Conservative Corner 2008-2012

Michelle Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:14:08 PST

CORRECTION: Michele Obama was the front person for the ruling on school lunches, but it was the Department of Agriculture which implemented her plans.

Obama will be a no-show; Michelle now passing regulations on Americans; Union efforts to recall Governor Walker are consuming much of their money; Green makeover of public housing, paid for by taxpayers; Obama asking for unbridled power from Congress; fact-checking State of Union lies; Rubio gets Gingrich to back down; Address rated for dumbed-down citizens; "Is 20th century capitalism failing society?"; Pelosi again threatening Newt; Soros predicts riots in America; Krauthammer derides Obama's extremeism; Special unit to punish fraud is too late, and already in place elsewhere

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:57:53 PST

Obama attorney to boycott ‘birther’ hearing

The Orange County Register reports: The lawsuit, in which several Georgia voters are represented by Laguna Niguel attorney Orly Taitz, calls for Obama to be removed from Georgia’s March 6 primary ballot on the grounds that he doesn’t meet the requirement of being a natural-born citizen.

Jablonski wrote Georgia’s secretary of state to intervene and dismiss the suit.
Malihi wrote that Obama’s court filings fail to show why his attendance would be “unreasonable or oppressive” or why his testimony would be “irrelevant, immaterial or cumulative.”
The White House has announced that Obama would be amid a campaign swing through several states on Thursday. Georgia is not among the states listed.
The state Democratic Party also announced it would boycott the hearing.
Taitz responded promptly on her blog.
“He is acting like a 5-year-old brat, saying ‘I am afraid of Orly, I want the secretary of state of Georgia to act like my mommy and protect me from Orly,’” she wrote. “Some leader of a free world.” [I think Orly gets it all wrong here. Obama is behaving as would a dictator, believing he is above the law.] http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2012/01/25/obama-attorney-to-boycott-birther-hearing/82053/
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The NY Post reports: There’s nothing about rutabagas in the Constitution, but that isn’t stopping the Department of Agriculture from trying to shove them down your kids’ throats. Under new school-lunch standards unveiled by First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday, public schools are now required to offer fruits and vegetables daily, along with more whole-grain foods, low-fat milk and lower sodium.
Oh yes, and there will be calorie counting, too.
“We want the food they get in school to be the same kind of food we would serve at our own kitchen tables,” said Mrs. Obama, who’s made childhood obesity one of her pet causes. [It isn't bad enough that Obama has regulated hundreds of laws without the consent of Congress. Now we have the First Lady doing the same? America is in danger from this dictatorial, arrogant, anti-America couple.]

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The Hill reports: Organized labor’s plans to spend heavily to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has sparked angst on the left that the effort will come at the expense of Democrats in other states.
The funding disparity between groups allied with either Republicans or Democrats is one of the biggest concerns for New York Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate Democrats’ chief political strategist.
Labor officials are also looking at investing resources in Indiana, a red-leaning state, to battle controversial right-to-work legislation backed by Gov. Mitch Daniels (R).
But the Wisconsin fight will consume far more resources. This is a stomach-churning prospect for Democrats and their allies because the labor expenditures could come just months before the general election, when money will be needed for more important battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida.
“Some were asking us whether we could wait until after the election, but we can’t. This is too big a deal,” said one labor official. http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/205965-dems-fear-union-cash-drain-in-wisconsin
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Examiner.com writes: As President Barack Obama’s disastrous and costly green energy agenda became the focus of a congressional investigation, the administration celebrated the multimillion-dollar “green makeover” of a public housing facility in Washington State
The Solyndra scandal has ignited fury among congressional leaders who are chastising the commander-in-chief for responding to an economic recession with a failed “green energy subsidy experiment.” In fact, this week a House committee released a special report blasting the president for wasting nearly $100 billion to create “green jobs.” Undue political influence has determined how much of the money has been disbursed, investigators found http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/white-house-green-jobs-agenda-filled-with-corruption-say-investigators
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The Blaze reports: President Obama said, "The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it’s inefficient, outdated and remote. That’s why I’ve asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people."
Beck called it a prime example of “Phillip Dru: Administrator” — a reference to the futuristic novel that shows the rise of a man becoming an American dictator. The author was close to Woodrow Wilson. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-is-the-obama-sotu-clip-that-has-beck-so-upset/
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Fox News reports on State of the Union address: The president's chief theme, under the slogan 'an economy built to last' is actually pretty simple: eat the rich and punish the corporations to pay for more government spending.

He called for a punishment levy on "big banks" and "big oil companies" and is apparently going to sic Eric Holder on the financial sector to "find out who was responsible for the mortgage collapse." I guarantee you that well connected Democrats like Franklin Raines and Jaimie Gorelick who ran Fannie Mae into the ground and walked away with multi-million dollar bonuses are not going to have to worry on that account.

You see, it wasn't the banks that made the rules that governed the secondary mortgage market..it was Washington, and government entities Fannie and Freddie set the pace by reducing underwriting standards and down payment requirements while demanding that lenders make more loans to the unqualified based on racial bean counting. And the Democrat majority in Congress defended them from any oversight or reigning in while they did it.

The president went on to mention his great achievement of 'saving' the auto industry. Will anyone remind him that he did it by gifting GM to his union political allies, crapping on private equity holders and giving the company special tax breaks at the taxpayer's expense to make them look artificially profitable? Or that he allowed GM to do stock dumping that was against SEC rules?
Or about the outright lies he told the American people about GM and Chrysler being profitable and returning the money used to bail them out, when in reality they were a huge loss?

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Fox News reports: Tonight, I'm announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing finance or new markets like Russia. Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you - America will always win.

Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job.

Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let's offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren't helping kids learn.

In the next few weeks, I will sign an Executive Order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects. But you need to fund these projects. Take the money we're no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home

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Miami Herald reports: Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant”
“This kind of language is more than just unfortunate. It’s inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn’t belong in this campaign,” Rubio told The Miami Herald when asked about the ad.
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
Rubio’s sharp rebuke comes a day after he subtly corrected Gingrich for comparing Romney to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, branded by conservatives as a turncoat who left the party before Rubio beat him in 2010.
The criticisms from someone of Rubio’s stature in the Republican Party comes as polls show a near-even race, albeit with Gingrich surging.
Rubio plans to stay neutral in the race. He’s a potential running mate whom both candidates would love to have on the ballot. And he’s gaining iconic status among many national Republicans who see him as a face of the future in a nation that’s growing more Latino. http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rubio-scolds-gingrich-camp-says-ad-bashing-anti-immigrant-romney-is-inaccurate-inflammatory.html
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Politico writes: President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level, on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.
The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude. http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/01/state-of-the-union-registers-at-th-grade-reading-level-112236.html
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Breitbart reports: Some 40 heads of government will rub shoulders over the next five days in the Swiss Alps with titans of commerce and industry to discuss everything from the eurozone crisis to Iran's nuclear programme as well as trends in science and the arts.

But it is the title of the debates which catches the eye as much as the participants with the first posing the question: "Is 20th Century Capitalism Failing 21st Century Society?"
Other discussions scheduled include 'Fixing Capitalism', 'Has Globalisation Reached its Economic and Political Limits?' and 'How Will the Eurozone Countries Emerge from the Eurozone Crisis?'.
While US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will ponder the challenges for the US economy, a sizeable contingent from emerging powers including India and South-east Asian nations will consider the theme: 'Is this truly the Asian century?' http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.2ed706274083b5e00481b72882b4a47d.3b1&show_article=1
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Washington Times reports: Mrs. Pelosi, like Mr. Gingrich a former speaker of the House, said on CNN this week that a Gingrich presidency “will never happen.” Asked how she could be so confident, the California Democrat said, without further explanation: “There’s something I know.”
Mrs. Pelosi, who served on the House Ethics Committee when it reprimanded Mr. Gingrich in 1997, referenced that investigation when she offered up similar comments about Mr. Gingrich last month.
Mr Gingrich challenged Mrs. Pelosi to “put up or shut up.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/25/gingrich-pelosi-comments-hysterical/
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Dateline Zero reports on Soros prediction: Billionaire investor George Soros has a new prediction for America. While it might be as dire as it gets for the financial wiz, this bet concerns more than just the value of the buck. According to Soros, there's about to be an all-out class war.
The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.”
As anger rises, riots on the streets of American cities are inevitable. “Yes, yes, yes,” he says, almost gleefully. The response to the unrest could be more damaging than the violence itself. “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States.” http://www.datelinezero.com/2012/01/24/george-soros-predicts-occupy-movement-to-turn-violent-riots-in-the-streets/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Blaze quotes Krauthammer: “No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” Daniels said, according to excerpts of his remarks released before he and Obama actually spoke. “As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat.”
“The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy,or cancels a perfectly sane pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy,” Daniels said.
He said Republicans prefer “a passionate pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls all close ones in favor of private sector jobs that restore opportunity for all and generate the public revenues to pay our bills.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/krauthammer-daniels-gop-response-one-of-the-best/
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The Miami Herald writes: President Barack Obama's State of the Union pledge to create a special unit to punish fraud in mortgage finance met with skepticism Wednesday for coming so late in his term and amid signs that his administration is close to settling with large banks accused of shoddy mortgage-lending practices.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2608264/obamas-new-mortgage-fraud-unit.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rubio-scolds-gingrich-camp-says-ad-bashing-anti-immigrant-romney-is-inaccurate-inflammatory.html#storylink=cpy

A sympathetic member of the congressionally created Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, charged with getting to the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis, also questioned Obama's timing. And it appears to duplicate a lot of groundwork already done.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2608264/obamas-new-mortgage-fraud-unit.html#storylink=cpy

"He should have done it three years ago in January 2009, when the trail would have been fresh, witnesses' memory would have been fresh, the statutes of limitations would have been necessarily missed," said the commissioner, who requested anonymity to speak freely. "I think it's high time that it be done - people need to be held accountable."
"Personally, I've certainly been disappointed in the outcomes of the SEC investigations, and as yet they have not brought significant actions against entities that ... had all kinds of misrepresentation," said Barry Zigas, director of housing policy for the Consumer Federation of America.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2608264/obamas-new-mortgage-fraud-unit.html#storylink=cpy

Moreover, there already is a Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, comprised of more than 20 federal agencies and 94 U.S. attorneys offices, along with state and local law enforcement officials. [Don't try to say that this President is not creating more [government] jobs! http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2608264/obamas-new-mortgage-fraud-unit.html
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/25/2608264/obamas-new-mortgage-fraud-unit.html#storylink=cpy

Obama told to appear in GA court tomorrow; Birth contol required by Obamacare; $1 billion in taxes owed by federal and postal workers; Indiana unions plan to disrupt Super Bowl; Jimmy Carter supporting Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; Public schools teaching ABC's of Islam; Three cartel beheadings, in the U.S.; Supremes won't decide on Kagan recusal; CIA officer charged with leaking classified information; Hiding government spending by not passing a budget; Democrat hack arrested on ID fraud to replace GOP Secretary of State; Gasoline up 83% under Obama; Charitable donations; Freedom and Liberty not the theme of State of the Union address

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:16:46 PST

World Net Daily reports: There’s a subpoena from a Georgia administrative court with Barack Obama’s name on it for him to be in Atlanta on Thursday, along with the documentation about his birth, to answer to challenges from residents of the state objecting to the presence of his name on the 2012 ballot.

But several observers say no one really should expect Obama to arrive.
For one thing, his important presidential trip to Denver, Detroit and Las Vegas, three key regions where he wants to build his support before the November 2012 election, is on tap.
The administrative court itself probably would not pursue any sort of procedure against the president should he fail to appear, but Marietta, Ga., attorney Melvin Goldstein said the logical sequence of events would be, presuming Obama’s failure to appear, for the court to refer the matter to a superior court judge in the county, who could determine whether a contempt citation against Obama would be supported. http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/obama-to-miss-eligibility-hearing/
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The Hill writes: Most healthcare plans will be required to cover birth control without charging co-pays or deductibles starting Aug. 1, the Obama administration announced Friday.
The final regulation retains the approach federal health officials proposed last summer, despite the deluge of complaints from religious groups and congressional Republicans that has poured in since then. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship are exempt from the requirement, but religious-affiliated hospitals and universities only get a one-year delay and must comply by Aug. 1, 2013. http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/205413-obama-administration-orders-health-plans-to-cover-birth-control-without-co-pays
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Washington Post reveals: Congressional Congressional staffers owed about $10.6 million in unpaid taxes in 2010, a slight increase from the previous year and a growing slice of the roughly $1 billion owed by federal and postal workers nationwide.
The figures are “totally unacceptable and disrespectful to hardworking American taxpayers,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). “If you’re on the federal payroll, the very least you can do is pay your taxes.”
Chaffetz and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) have authored bills that would force federal agencies, the U.S. Postal Service and congressional offices to fire employees who purposely avoid paying taxes. Exceptions would be made for employees suffering from family turmoil or working to correct significant financial hardship. Chaffetz’s bill was approved by a committee last spring, but Coburn’s still awaits consideration by a Senate panel. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/federal-employees-owe-103-billion-in-unpaid-taxes/2012/01/20/gIQAv7KKJQ_blog.html
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Investors.com writes: Indiana unions, opposed to becoming the first right-to-work state in the Rust Belt, may disrupt Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Their unnecessary roughness will cost the Hoosiers needed jobs.The Indiana Senate was waiting for the House to complete its work on the legislation but, in a tactic employed by Democratic state senators in Wisconsin, Democratic representatives in the Indiana House delayed action by simply not showing up.
In a further move to block enactment, Indiana Democrats sought to add an amendment that said the law would not take effect until approved by the voters in a state referendum.
If the bill passes before Feb. 5, some Indiana labor activists are considering protests before a nationwide audience. These protests would include Teamsters clogging city streets with trucks, and electricians staging a slowdown at the convention center site of the NFL village. http://news.investors.com/Article/598470/201201201823/unions-super-bowl-right-to-work-.htm
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Patriot Update reports: Recently former president Jimmy Carter made a trip to Egypt. According to a report he wrote on his website, the purpose of his trip was to consult with leaders of the major political parties “and other who will shape the future of the nation.”
Carter wrote:

Preliminary results from delegate elections gave Islamist parties about 71 percent of the Assembly seats, (Muslim Brotherhood 47 percent and Salafists 24 percent), with the remainder divided among about a dozen political parties and independents. I was assured by U.S. State Department officials before leaving home that this victory of Islamists would be accepted and that meetings with them had already begun. The Muslim Brotherhood announced that they would not form a governing coalition with the Salafists.

Yeah, Mr. Carter; you keep right on trusting those Muslim Brotherhood-types… http://patriotupdate.com/articles/jimmy-carter-supporting-the-muslim-brotherhood-in-egypt
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Patriot Update reports: “Public Schools Teach the ABCs of Islam,” by Erick Stakelbeck for CBN News, October 9, 2008:
CBNNews.com – Several recent studies have shown that American students are alarmingly ignorant about U.S. history and world events.
Experts have attributed the problem to everything from failing schools to substandard teachers.
But what about content?
For instance, did you know that Muslims discovered America? Or that Jerusalem is an Arab city? That’s just some of the “history” that students in America’s K-12 classrooms have been taught in recent years–with the help of taxpayer money. http://patriotupdate.com/17539/us-textbooks-muslims-discovered-america
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Before Its News reports: Three Beheadings In Two Different States in 2012 Already. Mainstream Media Keeps Quiet, VideoThree beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico.
Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year. http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1642/613/Three_Beheadings_In_Two_Different_States_in_2012_Already._Mainstream_Media_Keeps_Quiet,_Video
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Politico writes: The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request for debate over whether Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the health care reform case due to be argued in March.
Freedom Watch, a group led by Larry Klayman, asked the court for permission to file a brief on Kagan's participation in the case. The court on Monday denied the request without comment, though it did note that Kagan did not participate in the discussion.

