Andrew Breitbart was having a pretty good week when he joined me on WRKO Sunday night. Little did we know that Monday he would take things to an entirely new level,
Breitbart must be enjoying some sweet, sweet vindication tonight. What a perfect week to have him on. The most surprising aspect of our conversation was when I asked him if he ever feared for his personal safety. He answered that he is moving too fast and having too much fun to think much about it, but he did get serious, for a moment, and say that he actually worries about violence from “our side”, citing jealously and people who feel like he, Brietbart, is doing enough to promote them, whoever they are. Very interesting comment. Anyway, here he is, the night before the most epic dueling press conference evah!
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us about Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Leroy A. Petry,
An Army Ranger who lost his right hand and suffered shrapnel wounds after throwing an armed grenade away from his fellow Soldiers will be the second living Medal of Honor Recipient from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On July 12th, President Barack Obama will award Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Arthur Petry, with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. Petry will receive the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during combat operations against an armed enemy in Paktya, Afghanistan, May 26, 2008.
Petry now serves as part of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga.
“It’s very humbling to know that the guys thought that much of me and my actions that day, to nominate me for that,†said Petry, on learning he had been nominated for the medal.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
When Pundit Review Radio started in the summer of 2004, the idea was to bring the best of the blogs to the radio. That meant that one of my very first calls was to Don Luskin, the man behind the awesome blog The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. Don exemplified what was so exciting about the early days of blogging, subject matter experts sharing their passion with the rest of us. Don is founder and Chief Investment Officer of Trend Macro and he is a CNBC contributor.
At the time, Don was the founding member of perhaps the original crowdsourcing effort, The Krugman Truth Squad. The KTS was a collective effort by numerous financial bloggers like Don to fact check and correct the sloppy, partisan first “analysis” of Paul Krugman. In addition to being deliciously enjoyable to read, these columns had an enormous effect on the paper of record. All of this is laid out in Don’s fascinating new book I Am John Galt.
Inspired by Ayn Rand’s characters in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, penetrating profiles of both the innovators who move our world forward and those who seek to destroy the achievement of others. John Galt, the fictional character from Ayn Rand’s bestselling novel, Atlas Shrugged, has come to embody the individualist capitalist who acts in his own enlightened self interest, and in doing so lifts the world around him. Some of today’s most successful CEOs, journalists, sports figures, actors, and thinkers have led their lives according to Galt’s (i.e., Rand’s) philosophy.
Now, in I Am John Galt, these inspiring stories are gathered with the keen insight and analysis of well-known market commentator Donald Luskin and business writer Andrew Greta. Filled with exclusive interviews, profiles, and analyses of leading financial, business, and artistic stars who have based their lives, and careers, on the philosophy of the perennially popular Ayn Rand, this book both inspires and enlightens. On the other side are Rand’s arch villains?the power-seekers, parasites, and lunatics who would destroy that which the creators and builders make. Who are today’s anti-heroes, fighting the creativity of the innovators?
This is a 3-for-1 book. Part bio on Ayn Rand and her philosophy, part casting call for the real-world version of Atlas Shrugged, complete with heroes and villains (guess which one Barney Frank is? See 26:00), and part business management book that examines what makes leaders business leaders like Cypress Semiconductor CEO TJ Rogers the modern day disciples of Ayn Rand. It was a great treat to have the opportunity to talk to Don again, especially about something he is so passionate about.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
What a pleasure to meet Dan Winslow. You’ll search long and hard to find someone on Beacon Hill with a more impressive resume. At the local level, Dan has served as a Town Moderator and on the Planning Board in Norfolk for 15 years, he’s served as a judge at the Wrentham District Court and at the state level he served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Mitt Romney. Now Dan is in his first term as a state representative and he is shaking things up. He has much more enthusiasm and optimism than I do about the prospects of having a politically competitive state. CommonWealth Magazine recently asked the question,
Dan Winslow, a veteran Massachusetts Republican turned freshman state rep, is shaking up the State House with a flurry of policy proposals and a scathing critique of the Beacon Hill status quo.
Sounds like our kind of guy, and he was! A super impressive person, it was a pleasure to welcome Dan to the WRKO studio for the full hour. Can’t wait to do it again.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
This week Bruce told us about Sgt. William Rollins,
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio..
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
June 29, 1934: Executive Order 6763 Creating of the First National Labor Relations Board
(a) To investigate issues, facts, practices, and activities of employers or employees in any controversies arising … which are burdening or obstructing, or threatening to burden or obstruct, the free flow of interstate commerce; and
(b) To order and conduct elections and on its own initiative to take steps to enforce its orders in the manner provided in Section 2 of Public Resolution 44, 73d Congress; and
(c) Whenever it is in the public interest, to hold hearings and make findings of fact regarding complaints of discrimination against or discharge of employees or other alleged violations of Section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act and such parts of any code or agreement as incorporate said Section; and
(d) To prescribe, with the approval of the President, such rules and regulations …to collective bargaining, labor representation, and labor elections as the President is authorized to prescribe by Section 10(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act.
