Liberty & Prosperity Blog

It's disturbing to hear that Mark Houck, the pro-life activist who was arrested at gunpoint last week, was the subject of the FBI's intimidation tactics. According to this article , "Breen said his team contacted the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in June to inform them they had no case based on controlling precedent but if they decided to indict, defense would present Houck willingly in response to a summons. Breen said the next notice he received was that his client was in custody." The FBI denies that they sent out a SWAT team to Houck's rural Pennsylvania home. They issued a statement, which read "FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck's front door, identified themselves as FBI agents, and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment." Whether this is true is essentially irrelevant. Mr. Houck's attorney had already told the FBI that "defense would present Houck willingly i...

Is a red wave rising in Minnesota? We'll have that answer by November 9th. What's certain is that the top of the MnGOP ticket is a positive this year like it hasn't been recently. A loyal reader of this blog attended a Jim Schultz for AG fundraiser Wednesday night. I'd consider the report that this blog received to be good news for the MNGOP. According to the report, Schultz outraised AG Ellison in the quarter that just finished. Also noteworthy is the fact that Schultz told the fundraiser's attendees that he'd a) outraised Ellison by more than $100,000 this quarter and b) raised a substantial percentage of that money through small dollar donations. That's a positive indication because each of those small dollar donations is a vote. Another part of the report focused on AG Ellison's prioritizing of crime. Schultz told the attendees that the OAG, aka Office of Attorney General, employs 150 attorneys. Schultz then asked the audience to guess how many of th...

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen has eclipsed Tim Pawlenty's fundraising record, according to this statement . The statement, issued by the Jensen-Birk campaign, opens by saying "The Dr. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska) for Governor Campaign announced it has raised $4.2 million total, a new record for Republican gubernatorial candidates in Minnesota. This surpasses the previous record set by Governor Tim Pawlenty. The campaign has been largely fueled through small dollar donations with over 35,000 unique donors." It continues, saying "Minnesota families are fed up with crushing inflation, rampant crime, and failing student achievement under Tim Walz's watch," said Dr. Jensen, a Minnesota Family Doctor of the Year. "Everyday Minnesotans clearly want a change in leadership in our state, and they’re not only propelling us to record breaking numbers, but victory this fall. On November 8th, we’re going to Heal Minnesota." Coupled with the Feeding Our Fut...

Scott Jensen just sent a high-speed missile across Tim Walz's bow. He's calling for an investigation into the Feeding Our Future scandal. He's also calling for "the resignation of the Minnesota Department of Education commissioner over her handling of the situation." This takes the FOF scandal to the next level. Last week, Gov. Walz, the corrupt DFL governor of Minnesota, attacked Judge John Guthmann while calling for an investigation into Guthmann. Friday night, Judge Guthmann issued a statement contradicting Gov. Walz. At a State Capitol news conference, Jensen said "I’m going to ask that we call for a special investigator to give a report by October 17th so that Minnesotans can chew on it and then at the debates on October 18th and 28th we can have a conversation including that topic. It is clear from incontrovertible evidence that Tim Walz and his administration have engaged in a cover-up. Someone’s not telling the truth." This cuts to the heart of...

Now that Democrats see that they're in deep trouble on the issue of crime, they're experiencing a campaign season 'death-bed' conversion . Swing district Democrats in tight races who once proudly supported criminal justice reform suddenly find themselves converting to law-and-order giants. It's important that voters don't buy the Democrats' 'death-bed' conversions on criminal justice reform. This is just the Democrats' attempt to win difficult races. Democrats haven't had a change of heart. They've seen the polling. They're realizing that they're in major trouble on crime and law enforcement. So-called moderates like Minnesota's Angie Craig and Dean Phillips are offering excuses why they supported Ilhan Omar-based bail reform then but don't support it now that they're in tight races. Rep. Angie Craig, who currently represents Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District, and Rep. Dean Phillips, who currently represents M...