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Washington Post reports: The Justice Department on Monday charged a former CIA officer with repeatedly leaking classified information, including the identities of agency operatives involved in the capture and interrogation of alleged terrorists.
The case against John Kiriakou, who also served as a senior Senate aide, [to John Kerry, Dem.] extends the Obama administration’s crackdown on disclosures of national security secrets. Kiriakou, 47, is the sixth target of a leaks-related prosecution since President Obama took office, exceeding the total number of comparable prosecutions under all previous administrations combined, legal experts said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-cia-officer-charged-in-leaks/2012/01/23/gIQA3AhTLQ_story.html

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Investors.com reports: The last time the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate passed a budget was April 29, 2009 — 1,000 days ago. It's no mystery why: They don't want taxpayers to know about the trillions they're wasting.
A published budget would be an election-year death warrant for Senate Democrats, because Republican Senate candidates would stuff its highlights into every mailbox they could.
As Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., points out, going budget-less for so long has devastated our economy as Democrats have spent "$9.4 trillion and added $4.1 trillion to the national debt," plus over $1 trillion in deficits.
Is insisting on a budget just Republican carping? Back on April, 29, 2009, in his 15th week as president, Barack Obama expressed "how gratified I am that the House and the Senate passed a budget resolution today that will serve as an economic blueprint for this nation's future." http://news.investors.com/Article/598690/201201231850/1000-days-without-budget-is-democrat-political-ploy.htm?src=SeeAlso
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Investors.com reports: In a scandal reeking of electoral fraud, a Democrat-linked political hack was arrested Friday for identity theft in an apparent bid to defame and replace Iowa's GOP secretary of state. How far up does this go?
Zachary Edwards, who served as President Obama's Iowa "New Media Director," and a campaign organizer in critical battleground states such as North Carolina and New Mexico during 2008's elections, apparently has quite a range of uses to the Democratic Party.
One of those uses may include identity theft.
The 29-year-old's arrest in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, for attempting to steal the identity of Matt Schultz, Iowa's Republican secretary of state, points to dirty tricks as a potential element of the Democratic agenda for 2012. The big question is how far up it goes.
According to a criminal complaint released by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, "Edwards fraudulently used, or attempted to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz and/or Schultz's brother, Thomas Schultz, to obtain a benefit, in an alleged scheme to falsely implicate Secretary Schultz in perceived illegal or unethical behavior while in office." http://news.investors.com/Article.aspx?id=598688&ibdbot=1&p=2
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CNS News reports:

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/under-obama-price-gas-has-jumped-83-percent-ground-beef-24-percent-bacon-22-percent
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The UK Daily Mail reports: In fact, in those two years, he [Romney] paid 16 percent of his income to charity, compared to, er, 2.6 percent by Newt Gingrich.
And what about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the run-up to their 2008 campaign?
USA Today broke it down here. In 2007, the Obamas gave more than $240,000 to charity, about 5.7 percent of their income. The Bidens gave an average of $369 to charity a year for the decade before he moved to the Naval Observatory - about 0.3 percent of their income. Back in 1997, then veep Al Gore and his then wife Tipper gave $353.
Since becoming veep, Biden hasn't become much more generous. In 2010, he gave $5,350, about 1.4 percent of income. That same year, Romney gave some $3 million. The national average is about three percent. http://harndenblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/01/much-ado-about-nothing-mitt-romney-is-very-rich-he-also-gave-millions-to-charity-and-the-taxman.html
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The UK Daily Mail reports: Two words hardly mentioned in Barack Obama’s 65-minute State of the Union address to Congress: freedom and liberty. President Obama’s fourth and possibly last State of the Union speech was long on big government proposals, but short on the principles that have made America the world’s greatest power. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100131525/barack-obama-is-still-driving-america-towards-decline/
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Altered flu virus research suspended; Maryland considers legislation against rat trafficking; Fancy, healthy, mandated school food being trashed; Canada may export oil to China; Government investigations of electric cars ended; Chief of criminal division of U.S. atty's office to take the fifth; Obama lies in first campaign ad; Solyndra trashes $2 million in parts; Congress may pass Keystone without Obama; Michigan considering free college for all; Did Obama give $88 billion in American cash and assets to Honduras?; Michigan debates Obamacare exchanges; Obama's poverty trickerations; Ron Paul would eliminate TSA

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:45:44 PST

The NY Times writes: The scientists who altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious have agreed to suspend their research for 60 days to give other international experts time to discuss the work and determine how it can proceed without putting the world at risk of a potentially catastrophic pandemic. Suspensions of biomedical research are almost unheard of; the only other one in the United States was a moratorium from 1974 to 1976 on some types of recombinant DNA research, because of safety concerns. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/science/scientists-to-pause-research-on-deadly-strain-of-bird-flu.html?_r=1&hp
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Washington Examiner reports: A Republican delegate in Maryland plans to introduce legislation to protect Maryland's borders not from undocumented workers, but from rodents.
Del. Pat McDonough, R-Baltimore, will at an afternoon news conference roll out his Rat Trafficking Act, which would bar the D.C. government “and any other entity from trafficking rats and other vermin into Maryland.”
McDonough’s move will come after a flurry of attacks against the District's Wildlife Protection Act of 2010, which mandates that animal control companies use humane methods when handling animals. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli set off the firestorm when he publicly worried that the law would lead to a mass relocation by exterminators of D.C. rats into his state. [The Law of Unintended Consequences....]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS LA reports: The revamped school lunches at Los Angeles Unified School District have won awards, commending them for improving the menu at the second largest school district in the nation. Too bad the students don’t agree. Rejecting healthful alternatives like vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles, students are throwing them in the trash by the thousands, bringing junk food from home and buying instant noodles and other decidedly unhealthy fare from the “black markets” that have begun to thrive at campuses across the district, according to the Los Angeles Times. [The Law of Unintended Consequences...] http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/lausd-students-roundly-reject-healthier-school-lunch-menu/
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Bloomberg reports: President Barack Obama’s decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-19/canada-pledges-to-sell-oil-to-asia-after-obama-rejects-keystone-pipeline.html
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Bloomberg reports: U.S. regulators, who ended their investigation yesterday into the Chevrolet Volt, said electric- powered vehicles do not pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline cars.
“Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in an e-mailed statement.
The conclusion by NHTSA came two weeks after General Motors Co. (GM) told Volt owners to bring the vehicles to dealerships for repair. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-20/chevy-volt-battery-fire-investigation-closed-by-u-s-regulator.html
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Powerline reports: In an ominous development for the Obama administration, Patrick Cunningham, chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, has told the House Oversight Committee that he will assert his privilege against self-incrimination rather than testify before the committee next week. DOJ officials in Washington evidently have blamed Cunningham for the fact that they provided false information to Congress in what appears to be an effort to cover up the Fast and Furious scandal. Cunningham’s lawyer, in a letter published here, says that blame is misplaced: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/01/holders-united-front-on-fast-and-furious-crumbles.php
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News Investors writes: In his very first TV ad of the 2012 campaign, the president is feeding the public false information about America's dependence on foreign fuels. His twisted statistics actually celebrate the Obama recession.Obama's ad dishonestly suggests he's been engineering an alternative energy economic renaissance in America. As hard-hatted workers are shown assembling solar panels, the ad says, "America's clean energy industry? 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly."
It's saying Obama created — or "saved" — 2.7 million new clean energy jobs, right? Uh-uh. Turns out that the Brookings Institution report that the ad cites as its source on the 2.7 million was referring to already-existing green jobs.
You'd never know from the Obama commercial that what Brookings actually said was: "Overall, today's clean economy establishments added half a million jobs between 2003 and 2010, expanding at an annual rate of 3.4 %" — a half-million over eight years being a tiny gain. And that "this performance lagged the growth in the national economy, which grew by 4.2% annually over the period." http://news.investors.com/Article/598518/201201201917/obama-energy-claims-celebrate-recession.htm?src=IBDDAE
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CBS San Francisco writes: After filing for bankruptcy last year, Fremont solar company Solyndra still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars. But CBS 5 caught them destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.
At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week. They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.
And it’s not a few loads. Hundreds of thousands of tubes on shrink-wrapped pallets will meet a similar demise.
Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass. A CBS 5 crew found one piece lying in the parking lot. Solyndra still owes the German company that made the tubes close to another $8 million.
So why is a bankrupt company that owes a fortune to creditors, including American taxpayers, throwing away millions of dollars worth of assets?
Solyndra is not commenting. But court documents reveal the company received permission from the bankruptcy trustee to abandon the high grade glass, the court agreeing that it was of “inconsequential value” because the cost of storing them exceeds their value. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/bankrupt-solyndra-caught-destroying-brand-new-parts/
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Yahoo News reports: The Congress has the constitutional right to legislate permits for cross-border oil pipelines like TransCanada's Keystone XL, according to a new legal analysis released late on Friday.

The study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service could give a boost to Republicans drafting legislation to overturn a decision this week by President Barack Obama to put the $7 billion Alberta-to-Texas project on ice.

Historically, U.S. presidents have made executive decisions on pipelines that cross borders. But Congress had the power all along to weigh in on the permits, said the study, done by four legislative attorneys with the CRS. http://news.yahoo.com/congress-legal-clout-keystone-pipeline-study-013431403.html

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Washington Times reports: In a bid to broaden college access and boost the state’s lagging economy, Democrats in Michigan have proposed a first-of-its-kind entitlement program aimed at giving many young people a free ride through college at taxpayers’ expense.
The proposal, dubbed “the 2020 Plan,” is estimated to cost at least $1.8 billion each year and would offer some students free tuition throughout their college careers at Michigan’s 15 public colleges and universities, with awards based on how long students have lived in the state. Those who spend all of their K-12 years in Michigan schools would be eligible for the full amount, the average tuition rate across the state university system, which is currently about $9,500 per year. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/19/michigan-plan-offers-tuition-free-education/
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Sodahead reports: An entry in the March, 2011 report prepared by the Russian Ministry of
Finance for the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) [aka
INTERPOL] designed to track major international monetary transactions
related to the global drug trade lists a US-EU transfer to Banco
Citibank de Honduras, S.A. from Barack Hussein Obama II in the shocking
amount of “$73 Billion in cash and US Securities” and “(estimated) $15 Billion in gold and silver bullion” on the same day the American President (March 22nd) was visiting El Salvadoron his visit to Central America. http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/obama-sends-85billion-to-citibank-de-honduras-re-interpol/question-2103991/
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Michigan Capitol Confidential reports: On Thursday, the Michigan House Health Policy Committee held what reportedly will be its final hearing on a state Obamacare exchange before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” in June. While previous hearings were dominated by special interests affected by the law, this one was for “regular” people, about 120 of whom showed up despite semi-blizzard conditions.
Representatives of a few special interests spoke, plus a small handful of individuals who support PPACA, but the testimony was dominated by statements from Tea Party activists and leaders who expressed passionate opposition to both the federal law and creation of a state-level agency to administer its subsidies (the “exchange,” or “MiHealth Marketplace”). “The doctors and health care professionals of Docs4PatientCare are dedicated to the preservation of the doctor-patient relationship. Our primary concern is the health and well-being of our patients. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act neither protects patients nor leads to affordable care.” http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16338
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Patriot Update explains poverty numbers: Barack Obama is manipulating poverty statistics to cover income redistribution on a massive scale. I covered this subterfuge in a previous American Thinker column, Obama’s Poverty Politics. The Census Bureau has redefined “poverty” in a way that vastly increases the ranks of those characterized as living in “poverty” or “near poverty.” Robert Rector , in Team O’s Poor Trick, wrote about the redefinition and its consequences (one that was barely noticed by the public):
Thus, it was foreordained that, using this new standard, the Census folks “discovered” that almost half the population is living in “near-poverty” conditions. That is, if you define “near poverty” as an income roughly equal to the median, that means that by definition nearly half the population will always be “poor” or “near poor” – regardless of any changes in actual living standards.
Obama’s new poverty measure will produce very odd results. For example, if the real income of every single American were to magically double overnight, the new measure would show no drop in poverty or “near poverty,” because the poverty- and near-poverty income thresholds would also double.
In other words, the president has introduced a statistical trick that gives new meaning to the saying that “the poor will always be with you.” http://patriotupdate.com/17527/obamas-poverty-politics-trick-to-redistribute-even-more-tax-dollars
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The Hill reports: Ron Paul said after he confirmed the incident involving Rand Paul on his Twitter page that it showed why the TSA should be eliminated. "The police state in this country is growing out of control," the elder Paul said in a statement released by his presidential campaign.

"One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities," he continued. "The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe. That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA." http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/tsa/205813-white-house-sides-with-tsa-in-rand-paul-standoff

Capitalism, and Bain, defined; Obama's GA court appearance; Big government has only 29% approval; Electronic ballots unreliable; 4000 support Scott Walker in Wisconsin rally; Santorum money-raising; Voter fraud in SC; European capitalism under attack;

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:54:22 PST

Wall St. Journal says what Romney should be saying: Not only did Bain Capital save America, but no matter what turn Mitt Romney's political career takes, Bain Capital may stand as the best of Mr. Romney's lifetime contributions to the nation's economic well-being. If only he'd tell the story.
We are of course putting forth "Bain Capital" as not merely the Romney private-equity house but as the stand-in for the period of American economic history that ran from 1980 to 1989. Back then it was called the Greed Decade, with asset-stripping barbarians at the gate. Virtually everything about this popular stereotype is wrong. Properly understood, the 1980s, including Bain, were the remarkable years when an ever-resilient America found a way to save itself from becoming what Europe is now—a global has-been.

Thousands of Mitt Romneys allied with huge pension funds representing colleges, unions and the like, plus a rising cadre of institutional money managers, to force corporate America to reboot. In the 1980s almost half of major U.S. corporations got takeover offers.
Singling out this or that Bain case study amid the jostling and bumping is pointless. This was a historic and necessary cleansing of the Augean stables of the American economy. It caused a positive revolution in U.S. management, financial analysis, incentives, governance and market-based discipline. It led directly to the 1990s boom years. And it gave the U.S. two decades of breathing room while Europe, with some exceptions, choked. http://online.wsj.com/article/wonder_land.html
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Forbes adds [Oops!]: In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corp., a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts.
During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company, Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corp. was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests.
According to federal government prosecutors, Damon was misleading physicians into ordering unnecessary blood tests, assuring the doctors that the testing would be covered by Medicare. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/01/21/romney-supervised-medical-testing-company-guilty-of-massive-medicare-fraud/
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Wayne Allen Root explains capitalism: My blue-collar butcher father used to always tell me, “Son, I’d love to hate rich people. But no poor person ever gave me a job.” Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry need a lesson in capitalism from my father. Their attacks on Mitt Romney this week are not just disgusting and insulting, they are ignorant. They’ve ruined their Presidential ambitions and damaged their credibility as conservatives.

So we expect this kind of anti-business rhetoric and class warfare out of Democrats. But Newt and Rick? Now Republicans are turning on capitalism too? It’s time for a lesson in capitalism as it relates to Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. In a capitalist society, businesses (large and small) can run into trouble and face bankruptcy. I know. I’ve run businesses my whole life. When that happens you can either close the business, or go to an investor like Bain who is willing to risk their capital (i.e. cold hard cash) to save your company.
So businesses like Bain Capital come along and invest tens, even hundreds of millions into your dream. They are pure risk-takers, like a Wild West gunslinger combined with a riverboat gambler. Now comes the hard part- turning your failing company into a winner. Unlike government failures, failure in the private sector means the loss of hard, cold cash from the risk-taking investor’s personal pocket
So what does Bain Capital do? They’ve got to work fast. They analyze every inch of the business. To give the most productive part of the company a chance to survive, the cost cutting begins. Nothing is off the table. Unproductive employees, fat-cat overpaid executives, failing product lines, and entire underperforming divisions are cut.

As painful as this may be to those whose jobs are eliminated, the alternative is closing the entire business and losing many more jobs. Unlike Barack Obama, Bain is actually saving jobs. Even better, if the game plan is successful, the company will now be positioned to expand and create jobs. In capitalism you must often cut first to expand later.
It is that simple.
That is the very essence of capitalism, accomplished with private capital, not some government program funded with money extorted (or as Obama calls it “redistributed”) from taxpayers.
But shouldn’t you be rewarded with a big payday for risking your own money to save and turn around companies that are failing, or under-achieving? If you think that is unfair, head to Cuba. Because without risk and reward there is no America. There is no capitalism. Without risk and reward, you get 1956 Oldsmobiles and donkeys pulling carts to your ramshackle hut in Havana. Socialism doesn’t create jobs. Socialism doesn’t work. No, there aren’t rich people (if you don’t count the corrupt people who take charge of the country), but unfortunately there aren’t jobs either. With Socialism, the misery is shared by all.
Do you know why government can afford to employ far more people than it needs (even if they are incompetent), pay them far more than they are worth, and keep them employed forever while losing billions of dollars? It’s because it’s not their money, so they don’t care. It’s YOUR money. When government bleeds losses, they just raise taxes, stealing more from the taxpayers, or borrow it from China, or just run the printing presses at the Fed (which steals from us all).

This is how the U.S. government has managed to employ an unfathomable 21 million employees, while building up an unsustainable $15 trillion debt, plus an additional $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This debt is so huge it can never be paid back. The fact is America is insolvent.
http://www.rootforamerica.com/webroot/blog/2012/01/17/a-lesson-in-capitalism-for-newt-gingrich-and-rick-perry/
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Redstate writes: Peter Hamby from CNN notes what is going to be a recipe for disaster for Mitt Romney as he tries to relate to the Republican base.
In South Carolina exit polls, Romney wins only the “moderate or liberal”, those with incomes in excess of $200,000.00, those with postgraduate education, those who oppose the tea party movement, and those who think religion does not matter at all.
Mitt Romney’s exit polling reflects he can get the votes of Washington, D.C. Republicans and those who think we should leave the fate of the country in their hands. But he cannot get the votes of those who think we need to reform and reduce the power of Washington, which I venture to say is a sizable portion of the base. http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/21/this-is-a-recipe-for-disaster/
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CBS Atlanta reports: A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president.

The hearing is set for Thursday before an administrative judge. Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi on Friday denied a motion by the president's lawyer to quash a subpoena that requires Obama to show up. http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/16567672/ga-judge-orders-president-to-appear-at-hearing

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The Daily Interlake reports: It turns out that Georgia has a state law requiring that every candidate for federal office “shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.” Seems reasonable enough. The law also permits any “elector” (which in common parlance means any person eligible to vote in Georgia) to raise a challenge to any candidate’s qualifications.
This is significant because, although there have been challenges in court to President Obama’s eligibility before, there has never been a case yet where evidence was presented and a verdict reached. If Judge Michael Malihi of the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings actually allows the case to proceed to a verdict, it is almost inevitable that it will be appealed by one side or the other all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and we can get a ruling — finally — on just what the Founding Fathers meant when they restricted the presidency to “natural born citizens.”
President Obama certainly can make a strong case that he meets the definition of a “natural born citizen,” especially if he presents a hard copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate instead of the digital copy released last year.
Yes, there are those who — taking their argument from Emerich de Vatell’s “The Law of Nations” of 1758 — insist that natural born citizens “are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens,” but there have been many others who have drawn the opposite conclusion as well. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_c90787ea-43dc-11e1-bc8b-001871e3ce6c.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Expose Obama writes: Barack Obama has outlined a defense strategy for a multitude of state-level challenges to his candidacy on the 2012 presidential ballot in a Georgia case that is scheduled to come before a judge later this month – simply explain that states have nothing to do with the eligibility of presidential candidates.
“Presidential electors and Congress,not the state of Georgia,hold the constitutional responsibility for determining the qualifications of presidential candidates,” Obama’s lawyer argues in a motion to quash a subpoena for him to appear at the hearings Jan. 26.

“The election of President Obama by the presidential electors,confirmed by Congress,makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant,” the lawyer said. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/20/obamas-lawyer-proving-my-eligibility-is-unreasonable/

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American Thinker reports: The hint that public sentiment was shifting away from reliance on big government (and those that promoted it) came earlier in the week when Gallup produced a poll showing that American's "satisfaction with the size and power of the federal government is at a record low 29%.

Gallup indicated that this made big government a "highly susceptible " target for politicians this year.

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Computerworld reports: An electronic ballot scanning device slated for use in the upcoming presidential elections, misreads ballots, fails to log critical events and is prone to freezes and sudden lockups, the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission has found. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223187/E_voting_machine_freezes_misreads_votes_U.S._agency_says-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4,000 attended the Support Scott Walker rally [in the matter of his possible recall]...the silent majority isn't so silent after all.

