AMERICAN FREEDOM by BARBARA

2012-02-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

Trump endorses Romney

February 2, 2012 -- Updated 2127 GMT (0527 HKT)

By Mark Preston and Alan Silverleib, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Trump calls Romney tough and smart, and praises his criticism of China
NEW: Romney concedes that Trump is a more successful businessman
NEW: Santorum agrees with Gingrich that Florida delegates should be proportional
The Republican candidates are campaigning in Nevada, which holds its caucuses Saturday

(CNN) -- Celebrity business magnate Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday, telling reporters he will not mount an independent campaign if Romney is the Republican nominee.

Trump, who has repeatedly flirted with the possibility of his own White House bid, revealed his decision in Las Vegas two days before Nevada's Saturday caucuses.

"It's my honor, real honor, to endorse Mitt Romney," Trump said, with Romney and his wife standing nearby. Calling Romney "tough" and "smart," Trump said, "he's not going to continue to allow bad things to happen to this country."

Romney responded by praising Trump for "an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works and to create jobs" and for being "one of the few who has stood up to say China is cheating" in international trade.

It was unclear whether Trump's decision will have any impact on the Republican race. A Pew survey last month found that 64% of definite and likely GOP voters said an endorsement from the reality television star would make no difference to them.

In the survey, 13% said it would make them more likely to back a candidate, while 20% said it would actually make them less likely.

"Endorsements rarely sway voters," Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said. But "the Trump endorsement undermines (Newt) Gingrich's argument that it is just the Washington establishment that is out to stop him and nominate Romney. Trump is the ultimate outsider."

YOU'RE FIRED!

2012-02-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Goldwater Institute Daily
February 2, 2012

Truth is Graver than Fiction

by Christina Sandefur

Part one of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged ends in despair, as the oil fields of entrepreneur Ellis Wyatt burst into flames. Wyatt Oil, once a successful business that created jobs and launched an economic Renaissance in the western United States, had fallen victim to stifling taxes and government regulation. No longer willing to surrender to bureaucrats, Wyatt abandons his once-thriving business.
Page by page, Rand’s apocalyptic masterpiece is coming true right before our eyes. The most recent eerie similarity involves a bill introduced in Congress to create a “Reasonable Profits Board.” Yes; I am serious.

H.R. 3784 would wrest money from oil companies who, in the Board’s view, earn too much. The Board’s three members, appointed by the President alone, could impose taxes between 50 and 100 percent on “unreasonable profits.”
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), one of the bill’s sponsors, assures us that the “bill would tax only the excess profits.” But what exactly is an excess profit? Apparently, whatever the unelected Board members say it is.
Kucinich says the money taken from the oil companies will be used to “create forward-thinking transportation alternatives.” In other words, three bureaucrats will have the power to extort money from the businesses consumers prefer in order to support politically favored cronies.
It’s important to note that the bill targets profits, not price. The Board is designed to protect consumers from oil companies who are “gouging their customers,” says Kucinich. But who will rescue consumers from the government’s price gouging? In several states, taxes make up almost 20 percent of gas prices. In Arizona, for every gallon of gasoline purchased, consumers pay 37.4 cents in taxes. But the government’s solution is yet more taxes.
In a free market, people earn money by providing a product or service that others are willing to buy at a price they are willing to pay. The “reasonable profits” bill would rob entrepreneurs of their motivation to be successful, depriving workers of job opportunities and consumers of needed products. If H.R. 3784 becomes law, Americans will yearn for the days when Atlas Shrugged was just a novel.
Christina Sandefur is a staff attorney for the Goldwater Institute.
Learn More:
The Hill: Dems propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits
American Petroleum Institute: Motor fuel taxes chart (PDF)

2012-02-02T06:16:00.000-07:00

WILL HE or WANT HE?
Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day then spring will come early. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.^[1]

Modern customs of the holiday involve celebrations where early morning festivals are held to watch the groundhog emerging from its burrow. In southeastern Pennsylvania, Groundhog Lodges (Grundsow Lodges) celebrate the holiday with fersommlinge,^[2] social events in which food is served, speeches are made, and one or more g'spiel (plays or skits) are performed for entertainment. The Pennsylvania German dialect is the only language spoken at the event, and those who speak English pay a penalty, usually in the form of a nickel, dime or quarter, per word spoken, put into a bowl in the center of the table.^[3]

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Groundhog Day, already a widely recognized and popular tradition,^[4] received widespread attention as a result of the eponymous 1993 film Groundhog Day, which was set in Punxsutawney and portrayed Punxsutawney Phil.^[5]

The celebration, which began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, has its origins in ancient European weather lore, wherein a badger or sacred bear is the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.^[6] It also bears similarities to the Pagan festival of Imbolc, the seasonal turning point of the Celtic calendar, which is celebrated on February 1 and also involves weather prognostication^[7] and to St. Swithun's Day in July.

[Historical origins

The groundhog (Marmota monax) is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels.

Statue of groundhog Wiarton Willie in Wiarton, Ontario

An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry,^[8] dated February 4, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania, storekeeper James Morris:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans,^[9] the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.

In Scotland the tradition may also derive from an English poem:

As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop

[]Alternative origin theories

In western countries in the Northern Hemisphere the official first day of spring is almost seven weeks (46–48 days) after Groundhog Day, on March 20 or March 21. The custom could have been a folk embodiment of the confusion created by the collision of two calendrical systems. Some ancient traditions marked the change of season at cross-quarter days such as Imbolc when daylight first makes significant progress against the night. Other traditions held that spring did not begin until the length of daylight overtook night at the Vernal Equinox. So an arbiter, the proundhog/hedgehog, was incorporated as a yearly custom to settle the two traditions. Sometimes spring begins at Imbolc, and sometimes winter lasts 6 more weeks until the equinox.^[10]
Locations

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as large as 40,000^[11] have gathered to celebrate the holiday since at least 1886.^[12] Other celebrations of note in Pennsylvania take place in Quarryville in Lancaster County,^[13] the Anthracite Region of Schuylkill County,^[14] the Sinnamahoning Valley^[15] and Bucks County.^[16]

Outside of Pennsylvania, notable celebrations occur in the Frederick and Hagerstown areas of Maryland, Marion, Ohio with Buckeye Chuck, ^[17] the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia,^[18] Woodstock, Illinois,^[19] Lilburn, Georgia,^[20] among the Amish populations of over twenty states and at Wiarton, Ontario, and Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, in Canada.^[18] The University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, has taken Groundhog Day as its official university holiday and organizes a large-scale celebration every year in honor of the Groundhog.^[21]

2012-02-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Rothschild Bank AND Goldman Sachs Are Both On The LIST Of Bondholders Getting U.S. Taxpayer Billions In Ireland...

February 1, 2012

Source: Daily Bail

Cross Post

Complete list of bondholders inside, and BBC footage of Sir Eveylyn de Rothschild. The deceased

Guy de Rothschild, pictured, no longer exploits the masses for banking profit, but his progeny carry

on his legacy effectively.
---
VIDEO of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild...
---
U.S. taxpayers finance approximately 20% of the IMF's budget.
Guess what, Ireland. Brian Lenihan and Brian Cowen just sold you down the IMF river. Why? To

bail out bank bondholders and giant European banks. Of course! That's what governments are for

these days, apparently. And they'll tell you that the bailout policy is all for you own good. And for

little old ladies and pensioners and orphans. Just don't tell that to the cancer patients.

