Saturday, January 14, 2012

Obama's latest power grab; Newt asks PAC to remove lies from their Romney video; See how our enemies now love us?; First legal challenge to (non)recess appointments; Government financials unreliable and abysmal; Michigan now expects budget surplus under Republican Governor; The math on taxpayer support of clunker cars being destroyed

Examiner reports: In one of his most blatant acts of audacity, President Barack Obama will petition Congress for even more executive power.  He wants the ability to "single-handedly" fast track making efficiency changes to government agencies and departments--under the banner of reducing expenditures and the deficit, according to an Associated Press article today.
A "senior administration official" said the first such "test case" would be the six agencies of the Commerce Department, including the Commerce Department's core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.
The goal would be to have one agency designed to help businesses thrive. http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/obama-trying-to-orchestrate-another-camouflaged-power-grab
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The Wall St. Journal blogs report: Newt Gingrich is calling on a political group backing his campaign to revise or withdraw a documentary attacking Mitt Romney’s work at Bain Capital.  In his statement, Mr. Gingrich says: “I am calling for the Winning Our Future super PAC supporting me to either edit its ‘King of Bain’ advertisement and movie to remove its inaccuracies, or to pull it off the air and off the Internet entirely.”
Mr. Gingrich said Mr. Romney should also ask super PACs backing him to remove any ads that contain inaccuracies. Mr. Romney has said that he isn’t responsible for the ads of pro-Romney super PACs, which by law can’t coordinate with the candidate. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/01/13/gingrich-calls-on-pac-to-alter-film/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo News writes: Thousands of mourners chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" on Friday during the funeral of a slain nuclear expert whom Iranian officials accuse the two nations of killing in a bomb blast this week as part of a secret operation to stop Iran's nuclear program.
The assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan has raised calls in Iran for retaliation against the U.S. and Israel, and an independent news website Friday said Iran is preparing a covert counteroffensive against the West.
"Iran's intelligence community is in a very good position to design tit-for-tat operations to retaliate for assassinations carried out by Western intelligence services," the official said, according to the website. "Iran's response will be extraterritorial and extra-regional. It follows the strategy that none of those who ordered or carried out (the attacks) should feel secure in any part of the world." http://news.yahoo.com/anti-us-chants-slain-iran-nuclear-expert-buried-130905499.html 
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Washington Examiner reports: Two pro-business advocacy groups on Friday filed the first legal challenge to President Barack Obama's recent recess appointments, asking a federal judge to find them unconstitutional.
The National Federation of Independent Business and the National Right to Work Foundation argue Obama cannot legally bypass the Senate to appoint three new members of the National Labor Relations Board, an agency that referees labor-management disputes.
The groups made the argument in a motion in federal district court in Washington, D.C., as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the labor board for requiring businesses to put up posters telling workers about their right to form a union.
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The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual audit of federal agency financial statements [was] released last month. As it has for many years, the GAO concluded that it cannot express an opinion on the statements because of weak internal financial controls and unreliable evidence to support material information.In other words, the government’s financial reporting is so abysmal no one can tell taxpayers exactly how their money is being spent. That’s aside from the fact that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable.  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/help-wanted/
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Michigan Governor Rick Synder reports: Today, I am proud to report that in 2011, job growth in Michigan actually beat the national average.  That is the assessment from an economist from the University of Michigan who took part in today’s official Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference, through which the state treasury department and the House and Senate fiscal agencies agree on what the state can realistically expect in terms of revenue for the upcoming year.
But that’s not the only good news.  Today we also learned that the state expects a budget surplus of approximately $457 million.
2011 was not easy.  But by making the tough decisions and working to structurally balance the budget, we now find ourselves in a place where instead of worrying over how to eliminate deficits, we are now able to concentrate on paying off debt and making strategic investments for the future.
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Free Republic wrote this one year ago, but it is still valid: The person who calculated this bit of information is now and has been a professor at The University of West Virginia in Morgantown for the last forty some years..

 
A clunker [car] that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year.  So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
 
The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that’s 224 million gallons saved per year.  This equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More important, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.
 
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.
I’m pretty sure they will do a much better job with our health care though? http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2659980/posts


 



Friday, January 13, 2012

Math lessons using slavery problems; Taliban leaders on Obama's release list; Obama administration gets Supreme Court smackdown; 900 Dead people voted in S. Carolina; the honorable Rand Paul; Candidate Obama disses soldiers in Baghdad; Coast Guard must protect ship from Occupy protesters; Dead New Hampshire residents got to vote in primary; Creator of fake Tea Party candidate sentenced; Education Association says teacher should not lose her job; White Gun like Fast and Furious?