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Redstate reports: I can confirm tonight from multiple sources that phone calls are in fact occurring between Republicans in Washington and among evangelical leaders to raise money for Rick Santorum rapidly.
The sources tell me that this is not for a Santorum win, though the evangelicals I spoke to continue to hope it is possible. This is to stop Newt Gingrich. One evangelical leader I spoke to said, “If Newt wins, we won’t be able to make family values an issue in the general.” One lobbyist I spoke to said, “They [the GOP leaders in DC] are really nervous about Gingrich and they think he’d be a disaster. The best way to shut him down is to prop up Rick.”
Florida is going to get interesting. http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/01/22/money-for-santorum/
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WTOC11 reports: South Carolina's attorney general has notified the U.S. Justice Department of potential voter fraud.

Attorney General Alan Wilson sent details of an analysis by the Department of Motor Vehicles to U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles.

In a letter dated Thursday, Wilson says the analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters listed as dead. In 71 percent of those cases, ballots were cast between two months and 76 months after the people died. That means they "voted" up to 6 1/3 years after their death. [Does this mean that liberal protestations that voter fraud doesn't occur are simply wrong?]

The letter doesn't say in which elections the ballots were cast. http://www.wtoc.com/story/16571904/south-carolinas-attorney-general-detects-voter-fraud-for-primaries

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Breitbart writes: Economic and political elites meeting this week at the Swiss resort of Davos will be asked to urgently find ways to reform a capitalist system that has been described as "outdated and crumbling." "We have a general morality gap, we are over-leveraged, we have neglected to invest in the future, we have undermined social coherence, and we are in danger of completely losing the confidence of future generations," said Klaus Schwab, host and founder of the annual World Economic Forum. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.be33fda73987ff722e71ca3a18f1bfaf.351&show_article=1
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1/2 of American high school students believe newspapers should not be able to publish stories without government approval! ; My lates Boyne City Gazette article - Who needs Congress - part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:00:08 PST

The Petoskey News Review recently reported that a University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy poll in 2005 found that 1/3 of Americans now say they have too much freedom, and half of American high schoolers said they think newspapers should not be able to publish stories without government approval! The newspaper was appropriately worried about our rights to free speech. [This certainly highlights the outcome of our progressive education agenda. Hello, Occupy groups! We should all be astounded and quite disturbed by this belief! As to our freedom of religion, the Constitution declares only that the government shall not establish an official religion. Liberals are redefining "separation" to suit their own desires. I am sure this group of people have no problem, then, with Barack Obama's unconstitutional, dictatorial actions as President.]

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In part 4 of my expose: Who Needs Congress, I quote Barack Obama: "I've told my administration, we're going to look every single day to figure out what we can do without Congress," “We can't wait for Congress to do its job." Obama and his administration have passed the following laws and regulations:

1. The recent law signed by Obama confers the right of our government to indefinitely detain any terrorism suspect without trial. Michigan Senator Carl Levin states that Obama asked for the language protecting American citizens to be removed from the bill. To Congress’ shame, the bill passed. While believing no one should be detained or water-boarded at Gitmo, Obama nevertheless decided to kill an American citizen, terrorist though he was, via drone – al-Awlaki.

2. A relaxation on oversight of the FBI’s intelligence gathering activities - meaning our trash can be gone through and law enforcement data bases can be accessed without an investigation being opened.

3. The Department of Justice now has the legal right to tell outright lies about what documents it does and doesn’t have. Government can hide from us just what it is doing.

4. The National Labor Relations Board is charged with judging private sector labor law cases and interpreting labor statutes. It is proposing sweeping rule changes favorable to unions.

5. President Obama recently declared during congressional hearings into the disappearance of $1.2 billion that he can preempt the law whenever its enforcement might irritate a foreign government.

6. President Obama argues that he has the unilateral power to nullify Arizona’s Immigration law by saying that it implicates the president’s power over foreign affairs, trumping any state’s immigration-related actions when another nation has a complaint.

7. Our Department of Justice rejected South Carolina’s voter ID law, saying no evidence of fraud had been provided. This standard was rejected by the Supreme Court but is ignored by Obama. The Supreme Court also previously stated that the “burden to travel to an elections office with proof of ID is no more a burden than traveling to the polling place to vote. Voter turnout has actually increased in states that require voter ID. In Chicago, photo ID is required for purchasing Draino, but not for voting.

8. Obama’s EEOC has just declared that requiring a high school education in order to apply for a job goes against the Americans for Disability Act. This not only is a ploy to get more votes, it creates a reason for more students to drop out of high school and it further dumbs-down our populace, all in one fell swoop! Attorneys will be fully employed prosecuting lawsuits.

9. President Obama recently named a new cabinet-level Office of Manufacturing Policy, along with two new czars who will guide his manufacturing policies. This comes after he signed the budget compromise wherein the czars overseeing health care, climate change, the auto industry and urban affairs were eliminated. Following his signing it into law, he declared he would ignore the part about the czars.

10. Obama is collecting information by asking supporters to ‘have a little fun at the expense of a Republican in your life’ by signing them up to get an email from the Obama campaign ribbing them for having ‘inspired’ the supporter to donate. In the process, Obama gets the conservatives’ email addresses. If the supporter also provides the home address and purchases an Obama store item, Obama will even send the gift to Republicans. This follows his flag@whitehouse program and “Attack Watch”, the program of snitching to the Obama website on any person who might have said “something fishy” about Obamacare or anything else.

11) Obama’s Cybersecurity Coordinator is moving to give the Commerce Department the authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans, an “identity ecosystem” for the internet.

12) Americans staying at home caring for disabled family members are now forced to join a union and pay union dues. SEIU receives about $30 of each family’s Medicaid subsidy as union dues.

14) President Obama in early January made three recess appointments of those whom Congress failed to approve. The problem is that Congress was not in recess, making this a flagrant abuse of the law.

Conservativecorner-karen.blogspot.com

Democrats propose windfall profits tax on gas profits THEY deem to be too high; Newt at his fiery best; Dems received more political contributions from Bain Capital; College students too often graduate with majors which don't position them for jobs; Fort Hood is "workplace violence", so no Purple Hearts; Obama disenfranchises union with his acdeptance speech venue; Army looking for Internment/Resettlement Specialists; Iowa Republicans disenfranchised voters; Fact-checking Obama's oil and gas figures; N.Y. voter fraud revealed; Obama awards weapons contract to Brazilian company with ties to Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:58:33 PST

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits.
The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.
The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205085-dems-propose-reasonable-profits-board-to-regulate-oil-company-profits
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CNN reveals: Here is the video clip of the opening question at last night's debate, concerning Newt Gingrich's ex-wife. Newt's answer received a standing ovation and a smack-down of the liberal media. His final words were, "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking the Republicans." It was Newt at his best.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/politics/gop-debate/index.html
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The Hill reports: Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private equity firm.
During the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million. The vast majority of that sum came from senior executives.
Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from senior Bain executives during that time period. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/205025-dems-receive-more-bain-dollars-than-gop
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The great Thomas Sowell writes: When institutions of higher learning turn out highly qualified doctors, scientists, engineers and others with skills that can raise the standard of living of a whole society and make possible a better and longer life, the benefits are obvious.
What is not so obvious, but is painfully true nonetheless, is that colleges and universities can also turn out vast numbers of people with credentials, but with no marketable skills with which to fulfill their expectations.A decade after graduation, people whose degrees were in a hard field like engineering earned twice as much as people whose degrees were in the ultimate soft field, education. Nor is a degree from a prestigious institution a guarantee of a big pay-off, especially not for those who failed to specialize in subjects that would give them skills valued in the real world.
But that is not even half the story. In countries around the world, people with credentials but no marketable skills have been a major source of political turmoil, social polarization and ideologically driven violence, sometimes escalating into civil war.
People with degrees in soft subjects, which impart neither skills nor a realistic understanding of the world, have been the driving forces behind many extremist movements with disastrous consequences.
It was much the same story of soft-subject "educated" but unsuccessful young men who promoted pro-fascist and anti-Semitic movements in Romania in the 1930s.
The targets have been different in different countries but the basic story has been much the same. Those who cannot compete in the marketplace, despite their degrees, not only resent those who have succeeded where they have failed, but push demands for preferential treatment, in order to negate the "unfair" advantages that others have.
The semi-literate sloganizing of our own Occupy Wall Street mobs recalls the distinction that Milton Friedman often made between those who are educated and those who have simply been in schools. Generating more such people, in the name of expanding education, may serve the interests of the Obama administration but hardly the interests of America.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/01/18/an_ignored_disparity_part_ii/page/full/
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Israel Matzav writes: Echoing a Defense Department determination that called the Fort Hood massacre 'workplace violence,' President Obama has denied purple hearts to the soldiers who were murdered there by an Islamic terrorist. I received the following email from the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Dear DHFC Supporter,

Barack Obama has just done something truly disgraceful! He's declared the 2009 Fort Hood massacre - where a radical Islamic terrorist killed 13 American soldiers and wounded 29 more - "work place violence," not a terrorist attack. http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2012/01/obama-declares-fort-hood-work-accident.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Red State writes: Nearly a year ago, the Democratic National Committee opened a wound with union bosses, the Democratic party’s biggest financial backers, by choosing Charlotte, NC as the host-city for its 2012 convention. While the circumstances that led to the decision to choose one of the least unionized states in the nation may have been a union turf war, the DNC convention planners have tried to make up for it by discriminating against union-free vendors.
Nevertheless, the AFL-CIO’s Building & Construction Trades Division has chosen to boycott the convention entirely and, now, DNC convention planners may just have added more salt to union bosses’ wound by choosing the venue for Obama to make his acceptance speech at Charlotte’s Bank of America stadium—a stadium built by non-union labor. http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2012/01/17/dnc-planners-provide-stark-contrast-with-choice-of-union-free-stadium/
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Go Army posts this: Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel. [If our glorious president had not declared that he needed a civilian "army" larger and just as powerful as the military; if Congress had not just passed a law permitting the internment of American citizens without a trial, this would not feel so ominous.] http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job-categories/legal-and-law-enforcement/internment-resettlement-specialist.html
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Washington Times reports: In a stunning turn of events, Rick Santorum now appears to have won the Iowa caucuses, though the state’s Republican Party says there are too many holes in the results for them to ever be able to say for certain.
The party, which runs the caucuses, has done a recount since the Jan. 3 voting, and told the Des Moines Register the tally now shows Mr. Santorum up by 34 votes. On caucus night the party said Mitt Romney had won by eight votes.
The deadline for final certification of the results was Wednesday. Party officials said eight precincts failed to follow the rules and fill out the official forms on caucus night, meaning those results can never be certified, while other precincts turned in forms that didn’t meet the legal requirements.
[I can't begin to express my disgust that the Republicans cannot get the job done right. What chance do we have? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/19/recount-gives-santorum-edge-iowa-caucuses/
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Heritage.org reports: Under Obama, Oil and Gas Production on Federal Lands Is Down 40%

House Natural Resources Committee noted these figures:

Oil and natural gas production on federal lands is down by more than 40 percent compared to 10 years ago.

Under the Obama administration, 2010 had the lowest number of onshore leases issued since 1984.

The Obama administration held only one offshore lease sale in 2011.

Despite the Obama administration’s restrictive policies for oil and gas production on federal lands, overall production still increased thanks to the pro-energy policies in states like North Dakota.

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/18/under-obama-oil-and-gas-production-on-federal-lands-is-down-40/

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Fox News reports: Michael LoPorto arrived at the Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, N.Y. on Tuesday for his trial, which accuses him of being part of a “massive” voter fraud scheme.

The former Democratic city councilman and popular local restaurant owner appeared jaunty and relaxed as he answered a series of questions from Fox News -- despite facing felony allegations that could send him to prison for seven years.

Voters told Fox News they never filled out absentee ballot applications for the 2009 Working Families Party primary, and were later stunned to learn the applications were, in fact, turned in to the Board of Elections, with ballots cast in their names. Democratic candidates routinely try to secure the Working Families electoral line to obtain more votes in the general election. The party was associated with the now-defunct community group ACORN.

"Jackals prey upon the weakest member of the herd. That's what happened here," LoPorto's attorney Michael Feit said of the guilty pleas in which former officials admitted forging ballot applications and submitting them as legitimate votes.

Two veteran Democratic political operatives in Troy said voter fraud is an accepted way of winning elections, and faking absentee ballots was commonplace.

Anthony DeFiglio, a Democratic Committeeman who pleaded guilty to falsifying business records, told state police investigators that such fraud is actually "an ongoing scheme and it occurs on both sides of the aisle. The people who are targeted live in low-income housing and there is a sense that they are a lot less likely to ask any questions... What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic."

Anthony Renna, another longtime Democratic operative and party committeeman, admitted to forging an absentee ballot application. He said the process of handing in forged ballots and fake votes ensures that "ballots are voted correctly."

"I knew that the actual voters had not voted the ballots or signed the envelopes, but that did not concern me. I am not the ballot police," Renna said in a statement to police. "I have been present when 'ballots were voted correctly' by party operatives. Voted correctly is a term used for a forged application or ballot."

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Fellowship of Minds writes: Obama, who just cares so much for the American worker, just awarded a big weapons contract to a foreign company described by the Financial Times as just “venturing into the defense industry,” instead of the U.S. company Hawker Beechcraft. If the contract had been awarded to Hawker Beechcraft, it would lead to the employment of as many as 1,400 new workers across 20 states.
Then to make this story even better, the foreign company is a Brazilian company with ties to Iran! — the same Iran whose navy is threatening to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, which will skyrocket our gas prices.
Ben Howe reports for Red State that on Nov. 17, 2011, Hawker Beechcraft was informed by the U.S. Air Force that they were not going to be allowed to compete for an American military aircraft contract to build a light attack aircraft, a contract worth nearly $1 billion.
Hawker Beechcraft had been working with the Air Force for two years and spent over $100 million to ensure its Beechcraft AT-6 complied with all requirements for the plane. http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/obama-awards-weapons-contract-to-brazilian-company
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House rejects debt ceiling hike; Obama denies call for direct talks with Iran via secret letter; Natural gas in abundance; China wants Obama to be reelected; NY, St. Louis and N.J. schools invade privacy of students; Jan. 26 hearing on Obama eligibility; Treasury dips into federal pension funds; Newsweek calls Obama detractors "dumb"; Obama blames Republicans; Hillary Clinton to testify on pipeline; Pelosi no longer supporting "Occupy"; ABC to run hit piece on Gingrich; Our Divisive President

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:05:39 PST

The Hill reports: The House on Wednesday evening approved a resolution disapproving of President Obama's request to increase the federal debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion, sending it to a Senate that is expected to reject it.
The House approved the resolution in a 239-176 vote in which just one Republican voted against it, and six Democrats voted for it. But the vote fell far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed for passage if Obama were to veto the resolution. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/204927-house-approves-resolution-opposing-obamas-debt-limit-hike
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The UK Daily Mail reports: The White House has denied calling for direct talks with Iran in a 'secret letter' to the country's supreme leader.
A conservative Iranian lawmaker had claimed that Barack Obama was trying to open back-channel negotiations with the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088431/U-S-threatens-Iran-crucial-global-oil-route-blocked.html#ixzz1juSeiMuk
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Chicago Tribune writes: The price of natural gas is plummeting at a pace that has caught even the experts off guard. A 35 percent collapse in the futures price over the past year has been a boon to homeowners who use natural gas for heat and appliances and to manufacturers who power their factories and make chemicals and materials with it.

The country is flush with natural gas as a result of new drilling techniques that have enabled energy companies to tap vast supplies that were out of reach not so long ago. The country's natural gas surplus has been growing even as the country burns record amounts. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-natural-gas-plunge,0,7715256.story
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Personal Liberty writes: Good news: You don’t need to fret about global war, the economy or even the future value of outstanding U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, at least if China has any say. It is not going to do a single thing to rock America’s boat. In fact, Beijing hopes that things stay smooth as glass, because it holds more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt. And with the direction America is going, the country would love nothing better than to see Barack Obama re-elected.
China’s leaders are not stupid. To them, Obama is the best thing to come along since one-minute rice.
One prominent Republican agrees. Last month, self-promoter extraordinaire Donald Trump wrote an open letter to the President. Trump took issue with Obama regarding the advantages in trade that China is being given, writing: “How little respect the Chinese government has for you.” http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/keep-china-happy-vote-obama/?eiid=
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal Liberty writes: A group of Bay Shore, N.Y., school students will soon be wearing a watch-like device that allows school officials to track how active they are, officials say.
The devices are called Polar Active monitors and they count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in an effort to combat obesity, the New York Post reported Sunday.
“It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the obesity epidemic. It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’ We want to give kids the opportunity to become active,” said Bay Shore athletics chairman Ted Nagengast.
The devices are called Polar Active monitors and they count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in an effort to combat obesity, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The monitors are distributed by Polar Electro, of Lake Success, the U.S. division of a Finland firm. They cost $90 each.
School districts in St. Louis and South Orange, N.J., already use the devices, which has raised some privacy concerns, according to the Post. [Where are the parents to say, "Make me" put this "watch" on my child! What an invasion of privacy!] http://www.personalliberty.com/news/schools-to-monitor-obesity-in-students/?eiid=
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Expose Obama writes: A hearing has been set for January 26,2012,for the purpose of hearing the complaint of David Weldon,a citizen living in Georgia,where he questioned the Constitutionality of President Obama being allowed on the Georgia presidential ballot.
The hearing here in Atlanta will be on January 26th at 9 a.m. Since this is a public hearing,the public can attend. The location is the Justice Center Building,160 Pryor St,Atlanta,GA – Courtroom G40 on the ground floor.