It isn't that surprising that Joe Manchin's permitting reform bill has officially failed . Despite Sen. Manchin's protestations to the contrary, his bill contains a poison pill. Mitch McConnell spoke about that poison pill on the Senate floor Tuesday night . Sen. McConnell said "What our Democratic colleagues have produced is a phony fig leaf that would actually set back the cause of real permitting reform. This is an issue where it should be very easy to improve upon the status quo, but amazingly, our Democratic colleagues have managed to write language that would actively make things even worse. Senator Manchin’s bill goes out of its way to avoid actually amending the National Environmental Policy Act or any other environmental law." Sen. McConnell continued, saying "It layers new bureaucracy on top of existing bureaucracy. Its new requirements and deadlines are paper tigers with no enforcement. The few parts of this legislation that would actually change t...

This morning, I found an email in my inbox from an organization titled the Foundation for Minnesota's Future . The intent of the email was to introduce me to the Foundation's existence and to inform me that they had put together an ad criticizing Minnesota's DFL Gov. Tim Walz. More on the ad later. When I went to the Foundation's website, I read the frontpage. At the top of the page was a category titled Rise in Crime Rate. In the text below the headline, it said "As of June of this year in the City of Minneapolis alone the murder rate has risen by 83% and overall violent crime is up 21%. It’s no secret that the rise in crime is part due to the embrace of the 'Defund the Police' ideology of a few extremists in state and local government. Governor Walz specifically appears to be beheld by these extremists. In the early stages of the riots last year Governor Walz refused to provide adequate resources to law enforcement to put a stop to riots in Minneapolis. H...

It's painfully apparent that Christopher Wray's FBI isn't a federal law enforcement organization. What's apparent is that it's a federal intimidation bureau. That's painfully apparent after reading this article about an early morning raid on a pro-life activist. Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, the FBI's behavior isn't anything to be tolerated. The article opens by saying "A well-known pro-life author, sidewalk counselor, and father of seven was the latest victim of a U.S. Department of Justice-sponsored SWAT raid and arrest, for supposed 'FACE Act' violations, at his rural home as his children looked on 'screaming.'" That's rich, especially considering the fact that the "incident ... had already been thrown out of the District Court in Philadelphia but was somehow picked up by Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice." This isn't law enforcement. It's outright intimidation. Mark Houck, the man ar...

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted that the Biden administration is "doing so much." Then Secretary Mayorkas said "You know what our policy is? Our policy is to enforce the law. And that is indeed what we are doing. Individuals who arrive at our border who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States are being removed." That's true except for the people who come to the U.S. illegally but who still get processed, then released into the U.S. Those illegal aliens don't seem to have paid a price for ignoring this nation's laws. Apparently, the Biden administration isn't interested in consistently enforcing the law, which makes this a perfect match for the situation. Secretary Mayorkas resorted to the Democrats' tried-and-true-tactic of comprehensive immigration reform. He said "At the same time, we continue to urge Congress to pass immigration reform, because one thing that everyone agrees upon, in an area where there’s very ...

It's difficult picturing Tim Walz suffering through a more difficult week than the week that's ending. To recap what happened, Andrew Luger, the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, " announced federal criminal charges against 47 defendants for their alleged roles in a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic." The bad news for Minnesota's DFL governor is that that's just the start of Tim Walz's problems. After the indictment announcement broke, Walz told Fox9 News  that he wanted Judge John Guthmann investigated. Friday night, Judge Guthmann had had enough. He issued this statement through Minnesota's court system. Judge Guthmann's statement opens by saying "Due to inaccurate statements by the Governor, the Commissioner of Education, and the media regarding the investigation of Feeding Our Future (FOF) and resulting federal indictments, Ramsey County District Court Judge John ...

Ron Klain, Joe Biden's Chief of Staff, is a disgusting little liar. Thanks to this article , we have proof thanks to his own words. In the article, he is quoted as saying "It's easy to forget that when Joe Biden came to office, we’d turn on the tv at night, people were in line in football stadiums, looking for a box of food. The unemployment rate was nearly 10 percent ... We had 20 million people out of work and businesses closed and schools closed." According to the article, "the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in January 2021." It's safe to say that an unemployment rate that's much closer to 5% than to 10% isn't "nearly 10%." Putting things charitably, that's a major embellishment. Putting it into most people's language, Klain lied. Republicans remember that Democrat governors kept their states locked up longer, especially their schools. That's what led to the "Parents' Revolution", which led to Glenn Youn...

