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Andrew Cuomo, who received $150,000 from developers looking to build out billionaire towers of new condos, was the biggest recipient of cash donations to his political pockets in Albany horse trading. (1) “Overall, …four companies gave more than $1.5 million to state elected officials, political parties, and real estate PACs between 2008 and 2012.” The question must be asked: Was an uncomfortable discussion of politically connected cash cows the real reason the Governor shut down his own, appointed group of state investigators called the Moreland Commission? As Sheldon Silver slides out of Albany this week, will Cuomo’s currency take a...

Good news: the first black president has been ousted due to to poor performance. Bad news: it’s McDonald’s president, not ours.Donald Thomas: outApparently Mickey D thinks the CEO is where you look for accountability if things continue to decline:Same Store Sales, red arrow designates point at which Mr. Thompson took overButt that’s not the worst part: Not only did McDonald’s fire their first black president, they replaced him with a white Guy, a Brit who bears an unsettling resemblance to Simon Cowell. Tell me that’s not racist.Steve Easterbrook - inWhat went wrong? It’s not like McDonald’s wasn’t paying their historic...

Mitch McConnellÂ’s surrender on immigration reform last week could have major consequences for Second Amendment rights. Deportation amnesty is one of the biggest threats to gun rights because it will add millions of anti-gun voters to the electorate in one fell swoop. The vast majority of illegal aliens are Hispanics, and Hispanics are one of the most anti-gun demographics in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, 62% of Hispanics prefer expanding gun control to percent gun rights, compared to 39% of white voters. Gun Owners of America estimates that amnesty could add more than 8 million anti-gun...

News reports today tell of a Macomb County tobacco store burglary by four men who stole cigarettes and escaped capture after a police chase. This unlawful behavior is a direct and unintended consequence of the high excise taxes imposed on Michigan cigarettes ($2 per pack) statewide. There are other unintended consequences too. Mackinac Center analysts estimate that 25 percent of all the cigarettes consumed in the Great Lake State in 2013 were smuggled in from other states. Revenue losses to the treasury from smuggling total $298 million. High tobacco taxes lead to violence against police, property and people in addition...

Obama's meddling in the elections of other countries is proof positive that the Fundamental Transformation of America has gone to his head With no laws on their books to prevent it from happening, top Barack Hussein Obama campaign aides are masterminding anti Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu and anti Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper 2015 election campaigns. It’s a huge news story virtually ignored by mainstream media and one that thus far keeps the people whom it will most impact, the citizens of two sovereign nations, in the dark: Almost overnight, Obama’s highly touted Fundamental Transformation of America has become the...

For Mitt Romney, it appears that the third time is not the charm. On a conference call with supporters today, Romney is expected to take a pass on another White House bid, according to an advance text of his remarks. “After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee,” Romney plans to say.

The intervention in Israel’s forthcoming election by groups that have received funding from the U.S. government, and which are staffed by veterans of the Obama campaign, certainly sounds like intervention on the internal politics of another nation – a big no-no on the world stage. It demands investigation, and unsurprisingly, Senator Ted Cruz, joined by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), is at the forefront. He has sent off a letter to Secretary of State Kerry asking specific questions – questions that can be repeated at Senate oversight hearings. Israel Matzav excerpts some of the key issues....

Last week, pro-Palestinian protestors disrupted a New York City Council meeting yelling slogans and brandishing a Palestinian flag. The demonstration was particularly offensive given that it occurred as council members were voting on a resolution commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In an impassioned response, Councilman David Greenfield observed that every Middle East country -- except Israel -- is not democratic and persecutes people of other faiths, gays, women, and those with opinions inconsistent with those of their governments. He concluded, “What you saw here today was naked, blind anti-Semitism.”

With a liberal columnist writing about what is characterized as a “tax-cut fueled budget deficit,” taxpayers may not realize that government economists say the two largest funds in the state budget will grow by $640 million from 2015 to 2016. The combined revenues for the state budget’s General Fund and School Aid Fund will increase from $23.87 billion in 2015 to $24.51 billion the next year, according to the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference's report. The estimate is a result of work done by the Senate Fiscal Agency, House Fiscal Agency, and Treasury Department. State spending in those two funds is...