Yep, another nation made IMF debt slaves on behalf of the international banking cartels. And

Goldman Sachs and Rothschild & Compagnie are on the list.

Check it out below -- Guido Fawkes' blog has acquired the list of Anglo-Irish Bank's bondholders.
##
From Guido Fawke...
Anglo-Irish Bank did not represent a systemic risk to the Irish economy, it wasn’t a high street

bank like AIB or the Bank of Ireland. If it had been allowed to go the way of Lehmans the only losers would have been shareholders and bondholders. The Irish state stepped in and nationalised a bank

that was basically run by crooks lending to property speculators.

The Irish people are taking losses that should rightly have been shouldered by bondholders.

Every child in Ireland is being bequeathed a huge debt at birth to protect the interests of foreign,

mainly German, bondholders – why? Guido was once a bond trader, it was always understood that sometimes the bond issuer defaults.

That is the risk investors take.

So why is Dublin’s political establishment so keen to protect foreign investors at the expense of future generations? Guido has obtained the list of foreign Anglo-Irish bondholders as at the close of business tonight. These are the people whom Dublin’s politicians really seem to care about:

---
Great analysis of the list from the Golem XIV...
Of the 80 listed companies only 7 listed pensions and being a cooperative savings institution. Of those only

4 listed churches and unions as their clients, the others could well have been big pension funds. The churches

and unions in question were in Germany not Ireland. Those seven companies are amongst the smallest of

Anglo Irish's bond holders. I only have figures for four of the seven. The largest, Union Investments of

Germany, has a mere €165 billion in assets under management.

The total assets under management which I was able to compile from publicly available figures is €20,871,150,000,000. That is an underestimate because the bond holders who turn out to be Private and

Swiss banks don't publish any figures. So Anglo Irish's 'bond holders' hold and invest MORE than 20.8 trillion euros. Guido lists those bond holders as holding between them 4 Billion euros in Anglo Irish bonds.

Now, in my opinion both figures are likely to be wrong. Certainly my figure is a large underestimate.

But taking them at face value Anglo Irish would account for one 5000th of the total assets being managed

by all the bond holders. So would even a total default by Anglo Irish cause that much, let alone systemic,

pain and risk? Why are the 'Bond holders' and the Irish government so concerned that the Irish people be forced to take the loss and pay the debts for them?

Now lets look at the other side of the equation, at Ireland itself. Well Ireland's GDP before the crash, in 2008, was ... drum roll please... €207 billion. Or 0.207 trillion.

SO.... on one side we have Ireland whose bond holders, its people, have between them a total GDP wealth of 0.207 trillion euros. Who are being FORCED, against their will, to pay Anglo Irish bank's debts to its bond holders, who between them hold 20.8 Trillion euros. The people of Ireland are paying to, and protecting the wealth and power of, people who have 100 times more wealth!

So where do these wealthy bond holders live and work?

Germany has the most with 15 of the bond holders. Who between them hold 5.3 trillion euros.

France is next with 10 bond holders. Who have about 4 trillion to keep them warm.
Britain is third with 9 who have around 3 trillion.
The Swiss have 6 but who have about 8.5 trillion.
America has only three and hold only a trillion.
Other nations include, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Holland Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, South Africa and Italy.

All these figures are very rough. The figure for Switzerland is certainly under because Private Swiss banks just don't publish figures. What we can say for sure, figures or no figures, is these are not banks investing widow's pensions or orphan's pennies.

So who are they? Well many of the bond holders are privately held banks, which list their activities as asset management for off-shore, non-resident and high value individuals. To give you an example, one of the private banks is EFG Bank of Luxembourg. EFG stands for European Financial Group which is the third largest private bank group in Switzerland. It manages over €7.5 trillion in assets. It is 'mostly', 40%, owned by Mr Spiro Latsis, son of a Greek shipping magnate. He also owns 30% of Hellenic Petroleum. His personal fortune is estimated to be about $9 Billion.
Continue reading...
---

2012-02-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

California nuclear plant shut down over radioactive leaks

Published: 01 February, 2012, 22:23

San Onofre nuclear plant, California

A leak at a Southern California nuclear facility that regularly provides power to roughly 1.4 million households has caused the plant to shut down a reactor.

Despite officials insisting that everything will be perfectly alright at the San Onofre nuclear site, this is not the first time as of late that power plants have raised serious questions about their safety in America.

A reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power station was halted Tuesday afternoon after personnel at the plant identified a leak in a steam generator tube. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, explains to Reuters that the reactor will remain offline for at least a couple of days.

"We don't expect any impact on our customers tomorrow," Alexander adds, yet notes that the reactor in question usually churns out around 1,100 megawatts of electricity to one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country.

The shutdown is forcing officials to halt operations in Unit 3 of the plant. Unit 2 of the station was already offline at the time of the incident, of which officials say was the result of routine maintenance and upgrades.

Speaking of the alleged minuteness of the leak, Alexander tells the Los Angeles times that “it wouldn’t even qualify as the least severe” infraction under guidelines set up by the United States’ Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Regardless, the plant, located south of San Clemente, California, reported the incident to them anyway.

As it would be, the regulations in place for American facilities are actually more lax than one would expect.

"While the NRC and the nuclear industry have been reassuring Americans that there is nothing to worry about – that we can do a better job dealing with a nuclear disaster like the one that just happened in Japan – it turns out that privately NRC senior analysts are not so sure," Edwin Lyman, a Union of Concerned Scientists nuclear expert, explained to Reuters last year. Even after the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant in early 2011 raised questions internationally over safety regulations, the United States has done little to improve conditions since.

The reason, some say, is that the regulations in place don’t call for them. In a report conducted by the Associated Press last year, it was revealed that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has repeatedly weakened safety requirements for facilities, regularly allowing antiquated plants to continue operating by making it easier to pass tests in lieu of actually upgrading the facility. The AP found that of the 104 nuclear plants operating in America last year, 66 of them had been re-licensed for an additional 20 years of service. The vast majority of plants in the US, however, are already older than a quarter of a century.

San Onofre, located around 70 miles south of Los Angeles, is one of those.

“I think we need nuclear power, but we can’t compromise on safety. I think the vulnerability is on these older plants,”engineer Richard T. Lahey Jr., formerly with General Electric Co, told the AP last year. Although one-fifth of the nation’s power comes from nuclear plants — and much of Southern California relies on the San Onofre, loosened regulations are repeatedly putting much of America and the world at risk.

The San Onofre facility was opened in the late 1960s and has been upgraded since then, although not without incident. Engineers at the Bechtel Group Inc. of San Francisco installed a 420-ton nuclear reactor vessel at the facility in 1977, only to be publically humiliated when it was realized that the plant was constructed backwards.

Authorities at San Onofre say that the leak has yet to spread outside of the plant, but should that happen the consequences could be catastrophic. The San Onofre facility is only a stone’s throw away from the Pacific Ocean.

The AP adds in their analysis that roughly 113 alerts at the nation’s nuclear facilities since 2005 can be blamed in part on aging. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself reported in 2008 that 70 percent of potentially serious safety problems stem from “degraded conditions.”

