MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! 

Common concerns of Tea Party and Occupy - My Boyne City Gazette column

    Prior to the infiltration of nationwide Occupy demonstrations by many radical groups, there were some legitimate concerns being expressed, though some will criticize the methods they employ. Certainly there are some concerns they share with the Tea Party, and it may be time for the two groups to come together.

   Congress has for many decades passed laws demonstrating good intent, frequently creating unintended consequences.  In the early 20th century personal income of corporate executives were taxed at very high levels, creating a need for alternative ways to compensate.  Thus stock options and pensions became part of overall compensation.  Name the law, and we can find unintended consequences.  Individuals and corporations alike have learned to use laws passed by Congress to their benefit, finding mostly legal ways to avoid further taxation or to gain an advantage.

   It is these laws and their loopholes which should be targeted, along with Congress and the President who passes them, not the corporations which create most jobs in America.  Laws forcing banks to provide mortgages to those without the means to repay them, for instance, led to banks figuring out legal ways to avoid taking large losses when those mortgages fell through.  Laws allowing executives of taxpayer bailed-out companies to continue receiving large bonuses before the company repays American taxpayers should not have passed.  Those who break the law in gaining advantages should be, but often are not, prosecuted. Shutting down these businesses by Occupy crowds, however, hurts all employees from blue collar to white, not just executives.

   Only 12% of Americans approve the job our Congress is doing. Crony capitalism is condemned because those with close ties to government receive “favors” including permits, government grants, earmarks, and special tax breaks.  We condemn bailouts of failing companies. Our Federal Reserve, which has never been audited, secretly bailed out banks around the world with dollars far greater than domestic banks received.  Baseline budgeting, without any vote in Congress, automatically raises the budget for government programs by 8% per year, even during times of budget deficit and no inflation.  Lowering the increase is decried as a cut, even though the programs receive even more money.   

   We should rethink spending on government programs.  Trillions of tax dollars have been spent on education, on the war against drugs, and the “war on poverty”, resulting in less able graduates, more drop-outs, more illegal drugs and more poverty. 

   Chaos, demonstrations and threats can and do bring a problem to the attention of America, as they have throughout our history. Working together, however, we can improve America without destroying the free market capitalism which has enriched the lives of Americans, whereby those who work hard and take advantage of their opportunities have an amazing chance to improve their lots in life, an extraordinary opportunity not afforded to those living in countries run by tyrants and dictators.  Socialist, Marxist and Communist leaders have never provided the freedom and upward mobility that is abundant in America.  People long to come to America and are willing to die to get here – it is the land of opportunity!  President Obama recently dared to defy history by declaring that capitalism has never worked.  He is factually impaired, as capitalism DOES work, and we need to reestablish the best opportunities of that capitalism.

   So what is it that we can all do to make a change?  Tea Party and Occupy groups could begin to meet in order to find common causes.  We should peacefully petition Congress in large numbers with letters, emails and office visits, and attend Townhall meetings to have our voices heard.  We should demonstrate, without trespassing or keeping others from getting to their jobs.  We should be writing Letters to the Editor.  We could run for election as Precinct Delegates, the smallest political unit in the country to have a vote. Several hours per day on the phone could be more productive and far more comfortable than spending 3 months in a tent. We should take positive actions to effect change in America instead of trying to bring America to its knees.  Investigate those running for office, study their positions, and volunteer for those whose beliefs match your desires.  It’s the American way!

conservativecorner-karen.blogspot.com


The Obama campaign released a new YouTube video on Tuesday just in time for the season entitled, “Home for the Holidays: Share Why You’re Working to Re-elect President Obama.”
Going back and forth between a collage of young 2008 Obama voters from different backgrounds now working on the campaign, each individual tells his or her story of propagandizing conservative family members, and encourages you to preach the same this Christmas — I mean Holiday season.  http://conservativebyte.com/2011/12/obama%E2%80%98s-new-%E2%80%99holiday%E2%80%99-ad-encourages-you-to-convert-conservative-family-members/

What we need to know during this election year......

WAYNEALLYN ROOT: Overwhelm the system
[The Cloward and Piven strategy}

Barrack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.


Barack Obama is my college classmate ( Columbia University , class of '83). Now President,  Obama is closely following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined and taught a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it

-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care.  It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kickback hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."

