With the introduction of Cap & Trade, ObamaCare and corporate bailouts, you can practically taste the surge of of interest in libertarian ideology in the air. It’s no accident that Tea Parties are springing up everywhere, Ayn Rand is more popular than ever and Glenn Beck’s ratings continue to rise.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Wall Street Journal where Steven Kurutz recently interviewed Ayn Rand biographer Anne C. Heller.

“When Anne C. Heller set out five years ago to write a biography of Ayn Rand, she was intrigued by the fact that though Rand’s novels like “The Fountainhead” continued to sell well, the libertarian writer was barely spoken about. One near-Depression later, however, Rand’s anti-socialist beliefs championing individualism over collectivism are suddenly striking a chord with critics of the government’s recent nationalization of banking and other industries.”

“The Wall Street Journal: Ayn Rand has been invoked at town hall meetings across the country. Why are Rand’s fiercely libertarian ideas — and novels — back in the news?”

“Her sales and reputation bubble along under the radar quite consistently. But certain opinion makers like Glenn Beck rediscovered her because there’s a strange parallelism between her visions in “Atlas Shrugged” and the Obama administration — namely, government taking over private industries. In periods of economic downtown “Atlas Shrugged” strikes a chord in people who are afraid of economic collapse.”

This liberty driven zeitgeist hasn’t escaped Reason Magazine either. A well known Libertarian outlet, Reason is producing a video series on the suddenly increased relevance of Ayn Rand’s work.

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air wrote a great post on this subject today where he tied it all together in this brilliant quote:

“Who would have guessed that the era of Hope and Change would have produced Rand as a counter-cultural phenomenon?”

“Well, perhaps Rand herself would have foreseen it — and in fact she did, in Atlas Shrugged.”

Libertarians and conservatives are old political friends. Although there have been a few bumps in the road over the years, we should all give credit to President Obama for making us more solid than ever.

Maybe that’s what Obama meant when he said he was a “uniter.”

So says the first commenter over at Jake Tapper’s blog, Political Punch. Tapper had an interesting exchange with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on the nature of Obama’s stupid war with FOX News.

“From this morning’s gaggle in White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’ office:”

“Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –”

“(Crosstalk)”

“Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.”

Read the whole thing here.

Hat tip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

UPDATE: This post is getting big traffic from Hot Air readers and I just want to say, Thank You! You guys and gals ROCK!

The only thing better than Hot Air posts by Ed Morrissey and Allahpundit is reading the always hilarious and intelligent comments from their readers.

Due to popular demand, I have explained the name “American Glob” in the sidebar.

Have a look around at American Glob and if you like what you see, please hit the tip jar. Every little bit helps.

Yours in Liberty,

Aleister

Well that’s pretty huge.

Senator Mike Johanns (R) of Nebraska introduced an amendment to a piece of legislation TODAY which barres ACORN from receiving federal funds in the wake of all the recent controversy.

It passed this afternoon 83 to 7. Senate page with vote breakdown here.

Read analysis from the experts who broke the news:

Michelle Malkin

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air

UPDATE: The AP has picked up the story, via ABC:

“The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN, a community organization under fire in several voter-registration fraud cases.”

“The 83-7 vote would deny housing and community grant funding to ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.”

“The action came as the group is suffering from bad publicity after a duo of conservative activists posing as a prostitute and her pimp released hidden-camera videos in which ACORN employees in Baltimore gave advice on house-buying and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. Two other videos, aired frequently on media outlets such as the Fox News Channel, depict similar situations in ACORN offices in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C.”

UPDATE II: Which 7 Senators voted in favor of ACORN? Big Government has the answer.

Think about this for a minute. There are 7 United States senators who voted in favor of an organization which is being investigated for vote fraud in 14 states and now is implicated in a scandal of tax fraud and child prostitution in three major US cities.

UPDATE III: Jonah Goldberg of National Review notes the irony:

“I just think it’s beyond hilarious that Acorn gets their dream president, the guy who swears they’ll have a seat at the table, and largely because of the heightened profile the shady group got as a result of Obama’s election, the super-majority Democratic Senate just voted overwhelmingly to deny them governmengt money. Maybe Pelosi will ensure this is just for show by killing the move in the House. But still, what an awful week for Acorn and what a great week for cosmic comeuppance.”