For the past 19+ months, Joe Biden and DC Democrats have given us high home heating bills, out-of-control crime, open borders and closed schools. Friday, Kevin McCarthy will unveil the Republicans' Commitment to America, which is the 21st Century version of Newt Gingrich's Contract With America in 1994. Though ABC is critical of the Commitment document, it should be noted that the Commitment document is just an outline of what a McCarthy House would work on. ABC's report says "While intended to detail what an agenda could look like in a GOP House majority, the plan is light on specifics. Included in the "commitment" are platitudes like "support[ing] our troops," "exercis[ing] peace through strength with our allies to counter increasing global threats," "recover[ing] lost learning from school closures" and "uphold[ing] free speech." The ABC hit job notwithstanding, let's dig into these commitments. Peace through str...

DFL Gov. Tim Walz unveiled the Minnesota Climate Action Framework yesterday with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. One of the things the CAF wants to work towards is "Clean Transportation", which sounds like a noble attempt. As always, the devil is in the details. The Details Priority Action #1 is described as the opportunity to "[i]ncentivize investment and create markets for cleaner fuels, such as advanced biofuels, renewable natural gas, sustainable aviation fuels, and electricity." That's an investment into socialism. It's the opposite of letting people and markets determine what the people want. If these items are cheap, reliable and realistic, private investments will flow to them because people will recognize the profit potential for those products. If these products aren't cheap, reliable and realistic, no amount of taxpayer 'investment' will make them work. That's because the people will reject these products. What family sits down and says...

Sunny Hostin is trying to elevate herself into a position to Nikki Haley's position. Thus far, Hostin's fight isn't going well . When thinking about the Hostin-Haley fight, I'm reminded of G. Gordon Liddy's famous line that he wouldn't have "a battle of wits with an unarmed man." In this instance, Hostin is the unarmed man. Appearing on the Faulkner Focus to discuss the controversy, Haley said "It's not the first time, and it won't be the last time that the hosts of 'The View' come after me or that liberals come after me in… whatever way. They can't stand the fact that a minority female would be a conservative Republican." Then she really unloaded on Hostin, saying "Sunny is not her name. Nikki is my name. It is on my birth certificate. It is an Indian name, and I embrace my Indian heritage. I have written two books that describe the struggles that my family had, what it was like growing up. You're not going to se...

In another instance of Tim Walz's administration failing, an audit by Legislative Auditor Judy Randall's team found that the Minnesota Department of Human Services failed Minnesota taxpayers again. That's as shocking as finding out that Elon Musk is rich. Jodi Harpstead, Department of Human Services commissioner, said during a legislative hearing last week "During the very first days of the COVID-19 pandemic, DHS received a sudden influx of state and federal funding to get Minnesotans experiencing homelessness into safe shelter spaces." Randall sang a different tune to Alpha News, though. She said "COVID was extraordinary but that didn’t mean we should ignore policies or not meet taxpayer expectations. There are other thoughtful ways and reasonable approaches to make sure the money was spent properly." Ann Neu-Brindley highlighted Ms. Harpstead's incompetence, saying "Waste, fraud, and abuse have plagued DHS programs for years, and once again a...

Josh Kraushaar is the best political reporter employed by Axios. I expect better than this article . The article is titled "Scoop: McConnell-aligned super PAC pulls out of Arizona." The title's intent is to make it sound like Republicans have thrown in the towel against Sen. Kelly. That isn't what's happening whatsoever. To be fair, the article opens by saying "The Mitch McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund is canceling $9.6 million in television ads for the Arizona Senate race, confident that other outside conservative groups will make up much of the difference for Republican nominee Blake Masters." Now for the rest of the story. The reason why McConnell's super PAC is pulling its ad buys is because "other GOP-aligned super PACs, including one affiliated with the conservative Heritage Action for America super PAC, will be making up some of the difference. The Sentinel Action Fund will be spending $3.5 million on television ads and another $...