Within the last year, a nuclear plant outside of Washington, DC was shut-down after concern of damage to reactors. In August 2011, officials questioned authorities at Vermont’s Yankee nuclear plant after water samples in a nearby stream tested positive for a carcinogenic chemical.

Source

2012-02-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

NO UNION DUES IN INDIANA...NOW JOINS RIGHT TO WORK STATES...
Indiana passed Right To Work – union bosses will no longer be able to force most private sector employees to pay them without their willful consent.

From the National Right To Work Committee release:

Today, Mark Mix, President of the 2.6 million-member National Right to Work Committee, praised the Indiana House and Senate for passage of the Indiana Right to Work Law.
Mr. Mix said, “This is a great day for Indiana’s workers and taxpayers.
“After a ten-year struggle involving hundreds of thousands of mobilized Hoosiers, Indiana will finally be able to enjoy all the benefits of a Right to Work law,” said Mr. Mix.

“Today, the Indiana Senate passed the Right to Work Bill by a vote of 28 to 22. The bill has already passed the House, so it now goes straight to Governor Daniels, who has vowed to sign it, making Indiana America’s 23rd Right to Work state,” continued Mix.

Mr. Mix continued, “The Right to Work Law will free nearly 200,000 Hoosiers who have been forced to pay tribute to a union boss for the privilege of getting up everyday and going to work so they can provide for their families.”
Proponents of the bill expect that passage of the Right to Work law will provide significant economic benefits for Indiana and Indiana workers.
For the past decade, non-agricultural employment in Right to Work states grew twice as fast compared to that in non-Right to Work states like Indiana, according to data from the Department of Labor.
“On the job front,” said Mr. Mix, “virtually every site selection consultant on record has testified that as many as half of their clients will not even consider expanding or relocating to non-Right to Work states.”
Governor Daniels experienced this problem firsthand, reporting recently that when Volkswagen was looking to build a production facility in America, he was unable to get the company to even return his phone calls.
Volkswagen ended up choosing to open its new facility in the Right to Work state of Tennessee.
Today’s action makes Indiana the first Right to Work state in the Manufacturing Belt, and supporters say it will give Hoosiers a significant advantage over all of its neighbors and the rest of the 27 non-Right to Work states.
“Besides enjoying an influx of new jobs, Right to Work states also enjoy higher personal income,” said Mr. Mix.
In particular, Mr. Mix drew attention to a study by Dr. Barry Poulson, a past president of the North American Economics and Finance Association and also a professor of economics at the University of Colorado, who compared household incomes in 133 metropolitan areas in Right to Work states with those of 158 metropolitan areas in non-Right to Work states.
“Among other results, he found that the average real income for households in Right to Work state metro areas, when all else was equal, was $4,258 more than non-Right to Work state metro areas,” said Mr. Mix.
Mr. Mix concluded, “I want to take a moment to thank Governor Daniels, House Speaker Bosma, Senate President Long, bill sponsors Jerry Torr and Carlin Yoder, and the men and women of the Indiana Legislature who stood up for the rights of the individual worker and voted to pass Right to Work.
“But most of all, I want to thank the thousands of dedicated Hoosiers who have stood up over the years to demand passage of the Indiana Right to Work Law.”

2012-02-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Newt’s 2003 Blueprint for ObamaCare

by Dr. Jane Orient
The idea that America needs transforming, and that he is the man to do it, did not start with Barack Obama. The grandiosely named Center for Health Transformation (CHT) was started by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

In 2003, Newt Gingrich wrote Saving Lives & Saving Money: Transforming Health and Healthcare. It does offer some “free market” solutions. But doctors are apparently free only as long as they do what Newt thinks they should.
The backup plan is: “When all else fails, mandate.” Specifically, physicians who “insist on doing it the old way…should simply not be allowed to practice medicine.” As far as I know, even Obama doesn’t go this far.
In developing his plans and strategies, the CHT boasts a lot of allies: along with top leaders in federal and state governments, it includes “key corporations, top hospitals, disease advocacy groups, professional and industry associations, and leading research institutions.” Many if not all of them probably endorsed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”).
Newt has embraced the key fallacy that “the number of uninsured in America is a threat to our civilization.” He thinks that medical errors are “morally unacceptable,” and that they could somehow be prevented by forcing everybody to use the health information technology that his supporters, just coincidentally, happen to sell. He speaks favorably of outgoing CMS director Donald Berwick, an avowed admirer of the British National Health Service’s rationing system. He is convinced that “disease management programs” can” dramatically improve outcomes.”

Apparently, what Newt thinks we need to do is to get all medical care paid for (or denied) by approved third parties and all health information into a form that permits monitoring and surveillance. Cost escalation because of third-party payment; difficulty defining what a “medical error” is in the absence of an infallible judge; potentially deadly outcomes related to software flaws; absence of evidence that existing disease management and other schemes either save money or improve health—none of these are problems for a big-idea man like Newt.
Newt avoids obvious gaffes like accusing doctors of taking out tonsils or cutting off legs just to make more money. He sticks to generalities such as the need to “drag the medical system into the 21^st century.” That system provides miraculous imaging technology and marvelous advances in noninvasive surgical techniques, but falls down on having information on your every sniffle accessible to the System.
Although he has no apparent qualifications in medicine or science, he seems to think all doctors could benefit from government supervision, and he freely offers his own health advice. For example, you should vote for zoning changes that encourage walking, and wash dishes with your nondominant hand.
The Gingrich “transformation” doesn’t look all that different from Obama’s to me—either in concept or in the cheerleaders it appeals to. Based on the tone of the book, the two men also don’t seem to be that different in level of self esteem, condescending attitude, or tendency to sermonize.
In my review of the book for the Journal of the American Medical Association on Jan 14, 2004, I wrote that “this book is primarily useful as a guide to the mind of Newt Gingrich.” It also showed his political ambitions, featuring 14 pages of photographs of himself with dignitaries, babies, and constituents.
Perhaps Newt has been converted from his dedication to top-down central planning for American medicine, and really would repeal ObamaCare without “replacing” it with something very similar. He should know that before absolution comes confession and repentance. So far, I haven’t heard a disavowal of this book. Source

2012-02-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

ROMNEY TROUNCES NEWT IN FLORIDA...

2012-02-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

Interest Rates At All Time Lows And Home Prices At Ten Year Lows – Why Are Home Sales The Worst Ever?
In Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s world, all he had to do was lower interest rates enough and housing prices would magically re-inflate. Wrong! Mortgage rates are at all time lows, home prices are at 2002 levels and owning a home is just as cheap as renting, yet the housing market remains mired in a depression. The folks at the Federal Reserve who created the housing bubble with super low rates and easy “no questions asked” mortgages are helpless to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Sales of new homes should be booming based on low home prices and ultra low interest rates – instead new home sales in 2011 were at the lowest levels on record.
Are people just too frightened by the bad economy to take a chance on buying a home? Was the pool of potential home buyers exhausted during the housing bubble years, resulting in the current lack of demand for new homes? Does the general public understand that in many cases a fixed mortgage payment would be no more than an ever increasing rent payment? Has confidence been so collapsed that no one believes home prices will ever rise again – the opposite of what everyone believed a few years ago?
Let’s take a look at some graphs to get an understanding of what’s going on in the housing market.
Median Cost of Rent Compared to Median Mortgage Payment
The plunge in fixed mortgage rates below 4% has resulted in much lower payments when purchasing a home. Low interest rates and dramatically lower housing prices have resulted in a convergence between the cost of rent and the cost of a mortgage, something that has previously never occurred. That house you are renting today for $1,200 a month could be yours free and clear in 30 years with a fixed rate mortgage payment of $1,200 per month.
Despite the all time low cost of owning a home, new home sale collapsed in 2011 to only 302,000 homes – the lowest on record.

