Coleman v. Franken, Drug War TV and $8 Trillion Worth of Stimulus
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) announces a legal challenge to an election ruling favoring his rival Al Franken.
ABC premieres the primetime drama “Homeland Security USA,” focusing on stories of drug seizures and immigration enforcement.
Taxpayer liabilities from government bailout and stimulus plans are expected to rise to $8 trillion.
More headlines: listen to the LibertyWeek podcast.
1. POLITICS
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) announces a legal challenge to an election ruling favoring his rival Al Franken.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the vote counting irregularities in Minnesota:
“The Minnesota Senate election was very close: GOP incumbent Norm Coleman led liberal ex-comedian Al Franken by just 725 votes. As a result, Franken demanded a recount. The Minnesota Canvassing Board is mischievously changing the result of the election by treating clear votes for Coleman as non-votes, or even as votes for Franken. Liberal blogs like Daily Kos are already celebrating the anticipated result of the shenanigans: a Franken win. The Minnesota Secretary of State, who oversees voting, is backed by the left-wing groups MoveOn.Org and ACORN. ACORN has a long history of voter fraud and financial fraud. Local election officials have also contrived to inflate Franken’s vote totals, according to the Wall Street Journal.”
2. CULTURE
ABC premieres the primetime drama “Homeland Security USA,” focusing on stories of drug seizures and immigration enforcement.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist why glorifying the drug war doesn’t make for good TV:
“Seeing criminals caught red-handed (think ‘America’s Most Wanted’) is usually satisfying, but when it’s for the victimless crime of transporting drugs, there’s little to be excited about. By creating black markets for cocaine, heroine, and other drugs, the ‘War on Drugs’ has helped only criminals. By making drugs hard to come by, prices have gone up. Making substances that were once available at any drugstore worth their weight in gold. Just like alcohol prohibition created Al Capone and the modern mafia, the drug war has fueled organized crime and created urban gang violence. Protecting the turf where drugs are sold has caused violence to escalate, hurting countless people not involved in the drug trade and tearing apart our inner cities.”
3. BUSINESS
Taxpayer liabilities from government bailout and stimulus plans are expected to rise to $8 trillion.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Doug Bandow on how the bailout mentality corrupts business ethics:
“Tossing money at most anyone who shows up in Washington touting a sob story in the company of a lobbyist is doing more than impoverishing taxpayers. The process is corrupting everyone it touches or has the possibility of touching. With the president-elect talking of a “stimulus” package approaching a trillion dollars, business desperately wants in on the dole. When it comes to socialism, there are no stronger supporters than businessmen seeking a subsidy!”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI weekly podcast, here.