Advertisements within this email do not necessarily reflect the views of Mike Huckabee. Off The Couch Over the past few years, the economy isn't the only thing that's been at a standstill. Recent college graduates unable to find jobs have moved back in with their parents and put off marriage, families and buying homes. Well, with the economy finally starting to recover, at least in some states, a lot of young adults have decided they've had enough of sitting still. Yesterday, the Census Bureau reported that young people age 25 to 29 are now the biggest demographic group moving to a new state. Young out-of-state transplants just posted their biggest jump in 13 years. They've decided that if there are no opportunities where they are, then they'll get off of mom's couch and hit the road to Texas or Seattle or Washington, DC, all places where the economies are booming. It's interesting that even in this advanced, high-tech age, young people sometimes have to reminded of Horace Greeley's advice from over a century ago: "Go west, young man!" Of course, today, he'd include young women, too. And if you're already in California, he might advise you to go east. Illegal Votes There's been a lot of yelling and protesting over billboards put up by anti-vote fraud groups that just accurately state the penalty for committing vote fraud. That's being depicted as an attempt to suppress the vote. But while that's getting all the press, some genuine attempts to suppress the vote are going on all around us. In Florida, longtime Republican voters have received fake letters that look like official state correspondence, questioning their citizenship and trying to scare them away from the polls. In Virginia, Patrick Moran, son of Rep. Jim Moran, quit his dad's reelection campaign after conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe caught him on a hidden camera, allegedly helping an undercover agent think up ways to fraudulently cast votes on behalf of people who weren't planning to vote. And in Florida, Virginia and Indiana, voters have received phone calls telling them they could vote by phone and didn't have to go to the polls. Needless to say, that's not true. The original argument against voter ID laws was that vote fraud is so rare, they're not necessary. You can see why, now, opponents are having to come up with new arguments. Earlier this week, President Obama told Jay Leno that he opposes laws requiring voters to show a valid ID because America is strengthened when more people vote. I'd agree with that, except I'd argue that it's only true when more people vote illegally. Every fraudulent vote cancels out the vote of a legitimate voter and robs him or her of the right to have a say in the government. Illegal votes don't increase democracy they reduce it and debase it. Here In China I know what it's like to campaign so hard, you sometimes forget where you are. So I think Joe Biden can be forgiven for telling a crowd in Ohio that he'd seen all the ads running "here in Iowa." Although Joe seems confused about a lot of things—and not just where he is, but the where the country is headed. But I think the one who really needs a break is President Obama. He told a crowd in Colorado that he wants to see more wind turbines made "here in China." I don't know how to explain that one, unless they brought him Chinese food and he assumed he was in Beijing. Hustle We're four years past the banking crash, but federal prosecutors just now slapped Bank of America with a $1 billion fraud lawsuit. The story next…Bank of America is accused of engineering a scheme called the "Hustle." That perfect term actually stood for "HSSL," or "High Speed Swim Lane." The idea was to remove any blocks that might slow down mortgage applications, like checking them for fraud or misstatements, then sell them as quickly as possible to the government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 57 percent of the loans eventually went sour, the homeowners were foreclosed on, and taxpayers were left holding the bag for over a billion dollars in bad mortgages. It's great that banks are being held to account for selling bad loans to the government. But I'm still waiting for the government to be held to account for being dumb enough to buy them all. Thanks for your continued interest in my efforts. I hope you enjoyed these commentaries. I will send along some more very soon. Sincerely, Mike Huckabee SPONSORSHIP MESSAGE: Five magic words that turn paper money into real silver Taken from the Huckabee Report heard daily on 600 radio stations and available by daily podcast. Use of or any reproduction in any form of material must attribute "from the daily broadcast of the Huckabee Report." |