: Source: Capital Economics

Home Prices Have Given Up All The Gains of The Bubble Years
The price of homes has collapsed since the real estate bubble blew up in 2008. Many homes in hard hit states like Nevada and Florida have dropped in value by 60 to 80%. Prices have dropped so low that you can now buy a home with a credit card. Here’s the sorry looking graph on home prices from Calculated Risk.

Declining home values is a double edged sword for buyers. Although current home buyers are able to buy homes for a fraction of their previous price, no one wants to buy a home and see it immediately drop in value. The latest report from Case-Shiller shows that home values dropped another 1.2% last month to a post bubble low.
Many analysts are predicting that home value could decline another 10 to 20%, which would put all current new home buyers deeply underwater on their mortgages. Also pressuring home prices is the flood of foreclosures which is causing home prices to drop further. Total foreclosures in 2011 reached 2.7 million and this year is expected to be even worse.
Lack of Jobs and Income Is The Real Issue Preventing a Recovery in Home Prices
Four years after the start of the recession, the unemployment rate remains at almost 9%. If you are unemployed, it doesn’t matter if home prices drop another 50% – the house will still cost too much.
We have come full circle in this great housing collapse. When I bought my first house over 20 years ago, the standard sales line of real estate agents was that you couldn’t go wrong buying a home, which at that time was true. Home prices rose year after year and better yet, incomes were rising as well. Over time, rising incomes resulted in the mortgage payment becoming less and less of a burden in terms of a percentage of total monthly income. Today the reverse is true - home prices continue to decline with no end in sight and median household incomes have fallen to 1996 levels as seen in this chart from singularityhub.

The cold reality of the situation is that housing values are ultimately supported by jobs and incomes. The academics at the Federal Reserve have things backwards by believing that an economic recovery can be engineered by re-inflating housing values with easy money. In fact, a real recovery in housing will not begin until the economy can start producing jobs and income. The Federal Reserve can force interest rates lower through financial repression but the one thing they can’t directly do is create jobs.
Never in history has a collapsed asset bubble been quickly re-inflated. Real estate values in Japan are still at less than half the valuation levels reached in the early 1980′s. Anyone who thinks there is a quick and easy answer for a recovery in the housing market is delusional.

Related posts:

2012-01-31T18:43:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST

On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. First and last votes expected: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

One Minute Speeches (15 per side)
Legislation Considered Under Suspension of the Rules:

1) H.R. 3835 - To extend the pay limitation for Members of Congress and Federal Employees (Sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy / Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

2) H.Res. 496 - Adjusting the amount provided for the expenses of certain committees of the House of Representatives in the One Hundred Twelfth Congress (Sponsored by Rep. Daniel Lungren / House Administration Committee)

3) H.R. 3567 - Welfare Integrity Now for Children and Families Act of 2011, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Charles Boustany / Ways and Means Committee)

H.R. 1173 - Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011 (Modified Open Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Charles Boustany / Energy and Commerce Committee / Ways and Means Committee)

The rule provides for one hour of general debate and makes in order only those amendments that have been preprinted in the Congressional Record not later than the legislative day of Tuesday, January 31, 2012. The rule also provides that the bill shall be considered for amendment for a period not to exceed three hours.

Democratic Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3630 - Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (One Hour of Debate) (Offered by Rep. Michael Michaud)
Special Order Speeches

COMMITTEE ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
Natural Resources Committee Markup of “Energy Jobs and Revenue Portion of American Energy Infrastructure & Jobs Act” (Wednesday, February 1st, at 10:00 a.m.)

Printable PDF

2012-01-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Goldwater Institute Daily
January 31, 2012

A One-Two Punch to Union Release Time

by Taylor Earl

In December, the Goldwater Institute filed a constitutional challenge to the City of Phoenix’s practice of “release time” within the police union. This practice takes six city police officers off the streets and puts them behind desks to work as full-time union managers, 35 to work as part-time union representatives, and one to work full time as a union lobbyist – all while collecting city salaries and benefits.
As surprising as it may be, the practice is widespread among local-government unions around the country. A win in court will lead to the elimination or severe curtailment of the practice across Arizona. Unions would be forced to pay for the practice through their own union dues or, at the very least, compensate taxpayers for their use of public employees.
But the legislature has a chance to go one step further to guarantee the practice is banned in its entirety. Arizona Senate Bill 1486 would prohibit municipalities from signing contracts that fund union release time in any manner. The bill, sponsored by Arizona Senator Rick Murphy, was introduced yesterday to the Arizona Senate. It requires city governments to respect the Arizona Constitution and rescues taxpayers from unknowingly funding union activity.
No doubt unions will object, likely predicting all sorts of negative consequences for government workers. But teachers’ unions were barred from using full-time release positions in 2010 with no disasters to speak of, and city employees in Scottsdale seem to function just fine without any type of union release time.
The lawsuit and legislation come at a good time. In Phoenix and other cities, unions have issued new demands to be considered in upcoming negotiations – demands that include even more release-time hours and even more public employees transferred from government jobs to union work.
Release time is a unsavory, unconstitutional give away to unions that must be stopped, whether it happens in the courts or with legislative action and a signature from the Governor.
Taylor Earl is an attorney for the Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation.
Learn More:
Goldwater Institute: Money for Nothing: Phoenix Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Union Work
Goldwater Institute: Do Police Officers Pay for Release Time?

2012-01-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

Politicians Created Budget Crisis By Pursuing Own Agenda, Ignoring Voters

The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Voters Are Ready to Provide the Solution

In THE PEOPLE’S MONEY , pollster Scott Rasmussen, who charted the rise of the Tea Party in 2010, shows that government spending has gone up every single year since 1954 despite persistent voter demand for spending cuts.

Politicians blame voters for the problem and claim that there is no public support for specific spending cuts. Rasmussen shows that claim to be a lie. The People’s Money is a call to arms for the people to be heard, an ultimatum for a grossly out-of-touch American political system.

Drawing on revelatory budgetary documents and enlightening public opinion polls, Rasmussen lays out a step-by-step budgetary plan with voter support that will reduce spending, cut trillions from the national debt, and eliminate $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare.

It's Rasmussen's job to call on the American people for their opinions. In The People’s Money , Rasmussen asserts that “America’s Political Class wants to govern like its 1775, a time when kings were kings and consent of the governed didn’t matter.” His numbers show that the federal government today does not have the consent of the governed. “Given a choice between serving the voters and bailing out their friends, America’s politicians had little hesitation. They didn’t even try to convince voters that the scheme made sense," Rasmussen points out. "With the bailouts, the Political Class declared war on the very idea of self-governance and moved into open rebellion against the nation.”