-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression?  Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.

With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.  https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12c2b3be0e9f1809

A Connecticut primer on defrauding the system; Health Care Exchanges cause concerns; Nazism with a pretty face; EPA works for UN's "sustainable development"; The past sitting in judgement of the future; New Executive Order on supporting women; Medicare medical records will be shared; ICE already exeronerated Sheriff Joe; Police and Family Assoc. threatened

[Here is a primer on how you, too, if you live in Connecticut, can get yourself some taxpayer money, using the law of unintended consequences, and defining "poor" up!  Just have your mortgage, union dues, car insurance and homeowner's insurance, health insurance premiums, child support payments or garnishments on wages,and payments to your 401(k) taken directly from your paycheck (of course, you do have to belong to a union and/or be a state social ser worker.  Poof! Your take home pay is very low.  Isn't that just great?)] As The Courant reports: Why would highly paid state employees apply for emergency food stamp benefits when it would appear they would not qualify?
The reason, veteran state employees said, might be the rules of the game. The Department of Social Services workers who processed the benefits were told that they should look at the applicant's self-declared take-home pay, not their gross pay, according to a worker directly involved in awarding benefits.
Another worker said that many state employees have a relatively low take-home pay because their mortgages, car insurance, and homeowners' insurance can all be deducted through the credit union. The state comptroller's spokeswoman, Tara Downes, confirmed Monday that those items, as well as union dues, health insurance premiums, and contributions to the state's version of a 401 (k) program, are routinely deducted from paychecks and make the take-home pay much smaller. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/capitol-watch/hc-state-employees-applied-due-to-take-home-pay-20111219,0,1981059.story
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powerline writes: The headline is “Concern growing over deadlines for health care exchanges,” and it discusses the difficulties of one of the main pillars of Obamacare—the mandate that the states set up insurance “exchanges” where people and businesses can do one-stop shopping for their mandated health insurance policies.  But this is no simple exchange; because of the mix of federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, and the various regulations pertaining to eligibility, guaranteed issue, and other features of Obamacare, the states are having a hard time figuring out how they are going to do it.  And time is running out.  As the Post explains, “the exchanges will need to incorporate state and federal data on income, employment and residency. Enrollment through the state and federal exchanges is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2013.”
Obamacare has a fallback position: if states can’t (or won’t) make the deadline, the federal government will step in and run the exchange out of Washington.  I’ve heard rumors for months now that the Dept. of Health and Human Services is terrified of having to do this, and doubts it can be done by the deadline.  The Post story would seem to lend some credence to these rumors:
It’s hard to know how far along the federal government is because the Obama administration has “been very reluctant to provide any updates on progress,” said Dan Schuyler, a director at the consulting firm Leavitt Partners in Salt Lake City, which is advising states on the exchanges. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/hayek-vindicated-again.php
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patriot Painter opines: Some Americans call America a republic. After all, Benjamin Franklin responded to the question about the new government as he left the Constitutional Convention in 1787 by saying, “[It’s] A Republic, if you can keep it.” And Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees each State a Republican form of government.
But most people now call America a democracy. They are wrong, but not for the reasons you may think. They are wrong because America is fascism under the feel-good misnomer of democracy. It is simply Nazism with a pretty face.
The rule of law is gone. Our lawmakers make laws for us to live under while exempting themselves. They game the system. Many enter the Congress as paupers and leave rich. The rich get richer. How that happened was hidden for years by the corporate media.
Now, everyone knows what we have said for years: The President and Congress are owned lock, stock and barrel by Wall Street and the big corporations. They play for pay. And they stack the deck against the American people.
We know they (legally, though immorally) trade in the market on insider information. You and I would go to jail for this. Members of Congress apologize, feign contrition and say they will pass laws so they won’t do it again. But there is no recompense, no repentance. The fox is guarding the henhouse.
But the light is shining on them now. The Internet has allowed the free flow of information to make this possible. No more can the corporate media hide the malfeasance of governance from us. So they are working on laws to kill the Internet, too. http://patriotpainter.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/blame-bush-blame-obama-but-dont-look-behind-the-curtain/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personal Liberty writes: The focus of an upcoming global United Nations conference will be the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) goal to change how it makes decisions and analyzes problems to give it more power to regulate businesses, communities and ecosystems in the name of “sustainable development,” according to Fox News.
The news outlet reported that the major reason behind the EPA thinking is a study that the agency commissioned last year from the National Academies of Science. The study, entitled “Sustainability and the U.S. EPA,” cost nearly $700,000 and was run by a team of outside experts and staff from the academies.
Fox News reported that the aim of the study was to determine how to integrate sustainability “as one of the key drivers within the regulatory responsibilities of EPA.” The panel also wrote that part of its job is to be “providing guidance to EPA on how it might implement its existing statutory authority to contribute more fully to a more sustainable-development trajectory for the United States.”
The Associated Press reported that rules from the EPA have recently threatened to shut down more than 32 coal-fired power plants in a dozen States. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/epa-ponders-expanded-regulatory-power-800665890/?eiid=
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Sowell speaks of Newt Gingrich: Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Newt Gingrich's past, rather than on the nation's future, should remember what Winston Churchill said: "If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means lost big time. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/20/the_past_and_the_present_112470.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Breitbart writes: The United States on Monday said President Barack Obama would sign an executive order that would release the country's "first-ever national action plan on women, peace, and security."[Will his pandering ever stop?  Laws ARE in place.] The executive order would "lay out the concrete steps the administration will take to increase our commitment to support women as critical participants in preventing and resolving conflict," a senior administration official said.
"We know that enabling women to have a voice alongside those of men in matters of international peace and security is the right thing to do," the official added.
The action plan created by Obama aims to strengthen US government measures to protect women and children from harm, exploitation, discrimination and violence, including sexual violence and human trafficking.   [I just figured this out!  Nowhere does it say he is to protect AMERICAN women!  I suggest he intends to use our taxpayer dollars to "free" women all over the world, enemies or not, from oppression.  Time will tell.]    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.36250fd7ea7d7c41d8cfe510d0060488.1c1&show_article=1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CNS News reports: The new year will bring a new phase of Obamacare to an estimated 860,000 Medicare patients.