Chief Obama propagandist David Axelrod, the man who wrote the vacuous slogan “yes we can,” has a vested interest in the passage of ObamaCare. It’s making him rich.

Axelrod’s former firm, for which his son still works, is AKPD Media and they are being paid by an organization called Health Economy Now to help push ObamaCare. Health Economy Now includes big PHARMA, the SEIU and the AARP. The conflict of interest? AKPD owes David Axelrod a lot of money.

See how many hands wash the others?

David Axelrod helps to pass ObamaCare. ObamaCare passes, AKPD has more money. AKPD gives money to David Axelrod. Everyone is happy!

Hugh Hewitt of Town Hall busted this wide open yesterday.

“If Axelrod has been negotiating any part of any deal involving any of these players which are funneling money to the firm that owes him money, or if he is advising the president on the deals with any of these groups, that’s a conflict of interest.  Laundering the money through a “coalition” doesn’t remove the conflict much less the appearance of impropriety.  The coalition is in effect partially funding David Axelrod’s severance package though its members might have done so unknowingly.  These forthcoming payments to Axelrod are much more significant than the sort of “retained ties”  that Democrats blasted Dick Cheney for vis-a-vis Halliburton even though there was no high level negotiations between the vice president and his former company.”

Like Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, author of Culture of Corruption, cites an important Bloomberg article on this subject and makes the following point:

“Now, Bloomberg’s Timothy Burger brings news about Axelrod’s latest health care conflicts of interest that will come as no surprise to those who have fully informed themselves of the Chicago way. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assails the motives of grass-roots activists by falsely smearing the movement as corporate-funded shills, Barack Obama’s own senior adviser and chief Astroturfer raked in millions of dollars from Big Pharma.”

This story is beginning to take root in the mainstream press and is currently on the front page of the Politico:

“Critics of President Obama’s health-care overhaul are zeroing in on his senior adviser, whose former partners at a Chicago-based firm are the beneficiaries of huge ad buys—now at $24 million and counting—by White House allies in the reform fight.”

Not too long ago, our friends on the left cared about supposed conflicts of interest. In fact, they couldn’t shut up about it. Now? Not so much. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air is waiting for the outrage from the left but isn’t holding his breath.

Of course, it has never been proven that Dick Cheney had any conflict of interest where Halliburton was concerned but that never stopped the left. If you want a good laugh, watch the great Halliburton protest of 2007 below.

Ed Morrissey, one of the chief bloggers at Hot Air, is at the Right Online Conference in PA this weekend. In the following video, he speaks to the audience about American history, ObamaCare, Constitutional rights, the importance of property rights and prosperity.

It’s a great speech and a must-watch!

Senator Jim DeMint attempts to offer an amendment calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve. He is shut down by the Democrats based on Rule 16, a rule the Democrats have ignored/broken whenever it suited their needs.

This is typical Democrat thinking. Rule 16 applies to thee but not to me…

For more extensive coverage of this story, read Moe Lane’s blog or Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

How did we almost miss this???

Part 2 of our 4 part Hannity/Cheney interview is currently being used by Jake Tapper at ABC and Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

Day made.

It’s officially Miller time.

UPDATE: Also linked at GOPUSA!

How scared? Scared enough to have the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, throw together a report that paints tea party participants as violent, right-wing extremists on the eve of the protests.

The report is a steaming pile of horse shit without any evidence to back up its ridiculous claims. It’s insulting to everything America stands for, it insults American Veterans and it points out that Obama’s administration is scared shitless. All joking aside though, the report represents something very serious.

We would go through the DHS report for you but three prominent bloggers have already offered outstanding analyses. We HIGHLY recommend that you visit each of the following pages and read them entirely, particularly if you’re planning to attend a Tea Party.

1. The Obama DHS Hit Job On Conservatives is Real by Michelle Malkin at her site

2. The Execrable DHS Report on “Right-Wing Extremism” by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air

3. Are You a Rightwing Extremist, Too? by Moe Lane at Red State