Based on this understanding, Rasmussen provides clear-headed, heavily researched and data-driven ways to cut trillions from the national deficit with a focus on the three categories that make up the bulk of federal spending (national security, Social Security, and Medicare). By finding budget solutions with public support, the book includes proposals that are sure to offend every faction of the Political Class… and every Member of Congress This is part of a pattern that has been repeated many times in American history with the public a few decades ahead of the politicians and the politicians struggling to defend the status quo.

To solve the budget crisis, Rasmussen says, “The United States once again needs a ‘new birth of freedom’ so ‘that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth.’ Our challenge today is to make those timeless ideals work for the twenty-first century.”

THE PEOPLE’S MONEY

How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt

By Scott Rasmussen

Pub date: January 31, 2012

ISBN: 9781451666106

2012-01-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Obamagram WHD's weekly newsletter
January 31, 2012

Obama's Economic Illusion

President Obama has a new spring in his step, you may have noticed.

The State of the Union was well delivered and given with passion and confidence, the sign of a prize fighter warming up for a match and liking his chances. The president seemed kind of relaxed and optimistic, an attitude he's been bringing to his public appearances.

A key reason for this is the economy, which by the White House's account is bouncing back. But in reality, there's not much bounce. And if it reverses like it's done before, the economy may just bounce over a cliff.

Gross Domestic Product, the Commerce Department announced Friday, grew by 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. Unemployment has come down to 8.5 percent. It took a long time to "dig us out of the ditch," the White House proclaims, but now President Obama's policies are finally starting to work.

Obama, as evidenced by his attitude, seems to genuinely believe this, but there's a big problem with his narrative. The problem is of course avoided by Obama, and unfortunately ignored by much of the press.

GDP growth for the fourth quarter the year before, in 2010, was 3.1 percent, higher than last quarter's. And it was 5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, when we appeared to be having a traditionally strong recovery, until the sluggish Obama recovery became apparent.

Meanwhile, growth for the year in 2011 averaged just 1.7 percent, compared to a 2010 average of 3 percent.

Unemployment, at 8.5 percent, remains way above historic averages. The White House says, "This is good, but we've got more work to do." Actually, it's not good, and at this pace there's years of work to do before we get back to a normal unemployment rate.

So the Obama argument that Bush was just so terrible that it took Obama a while to dig us out just doesn't wash. More logical is that, put succinctly, Obama screwed up the recovery.

Republicans don't seem to be making this argument. They seem willing to be drawn into a class warfare debate with Obama instead. Big mistake.

Keith KofflerEditor, White House Dossier

» Last Week's Top Articles

From White House Dossier:France Discovers People Get Killed in War Obama Battery Boondoggle Goes Bust
Biden Affects an Indian Accent Raw Footage || Obama-Brewer Smackdown Obama Banana Republic Obama to Ignore Order to Appear in Atlanta Court

2012-01-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

Fast and Furious Breaking News: With Zero Hour Approaching, It’s Revealed the DOJ Suggested Gun Running...

February 2nd is fast approaching for Attorney General Eric Holder, who is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee for questioning on Fast and Furious. This will put him in the hot seat in front of Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other congressional members like Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who have been steady on Holder’s trail since details of Fast and Furious became public.

Holder’s last appearance before a congressional committee was on December 8, when Issa made it clear how irritated he was over the changing timeline, Holder’s perceived arrogance, and the ongoing refusal to turn over subpoenaed DOJ documents. In one of the best exchanges on Dec 8, Issa looked at Holder and asked, “Have you no shame?” That was also the hearing in which Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), expressed his outrage over the fact that Holder’s DOJ had submitted inaccurate testimony then withdrawn it in an attempt to avoid being charged with providing false testimony.
But a lot has changed since that early December hearing. Most recently, the last minute release of subpoenaed documents which show that Holder learned about Border Agent Brian Terry’s death on the day it happened: a point Holder has heretofore denied. (Emails between Dennis Burke, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, and Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff prove this.) Additionally, other emails in the recently released DOJ documents show that the head of DOJ’s “criminal division, Lanny Breuer, suggested letting some illicit ‘straw’ weapons buyers in the U.S. [to] transport their guns across the border into Mexico where they could be arrested.”
Then there’s Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, who was subpoenaed to appear for testimony on January 24, but pleaded the 5th in order to avoid being “compelled to be a witness against himself.” As a result, a determined Congressman Issa has demanded that Cunningham’s underling, Michael Morrissey, Assistant United States Attorney, “speak with Committee investigators about his role in and knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious.”
All this to say, as I watch the hearings this Thursday I hope to see the committee place Holder under oath and then ask tough, pointed questions about these and other recently revealed matters. For example, in light of the emails, Holder needs to give a clear and binding answer regarding when he found out about Terry’s death. He needs to explain how the DOJ can claim ignorance regarding “gun running” while their own man, Lanny Breuer, was pushing it as a means making arrests. He needs to explain what, if any, interaction he or other DOJ officials/affiliates had with Patrick J. Cunningham between the time Cunningham was subpoenaed and the time his attorney announced he would plead the fifth. And he needs to describe what, if any, interaction he or other DOJ officials/affiliates have had with Michael Morrissey at this time regarding the testimony Morrissey is expected to give when he speaks with investigators.

One more thing: The question on Breuer’s push for gun running could easily be tied to Holder’s April 2, 2009 speech in Mexico wherein he bragged about the implementation of “Project Gunrunner.” Perhaps Issa can ask Holder if he and Breuer worked out the details of that speech together? Source

2012-01-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2011

· Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)

· Former Senator John Ensign (R-NV)

· Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)

· Attorney General Eric Holder

· Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)

· President Barack Obama

· Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)

· Rep. David Rivera (R-FL)

· Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)

· Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

· Dishonorable Mentions for 2011 include:

· Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC)

· Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

· Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

· Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

· Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

· Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

· Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

Former House Speaker and Current Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a career plagued by scandal and corruption.

Perhaps most notably, on January 22, 1997, by a vote of 395 to 28, the House of Representatives voted to reprimand Speaker Gingrich for “intentional…or reckless” disregard for House rules and ordered him to pay an unprecedented penalty of $300,000 for ethical wrongdoing. It was the first time in the 208-year history of the House that such a step against a Speaker had been taken. (Gingrich had faced a raft of charges for alleged ethics violations during his tenure in the House.)

Following a scathing special counsel report to the House Ethics Committee detailing the charges against Gingrich, the former Speaker admitted to providing “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable” statements to congressional investigators. In a written statement, Gingrich stated that his actions ”brought down on the people’s house a controversy which could weaken the faith people have in their government.”

During the current presidential campaign, Gingrich has continuously misled the American people about how he, like many retired politicians, participated in DC’s lucrative influence-peddling industry.

Gingrich insinuated during one presidential debate that some members of Congress who took money from Fannie and Freddie should go to jail. And yet, over a span of eight years, according to Bloomberg News, The Gingrich Group was paid between $1.6 and $1.8 million by the Freddie Mac. At the same time, Freddie Mac was engaged in massive fraud. Gingrich suggested he was a “historian” for Freddie Mac. But the evidence clearly shows he was “throwing his weight” behind the two Government Sponsored Enterprises to prop them up, saying in one interview that Fannie and Freddie provided a more “liquid and stable housing finance system than we would have” without them. Ironically, President Obama, the man who Gingrich is seeking to oust from office, is keeping secret each and every Freddie Mac (and Fannie Mae) document, including those that could shed light on Gingrich’s relationship with Freddie.

