Unions Threaten Businesses; Lawsuit Filed Against New Wisconsin Law; Muslim Radicals are 80% of Terror Cases; Is America in Libya?; Tennessee Bans State Income and Payroll Taxes; Restraining Order on Divulging Names of Gun Owners in Illinois;TSA Cooked Their Books on Costs

How to peacefully present one's message in DC

The unions threaten to boycott companies which don't support union thuggery: by the way, I have personally witnessed a union threaten the very life of someone I know - in Detroit in the 80's.  These are not always nice guys... and they seem willing to do whatever it takes to get their way, democracy be darned.]

from www.620wtmj.com

The undersigned groups would like your company to publicly oppose Governor

Walker’s efforts to virtually eliminate collective bargaining for public employees in

Wisconsin. While we appreciate that you may need some time to consider this

request, we ask for your response by March 17. In the event that you do not

respond to this request by that date, we will assume that you stand with

Governor Walker and against the teachers, nurses, police officers, fire fighters,

and other dedicated public employees who serve our communities.

In the event that you cannot support this effort to save collective bargaining,

please be advised that the undersigned will publicly and formally boycott the

goods and services provided by your company. However, if you join us, we will

do everything in our power to publicly celebrate your partnership in the fight to

preserve the right of public employees to be heard at the bargaining table.In the event you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact the executive Director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, Jim Palmer, at 608.273.3840. Thank you in advance for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you soon. James L. Palmer, Executive Director  

Thank you in advance for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from

you soon.

 

James L. Palmer, Executive Director

Wisconsin Professional Police Association

Mahlon Mitchell,President

Professional Professional Fire Fighters

Jim Conway, President

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 311

John Matthews, Execuctive Director

Madison Teachers, Inc.

Keith Patt, Executive Director

Green Bay Education Association

Bob Richardson,  President

Dane County Deputy Sheriffs Association

Dan Frei, Prersident

Madison Professional Police Officers Association

http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=65728

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620wtmj also writes: The lawsuit filed by Democratic Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk attempts to stop the publication [in the newspapers, on the new law] on the grounds that the bill unconstitutionally passed the state Senate on Wednesday.  A judge was considering Friday whether to block enactment of a law taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights from the vast majority of Wisconsin's public workers.http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117814693.html

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Powerlineblog writes: The Investigative Project of Terrorism reveals: "Though Muslims represent about 1 percent of the American population," the IPT notes, "they constitute defendants in 186 of the 228 cases DoJ lists [of terrorist activity - more than 80%]." Thirty of the terror cases listed, or about 13 percent, involve homegrown Islamist terrorists.
The DoJ compilation includes convictions into March 2010; the IPT article cites a number of prosecutions for Islamist related terrorist activity since then.  http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028559.php
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Debka.com reveals: Hundreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya's eastern breakaway province, debkafile's military sources report exclusively. This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in early January.  The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:
1. To help the revolutionary committees controlling eastern Libyan establish government frameworks for supplying two million inhabitants with basic services and commodities;
2. To organize them into paramilitary units, teach them how to use the weapons they captured from Libyan army facilities, help them restore law and order on the streets and train them to fight Muammar Qaddafi's combat units coming to retake Cyrenaica.
3. To prepare infrastructure for the intake of additional foreign troops. Egyptian units are among those under consideration.  http://debka.com/article/20708/
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The New American writes: Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” What would the good jurist think of Tennessee, then?

On Wednesday, Holmes would probably say that the Tennessee state Senate behaved in a most “uncivilized” manner by passing 28-5 a bill that would amend the Tennessee Constitution to forever prohibit the state legislature or municipalities incorporated in the Volunteer State from instituting an income tax or a payroll tax. http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/6649-tennessee-state-senate-passes-no-income-tax-bill

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Ammoland.com writes: The ISRA is pleased to announce that it has secured a temporary restraining order against the release of personal information belonging to persons holding Illinois Firearm Owner Identification cards (FOID).
The ISRA and four additional plaintiffs filed for the temporary restraining order after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that her office believes that release of FOID information to the public is proper under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
The ISRA is very concerned that public release of personal information from the FOID database will jeopardize the safety of law-abiding firearm owners. http://www.ammoland.com/2011/03/11/rifle-association-secures-restraining-order-against-release-of-firearm-owners-personal-information/
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The Washington Times writes: The Transportation Security Administration “cooked the books” to understate the costs of using federal workers rather than private contractors to screen airport passengers, a key TSA critic in Congress charged Wednesday.
Federal auditors found the agency erred in its cost comparisons, and a skeptical lawmaker said TSA did so to stop the use of private contractors to do screening — an option Congress wrote into the 2001 law that created the agency.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/9/tsa-cooked-data-on-airport-security-watchdog-repor/