On January 3,2012,Judge Malihi denied the request from Mr. Obama’s attorneys to dismiss the case accusing him of not being qualified to be on the ballot;and therefore,ineligible to run for President this year in Georgia. They contend that since both of his parents were not citizens,that makes him ineligible. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/17/the-public-can-attend-the-hearing-over-obamas-eligibility-set-in-georgia/
----------------------------------------------------- In this Feb. 27, 2008 file photo, a Vietnamese woman works at a fish market in Nha Trang, Vietnam. It might have surprised you to learn in recent news that Brazil tops Florida as the world's largest orange juice producer. You probably also didn’t know most of our apple juice comes from China. What about the fact that 85 percent of the fish Americans eat is imported, too? Photo: Chitose Suzuki / AP For instance, while 85 percent of the apple juice we drink is imported, only about 7 percent of the apples we eat are. Andy Jerardo, an economist at the USDA, says that's because the juice often comes from China, which produces apples that are inferior for snacking but good for drinking. http://www.chron.com/news/article/Apple-juice-made-in-America-Think-again-2527591.php
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Yahoo writes: The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills.
"I will be unable to invest fully" the federal employees retirement system fund beginning Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Obama administration's request to raise the country's legal debt limit to $16.394 trillion. http://news.yahoo.com/treasury-dips-pension-funds-avoid-debt-limit-202850021.html
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The Blaze reports: The “Newsweek” magazine cover from the latest issue has done its job — it’s created quite the controversy and gotten plenty of people talking. If you haven’t seen it, it’s below, along with the cover story headline of “Why are Obama’s critics so dumb?” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/megyn-kelly-blasts-newsweek-author-andrew-sullivan-over-cover-hes-not-an-actual-journalist/

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National Journal reports: In a decision sure to re-ignite a fierce energy debate, the Obama administration was announcing on Wednesday its rejection of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline because the 60-day deadline imposed by Republicans did not allow adequate time to review an alternate route through critical wetlands in the Midwest. http://nationaljournal.com/congress/obama-rejecting-pipeline-pokes-back-at-gop-20120118?mrefid=subhplead_1
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House Republicans have called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify as early as next week on the Obama administration’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

A bill from Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) to give FERC control over the pipeline’s fate instead of the White House and State Department is “first in line,” Upton said. “Terry has a very good bill,” he said. “But again all options are on the table.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) has a draft bill to allow Congress to approve the pipeline, giving Nebraska officials time to find an alternative route.

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Big Government opines: Of course, when the #Occupy movement first arose, Pelosi and and other members of the Leftist Elite gushed with enthusiasm about the protests:

House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement, which began on the streets of downtown New York City in mid-September.
“I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen,” said Pelosi in an exclusive interview with ABC News “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour. “We cannot continue in a way this is not relevant to their lives.”

For good measure, President Obama added:

The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side.

So, what happened?

Or, maybe the news that the #Occupy kids had illegally taken over the home of a struggling single dad for their own use proved too much for Dame Pelosi. It’s a nice attempt at a pivot, but make no mistake, the Dems own the #Occupy movement. [At a recent Politico event, Miss Nancy actually said, "Well, we don't really have much of a connection to the Occupy".] http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2012/01/17/dead-movement-walking-pelosi-tries-to-distance-herself-dems-from-occupy-movement/

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Drudge Reports: Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview. She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail. ABCNEWS suits determined it would be "unethical" to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary. A decision was tentatively made to air the interview next Monday, after all votes have been counted. Gingrich canceled a press conference on Wednesday to deal with the matter.UPDATE: The AP reports ABC is now likely to air the segment Thursday on NIGHTLINE. http://drudgereport.com/flash2.htm
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American Thinker opines: Democrat professionals Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen this July pleaded with Obama in a Wall Street Journal column, "Our Divisive President," not to run for a second term. They describe his leadership as toxically divisive to our country. According to Gallup, Obama's approval gap after one year was the most polarized in history, with an average approval of 88% among his own party and 23% among Republicans.
Obama's disdain and hostility to opponents has been quite visible. He dissed the Supreme Court to their faces, dismissed Congressman Ryan's efforts to work together on the deficit with a "you lost, we won" crack, and told Republicans to shut up and go to the back of the bus. He rammed through the biggest changes to health care in history by chicanery, to avoid having to make compromises with Republicans through the normal conference process. He ignored the recommendations of his own bipartisan commission on controlling debt and deficit. His favorite activity (next to golf) is class warfare. Obama is indeed the great divider, and the country shows it.
What else do we know? To the surprise of many, we now know that Obama does not pay attention to the black community -- he doesn't visit them, talk to them, encourage them, propose policies to benefit them. He hasn't helped this suffering community, and when he does go to speechify, this is what he says:

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

We now see the lazy student, the charmer in the White House, busy at what he likes best: golf, basketball, vacations, parties, speeches, and raising money. He has not been the policy wonk Democrats dreamed of, President Clinton redux. Obama doesn't do hard work. He farmed out his health reform to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, showing no interest or capability in formulating the details of the policy or even working the politics to get it through Congress. He famously didn't lift the phone to call Capitol Hill and get his signature policy passed. Obama's only contribution was nonstop speeches, which failed to win over the country. He doesn't seem interested in or capable of formulating an intelligent economic policy or foreign policy. He doesn't care enough to even try.
Progressives saw Obama as worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, before even taking office. Republicans warned that Obama was a psychologically troubled man who deified his anti-colonial father, resented American power abroad, and had a troubling history of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel relationships (think Reverend Wright and Rashid Khalidi), never outgrowing an adolescent idolization of Castro and Che Guevara.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/m-now_we_know_who_was_right_about_obama.html

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Glorious leader to give acceptance speech in [the evil] Bank of America stadium; Obama's Jobs Council calls for all-in approach; Private Facebook messages to be analyzed by government; Recess appointments challenged in court; Eric Holder's prosecution on pro-life educator dropped by judge; Wikipedia shuts down for 24 hr. in protest; Occupy DC throws smoke bombs on White House lawn; Foreign internet voting company has purchased the USA's election results reporting company; What about Obama's college transcripts?; Occupy DC rats cannot be killed; Occupy running out of money; Smoke bombs on White House lawn;

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:52:07 PST

Daily Caller reports [on the glorious Obama. I wonder if there will be Greek columns again, just to make him look even more important? There is a chance I will be there to see for myself.]

Glorious leader seizes Bank of America stadium for the proletariat

Or: Obama Occupies Bank of America.
If there’s one bit of valuable knowledge we can take away from the last few months, it’s that bankers are evil and must be destroyed. And what better way to undermine them than to take over their symbols of wealth and power, using them for a 99% higher purpose?
The Charlotte Observer:

On the final night of this fall’s Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at Bank of America stadium, party sources told the Observer on Monday night…
The move, which would open the speech to the public, is designed to help mobilize voters in North Carolina, a key swing state. It could also serve as a perk to donors, who could be rewarded with skybox seats…

That’s right! He’s standing up to Wall Street by using one of its most prominent symbols to raise funds. But they’re good funds, because they’re going to him, unlike the bad funds that go to Republicans and other vermin. He’s fighting the system from within and stuff. Right?

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The Hill reports: President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines.

“[W]e should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/204621-obamas-jobs-council-calls-for-expanded-drilling
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All Things D reports: Most notably, the Facebook-Politico data set will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments. While that may alarm some people, Facebook and Politico say the entire process is automated and no Facebook employees read the posts.
Rather, every post and comment — both public and private — by a U.S. user that mentions a presidential candidate’s name will be fed through a sentiment analysis tool that spits out anonymized measures of the general U.S. Facebook population.
This is similar to the way Google offers reports on search trends based on its users’ aggregate search activities. http://allthingsd.com/20120112/facebook-gives-politico-deep-access-to-users-political-sentiments/
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Bloomberg reports: President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of three members to the National Labor Relations Board was challenged in court by the National Federation of Independent Business, which claims a constitutional violation.
The filing yesterday may be the first legal action targeting the White House appointments made without Senate confirmation on Jan. 4 during a brief congressional break. It was made as part of an existing lawsuit in federal court in Washington over a new NLRB rule that requires employers to notify workers of their rights to form a union.
Without a legal quorum, the board has no authority to enforce the rule, the NFIB, which was joined by four other groups and companies in the filing, argued.
“The grounds for the motion are that very significant events have transpired since the filing of the complaints in this case, particularly within the last ten days,” according to the filing. “The president purported to appoint the new members without the advice and consent of the Senate.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-14/obama-recess-appointments-challenged-by-trade-groups-in-lawsuit.html
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Green Mountain Scribes reports: A federal judge has ended Attorney General Eric Holder’s two-year political prosecution of pro-life educator Mary Susan Pine. Holder accused Pine of obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (“FACE”). Holder sought thousands of dollars in fines against Pine, as well as a permanent injunction banning her from counseling women on the public sidewalk outside the Presidential Women’s Center (“PWC”) abortion clinic, where she has faithfully ministered for over 20 years. Liberty Counsel in granting summary judgment, Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp concluded that “the evidence could not lead a rational jury to find that Ms. Pine’s conduct [i.e., having peaceful conversations with clinic visitors on a public sidewalk] constituted a physical obstruction within the meaning of FACE.” He also concluded that the government lacked evidence to prove not just one, but “all three elements of its FACE claim.” Judge Ryskamp chastised Holder for seeking to apply federal law in a clearly unconstitutional manner: “Stretching the terms of FACE to apply to this case … so that a desire to provide people with information about alternatives to abortion constitutes an unlawful motive, would unjustifiably impinge on Ms. Pine’s First Amendment rights.”
The Government’s decision to prosecute Pine despite having no evidence of wrongdoing prompted Judge Ryskamp to suspect a conspiracy at the highest level of the Obama Administration: “The Court can only wonder whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the Government and the PWC, which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine’s activities rather than to vindicate the rights of those allegedly aggrieved by Ms. Pine’s conduct.” http://greenmountainscribes.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/eric-holders-political-prosecution-of-pro-life-educator-thrown-out-of-court/#more-3484
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NY Times reports: With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment — a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington.
But the tech industry fears that, among other things, they will give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they say are abusing copyrights.
The legislation has jolted technology leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, who are not accustomed to having their free-wheeling online world come under attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html?_r=1&hp
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Yahoo News reports: Several hundred protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement converged on the West Lawn of the Capitol Tuesday to decry the influence of corporate money in politics and voice myriad other grievances.

Organizers had touted the rally, known as Occupy Congress, as the largest national gathering of Occupy protesters to date and secured a permit that would have allowed up to 10,000 people to participate. By mid-afternoon, the protest appeared to have fallen far short of those goals. [One wonders if Democrat National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz thinks this is a peaceful protest?]

http://news.yahoo.com/several-hundred-occupy-protesters-rally-capitol-233535407.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Drudge Report reveals: In a major step towards global centralization of election processes, the world's dominant Internet voting company has purchased the USA's dominant election results reporting company.

These two independent sources, however, will now be merged into one single source: an Internet voting system controlled by SCYTL, with a results reporting system also controlled by SCYTL. With SCYTL internet voting, there will be no ballots. No physical evidence. No chain of custody. No way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes, chain of custody, or the count. http://drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

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Real Clear Politics: Ed Henry, FOX News: "I don't know how many years, maybe you do, George Romney released of his college transcripts, but Republicans like to complain that the President has not released his college transcripts. What is the stated reason for that?"
Jay Carney, White House: "I would refer you to the campaign. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/17/carney_dodges_question_about_obamas_college_transcripts_i_would_refer_you_to_the_campaign.html

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CBS News reports: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel. Lately, there have been reports of growing rat infestations around the Occupy DC protests at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square.
Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a “wildlife rehabilitator” as part of their relocation process.

”http://cnsnews.com/news/article/va-ag-fears-dc-law-may-relocate-rat-families-virginia

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Wall St. Journal reports: Occupy Wall Street—the movement built on protesting corporate greed and income inequality—is running out of money.
After raising more than $700,000 last fall, protesters who keep track of money for Occupy Wall Street reported this week that the group has about $170,000 in its bank account. Very few donations are coming in, they said.
"If we keep spending at the rate at which we have been doing, we will probably go broke in a month," said Haywood Carey, 28 years old, a member of the movement's accounting group. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577165423192946892.html
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National Review reports: On Michelle’s birthday no less.

The Secret Service was responding Tuesday night to an escalating protest that may have involved one or more smoke bombs being thrown over the White House fence.
An estimated 1,000 protesters have gathered. No arrests have been made, but authorities are on alert.

The Secret Service also deployed a robot to check out the devices on the North Lawn. No one is currently allowed to leave through the North Gate, but those with the right access can go through the White House and leave through the South Gate.The Obamas were at dinner celebrating Michelle Obama’s birthday, but they have since returned to the White House without difficulty. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288400/remember-when-tea-party-threw-smoke-bombs-white-house-jonah-goldberg

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Gingrich hits a home run on jobs; Australia says immigrants, not Australians, must adapt; Obama to raise debt limit again, while Congress in recess?; Some N. Koreans to labor-training camp; AZ ruling against immigration law probably unconstitutional; Rep. Allen West would consider VP position; Obama's appearance on Illinois primary ballot in question; Occupy to be taken over by Democratic Socialists of America; Occupy DC won't leave park; 84% of us disapprove of Congress actions; A sense of victimhood - or a way to lift us up?; SEIU looking for a community organizer on their payroll

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:04:18 PST

Daily Caller reports: Asked by debate co-moderator Juan Williams whether he could understand why his comments that “black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps” and that “poor kids lack a strong work ethnic” and perhaps should “work as janitors in their schools” were insulting to Americans — especially African-Americans — Gingrich dismissed the notion out of hand.
“No, I don’t see that,” he said bluntly to wild applause.
“New York City pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out,” the former House Speaker said.
“They would actually have money in their pocket. They would learn to show up for work. They could do light janitorial duty. They could work in the cafeteria. They could work in the front-office. They could work in the library. They would be getting money which is a good thing if you’re poor. Only the elites despise earning money.”
Williams followed up by asking Gingrich to respond to emails that suggested Gingrich intended to “belittle the poor and racial minorities” with his words.

“Well, first of all, Juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history,” Gingrich responded to more cheers.
“Now, I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. Second, you’re the one who earlier raised a key point: The area that ought to be I-73 was called by Barack Obama a corridor of shame because of unemployment. Has it improved in three years? No. They haven’t built a road, they haven’t helped the people, they haven’t done anything.”
“So here’s my point,” he concluded. “I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes liberals unhappy, I am going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn some day to own the job.”
The crowd again erupted, rewarding what sounded more like a sermon than a debate answer with what pollster Frank Luntz later said was the first standing ovation he had ever witnessed during a presidential debate.

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Silents Speech reports: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

Separately, Gillard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying she supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques.

Quote: ‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It.

“I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians. ‘This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom’ We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society . Learn the language!’ http://silentsspeech.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/australian-prime-minister-does-it-again/

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Powerline reports: Pursuant to the Budget Control Act, brought to you by the GOP leadership’s sellout, Obama notified Congress yesterday that the federal debt is approaching the statutory ceiling of $15.194 trillion. [The actual total debt is already $15.237 trillion, but a small amount is not subject to the limit.] As such, he is calling on Congress to grant him another $1.2 trillion in debt, conveniently enough to last him until after the election, with the possibility of saddling his successor with a tough decision over yet another debt limit increase. It is really more of a notification than a request. Obama will automatically receive his $1.2 trillion supercharged credit card unless two-thirds of Congress votes to disapprove of the request within 15 days.
In just three years, he has accrued $4.6 trillion in debt, more than Bush amassed during his entire eight-year tenure. Now he will add another $1.2 trillion by the end of his first term, and, thanks to the horrendous budget deal, which was cheered on by the same outlets that are now fawning over Mitt Romney, there’s nothing we can do about it.
But here’s the question: If Congress is in recess and cannot fulfill its responsibility to advice and consent, as the President has suggested, how can Obama fulfill his obligation of submitting a certification to Congress?

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/01/we-must-be-really-really-stupid.php
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Personal Liberty writes: An unidentified source told Daily NK:

The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.

Immediately after the mourning was allowed to stop, North Korean officials reportedly began conducting “criticism sessions” at all levels of industry, in enterprises and by local people’s units to find out who didn’t mourn enough. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/north-koreans-still-crying/?eiid=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Examiner.com writes: In a stunning development that could potentially send the nation into a Constitutional crisis, an astute attorney who is well-versed in Constitutional law states that the ruling against the state of Arizona by Judge Susan Bolton concerning its new immigration law is illegal .

"Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don’t read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. Same goes for our illustrious Attorney General Eric Holder. But this lawyer has read it and she is going to show you something in Our Constitution which is as plain as the nose on your face.

"Article III, Sec. 2, clause 2 says:

"In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction."

In other words, the Judge in the Arizona case has absolutely no Constitutional jurisdiction over the matter upon which she ruled. As the Constitution makes abundantly clear, only the U.S. Supreme Court can issue rulings that involve a state.

This means that neither Judge Bolton nor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, to which the case is being appealed, have any legal standing whatsoever to rule on the issue.

Thus, U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder filed the federal government's lawsuit against the state of Arizona in a court that has no authority to hear the case.

In a related development, another explosive discovery was made by those who actually take the Constitution seriously. The Constitution specifically allows an individual state to wage war against a neighboring country in the event of an invasion, should there be a dangerous delay or inaction on the part of the federal government. This information was cited by United Patriots of America.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/explosive-new-evidence-shows-ruling-of-az-judge-illegal

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Palm Beach Post reports: No town hall meeting or constituent confab with freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, feels complete until an audience member asks the tea party celebrity if he'd consider being the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee.
"I've always said that that's something I'd have to pray about, I'd have to talk to my family about, make sure we make the right decision," West began. "But if someone asks you to step up and serve your country, I'm not going to turn my back on my country."
West added: "I'm not going to say no, but I doubt that I'm on anyone's list for consideration." http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/u-s-rep-allen-west-wont-turn-my-2103679.html?printArticle=y
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Defend the vote reports: In Illinois we have the craziest election system. Reputed to be the most corrupt, Illinois does not have any oversight or audit of the early vote. In the smaller counties using optical scan systems, this is problematic but not as consequential as in Chicago and Cook County. In both election jurisdictions they vote electronically with an electronic ballot system that has never been audited; both in terms of the actual vote count and of the software recording the vote. 18% of the vote in Illinois NEVER sees the light of day.

Ten days ago we pulled petitions for various presidential and delegate candidates running for office in Illinois. The original purpose was to investigate voter registration fraud. This investigation continues.

On Friday. January. 2012, I requested 60 petitions of these candidates. Each petition is placed on a single CD. 59 CD’s were correct. The one for Barack Obama was blank. Naturally on Saturday morning, we quickly appealed to the Board of Elections, requesting the petition be sent immediately.

Upon inspecting the petitions, it was quickly discovered that Mr. Obama’s ballot application had significant errors. Frankly, we were astounded to see how sloppy it was; missing notary signatures, missing pages, and with slews of unregistered voters.