Gingrich also has claimed, “I have never done lobbying of any kind.” However, as documented by the Washington Examiner’sTimothy Carney, Gingrich was a hired gun for the drug lobby who “worked hard to persuade Republican congressmen to vote for the Medicare drug subsidy that the industry favored.” Carney reports that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America confirmed that they paid Gingrich. Bloomberg News “cited sources from leading drug companies AstraZeneca and Pfizer saying that those companies had also hired Gingrich.”

Gingrich has also sustained heavy criticism for his troubled personal life, including the admission by Gingrich that he cheated on his second wife while serving as Speaker of the House with then-House employee and current wife, Callista Bisek.

2012-01-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

Destructive Austerity, USA

Jared Bernstein has been emphasizing, rightly, the extent to which our weak recovery is being undermined by cutbacks at the state and local level:

But it’s even worse than he says. Why? Because if you look at what’s being cut, it’s heavily focused on investment: Paul Krugman

That is, we’re sacrificing the future as well as the present. Oh, and the cuts that aren’t falling on investment in physical capital are largely falling on human capital, that is, education.

It’s hard to overstate just how wrong all this is. We have a situation in which resources are sitting idle looking for uses — massive unemployment of workers, especially construction workers, capital so bereft of good investment opportunities that it’s available to the federal government at negative real interest rates. Never mind multipliers and all that (although they exist too); this is a time when government investment should be pushed very hard. Instead, it’s being slashed. Source

2012-01-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

THE STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION

President Obama made his 2012 State of the Union address and as expected, it was primarily a campaign speech to reinforce his changes for re-election in November. He is not the first President to have done this, and will probably not be the last. However, this speech was different because what Americans need to look at now, and consider when voting in November, is not just the State of the Union, but the State of the Constitution. The fact is that if we discard our Constitution there will be no union. The United States of America will cease to exist.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration, with the help of the leftist elite in the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, and even some Federal judges are systematically destroying our Constitution, our freedoms, and our country. It is not an accident; it is being done with malice and design. Here are the facts about what has occurred in the three years that Obama has been in office.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution has been violated by Congress passing the Obama health care bill. Congress has no authority under that section or any other section of the Constitution to enact legislation requiring the American people to purchase health care insurance, or to provide free health care to illegal aliens. Yet, this among other things is what has been done. I am confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that it is unconstitutional; yet, President Obama has repeatedly shown his disdain for the rulings of the Judicial Branch of government.

Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution also gives Congress the sole legislative powers in the federal government. Article 2 of the Constitution that establishes the Presidency and the Executive Branch of government gives no such legislative powers to the President. In other words, only Congress can make laws and the President and his cabinet appointees can only enforce laws made by Congress; the President has no authority to make laws. Yet, that is exactly what Obama is doing.

By misusing the power to issue Executive orders to enforce laws or take emergency action if Congress is not in session the President is bypassing Congress and the Constitution to implement his personal agenda on immigration, cap and trade, gun control, and in many other areas. He actually brags about this in his taxpayer funded campaign speeches, and during the State of the Union Address he stated that he plans to continue the practice if Congress doesn’t do exactly what he demands.

In addition, ever since he took office Obama has continuously violated Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution by making appoints to major positions in the Executive Branch of government without the required Senate approval. I’m referring of course to the over 40 Czars that the President has appointed. These appointments are in numerous areas from overseeing the takeover of the automobile industry to regulating free speech on the internet. These Czars are not under the control of the Congress, and are given massive budgets at taxpayer expense. By the way, the very use of the term Czar violates Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution that specifically forbids the U.S. government from bestowing titles of nobility on anyone.

Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution does give the President the right to make short term appointments when the Senate is in recess. The important point here is that the Constitution only empowers the Senate to declare when it is in recess. Obama recently showed his disdain for that part of our governing document by making several high level appointments when the Senate had not formally declared a recess. Obama claimed he has the right to decide when the Senate is in recess. The purpose of these appointments was to put people in positions of power that the Senate would not have approved. The reasons are already becoming clear because the new appointees to the National Labor Relations Board are preparing to order companies that are not unionized to turn over the private phone numbers and email addresses of their employees to labor union organizers. This is a clear violation of the right of privacy of these individuals.

Article 2, Section 2 also authorizes the President of the United States to sign treaties with other countries; however, the Senate must ratify the treaties by a two thirds vote of those Senators present and voting. Now Obama has decided that this Constitutional requirement should not keep him from doing what he wants. Since the SOPA and PIPA bills were withdrawn in Congress Obama is looking for a new way to take control of the Internet and limit freedom of speech.

According to the U.S. Justice Foundation Obama is going to sign and enforce an international treaty “which will give governments and special interest groups the power to shut down websites, and terminate your access to the internet, without the due process of law.” It is called the ACTA Treaty and Obama does not intend to send it to the Senate for ratification, but instead will do it as a “sole Executive Agreement.”

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows such agreements although Federal courts have allowed Presidents to enter into some international agreements that are minor in nature. The ACTA agreement is not minor, but would allow websites to be shut down, such as my blog site, at the whim of the President. I also suspect that Obama is planning to use the same approach to enter into and enforce the United Nations “Small Arms Treaty” that would virtually eliminate the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution that protects the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms.

The state of the constitution is not good; in fact it is gravely ill. This article has just scratched the surface and in my next post I will talk more about Obama’s all out assault on the Bill of Rights. A good friend of mine recently said that this upcoming election is not about personalities or even the economy. It is instead a referendum on the Constitution and whether it and our American way of life are to survive. I concur with that statement.

Michael Connelly

mrobertc@hotmail.com

www.michaelconnelly.jigsy.com

www.constitution.jigsy.com

2012-01-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

NEWTS' LANGUAGE TO SMITE OPPONENTS
As Speaker Newt Gingrich hired Frank Luntz to instruct Republicans on the power of words and language to use as the key mechanism of control.

Language a Key Mechanism of Control

2012-01-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31ST

On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:00 p.m. for morning hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m.

One Minutes Speeches
Motion to go to Conference on H.R. 658 - FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act
H.Res. 522 - Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1173) the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011 (Special Rule, One Hour of Debate) (Sponsored by Rep. Pete Sessions / Rules Committee)
Special Order Speeches

COMMITTEE ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
Rules Committee Markup of "H.R. 3512, the Expedited Legislative Line-Item Veto and Rescissions Act of 2011” (Tuesday, January 31st, 5:00 p.m.)

Printable PDF

2012-01-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

GANDI...
Today, in 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by a religious extremist.

2012-01-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

WHAT HAPPENED THE YEAR YOU WERE BORN?
Find out at the link below it's fun and it's free...be###

Every once in a while, you come across a website that's just plain fun. This is one of those sites.
We've all seen websites that provide stats about what happened the year you were born. The website whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/ takes it a step further. It doesn't just offer stats and facts. Instead, it provides a picture of the world you grew up in - including what it looked like and how it was different than the world we live in today.
But it's more than just a fun website.
For one thing, it provides you with a light-hearted reason to connect with your clients on a personal level. You can share the site with them on social media or in one of your outreach pieces (such as a newsletter or email).
In addition, this site offers you a unique way to better understand your clients. If you know when a client was born, you can simply type in the year. In return, you'll get a picture of that client's social influences that have helped shape him or her. And that's exactly the kind of information you need to put yourself in your clients' shoes and understand them a little better. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it's entertaining too!