Entitlements of Unions Questioned; Jackson and Moore Foment Protests, Declare War; Wisconsin Republican Senators Receive Frightening, Detailed Death Threats; France Backs Libyan Opposition; Clapper Predicts Ghadafi Will Prevail; UK Patients Wait for Care

No, these are patient, non-violent conservatives petitioning their government on Obamacare

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes: We're prepared to do whatever it takes to kill the bill or shut it down," said Daniel Ginsberg of Milwaukee, an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society.


During the news conference, he also blasted Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona), saying that Miller stood in the way of an agreement being reached. Walker said that Miller had demanded that all of the proposed collective bargaining changes be dropped from the bill.
Asked whether Republicans had pulled a dirty trick by stripping the bill of appropriation items and then approving it, Walker said the dirty trick is what the 14 missing senators have done in the last several weeks.
"You can't mail in your vote," he said of the absent senators.
He told voters in those Senate districts to ask why those senators are not in Wisconsin. Those voters also should ask who is calling the shots. Walker suggested it was Miller, Miller's staff or "union leaders from Washington, D.C." instructing the missing 14 on what to do.  http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/117735163.html
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The Journal Gazette from Indiana writes:  Ohio's House speaker now says he hopes a bill to limit public workers' union rights will be voted on next week, suggesting a faster timetable than he'd indicated previously. The Columbus Dispatch reports Batchelder now says a possible House floor vote next week would come after the equivalent of three weeks' worth of hearings. He explains that lawmakers are meeting on the bill each day, not stretching out the hearing calendar.  http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110310/NEWS11/110319981
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The Indianapolis Star writes: Thousands of union supporters ignored icy winds today for a rally outside the Indiana Statehouse calling for lawmakers to drop measures that would cut back on labor rights. Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Ind, one of the Indiana Democrats that forced the Indiana House into a three-week deadlock by holding out in an Illinois hotel, addressed the crowd that filled the massive plaza on the west side of the Statehouse.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110310/NEWS05/110310007/Thousands-gather-Statehouse-labor-rally?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|IndyStar.com
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Jesse Jackson said this during an appearance on FOX News: "So they're going to escalate the protests -- you will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you're going to have it through the streets. People here will fight back because they think their cause is moral and they have nowhere else to go."  [I wonder if Jesse knows that not all states even have "collective bargaining", and they are doing just fine.  He and Michael Moore are doing a fine job of defining the need for union workers to make this a "hot" summer full of protests.  The real issues are not the they will not be able to take care of their families, for we will still be paying them a fair wage.  Unions are terrified that they will lose the right to FORCE people to join their unions, PAY their union dues, and in some cases get paid for doing very little.] 

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[I know you must be thinking that negotiating rights sound okay, as even without unions we negotiate with our bosses for improved pay, benefits, and positions.  Those of us who deserve better generally get more. Unionized teachers, however, have tenure and cannot be fired without unusual efforts being made.  During layoffs, the oldest teachers jobs are protected no matter how bad they may be while young, effective teachers are laid off without consideration of their skills, even if they may be "teacher of the year" as in one case.  In NYC taxpayers pay the salaries of hundreds of teachers who are in disciplinary proceedings.  They do nothing for their pay other than sitting in a "rubber room"  For example, Philip Nobile, who has been in a Brooklyn rubber room for nearly three years, said Thursday's agreement is a step in the right direction.  This is the kind of abuse by union contracts that taxpayers are interested in ending.  But don't take my word for all this...]
Huffington Post writes: NEW YORK — The city will end the practice of paying teachers to play Scrabble, read or surf the Internet in reassignment centers nicknamed "rubber rooms" as they await disciplinary hearings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the teachers union announced Thursday.
The deal will close the centers, where hundreds of educators spend months or years in bureauratic limbo, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.
"It's an absurd abuse of tenure," Bloomberg said. About 650 educators, more than 500 of them teachers, are in the rubber rooms earning some $30 million in salaries, officials said. The city has blamed union rules that make it difficult to fire teachers, but some teachers assigned to rubber rooms say they have been singled out because they ran afoul of a principal or they blew the whistle on someone who was fudging test scores. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/rubber-rooms-bounced-teac_n_538822.html

