Cloward and Piven, in action on poverty measures; The Keystone Pipeline decision; Congressmen put pressure on what tv shows they expect a company to advertise; Biomass business to shut down due to expense; Voter fraud matters to voters; Keystone may pass with no tax hikes; Obama wants to control our nation in order to redistribute its wealth

Now THIS is what poor looks like in Africa........
 
[Just as the Cloward and Piven strategy directs, more and more people are now on the government dole, an effective way to collapse the system and have people begging for government to take over...]

Traditionally, a U.S. household was considered “low income” or “near poor” if it had income below 200 percent of the official poverty income thresholds. The Obama administration has raised those income thresholds and thereby transformed the way the government measures poverty and near poverty.
Under President Obama’s new definitions, a family of four in Oakland is “near poor” if their annual pre-tax income is less than $89,700 plus medical insurance. In metropolitan Washington, D.C., the near-poverty line became $80,500. In New York, it’s now $78,500; in Boston, $68,900; and Chicago, $68,600.
One result: The income level for “near poverty” is now very close to the median household income in most communities. (Median income means half the households have more income and half have less.)
So it should be no surprise that, with these new standards, the Census Bureau “discovered” that almost half the U.S. population lives in or “near” poverty. The system is designed to produce that result.
The Obama administration’s new poverty measures are high-octane political propaganda. By dramatically expanding the definition of poverty (and near poverty), the administration furthers the president’s agenda to “spread the wealth.” By artificially inflating the number of Americans counted as poor or near poor, the administration expects to generate political pressure to expand the welfare state and raise taxes
Obama already has permanently increased welfare spending by nearly a third. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/286046/how-obamas-other-half-lives-robert-rector
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The Hill reports: Republicans want to jam Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on the Keystone oil sands pipeline and the Democratic leader will have a tough time resisting given support within his caucus for the project.
GOP leaders have made clear to Reid that they will not approve an extension of the payroll tax holiday unless it includes language to speed up construction of the pipeline.
Senate Republicans estimate as many as 14 Senate Democrats support the project. Labor unions have also voiced strong backing, complicating Reid’s endgame talks with GOP leaders. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/199995-gop-counts-on-democratic-support-as-it-tries-to-jam-reid-on-keystone-pipeline
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Mlive writes: [So now we can expect our government to tell us just who can and cannot advertise on tv shows?  I ask what business it is of Congress to even be discussing tv advertising... And now a US Congressman is considering the boycott of an Amerian company.] US Representatives Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit), Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) and John Dingell (D-Dearborn) were among 32 congressmen who authored a letter asking Lowe's chairman and chief executive to reconsider his advertising decision regarding "All-American Muslim."
The home-improvement chain pulled its advertising from the TLC show, which examines the lives of five Muslim families in Dearborn, after pressure from right-wing groups.
Loew's has said it does not plan to reconsider its decision, which hasn't stifled nationwide outrage.  In an unrelated political move, California Senator Ted Lieu has said he is considering calling for a boycott of the corporation.http://www.mlive.com/tv/index.ssf/2011/12/congressmen_hansen_clarke_gary.html
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Biomass Magazine reports: Cliffs Natural Resources, Inc. said it plans to shut down and sell a biomass production plant in Marquette, MI because it has failed to perform at levels that justify continued operation.  The facility was built to make high-energy, low-emissionbiofuel cubes from sustainable collected wood and agricultural feed stocks.

After just a few months of production, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.’s biomass cube production facility in Michigan could close its doors, a result of the plant’s performance not reaching design capacity and expected production levels.
Cliffs’ board of directors is contemplating idling and selling the plant, with an expected financial impact of about $30 million, according to the company. The plant, operated by Cliffs’ subsidiary Renewafuel LLC, is in the Telkite Technology Park near Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Mich., and just began production in the first half of this year. The plant delivered its first commercial supply of biofuel cubes, made from locally sourced wood and agricultural feedstocks, to the Marquette Board of Light and Power in July, according to Cliffs.  [I guess they weren't smart enough to get one of those Obama stimulus package bailouts or investments...]   http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5830/renewafuel-biomass-cube-production-plant-could-shut-down
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Powerline writes: We have been covering the Democrats’ effort to improve their 2012 electoral position by beating back the efforts of numerous states to prevent voter fraud. Eric Holder is the point man for the Democrats in this campaign. While stirring racial division may help energize the Democrats’ base, it appears that the anti-ballot integrity movement will not be popular with the broader electorate. Scott Rasmussen finds that an overwhelming 75% support photo ID requirements. Eric Holder, meanwhile, is increasingly unpopular, with 19% favorable/43% unfavorable ratings among likely voters. This probably relates mostly to Fast and Furious, but Holder is not a strong figure to carry the anti-ballot security message.
The Democrats also hope to stir up their base by attacking state efforts to curb illegal immigration. Here, too, they are paddling the canoe uphill, as likely voters say, by a 52%/34% margin that they would like their state to enact an immigration law like Arizona’s.
Finally, President Obama’s Iowa speech of a week ago signaled that the Democrats will make inequality their big campaign theme in 2012. This would make more sense if Obama hadn’t been president for the last three years, but I suppose you could say that about nearly any issue. The problem, once again, is that while railing against the “rich” may fire up the far left, it doesn’t do much for most voters. Gallup finds that growing and expanding the economy is given high priority by 82% of Americans and increasing equality of opportunity for people to get ahead if they want to is considered very important by 70%, while only 46% attribute high priority to reducing the income gap between rich and poor.  http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/dems-still-on-the-losing-end.php

