John M. O'Hara

As if Illinois weren’t already steadily chasing businesses and citizens away with policies of economic destruction, Illinois lawmakers are poised to raise taxes by as much as 75%, effectively wiping out the benefits of Obama’s recent extension of the Bush tax cuts for citizens of his home state. What’s more, Chicago machine boss and Democrat House Speaker Michael Madigan is pushing a faux TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights) to give his members and on-the-fence Republicans cover to pass this job-killing, prosperity-stifling plan. My colleague Kristina Rasmussen was lined up to testify against this bill at a hearing this past week but the only testimony allowed was by the Speaker himself. I suppose it was a hearing in a way -- Illinois lawmakers heard marching orders from the powerful Speaker. (more)

I really thought that the media and political class were starting to get it. The giggling from tea bag jokes started to subside and “mainstream” media coverage seemed less slanted. The maladjusted schoolboy bullies seemed to be maturing. It turns out that the only thing developing was the complexity of their anti-tea party propaganda campaign. (more)

From the outset, the wildly popular Tea Party movement was ignored, marginalized, and ridiculed by the media and political elites that cheered President Obama into office. While today many in the media and political class tend to over-simplify the movement, most commentators—save for the propagandists on some outlets—have figured out that this is a very healthy, very mainstream civic reawakening. (more)

This week, conservatives of all stripes will gather in Washington for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. As this event also marks the one-year anniversary of the birth of the Tea Party movement, I think it is particularly appropriate to take a step back and reflect on the impact of the movement in its short one-year history. (more)

There is plenty of speculation regarding what President Obama will say tonight during the State of the Union address. I am apathetic, and I would wager that millions of folks feel the same way. Why? Because over the past year, the president and his sharp-elbowed Chicagoan crew have shown that what they say bears little or no correlation with what they do and is equally detached from the stark realities this nation faces. This administration is at best politically impotent, at worst as dishonest and manipulative as the worst of the Beltway hacks they assailed while campaigning on the promise of a new, post-partisan era. (more)