Apparently, Angie Craig isn't willing to stand up to Nancy Pelosi, the lame-duck Speaker. Pelosi's PAC is running a rather dishonest ad. According to this article , 2 TV stations have given Pelosi's attack ad a rather negative rating. KSTP's Fact Check gave Pelosi's PAC's an F. "A Fox 9 fact check called the ad 'misleading,' taking issue with its claim that Kistner "would help Republicans ban abortion for the whole country." Angie Craig isn't a moderate. She's a hard-wired progressive. Craig's campaign is doing its best to avoid talking about runaway inflation, rampant crime and the chaotic border. It isn't a stretch to say that her campaign is all-about-abortion-all-of-the-time. FYI- "To get an 'F' grade [in KSTP's Truth Test], more than half the information in an ad must be 'outright false or misleading or out of context.'" KSTP’s Truth Test's statement says "After an extensive onlin...

In his attempt to distract attention away from his economic difficulties and his open borders, Joe Biden is attempting to criticize Republican governors who've shipped illegal immigrants into liberal enclaves like Martha's Vineyard and the Naval Observatory, the official residence for the Vice President. Thanks to Gov. Greg Abbott, (R-TX), Joe Biden is forced to talk about Biden's open border crisis. Let's understand that this crisis is a crisis of Biden's making and that it's an intentional policy. As long as Biden and Harris didn't travel to the border, they thought that they were immunized from Republicans' criticism. That's the flaw in the Democrats' plotting. In a modern version of 'If the mountain won't come to Mohamed...', Gov. Abbott shipped the mountain to VP Harris. Let's look at 2 things that haven't gotten criticized enough. First, this situation wouldn't have happened if Biden had upheld his oath of office t...

Joe Biden isn't the nice-but-crazy uncle he once pretended to be. Based on what's happened recently, Biden is a dishonest, corrupt politician. This time, Biden criticized Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis for dumping illegal immigrants into Martha's Vineyard and at the Vice President's residence. Specifically, Biden said "Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props. What they’re doing is simply wrong, it’s un-American, it’s reckless. We have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and humane. " Tell that to the families of the 53 illegal immigrants that died in a truck trailer in San Antonio. Tell that to the 13 illegal immigrants who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, TX. That isn't safe, orderly and humane. That's inhumane in the extreme. Further, it's dereliction of duty in the extreme. When Biden took the Oath...

Leave it to a Constitution Law professor to 'teach' Sen. Lindsey Graham a lesson about the necessity for a healthy competition between the states and the federal government. That's what happens in Reynolds' latest column . The column starts -- and ends -- on the subject of Lindsey Graham's federal abortion ban. Reynolds writes "The Supreme Court earlier this year found the US Constitution does not recognize the right to have an abortion. Now Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wants Congress to act." After that, Reynolds starts with his lesson on the Constitution, saying "That’s not because the Constitution offers special protection for abortion as such. No, there are constitutional limits to how far Congress’ powers go, and those powers don’t go so far as to reach abortion." That's because the Ninth Amendment says "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ...

It's never been said that Newt Gingrich is timid. I've long said that he's one of the best political strategists in the GOP. In his latest op-ed , Gingrich offers a blueprint for Republicans to follow to victory. In his op-ed, Gingrich wrote "The public is dealing with a cost-of-living crisis (more than 20,000,000 are behind on their utility bills), rising energy costs, a record number of homicides, carjackings, and robberies, and the consequences of a wide-open border policy that has brought in a massive influx of both people and drugs. On virtually every front, people are finding themselves frustrated and frightened by a Democratic Party that is simply failing." Despite Biden's Tuesday's celebration while the stock market crashed, this isn't a great time for Democrats. Repeating 'it just isn't working' isn't enough, though. That's why Newt includes a 5-point plan to win big this November. First, though, Newt wrote "According ...