Daily Caller reports: A few weeks ago, my seventh-grade daughter’s school put regular classes on hold for a “sustainability day.” One of the things they did during this reprieve from the rigors of math, history and English was watch a video titled “The Story of Stuff,” starring Annie Leonard and lots of animated illustrations. The video has been around since 2007.
If you haven’t seen the video, here are a few highlights:
You get the idea. We are destroying the planet because we have been convinced that the only way to have value as human beings is to consume as much or more than the other guy.
But that’s not my favorite part of Ms. Leonard’s version of “Apocalypse Now.” The best part is this: “It is government’s job to watch out for us, take care of us, that’s their job.”
Only 4% of our original forests remain? There are more forests in the United States today than when Europeans arrived thanks to the Native American practice of burning vast areas to promote hunting and agriculture.
The bad news is that Leonard’s little project has been so successful that she now has a staff and has produced other fanciful videos about bottled water, cap and trade, Citizens United, cosmetics, electronics and how we’re not really too broke to finance all manner of government good works.
The good news is that my daughter found “The Story of Stuff” laughable. But she thinks some of her classmates have abandoned their pillows. After all, they heard it at school.
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ABC News reports: A type of giant tortoise, observed in the Galapagos Islands in 1853 by Charles Darwin but thought to have been extinct for 150 years, is apparently alive and well. This news, from a team of biologists at Yale University, would be welcomed by conservationists, and it adds an ironic twist to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
The tortoise, known as Chelonoidis elephantopus, originally lived on Floreana, one of the islands in the Galapagos chain. Biologists believed that by the mid-1800s, they had been wiped out by whalers, who hunted them for food.
But Gisella Caccone and Ryan Garrick of Yale organized a team that took DNA samples from the blood of 1,600 tortoises on Isabela Island, 200 miles away — and the genetic makeup of at least 84 of them was such that they had to have at least one parent who was a member of C. elephantopus.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/01/extinct-galapagos-tortoise-turns-up-on-distant-island/
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Conservative Byte reports: Washington Post opinion writer Marc A. Theissen has published a list of the Taliban leaders President Obama is reportedly planning to release from Guantanamo Bay detention center — and their rap sheets just might (or not) shock you.
The Obama administration is allegedly considering the release of these senior Taliban leaders as part of a deal to bring the militant Islamist group to engage in peace talks. According to Theissen, if Obama does in fact proceed with the release, he will do “tremendous harm” to U.S. national security “and to his prospects for reelection this fall.”
Theissen writes: http://conservativebyte.com/2012/01/the-shocking-list-of-gitmo-detainees-obama-plans-to-release-in-deal-with-taliban/
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Fox News reports: The fired minister -- who also taught secular subjects -- claimed discrimination in employment. The Obama administration, always looking for opportunities to undermine the bedrock of First Amendment religious liberty, eagerly agreed.
There was just one big problem standing in the way of the government's plan: the U.S. Constitution. For a long time American courts have recognized the existence of a "ministerial exemption" which keeps government’s hands off the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers or clergy.
Here, in this case, the Department of Justice had the nerve to not only challenge the exemption’s application but also its very existence.
But, Chief Justice Roberts pushed back hard, telling the government essentially to butt out: 
“Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the free exercise clause, which protects a religious group’s right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the establishment clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/11/supreme-court-delivers-knockout-punch-to-white-house/#ixzz1jBlqU4Cu
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Carolina Politics Online reports: The director of South Carolina’s Department of Motor Vehicles has told the State Law Enforcement Division that more than 900 people who were recorded as having voted were actually dead.
DMV Director Kevin Shwedo told legislators about the issue Wednesday as the U.S. Justice Department questions a new state law requiring people to show photographic identification when they vote in person.
In response, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson asked SLED to review the evidence.
“Director Shwedo’s research has revealed evidence that over nine hundred deceased people appear to have ‘voted’ in recent elections in South Carolina,” said Wilson in a statement. “This is an alarming number, and clearly necessitates an investigation into potential criminal activity. I have asked SLED Chief Keel to review Director Shwedo’s research.”
WLTX
Now keep in mind that the U.S. Department of Injustice just declared South Carolina’s new voter ID requirement unconstitutional.  I’m curious as to what exactly is Constitutional about standing idly by and allowing the votes of legitimate voters to be canceled out by fraudulent ones.[Attorney General Eric Holder is refusing an investigation.]  
http://www.carolinapoliticsonline.com/
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Politico reports: Freshman Sen. Rand Paul is making good on his promise to cut federal spending. The Kentucky Republican and tea-party favorite said Thursday he’s returning $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury -- money from his operating budget that his office never spent.
The half million dollars represents about 16 percent of Paul’s annual budget, and he contends no senator has returned as much to taxpayers. http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2012/01/rand-paul-returns-k-in-office-budget-to-treasury-110637.html
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Buzz Feed reports: Michael Hastings' new book, The Operators, jabs at what could be a vulnerable spot for the Obama Administration, the president's relationship with the troops.
The book describes a visit to Baghdad:
After the talk, out of earshot from the soldiers and diplomats, he starts to complain. He starts to act very un-Obamalike, according to a U.S. embassy official
who helped organize the trip in Baghdad. [He was a candidate at the time.]
He’s asked to go out to take a few more pictures with soldiers and embassy staffers. He’s asked to sign copies of his book. “He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about it,” a State Department official tells me. “Look, I was excited to meet him. I wanted to like him. Let’s just say the scales fell from my
eyes after I did. These are people over here who’ve been fighting the war, or working every day for the war effort, and he didn’t want to take -------- pictures with them?" http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/book-depicts-cranky-obama-on-baghdad-visit
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TDN News reports: The U.S. Coast Guard will escort the first ship coming to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview this month, and the Occupy movement and local labor groups say they are planning to greet the vessel with a massive protest.
EGT officials say they have not scheduled a date for the ship's arrival. The freighter is expected to haul thousands of tons of grain to Asia, but opposition groups are already marshaling their forces to support the lengthy protest by union dock workers at the grain terminal.
"We just want to swell the population of the city to show there are people behind us," said Jeff Washburn, president of the Cowlitz Wahkiakum Central Labor Council, which passed a resolution calling for a protest this week.
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ABC News reports: A video posted the day after the New Hampshire Primary from conservative gonzo James O’Keefe either exposes why voting laws are too lax or comes close to itself being voter fraud (or both), by obtaining the ballots of dead Granite Staters on primary day.
The video has already sparked an investigation in the New Hampshire State Attorney General’s office, both because of the weaknesses of the electoral system it seems to demonstrate and the potential legal violations those making the film might have committed, according to N.H. Associate Attorney General Richard Head. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/james-okeefe-video-purports-to-show-ease-of-voter-fraud-in-n-h-primary/
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Detroit Free Press reports: A former Oakland County Democratic Party operative was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay more than $2,500 in fines and court costs for his role in creating fake tea party candidates during the 2010 election in an effort to siphon off support for Republican candidates. In November, Bauer pleaded no contest to five felony counts of perjury and falsifying notarized documents. http://www.freep.com/article/20120112/NEWS03/201120593/Man-paroled-fined-for-role-in-tea-party-scam?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s
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Atlanta Journal Constitution reports: Parents should not rush to condemn third-grade Beaver Ridge Elementary teachers as racists for using slavery beatings to teach math concepts, say officials with Georgia educator organizations.
The slave math lesson created by a teacher to reinforce a lesson on Frederick Douglass may have used poor judgment, but it shouldn’t lead to the termination of those who wrote or handed it out without reviewing it, said Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, a professional organization of about 42,000 members.
The math assignment was sent home with more than 100 students. Among its 20 questions were word problems on slaves picking cotton and oranges. Some mentioned Douglass: "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/education-leaders-slave-math-1296640.html?cxtype=rss_news
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LA Times reports: Now members of Congress who have spent months scrutinizing the Fast and Furious debacle are seeking to determine whether White Gun was another weapons investigation gone wrong.