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National Review writes: My colleagues and I have received substantial death threats today,” Wisconsin Sen. Randy Hopper tells National Review Online.
It isn’t the first time the GOP state senators have been threatened with violence. “We received ones last week prior to this as an attempt to try to get us to vote a certain way,” Hopper reports.
Via WisPolitics’ Budget Blog, here is part of the text of an e-mail sent to Wisconsin GOP senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald after the vote (profanity not edited out in original):
Mr. Fitzgerald,
I want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and your republican dictators have to die. This is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, this isn’t enough. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message. So we have built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!  [Has our President, or Nancy Pelosi condemned this speech as too harsh?  Will they?]  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/261857/wis-gop-senators-face-death-threats-katrina-trinko

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France International 24 hr. news writes: In a major diplomatic victory for the Libyan opposition, France has become the first country to formally recognise Libya’s rebel leadership, pledging to exchange ambassadors between Paris and the Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi.
“We thank the French government and the people of Libya will never forget that they (the French government) were the first country to recognize us and they stood with us in our difficult time.”
In Benghazi, people gathered near the National Council's headquarters, honking cars and cheering as some fired celebratory gunshot rounds, according to Reuters. In a phone interview with FRANCE 24 from Benghazi, Boughaighis said she hoped France’s formal recognition of the opposition would trigger a domino effect across Europe. http://www.france24.com/en/20110310-France-NTC-national-transitional-council-embassy-Libya
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The UK Telegraph reveals: James Clapper, the director of US national intelligence, told the Senate armed services committee “the [Ghadafi] regime will prevail”, forcing the White House into an embarrassing damage control exercise.

“With respect to the rebels in Libya, and whether or not they will succeed or not, I think frankly they’re in for a tough row,” he said, adding the momentum had shifted to Col Gaddafi. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8375043/Libya-Gaddafi-will-prevail-says-Barack-Obamas-intelligence-chief.html
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The UK Telegraph writes: Official figures show that more than 11,000 people are now being forced to wait longer than six weeks for scans and internal examinations, after targets for treatment times were scrapped. Hundreds more patients are having to endure delays of more than 13 weeks before they find out if they have cancer or heart disease. It comes after health campaigners claimed that NHS hospitals are carrying out far fewer procedures such as hip replacements and cataract surgery. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8371559/Hospital-test-delays-rise-60-per-cent-in-past-year.html

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All Things Wisconsin; The $104 Billion Slush Fund in Advance Appropriations in Obamacare

ATR.org writes: This morning, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said in a radio interview that President Obama's political team is directly involved in burgeoning efforts to recall Republican elected officials (emphasis on the word "elected," as in chosen by the people of Wisconsin in a democratic vote four months ago):

"There's many people that are beginning to believe this is a delay tactic by the Democrats in the Senate so that these recall elections can be organized by the Obama team out of Chicago, which they are, as we start to do the research on the people that have filed the petition," Fitzgerald told Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."

Read more: http://www.atr.org/team-obama-directly-working-recall-wisconsin-a5919##ixzz1G8jiI1Fo
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Pitts Report writes: The Wisconsin Senate succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats and approve an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide
"In 30 minutes, 18 state Senators undid 50 years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten," said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller. "Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people."  [Perhaps they should be considering the fact that elections have meaning, and that no one was bribed or threatened to achieve this vote.  It is democracy in action.  Soon we will be hearing stories of bus drivers earning $150,000, for instance.  The "civil rights" of which they speak are the ability to force workers to join the union and to force them to pay high dues, a lot of which go to the Democrat party.  The "rights" include the right to have taxpayers pay increases in their salaries far above the rate of inflation and their right to have taxpayers pay all their pensions and health care.  They are now being asked to contribute far less than non-union workers must contribute.  The union membership is not a majority of the workers in Wisconsin, though bused in union members from other states have made it seem so.  The dereliction of duty by the Democrat Senators who have been on the lam for three weeks must be addressed, for it is they who could be said to be taking government away from law-abiding people.]  http://www.pittsreport.com/2011/03/wis-gov-scott-walker-proposes-union-compromise-in-e-mails-did-scott-walker-blink-if-he-did-then-he-is-done-politically/
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National Review opines: There’s already a lot of crowing about the Republicans using an amended version of the bill to get around the 3/5 quorum needed on fiscal measures. But the Wisconsin legislature’s nonpartisan version of the CBO/CRS — the Legislative Fiscal Bureau — gave the maneuver a clean bill of health, and I’m sure a GOP lawyer or two checked the subsections and clauses twice and thrice for good measure.