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Townhall writes: A senior GOP source tells me that Democrats have agreed to a two-month extension of the temporary payroll tax cuts -- plus unemployment benefits and the "doc fix" -- with some extra Christmas goodies for conservatives.  Quote: "Two-month extension, PLUS Keystone.  Fully paid for; no tax hikes.  Hallelujah."  Rumors are flying that the president is preparing to retreat from his ill-advised veto threat over Keystone, as conservatives, Democrats, and labor unions have rallied around it:  http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2011/12/16/victory_ii_democrats_cave_on_keystone_in_payroll_tax_cut_deal
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American Thinker opines: In 1776, King George III dictated to a group of colonies separated from him by great distance.  Today, we have a president who preaches at (not even to) us, who is totally out of touch with reality.  Like King George, the president is separated greatly from his subjects, but his isolation is due to ideological blinders.
The president blames the rich -- not his policies -- for all our national woes.  He wants to control the nation in order to redistribute its wealth.  We the People want to be independent and free.  We, the creators of wealth, want to become the rich, not destroy them.  As true liberals and therefore followers of John Locke, we deplore being dependent on the government and resent control by the government.  Like the Founding Fathers, we will resist.

In 1776, the monarchy -- the government -- controlled our lives, our liberty, our property, and our precious honor.  In response, we declared a Bill of Rights, which was not a list of rights at all.  It was a list of constraints against the government imposing its will on us.  Our nation was founded in defense of one single right for Americans: to be free.
There is one huge difference between 1776 and today.  Then, we were powerless unless and until we took up arms.  Today, we do have power: the power of a single vote multiplied by hundreds of millions.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/we_need_not_repeat_1776.html#ixzz1gnRfIXuP

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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
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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/
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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
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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
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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

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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/

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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
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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
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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
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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

A little fun for Obama at the expense of a Republican in your life; New Haven wants illegals to vote in municipal elections; Wisconsin recall petition accepts fraudulent names; Holder wants Americans to be automatically registered to vote; DOJ docs show extensive coordination between it and ACORN's Project Vote; SEIU job description for expertise in civil disobedience; Lying by changing parameters; Home buyers to pay for payroll tax exemption; Temporary payroll tax; Senate version of bill; Social Security to be just another unpaid-for entitlement; Obama's next $4 million vacation

Keith Koffler, who writes for Politico reports: The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website.
The effort could help the Obama campaign build a database that would enable it to target Republican voters during the general election campaign. But, more perniciously, it could also become part of an Democratic effort to influence Republican primary voters to select a candidate Democrats think Obama could most easily defeat.

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.
From the Obama website:  Who inspires you to give?
This holiday season, we’re giving you a chance to have a little fun at the expense of a Republican in your life by letting them know they inspired you to make a donation to the Obama campaign.
Simply enter their name and email address below. Then, we’ll send them a message letting them know they inspired you to donate.
Thank you for supporting this campaign, and happy holidays.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/12/14/obama-campaign-collecting-republican-emails/
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NBC reports: New Haven's mayor wants illegal immigrants to be able vote in municipal elections.

DeStefano said on Tuesday that the proposal would build a more engaged community and follows the lead of other cities, the New Haven Independent reports.

The Independent reports that New Haven has about 10,000  non-citizen immigrants.

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/New-Haven-Asks-State-to-Allow-Non-Citizens-to-Vote--135569598.html

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ABC's WISN.com writes: The signatures of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler will be counted on recall petitions targeting Gov. Scott Walker as long as they are properly dated and include a Wisconsin address, the board charged with reviewing the petitions was told Tuesday.

Suspicious signatures will be noted when the Government Accountability Board reviews the petitions, but reviewers will look to see that signatures are accompanied by a Wisconsin address and are dated as having been signed during the circulation period, board elections specialist David Buerger said. "We will flag them, but we will not strike them without challenge,"

The board unanimously approved the board's plan for reviewing the petitions.

Read more: http://www.wisn.com/politics/29987729/detail.html#ixzz1gWsrrB4F

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CNS News reports: "All eligible citizens can and should be automatically registered to vote," and it's the government's "responsibility" to see that it happens, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday.

In a call to modernize voter registration, Holder noted that many elections officials still are manually processing new applications, many of them handwritten -- a situation that produces errors and confusion at the polls, he said.
"Fortunately, modern technology provides a straightforward fix for these problems," Holder continued. "It should be the government’s responsibility to automatically register citizens to vote, by compiling -- from databases that already exist -- a list of all eligible residents in each jurisdiction." http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ag-holder-government-has-responsibility-automatically-register-citizens-vote
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Big Government reports: Judicial Watch has done it again. It has produced–following a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)–documents that suggest extensive coordination and communications between the DOJ Voting Section and former ACORN affiliate Project Vote.
Project Vote appears to be directing DOJ resources toward particular states; is having meetings with DOJ staff; and is even recommending lawyers to work in the Justice Department Voting Section that will oversee the 2012 presidential election.
Project Vote also appears to have played a role in the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration, which aims to force the state to increase voter registration in welfare agencies and drug treatment offices. http://biggovernment.com/jcadams/2011/12/14/documents-reveal-coordination-between-acorn-affiliate-and-justice-department-voting-section/?utm_source=like&utm_campaign=ingboo
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Redstate writes: If there was ever any question whether the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a radical and militantly Marxist union, this SEIU job description for a Senior/Lead Internal Organizer, Home Care, posted on the SEIU’s website should remove all doubts.
The SEIU is advertising on its main site for SEIU Healthcare 775NW in Washington State. Among the job duties (screenshot below the fold) listed includes the training of members in civil-disobedience, peaceful resistance (how to get arrested), as well as the occupation and takeover banks and state buildings [emphasis added]:
Member Mobilization:
• Execute field plans mobilizing members around political campaigns, annual Leadership Convention, lobby days, regional meetings. http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/17/seiu-job-description-train-lead-members-to-occupy-state-buildings-takeover-banks/
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Washington Examiner writes: In Osawatomie, Kan., earlier this month, Obama said, "In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year. ... And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6 percent. Now, this kind of inequality -- a level that we haven't seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all."
First of all, Obama's statement was quite misleading. Note the sleight of hand of comparing "the last decade" for one group with "the last few decades" for another. That's what clear-eyed people call "comparing apples to oranges."  [This is how the lying is done - sometimes.]

