Friday, December 16, 2011

Obama's calls for repeal of ban on sodomy and bestiality in the military are ignored; Tax cuts & deregulation HAVE spurred economic growth, Mr. President; Republicans block former accused Cuban spy from ambassadorship; Few Iraquis attend departure ceremony; First Lady leaves before Obama; Obamacare is already killing private insurance plans, spends money 3 times faster than predicted, giving half of funds to union companies ; Another "We Can't Wait' regulation; Union replacement worker brutalized in Ohio; New spending agreement puts hold on lightbulb ban, eliminates surtax on millionaires; Overspending at Christmas, and secret Santas;

CNS News reports: Despite a plea from the Obama administration that the military ban on sodomy and bestiality be repealed, a House-Senate conference committee has restored the ban to the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The sodomy-bestiality ban would have been repealed by the version of the bill that had been approved by the Senate.

A spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee told CNSNews.com Wednesday that the Obama administration had “made its pitch” on repealing Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice related to sodomy--but the members of the conference committee “were not persuaded” that the change was needed. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/defense-bill-will-not-include-provision-legalizing-sodomy-bestiality-military-0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Redstate writes: In his speech in Kansas last week, Obama claimed that at no time in our history had we ever spurred economic growth and prosperity by cutting taxes and deregulating.
He conveniently had to overlook John F. Kennedy’s tax cutting in the 1960?s. But more importantly and more relevantly, he had to ignore the Reagan Revolution of the 1980?s that brought about an explosion of economic growth. As Newt Gingrich pointed out yesterday, in one month in 1983 the Reagan Recovery generated more than one million new jobs.
Barack Obama and the Left must dismiss and gloss over this point. They must fixate on income inequality. They must fixate on poverty. Never mind that all levels of society saw benefit from the Reagan Revolution. While it was not equal, the overwhelming number of Americans alive at the time saw their standard of living go up.
The left would respond by arguing that it went up too much for some and not enough for others. What they are actually saying is that they’d rather it had not gone up at all then to see some get even richer. While, as Reagan noted, the right measures the success of a welfare program by how many people are able to get off it, the left measures the success of welfare programs by how many people get on it.  http://www.redstate.com/erick/2011/12/15/barack-obama-throws-bill-clinton-under-the-bus/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Last Expose Obama writes: In August as Barack Obama was about to head out for vacation on Martha’s Vineyard,he named a woman accused of spying for Cuba as our ambassador to El Salvador. The recess appointment of Maria (or “Mari”) del Carmen Aponte side-stepped the Congress but could only hold for one year.
Time has run out. On Monday,on their first chance to weigh in on the matter,Senate Republicans blocked her nomination. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/14/victory-republicans-block-obamas-ambassador-with-possible-spy-connection/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fox News Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports that only a handful of Iraqis were on hand Thursday as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and U.S. military leaders formally ended the Iraq war with a subdued ceremony in Baghdad. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend the ceremony at which the flag of U.S. Forces-Iraq was officially retired.
The BBC reported that in the city of Falluja on Wednesday, Iraqis burned U.S. flags to celebrate the war's end. Some Iraqis say the U.S. did not live up to its promise to leave behind a secure and stable Iraq.
U.S. officials were unable to reach an agreement with the Iraqis on immunity for U.S. troops that would have allowed a small training and counterterrorism force to remain in the country. http://cnsnews.com/blog/susan-jones/strains-display-no-iraqi-leaders-attend-us-end-war-ceremony-baghdad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Washington Post reveals: First lady Michelle Obama and first daughters Sasha and Malia are headed to Hono­lulu on Friday for a 17-day vacation — without the president. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/president-obama-to-stay-behind-while-michelle-obama-daughters-head-to-hawaii/2011/12/15/gIQACrLsvO_blog.html?wprss=44&tid=sm_twitter_postpolitics
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Human Events opines: It’s supposed to be a shocking surprise that ObamaCare is murdering private insurance plans, but in truth, its many legislative midwives always knew that would happen.  They’re just surprised by the scale.
Consider the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, or ERRP.  This was a program designed to subsidize 80% of the cost for insuring early retirees, whose benefits had been declining for many years, and were among the first items to be placed on corporate chopping blocks after ObamaCare was passed.  The program was given $5 billion in funding, to tide it over until the full magic of the “public exchanges” kicked in, circa 2014.
Instead, it’s going bankrupt on December 31st of this year.  Be sure to have your favorite national debt clock pulled up on your computer when those public exchanges go online, for even more spectacular evidence that the designers of ObamaCare were wrong about everything. 
If the Administration exhausted an entire $5 billion budget approximately three times faster than estimated, what does that portend for the accuracy of the cost estimates cited in support of the other expensive aspects of the trillion dollar health care reform law?
How much “portending” can you take, America? 
The Committee report lists the top 20 recipients of EERP funding, which ate up nearly half of the $5 billion program between them.  In fact, if you extend the list to the Top 25 consumers, well over half of the funds are accounted for.  Number One is the United Auto Workers, already gifted with General Motors at taxpayer expense.  Twelve of them are state governments or public employee union funds, with Ohio taking the #3 spot at just over $180 million.  And, of course, one of President Obama’s favorite non-bankrupt companies, General Electric, makes the list.  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48160
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USA Today writes: Nearly 2 million home care workers could qualify for federal wage and overtime protections under a rule being proposed today by the Obama administration.
The effort — the 18th initiative in Obama's "We Can't Wait" campaign against Congress — would overcome legislative inertia and a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that upheld home care workers' exclusion from wage-and-hour standards. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-12-14/obama-home-care-workers-minimum-wage-overtime/51932040/1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Redstate writes: There is a labor dispute going on at a Cooper Tire plant in Findlay, Ohio. In late November, when the United Steelworkers rejected a contract offer from management, the company locked out approximately 1,000 unionized workers.
On Saturday, one of the replacement workers was beaten with something “similar to a baseball bat” and hospitalized. However, according to the Toledo Blade, police do not think the labor dispute has anything to do with the beating: http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/15/replacement-worker-beaten-and-hospitalized-ohio-police-see-no-connection-to-labor-dispute/
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Washington Post writes: Congressional negotiators signed off Thursday evening on a $1 trillion spending agreement for 2012 for federal agencies, barely 27 hours before a deadline that could have led to a government shutdown.
After dropping minor policy prescriptions that President Obama opposed, members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees gave final approval to the plan after a four-day standoff related to Obama’s demands to extend the payroll tax holiday for 160 million workers.
Talks on the payroll tax holiday lasted deep into Thursday night. They had picked up steam 24 hours earlier, when Democrats dropped their demand that the cut be paid for with a new surtax on those who earn more than $1 million a year.
“Yeah, that’s gone,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) confirmed Thursday evening. Baucus, who is negotiating the tax package for Democrats, continued pushing to complete a year-long extension of the payroll tax provision, coupled with extended un­employment benefits and an important tweak to the Medicare reimbursement rate for doctors.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congressional-leaders-negotiating-key-bills-to-avoid-government-shutdown/2011/12/15/gIQA6nPwwO_story.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