While Maduro dithers like a paralyzed hamster at the mere thought of announcing an economic reform, General Vladimir Padrino López is a proponent of the shock-and-awe approach to violating Human Rights. Case in point: Resolution 8610, sanctioned on Jan. 27, through which the Ministry of Defence authorizes the use of “potentially lethal force, be it with a firearm or with another potentially lethal weapon” as a last recourse […], “to avoid public disorder, to support the legitimate authority, and to immediately reject aggression using any necessary means.” Naturally, this innovation in military protocol is meant to “regulate the Armed Forces...

In studies, essays and blog posts since 2008, we have noted the raft of unintended consequences associated with Michigan’s illicit trade in cigarettes. Often we zero in on smuggling itself. A quarter of all the cigarettes consumed in Michigan in 2013 were contraband. What all too often gets left behind in the debate over cigarette trafficking is the amount of revenue lost by the state to activities that are effectively inspired by high taxes in the first place. We estimate that the Great Lakes State lost $298 million from the untaxed cigarette trade in 2013. The one sliver of good...

Sarah Palin made headlines last weekend when she said she was interested in running for President. Palin has been an important part of the Tea Party and conservative movements in this country since she came onto the scene in 2008. Nobody on the right throws red meat to a crowd quite like Palin. Her ability to sarcastically tear down liberal sacred cows is second only to Rush Limbaugh. Best of all she drives liberals up a wall. They hate her more than any other conservative in this country, including George W. Bush and Limbaugh. Watching liberals fall to pieces over...

Open carry activists at the State Capitol in Austin. The movement to restore open carry to Texas has heated up in the last year and a half.  It arguably accelerated with  C.J. Grisham being accosted by a police officer in rural Bell County.  An army veteran whose family owns thousands of acres in Bell county,  Grisham was eventually convicted of "interfering with police duties" after a second jury trial.  He is paying a $2,000 fine.  On the installment plan.  In nickles.   The results are still under appeal.  Many who have watched the video of the event think the police...

The debate over Islamic terrorism has shifted so far from reality that it has now become an argument between the administration, which insists that there is nothing Islamic about ISIS, and critics who contend that a minority of Islamic extremists are the ones causing all the problems. But what makes an Islamic radical, extremist? Where is the line between ordinary Muslim practice and its extremist dark side? It can’t be beheading people in public. Saudi Arabia just did that and was praised for its progressiveness by the UN Secretary General, had flags flown at half-staff in the honor of its...

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“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” –Aristotle I believe the biggest threat to western democracies today comes not only from Islam’s traditions of intolerance and political violence and anti-Western sentiment, but also from those apologists and pluralists, both religious and political, who are making every effort to convince us that this threat—these egregious customs—were never foreign to our North American traditions of tolerance and rule of law; as though Islam, with its ever-present political and religious maelstroms, is applicable to our democratic way of life. One premise being applied vigorously is that, simply...

NP3 High School principal responds to concerns over Hijab Day with smears Tom RuttenThe exchange below is yet another example of how one side of the debate about Sharia and jihad is trying to have a rational discussion, while the other responds only with slogans and smears. A woman in California responded to my call yesterday to write to NP3 High School principal Tom Rutten. She then received the email below, which is drearily predictable with its cries of “hate” and lack of specific response to any of the concerns she raised. She kindly forwarded this response to me, and...

Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, claimed the mouse is “one of Satan’s soldiers” and makes everything it touches impure, The Telegraph reports. [6] But he warned that like all devilish creatures depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney’s Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable. [1] [6] The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. Mr Munajid was asked to give Islam’s teaching on mice during a religious affairs programme broadcast on al-Majd TV,...

Dems Threaten To Block Action On Homeland-Immigration Bill DAVID ESPO WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats threatened Thursday to block action on legislation funding the Homeland Security Department until Republicans jettison House-passed provisions that reverse President Barack Obama's key immigration policies. (Snip) But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats are not willing to go along, and blasted Republicans in unusually strong terms. "They seem to dislike the idea of supporting homeland security. They dislike dreamers more than they dislike ISIS," he said.