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/12/most-americans-dont-buy-obamas-class-warfare-rhetoric/2011591#ixzz1gtIlbHT8

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USA Today exposes just who will be paying for 2 months of payroll tax exemption: The typical person who buys a home or refinances starting on Jan. 1 will have to pay roughly $17 more a month for their mortgage, thanks to a fee increase included in the payroll tax cut bill that the Senate passed Saturday.

The legislation provides a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits that would otherwise expire on Jan. 1. It would also delay for two months a cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that is scheduled to take effect on New Year's Day. The House is expected to act on the bill early next week. Two more months of the Social Security tax cut amounts to a savings of about $165 for a worker making $50,000 a year.

To cover its $33 billion price tag, the measure permanently increases the fee that the government-backed mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, charge to insure home mortgages. That fee, which Senate aides said currently averages around three-tenths of a percentage point, would rise by one-tenth of a percentage point under the bill. 

The 0.1 percentage point increase will also apply to people whose mortgages are backed by the Federal Housing Administration, which typically serves lower-income and first-time buyers.

The higher fee would not apply to people who currently have mortgages unless they refinance beginning next year.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2011-12-17/payroll-tax-mortgages/52027164/1?csp=hf&loc=interstitialskip

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congressman Allen West (R-FL) released this statement on the Temporary Extension of the Payroll Tax:

“Americans once again have reason to be ashamed with their elected officials as President Barack Obama and United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are playing a game of chicken for political gain at the expense of the American people suffering under failed economic policies. This two month amendment proposed today is nothing more than a short-term band aid.  Americans are looking for certainty and confidence in the American economy and today’s substitute amendment passed by the Senate delivers neither to the American people.
The United States Senate continues to let down the American people, more than 950 days without accomplishing even the most basic of responsibilities to pass a budget and ignoring more than 25 job creating bills passed on a bipartisan basis by the House of Representatives.  The Senate’s Substitute Amendment to Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011 H.R. 3630 is nothing but typical liberal Democrat incrementalism and political gimmickry to continue to debate these issues into the election year.
I will not be voting for this short term fix when it comes to the floor of the House of Representatives. I will only vote to reaffirm the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act as passed by the House of Representatives. http://allenwestrepublic.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/statement-by-congressman-allen-west-on-the-temporary-extension-of-the-payroll-tax/
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Washington Times reports: The Senate bill extends unemployment benefits, full Medicare physician payments and the payroll-tax cut for two months, and also includes language forcing Mr. Obama to make a decision on building the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada’s tar sands into the U.S. The added that spending and lost revenue is offset by a new fee on mortgages.
That measure passed by a 89-10 vote, with seven Republicans, two Democrats and one independent opposing it.
The House bill extends all of the same provisions for a whole year, and forces a decision on the pipeline. It offsets the cost by rewriting parts of the president’s health care law and freezing federal workers’ salaries. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/18/boehner-opposes-senates-payroll-tax-extension/?page=2
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The NY Post writes: The “payroll tax” — better known as the FICA, or Social Security tax — was “temporarily” reduced last year by 2 percent, giving workers an illusory free lunch. Although their share of Social Security’s “contributions” was reduced (employers continue to kick in “their” full 6.2 percent, which also comes out of an employee’s total compensation), folks were told that the government would magnanimously make up in the missing funds in order to keep the system solvent.

But a year from now is just a bit further down the road than two months. The Senate was right, even if for the wrong reason. America needs to start facing the truth about Social Security before the next election.
The fact is the program is broke — its own trustees estimate that its “trust fund” will run out of money in 2036 — and the “payroll-tax holiday” is only making it broker. That “trust” holds nothing but federal IOUs; the government’s been spending the money for decades.
This wasn’t obvious until last year, when Social Security started paying out more than it took in. Bookkeeping legerdemain can disguise the fact, but even the trustees know the jig is up. Says Republican Charles Blahous, one of the six trustees for Social Security and the even-more-broke Medicare: “This could be the beginning of the end of the idea that [Social Security] is an earned benefit.”
Adds Nancy Altman, the Democrat co-director of a Social Security advocacy group: “To have a Democratic president proposing to undo the dedicated revenue . . . it’s a fundamental change.”
It sure is. But it gets worse. Obama not only wants to extend the 2 percent holiday; he also wants to increase the “tax break,” fully halving the employee’s share to 3.1 percent, all in the name of “tax relief.”
Yet unlinking Social Security from its dedicated funding turns it into a welfare program.  [Do the names Cloward and Piven come to mind?  You know, the professors' plan to bring America and capitalism to its knees?]
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/poisoned_xmas_gift_aFmFpzolaa1hgPdOQQcrzM#ixzz1gz1QWTWq
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $4 MILLION vacation:
Separate flights, luxury accommodation
and plenty of golf... the price of
Obama’s annual Hawaiian holiday soars
Daily Mail (UK), by Staff
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Elena Kagan: A case for recusal or impeachment; Historical evidence dismissed by Obama; Obama's new czars and cabinet-level Office of Manufacturing Policy; Canada withdraws from Kyoto Protocol; Iran complains to Interpol about US Congressional hearings; Iran to practice closing the Strait of Hormuz; Ft. Lauderdale halts use of full-body scanners at airport; Hurricane forcasters quit after admitting the science doesn't work; Aid to Pakistan frozen; Obama's U.S. drone in Iran problem; Medicaid claims system overhaul behind schedule and over budget