As a result, three of us have decided to challenge Mr. Obama's petitions. What does this mean? It means we do not believe he has the 3000 good signatures required by Illinois law to get on the ballot. If we prevail, Mr, Obama will not appear on the ballot in the Primary election. I don't know what the ramifications are for the General election in November. http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dc7e34c0cb16d56936e2a2607&id=b77333fb7a&e=3e3215dfa5

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Big Government reports: Democratic Socialists of America Marxists Take Over the Occupy Movement: Plan ‘Spring Offensive’, With Widespread Occupations of State Capitols, Schools and Workplaces

http://biggovernment.com/tloudon/2012/01/16/dsa-marxists-take-over-the-occupy-movement-plan-spring-offensive-with-widespread-occupations-of-state-capitols-schools-and-workplaces/#more-408432

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Daily Caller reports: Occupy DC Is Not Leaving McPherson Square, Will Not Cave to Mayor Gray’s Political Posturing

[This is the same park whose signs and tents I photographed while recently in D.C. The peaceful, organized encampment I saw, I have learned, followed their injury of a police officer, and now they refuse to leave - thinking they alone have the right to make the laws. I should have known it was too good to be true, their mid-afternoon calm.]
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/16/occupy-dc-wont-be-driven-from-their-filthy-rat-infested-encampments-you-fascists/#ixzz1jilUucqg

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Washington Post reports: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a new high — 84 percent of Americans — disapproving of the job Congress is doing, with almost two-thirds saying they “disapprove strongly.” Just 13 percent of Americans approve of how things are going after the 112th Congress’s first year of action, solidifying an unprecedented level of public disgust that has both sides worried about their positions less than 10 months before voters decide their fates. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/84-percent-of-americans-disapprove-of-the-job-congress-is-doing-poll-finds/2012/01/11/gIQAhQVr3P_story.html

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The great Thomas Sowell explains to us: Gross inequalities in skills and achievements have been the rule, not the exception, on every inhabited continent and for centuries on end. Yet our laws and government policies act as if any significant statistical difference between racial or ethnic groups in employment or income can only be a result of their being treated differently by others.
Nor is this simply an opinion. Businesses have been sued by the government when the representation of different groups among their employees differs substantially from their proportions in the population at large. But, no matter how the human race is broken down into its components -- whether by race, sex, geographic region or whatever -- glaring disparities in achievements have been the rule, not the exception.
Higher achieving groups -- whether classes, races or whatever -- are often blamed for the failure of other groups to achieve. Politicians and intellectuals, especially, tend to conceive of social questions in terms that allow them to take on the role of being on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.
This can be a huge disservice to those individuals and groups who are lagging behind, for it leads them to focus on a sense of grievance and victimhood, rather than on how they can lift themselves up instead of trying to pull other people down.
Again, this is a worldwide phenomenon -- a sad commentary on the down side of the brotherhood of man. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/01/17/an_ignored_disparity/page/full/
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Washington Examiner writes: Something questionable is going on when a state chapter of the Service Employees International Union advertises on the SEIU national website a "Lead Internal Organizer/Home Care (LiA)" position paying up to $65,000 a year for somebody with the following qualifications:

• Train and lead members in non-violent civil disobedience, such as occupying state buildings and banks, and peaceful resistance.
• Plan and execute strategic direct action field plans including banner drops, bank takeovers, and capitol occupations with membership, other local unions, and coalition partners.
• Execute field plans for special campaigns including contract campaigns, ballot initiatives, COPE contributions, general membership growth and the broader campaign to fight for a fair economy.
(For those not familiar with SEIU nomenclature, "COPE" stands for Committee on Political Education, which the national union describes as the "300,000 SEIU members, staff and retirees who contribute an average of $7 a month." That at least explains the source of some $25.2 million of SEIU's beaucoup campaign money for Democrats.)
According to the SEIU ad, the person hired for this position would be responsible for leading an eight-member team whose work focuses on building "networks to take action in a variety of campaigns. The LiA team does not handle traditional representational duties, such as contract enforcement or bargaining." In other words, this person will head one of many similar teams doing work that has nothing to do with anything traditionally associated with labor unions like bargaining on behalf of employees.
No, what SEIU is looking for is somebody who has no qualms about joining with other union-trained cadres and like-minded people from other organizations to invade government buildings such as state buildings and private banks --
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/01/bored-union-organizing-seiu-gears-thuggery/2102236#ixzz1jirCDL9z

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Romneycare receives setback from court; France downgraded as well as socialism; UN peacekeepers take cholera to Haiti; Government's financial reporting is abysmal; Devout Muslim now on Homeland Security Advisory Committee; Department of Defense smart cards compromised; Dolphins to seek Iranian mines in Strait of Hormuz; We need to spend more to help immigrants assimilate; Obama's foreign policies put us in danger; U.S. continues downward in Economic Index of Freedom; Health and Human Services Secretary obstruct investigation and then destroy evidence, when governor; The government we have is not the government we need

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:45:20 PST

Townhall Finance reports: One of the ways Massachusetts officials have tried to temper RomneyCare’s cost overruns was by denying participation to legal immigrants. Last week, the Commonwealth’s highest court ruled that restriction violates the Massachusetts Constitution:

Massachusetts cannot bar legal immigrants from a state health care program, according to a ruling issued Thursday by the state’s highest court…
The ruling said that a 2009 state budget that dropped about 29,000 legal immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than five years from Commonwealth Care, a subsidized health insurance program central to this state’s 2006 health care overhaul, violated the State Constitution.
“This appropriation discriminated on the basis of alienage and national origin,” wrote Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Supreme Judicial Court, ruling that the action “violates their rights to equal protection under the Massachusetts Constitution.”…
State officials say they will abide by the decision, although they are not yet sure how to pay for the change.
“This decision has significant fiscal impacts for the commonwealth, adding somewhere in the range of $150 million in annual costs to what is already a very challenging budget,” said Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance.

No doubt their “pay for” will involve another unpopular minority.
Former Romney/Obama advisor Jonathan Gruber has written that RomneyCare was already costing the state $50 billion more than projected by 2009. Of course, supporters have been hiding RomneyCare’s costs (and exaggerating its benefits) all along. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelfcannon/2012/01/15/romneycare_just_got_150_million_more_expensive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human Events writes: Well, it’s finally happened. Once again, socialism has put a silver fork in itself. Standard & Poor’s has downgraded France’s AAA credit rating, giving the country side-eye on claims to have its debt under control. This means the country will now have to pay it all back at an even higher interest rate.

Who are we kidding? No one’s paying back any debts right now. You need money to do that. When was the last time France had any extra cash lying around? It’s like raising the interest rate on the credit card of a smack addict whose pumping his capital into his veins faster than any German, Chinese, or Russian can slip him a tenner.

No amount of hot air and spin could ultimately keep socialism afloat. It’s a good lesson for those in America and other parts of the world who think that Europe is in any way an exemplary, sustainable alternative to free-market limited government capitalism. If capitalism is perceived to not be working in America -- as the Occupy Wall Street movement has argued -- then it’s because the system isn’t capitalist enough. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48802
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Yahoo News reports: Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time.

The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 -- two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base. [Unintended consequences of doing "good"] http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-un-soldiers-brought-deadly-superbug-americas-194141189--abc-news.html

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Washington Times reports: The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual audit of federal agency financial statements, released last month. As it has for many years, the GAO concluded that it cannot express an opinion on the statements because of weak internal financial controls and unreliable evidence to support material information.
In other words, the government’s financial reporting is so abysmal no one can tell taxpayers exactly how their money is being spent. That’s aside from the fact that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/help-wanted/
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World Net Daily reports: Homeland Security is on the hot seat. Back in October 2010, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano named the devout Muslim Mohamed Elibiary to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. The Texas Department of Public Safety now says that Elibiary may have been allowed to gain access to a highly sensitive database of intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of the material he found in that database to a media outlet for a story about “Islamophobia” in the Public Safety Department.
Who else is the devout Elibiary shopping sensitive intel to? Mohamed Elibiary was one of the speakers at a December 2004 conference in Dallas entitled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary,” that is, the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran and the violent Muslim global revolution to install a universal Islamic government. When Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News challenged him about his appearance at this conference, Elibiary threatened Dreher, writing: “Expect someone to put a banana in your exhaust pipe.” I warned about Elibiary’s appointment back in 2010.

It is bad enough that Napolitano appointed Elibiary to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in the first place, but it gets even worse. When questioned last week by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, at the U.S. Immigration and Enforcement hearings, Big Sis, Janet Napolitano (with the most disturbing hairdo and hair color that I have ever seen), admitted that she has been giving secret clearance to Muslim Brotherhood-tied operatives here in the U.S. http://www.wnd.com/2011/11/362889/
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The UK Register writes: A new strain of the Sykipot Trojan is been used to compromise the Department of Defense-sanctioned smart cards used to authorise network and building access at many US government agencies, according to security researchers.
Smart cards are a standard means of granting active duty military staff, selected reserve personnel, civilian employees and eligible contractors access to intranets at US Army, Navy and the Air Force facilities. They can be used to get into buildings or, when used in conjunction with a static password, to access networks.

Chinese hackers have adapted the Sykipot Trojan to lift card credentials from compromised systems in order to access classified military networks, according to researchers at security tools firm AlienVault. An adapted version of the Trojan targets PCs attached to smart card readers running ActivClient, the client application of ActivIdentity, in what's been described as a 'smart card proxy' attack. [And if we believe that our proposed internet identities, forced by government, would be secure - we are fools.] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/13/sykipot_trojan_dod_smart_card_attack/
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The Atlantic Wire reports: If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy has a backup plan to save one-fifth of the world's daily oil trade: send in the dolphins.
The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, “The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines.” To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/01/militarys-weapon-against-iranian-mines-high-tech-dolphins/47384/
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National Review writes: The U.S. is not spending enough on helping immigrants to assimilate, argues a USC professor in the New York Times. We should redirect “the billions of dollars spent on border enforcement” to the education budget, both to federal student loans and to community and four-year state colleges, says public-policy professor Dowell Myers.
Myers projects that by 2030, 18 percent of second-generation Hispanic students will have a college degree. He apparently means that as good news; in fact it is a sign of how slowly progress between the generations is occurring, since the Hispanic graduation rate in California was 10 percent in 2006. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288133/stingy-immigrants-heather-mac-donald
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American Thinker opines: Shakespeare's Mark Antony beseeched his countrymen to "lend me your ears." Is it time to ask Americans to lend their eyes to see how President Obama's foreign policies have endangered our country?

1. Failure to Support Iranian Democracy Protesters:

2. The Nuclear Countdown:

3. Turkey -- Ally or Enemy?

4. Russian "Reset":

Obama promised to "reset" relations with Russia. The effect to date is all gain for Russia, all loss for the U.S. Obama quickly reneged on a U.S. missile defense agreement with democratic Poland and the Czech Republic, thereby indicating that no friendly country can rely on the U.S. Russia responded to Obama's unilateral magnanimity by, e.g., refusing to compromise on missile defense in Europe or strategic arms reductions, as well as by continuing aggression against tiny Georgia. Obama seems determined to further reward Russia with unilateral strategic arms reductions (the only known college or law school paper by Obama advocates shedding all nuclear weapons) and pulling U.S. troops from Europe. It is not possible to identify any advantage to the U.S. in the "reset" with Russia.
5. Fading of the Arab Spring:

Obama's policies have facilitated the ascendancy of hard-line Islamist political power throughout the Mideast.
6. Israel-Palestinians:

7. Will Our Armed Forces Be Adequate to Protect Us

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Washington Examiner writes: Every year that Barack Obama has occupied the Oval Office, the United States has fallen lower in the Economic Index of Freedom compiled annually by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. America was fifth in the ranking in 2008 (surpassed only by Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland and Australia), then dropped to sixth in 2009, eighth in 2010, ninth last year, and now 10th. The index measures, according to its authors, 10 categories of economic freedom: labor, business, trade, fiscal responsibility, government spending, monetary policy, investment, financial regulation, property rights, and absence of corruption. Scores in these categories are averaged to create an overall score for each of all 184 nations.

But increased federal spending never happens in a vacuum. It is invariably accompanied by more bureaucratic regulation. This has especially been true under Obama, whose administration has added at least 46 major new regulations, which are estimated to impose at least $100 million in added compliance costs on private-sector businesses. As Heritage's Ed Feulner observed, "Each new edict means a new government bureaucracy that individuals and businesses must navigate. Each new law opens the door for political graft and cronyism."

At the root of the spending and regulatory explosion under Obama -- and the resulting decline in U.S. economic freedom -- is his obvious disdain for the Constitution's limits on executive branch power.

What there hasn't been is anything like a demonstration of resolve in Congress to stand up to Obama and force his compliance with the Constitution. There is only one way to do that on appointments and that is to withdraw funding for any action taken by the appointees in question.

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The New American opines: A state Governor and her appointees obstruct an investigation into repeated coverups of child rape. When they find they can no longer stave off the inevitable, they destroy the evidence. Along the way they try to have the prosecutor disbarred. The Governor later becomes a member of the President’s Cabinet. These are the makings of a major scandal that should be plastered across the front page of every newspaper in America. Instead, hardly anyone has heard of it. Why?

The answer is twofold. First, the former Governor is current Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Second, her administration’s actions were undertaken in an effort to protect the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. One needn’t be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why the mainstream media have chosen to ignore the story. http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/10274-as-kansas-governor-sebelius-destroyed-evidence-to-protect-planned-parenthood

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Bloomberg writes: President Obama: “The government we have is not the government that we need,” Obama said yesterday at the White House. “Our economy has fundamentally changed — as has the world — but our government, our agencies, have not.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/obama-will-seek-authority-to-merge-agencies-in-effort-to-shrink-government.html
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Obama's latest power grab; Newt asks PAC to remove lies from their Romney video; See how our enemies now love us?; First legal challenge to (non)recess appointments; Government financials unreliable and abysmal; Michigan now expects budget surplus under Republican Governor; The math on taxpayer support of clunker cars being destroyed

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:22:13 PST

Examiner reports: In one of his most blatant acts of audacity, President Barack Obama will petition Congress for even more executive power. He wants the ability to "single-handedly" fast track making efficiency changes to government agencies and departments--under the banner of reducing expenditures and the deficit, according to an Associated Press article today.
A "senior administration official" said the first such "test case" would be the six agencies of the Commerce Department, including the Commerce Department's core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.
The goal would be to have one agency designed to help businesses thrive. http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/obama-trying-to-orchestrate-another-camouflaged-power-grab
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The Wall St. Journal blogs report: Newt Gingrich is calling on a political group backing his campaign to revise or withdraw a documentary attacking Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital. In his statement, Mr. Gingrich says: “I am calling for the Winning Our Future super PAC supporting me to either edit its ‘King of Bain’ advertisement and movie to remove its inaccuracies, or to pull it off the air and off the Internet entirely.”
Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Romney should also ask super PACs backing him to remove any ads that contain inaccuracies. Mr. Romney has said that he isn’t responsible for the ads of pro-Romney super PACs, which by law can’t coordinate with the candidate. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/01/13/gingrich-calls-on-pac-to-alter-film/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo News writes: Thousands of mourners chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" on Friday during the funeral of a slain nuclear expert whom Iranian officials accuse the two nations of killing in a bomb blast this week as part of a secret operation to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan has raised calls in Iran for retaliation against the U.S. and Israel, and an independent news website Friday said Iran is preparing a covert counteroffensive against the West.

"Iran's intelligence community is in a very good position to design tit-for-tat operations to retaliate for assassinations carried out by Western intelligence services," the official said, according to the website. "Iran's response will be extraterritorial and extra-regional. It follows the strategy that none of those who ordered or carried out (the attacks) should feel secure in any part of the world." http://news.yahoo.com/anti-us-chants-slain-iran-nuclear-expert-buried-130905499.html

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Washington Examiner reports: Two pro-business advocacy groups on Friday filed the first legal challenge to President Barack Obama's recent recess appointments, asking a federal judge to find them unconstitutional.
The National Federation of Independent Business and the National Right to Work Foundation argue Obama cannot legally bypass the Senate to appoint three new members of the National Labor Relations Board, an agency that referees labor-management disputes.
The groups made the argument in a motion in federal district court in Washington, D.C., as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the labor board for requiring businesses to put up posters telling workers about their right to form a union.

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The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual audit of federal agency financial statements [was] released last month. As it has for many years, the GAO concluded that it cannot express an opinion on the statements because of weak internal financial controls and unreliable evidence to support material information.In other words, the government’s financial reporting is so abysmal no one can tell taxpayers exactly how their money is being spent. That’s aside from the fact that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/help-wanted/
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Michigan Governor Rick Synder reports: Today, I am proud to report that in 2011, job growth in Michigan actually beat the national average. That is the assessment from an economist from the University of Michigan who took part in today’s official Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference, through which the state treasury department and the House and Senate fiscal agencies agree on what the state can realistically expect in terms of revenue for the upcoming year.
But that’s not the only good news. Today we also learned that the state expects a budget surplus of approximately $457 million.
2011 was not easy. But by making the tough decisions and working to structurally balance the budget, we now find ourselves in a place where instead of worrying over how to eliminate deficits, we are now able to concentrate on paying off debt and making strategic investments for the future.
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Free Republic wrote this one year ago, but it is still valid: The person who calculated this bit of information is now and has been a professor at The University of West Virginia in Morgantown for the last forty some years..

A clunker [car] that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that’s 224 million gallons saved per year. This equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More important, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.

I’m pretty sure they will do a much better job with our health care though? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2659980/posts

Math lessons using slavery problems; Taliban leaders on Obama's release list; Obama administration gets Supreme Court smackdown; 900 Dead people voted in S. Carolina; the honorable Rand Paul; Candidate Obama disses soldiers in Baghdad; Coast Guard must protect ship from Occupy protesters; Dead New Hampshire residents got to vote in primary; Creator of fake Tea Party candidate sentenced; Education Association says teacher should not lose her job; White Gun like Fast and Furious?

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:55:28 PST

Daily Caller reports: A few weeks ago, my seventh-grade daughter’s school put regular classes on hold for a “sustainability day.” One of the things they did during this reprieve from the rigors of math, history and English was watch a video titled “The Story of Stuff,” starring Annie Leonard and lots of animated illustrations. The video has been around since 2007.

If you haven’t seen the video, here are a few highlights:

You get the idea. We are destroying the planet because we have been convinced that the only way to have value as human beings is to consume as much or more than the other guy.
But that’s not my favorite part of Ms. Leonard’s version of “Apocalypse Now.” The best part is this: “It is government’s job to watch out for us, take care of us, that’s their job.”
Only 4% of our original forests remain? There are more forests in the United States today than when Europeans arrived thanks to the Native American practice of burning vast areas to promote hunting and agriculture.