Thanks to this bill — which doesn’t touch any of the civil service protections afforded public workers, nor any private-sector unions — public sector workers will have a choice over whether to join a union. Thanks to this bill, public workers who elect not to join a union won’t be forced to pay dues anyway. Thanks to this bill, elected officials won’t be negotiating away taxpayer dollars to the people who finance their campaigns. So, naturally, the Democrats call it the the undoing of fifty years of “civil rights.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/261801/check-mate-daniel-foster
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[Demonstrating what the unions fear they will lose is this story from New Jersey]:  The state’s largest teachers union last year spent $6.6 million on an ad campaign targeting Governor Christie’s cuts to education, according to a report issued by the Election Law Enforcement Commission Wednesday morning. http://www.northjersey.com/news/030911_NJ_teachers_union_spent_66M_on_ad_campaign_on_Christie_education_cuts.html
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Investors.com writes: The Wisconsin and Indiana Democratic lawmakers that have fled their states are undermining and delegitimizing elections and representative democracy. Of course, that’s not their goal. They just want to block Republican officials from passing specific legislation that they oppose. But that’s the end result of their actions.
If political leaders and groups don’t recognize the legitimacy of elections or elected officials, what is legitimate? In Madison, union protesters are chanting “This is what democracy looks like,” but that is not the case. Yes, political protests have a long and often proud history in this country. But if a sizable minority or even a majority-of-the moment decides the power of the street is more legitimate than elected officials, then we’re not America, we’re Thailand.

Despite all the media hype of a radical, dangerous Tea Party movement, millions of committed activists organized, made their voices heard and then took their case to the ballot box last November. But what happens if liberals refuse to accept that “elections have consequences” when “they” lose?
Going down a road where major political factions ignore elections that don’t go their way is dangerous. So it would be best if the AWOL legislators don’t succeed, regardless of merits of their policy positions. There will an opportunity in the next few election cycles for voters to change their minds and elect a new slate of representatives — or not. Because that’s how the system works. That’s what democracy looks like.
http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/2497-this-is-what-democracy-looks-likeand-doesntin-wisconsin-bumped
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[Demonstrating once again the effectiveness of union leadership with its political donations, and more and more taxpayer dollars for educating our children, comes the following news from the AP]: The number of schools labeled as "failing" under the nation's No Child Left Behind Act could skyrocket dramatically this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday.
The Department of Education estimates the percentage of schools not meeting yearly targets for their students' proficiency in in math and reading could jump from 37 to 82 percent as states raise standards in attempts to satisfy the law's mandates. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPmjfDMN5nHOpeSIZYLwkVfKAHGQ?docId=c7dc0757afd54b5ca2836c00de44535f
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Politico writes: "We have to be ready” for protesters to try to interrupt the [Peter King Islam hearings on Capitol Hill], as is common during controversial panels, King said. “Obviously protesters will be removed and we’ll continue with the hearing.”
Despite the threats, King has pushed ahead in his determination to examine possible terrorist recruitment from within the U.S. Muslim community. “If we know a threat is there and I’m chairman of the committee in charge of homeland security, how can we not investigate it?” he said Thursday on “Don Imus in the Morning.”
In his opening remarks at the hearing, King plans to say that he is “well aware that the announcement of these hearings has generated considerable controversy and opposition.” But, he will add, “Congressional investigation of Muslim American radicalization is the logical response to the repeated and urgent warnings which the Obama administration has been making in recent months.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51017.html#ixzz1GCafSuiN

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The NY Post writes: Now, their supporters are organizing recall petitions for the governor and eight targeted Republican senators, and claim to already have reached 15 percent of the number of signatures they need. Yet the whole effort, at least as far as the governor is concerned, is illegal. Under Wisconsin law, public officials aren't subject to recall until one year into the term for which they were elected. But the man leading the drive to recall Walker, ex-Rep. David Obey, doesn't care: He argues that Walker's desire to roll back collective-bargaining rights of public-employee unions is "abusive" and thus justifies ignoring the law. Let's call this what it is: a campaign to nullify the 2010 election, by a sore-loser party that doesn't like the results.