"Apparently guns got away again," said one source close to the investigation, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "How many got into Mexico, who knows?"

Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined to comment on whether any firearms were lost in White Gun. But unlike Fast and Furious, they vigorously defended the previously unreported White Gun operation as a well-managed investigation that produced three arrests and convictions.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-white-gun-20120113,0,3917291.story
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Thursday, January 12, 2012

The right answer to debate question; Chrysler still waiting for government loan; Connecticut suburb puts students in small screaming room for punishment; Rice in Haiti; The pot calling the kettle black - again; Enemy Expatriation Act; SEIU and the Supreme Court; Michigan loses Republican delegates; Oklahoma must allow Sharia Law; We get to pay the bonuses of bankrupt Solyndra employees;

American Thinker gives the right answer: After spending nearly a quarter of an hour at the recent Republican presidential debate discussing a hypothetical scenario where a state might want to ban contraception, Sawyer put on her trademark pained countenance and, continuing the transparently obvious moderator pledge to direct all issues away from Barack Obama, challenged, "If I could come back to the living room question...what you would say sitting down in your living room to a gay couple who say...we want gay people to form loving, committed, long-term relationships?  In human terms, what would you say to them?"
But none of the candidates answered the question as they should have.  I don't think I was alone in hoping that one of them would lean into the microphone and, after starting off by incredulously asking, "Are you kidding me?," unleash the following:
Diane, we are living in a country with 9% unemployment, and let's cut the bull -- everyone knows that number doesn't include the enormous number of people who every week throw up their hands and leave the job market.  If those were added, we've got closer to 1 in 5 Americans desperately looking for good, steady work.
We've got a record number of American families subsisting on food stamps.  We've wasted a trillion taxpayer dollars on a government stimulus that brought no substantive job growth, but added more crushing debt to the backs of our children. 
[I encourage you to open this article to read it all.  It is well worth your time - and a blueprint for conservatives when speaking about Obama.]
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CBS Detroit writes: U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, speaking Wednesday at the North American International Auto Show, sounded very tentative about a loan program aimed at helping auto companies become more fuel efficient.
That program was part of a law passed during the Bush Administration to give automakers low interest loans, to help cover the cost of meeting new fuel economy rules.
Using loan money from the program, Ford has already completed the conversion of the former Michigan Truck Plant, into a factory that builds the compact Focus and electric vehicles.
Chrysler has been waiting on its request for a $3.5 billion dollar loan for three years.
The Energy Department has only awarded $8.4 billion of $25 billion authorized by Congress in 2008. It’s become a political hot potato, with some Congressional Republicans looking to end the program before more loan money is allocated. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/01/11/energy-secretary-no-promises-on-chrysler-loan-request/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBS NY reports [in a great example of why parents must oversee what is happening in the schools]: Parents in a Connecticut suburb are outraged over disturbing disciplinary actions at a local elementary school.
They claim students are being locked in unsupervised “scream rooms,” where some children have harmed themselves, reports CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez.
The Middleton School District is on the hot seat as furious parents are demanding to know what’s going on behind closed doors at Farm Hill Elementary School.
“My daughter is telling me that there’s kids being taken out in ambulances, by stretcher,” parent Sean Archer told CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez on Wednesday.  http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/01/11/parents-furious-over-apparent-use-of-scream-rooms-inside-middletown-conn-elementary-school/
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Salon writes with an example of the law of unintended consequences: To see where the enormous sums of humanitarian aid directed to Haiti after its catastrophic earthquake in 2010 went, a good place to start is the ocean harbor.And, like the grains of rice aboard, the dollars mount into the hundreds of millions; even billions. According to some reports, the United States government, American individuals, families and humanitarian groups donated approximately $3 billion. That’s just from America with a total of something like $12 billion coming from all donor nations for funds to be disbursed.
At the time of publication, President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy to Haiti and the co-chair of overseeing the nation’s re-construction for the last two years, hasn’t responded to repeated requests by GlobalPost regarding specific aid and cash donation figures.
Where those billions went following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left a government-estimated figure of 220,000 people dead — and at least 1.6 million more homeless — remains a confounding mystery. Inside of the recovery effort, however, are unquestionable successes along with the failures. And, to be fair, because the money came in so quickly and in such great volume, much of it has been wasted or lost like so much rice spilling on the docks. Or stolen, like the sacks of rice from here which will end up in Haiti’s black market for food.
But the economy of rice in Haiti says everything about the condition the country is in. The U.S. government subsidizes and “donates” ton after ton of rice in Haiti and in so doing has through the last several decades completely undercut Haitian rice farmers and left them destitute and migrating into cities where they live in hovels that were destroyed by the quake.