Under the new system, individual medical claims filed with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be shared with doctors and hospitals unless Medicare patients opt out of the data-sharing.
Starting on Jan. 1, 32 health care organizations from across the country will take part in a "Pioneer Accountable Care" initiative, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on Monday.

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) -- made possible under the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act -- are supposed to provide "coordinated care" by having a patient's multiple doctors communicate with one another -- and with the hospital -- about the best course of treatment.
The goal is to achieve better health care for patients at a lower cost, Sebelius said.  Medicare patients may opt out of having their “identifiable data” shared with ACOs, CMS said. Medicare patients will receive written notification from the ACO regarding their right to opt-out, as well as information on how to do so. They will have 30 days to respond before CMS starts sharing their medical claims with an ACO, although "beneficiaries maintain the ability to opt out at any time."
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gov-t-will-share-medicare-patients-data-new-accountable-care-organizations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expose Obama opines: On Thursday,Eric Holder and the Department of Justice filed suit against Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office run by the outspoken and flamboyant Joe Arpaio who’s made it a personal crusade to uphold U.S. immigrations laws when the feds won’t.
Six months prior to this investigation the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) had already conducted its own investigation of sheriff Arpaio’s office and not only gave it a clean bill of health,they actually gave a raving review. The report said things like “The OI and DRO supervisors consider the conduct and performance of the MCSO … officers to be professional and meeting the requirement of the MOA.” And that they considered the working relationship between the feds and the sheriff’s office to be “excellent” and that cases brought by the sheriff’s office to be “high quality.” http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/20/ice-report-exonerates-sheriff-joe-arpaio/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer hackers are avenging the Occupy movement by exposing the personal information of police officers who evicted protesters and threatening family-values advocates who led a boycott of an American Muslim television show.
In three Internet postings last week, hackers from the loose online coalition called Anonymous published the email and physical addresses, phone numbers and, in some cases, salary details of thousands of law enforcement officers all over the country.
The hackers said they were retaliating for police violence during evictions of Occupy protest camps in cities around the country, but law enforcement advocates slammed the disclosures as dangerous.