Today's Democrats aren't capitalists like JFK or Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Today's Democrats are Bernie Sanders-AOC socialists. This election cycle, Democrats fitting into the Sanders-AOC description are getting more plentiful. John Fetterman is definitely a socialist. The more I read about Mandela Barnes, the more I realize that he's a socialist, too. Barnes isn't bashful about being an anti-capitalist Democrat. When Barnes attended the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in 2019, Barnes said "The reason why we're in this mess is we pursued greed, this is capitalism run amok that's why we're in this predicament now. So the simple answer is get money out politics. Second answer is stymie capitalism the way it is in our nation, in America. And the third is to organize. You know, people in communities got to show up stand up. That's the only way we're ever going to see or make a difference." This is the video of Barnes at COP25: Barnes is ...

Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich apparently lives in the same neighborhood as a little blond girl named Alice. That's apparent because he wrote that "The Fed is obsessing about a "wage-price" spiral—wage gains pushing up prices. What it should be worried about is a profit-price spiral. Wages are going nowhere. But profits have been soaring." Profits haven't dropped so that part's true. What's spin is that "wages are going nowhere." Real wages after factoring in inflation are dropping. Wages are rising quite quickly before factoring in inflation. Travelling further into Wonderland, Reich wrote "Instead of raising interest rates and slowing the economy toward if not into a recession, Congress and the Biden administration should be taking aim at corporate profits. The Biden administration did pass a 1 percent tax on stock buybacks in the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act, and a minimum corporate tax. But...

To: Kevin McCarthy, Speaker-in-Waiting From: Gary Gross, uppity peasant in the Midwest Subject: First bill submitted Mr. McCarthy, I hope the first bill submitted in the House is the Energy Infrastructure Act. It doesn't exist yet but I hope you find this initiative worthwhile. I'd like to see the bill be a bicameral, bipartisan bill but if Democrats won't support the bill, let's force them to vote for higher home heating bills, higher gas prices and high inflation. To use an old expression, I'd triple-dog dare them to vote against this bill. Force Democrats to tell families that the Green New Deal is more important to Democrats than cutting inflation for families is. Part of the bill should eliminate as much Biden administration red tape for refineries, pipelines and exploration as possible. It should also include the final permits required for the Keystone XL Pipeline. It should also include opening up ANWR again. If it's needed, let's put some money to...

If anyone has worse political instincts than Joe Biden, I haven't met that person. Biden attended a South Lawn celebration for the Inflation Reduction Act on a day when the August CPI report came in hotter than expected at 8.3% year-over-year. That caused the stock market to drop like the Hindenburg. At the end of the day, the DJI dropped 1276 points. The NASDAQ dropped 632 points, which represents a 5% drop of the NASDAQ. According to this Reuters report , "Appearing with congressional allies and iconic singer-songwriter James Taylor, Biden held a White House event Tuesday to celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill is the most ambitious attempt by Biden and congressional Democrats to tackle the runaway cost of living before the midterm elections. But critics seized on data showing another month of unusually high inflation that caused stocks to tank." Yesterday was the 4-week 'anniversary' of Biden signing the bill into law. Initially, the bill was hailed ...

I'm old enough to remember when gas prices were rising until the national average for a gallon of gas topped $5.00. I recall those days because the Biden administration called the rising gas prices "the Putin Price Hike." That happened while the CPI was rising to a 41-year high of 9.1% year-over-year. This morning's CPI report showed inflation dropping to 8.3% year-over-year. Over at CNBC, they titled their report "Inflation rose 0.1% in August even with sharp drop in gas prices." In the 'Key Points' section of the article, Jeff Cox reported "The consumer price index increased 0.1% in August. Excluding food and energy, the inflation gauge rose 0.6%, both higher than expected." But I digress. Back to filling out the title to this article. Inflation is still sky-high despite Democrats-only passing the Inflation Reduction Act and despite gas prices dropping sharply the past 2 months due to reduced demand, which is triggered by families gettin...