Director Blue writes on why Kagan should recuse herself: With each batch of documents exposed by new Freedom of Information requests, the case for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's recusal -- or perhaps even impeachment -- becomes more clear.
During her confirmation process four months later, Kagan asserted in writing that she had neither been asked her opinion nor offered any view or comments regarding "the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed health care legislation, including but not limited to [PPACA], or the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to potential litigation resulting from such legislation".

Kagan answered both questions: "No."

And the emails appear to prove that she lied under oath.
A federal law—28 U.S.C 455—says that a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or if he “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment. 

Even more troubling is the fact that the Holder Justice Department is redacting documents and even withholding critical evidence of Kagan's relationship with the defense of Obamacare. http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/12/kagan-busted-must-recuse-herself-or.html

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Personal Liberty reports: Obama once he told Charlie Gibson that “It’s a matter of fairness” when Gibson repeatedly asked him to explain why he would want to raise the capital-gains tax when the historical evidence proves that higher capital-gains taxes actually decrease government revenues.
But last week Obama let it all hang out in a speech at a Kansas high school when he said, “[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, ‘Let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. The market will take care of everything,’ they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger.”
Moving in for the kill, he went on to say, “And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. … I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory. We simply cannot return to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country.”
That’s right, folks, capitalism had nothing to do with the United States becoming the most prosperous country in the history of the world. It had nothing to do with millions of ambitious people starting with nothing and becoming millionaires and even billionaires. And it has nothing to do with the fact that “poor people” (as defined by the Census Bureau) in the U.S. live better than middle-class people in most other countries.
True to his favorite tactic of turning the facts upside down, when Obama says “it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory,” it sounds as though he’s referring to communism rather than capitalism. Communism has been tried throughout the world — from Cuba to Russia, from North Korea to China — and it’s worked wonderfully for guys with names like Castro, Stalin, Kim Jong Il and Mao. But for the masses it has consistently delivered poverty, loss of freedom and death. http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/obama-and-the-failure-of-capitalism/?eiid=
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Redstate writes: On Monday, staying consistent with his central planning proclivities, President Obama created a new cabinet-level Office of Manufacturing Policy and picked two new czars to guide his manufacturing policy [whatever that may be].
As Dan Froomkin writes in the Huffington Post, Obama’s picks “raised some of the same concerns that arose when Obama named General Electric CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt as his top adviser for job-creation efforts.” http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/13/obama-chooses-new-manufacturing-czars-from-among-the-1/
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Earth Changes Media reports: Canada on Monday became the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, saying the pact on cutting carbon emissions was preventing the world from effectively tackling climate change.
Saying the targets agreed to by a previous Liberal administration were unattainable, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government last year unveiled its own measures aimed at curbing emissions, in line with US efforts. http://www.earthchangesmedia.com/publish/article-9162532047.php
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(CNSNews.com) – The Iranian government has lodged a complaint with Interpol regarding comments made during U.S. congressional hearings last October, including calls to assassinate top figures in Tehran’s terror-sponsoring security apparatus.
Iran’s national prosecutor general, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, in a letter to Interpol on Monday called for “legal action” against two Americans, the official IRNA news agency reported. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/iran-lodges-complaint-interpol-over-us-assassination-threats
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Yahoo News reports: TEHRAN (Reuters) - A member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee said on Monday that the military was set to practice its ability to close the Gulf to shipping at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world, but there was no official confirmation.

The legislator, Parviz Sarvari, told the student news agency ISNA: "Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure."

Contacted by Reuters, a spokesman for the Iranian military declined to comment.

Iran's energy minister told Al Jazeera television last month that Tehran could use oil as a political tool in the event of any future conflict over its nuclear program. http://news.yahoo.com/iran-army-declines-mps-hormuz-exercise-remarks-132115297.html

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CBS reports: FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami.com) – In the wake of most countries in Europe vowing to stop using full-body scanners at airports; the Broward County Commission is looking into banning the scanners from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The ban would be in place until the scanners have scientifically been proven safe for passengers. http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/12/13/broward-considers-airport-body-scanner-ban/
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Ottowa Citizen writes: Two top U.S. hurricane forecasters, revered like rock stars in Deep South hurricane country, are quitting the practice because it doesn’t work.
William Gray and Phil Klotzbach say a look back shows their past 20 years of forecasts had no value.
The two scientists from Colorado State University will still discuss different probabilities as hurricane seasons approach — a much more cautious approach. But the shift signals how far humans are, even with supercomputers, from truly knowing what our weather will do next. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/story.html?id=5847032
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The MSNBC reports: United States has frozen $700 million in aid to Pakistan until it gets assurances that Islamabad is helping fight the spread of homemade bombs, a move likely to further strain ties between the countries.
A Congressional panel halted the payment to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country that is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid, late on Monday as part of a wider review of defense spending.
Calls are growing in the U.S. to penalize Islamabad for failing to act against militant groups and, at worst, helping them, after the secret U.S. raid on a Pakistan garrison town in which al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed in May. http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9408878-us-halts-700-million-in-aid-to-pakistan-demands-action-on-taliban-bombs
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The UK Daily Mail reports: The downing of a U.S. drone in Iran and its subsequent capture by the country’s military has been nothing but an embarrassment for the President Obama as he faces a tough re-election battle.
Former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney blasted Mr Obama for his soft approach in trying to get the surveillance plane back, insisting he should have ordered an airstrike over Iran instead.
He told CNN: 'The right response would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it.