There is perhaps some bitter irony here that the subsidies were promoted in large part by President Clinton to help his home state of Arkansas, the largest rice producing state in the U.S., thereby crippling a sector of the economy in Haiti where Clinton has worked so tirelessly to help with the recovery. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/11/haiti_where_did_the_aid_go/
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Daily Caller reports: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year — and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as “the enemy,” has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly.
"The discourse in America, the discourse in Congress in particular . . . has really changed, I’ll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement.” [
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GovTrac.US: Enemy Expatriation Act - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to include engaging in or purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States to the list of acts for which U.S. nationals would lose their nationality. Defines "hostilities" as any conflict subject to the laws of war. [What this bill will do is to take away the citizenship of Americans who fall under its parameters.  I ask who will decide?]
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3166&tab=summary
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Yesterday, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney W. James Young went toe-to-toe with a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer at the United States Supreme Court.

In the class-action lawsuit covering tens of thousands of employees, Foundation attorneys are providing free legal aid to eight California government workers, including two former union members, challenging a corrupt SEIU political fundraising scheme.

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Michigan's Republican Delegation Halved Again

Michigan's delegation to the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention in Tampa will be cut from 59 to 30 for holding its presidential primary days before March 1 under action taken by a Republican National Committee (RNC) panel today.

The decision, if it stands, will be the second-straight convention where Michigan's delegation is halved for holding an early primary.

South Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Arizona also were punished for violating national party rules in holding a primary before March 6, said Michigan National Committeeman Saul ANUZIS.

Anuzis said Michigan and Arizona would appeal the decision to a different RNC committee. The Feb. 28 primary date for both states is on the same date as its regularly scheduled election dates under statute and only one day before the cutoff. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Personal Liberty reports: A Federal appeals court decided Tuesday that an amendment that would ban Oklahoma courts from considering international or Islamic law discriminates against religions and a Muslim community leader has the right to challenge its Constitutionality.
According to CBS News, the Denver-based court upheld U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange’s order blocking implementation of the amendment shortly after it was approved by 70 percent of Oklahoma voters in November 2010.
Part of the amendment read: “The courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or Sharia law.” http://www.personalliberty.com/news/appeals-court-upholds-sharia-in-oklahoma/?eiid=
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Expose Obama writes: Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra LLC,but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put.
Nearly two dozen Solyndra employees could receive bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 each under a proposal filed by Solyndra’s attorneys in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The attorneys say the extra money will add motivation at a time when workers at the solar company have little job security and more responsibilities because so many of their colleagues have been fired. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/12/bankrupt-solyndra-wants-to-hand-
out-bonuses/
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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Indiana to vote on right-to-work bill; Department of Homeland Security is monitoring journalists and bloggers; Several on Supreme Court criticize EPA on homeowner regulation; LaRaza employee is new Domestic Policy Council head; Another Iranian nuclear scientist killed; Romney saved companies from bankruptcy by firing some employees; Marxism by the numbers; Obama creating Internet ID for all; Washington Post and CBS gets many $$$ from taxpayers, a gift from Obama;

The Blaze reports: After nearly six hours of testimony and debate, the Indiana state Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved Senate Bill 269 by a 6-to-4 vote. Commonly referred to as a "right-to-work" law, SB 269 would make it a Class A misdemeanor to require an individual to join or remain in a union or to pay any dues, fees or other charges to that same labor organization. The bill now goes to the full state Senate, despite the continued absence of a House quorum in the intended joint committee meeting between the House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee. 
No amendments were allowed in the hearing.
The House and Senate will be called back into session again on Monday. Republican proponents intend to pass the bill in the Senate by the end of next week, but await boycotting Democratic House members for the progression of the bill’s discussion. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/homeland-security-monitoring-journalists/
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The Blaze reports: Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that emerged from the Department of Homeland Security in November, Washington has written permission to collect and retain personal information from journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.”
Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/homeland-security-monitoring-journalists/