It's now about whether we are to have an orderly democracy or legislative and executive anarchy, whether elections can be delegitimized and even overturned by the daily plebiscites of the polls, by the flouting of sacred oaths of office and by the trampling on the laws of the state.
It must stop. As President Obama liked to remind the GOP during the first two years of his administration, elections have consequences. From the Republican point of view, there was plenty not to like about Obama's program, including the stimulus and the health-care bill, but they voted anyway and took their lumps like grownups.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/wisconsin_left_war_on_democracy_I9oFZLDvmyi6EBdk7v8MGM#ixzz1GCeyTufV

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Big Government writes: Today former Congressman Ernest Istook testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee about the $105 billion slush fund in advance appropriations liberals tucked inside Obamacare. The $105 billion bypasses the traditional yearly budgeting process and is spread throughout the 2,700 page legislation. It took the Congressional Research Service (CRS) seven months to identify all the disparate funds and it was not until February (11 months after the bill passed) that all of the funds could be totaled up.
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has been beating the drum to raise awareness of this unprecedented level of advance spending. But the liberal media has been attacking her for calling it “hidden” funding. 

But more importantly, even in their attempted take down of Rep. Bachmann, PolitiFact, FactCheck, and The Washington Post Fact Checker all confirm her underlying charge: the $105 billion exists."  [While declaring that anyone who read all 2700 pages of the bill knew of the multiple areas of funding, they totally ignore the fact some Democrats scoffed at the notion of reading the bill or weighing its constitutionality, and that Nancy Pelosi said that "we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it."  Exactly].  ”http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/03/09/washington-post-and-politifact-confirm-105-billion-obamacare-slush-fund/

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Please Ask Obama to Speak!; Anti-gun extremist to be Director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Don Berwick Out as Admin. for Medicare and Medicaid; Maine Given Waiver for Null and Void Obamacare; Reid Wants to Save Cowboy Poetry Festival With Our Money; Foreclosure Measures Law Not Working; Idaho Passes Union Law; New Hampshire Toughening Voting Laws

CBS News writes: The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.
An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.  A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, "Something isn't working." It called on staffers to ask "friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices" to encourage schools to apply. 
The president will travel to the school that is judged to best prepare students for college and careers. The competition is part of Mr. Obama's ultimate goal of making the U.S. the country with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.
Officials were unable to explain the reason for the apparent lack of interest, beyond pointing to possible procrastination by school systems. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20040100-503544.html
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President Barack Obama has nominated anti-gun extremist Andrew Traver to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).  http://www.stoptraver.org/
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Expose Obama writes: Obama previously used a recess appointment to place Berwick in the prominent position after the Senate couldn’t find enough votes to overcome a Republican-led filibuster against his nomination. A recess appointment can be used when the Senate is not in session but the appointment is temporary and Berwick, if not confirmed by the Senate, has to leave the position by the end of the year. In January, Obama renominated Berwick to his current post.  Berwick has been deluged with criticism from pro-life advocates, who cite his fondness for rationing and his failure to level with a Senate committee about his pro-rationing views.
However, a Politico report today indicates Democrats have given up any hope of confirming Berwick following a letter they received signed by 42 Republican senators who said they would continue pressing a filibuster against him. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/03/08/doctor-death-defeated-dems-pull-the-plug-on-donald-berwick/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=b123b16e78-EO_03_08_20113_8_2011&utm_medium=email
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CNBC reveals: The federal government Tuesday granted Maine a waiver of a key provision in President Barack Obama's [null and void] health care overhaul [law], citing the likelihood that enforcement could destabilize the state's market for individual health insurance.

The U.S. Health and Human Services department said in a letter it would waive the requirement that insurers spend 80 cents to 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care and quality improvement. Instead, the letter said, the state could maintain its 65 percent standard for three years, with the caveat that HHS intends to review the figures after two years.  http://www.cnbc.com/id/41978227

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National Review writes: Over in the Corner, Bob Costa and Mark Steyn have great laughs about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.)’s furious response to proposed spending cuts, lamenting, “The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.” (h/t Shira Toeplitz) http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/261657/how-much-nea-and-neh-help-harry-reids-cowboy-poetry-festival 

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McClatchyDC writes: A handful of foreclosure prevention measures run by the Obama administration are so ineffectual, inefficient and complicated that, according to Republicans in the House of Representatives, the programs should be killed outright.
The House is scheduled to vote this week on getting rid of a refinance program for Federal Housing Administration loans and another program, scheduled to begin next month, that would help homeowners with delinquent payments.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/08/110006/failing-mortgage-aid-programs.html#ixzz1G6H6z11O

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Yahoo News writes: The Idaho state legislature approved a bill on Tuesday to strip public school teachers of many of their collective bargaining rights while protesters in six states rallied against Republican efforts to curb union power.