2012-01-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

MITT ROMNEY 'ACTION IS CHARACTER"

I received an e-mail from several people asking me if the below information was TRUE...IT IS

This Is The Story Of "Searched" ...

On Saturday, July 6, 1996, Robert Gay Saw His Daughter, Melissa, For The Last Time Before She Disappeared In New York City. "The frantic parents of a 14-year-old Connecticut girl, missing since Sunday after she attended an all-night dance party on Randalls Island, came to New York City yesterday seeking help in finding their child. Melissa Gay, of Ridgefield, Conn., known also as Missy, left her home Saturday night without telling her parents she was going to New York City, said her father, Robert Gay, a managing partner of Bain Capital, a leveraged buy-out firm." (Shirley Leung, "Investment Firm Shuts To Help Find Girl," The Boston Globe, 7/12/96)

"I JUST HOPE THAT SOMEBODY

COULD FIND IT IN THEIR HEART TO

CALL AND LET US KNOW HOW SHE IS."

- Lynette Gay, Mother

Melissa Was Last Seen In New York City On Sunday, July 7, 1996. "A distraught Connecticut family desperately searched yesterday for their teenage daughter, last seen early Sunday after partying at an all-night rave concert on Randalls Island. 'I just hope that somebody could find it in their heart to call and let us know how she is,' said the mother of 14-year-old Melissa Gay. 'I know she's afraid of the dark,' added Lynette Gay, 44. 'She's a courageous, spunky girl, but she also likes her hugs and kisses.' The girl was last seen Sunday at 11 a.m. in a park under the Whitestone Bridge. She wore a blue or red-striped shirt and tan pants. She is blond, 5-feet-3 and weighs 105 pounds." (K.C. Baker, "Fearful Kin Seek Missing Teen," New York Daily News, 7/12/96)

VIEW VIDEO OF ROBERT GAY...

By Wednesday, With The Investigation Going Nowhere And His Business Partner Walking The Streets Of New York City Trying To Find His Daughter, Mitt Romney Closed Down His Company In Boston And Headed To New York City With His Colleagues. "On Wednesday he walked the streets of Manhattan looking for his blonde daughter, who was last seen wearing a blue or red-striped shirt and baggy tan pants. Gay, who has worked for Bain for eight years, kept his ordeal to himself, confiding only in Romney. But Wednesday, Romney decided to tell the other 11 managing directors, and they decided that finding a missing daughter was more important than operating a $1 billion investment firm." (Shirley Leung, "Investment Firm Shuts To Help Find Girl," The Boston Globe, 7/12/96)

"OUR CHILDREN ARE WHAT LIFE

IS ALL ABOUT. ... EVERYTHING ELSE

TAKES A BACK SEAT."

– Mitt Romney

By Thursday Morning, Mitt Romney, 56 Bain Capital Employees And 250 Colleagues From Wall Street Were Working The Streets Of New York City In Search Of Melissa. "The executives decided not only to give their time but their money, paying all expenses for the search for the fifth of Gay's seven children. That night, 16 employees flew to New York, turned a function room of the Laguardia Marriott Hotel into a 'war room,' and got printing giant R. R. Donnelly to print 200,000 fliers with a color picture of Melissa. They also hired a private investigator and set up an 800-number hot line. Another 40 employees caught an early morning shuttle yesterday, and later were joined by about 250 colleagues from other Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs, Price Waterhouse and Bankers Trust." (Shirley Leung, "Investment Firm Shuts To Help Find Girl," The Boston Globe, 7/12/96)

Romney And Bain Capital Used All Of Their Connections To Further The Search. "Bain Capital's partners closed down the firm and drew on friendships and connections to find volunteers for the search. R. R. Donnelly, the firm's printer, printed more than 300,000 fliers bearing Ms. Gay's picture and last known whereabouts. Duane Reade, a drugstore chain in which Bain Capital is an investor, had clerks at 52 stores insert fliers in shopping bags. Price Waterhouse, which does the firm's accounting, sent nearly 100 volunteers to distribute the posters, and Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust and Morgan Stanley dispatched more than 60 people." (Charisse Jones, "Volunteers Search For Missing Girl," The New York Times, 7/12/96)

Romney And Bain Capital Coordinated A "Five-Pronged Attack" To Find The Gays' Daughter. "The searchers prepared a 'five-pronged attack,' said Stephen Pagliuca, another Bain Capital managing director. The plan included: hiring private investigators; coordinating with New York authorities; lining up help from business associates; blanketing the city with 250,000 flyers; and organizing a media blitz that landed news reports on three local TV stations. Nearly all of Bain Capital's 50-plus employees got involved, Pagliuca said. A 'skeletal crew' answered phones and handled essential business in Boston while the rest flew to New York. By 4 p.m. Thursday, the search involved 300 people, Pagliuca said." (Eric Convey, "Bain Staff Swung Into Action For Child Search," The Boston Herald, 7/13/96)

With The Help Of Bain, The Gays Were Reunited With Their Daughter. "The saga ended late Thursday night when Melissa Gay of Ridgefield, Conn., was found safe and sound at a suburban New Jersey home. The discovery of 'Missy' followed 24 hours of intensive work by Bain Capital employees and their contacts that began soon after Robert Gay, one of the firm's 12 managing directors, told co-workers his daughter was missing. ... The hunt went on until a family in Montville, N.J., heard of it and called police later to say Missy was with them and fine." (Eric Convey, "Bain Staff Swung Into Action For Child Search," The Boston Herald, 7/13/96)

At An End-Of-The-Year Meeting, Bain Capital Listed The Search For Melissa Gay As Their Greatest Accomplishment. "Last week, the partners of Boston's Bain Capital Inc. drew up their annual list of accomplishments: Number one was the week they spent last July combing Manhattan in search of Melissa Gay, the missing 14-year-old daughter of one of the partners. 'It really overshadowed everything we did from a money standpoint,' said Mitt Romney, the Bain Capital founder who won the 1994 Massachusetts Republican Senate nomination partly on his reputation as a venture capital wiz." (Peter S. Canellos, "Bain Capital Recalls NY Search," TheBoston Globe, 12/8/96)

Romney Never Forgot What He Saw As He Sought To Help A Friend In Need. "Now back in school and fully recovered, Melissa and her parents are doing well, Romney said. The partners, however, are still taking stock of their visit to the dark corners of New York, putting up posters and talking to runaways outside seedy nightclubs and peep shows. Romney said he can't escape some of the images he carries with him from his week in the New York underworld. 'It was a shocker,' he said. 'The number of lost souls was astounding.' Romney said one partner still talks about a runaway he spoke with in search of information about Melissa.

'The girl asked, "Why are you looking for her?" and he said,

"Because her parents miss her,"' Romney said. 'She replied,

"I wish my parents missed me like that."'"