'You can do that from the air and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone, but [Obama] asked nicely for them to return it, and they aren't going to.'
Mr Cheney added that the Iranians will likely send the drone back 'in pieces after they’ve gotten all the intelligence they can out of it.'

The White House made the formal request to Iran yesterday for the drone’s return to U.S. forces.
During a White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Mr Obama said: 'We have asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073428/Dick-Cheney-rips-Obama-failing-act-downed-US-drone-Iran.html#ixzz1gVfZZFs8

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News Observer writes: Managers of one of the state's largest service contracts came in for a barrage of criticism Tuesday after legislators were provided a copy of an audit detailing why the project is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and nearly two years behind schedule.
State Department of Health and Human Services officials failed to properly document delays in building a new Medicaid claims system and did not notice when the company hired to do the job started building a system different from the one approved by the state, the audit says.
The end result: The state's $265 million contract with Computer Sciences Corp. will now cost $494.8 million and take 22 months longer to finish. And the state will spend $90.6 million more than planned to keep the old system running.[This proves once again how well a government-run project is run.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/12/14/1709420/new-billing-system-for-medicaid.html#ixzz1gVgcx1Py

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Offensive new Japanese building - a must see; Obama's Global Poverty Act; Say goodbye to the 100 watt bulb; Unions now oppose Occupy's shutdown of seaports; No prosecutions on Wall St.; UK police to test laser that blinds rioters; Internet piracy bill; Bible forbidden for Walter Reed patients; International Climate Court of Justice proposed; Attach Watch fails; DNC to forbid "occupation" of national convention; Another flash mob robs luxury store; The power of "collective power";

 
The Blaze reports:  

The most offensive building ever? South Korea’s 9/11

It’s quite a unique design but it so clearly looks like the World Trade Centers when they were attacked by terrorists on 9/11/01. Is this building – which is still on track for construction – a purposeful slam on America? Is it a celebration of the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 innocent Americans?

Since initially reporting this story, The Blaze has learned that an apology has been issued:

Since the posting of this story, MVRDV has issued a statement of apology (be sure to click “read” on the site to see the statement) over the design. The design company writes “MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11. The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, it was not our intention.”

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According to the New York Times: While as President, Barack Obama has been lukewarm on the topic of global taxation, he is a supporter of giving more of America’s money to other nations. As a senator in 2008, according to Accuracy in Media, Barack Obama sponsored the Global Poverty Act, which would have committed the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of GNP (or $845 billion over a 13-year period) on foreign aid.
Inexplicably, ever since the #Occupy movement, union bosses and their bought-and-paid for Democrat politicians launched the Robin Hood tax and spend plan, there has been no widespread condemnation.  http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/11/implementing-an-international-irs-in-the-name-of-robin-hood/
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The New York Post: On New Year’s Day, in addition to a hangover, America will wake up in the pale winter light to one grim consequence of the Bush administration’s never-requited desire to be loved by the left: the traditional 100-watt light bulb will be banned for sale in the United States.
At the height of the panic over “man-caused global warming” (one of history’s greatest frauds), lawmakers felt compelled to be seen to do something, and Edison’s bright bulb made a handy fall guy.
In 2007, Congress passed and Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act, mandating a 27 percent increase in light-bulb-energy efficiency by 2014. The theory: Force the world to swap its incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs and other types of lighting, and carbon-dioxide emissions would be reduced by . . . wait for it . . . a whopping 1 percent.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/gray_dawn_green_bulbs_black_hole_7nwjh5PDMTDwK8vXu7uB3J#ixzz1gK5CM7Ct

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San Francisco Gate reports: Occupy Oakland's plan to shut down the city's bustling port on Monday for the second time in as many months is facing a complicating wrinkle nowhere in sight last time - opposition from several unions and some within the Occupy movement itself.
The Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council's secretary-treasurer, Andreas Cluver, said many of his union's workers were recently hired at port building projects after long stretches on unemployment. Given that, a port shutdown aimed at punishing the 1 percent "makes no sense," he said.
He said no union at the port supports the shutdown.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/10/MN2G1MAO6E.DTL#ixzz1gK6kngum

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STEVE KROFT (TO PRESIDENT OBAMA): One of the things that surprised me the most about this poll is that when asked who your policies favor the most, 42 percent said Wall Street. Only 35 percent said average Americans. My suspicion is, some of that may have to do with the fact that there's not been any prosecutions, criminal prosecutions, of people on Wall Street. And that the civil charges that have been brought have often resulted in what many people think have been a slap on the wrist, fines. Are you disappointed by that?