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16266
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The Blaze reports: Several conservative members of the Supreme Court criticized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday for heavy-handed enforcement of rules affecting homeowners after the government told an Idaho couple they can’t challenge an order declaring their future home site a “protected wetlands.”
Justice Antonin Scalia assailed the “high-handedness” of the environmental agency when dealing with private property, and Justice Samuel Alito described some of the EPA’s actions as “outrageous,“ arguing that most people would say ”this kind of thing can’t happen in the United States.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/supreme-court-justices-blast-epa-for-telling-couple-they-cant-build-on-protected-wetlands/?t-build-on-?protected-wetlands?/
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The Hill writes: President Obama has picked a strong advocate of immigration reform to head his Domestic Policy Council.
The White House announced Tuesday that Cecilia Muñoz, a former senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, would replace Melody Barnes at the top of the council.
Muñoz is an immigration expert who worked for the National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, until she joined the administration in 2009. The group works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans and advocates legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Obama has frequently been criticized by pro-immigration reform advocates for not pressing harder for changes to the country's immigration laws. Hispanic groups also have complained that the administration has stepped up deportations of illegal aliens. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/203355-munoz-to-head-domestic-policy-council-
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CBS News reports: Two assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and another person Wednesday, state TV reported. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran's atomic program.
The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities' claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran's nuclear advances. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57356701/another-iran-nuclear-scientist-killed/
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American Thinker opines: Mitt Romney was primarily what is affectionately known as a vulture investor. Bain Capital invested in failing companies with the intention of either restructuring their business or stripping the business and selling its assets. This business model often adversely affects a company's employees. To be fair, if the company had gone bankrupt on its own, that would have adversely affected the company's employees too. The question Republican primary voters need to ask themselves is not whether Mitt Romney did anything illegal or immoral. In a climate of near 10% unemployment, do Republicans want a vulture investor to be the face of their party? http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/m-mitt_romney_and_the_hypocrisy_of_bain_capital.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Adams of UNC writes of racism: Stop and look at the following list of 20th Century regimes that committed at least a million murders in the name of utopian Marxism:  [I question whether our school system is teaching this to our students any more.]
China 65 million
USSR 20 million
North Korea 2 million
Cambodia 2 million
Afghanistan 1.5 million
Vietnam 1 million
(Author’s Note: the Marxist feminists are technically in second place with 53 million murders since Roe v. Wade). If you advance a political philosophy that has killed that many people then you simply have no moral authority whatsoever. I would not even trust a Marxist to give me directions to the grocery store. Why on earth would I hand over my First Amendment rights to someone with such a murderous worldview? http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2012/01/11/im_telling_your_commie/page/full/
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Fox News reports: President Obama is putting plans in motion to give the Commerce Department authority to create an Internet ID for all Americans, a White House official told CNET.com.
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt told the website it is "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet.
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace is currently being drafted by the Obama administration and will be released by the president in a few months.
Locke added that the Commerce Department will be setting up a national program office to work on this project.
The move has raised eyebrows about privacy issues. [We can always trust Obama's government, or any government, right?]
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Daily Caller reports:  Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.
“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.” http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/06/washington-post-and-cbs-receiving-money-from-obamacare-slush-fund/
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Alabama will hear Obama eligibility arguments; New government communications job offer over $100,000; Obama proposes pay increase for civilian federal employees; Michelle Obama 's frosty relationship with Rahm Emanuel; "The book" on Obama; Immigration enforcement numbers are lies; Union members must show ID to vote in union elections; Americans fear Obama's reelection 2-1; Where are the liberals?; Only favorable bailout numbers are included in Treasury releases

Liberty News Online reports: UPDATE: An Alabama Court has announced that it will hear arguments as to whether Barack Hussein Obama II is in fact eligible to appear on the State Presidential Primary Ballot.

Several Alabama citizens have filed a lawsuit within the Alabama Circuit Court to "prevent certification of President Barack Obama for 2012 Alabama ballot access pending final hearing based on factual evidentiary hearings."

The deadline for any candidate to register to appear on the Alabama Presidential Primary ballot is just days away, but by agreeing to hear the case, the Alabama Courts have effectively stalled any efforts by the Democratic Party to place Obama on the ballot.

Just as important is the fact that the Court did indeed accept the case. By agreeing to hear the case, the Court appears to have recognized that the defendants, ordinary Alabama citizens, do in fact have standing. In many previous eligibility cases, courts have ruled that ordinary citizens did not have standing, in other words were not sufficiently harmed by the actions of the defendant and therefore had no legal right to bring their case before the courts.

The actions of this Alabama Court is a game changer in that the legal system has finally recognized that ordinary citizens CAN be harmed and DO have the right to protest unconstitutional actions committed at the highest levels of Federal government.

