Media Matters has offered up a ridiculous post that tries to distort the fundamental facts about Barack Obama’s green energy program. I hesitated whether to even comment on it because they fail in the basic tenets of honest journalism. George Soros is a large contributor to Media Matters. In my book Throw Them All Out, I point out how Soros has received millions in taxpayer money via the green energy program. And I also devote an entire chapter to Soros’s crony capitalism as it relates to the stimulus. Does Media Matters disclose this blatant conflict of interest? Of course not. Media Matters is displaying blatant cronyism, pure and simple.

Since my book Throw Them All Out is about cronyism and conflicts of interest, I guess now I’m going to have to include a new chapter on Media Matters for the paperback edition.  I will respond to their criticisms now. But until they release the names of their large donors who have received green energy taxpayer money, I will not respond more in the future. It’s a waste of time to exchange arguments with an organization that claims to be interested in the truth but runs from it. Failure to disclose these names shows a complete and total lack of integrity. Full disclosure: my source of support is apparent in my title. I am the William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Financial support comes from the William J. Casey Foundation. And just so Media Matters doesn’t try to distort matters further, this foundation is not connected with the oil industry. Now, Media Matters, it’s your turn.

First, let’s see what they don’t dispute: that at least 10 members of Barack Obama’s 2008 National Campaign Finance Committee are large investors in companies that received Obama stimulus money and that at least one dozen campaign bundlers did the same. How many of these individuals are financial supporters of Media Matters? We will never know, because the organization would never be honest enough to reveal them to us. They also never dispute the fact that Obama-linked lobbyists have served as intermediaries to get money for green tech companies. And finally, they never dispute the criticisms that the Department of Energy’s own Inspector General has raised about how the various green energy stimulus programs have been run. (more…)

The debate over same-sex marriage has cooled in many parts of the country. People have turned their attention to the healthcare bill and the new possibility of being blown up by guys with explosives strapped to their underpants.

In reality, however, the same-sex marriage fight is now being joined in earnest. Opponents of California’s Proposition 8, which provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized in California, have sued in federal court. The plaintiffs—Kristin Perry, Sandra Stier, Paul Katami, and Jeffrey Zarillo—allege that defining marriage as a monogamous union of opposite-sex couples violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14^th Amendment.

The case is currently at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, but it is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s decision regarding Prop. 8’s constitutionality likely will, for all intents and purposes, permanently determine whether states can limit marriage to its traditional meaning. Of course, it is theoretically possible to amend the constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage in the U.S., but practically speaking it’s almost impossible. (more…)