The Idaho bill, which excludes issues like class size and workloads from negotiations for the state's 12,000 unionized teachers, was given final approval by the Republican-led House and is expected to be signed by Republican Governor Butch Otter.
The bill also eliminates teacher tenure, limits the duration of teacher labor contracts to one year and removes seniority as a factor in determining the order of layoffs. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110309/pl_nm/us_states_unions
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Yahoo News reveals: If some GOP lawmakers get their way, it could be a whole lot tougher for people across the country to cast a ballot in the upcoming 2012 presidential election.
Boosted by major electoral gains in state legislatures nationwide in the 2010 campaign, Republican lawmakers in 32 states are pushing measures that would require citizens to show a state identification or proof of citizenship to vote.  Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers are proposing new limits on college students who vote in the state, potentially eliminating a key base of electoral support for Democrats in the state ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
In New Hampshire, Republicans are pushing to end rules that allow same-day voter registration in the state, which has often provided key swing votes for candidates from all parties in the state. State GOP lawmakers are also proposing new limits on students, including a bill that would allow them to vote in college towns only if they or their parents had established permanent residency in the state. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110308/ts_yblog_theticket/ahead-of-the-2012-campaign-states-debate-voting-rights
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Military Commissions to Resume at Gitmo; Obamacare's Ponzi Scheme; NPR View of Tea Party; What Wisconsin Unions Fear Losing; Corporate Pension Also Underfunded

The Hill reveals: President Obama on Monday ordered trials by military commission to resume at Guantánamo Bay.

The move signals another defeat for Obama, who pledged to close the terrorist detention facility in Cuba within one year of taking office.

In a fact sheet, the White House said Obama “remains committed” to closing the facility, but the president’s decision to lift the ban on military commissions signals the unlikelihood that Obama will successfully transfer all of the prisoners in Cuba.  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/147871-obama-military-commissions-to-resume-for-gitmo-detainees

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The Washington Times writes about Obamacare: A major component of Obamacare is “totally unsustainable.” Those aren’t the words of Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin; no, those belong to the Obama administration’s own chief cheerleader, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee. The program in question, the CLASS Act or Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, is a massive long-term elderly care entitlement program that was quietly tucked into Obamacare and never got anywhere near the attention it deserves.

Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, called the CLASS Act “a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of.” And then he voted for it. I suspect Bernie Madoff would be proud of Kent Conrad. The White House’s sleight of hand goes like this: CLASS Act taxes begin in Year 1 but the benefits don’t begin until Year 6, so when 10 years of revenues and five years of expenses were calculated, the Congressional Budget Office declared not only that the CLASS Act paid for itself but, as a result, Obamacare overall would reduce the deficit. However, when 10 years of revenues and expenses are counted - even accepting the White House’s rosy scenario projections - the CLASS Act goes billions into the red and Obamacare itself raises rather than reduces the deficit.

Mrs. Sebelius agrees with the Medicare chief actuary that the program “is at a significant risk for failure” with or without the accounting gimmick but - channeling the spirit of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez - she claims the law gives her “administrative flexibility” to bypass Congress and the American voters and rewrite the law to her liking. Such power.

In separate testimony last week, the HHS secretary admitted to double-counting Obamacare’s cooked books. The question posed was whether a $500 billion cut in Medicare should be counted toward preserving Medicare or funding the new law. Her own actuary previously acknowledged they must choose one or the other. Mrs. Sebelius‘ reply? “Both.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/7/obamacare-vital-signs-starting-to-fade/ 

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The Daily Caller writes about the NPR, which taxpayers are partially funding, and which the Republicans are attempting to defund: A man who appears to be a National Public Radio senior executive, Ron Schiller, has been captured on camera savaging conservatives and the Tea Party movement.

On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been “hijacked by this group.” The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, “the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.” Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren’t “just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.”
Schiller goes on to describe liberals as more intelligent and informed than conservatives. “In my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives,” he said.

what he is “most disappointed by in this country, which is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population, so that you have this very large un-educated part of the population that carries these ideas.”  [I take personal offense at these declarations, and would love to take this man on in a debate of the facts, wouldn't you?]