This case could revolutionize the legal system AND return the judiciary to the duty our Founding Fathers intended – protecting the citizenry from Federal power mongering As we have said for so long, the power to defeat the Usurper in Chief lies with the STATES. http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_31406.php
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USA Jobs posts new position: Do you want to be a leader in your field at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) - a groundbreaking organization solely devoted to the economic strength and vitality of American Families? Do you want to play an important role in making consumer financial markets work for all American families? Do you want to challenge yourself and others? If you answer "Yes", then we have a career for you!  CFPB professionals have unparalleled opportunities to expand horizons for themselves and for the nation.  Be one of the founding members of an agency that will make a difference in the lives of everyday American families!
This position is located in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of External Affairs.  The Office of External Affairs is responsible for coordination of all external communication, with a focus on raising awareness of consumer issues through activities, messages, and interactions with Public Relations, Media, Communities, Industries, and Stakeholders.  You will support management of CFPB's participation in external events by developing and maintaining databases and event calendar and providing advice and guidance on consideration of invitations.
This position is being filled under CFPB's excepted service authority. http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/306225500
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Washington Post reports: The White House will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees as part of its 2013 budget proposal, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the plans.
The modest across-the-board pay jump would be the first increase for federal workers since before a two-year freeze began in late 2010. Raises for within-grade step increases and promotions have continued during the freeze.
The proposal, which requires congressional approval, differs from Republican plans supported by lawmakers and presidential candidates that would freeze basic pay rates for one more year. Some of those plans also call for denying within-grade raises. In recent weeks, GOP lawmakers have called for extending the pay freeze as a way to pay for a payroll tax extension. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/white-house-proposes-05-percent-pay-increase-for-federal-workers/2012/01/06/gIQA18fyeP_blog.html?hpid=z1
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UK Daily Mail writes about new book on the Obamas: First Lady Michelle Obama was frustrated with her husband’s advisers and clashed with then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, especially over the push for health care overhaul.
A book slated to be released this Tuesday tells of a divided White House where tensions developed between Mrs Obama and Mr Emanuel, with their relationship became increasingly frosty.
Arguably the most prominent point of contention New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor reveals between the first lady and Mr Emanuel was the friction over healthcare reform and Mrs Obama’s scepticism of so-called backroom deals being cut.
The president received the brunt of his wife’s fury, Ms Kantor writes in her book, The Obamas. He reportedly told his aides: ‘She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right.’
Mrs Obama ‘made it clear that she thought her husband needed a new team, according to her aides,’ Ms Kantor said.
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Washington Post writes: With Republican voters in Iowa set to finally begin picking a nominee to challenge President Obama, GOP officials in Washington are quietly and methodically finishing what operatives are calling “the book” — 500 pages of Obama quotes and video links that will form the backbone of the party’s attack strategy against the president leading up to Election Day 2012.
The document, portions of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, lays out how GOP officials plan to use Obama’s words and voice as they build an argument for his defeat: that he made specific promises and entered office with lofty expectations and has failed to deliver on both. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gops-battle-plan-against-obama-use-his-own-words-against-him/2011/12/30/gIQA7ZrPUP_story.html

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Judicial Watch reports: The Homeland Security agency charged with immigration enforcement has repeatedly lied to Congress, the American people and the media by drastically increasing the number of individuals that have been apprehended, deported or detained.
The shameful revelation was made this week by a nonprofit university group dedicated to researching the U.S. government. The nonpartisan New York-based data research center, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), provides detailed information about the operation of hundreds of government agencies. Immigration is one of many areas it researches.
For the better part of the last two years TRAC has been engaged in a fierce legal battle with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over records involving the agency’s enforcement activities. After repeatedly getting stonewalled, TRAC was recently provided with some of the documents involving statistics of individuals who had been arrested, detained, charged, returned or removed from the country during a specific period.
Although ICE is still withholding much of the information, the files that have been furnished so far reveal “vast discrepancies” in many areas, according to a case-by-case analysis conducted by TRAC. The initial probe reveals that official ICE statements claimed 34 times more detentions, 24 times more deportations and almost five times more apprehensions than its own data. This certainly indicates that ICE knowingly lied to lawmakers and the press to embellish its enforcement activities.   http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/01/ices-own-data-fails-to-back-enforcement-claims/
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Directorblue writes: As you’ll note in the photo below the union requires its own members to produce a photo ID in order to vote. The photo shows a union worker voting earlier today on whether to sanction a new four-year contract with Boeing, clearly the union understands the need for a picture ID in order to help guarantee a clean election:  http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/12/someone-alert-eric-holder-unions.html
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US News reports: In our New Year's poll, when asked what news event they fear most about 2012, Americans by a margin of two-to-one said Obama's reelection. Only 16 percent said they fear the Democrat won't win a second term, while 33 percent said they fear four more years. http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/01/09/poll-americans-2-1-fear-obamas-reelection
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David Brooks asks "Where are the liberals?" Given the circumstances, this should be a golden age of liberalism. Yet the percentage of Americans who call themselves liberals is either flat or in decline. There are now two conservatives in this country for every liberal. Over the past 40 years, liberalism has been astonishingly incapable at expanding its market share.
The most important explanation is what you might call the Instrument Problem. Americans may agree with liberal diagnoses, but they don’t trust the instrument the Democrats use to solve problems. They don’t trust the federal government. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/opinion/brooks-where-are-the-liberals.html?hpw
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The Hill opines: The Treasury Department has been publicly disclosing financial information about bailout programs only if the initiatives are expected to bring money in to the government, a new federal audit has found.
The Government Accountability Office found that financial information for Troubled Asset Relief Program initiatives that are projected to cost the government money long-term – like the injection of capital into the American International Group – were not included in Treasury releases.
In the end, Treasury agreed with the auditor’s recommendation that it include cost estimates for all TARP programs in its releases – whether they would cost the government money in the end or not. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/203245-auditor-treasury-keeps-quiet-on-tarp-money-losers
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Monday, January 9, 2012