(Peter S. Canellos, "Bain Capital Recalls NY Search," The Boston Globe, 12/8/96)

2012-01-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

New Bill to Help Create Jobs, Lower Gas Prices, Repair Infrastructure -- Without Earmarks

January 30, 2012 | Posted by Speaker Boehner's Press Office |

Speaker John Boehner told ABC News that President Obama's policies “have not worked” and actually “made the economy worse.” And while Senate Democrats continue to delay a vote on nearly 30 bipartisan House-passed jobs bills, the House will vote in the coming weeks on a new bill that will expand American energy production to help create jobs, lower gas prices, and repair America's roads and bridges -- without earmarks. Watch Boehner's interview here and learn more below:

Nearly 30 House-Passed Jobs Are Still Awaiting a Vote in the Democratic-Controlled Senate

Nearly 30 House-passed bills that would help create new private-sector jobs are still awaiting a vote by Senate Democrats. As Speaker Boehner told ABC News, “if the president won’t work with us to help create jobs, I’m sure the American people will elect someone who will.”

President Obama should “listen to his own jobs council” and urge the Senate to pass these GOP jobs bills, says Speaker Boehner. There's “an awful lot of unanimity between the bills that we're passing and what his own jobs council is calling for,” says Boehner. Click here for a comparison.

On the Laura Ingraham Show, Speaker Boehner said President Obama doubled down “on the same failed policies of the past” in his State of the Union. Boehner explained to CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley these policies include “higher taxes, more spending, more regulation.”

Boehner's point was echoed by Governor Mitch Daniels in the Republican Address to the Nation.

Here's how President Obama's policies have made things worse.

Click here to view several fact check pieces on the president's State of the Union message, and click here for our look at what President Obama didn't say.

There Will Be No Earmarks in the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act

The upcoming American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act (H.R. 7) would permanently remove government barriers to energy production to help create thousands of private-sector jobs, lower gas prices, and repair our roads and bridges -- without wasting taxpayer dollars on earmarks.

This is a big change. A 2005 highway bill, for example, had more than 6,300 earmarks. Like every other bill passed since the Republican majority banned earmarks, H.R. 7 will be earmark free.

Keystone XL Jobs Project May Be Part of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act

Speaker Boehner told ABC that approval for the privately-financed Keystone project could be included in the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. Keystone XL would help create at least 20,000 new manufacturing and construction jobs right here in America.

Republicans answered questions about the popular Keystone XL project following the State of the Union via Twitter. Here's one example from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).

Extending the Payroll Tax Cut Can be Resolved Quickly

President Obama called on Congress to “pass the payroll tax cut without delay.” As Speaker Boehner said today, “the House has already passed the year-long extension” -- but we're still waiting for Senate Democrats to present their own plan.

The Obama administration, which views payroll tax relief as their only “must-do” item for the year, should call on Senate Democrats to take a position and present a plan. Speaker Boehner says if that happens he's “confident that we’ll be able to resolve this fairly quickly.”

Be sure to stay connected with the Office of the Speaker on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Google Plus, and Speaker.gov throughout the year. Thank you!
- Speaker Boehner’s Press Office

2012-01-29T23:22:00.003-07:00

Gingrich Rewrites His Healthcare Mandate History

Newt Gingrich falsely claimed he never favored a federal mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance.

Former House Speaker Gingrich claimed he had never favored a federal mandate requiring individuals to obtain health insurance — only a state requirement.

Gingrich: I didn’t advocate federal mandates. I talked about it at a state level …

Not true. Gingrich said “Congress” must require high-income persons to have insurance, not state legislatures. He did so explicitly in a 2007 opinion piece:

Gingrich, June 25, 2007: In order to make coverage more accessible, Congress must do more, including passing legislation to [among other things] require anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year to purchase health insurance or post a bond.

His support for a federal mandate is of long standing. In 1993, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said:

Gingrich, 1993: I am for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance. And I am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals, on a sliding scale, a government subsidy so we insure that everyone as individuals have health insurance.

Gingrich was proposing an individual mandate as an alternative to the Clinton administration’s ill-fated health care plan, which was centered on an employer mandate, requiring businesses to provide insurance for their workers. And he held to a similar position as recently as last May, also on “Meet the Press”:

Gingrich, May 15, 2011: Well, I agree that all of us have a responsibility to pay — help pay for health care. And, and I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond … or in some way you indicate you’re going to be held accountable.
NBC’s David Gregory: But that is the individual mandate, is it not?
Gingrich: It’s a variation on it.

If Gingrich was thinking about a state-only mandate, he never said so at the time. And he clearly said “all of us” would be subject to his “variant” of the mandate just last May. We judge that Gingrich is falsifying his own history on this matter.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is founder of the Center for Health Transformation. David Merritt leads the “Insure All Americans” project at the Center (www.healthtransformtion.net).The piece, titled “Tackling Costs of Healthcare Requires Some Huge Changes,” was published June 13 by the Des Moines Register (available at: http://healthtransformation.net/cs/news/news_detail?pressrelease.id=52).

The Center for Health Transformation, founded by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is a collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century intelligent health system that saves lives and saves money for all Americans. For more information, visit www.healthtransformation.net.

2012-01-29T22:19:00.001-07:00

Fast and Furious Latest Friday Night Document Dump Shows Eric Holder Was Informed of Border Agent’s Death Immediately...

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice dumped documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010.

An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”

That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.

Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.

“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.

Holder has faced difficult questions surrounding the question of when he was first informed of the gunwalking program. He testified in Congress that he had only learned of Fast and Furious a “few weeks” before a May 3, 2011, House Judiciary Committee appearance.

Holder has since walked back that “few weeks” comment, amending it to more of a “couple months.”

“I did say a ‘few weeks,’” Holder said during a November 8 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, responding to a question from its chairman Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy. “I probably could’ve said ‘a couple of months.’ I didn’t think the term I said, ‘few weeks,’ was inaccurate based on what happened.”

There have also been a series of documents containing the intimate details of Fast and Furious that were sent to Holder throughout 2010 from several of his senior aides. Holder claims he did not read his memos.

Holder will be appearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform next Thursday, Feb. 2. Though Holder has already testified before Congress three times about matters relating to Fast and Furious — twice before the House Judiciary Committee and once before the Senate Judiciary Committee — this is the first time the House oversight committee will have an opportunity to question Holder himself.

“The Judiciary Committee has multiple issues with the Attorney General,” House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller last week. “We have one issue: the issue of breaking the law in order to enforce the law.”

“The oversight committee is investigating the Department of Justice, which is very different than his appearances before the Judiciary Committees in which they’re asking how things are going at Justice. What we’ve discovered in our investigations is a pattern of cover-up [and] delay. Ultimately Congress was given false information and now we’ve had people both resign and take the Fifth as we try to get to the basic elements of why and how was Congress lied to.”

A total of 103 members of the House have called for Holder’s resignation or firing, expressed “no confidence” in Holder via a formal House Resolution, or both. Two sitting governors, two U.S. senators and all the major Republican presidential candidates join those 103 congressmen in not trusting Holder. Many of those who have called for Holder’s resignation have pointed out that Holder claiming that he didn’t read his memos is a sign that he’s admitting incompetence to avoid charges of corruption.
VIEW VIDEO: Obama: Holder 'Not Aware Of What Was Happening In Fast and Furious
Source Matthew Boyle