There was an astonishingly revealing moment on Sunday's 60 Minutes when President Obama said, "Some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn't illegal."
For what should be obvious reasons, CBS's Steve Kroft didn't bother asking his guest who created, voted for or signed the pieces of legislation that allowed this "damaging behavior on Wall Street" to be legal
Imagine for a moment you were Kroft, and the President of the United States - who has been blaming all the country's problems on Wall Street for years - admitted "that some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn't illegal."
Wouldn't you ask him when such behaviors became legal and who was responsible for the legislation?
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/12/11/obama-tells-60-minutes-damaging-behavior-wall-street-legal-wasnt-aske#ixzz1gK7wT0A2
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UK Telegraph reports: Police to test laser that 'blinds rioters'

A shoulder-mounted laser that emits a blinding wall of light capable of repelling rioters is to be trialled by police under preparations to prevent a repeat of this summer's looting and arson. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8949060/Police-to-test-laser-that-blinds-rioters.html

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The Hill reports: What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas.
Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers – a positively Orwellian power grab that would permit the U.S. Justice Department to shut down any internet site it doesn’t like (and cut off its sources of income) on nothing more than a whim. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/198687-internet-piracy-bill-a-free-speech-kill-switch
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Townhall reports: Walter Reed Chief of Staff C.W. Callahan issued a memo in September which said: "No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit."
Rep. King, who serves on the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, conveyed the gravity:
"The idea that these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that have fought to defend our Constitution, and that includes our First Amendment rights to religious liberty –would be denied that religious liberty when they are lying in a hospital bed recovering from wounds incurred while defending that liberty is the most bitter and offensive type of an irony that I can think of."
The policy was rescinded, but that it happened at all is a reminder of the culture that  Mr. Obama has fostered in the armed forces and executive agencies, where extreme environmentalism, moral relativism, and sexual immorality have replaced traditional American values.  We shouldn’t really be surprised when a bureaucrat tries to bar Bibles in a U.S. military stateside hospital while other bureaucrats make sure that terrorists in Guantanamo Bay get copies of the Koran.
The second news item was Hillary Clinton’s speech in Geneva on Dec. 6 announcing that American taxpayers will be paying for homosexual activism around the world through a $3 million Global Equality Fund. That’s right. In a time when the United States is facing massive debt, plus a rising China and militant Islam, we’re going to use foreign aid money to promote “gay rights” to the world.
The third item is the Food and Drug Administration's evil idea to allow the Plan B "morning after pill" to be sold over the counter to anyone – regardless of age. After the story hit the fan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius issued a directive on Dec. 7 to stop it. http://townhall.com/columnists/robertknight/2011/12/13/obamas_war_on_truth_and_decency/page/full/
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InfoWars reports: UN

“International Climate Court of Justice” would force western nations to pay “climate debt”

Bureaucrats at the UN Climate Summit in Durban have outlined plans for the most draconian, harebrained and madcap climate change treaty ever produced, under which the west would be mandated to respect “the rights of Mother Earth” by paying a “climate debt” which would act as a slush fund for bankrolling an all-powerful world government.

Even as the tattered shreds of whatever credibility global warming alarmists had left evaporate in the aftermath of Climategate 2.0, the monstrous bureaucracy behind ManBearPig continues to lurch forward.

- The treaty calls for the west to achieve a 50% CO2 emissions reduction within the next eight years, a feat that would completely bankrupt the global economy and spark a new great depression, as well as a “more than 100%” reduction by 2050, which presumably could only be accomplished by killing billions of humans to prevent them from exhaling carbon dioxide.

“So, no motor cars, no coal-fired or gas-fired power stations, no aircraft, no trains. Back to the Stone Age, but without even the right to light a carbon-emitting fire in your caves,” writes Monckton.

- The text calls for a 2 degree Celsius drop in global temperatures, which as Monckton points out “would kill hundreds of millions” and herald a new ice age. http://www.infowars.com/un-calls-for-eco-fascist-world-government-at-durban-summit/

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Washington Examiner reports: In mid-September, President Obama's campaign launched "AttackWatch" to rebut political attacks on President Obama by the media and other candidates. The push, which includes a website and a Twitter feed, received instant ridicule from conservatives and inspired a satirical introduction video that quickly went viral. The whole thing brought back memories of the Obama White House searching for "fishy" emails about Obamacare.
But it looks like the false attacks either aren't coming in or haven't been a priority. The Twitter feed has been silent now for nearly three weeks, and the website hasn't been updated for the same amount of time. http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/attackwatch-done/247836
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NY Magazine reports: In John Heilemann's cover story "2012=1968?," he wonders whether Occupy Wall Street protesters will do to Charlotte's Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2012 what demonstrators did to the Chicago DNC in 1968. The North Carolina city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any chances, and is already working to pass an ordinance that would make occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment. The fact that it would knock out the city's current overnight demonstrators is an added bonus. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/12/charlotte-prepping-for-ows-at-dnc.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABC reports another "flash mob": A swarm of thieves were caught on camera rushing into a luxury accessories store and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on. It was a bold robbery that was over in a matter of seconds.
They're often called flash mob robberies where criminals use strength in numbers to get in and out in a matter of seconds with loads of loot.
Early Wednesday morning, the upscale Hermes of Paris store on Post Oak was targeted by nearly a dozen people. Now we're getting a look at the surveillance video. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8460708&rss=rss-ktrk-article-8460708&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+abc13houstonnews+%28abc13.com+-+Houston+News%29
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Salon writes: In the Dec. 12 port shutdown campaign, the rank and file are leading organized labor, not the other way around.