[Describing the man who hacked into the Florida Family Association website]: In an Internet posting, he told the family association he was reading its email, and he provided email addresses and partial credit-card information of two dozen or so of the group’s supporters. He referred to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s slogan about the “1 percent” and the “99 percent.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/20/hackers-post-cops-personal-data-online/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama's National tree; National Defense Authorization Act being questioned, turning USA into USSR; N. Carolina Governor's administration breaking the law by getting advanced word on unemployment; Government using drones against US citizens; Arrests of illegals down as Obama draws down troops from Mexican border; We are not detaining criminal illegals; 45% increase in Iraqi college students in America; Occupy says to church: "We need more; you have more"

When asked whether the [National] tree included any ornaments that mention or depict Christmas or the birth of Jesus, the office of the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for the tree, told CNSNews.com that it “does not have a policy nor any restrictions concerning the themes for the ornaments” that go on the tree. The office could not say, however, whether or not this year’s Christmas tree does in fact include even a single ornament that directly references or depicts Christmas or Christ.

The 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree (CNSNews.com/Terence P. Jeffrey)

The office of the Architect of the Capitol also did not directly respond to the question of whether any other elected official—in addition to President Obama—is mentioned on any ornament hung on the tree.

In keeping with this special invitation to students, the official website also produced some environmental “lesson plans” that teachers could use in helping their students create ornaments.

“Ornaments should be designed to reflect our theme ‘California Shines’ by showing how the rich cultural and ecological diversity of this state make it shine,” says the tree’s official website, which was funded by corporate sponsors.  ”From the Pacific Ocean to the sparkling deserts, from the high mountain peaks to its forests, rivers and abundant Central Valley, the diversity of nature and the people who live here are what make the great state of California shine.”

“Ask students where they think that trash goes when they throw it away,” said this introduction. “Work with them until they understand that trash eventually ends up in a landfill. Show students the image of a landfill.”

The tree also includes an ornament that from a distance looks like it could be a cross--but closer up turns out to be a road sign, pointing the direction not to California—but 4837 miles to Hawaii.

The tree also includes a number of ornaments representing Christmas gift packages. The ribbons on these packages are arranged in a cross pattern--but all of them have "Happy Holidays" enscribed on them.

“We ask that all ornaments for the Capitol Christmas Tree be made out of natural or recycled materials,” said the introduction to the lesson plans. [OK, inquiring minds want to know if this is the first time the tree celebrates just one state (and a liberal one of course) and one of the President's indoctrination points, instead of celebrating the birth of Jesus.  I shall be photographing this tree within the next few weeks, and my anticipation has been diminished by Obama's political tree.]    http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-capitol-christmas-tree-pays-homage-obama-not-jesus
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personal Liberty writes: But here we are. The passage of the National Defense Authorization Act has turned the U.S. into the USSR.
The bill authorizes the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. We have become the USSR and Nazi Germany wrapped into one. The Constitution is shredded, the Bill of Rights nullified. There is bitter irony that it happens on the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.
Some have been fooled into believing the bill does not apply to Americans. But as Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) has pointed out, the wording is cleverly disguised doublespeak. Section 1032 says: “The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.” Read it again this way: “The requirement… does not extend to citizens of the United States,” meaning the detention is discretionary rather than required.
Who is foolish enough to think that a President who will assassinate an American without trial would not exercise this discretion? The President who campaigned on closing Guantanamo Bay will now have the authority to fill it up with Americans.  http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/welcome-to-the-new-nazified-soviet-union-of-america/?eiid=
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
The Intel Hub writes: 40 members of Congress have sent an urgent letter to House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders protesting provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act that would legalize indefinite detention of American citizens without trial, as the revised version of the bill heads for a final vote on Thursday.