The bad news is that Leonard’s little project has been so successful that she now has a staff and has produced other fanciful videos about bottled water, cap and trade, Citizens United, cosmetics, electronics and how we’re not really too broke to finance all manner of government good works.
The good news is that my daughter found “The Story of Stuff” laughable. But she thinks some of her classmates have abandoned their pillows. After all, they heard it at school.

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ABC News reports: A type of giant tortoise, observed in the Galapagos Islands in 1853 by Charles Darwin but thought to have been extinct for 150 years, is apparently alive and well. This news, from a team of biologists at Yale University, would be welcomed by conservationists, and it adds an ironic twist to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
The tortoise, known as Chelonoidis elephantopus, originally lived on Floreana, one of the islands in the Galapagos chain. Biologists believed that by the mid-1800s, they had been wiped out by whalers, who hunted them for food.
But Gisella Caccone and Ryan Garrick of Yale organized a team that took DNA samples from the blood of 1,600 tortoises on Isabela Island, 200 miles away — and the genetic makeup of at least 84 of them was such that they had to have at least one parent who was a member of C. elephantopus.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/extinct-galapagos-tortoise-turns-up-on-distant-island/
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Conservative Byte reports: Washington Post opinion writer Marc A. Theissen has published a list of the Taliban leaders President Obama is reportedly planning to release from Guantanamo Bay detention center — and their rap sheets just might (or not) shock you.
The Obama administration is allegedly considering the release of these senior Taliban leaders as part of a deal to bring the militant Islamist group to engage in peace talks. According to Theissen, if Obama does in fact proceed with the release, he will do “tremendous harm” to U.S. national security “and to his prospects for reelection this fall.”
Theissen writes: http://conservativebyte.com/2012/01/the-shocking-list-of-gitmo-detainees-obama-plans-to-release-in-deal-with-taliban/
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Fox News reports: The fired minister -- who also taught secular subjects -- claimed discrimination in employment. The Obama administration, always looking for opportunities to undermine the bedrock of First Amendment religious liberty, eagerly agreed.

There was just one big problem standing in the way of the government's plan: the U.S. Constitution. For a long time American courts have recognized the existence of a "ministerial exemption" which keeps government’s hands off the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers or clergy.

Here, in this case, the Department of Justice had the nerve to not only challenge the exemption’s application but also its very existence.

But, Chief Justice Roberts pushed back hard, telling the government essentially to butt out:

“Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the free exercise clause, which protects a religious group’s right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the establishment clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions.”

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Carolina Politics Online reports: The director of South Carolina’s Department of Motor Vehicles has told the State Law Enforcement Division that more than 900 people who were recorded as having voted were actually dead.
DMV Director Kevin Shwedo told legislators about the issue Wednesday as the U.S. Justice Department questions a new state law requiring people to show photographic identification when they vote in person.
In response, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson asked SLED to review the evidence.
“Director Shwedo’s research has revealed evidence that over nine hundred deceased people appear to have ‘voted’ in recent elections in South Carolina,” said Wilson in a statement. “This is an alarming number, and clearly necessitates an investigation into potential criminal activity. I have asked SLED Chief Keel to review Director Shwedo’s research.”
WLTX
Now keep in mind that the U.S. Department of Injustice just declared South Carolina’s new voter ID requirement unconstitutional. I’m curious as to what exactly is Constitutional about standing idly by and allowing the votes of legitimate voters to be canceled out by fraudulent ones.[Attorney General Eric Holder is refusing an investigation.]
http://www.carolinapoliticsonline.com/

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Politico reports: Freshman Sen. Rand Paul is making good on his promise to cut federal spending. The Kentucky Republican and tea-party favorite said Thursday he’s returning $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury -- money from his operating budget that his office never spent.
The half million dollars represents about 16 percent of Paul’s annual budget, and he contends no senator has returned as much to taxpayers. http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2012/01/rand-paul-returns-k-in-office-budget-to-treasury-110637.html
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Buzz Feed reports: Michael Hastings' new book, The Operators, jabs at what could be a vulnerable spot for the Obama Administration, the president's relationship with the troops.
The book describes a visit to Baghdad:

After the talk, out of earshot from the soldiers and diplomats, he starts to complain. He starts to act very un-Obamalike, according to a U.S. embassy official
who helped organize the trip in Baghdad. [He was a candidate at the time.]
He’s asked to go out to take a few more pictures with soldiers and embassy staffers. He’s asked to sign copies of his book. “He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about it,” a State Department official tells me. “Look, I was excited to meet him. I wanted to like him. Let’s just say the scales fell from my
eyes after I did. These are people over here who’ve been fighting the war, or working every day for the war effort, and he didn’t want to take -------- pictures with them?" http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/book-depicts-cranky-obama-on-baghdad-visit

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TDN News reports: The U.S. Coast Guard will escort the first ship coming to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview this month, and the Occupy movement and local labor groups say they are planning to greet the vessel with a massive protest.
EGT officials say they have not scheduled a date for the ship's arrival. The freighter is expected to haul thousands of tons of grain to Asia, but opposition groups are already marshaling their forces to support the lengthy protest by union dock workers at the grain terminal.
"We just want to swell the population of the city to show there are people behind us," said Jeff Washburn, president of the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Central Labor Council, which passed a resolution calling for a protest this week.

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ABC News reports: A video posted the day after the New Hampshire Primary from conservative gonzo James O’Keefe either exposes why voting laws are too lax or comes close to itself being voter fraud (or both), by obtaining the ballots of dead Granite Staters on primary day.
The video has already sparked an investigation in the New Hampshire State Attorney General’s office, both because of the weaknesses of the electoral system it seems to demonstrate and the potential legal violations those making the film might have committed, according to N.H. Associate Attorney General Richard Head. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/james-okeefe-video-purports-to-show-ease-of-voter-fraud-in-n-h-primary/
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Detroit Free Press reports: A former Oakland County Democratic Party operative was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay more than $2,500 in fines and court costs for his role in creating fake tea party candidates during the 2010 election in an effort to siphon off support for Republican candidates. In November, Bauer pleaded no contest to five felony counts of perjury and falsifying notarized documents. http://www.freep.com/article/20120112/NEWS03/201120593/Man-paroled-fined-for-role-in-tea-party-scam?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
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Atlanta Journal Constitution reports: Parents should not rush to condemn third-grade Beaver Ridge Elementary teachers as racists for using slavery beatings to teach math concepts, say officials with Georgia educator organizations.
The slave math lesson created by a teacher to reinforce a lesson on Frederick Douglass may have used poor judgment, but it shouldn’t lead to the termination of those who wrote or handed it out without reviewing it, said Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, a professional organization of about 42,000 members.
The math assignment was sent home with more than 100 students. Among its 20 questions were word problems on slaves picking cotton and oranges. Some mentioned Douglass: "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/education-leaders-slave-math-1296640.html?cxtype=rss_news
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LA Times reports: Now members of Congress who have spent months scrutinizing the Fast and Furious debacle are seeking to determine whether White Gun was another weapons investigation gone wrong.

"Apparently guns got away again," said one source close to the investigation, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "How many got into Mexico, who knows?"

Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined to comment on whether any firearms were lost in White Gun. But unlike Fast and Furious, they vigorously defended the previously unreported White Gun operation as a well-managed investigation that produced three arrests and convictions.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-white-gun-20120113,0,3917291.story
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The right answer to debate question; Chrysler still waiting for government loan; Connecticut suburb puts students in small screaming room for punishment; Rice in Haiti; The pot calling the kettle black - again; Enemy Expatriation Act; SEIU and the Supreme Court; Michigan loses Republican delegates; Oklahoma must allow Sharia Law; We get to pay the bonuses of bankrupt Solyndra employees;

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:01:53 PST

American Thinker gives the right answer: After spending nearly a quarter of an hour at the recent Republican presidential debate discussing a hypothetical scenario where a state might want to ban contraception, Sawyer put on her trademark pained countenance and, continuing the transparently obvious moderator pledge to direct all issues away from Barack Obama, challenged, "If I could come back to the living room question...what you would say sitting down in your living room to a gay couple who say...we want gay people to form loving, committed, long-term relationships? In human terms, what would you say to them?"

But none of the candidates answered the question as they should have. I don't think I was alone in hoping that one of them would lean into the microphone and, after starting off by incredulously asking, "Are you kidding me?," unleash the following:

Diane, we are living in a country with 9% unemployment, and let's cut the bull -- everyone knows that number doesn't include the enormous number of people who every week throw up their hands and leave the job market. If those were added, we've got closer to 1 in 5 Americans desperately looking for good, steady work.

We've got a record number of American families subsisting on food stamps. We've wasted a trillion taxpayer dollars on a government stimulus that brought no substantive job growth, but added more crushing debt to the backs of our children.

[I encourage you to open this article to read it all. It is well worth your time - and a blueprint for conservatives when speaking about Obama.]

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CBS Detroit writes: U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, speaking Wednesday at the North American International Auto Show, sounded very tentative about a loan program aimed at helping auto companies become more fuel efficient.
That program was part of a law passed during the Bush Administration to give automakers low interest loans, to help cover the cost of meeting new fuel economy rules.
Using loan money from the program, Ford has already completed the conversion of the former Michigan Truck Plant, into a factory that builds the compact Focus and electric vehicles.
Chrysler has been waiting on its request for a $3.5 billion dollar loan for three years.
The Energy Department has only awarded $8.4 billion of $25 billion authorized by Congress in 2008. It’s become a political hot potato, with some Congressional Republicans looking to end the program before more loan money is allocated. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/01/11/energy-secretary-no-promises-on-chrysler-loan-request/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS NY reports [in a great example of why parents must oversee what is happening in the schools]: Parents in a Connecticut suburb are outraged over disturbing disciplinary actions at a local elementary school.
They claim students are being locked in unsupervised “scream rooms,” where some children have harmed themselves, reports CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez.
The Middleton School District is on the hot seat as furious parents are demanding to know what’s going on behind closed doors at Farm Hill Elementary School.
“My daughter is telling me that there’s kids being taken out in ambulances, by stretcher,” parent Sean Archer told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez on Wednesday. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/01/11/parents-furious-over-apparent-use-of-scream-rooms-inside-middletown-conn-elementary-school/
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Salon writes with an example of the law of unintended consequences: To see where the enormous sums of humanitarian aid directed to Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010 went, a good place to start is the ocean harbor.And, like the grains of rice aboard, the dollars mount into the hundreds of millions; even billions. According to some reports, the United States government, American individuals, families and humanitarian groups donated approximately $3 billion. That’s just from America with a total of something like $12 billion coming from all donor nations for funds to be disbursed.
At the time of publication, President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy to Haiti and the co-chair of overseeing the nation’s re-construction for the last two years, hasn’t responded to repeated requests by GlobalPost regarding specific aid and cash donation figures.
Where those billions went following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left a government-estimated figure of 220,000 people dead — and at least 1.6 million more homeless — remains a confounding mystery. Inside of the recovery effort, however, are unquestionable successes along with the failures. And, to be fair, because the money came in so quickly and in such great volume, much of it has been wasted or lost like so much rice spilling on the docks. Or stolen, like the sacks of rice from here which will end up in Haiti’s black market for food.
But the economy of rice in Haiti says everything about the condition the country is in. The U.S. government subsidizes and “donates” ton after ton of rice in Haiti and in so doing has through the last several decades completely undercut Haitian rice farmers and left them destitute and migrating into cities where they live in hovels that were destroyed by the quake.
There is perhaps some bitter irony here that the subsidies were promoted in large part by President Clinton to help his home state of Arkansas, the largest rice producing state in the U.S., thereby crippling a sector of the economy in Haiti where Clinton has worked so tirelessly to help with the recovery. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/11/haiti_where_did_the_aid_go/
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Daily Caller reports: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year — and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as “the enemy,” has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly.
"The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular . . . has really changed, I’ll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.” [

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GovTrac.US: Enemy Expatriation Act - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to include engaging in or purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States to the list of acts for which U.S. nationals would lose their nationality. Defines "hostilities" as any conflict subject to the laws of war. [What this bill will do is to take away the citizenship of Americans who fall under its parameters. I ask who will decide?]
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3166&tab=summary

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Yesterday, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney W. James Young went toe-to-toe with a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer at the United States Supreme Court.

In the class-action lawsuit covering tens of thousands of employees, Foundation attorneys are providing free legal aid to eight California government workers, including two former union members, challenging a corrupt SEIU political fundraising scheme.
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Michigan's Republican Delegation Halved Again

Michigan's delegation to the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention in Tampa will be cut from 59 to 30 for holding its presidential primary days before March 1 under action taken by a Republican National Committee (RNC) panel today.

The decision, if it stands, will be the second-straight convention where Michigan's delegation is halved for holding an early primary.

South Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Arizona also were punished for violating national party rules in holding a primary before March 6, said Michigan National Committeeman Saul ANUZIS.

Anuzis said Michigan and Arizona would appeal the decision to a different RNC committee. The Feb. 28 primary date for both states is on the same date as its regularly scheduled election dates under statute and only one day before the cutoff.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Personal Liberty reports: A Federal appeals court decided Tuesday that an amendment that would ban Oklahoma courts from considering international or Islamic law discriminates against religions and a Muslim community leader has the right to challenge its Constitutionality.
According to CBS News, the Denver-based court upheld U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange’s order blocking implementation of the amendment shortly after it was approved by 70 percent of Oklahoma voters in November 2010.
Part of the amendment read: “The courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or Sharia law.” http://www.personalliberty.com/news/appeals-court-upholds-sharia-in-oklahoma/?eiid=
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Expose Obama writes: Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC,but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.
Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/12/bankrupt-solyndra-wants-to-hand-
out-bonuses/
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Indiana to vote on right-to-work bill; Department of Homeland Security is monitoring journalists and bloggers; Several on Supreme Court criticize EPA on homeowner regulation; LaRaza employee is new Domestic Policy Council head; Another Iranian nuclear scientist killed; Romney saved companies from bankruptcy by firing some employees; Marxism by the numbers; Obama creating Internet ID for all; Washington Post and CBS gets many $$$ from taxpayers, a gift from Obama;

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:55:35 PST

The Blaze reports: After nearly six hours of testimony and debate, the Indiana state Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved Senate Bill 269 by a 6-to-4 vote. Commonly referred to as a "right-to-work" law, SB 269 would make it a Class A misdemeanor to require an individual to join or remain in a union or to pay any dues, fees or other charges to that same labor organization. The bill now goes to the full state Senate, despite the continued absence of a House quorum in the intended joint committee meeting between the House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee.
No amendments were allowed in the hearing.
The House and Senate will be called back into session again on Monday. Republican proponents intend to pass the bill in the Senate by the end of next week, but await boycotting Democratic House members for the progression of the bill’s discussion. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/homeland-security-monitoring-journalists/
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The Blaze reports: Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that emerged from the Department of Homeland Security in November, Washington has written permission to collect and retain personal information from journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”
Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/homeland-security-monitoring-journalists/

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16266
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The Blaze reports: Several conservative members of the Supreme Court criticized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday for heavy-handed enforcement of rules affecting homeowners after the government told an Idaho couple they can’t challenge an order declaring their future home site a “protected wetlands.”
Justice Antonin Scalia assailed the “high-handedness” of the environmental agency when dealing with private property, and Justice Samuel Alito described some of the EPA’s actions as “outrageous,“ arguing that most people would say ”this kind of thing can’t happen in the United States.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/supreme-court-justices-blast-epa-for-telling-couple-they-cant-build-on-protected-wetlands/?t-build-on-?protected-wetlands?/
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The Hill writes: President Obama has picked a strong advocate of immigration reform to head his Domestic Policy Council.
The White House announced Tuesday that Cecilia Muñoz, a former senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, would replace Melody Barnes at the top of the council.
Muñoz is an immigration expert who worked for the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, until she joined the administration in 2009. The group works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans and advocates legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Obama has frequently been criticized by pro-immigration reform advocates for not pressing harder for changes to the country's immigration laws. Hispanic groups also have complained that the administration has stepped up deportations of illegal aliens. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/203355-munoz-to-head-domestic-policy-council-
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CBS News reports: Two assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and another person Wednesday, state TV reported. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran's atomic program.
The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities' claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran's nuclear advances. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57356701/another-iran-nuclear-scientist-killed/
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American Thinker opines: Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its assets. This business model often adversely affects a company's employees. To be fair, if the company had gone bankrupt on its own, that would have adversely affected the company's employees too. The question Republican primary voters need to ask themselves is not whether Mitt Romney did anything illegal or immoral. In a climate of near 10% unemployment, do Republicans want a vulture investor to be the face of their party? http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/m-mitt_romney_and_the_hypocrisy_of_bain_capital.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Adams of UNC writes of racism: Stop and look at the following list of 20th Century regimes that committed at least a million murders in the name of utopian Marxism: [I question whether our school system is teaching this to our students any more.]

China 65 million
USSR 20 million
North Korea 2 million
Cambodia 2 million
Afghanistan 1.5 million
Vietnam 1 million

(Author’s Note: the Marxist feminists are technically in second place with 53 million murders since Roe v. Wade). If you advance a political philosophy that has killed that many people then you simply have no moral authority whatsoever. I would not even trust a Marxist to give me directions to the grocery store. Why on earth would I hand over my First Amendment rights to someone with such a murderous worldview? http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2012/01/11/im_telling_your_commie/page/full/
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Fox News reports: President Obama is putting plans in motion to give the Commerce Department authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans, a White House official told CNET.com.

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt told the website it is "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet.

The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is currently being drafted by the Obama administration and will be released by the president in a few months.

Locke added that the Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project.

The move has raised eyebrows about privacy issues. [We can always trust Obama's government, or any government, right?]

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Daily Caller reports: Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.

“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.” http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/06/washington-post-and-cbs-receiving-money-from-obamacare-slush-fund/

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Alabama will hear Obama eligibility arguments; New government communications job offer over $100,000; Obama proposes pay increase for civilian federal employees; Michelle Obama 's frosty relationship with Rahm Emanuel; "The book" on Obama; Immigration enforcement numbers are lies; Union members must show ID to vote in union elections; Americans fear Obama's reelection 2-1; Where are the liberals?; Only favorable bailout numbers are included in Treasury releases

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:17:13 PST

Liberty News Online reports: UPDATE: An Alabama Court has announced that it will hear arguments as to whether Barack Hussein Obama II is in fact eligible to appear on the State Presidential Primary Ballot.