(e) Upon the request of the parties to a labor dispute, to act as a Board of Voluntary Arbitration or to select a person or agency for voluntary arbitration.
How quaint. Under President Obama, the National Labor Relations Board has mission creep on steroids.
What they are doing to Boeing is a true disgrace. With 9% unemployment, they have 1,000 excellent, high wage/high benefit jobs in South Carolina on hold and a billion dollar plant (aka investment) sitting idle. Boeing is not free to make decisions in the best interests of their business. Oh no. They must first think about the unions…and then work around them.
This is not my opinion, its what the New York Times reported ,
In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force Boeing to bring an airplane production line back to its unionized facilities in Washington State instead of moving the work to a nonunion plant in South Carolina.
Twenty GOP Senators wrote a letter to Obama which was highly critical of the policy,
We consider this an attack on millions of workers in 22 right-to-work states, as well as a government-led act of intimidation against American companies that should have the freedom to choose to build plants in right-to-work states. If the NLRB prevails, it will only encourage companies to make their investments in foreign nations, moving jobs and economic growth overseas.
America will not win the future if Washington penalizes workers in states that have discovered winning economic strategies. Right-to-work states have faster job growth, faster income growth, and faster population growth than forced-unionism states. This winning strategy should be duplicated nationwide. Instead, successful workers rights are being stamped out by political appointees who serve at your pleasure and have not been confirmed by the Senate.
Sen. Harry Reid gave a blistering speech, mounting a vigorous defense, said on the Senate floor that the NLRB “acts as a check on employers and employees alike†and is consistent with the “spirit of checks and balances†established by the Founding Fathers, according to The Hill.
Hat tip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who noted in March 2010 that the radicals were coming to the NLRB,
The Becker appointment, coming over the objections of both Republicans and Democrats (which is why Harry Reid couldn’t get Becker confirmed even with 60 Democrats), gives the GOP yet another piece of evidence of Obama’s radicalism. The President sold himself as a post-partisan moderate in 2008, but his appointments of people like Van Jones and Craig Becker give evidence that Obama is at his heart a radical Leftist with better PR than most. In 2010, those kinds of decisions will make a great deal of difference in Senate races, where Republicans can argue to replace Democratic incumbents in order to check Obama’s radical appointments.
In this case, those appointments are implementing awful policies at the worst possible time. The administration cannot let this stand and simultaneously claim to be pro-business.
Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, has written a must read op-ed,
The NLRB is wrong and has far overreached its authority. Its action is a fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America’s competitiveness since it became the world’s largest economy nearly 140 years ago. We’ve made a rational, legal business decision about the allocation of our capital and the placement of new work within the U.S.
…Our union contracts expressly permit us to locate new work at our discretion.
…Important to our case is the basic fact that no existing work is being transferred to South Carolina, and not a single union member in Washington has been adversely affected by this decision. In fact, we’ve since added more than 2,000 union jobs there, and the hiring continues. The 787 production line in Everett has a planned capacity of seven airplanes per month. The line in Charleston will build three additional airplanes to reach our 10-per-month capacity plan. Production of the new U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker will sustain and grow union jobs in Everett, too.
This is a Top 5 offense of the Obama administration. It should be a major campaign issue, as jobs are STILL the issue. This president is a complete failure on that front, and the GOP should focus their attention like a laser beam on that issue.
Twenty-two years at the New York Times, currently senior financial writer, winner of a Polk Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2008 financial crisis and author of a great new book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the death of trust, it was an honor to welcome Diana Henriques to Pundit Review Radio.
So much has been said and written about Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. Incredibly, there is much about the story that people do not know, and in many cases, what people do know is flat out wrong. Ms. Henriques was the first journalist to interview Madoff in prison, and he sent her dozens of follow-up emails and letters. Few people know his story better. Everything is in this book, from the childhood and the lessons learned, to his early business days to the Ponzi scheme itself. Of course, the story is filled with gut wrenching human drama, the damage Madoff inflicted upon everyone around him, starting with his family. After reading the book, I am convinced that Madoff’s wife and sons did not know about his Ponzi scheme. It was fascinating to hear her describe meeting Madoff in prison a couple of months after his oldest son Mark had committed suicide. He seemed like a shattered man and it was hard to think anything other than “good”! That is just one of many moments of clarity that the book provides. It also goes to great detail to explain how he was able to get away with it for so long, and how many opportunities regulators had to stop him. The failure of government at all levels is another central character in this story. Not only did they miss numerous chances to identify the fraud, they asked all the wrong questions after the fact. Shocker. This is a great book.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.