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/08/npr-executives-caught-on-tape-bashing-conservatives-and-tea-party-touting-liberals/#ixzz1G0qVB4Xk

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American Spectator writes about just what the unions in Wisconsin are scared of losing: If passed, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's emergency budget will allow workers to opt out of joining a union and still keep their jobs. It would allow workers to vote every year on whether they want to keep their union. And it would take away the unions' ability to automatically deduct dues from workers' paychecks. All of these threaten organized labor's power by giving workers more choice.
Unions allege that, if Walker's budget bill is passed, state employees will be subject to arbitrary disciplinary actions and firings. Nothing could be further from the truth. If Walker's budget is approved, workers will still be able to join unions if they choose, but collective bargaining will be limited to pay only. Moreover, they will still be protected by civil service laws that provide job security and perks beyond anything seen in the private sector.
According to the State of Wisconsin Office of Employment Relations, government employees will still have:
• The right to a harassment/discrimination free workplace, [as well as six more rights being preserved.]
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/03/08/the-truth-about-wisconsin
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McClatchy.com warns: State and local government pensions aren't the only ones in trouble.
Corporate pensions, too, are woefully underfunded, and the federal agency that insures them against losses is facing a dangerous deficit that taxpayers may end up covering. One government watchdog agency says the federal insurance funds are at "high risk" of failure. Moreover, the Obama administration's proposal to fix this is meeting stiff resistance from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business interests.
In its budget released last month, the Obama administration proposed giving the PBGC authority not only to raise premiums, but to set them at different rates, depending upon how it assessed the risk of any given insured company. That would mirror a decades-old approach that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. takes with banks, setting premiums based on what it determines is a bank's risk of failure.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/07/109955/business-fights-obamas-fix-for.html#ixzz1G12JPD8w

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Wisconsin Senators Fail to Do Their Duty while Teachers Fail to Teach; Obama Appealing Judge's Order for Drilling Permits; "Wild Lands" Off-Limits Now; Democrats Retiring from Senate; Tennessee Doesn't Understand Fascism;

I now write for Examiner.com/Traverse City, which you can follow at http://www.examiner.com/conservative-69-in-traverse-city/karen-peters.  Following is my latest column.

   In Wisconsin, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives, conservative majorities seem to be enraging those liberals and progressives who have recently lost their power in some houses of government.  Truth be told, as Gallup poling showed in 2010, "Conservatives have maintained their leading position among U.S. ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative, and that contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal."  It becomes clear that progressives think it is fine for the minority to rule the majority in America.  That is obvious with the passage of Obamacare, for instance, where no simple vote carried the day without the doling out of outrageous incentives or bribes.  http://www.gallup.com/poll/141032/2010-conservatives-outnumber-moderates-liberals.aspx

   While our President continues to espouse that race is a key component of the Tea Party, we are witnessing the thuggery of the bused-in union members in Wisconsin who join the teachers who are shirking their duties in the classrooms.  Hateful, demeaning signs and comments are rife, intimidating confrontations with Republican lawmakers have occurred, and a refusal to leave the Capitol in order for it to be cleaned is a problem.  Now we learn that $7.5 million dollars of damage has been done to the floors and walls of the Capitol by those teachers who "peacefully" demonstrate, leaving Wisconsin's taxpayers with the bill.  As those in the unions leave their jobs and responsibilities in order to support their rights to take from American taxpayers not only their salaries but their pensions, healthcare and other perks, elected Democrat Senators face possible fines and arrests for abandoning their duty to show up for work to do the jobs for which they were elected, causing some to ponder Recall Petitions.

    It has been suggested that outside groups have been paying for those Senators' bills while they are holed up in an out-of-state motel, bringing into question the ethics or right of such action.  The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has declared that only "since [Governor] Walker accused Democrats of using their self-imposed exile to raise campaign contributions, then that exile is in fact campaign-related and Democrats may use campaign funds to finance it."  Those Senators who might face recall petitions will no longer be limited by the amount of campaign donations they are allowed to accept for the purpose of defending themselves against those recalls, even though they only face those recalls because they fled.
   Following a demonstration at the Capitol by the ever-present Jesse Jackson, and an opening day speech by him, teachers are back in the classrooms following a full week of cancelled classes.  It remains to be seen if those teachers will lose pay or sick days for the days they denied their students an education while fraudulently claiming to be sick.  Will doctors be disciplined for handing out "sick passes" without examinations? Will school be extended by one week this spring to meet state guidelines?  Will teachers discuss the politics of all this in their classrooms, or will they simply teach the methods of rebellion which they employed?  If they discuss this at all, we should moniutor if both sides of the argument are being presented.

