundaries.

Nothing I have said or written authorizes unconstitutional discrimination against any person. My letter in no way addresses the legislative issue of including sexual orientation in non-discrimination policies. I believe that our colleges and universities do not illegally discriminate against any class of persons. Likewise, I do not believe they can or will after my restatement of Virginia law.

The people of the commonwealth, through their elected representatives, determine Virginia’s laws. I cannot bend the law to fit a particular outcome, no matter what a person or group might wish, myself included. I have simply stated what is and is not currently permissible under the laws of Virginia. That is my job as attorney general.

I’m posting Attorney General Cuccinelli’s response in full for the simple reason that I’m tired of being assumed to be a gay-bashing homophobe simply because I believe that the law 1) applies to everyone and that 2) unlike some of the extreme liberal persuasion, it is not discretionary.

Stupidity, duplicity, hypocrisy? Draw your own conclusions.

YOU MIGHT GET MEDICARE ...

(via Dilbert)

... if you pass your SRR. [Defense-speak -- like political-speak -- is such a lovely language for concealing motive.]