Several Alabama citizens have filed a lawsuit within the Alabama Circuit Court to "prevent certification of President Barack Obama for 2012 Alabama ballot access pending final hearing based on factual evidentiary hearings."

The deadline for any candidate to register to appear on the Alabama Presidential Primary ballot is just days away, but by agreeing to hear the case, the Alabama Courts have effectively stalled any efforts by the Democratic Party to place Obama on the ballot.

Just as important is the fact that the Court did indeed accept the case. By agreeing to hear the case, the Court appears to have recognized that the defendants, ordinary Alabama citizens, do in fact have standing. In many previous eligibility cases, courts have ruled that ordinary citizens did not have standing, in other words were not sufficiently harmed by the actions of the defendant and therefore had no legal right to bring their case before the courts.

The actions of this Alabama Court is a game changer in that the legal system has finally recognized that ordinary citizens CAN be harmed and DO have the right to protest unconstitutional actions committed at the highest levels of Federal government.

This case could revolutionize the legal system AND return the judiciary to the duty our Founding Fathers intended – protecting the citizenry from Federal power mongering As we have said for so long, the power to defeat the Usurper in Chief lies with the STATES. http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_31406.php
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USA Jobs posts new position: Do you want to be a leader in your field at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) - a groundbreaking organization solely devoted to the economic strength and vitality of American Families? Do you want to play an important role in making consumer financial markets work for all American families? Do you want to challenge yourself and others? If you answer "Yes", then we have a career for you! CFPB professionals have unparalleled opportunities to expand horizons for themselves and for the nation. Be one of the founding members of an agency that will make a difference in the lives of everyday American families!
This position is located in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of External Affairs. The Office of External Affairs is responsible for coordination of all external communication, with a focus on raising awareness of consumer issues through activities, messages, and interactions with Public Relations, Media, Communities, Industries, and Stakeholders. You will support management of CFPB's participation in external events by developing and maintaining databases and event calendar and providing advice and guidance on consideration of invitations.
This position is being filled under CFPB's excepted service authority. http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/306225500

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Washington Post reports: The White House will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees as part of its 2013 budget proposal, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the plans.
The modest across-the-board pay jump would be the first increase for federal workers since before a two-year freeze began in late 2010. Raises for within-grade step increases and promotions have continued during the freeze.
The proposal, which requires congressional approval, differs from Republican plans supported by lawmakers and presidential candidates that would freeze basic pay rates for one more year. Some of those plans also call for denying within-grade raises. In recent weeks, GOP lawmakers have called for extending the pay freeze as a way to pay for a payroll tax extension. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/white-house-proposes-05-percent-pay-increase-for-federal-workers/2012/01/06/gIQA18fyeP_blog.html?hpid=z1
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UK Daily Mail writes about new book on the Obamas: First Lady Michelle Obama was frustrated with her husband’s advisers and clashed with then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, especially over the push for health care overhaul.
A book slated to be released this Tuesday tells of a divided White House where tensions developed between Mrs Obama and Mr Emanuel, with their relationship became increasingly frosty.
Arguably the most prominent point of contention New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor reveals between the first lady and Mr Emanuel was the friction over healthcare reform and Mrs Obama’s scepticism of so-called backroom deals being cut.
The president received the brunt of his wife’s fury, Ms Kantor writes in her book, The Obamas. He reportedly told his aides: ‘She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right.’
Mrs Obama ‘made it clear that she thought her husband needed a new team, according to her aides,’ Ms Kantor said.

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Washington Post writes: With Republican voters in Iowa set to finally begin picking a nominee to challenge President Obama, GOP officials in Washington are quietly and methodically finishing what operatives are calling “the book” — 500 pages of Obama quotes and video links that will form the backbone of the party’s attack strategy against the president leading up to Election Day 2012.
The document, portions of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, lays out how GOP officials plan to use Obama’s words and voice as they build an argument for his defeat: that he made specific promises and entered office with lofty expectations and has failed to deliver on both. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gops-battle-plan-against-obama-use-his-own-words-against-him/2011/12/30/gIQA7ZrPUP_story.html

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Judicial Watch reports: The Homeland Security agency charged with immigration enforcement has repeatedly lied to Congress, the American people and the media by drastically increasing the number of individuals that have been apprehended, deported or detained.
The shameful revelation was made this week by a nonprofit university group dedicated to researching the U.S. government. The nonpartisan New York-based data research center, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), provides detailed information about the operation of hundreds of government agencies. Immigration is one of many areas it researches.
For the better part of the last two years TRAC has been engaged in a fierce legal battle with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over records involving the agency’s enforcement activities. After repeatedly getting stonewalled, TRAC was recently provided with some of the documents involving statistics of individuals who had been arrested, detained, charged, returned or removed from the country during a specific period.
Although ICE is still withholding much of the information, the files that have been furnished so far reveal “vast discrepancies” in many areas, according to a case-by-case analysis conducted by TRAC. The initial probe reveals that official ICE statements claimed 34 times more detentions, 24 times more deportations and almost five times more apprehensions than its own data. This certainly indicates that ICE knowingly lied to lawmakers and the press to embellish its enforcement activities. http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/01/ices-own-data-fails-to-back-enforcement-claims/
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Directorblue writes: As you’ll note in the photo below the union requires its own members to produce a photo ID in order to vote. The photo shows a union worker voting earlier today on whether to sanction a new four-year contract with Boeing, clearly the union understands the need for a picture ID in order to help guarantee a clean election: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/12/someone-alert-eric-holder-unions.html
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US News reports: In our New Year's poll, when asked what news event they fear most about 2012, Americans by a margin of two-to-one said Obama's reelection. Only 16 percent said they fear the Democrat won't win a second term, while 33 percent said they fear four more years. http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/01/09/poll-americans-2-1-fear-obamas-reelection
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David Brooks asks "Where are the liberals?" Given the circumstances, this should be a golden age of liberalism. Yet the percentage of Americans who call themselves liberals is either flat or in decline. There are now two conservatives in this country for every liberal. Over the past 40 years, liberalism has been astonishingly incapable at expanding its market share.
The most important explanation is what you might call the Instrument Problem. Americans may agree with liberal diagnoses, but they don’t trust the instrument the Democrats use to solve problems. They don’t trust the federal government. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/opinion/brooks-where-are-the-liberals.html?hpw
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The Hill opines: The Treasury Department has been publicly disclosing financial information about bailout programs only if the initiatives are expected to bring money in to the government, a new federal audit has found.
The Government Accountability Office found that financial information for Troubled Asset Relief Program initiatives that are projected to cost the government money long-term – like the injection of capital into the American International Group – were not included in Treasury releases.
In the end, Treasury agreed with the auditor’s recommendation that it include cost estimates for all TARP programs in its releases – whether they would cost the government money in the end or not. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/203245-auditor-treasury-keeps-quiet-on-tarp-money-losers
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Christie explains it all to Occupy folks; Did Obama administration release classified into to Hollywood?; Homeland Security checkpoint at Social Security office; Muslim Brotherhood member negotiates with Taliban for Obama; Photo ID required for purchase of drain cleaner, not voting; Department of Health and Human Services serves the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered; GA Republican Secretary of State to decide Obama's eligibility; Highlights of debate; Secret White House party most extravagant; School counts slaves in math problems; Obama runs against do-nothing Congress, even though it is the Democrat Senate failing to act; Reasons to not vote for Obama; Unions and their workers; "The Book" against Obama; NEA cheers and jeers

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:27:54 PST

ABC News reports: At a rally meant to be all about boosting support for Mitt Romney, protesters instead took center stage, evoking colorful responses from both Romney and his outspoken surrogate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who at one time referred to one of the protestors as “sweetheart.”
“Really?” said Christie, as soon as protestors interrupted him, the second outburst of the night from the group, who had already gone after Romney. “You know, something may go down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.”
“See it’s this confusion that’s out there because if she was in New Jersey like these Jersey girls out there she would know that we’ve created 60,000 new private sector jobs after Jon Corzine killed 120,000,” Christie said. “And if she wasn’t so blinded by her Barack Obama-induced anger, she’d know that American jobs are coming back when Mitt Romney is the next president of the United States, and if she wasn’t so disorientated by the loss of hope and change she’d understand that Mitt Romney is the hope for America’s future.”
Christie continued on, going further to blame the protestor’s anger on Obama.
“See, beware, this is a warning, this is a cautionary tale, be inspired by someone who has built a life that America can be proud of, not by a Chicago ward politician,” Christie said. “I doubt he is, but I hope the president’s watching. I have a message for you Mr. President. This is the type of disoriented anger your cynicism and your division is causing in our country. Bring our country together, stop dividing it, Mr. President. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/romney-christie-clash-with-occupy-protestors/
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The LA Times reports: Did the Obama administration release classified information to Hollywood notables for a film about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden?

That’s a question Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) wants answered. And in response, the Pentagon’s inspector general has launched an investigation, King disclosed Thursday.

“We plan to begin subject investigation immediately,” Patricia A. Brannin, deputy inspector general for intelligence and special program assessments, wrote in a memo that King emailed to reporters.

At issue is whether the filmmakers — director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, who both won Oscars for their 2009 Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" -- were given access to classified information about a mission that remains shrouded in secrecy. While newspapers and magazines have published detailed accounts about the raid, much remains unknown to all but a few.

“The leaks that followed the successful Bin Laden mission led to the arrests of Pakistanis and put in danger the mission’s heroes and their families,” King said in a statement. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-pentagon-probing-possible-leak-of-bin-laden-raid-details-20120105,0,6718099.story
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Infowars reports: Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.

The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”

Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed FPS officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon. http://www.infowars.com/dhs-officers-armed-with-semiautomatics-set-up-unannounced-id-checkpoint/
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National Review writes: The surrender is complete now. The Hindu reports that the Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.

Qaradawi urges that Islam must dominate the world, under a global caliphate governed by sharia. He maintains that Islam “will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America.” He sometimes qualifies that the conquering will be done “not through the sword but through da’wa,” but the qualification is a feint. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286854/obama-recruits-qaradawi-andrew-c-mccarthy

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CBS Chicago reports: A new state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log.
It’s getting a rough reception from customers and merchants alike although perhaps none more than a cashier at Schroeder’s True Value Hardware in Lombard.
“They’re not very happy about it at all,” said Don Schroeder, one of the store’s owners. “One of the customers actually threatened the (cashier) and threatened to throw the acid on her.”
The law, which took effect Sunday, requires those who seek to buy caustic or noxious substances, except for batteries, to provide government-issued photo identification that shows their name and date of birth. The cashier then must log the name and address, the date and time of the purchase, the type of product, the brand and even the net weight.
State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) obtained passage of the new law following attacks in which drain cleaner was poured on two Chicago women, badly scarring them. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/05/new-law-requires-photo-id-to-buy-drain-cleaner/
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CNS News reports:The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it is taking action to better address the health care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, by encouraging, among other things, health profession training programs to "include LGBT cultural competency curricula." http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hhs-calls-health-professionals-study-lgbt-cultural-competency-curricula
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Expose Obama shows video: http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/07/video-georgia-judge-schedules-hearing-on-obamas-citizenship/
[Here is the video of local tv news in GA. The lawyer for Obama said the suit is "borderline" frivolous. The thing which will be explosive is that even if Obama is found to be ineligible for office, it is a Republican Secretary of State who will decide, making her possible decision against Obama a political nightmare.]
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National Review reports on last night's debate: The big loser tonight was ABC News. We’re at war, the economy is in the tank, Iran is building a nuclear weapon, and ABC was obsessed with … contraception and gay marriage. They spent a good 15-20 minutes on those topics, while failing to ask a single question about Obamacare, the debt, entitlement reform, or other several other pressing issues.
Newt had a great moment during the long discussion of contraception and gay marriage when he turned the question around and asked why no one was concerned about anti-Christian bigotry. The Twitterverse erupted and ever those who do not support his candidacy cheered him.
Perry had a great debate too. He’s gotten better and better each time. But I think people have made their decisions on him this time around. He was mocked for it, but he made an important point about Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq when he said that every life lost will be for nothing because Obama wants to appease his liberal base. Obama has handed Iraq over to Iran, even if they are not moving in “literally” at light speed. They are moving in pretty fast. We should not have withdrawn all our troops and the next president will need to find a way to mitigate the damage. Imagine what the Korean peninsula would look like today if we had withdrawn every single American soldier right after the end of hostilities in the Korean War. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287479/big-winner-romney-big-loser-abc-news-marc-thiessen
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NY Post reports: A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all.
“The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells of the first Halloween party the first couple feted at the White House in 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests.
The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair — coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.
“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” the book says. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/in_blunderland_hKpNQkHfvpEWe4F51kI4dP
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AJC writes: Gwinnett County parents and activists have blasted the school district’s response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary school received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems.

School district officials said the principal at Beaver Ridge Elementary School will personally work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons and will offer more opportunities for staff development following the uproar created by the worksheet that included questions such as the following: “Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”
That didn’t go far enough for some parents at the school, where a majority of the students are minorities. They called for an apology and diversity training for the teachers and district officials. http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/norcross-parents-upset-by-1292851.html
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NY Post writes: Dereliction of duty or all part of the plan? Obama’s strategy this year — in addition to demonizing whichever Republican gets the nod to challenge him — will be to run against a “do-nothing” Congress, a la Harry Truman in 1948. But in this case the “nothing” is being “done” by the Democrats, who have gone to the mattresses in their battle to preserve the entitlement state.
* As a result, the nation closed out 2011 with the total debt at an astounding $15.22 trillion, or more than 100% of GDP.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hey_remember_this_guy_L7HnrH4rTOZHgR4vwjCrYI#ixzz1isJosNmN

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American Thinker gives 7 reasons not to vote for Obama. Here are a few of them: As we approach the final leg of the 2012 presidential election campaign, it helps to examine a few statistics that tell the tale about President Barack Obama's performance in office:

Unemployment rate:

January 2008 -- less than 5%

January 2012 -- 8.5%

Workforce increases/decreases between January 2008 and January 2011:

Federal Government -- +11.79%

Private Sector -- -6.6%

Percent of people who pay no federal income taxes:

January 2008 -- 36.3%

January 2012 -- 51%

Debt as a percent of GDP:

January 2008 -- 69%

January 2012 -- more than 100%

These are good reasons not to support Obama in 2012.

Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily. His latest book is titled If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.

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American Thinker writes about the UAW: From an historian's point of view, one could do worse than studying the United Mine Workers of America. It is a microcosm of the American Labor Movement. It is a startling picture of the role of individuals in the making of American history. It is the story of how a once powerful institution's leaders repeatedly sold out its members as the nation drifted from large scale industrial production of power and goods to being a producer of private and public services . Finally, not least, it is a story of breathtaking betrayal of working men by a man who used them as a stepping stone to greater personal power and to influence with an administration which time will prove the epitome of crony capitalism in the U.S.

62% of a nation's 174,880 coal miners were union member[s] in 1983. By 2009, that ration dropped to 20% in an industry that had contracted to 96,881 workers.

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From the National Education Association website, as well at the Michigan: Cheers to:

	Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who stood up for the rights on educators and other public employees by introducing the Senate version of the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 2010).
	President Obama, who appointed three pro-labor individuals to fill key, vacant positions on the National Labor Relations Board.

Jeers to:

	Presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R), who was quoted recently as saying, “Let’s look at colleges and universities…They’ve become indoctrination centers for the left. Should we be subsidizing that?”
	Presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R), who attacked President Obama’s pro-labor appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, calling the President “a crony capitalist” who had put ‘union stooges’ on the federal board that oversees the workplace.”
	The North Carolina General Assembly, which voted to hold a special legislative session after midnight, in which they voted to override the Governor Purdue’s veto of a bill to stop the North Carolina Association of Educators from collecting dues from teachers' paychecks via payroll deduction. http://us.mc1610.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?.rand=161870915&fid=Inbox&mid=1 _1792590_AOHci2IAADOwTwmYngJion0N1i0#_pg=showMessage&sMid=1&&filterBy=&. rand=980773665&midIndex=1&mid=1_1788515_ALDci2IAAAuHTwjjmwYLAWxncl8&from Id=cm2915@yahoo.com&=1_1790439_AD7ci2IAAG70TwjvcgmuzCVPkNw,1_1788515_ALD ci2IAAAuHTwjjmwYLAWxncl8,1_1787259_ALDci2IAAAXDTwjjIguNonnAST0,1_1784788 _APfci2IAABp7TwjVhA7D%2FkSm3wI,1_1765829_AOHci2IAAKWUTwdn3gVn2xyhhE0, 1_1764780_AOHci2IAAKIhTwdnfwMDQmkBt%2BI,1_1757959_APfci2IAAOTwTwdL NQODOkJrQd8,&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&hash=1f03b68aa98d9160856c2ae99a3bd8a4&.jsrand=3086691

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My recent Boyne City Gazette column on Occupy Washington, D.C.

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:00:05 PST

I recently visited Occupy Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from the White House. I congratulated the protesters there for having a list of responsible principles of non-violence. I disagree with their stated demands, the first official list I’ve seen. My response to those demands follows.

