Department of Justice squelches voter ID laws; Obama, Taliban and surrender; Violent crime up in DC following Occupy protests; Bare Naked Islam site no longer available; Obama delaying request for increase in debt limit til Congress returns; New Obamacare tax begins now; LEARN act would allow states to opt out of Fed Education policies; Prison inmates might be IRS tax preparers, with access to SSNs; EEOC thinks requiring a high school diploma to be against the Americans with Disability Act; Some want Obama to do deem Congress to be in recess; Virginia Governor has do-over on primary ballot issue

Election Law Center opines: The Wall Street Journal had the must-read article on DOJ's refusal to permit South Carolina to implement a photo ID law.  Below is an excerpt from Assistant Attorney General Perez's letter to South Carolina objecting on behalf of Attorney General Holder.

"Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud and safeguarding voter confidence," it didn't provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state's existing voter identification requirement," said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney for civil rights, in a letter to state officials.
In its letter, DOJ rejected South Carolina's voter ID law, in large part because the state failed to provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud..."  Requiring a state to provide evidence of extensive fraud sets an elevated standard specifically rejected by the Supreme Court and in direct contradiction to the Court's opinion endorsing photo identification and previous precedent.  http://electionlawcenter.com/2011/12/24/contradicting-supreme-court-doj-rejected-sc-photo-id-law-due-to-lack-to-voter-impersonation-fraud.aspx
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The Gateway Pundit writes: On Wednesday the Taliban blew up 3 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.
On Thursday the Taliban blew up 10 Afghan soldiers with a roadside bomb.
So how does the Obama Adminstration respond to the continued attacks by the Taliban?
They step up surrender talks.
The Obama administration hopes to restore momentum in the spring to U.S. talks with the Taliban insurgency that had reached a critical point before falling apart this month because of objections from Afghan President Hamid Karzai,U.S. and Afghan officials said.
One goal of renewed talks with the insurgents would be to identify cease-fire zones that could be used as a steppingstone toward a full peace agreement that stops most fighting, a senior administration official told The Associated Press—a goal that remains far out of reach. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/unreal-obama-administration-steps-up-surrender-meetings-with-the-taliban/
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The Gateway Pundit writes: The violent crime rate in Washington, D.C., is up 13 percent since the Occupy D.C. protest began this fall as police officers have been pulled out of local neighborhoods and reassigned to the protest.
The chairman of the local police union pinned the blame on the city’s redistribution of resources, noting that on some shifts between two and 18 neighborhood patrol officers have relocated to Occupy D.C. Those protesters are primarily based in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two downtown locations near the White House. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/police-union-blames-occupydc-for-rising-crime-rate-video/

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The Gateway Pundit reveals: CAIR said visitors to “Bare Naked Islam,” hosted by WordPress.com, now see the message: “barenakedislam.wordpress.com is no longer available. This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.”
[NOTE: "Bare Naked Islam" was one of the major promoters of the campaign to pressure Lowe's to drops its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim."] http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/12/police-union-blames-occupydc-for-rising-crime-rate-video/
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AP reports: President Barack Obama is delaying his request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation's debt limit at the request of congressional leaders.

It's basically because of a technicality.

The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority. Congress would then have 15 days to reject the request, though Obama would veto any objections in order to ensure that the government does not default on its obligations.

But with Congress not due to return to Washington until mid-January, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Obama to delay his request so they would be in session during the 15-day period allowed for objections. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_BORROWING_LIMIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-30-13-47-05

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Expose Obama writes: In just a few days a new ObamaCare tax—that will double the following year—will kick in to fund “comparative effectiveness research” that’s supposed to help the government save money by finding ways to ration healthcare.
This is crazy;a semi-secret tax so the feds have cash to pay bureaucrats to examine everyone’s health records and,in turn,the government can save money by cutting back on care. The official plan,as noted by a national news wire this week,is to conduct research to find out which drugs,medical procedures,tests,and treatments work best. It’s part of a “little-known provision” of the president’s socialist takeover of the nation’s healthcare system. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/30/happy-new-year-happy-new-obamacare-tax/
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Spectator writes: Blocking Obamite Efforts to Nationalize Education Policy: U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett has introduced the LEARN Act to let states opt out of federal micromanagement, and it appears to be a great idea. As Gary Palmer of the Alabama Policy Institute points out (and as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has been noting as well), the Obama administration is improperly using the "waiver" process to force their own policy choices on the states. http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/30/so-many-outrages-so-little-tim
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Vision to America reports: A story in USA Today reports that inmates, some of them serving life sentences, have applied to the IRS to be tax preparers. Most of them did not reveal that they were incarcerated. It’s good to know that prisoners are trying to be productive members of society. It’s kind of like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption (1994) who does the books for the warden and the prison guards.
Maybe these incarcerated prisoners got their inspiration from watching Shawshank.
The inmates and ex-cons were among thousands of applicants who got the identification numbers from the IRS from September 2010 through July 2011 as the agency began phasing in a 2009 congressional mandate that requires many preparers to file tax returns electronically.
There is just one problem. The prisoners will have access to the social security numbers of the tax returns they’re working on. http://visiontoamerica.org/6809/prisoners-may-be-preparing-your-tax-return/
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Washington Times writes: As Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The development also has some wondering whether the agency’s advice will result in an educational backlash by creating less of an incentive for some high school students to graduate. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/1/eeoc-high-school-diploma-might-violate-americans-w/
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Politico writes: Since the holidays, GOP congressional leaders have used a handful of senators and a procedural technicality to keep their chamber active, gaveling in and out of session for a few minutes every two to three days. The strategy: Play keep-away with Obama’s power to fill confirmation-level jobs in their absence, the only way he can avoid almost-certain Republican filibusters of his nominees.

But some Obama allies and government watchdog groups want him to flex his constitutional muscle and declare the Senate is in recess if it’s inactive for less than three days or idle for perhaps even less than a minute. The bold counter-move would upend a long-held but legally murky congressional tradition, ratchet up tensions between Obama and the GOP and trigger fresh partisan fighting over the Senate’s advise-and-consent role — tit-for-tat warfare that probably would extend to already contentious judicial nominations.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/70989.html#ixzz1iIwP1O8V

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Washington Examiner writes: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday that he was wrong to ask state legislators to let more Republican presidential candidates on the state's March primary ballot, saying it would be unfair to the two candidates who followed the rules to qualify.

Just 24 hours after imploring Virginia legislators to pass emergency legislation opening the primary up to the rest of the field, Cuccinelli now feels "that changing the rules midstream is inconsistent with respecting and preserving the rule of law," he said in a statement.  [What was he thinking in the first place, that consequences of one's actions shouldn't matter?]

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2012/01/cuccinelli-reverses-positions-ballot-law-changes/2052686#ixzz1iIx4ms4e

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