North Jersey writes: Anonymous donors paying off Kmart layaway accounts across US.

The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.
"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."
Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.
At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.
The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children.system.
The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said. [What a wonderful Christmas story.  However, it points out one reason why so many people are in great debt.  Never in my life have I ever given one of my children  anywhere near $200 in toys.  A 4 yr. old would not know the difference, but the parent's budget would.  It's called living within one's means, and reducing the sense of entitlement.  Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, not about how many toys were received.]  http://www.northjersey.com/news/Anonymous_donors_pay_off_Kmart_layaway_accounts.html?page=all
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hill reports: Omnibus spending legislation greenlighted by House and Senate negotiators Thursday night blocks Energy Department light bulb efficiency standards that have come under fire from conservatives in recent months.
The legislation, which would avert a government shutdown, prevents funding from being used for the implementation of certain Energy Department light bulb standards. The standards would begin phasing in next year.  [I have a feeling this is but a temporary reprieve.  It happened because just yesterday I finally stocked up on 100 watt bulbs after believing they would be unavailable in 2012.  I wonder if the bulb-making factory could reopen, and rehire the 200 workers who were fired....]
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/199851-spending-deal-blocks-light-bulb-efficiency-standards?page=2#comments
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National Review weighs in on Obama's "Let's Spam Republicans" program: [Yes, I am still incensed that a President of the United States would stoop so low, would ask his supporters for the emails and addresses of his  foes so that he can put them on his enemies list!  This follows his recent failure, "Attack Watch", and his early call for the emails of those who say something "fishy" about The One.  I was one of the first to write to him, telling him I found someone lying about Obamacare - him.  I never heard back from him.]  Obama to Supporters: Hey, Let’s Spam All the Republicans You Know!
Oh, this is reassuring. The Obama campaign wants its grassroots supporters to make donations in the name of Republicans they know and are irked by – and they promise to send a gloating e-mail to that Republican if you provide their address.
At the White House Dossier, Keith Koffler observes, “The Obama information collection effort is cast under the mischievous guise of asking Obama 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 Obama supporter to donate. The result, however, is that the Obama campaign gets a new trove of Republican email addresses that it could never have collected through voluntary submissions.”  http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/285851/president-downgrade-president-squatter-economy-president-spam

1 comment:

  1. Just how bad is this guy !? Trying to remove the ban on sodomy !!! What in the hell is he thinking ????

    ReplyDelete