1.) The rich are already taxed by states and feds at up to 50% of income, while the lowest earning 47% of Americans are not taxed at all on income. While never decrying the immense incomes of actors and sports stars, Occupy crowds decry corporate owners and employees who actually provide jobs, develop products and pay the taxes which provide the safety net for the poor.
2) Wouldn't we all wish for a world with no enemies, no wars, no evil men attempting to take over the world? Unless Occupy protesters want to have a dictator or tyrant who cares not for their concerns at all, we must defend our freedoms.
3) Yes, the social safety net needs to be protected. Our money is not now wisely spent, fraud is rampant, unintended consequences increase government dependency, and government has defined poverty up in order to get more and more people on welfare. We have a multitude of poverty programs caring for the truly needy. Social Security is not strengthened by decrying the need to raise the age of retirement as we reach longer life expectancies. As to Medicare, all Americans receive Medicare when they reach the age of 65, whether they want it or not.
4) The end to corporate welfare is a laudable goal. I assume they disapprove of the recent government bailouts. Do they think this should also apply to government grants to failing environmental companies which have products which no one could afford to buy without government's interference, grants which turn into slush funds for companies which quickly go bankrupt? The basic axiom of crony capitalism is that one doesn’t need to break the law when many loopholes exist, an axiom which also works well for politicians.
5) It would be a wonderful world if we could actually produce enough solar energy, nuclear energy and windmills to provide enough electricity to live in a developed way. Four decades ago Gary, Indiana had orange air from steel mills which ran with no controls. Lake Erie was once so polluted that the lake itself caught fire. Pollution of air and water is dramatically lower now, and we should continue to make reasonable attempts to protect our environment.
6) Worker's rights are protected – those of all workers. The days of terrible abuses of employees was certainly ended by unions, whose bloated benefits now put budgets at risk. Capitalism allows workers to leave one company to work for another which gives better benefits, making a competitive environment which forces companies to compete for the best workers. The rights of those who wish to work without a union, the vast majority of Americans, should also be protected, from forced membership, from having to pay dues to union bosses, from having to make their votes in public, and from having their union dues sent to just one political party regardless of the beliefs of the worker. The right to vote for collective bargaining is a protected right. It should not be a command.
7) Jobs? They are created by companies which take risks in order to develop services and products which consumers want and need. When government provides all jobs, sooner or later the government runs out of other people’s money, as "the rich" decide to avoid tyranny by closing their businesses or taking jobs overseas.
8) Let's do get money out of politics! I love that one! How on earth do they plan to do this by excoriating corporations instead of Congress and the President? Politicians are forced to be money-raisers from their first day in office. Perhaps Occupy would approve of laws which force politicians to have the same health care, benefits and pensions as do the “folks”, as our President calls us. Congress should be forced to pass no law from which they are exempt, such as the currently exposed legal insider trading.
We need fresh solutions to make capitalism work once again.

Conservativecorner-karen.blogspot.com

Obama's reelection schemes; Defining deviency down as "intergenerational sexual intimacy"; Permanent patients cost taxpayers; Thomas More Law Center files brief supporting Alabama's immigration law; Obama "has an obligation as President to do what he can without Congress"; Global climate deal fails if Obama not reelected; Obama's recess appointments almost certain to be challenged in court; Pelosi is "darn proud" of Obama; Obama created "constitutional crisis"; US approval for UN Resolution 16/18 against spoken religious bias; Obama's Fascist-like actions; Obama's banana republic

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:47:29 PST

[It has been my belief that this President has been using the principles of Cloward and Piven to bring this country to its knees. He is using his "We Can't Wait" program to overwhelm the system, the American citizens and Congress by overwhelming us with new regulations which put more and more people on the government dole, finally causing taxpayers to just give up and beg for government protection. Notice that Obama voters, those already on government assistance, cheer wildly as he flagrantly defies his oath to the American Constitution. This is income redistribution at its finest.] Fox News reports: This could be just the beginning. If President Barack Obama’s legally dodgy appointment of Richard Cordray to head the consumer finance agency should stick, it may open the door to more such actions. Here’s Jaret Seiberg of the Washington Research Group:
To us, the most important takeaway from a recess appointment of Cordray is that the President could use this same maneuver to put a housing advocate in charge of FHFA.
Mayer estimates that some $3.7 trillion of mortgages would be refinanced. That’s right, this would be the Mother of All Mortgage Refinancing Plans. It would help roughly 30 million borrowers save $75 billion to $80 billion a year. As Mayer puts it: “This plan would function like a long-lasting tax cut for these 25 or 30 million American families.”

Bottom line: Talk about a political and economic game changer in this presidential election year. Obama could offer a trillion-dollar stimulus — as measured over a decade –that would directly and immediately impact tens of millions of Americans suffering from the housing depression. Cash in their pockets. Imagine the electoral impact on key states, such as Florida, suffering from both high unemployment and devastated housing markets.

And the beauty part for Obama? He wouldn’t need approval from Congress to do it. http://nation.foxnews.com/housing-foreclosures/2012/01/05/january-surprise-obama-preparing-trillion-dollar-mass-refinancing-mortgages
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Life Site News reports: January 4, 2012 (PublicDiscourse.com) - The anger and disgust that most of us experienced when we learned of the allegations of sexual abuse of boys in the sports programs at Penn State and Syracuse University suggest that our cultural norms about the sexual abuse of minors are intact. Yet it was only a decade ago that a parallel movement had begun on some college campuses to redefine pedophilia as the more innocuous “intergenerational sexual intimacy.”
The publication of Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex promised readers a “radical, refreshing, and long overdue reassessment of how we think and act about children’s and teens’ sexuality.” The book was published by University of Minnesota Press in 2003 (with a foreword by Joycelyn Elders, who had been the U.S. Surgeon General in the Clinton administration), after which the author, Judith Levine, posted an interview on the university’s website decrying the fact that “there are people pushing a conservative religious agenda that would deny minors access to sexual expression,” and adding that “we do have to protect children from real dangers … but that doesn’t mean protecting some fantasy of their sexual innocence.” http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/meet-the-academics-who-are-trying-to-redefine-pedophilia-as-intergeneration
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The Blaze reports: The Times defines a “permanent patient”:

…[someone who has] been languishing for months or even years in…hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing.

Patients fit to be discharged from hospitals but having no place to go typically remain more than five years, says LaRay Brown, a senior vice president for New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.
She says that there were about 300 patients in such a predicament throughout the New York City area alone, most in public hospitals or higher-priced skilled public nursing homes, though a few were in private hospitals, according to the Times. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/hospitals-stuck-with-illegal-immigrant-uninsured-permanent-patients-at-massive-cost/
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Thomas More Law Center reports: ANN ARBOR, MI – Continuing its support of states that enact tough illegal immigration laws, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a brief supporting Alabama’s recently enacted law.

The Law Center’s brief was filed on Tuesday, January 3, 2012, in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of United States v. Alabama, a case brought against the state of Alabama by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to stop it from enforcing laws against illegal immigrants found in that state. The Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments this March. [read brief here] http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf

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Glenn Beck reports: Obama said that while he would continue to work with Congress where he could, he said “when Congress refuses to act, and as a result, hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as President to do what I can without them.”
“I’m not going to stand by while a minority in the Senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve,” he added.
“Americans, hear what your president is saying,” Glenn warned. “I’ll work within the system but if they won’t move, then I will dictate.”
“Yeah. He says I will give Republicans every opportunity to agree with me,” Stu said. “And when they do not agree with me, I’ll do what I want.” http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/01/05/hail-to-the-king-obamas-latest-power-grab/
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The Hill reports: Prospects for striking a binding global climate deal by 2015 are probably toast if President Obama loses in November.
That’s among the conclusions in a wide-ranging, new climate and green energy outlook from banking giant HSBC’s research branch.

A major outcome from the United Nations climate talks in December was a plan to craft a deal by 2015 — one that would include big, developing nations such as China — and have it come into force by 2020.But Obama’s main Republican White House rivals are critical of emissions limits and skeptical of climate science. HSBC predicts an international agreement by 2015 is highly unlikely if Obama loses the election. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/202539-report-global-climate-deal-hinges-on-obama-reelection-
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The Hill opines: The recess appointments President Obama announced Wednesday are “almost certain” to be challenged in court, according to a top official with the nation’s largest business lobby.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has not decided whether it will file a legal challenge to the appointments, according to David Hirschmann, who heads the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. But he said he’s confident that Obama’s precedent-shattering move will land the administration in court.

The recess appointments broke with legal precedent, as they while the Senate is holding regular pro forma sessions. Republicans insist the Senate has not been in recess thanks to the seconds-long sessions held every few days, but White House attorneys determined the procedural move is a gimmick that can be ignored by the president.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted the move as an "unprecedented power grab" and said he expects "the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."
However, one question a judge could need to answer is whether Cordray will actually be able to assume those powers since he has been recess-appointed. The text of the Dodd-Frank law states that those powers will not take effect until the CFPB director "is confirmed by the Senate."
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/202425-chamber-official-court-fight-over-obamas-appointments-almost-certain
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Hot Air reports: Nancy Pelosi: I’m darned proud of Obama for making these illegal recess appointments http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/05/pelosi-im-darned-proud-of-obama-for-making-these-illegal-recess-appointments/

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CNS News reports: On his radio show last night, Mark Levin said that President Barack Obama has caused a “constitutional crisis” by appointing members to the National Labor Relations Board and a director to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without going through the constitutionally required Senate confirmation process.

"The President of the United States is trashing the Constitution now day in and day out,” Levin said.
At one point, Levin likened the explanation Obama made yesterday for appointing these federal officials without Senate confrmation to the "forthright statement of a dictator." http://cnsnews.com/blog/patrick-burke/mark-levin-we-have-constitutional-crisis
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Forbes opines: your government has been quietly wrapping up a Christmas gift of its own: adoption of UN resolution 16/18. An initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly Organization of Islamic Conferences), the confederacy of 56 Islamic states, Resolution 16/18 seeks to limit speech that is viewed as “discriminatory” or which involves the “defamation of religion” – specifically that which can be viewed as “incitement to imminent violence.”
Whatever that means.
Initially proposed in response to alleged discrimination against Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11 and in an effort to clamp down on anti-Muslim attacks in non-Muslim countries, Resolution 16/18 has been through a number of revisions over the years in order to make it palatable to American representatives concerned about U.S. Constitutional guarantees of free speech. Previous versions of the Resolution, which sought to criminalize blasphemous speech and the “defamation of religion,” were regularly rejected by the American delegation and by the US State Department, which insisted that limitations on speech – even speech deemed to be racist or blasphemous – were at odds with the Constitution. But this latest version, which includes the “incitement to imminent violence” phrase – that is, which criminalizes speech which incites violence against others on the basis of religion, race, or national origin – has succeeded in winning US approval –despite the fact that it (indirectly) places limitations as well on speech considered “blasphemous http://www.forbes.com/sites/abigailesman/2011/12/30/could-you-be-a-criminal-us-supports-un-anti-free-speech-measure/
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American Thinker opines: I have seen and experienced the worst that man can offer, I am not intimidated, and I will say without reservation that Barack Obama and his cronies have the same mindset in their tactical approach, philosophy, and lust for power that was extant in Benito Mussolini and the Fascists in the early days of their regime. If the apologists for those in power in Washington want to vilify me for that comparison, so be it.
To the American people, it is far beyond time to wake up to who this man in the White House is and what his ambitions are. As for the Republicans in the Congress or running for office, the task is upon your shoulders to stop Barack Obama in his tracks before he goes any farther. It is time to do your sworn duty to preserve and protect the country. And for the Democrats who are so blinded by party loyalty that they would sell their country for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver, the long-term difficulties and potential downfall of the greatest nation on earth will be your legacy.

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Investors.com opines: President Obama's nonrecess "recess appointments" can't be excused as over-the-top electioneering. This president has crossed over from socialistic extremism into lawlessness and, perhaps, impeachability. The U.S. Constitution established a strong presidency — so strong that even one of the most esteemed founding fathers, Patrick Henry, worried it would be kinglike. But this week saw a president exceed even those broad constitutional powers because doing so fits his election-year narrative of a "do-nothing Congress" so well.
Now we have the makings of a banana republic, where the rule of clearly written constitutional law is compromised by a ruler's subjective whim.
Some may say these are small-potato government jobs not worth a big confrontation. But if a president can trample the Constitution on these appointments, the door opens for similar abuses of power with Cabinet secretaries and judicial nominations.
Obama claims he has "an obligation as president to do what I can without them," referring to Congress.
But the Constitution, which Obama took an oath to preserve, protect and defend, says he can't.
http://news.investors.com/Article/596910/201201051902/obamas-banana-republic-abuse-of-power.htm
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Top-secret missile data might be given to Russia by Obama; Anti-constitutional non-recess appointments by Obama; Legal action possible; A declaration of war against Congress; He refuses to take no for an answer; Rick Santorum on contraception; Obama strikes again on "we can't wait"; Second bill of rights; Bailed-out GM moves jobs overseas; New Hampshire promotes investigation on Obama's eligibility

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:20:56 PST

Big Peace reports: In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.
As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.
There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses. http://bigpeace.com/jpollak/2012/01/04/obama-to-share-missile-defense-secrets-with-russia/

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Bloomberg reports: President Barack Obama bypassed the U.S. Senate and summarily installed Richard Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general, as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday.
Hours later, Obama filled three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board, possibly the only agency Republicans dislike more than the consumer bureau.
The White House called these “recess appointments,” even though Congress technically wasn’t in recess. In doing so, the president is playing with fire. He risks an election-year legal challenge that could hamstring the consumer bureau and several other financial regulators whose pending confirmations will probably now stall. The president’s authority -- and that of future executives -- to fill administration posts without Senate approval may be limited by the courts.

We understand why the president, out of deep frustration, went around Republican senators. Under the Dodd-Frank law that created the consumer bureau, it can’t issue rules or regulate many financial firms, including payday lenders, debt collectors and mortgage brokers, absent a full-time director. The NLRB, which enforces labor laws, is stymied with three out of five seats vacant -- not enough for a quorum.
Nevertheless, our desire to have effective regulation doesn’t trump our reservations over the president’s unusual methods. If the goal was to improve government function, Obama might have achieved the opposite by all but inviting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to sue.

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AP reports: President Barack Obama is bypassing GOP opposition to make three more recess appointments - this time to the National Labor Relations Board.

The move came hours after Obama used a similar tactic to install former Ohio Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Both moves infuriated GOP leaders, who threatened legal action and warned that Obama was setting a dangerous precedent by ignoring the will of Congress. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LABOR_BOARD_APPOINTMENTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-04-15-24-18

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Washington Times reports: The president acted just a day after the Senate held a session — a move that breaks with at least three different precedents which have held that the Senate must be in recess for at least three days before a president can act. Mr. Obama himself was part of two of those precedents, both during his own time in the Senate and again in 2010 when one of his administration’s top lawyers made the three-day argument to the Supreme Court.

Using sharp language, congressional Republicans said the Senate considers itself still in session for purposes of blocking recess appointments, and the move threatened to become a declaration of war against Congress.
“Although the Senate is not in recess, President Obama, in an unprecedented move, has arrogantly circumvented the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican. .http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/4/obama-unprecedented-recess-appointment/
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MSNBC writes: President Barack Obama announced a recess appointment to name Richard Cordray as the nation's chief consumer watchdog despite strong Republican opposition, bypassing Senate approval.
"I refuse to take `no' for an answer," the president said told a cheering crowd in Ohio.
The announcement drew immediate fire from Republicans who have blocked Cordray's appointment since it was announced in July.
This is a very grave decision by this heavy-handed, autocratic White House," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/04/9947364-obama-defies-gop-by-naming-new-consumer-watchdog
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Salon reports: Here is an actual Rick Santorum quote: “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country.” And also, “Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
These comments were not dug up from some bygone moment of ideological purity, before dreams of a presidential campaign. He said it in October, to a blogger at CaffeinatedThoughts.com (they met at Des Moines’ Baby Boomers Cafe).
It’s pretty basic: Rick Santorum is coming for your contraception. Any and all of it. And while he may not be alone in his opposition to non-procreative sex, he is certainly the most honest about it — as he himself acknowledged in the interview. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/04/rick_santorum_is_coming_for_your_birth_control/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABC News: A new partnership aimed at helping a quarter of a million young people find summer jobs.
The initiative, part of Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, is intended to replace a youth jobs fund that would have been enacted had Congress passed the president’s $447 billion jobs bill.
“America’s young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’ve got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job. It’s important for their future, and for America’s. That’s why I proposed a summer jobs program for youth in the American Jobs Act — a plan that Congress failed to pass. America’s youth can’t wait for Congress to act. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Obama said in a written statement.
The new partnership between the federal government and the private sector commits to creating nearly 180,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012, with a goal of reaching 250,000 employment opportunities by the start of summer. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/white-house-cant-wait-to-help-young-people-get-summer-jobs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Thinker writes on the Democrat list of rights: the State of the Union address delivered by Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 in which he laid out what is commonly referred to as the "Second Bill of Rights." It is a consolidation of socialist thinking begun in the mid-nineteenth century.
These tenets, never contemplated by the founding fathers as God-given rights, have nonetheless become the foundational principle of the Democratic Party. Democrats' successful attempt, along with the tacit concurrence of many in the Republican Party, to force this dogma on American society has entailed at least partial realization of the following:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; and
The right to a good education.

While these are admirable goals for any society, it is impossible to guarantee these ideals. Yet when liberals frame and promote these goals as "rights," the expectation of much the populace is that these are in fact entitlements that every American should be guaranteed.

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The Blaze reports: Although it happened back in September, 2011, it appears many American taxpayers are unaware that General Motors struck a deal in Shanghai wherein the company has agreed to develop an electric vehicle (EV) platform with its longtime Chinese partner SAIC.
What else was included in this deal? GM has agreed to effectively move all future EV development to China. It could also mean that production of the vehicle itself will be moved overseas.
The agreement is the result of the Chinese government coercing foreign automakers into giving Chinese companies the EV technology they lack, according to an Associated Press report. Unsurprisingly, some U.S. lawmakers have voiced concerns that the deal is little more than a “shake down” from the Chinese to get GM’s Volt secrets. GM has denied reports that it will hand over the intellectual property underlying the Volt. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/after-receiving-bailout-gm-may-move-volt-production-to-china/
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World Net Daily reports: Several New Hampshire legislators declared at a press conference today that President Barack Obama is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States and that New Hampshire voters were defrauded by Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Coos, District 1, state Rep. Larry Rappaport told the crowd he has filed a petition asking New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney to investigate whether the Ballot Law Commission acted illegally by allowing Obama’s name on the New Hampshire ballot.
“The Ballot Law Commission held a hearing on November 18, and it refused to hear our request,” he continued. “We asked for a rehearing; it was denied. We asked for an override by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and it refused to hear our case. We went to the Supreme Court of the United States, and that’s where it stands now.”
As WND reported, a federal judge has ruled that President Obama must be “constitutionally eligible.”
The legislator’s petition was denied by the Ballot Law Commission because the commission said it didn’t have the authority to rule on the issue, noting that it can only ensure the accuracy of the petitions and whether the document is accompanied by the filing fee.
“The Ballot Law Committee says it doesn’t have jurisdiction over this issue, but it does. It disqualified two other candidates for office because those candidates weren’t ‘natural born citizens,’” he said. .http://wp.wnd.com/2012/01/lawmakers-dispute-obama-ballot-eligibility/
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