At a rally yesterday, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman introduced himself as John Fetterwoman. In past times, Lt. Gov. Fetterman has touted himself as a man of the people, a populist. Frankly, he's simply weird. These days, he's both weird and recovering from a stroke. The stroke is hurting Fetterman's ability to speak. The ability to speak isn't that important if you're a welder or construction worker. It's vitally important if you're a politician. At his first 3 rallies after his stroke, Fetterman spoke a combined 15 minutes at them. That's right -- 15 minutes total. I'm not talking about averaging 15 minutes per speech. As terrible as that is, that isn't Lt. Gov. Fetterman's biggest problem. Lt. Gov. Fetterman's biggest problem is that he's a socialist to the left of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Lt. Gov. Fetterman thinks that letting one-third of the prisoners out of Pennsylvania's prisons won't make Pennsylvania's neighborhoods less s...

It's been a little rough patch for Russia lately. Ukraine's counteroffensive has captured the West's attention while putting pressure on Putin. Quoting the Institute for the Study of War, the Wall Street Journal notes that the counteroffensive caught Russia by surprise . The Institute for the Study of War is quoted as saying "The Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast is routing Russian forces and collapsing Russia’s northern Donbas axis." A loyal reader of this blog highlighted the fact that Ukraine hasn't captured a ton of territory before noting that whatever ground Ukraine takes before winter might be consolidated into Ukraine. The WSJ writes "Also striking is the chaotic Russian retreat in the Kharkiv region, suggesting poor morale and military leadership. A Ukrainian soldier fighting near Balakliya and Izyum texts our Jillian Melchior: 'We knew that there were morale [problems] within Russian troops. But we were shocked how much tanks and ...

I had hoped that I was wrong when I wrote this post  about Democrats avoiding debates. After reading this post  on RedState, it's apparent that Democrats are either afraid of being questioned by their GOP opponents because they're too socialist, too inept as candidates or they're both. This afternoon, Katie Hobbs, the Democrat candidate for governor in AZ, tweeted that she wouldn't debate Kari Lake, the GOP candidate. This isn't the first time Hobbs has refused to debate her opponent. According to the article, Hobbs "refused to debate her Democratic opponent in the primary as well." That's proof that Hobbs isn't confident in her ability to persuade people when going toe-to-toe with her opponent. Top-tier candidates don't hesitate to debate. They're confident in their abilities to change people's minds because top-tier candidates think they're on the right side of the issues. If you have the opportunity to change lots of people's...

Grifters will be grifters. That's what they do. Universities often sell their product based on universities' past performance. Thanks to the federal government's help, they're now a federally funded racket. Thanks to student loans and Pell Grants, the monetary conveyor belt doesn't stop. According to A.J. Kaufman's commentary , "The number of administrators, not professors, has soared, with many taking six figure salaries. The highest paid government workers can now be found at your local public university." Professor Emeritus Richard Vedder wrote this article about the inner workings of the campus racket. Vedder wrote "Middle-class kids who were previously denied Pell grant aid are now increasingly getting it: In 2011, 17.5 percent of dependent students from families with $60,000 to $80,000 in annual income received Pells, compared with a mere 1.6 percent just four years earlier. " That's quite the well-stocked conveyor belt of cash. Fa...

 Shortly after George Floyd's murder, DFL leaders, starting with Ilhan Omar, insisted that the Minneapolis Police Department, aka MPD, had to be dismantled ASAP. Members of the Minneapolis City Council quickly put together a proposal to dismantle the MPD and create a department of public safety. To their credit, the Charter Commission rejected the plan. In justifying the City Council's request, the Charter Commission simply asked the City Council for details for the new department. The City Council admitted that there wasn't a detailed plan. Starting in a few weeks, Minnesotans have the opportunity to render a verdict on Tim Walz's plan for making Minnesota, especially Minneapolis, safer. That's if they can find the Walz Plan. Based on this article , I don't think that plan exists. . The article opens by saying "Another four people were injured by gunfire Friday night in a shooting outside a north Minneapolis bar. According to police, the injured parties in...