As Occupy Wall Street groups stretching from San Diego to Anchorage mobilize for a multi-port shutdown of the North American West Coast, union members are finding the mobilization offers more than just support against union busting and unfair contracts. Activists and rank-and-file workers say the movement is teaching them what the bureaucratic infrastructure of organized labor has made them forget: collective power.
 http://www.salon.com/2011/12/09/occupy_vs_big_labor/

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Fox News deceiving viewers?; Unemployment numbers rigged; Republican budget changes include end to baseline budgeting; Obama's latest class warfare speech; Affirmative action and President Obama; Republicans question use of American money to bail out Europe; Violent extremists not described as Islamists; Democrat Representative calls NRA members radicals; Britain's secretively prepared halal meat; Obama may allow Keystone XL Pipeline; Occupy occupies Law and Order:SVU; Middle Eastern terrorists in Latin America to plot attacks on US; Those who store emergency food being targeted; Climate Change plays with the truth; Obama and the Constitution;

Personal Liberty reports: As Fox anchors discussed the violence that is beginning to take hold in Russia, footage rolled of protesters hurling objects and clashing with police in front of a building; the only problem was that on the building was Greek lettering that said Greek National Bank.
The state-run Russian media outlet concluded that use of the violent Greek footage was an attempt by American media, working in lock-step with the Federal government, to mislead U.S. citizens into believing there may be a need to intervene in Russian domestic affairs. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/russian-media-fox-attempts-to-mislead-viewers/?eiid=
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Personal Liberty reports: Rigging the unemployment numbers. There was a lot of pointing with pride last week when the Labor Department announced that unemployment in the United States had fallen from more than 9 percent to 8.6 percent. What the Barack Obama apologists didn’t mention, however, was that the numbers improved not because 120,000 new jobs were created; that would barely move the meter. No, what caused the drop was that 315,000 people stopped looking for work. Heck, if the White House could persuade all of the unemployed to quit applying for jobs, unemployment would fall to 0 percent.  [Be prepared for more rosy numbers, as temporary Christmas season workers are hired.]  http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/the-numbers-lie/?eiid=
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USA Today reports: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled a package of 10 budget changes including: a two year budget (following the current 3 years span in which the Senate has failed to pass a budget of any kind); a limited line-item veto which would have the president sign the bill,  but he could then send one or two packages of spending items back to Congress, who would have 45 days to vote on them again; and ending the automatic rise in budgeting, which is now at 8%, even without the vote of Congress.
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Charles Krauthammer writes about Obama's recent class warfare speech: Where to begin? A country spending twice as much per capita on education as it did in 1970 with zero effect on test scores is not underinvesting in education. It’s mis-investing. As for federally directed spending on innovation — like Solyndra? Ethanol? The preposterously subsidized, flammable Chevy Volt?
Our current economic distress is attributable to myriad causes: globalization, expensive high-tech medicine, a huge debt burden, a burst housing bubble largely driven by precisely the egalitarian impulse that Obama is promoting (government aggressively pushing “affordable housing” that turned out to be disastrously unaffordable), an aging population straining the social safety net. Yes, growing inequality is a problem throughout the Western world. But Obama’s pretense that it is the root cause of this sick economy is ridiculous.
Moreover, on the one issue that already enjoys a bipartisan consensus — the need for fundamental reform of a corrosive, corrupted tax code that misdirects capital and promotes unfairness — Obama did nothing, ignoring the recommendations of several bipartisan commissions, including his own. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-campaign-for-class-resentment/2011/12/08/gIQApYDagO_story.html
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Big Government writes: Affirmative action, the policy designed to assist historically under-represented minority groups and women with access to university admissions, has received an important boost from the Obama administration.
On Friday, the Department of Education jointly with the Department of Justice issued a new Guidance on the Voluntary use of Race to Achieve Diversity in Post-secondary Education.
The new guidelines reverse anti-affirmative action policies adopted by the Bush administration that forbad any use of “quotas” emphasizing instead so called “race neutral solutions.”
“Post-secondary institutions can voluntarily consider race to further the compelling interest of achieving diversity,” says the guidelines. http://biggovernment.com/tloudon/2011/12/09/obama-administration-reverses-bush-policy-on-affirmative-action-communists-approve/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Townhall writes: Congressional Republicans are taking aim at any International Monetary Fund move to bailout European countries in their debt crisis, saying they don't want American funds involved. The lawmakers are trying to snatch back a $100 billion line of credit the United States approved for an IMF crisis fund, the New Arrangements to Borrow, in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.
The U.S. is the IMF's largest member country and its share of the $550 billion fund is about 18.7 percent. http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2011/12/08/republicans_oppose_us_funds_for_imfeurope_bailout
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Daily Caller writes: The White House wants to use U.S. Attorneys to coordinate outreach to immigrant groups that produce Muslim terrorists, according to a new policy.
But the top-level refusal to identify Islam as a cause of terror attacks cripples counter-terrorism efforts because it deters lower-level law enforcement officials from understanding jihadis’ motivations and purposes, say critics, including Robert Spencer, who runs the jihadwatch website.
For example, Army officials routinely ignored vitriolic Islamic arguments made by the Muslim Army officer who killed 13 soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood.
The enemy, according to White House, are not jihadis or radical Islamists, but “violent extremists” who are members of al-Qaida.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/08/dont-mention-islam-says-new-anti-terror-plan/#ixzz1g3TirxcG

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Daily Caller writes: Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson accused the tea party movement and the National Rifle Association of creating an “manufactured” controversy over Operation Fast and Furious Thursday.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, was up next in questioning and struck back at Johnson’s inflammatory rhetoric. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t take exception to calling the NRA members, millions of them, radicals,” Issa said. “I think that’s an offensive statement and that it’s beneath this committee.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/09/congressman-attempts-to-transfer-fast-and-furious-blame-onto-nra-radicals-the-senate-holder-obliges/#ixzz1g3V42pJy