Christie explains it all to Occupy folks; Did Obama administration release classified into to Hollywood?; Homeland Security checkpoint at Social Security office; Muslim Brotherhood member negotiates with Taliban for Obama; Photo ID required for purchase of drain cleaner, not voting; Department of Health and Human Services serves the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered; GA Republican Secretary of State to decide Obama's eligibility; Highlights of debate; Secret White House party most extravagant; School counts slaves in math problems; Obama runs against do-nothing Congress, even though it is the Democrat Senate failing to act; Reasons to not vote for Obama; Unions and their workers; "The Book" against Obama; NEA cheers and jeers

ABC News reports: At a rally meant to be all about boosting support for Mitt Romney, protesters instead took center stage, evoking colorful responses from both Romney and his outspoken surrogate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who at one time referred to one of the protestors as “sweetheart.”
“Really?” said Christie, as soon as protestors interrupted him, the second outburst of the night from the group, who had already gone after Romney. “You know, something may go down tonight, but it ain’t going to be jobs, sweetheart.”
“See it’s this confusion that’s out there because if she was in New Jersey like these Jersey girls out there she would know that we’ve created 60,000 new private sector jobs after Jon Corzine killed 120,000,” Christie said. “And if she wasn’t so blinded by her Barack Obama-induced anger, she’d know that American jobs are coming back when Mitt Romney is the next president of the United States, and if she wasn’t so disorientated by the loss of hope and change she’d understand that Mitt Romney is the hope for America’s future.”
Christie continued on, going further to blame the protestor’s anger on Obama.
“See, beware, this is a warning, this is a cautionary tale, be inspired by someone who has built a life that America can be proud of, not by a Chicago ward politician,” Christie said. “I doubt he is, but I hope the president’s watching. I have a message for you Mr. President. This is the type of disoriented anger your cynicism and your division is causing in our country. Bring our country together, stop dividing it, Mr. President. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/romney-christie-clash-with-occupy-protestors/
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The LA Times reports: Did the Obama administration release classified information to Hollywood notables for a film about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden?

That’s a question Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) wants answered.  And in response, the Pentagon’s inspector general has launched an investigation, King disclosed Thursday.

“We plan to begin subject investigation immediately,” Patricia A. Brannin, deputy inspector general for intelligence and special program assessments, wrote in a memo that King emailed to reporters.

At issue is whether the filmmakers — director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, who both won Oscars for their 2009 Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" -- were given access to classified information about a mission that remains shrouded in secrecy.  While newspapers and magazines have published detailed accounts about the raid, much remains unknown to all but a few.