Read other columns at http://www.examiner.com/conservative-69-in-traverse-city/karen-peters

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From Politico: The Obama administration late Friday appealed a judge's orders directing the Interior Department to act on several Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling permits.
The appeal is the latest salvo in the ongoing fight over the speed with which Interior is – or isn't – letting oil drillers get back to work after last year's BP oil spill. The judge in this particular case in my view is wrong," Salazar said. “And we will argue the case because I don’t believe that the court has the jurisdiction to basically tell the Department of Interior what my administrative responsibilities are.”
He added, “the policy we have in mind is unmistakingly clear: We are moving forward with the development of oil and gas” production."
Earlier in February, the judge held Interior in contempt, citing "dismissive conduct" by blocking offshore drilling during last year's spill. 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50703.html#ixzz1Fp9Xhefk

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The Washington Examiner opines: Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado well practiced in Washington's pretended niceties, wields power with self-assured arrogance that needs no bluster. Two days before Christmas last year, he issued Secretarial Order 3310, in which through bureaucratic fiat he created a new category of off-limits federal property that he calls "Wild Lands."
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., held a hearing last week to criticize Salazar's end-run around congressional authorization and the Wild Lands order's adverse impact on jobs and economic growth. Hastings was clearly furious, ending his opening statement with, "This administration should be on notice that unilateral decisions and orders to impose restrictive, job-destroying policies will be met with firm resistance."
Salazar told Bob Abbey, his director of the Bureau of Land Management, to get in that hearing and defend his order's legality. Big mistake. Hastings allowed Abbey to testify after the other nine witnesses were finished and proceeded to rip his testimony apart, with devastating cross-examination from Republican Reps. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, and Don Young, R-Alaska. Hastings ended by forcing Abbey to admit that Salazar had "no statutory authority" to issue Order 3310.
Never mind that the Congressional Research Service has released a study, U.S. Fossil Fuel Resources, that shows America's combined recoverable natural gas, oil, and coal endowment is the largest on Earth, far larger than that of Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th), and Canada (6th) combined.
None of that matters to the Obama administration, which has blocked dozens of energy developments on federal lands and now forbids recovery of 83 percent of our oil resources.
There are as many rationalizations for this vandalism to America's capacity to do work as there are blocked areas, which include a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to designate a resource-rich area of 200,000 square miles as untouchable "critical habitat" for polar bears.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/03/ron-arnold-obamas-starve-america-first-energy-policy-creates-backlash#ixzz1FuzP0100

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Politico writes: Five senators from the Democratic side of the aisle have already decided to hang ’em up after this term. Each has his own reasons, but it mostly boils down to this: For some senators, a job in the “most exclusive club” is not worth the hassle anymore.
“It’s about campaigns,” Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a retiring member of the Democratic Caucus, told POLITICO. “It’s about both the unremitting — that’s a bad word to use — about the constant pressure to raise money and travel all over the country doing that and the nastiness of the campaign. ... I have no second thoughts about it.”

Murray may have the toughest political job in Washington: Twenty-three Democratic-held seats are on the ballot next year — compared with 10 for Republicans — and a net gain of just four seats would put the GOP in charge. Throw in a presidential election that promises to make already scarce funds even harder to come by, and Murray needs a bit of a miracle to hold the Senate.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50703.html#ixzz1Fp9GM1uJ

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Redstate.com writes: Based on their latest email blast, the Tennessee Democratic Party seems to have a problem understanding what “fascism” is, not to mention “terrorism.” Apparently, Tennessee Democratic chair Chip Forrester and House Democratic chair Mike Turner seem to think that these terms are appropriate for describing several reform bills currently being considered by the Tennessee legislature. Presumably they mean HB 2012 and HB 0130; the first is a tenure reform bill that introduces merit into the tenure process and the second is a collective bargaining reform bill that removes the Tennessee Education Association’s privileged status as the only permissible agent for bargaining with school boards.
Or perhaps Forrester and Turner don’t mean those bills, given that neither actually does anything like set up a system for mass murder of inconvenient minorities, create a totalitarian state that controls every aspect of life, and/or start aggressive wars of conquest. It’s a bit of a puzzler - unless you assume that this is just a cynical ploy to get money, which is a notion that Jim Geraghty is cynically suggesting and I am just as cynically endorsing.  http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/03/06/tn-democrats-go-charitably-nuts-over-teacher-reform-bills/

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