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American Thinker writes: In January of this year, the Daily Mail reported what was, to some at least, an alarming trend of "secretively prepared" halal meat (the meat of animals ritualistically slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law) being served in "Britain's most popular sporting venues, pubs, schools, and hospitals without the public's knowledge."  So prevalently was this tactic employed that some schoolchildren had no non-halal choices beyond a "vegetarian option."
Once the public was made aware of this fact, Britons began voicing their concerns over the practice.  Animal rights activists opposed it because "research suggests that animals can die a slow painful death" as a result of the bleeding halal requires, primarily because the animals are often not stunned prior to the act.  Others, however, had a more religious objection.  Over 10,000 Christians signed a petition that called for proper labeling, citing "reservations about eating meat from animals that are bled to death while an Islamic prayer is recited."  Church official Alison Ruoff suggested that "there is a lot of fear about upsetting Muslims but as Christians you have to stand up for Christian values.  Because we are unwittingly eating halal meat, we are spreading the practice of sharia law."
As a result of this outcry, Muslim and Christian leaders in the country agreed that "non-Muslims should not be compelled to eat halal meat."  In a statement, the Christian Muslim Forum said, "We urge all food outlets, catering organisations, and public authorities to label halal food properly, for the benefit of both non-Muslim and Muslim consumers." [I have two words for you here in the USA: Butterball turkeys...]

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/creeping_halal.html#ixzz1g3Vtf4WB

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The Hill writes: A Democratic lawmaker on Friday said President Obama might cave on his threat to veto an extension of the payroll tax cut if it’s tied to a controversial pipeline project.
Earlier this year the administration said it would delay its review of the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would bring crude from Alberta’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries, until after the 2012 election.


Republicans, backed by industry groups, say the pipeline is an immediate job creator and are pushing for the project to be reviewed immediately. The project is strongly opposed by environmental groups on the left.


“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll-tax cut, I will reject,” Obama said. “I don’t expect to have to veto it, because I expect they’re going to have enough sense over on Capitol Hill to do the people’s business, and not try to load it up with a bunch of politics.”


http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/198349-dem-rep-says-obama-might-walk-back-pipeline-veto-threat
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The Blaze reports: About 100 Occupy Wall Street protesters shut down production of an episode of “Law & Order: SVU” after they swarmed a park that had been made up to look like the now-cleared Zuccotti Park encampment. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/real-ows-protesters-shut-down-law-order-filming-scene-at-fake-zuccotti-park/
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Examiner.com writes: Terrorists from several Middle Eastern groups have infiltrated Latin American countries -- especially Mexico -- in order to plot and carry out attacks against the United States, according to an alarming exposé broadcast this week by the world’s largest Spanish news network.
While the news media in Latin American countries are covering this ongoing story, the U.S. media is delivering scant coverage -- or no coverage at all -- a U.S. law enforcement commander told the Law Enforcement Examiner.  http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/breaking-islamic-terrorists-plot-to-attack-u-s-from-mexico
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Natural News reports: This was clearly illustrated by the recent traitorous passage of the egregious National Defense Authorization Act by the US Congress (http://www.naturalnews.com/034302_i...). But in order to fully implement the ultimate goal of total control and tyranny, the federal government is now actively collecting the names of individuals that are preparing for the future by buying and storing emergency food supplies.

Oath Keepers, an association of active servicemen devoted to upholding their oath of guarding the republic and protecting individual liberty, has reported that federal agents recently paid a visit to a Latter Day Saints food storage cannery in Tennessee. Though they had no reason to be there, these agents allegedly interrogated the facility's manager and demanded to see a list of customers that had purchased, and were storing, food there.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034371_food_storage_federal_agents_customer_list.html#ixzz1gBrAp46i

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The Toronto Sun reports: At one point the UN's famous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tried to tell us the climate story was pretty simple. Their infamous "hockey stick" graph showed temperature constant for 1,000 years, then shooting up sharply in the 20th century as Industrial Man started pumping CO2 and other GHGs into the atmosphere. On top of the technical jiggery-pokery, this account brazenly misrepresented the past.
As the IPCC itself admitted in 1990, we've long known about a "Medieval Warm Period" starting around 1000 AD followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1600 until the mid-19th century. The former explains why the Viking settlement flourished then perished in Greenland. And slower tree growth producing denser wood during the latter may account for the superb resonance of Stradivarius violins. But whatever made the Medieval Warm Period warm, it certainly wasn't manmade GHGs. Nor did we cause the Little Ice Age. 

It's not just the Middle Ages. Can your models explain the sudden, irregular, dramatic temperature reversals that sent glaciers rampaging south then fleeing north about a dozen times over the last million years? Or anything else we actually do know about Earth's climate?  http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/09/dont-pretend-we-know-what-causes-climate-change

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RedWhiteBlue news reports: According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable. Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues.
Critics have complained that much, if not all of Obama’s major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government.
As it has turned out, this was a watershed moment in the relationship between the executive and the judicial branches of the federal government. Obama publicly declared war on the court, even as he blatantly continued to propose legislation that flies in the face of every known Constitutional principle upon which this nation has stood for over 200 years.
Obama has even identified Chief Justice John Roberts as his number one enemy, that is, apart from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, and so on.
And it is no accident that the one swing-vote on the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, stated recently that he has no intention of retiring until ‘Obama is gone.’ http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=7581

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