“The leaks that followed the successful Bin Laden mission led to the arrests of Pakistanis and put in danger the mission’s heroes and their families,” King said in a statement.  http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-pentagon-probing-possible-leak-of-bin-laden-raid-details-20120105,0,6718099.story
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Infowars reports: Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.
The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”
Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed FPS officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon. http://www.infowars.com/dhs-officers-armed-with-semiautomatics-set-up-unannounced-id-checkpoint/
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National Review writes: The surrender is complete now. The Hindu reports that the Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.
Qaradawi urges that Islam must dominate the world, under a global caliphate governed by sharia. He maintains that Islam “will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America.” He sometimes qualifies that the conquering will be done “not through the sword but through da’wa,” but the qualification is a feint. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286854/obama-recruits-qaradawi-andrew-c-mccarthy
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CBS Chicago reports: A new state law requires those who buy drain cleaners and other caustic substances to provide photo identification and sign a log.
It’s getting a rough reception from customers and merchants alike although perhaps none more than a cashier at Schroeder’s True Value Hardware in Lombard.
“They’re not very happy about it at all,” said Don Schroeder, one of the store’s owners. “One of the customers actually threatened the (cashier) and threatened to throw the acid on her.”
The law, which took effect Sunday, requires those who seek to buy caustic or noxious substances, except for batteries, to provide government-issued photo identification that shows their name and date of birth. The cashier then must log the name and address, the date and time of the purchase, the type of product, the brand and even the net weight.
State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) obtained passage of the new law following attacks in which drain cleaner was poured on two Chicago women, badly scarring them. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/05/new-law-requires-photo-id-to-buy-drain-cleaner/
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CNS News reports:The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says it is taking action to better address the health care needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, by encouraging, among other things, health profession training programs to "include LGBT cultural competency curricula." http://cnsnews.com/news/article/hhs-calls-health-professionals-study-lgbt-cultural-competency-curricula
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Expose Obama shows video: http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/07/video-georgia-judge-schedules-hearing-on-obamas-citizenship/
[Here is the video of local tv news in GA.  The lawyer for Obama said the suit is "borderline" frivolous.  The thing which will be explosive is that even if Obama is found to be ineligible for office, it is a Republican Secretary of State who will decide, making her possible decision against Obama a political nightmare.]
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National Review reports on last night's debate: The big loser tonight was ABC News. We’re at war, the economy is in the tank, Iran is building a nuclear weapon, and ABC was obsessed with … contraception and gay marriage. They spent a good 15-20 minutes on those topics, while failing to ask a single question about Obamacare, the debt, entitlement reform, or other several other pressing issues.
Newt had a great moment during the long discussion of contraception and gay marriage when he turned the question around and asked why no one was concerned about anti-Christian bigotry. The Twitterverse erupted and ever those who do not support his candidacy cheered him.
Perry had a great debate too. He’s gotten better and better each time. But I think people have made their decisions on him this time around. He was mocked for it, but he made an important point about Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq when he said that every life lost will be for nothing because Obama wants to appease his liberal base. Obama has handed Iraq over to Iran, even if they are not moving in “literally” at light speed. They are moving in pretty fast. We should not have withdrawn all our troops and the next president will need to find a way to mitigate the damage. Imagine what the Korean peninsula would look like today if we had withdrawn every single American soldier right after the end of hostilities in the Korean War. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287479/big-winner-romney-big-loser-abc-news-marc-thiessen
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NY Post reports: A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all.
“The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells of the first Halloween party the first couple feted at the White House in 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests.
The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair — coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.
“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” the book says. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/in_blunderland_hKpNQkHfvpEWe4F51kI4dP
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AJC writes: Gwinnett County parents and activists have blasted the school district’s response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary school received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems.
School district officials said the principal at Beaver Ridge Elementary School will personally work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons and will offer more opportunities for staff development following the uproar created by the worksheet that included questions such as the following: “Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”
That didn’t go far enough for some parents at the school, where a majority of the students are minorities. They called for an apology and diversity training for the teachers and district officials. http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/norcross-parents-upset-by-1292851.html
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NY Post writes: Dereliction of duty or all part of the plan? Obama’s strategy this year — in addition to demonizing whichever Republican gets the nod to challenge him — will be to run against a “do-nothing” Congress, a la Harry Truman in 1948. But in this case the “nothing” is being “done” by the Democrats, who have gone to the mattresses in their battle to preserve the entitlement state.
* As a result, the nation closed out 2011 with the total debt at an astounding $15.22 trillion, or more than 100% of GDP.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hey_remember_this_guy_L7HnrH4rTOZHgR4vwjCrYI#ixzz1isJosNmN
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American Thinker gives 7 reasons not to vote for Obama.  Here are a few of them: As we approach the final leg of the 2012 presidential election campaign, it helps to examine a few statistics that tell the tale about President Barack Obama's performance in office:
Unemployment rate:
January 2008 -- less than 5%
January 2012 -- 8.5%
Workforce increases/decreases between January 2008 and January 2011:
Federal Government -- +11.79%
Private Sector -- -6.6%
Percent of people who pay no federal income taxes:
January 2008 -- 36.3%
January 2012 -- 51%
Debt as a percent of GDP:
January 2008 -- 69%
January 2012 -- more than 100%
These are good reasons not to support Obama in 2012.

Neil Snyder is a chaired professor emeritus at the University of Virginia.  His blog, SnyderTalk.com, is posted daily.  His latest book is titled If You Voted for Obama in 2008 to Prove You're Not a Racist, You Need to Vote for Someone Else in 2012 to Prove You're Not an Idiot.
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American Thinker writes about the UAW: From an historian's point of view, one could do worse than studying the United Mine Workers of America.  It is a microcosm of the American Labor Movement.   It is a startling picture of the role of individuals in the making of American history.  It is the story of how a once powerful institution's leaders repeatedly sold out its members as the nation drifted from large  scale industrial production of power and goods to being a producer of private and public services . Finally, not least, it is a story of breathtaking betrayal of working men by a man who used them as a stepping stone to greater personal power and to influence with an administration which time will prove the epitome of crony capitalism in the U.S.
62% of a nation's 174,880 coal miners were union member[s] in 1983. By 2009, that ration dropped to 20% in an industry that had contracted to 96,881 workers.
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-
 From the National Education Association website, as well at the Michigan:  Cheers to:
thumbsup
Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who stood up for the rights on educators and other public employees by introducing the Senate version of the Social Security Fairness Act (S. 2010). 
 
thumbsup
President Obama, who appointed three pro-labor individuals to fill key, vacant positions on the National Labor Relations Board.
Jeers to:
thumbsdown
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R), who was quoted recently as saying, “Let’s look at
colleges and universities…They’ve become indoctrination centers for the left.  Should we be 
subsidizing that?”
thumbsdown
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R), who attacked President Obama’s pro-labor 
appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, calling the President “a crony capitalist” who 
had put ‘union stooges’ on the federal board that oversees the workplace.” 
thumbsdown
The North Carolina General Assembly, which voted to hold a special legislative session after
midnight, in which they voted to override the Governor Purdue’s veto of a bill to stop the North 
Carolina Association of Educators from collecting dues from teachers' paychecks via payroll 
deduction.
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