“The Senate-passed version of the NDAA, S. 1867, contains Section 1031, which authorizes indefinite military detention of suspected terrorists without protecting U.S. citizens’ right to trial.
We are deeply concerned that this provision could undermine the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth amendment rights of U.S. citizens who might be subjects of detention or prosecution by the military,” states the letter. http://theintelhub.com/2011/12/14/40-members-of-congress-protest-%E2%80%98indefinite-detention%E2%80%99-bill/#.TulE2cT7wOs.facebook
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Washington Examiner writes: The Carolina Journal, published by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation (for which I’ve given paid speeches on occasion) reports that staffers in North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue’s office have been getting advance word on monthly unemployment statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is highly illegal under federal law and violates what I have understood to be a strong tradition in the BLS and other government statistics that no one—no one at all, not even in the White House—gets advanced word ahead of the public announcement of government statistics.
There’s obviously good reason for this: someone with advanced word could place bets in financial and community markets and make lots of money. That’s why Congress provided for penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for early release of this data. And there’s another excellent reason: government statistical agencies should be free of political influence to insure the integrity of the numbers on which many people depend.  [Why are they not accusing the Dept. of Labor as a law breaker as well?] http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/government-statistical-agency-helping-nc-democrat/264741
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABC's WISN writes: Meet the Brossarts, a North Dakota family deemed so dangerous that the local sheriff needed unleashed an unmanned Predator drone to help bring them in. 
The Brossart's alleged crime? They wouldn't give back three cows and their calves that wandered onto their 3,000-acre farm this summer.
The same aerial vehicles used by the CIA to track down and assassinate terrorists and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan are now being deployed by cops to spy on Americans in their own backyards.
Read more: http://www.wisn.com/politics/29987729/detail.html#ixzz1gWsZHhTp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Daily Mail reports: The number of arrests for illegal immigration by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are down 53% since Barack Obama was elected president, that agency reported on Monday. The news comes as the president prepares to withdraw troops from the Mexican border — leaving the USA even more vulnerable to infiltration by foreign terrorists.

Meanwhile, the frisking of citizens at airports will continue in the name of security.

The federal government spun its 53% cut in productivity as “proof” that it is doing a good job. From the press release: “U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions — a key indicator of illegal immigration — decreased to 340,252 in FY 2011, down 53 percent since FY 2008 and one fifth of what they were at their peak in FY 2000. Of these apprehensions, 87,334 people had a record in the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a law enforcement database of individuals with criminal charges and convictions.”

his shows a lack of interest by both President Bush 43 and Obama in protecting our borders. Both men favor amnesty for illegal immigrants. Their failure to secure the border led Arizona to pass a law that enforces the federal law that Bush 43 and Obama have ignored. http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/47877 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Examiner reports: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today sent another letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano following the Department’s continued delay in providing a list of illegal and criminal immigrants that have been flagged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but have not been detained or placed in removal proceedings by the agency.

If DHS fails to produce the requested data in its entirety by December 9, the Committee intends to move forward and consider a resolution to hold DHS in contempt of Congress, Rep. Smith stated. December 9 came and went without a Napolitano response. http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/immigration-probe-lawmakers-threaten-secretary-napolitano

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ABC News reports:The number of Iraqi students studying in the U.S. was up 45% for the 2010-11 school year, according to statistics compiled by the Institute of International Education and State Department. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has earmarked $1 billion to be spent on education initiatives over the next several years and the Iraqi government will announce this week that it will fund scholarships for 2,500 students to attend U.S. universities in 2012 —quadrupling enrollment of Iraqi students in American universities, said Abdul Hadi al-Khalili, the cultural attaché at the Iraq Embassy in Washington.
As concerns grow in Washington about waning American influence in Iraq as the U.S. military presence concludes, al-Khalili said the initiative gives the United States a chance to help shape the next generation of Iraqi leaders.  http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-opens-doors-iraqi-students/story?id=15134853
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Powerline writes: But in the weeks since Occupy Wall Street was evicted from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, relations between the demonstrators and Trinity Wall Street, a church barely one block from the New York Stock Exchange, have reached a crossroads.
The displaced occupiers had asked the church, one of the city’s largest landholders, to hand over a gravel lot, near Canal Street and Avenue of the Americas, for use as an alternate campsite and organizing hub. The church declined, calling the proposed encampment “wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious.”
So now the Occupiers are demonstrating against the church. One of them explained the facts of life to the liberals at Trinity:

“We need more; you have more,” one protester, Amin Husain, 36, told a Trinity official on Thursday, during an impromptu sidewalk exchange between clergy members and demonstrators. “We are coming to you for sanctuary.”

Ah, yes–you have money, and we want some! This is the essence to which leftism can always be reduced. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/12/limousine-liberals-learn-the-essence-of-leftism.php

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lake Superior was formed during the last glacial retreat, making it one of the earth's youngest major features at only about 10,000 years old.  [I read this to mean that there was another "global warming" 10,000 years ago, before mankind could have had a great effect......  ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------