Thursday, January 19, 2012

House rejects debt ceiling hike; Obama denies call for direct talks with Iran via secret letter; Natural gas in abundance; China wants Obama to be reelected; NY, St. Louis and N.J. schools invade privacy of students; Jan. 26 hearing on Obama eligibility; Treasury dips into federal pension funds; Newsweek calls Obama detractors "dumb"; Obama blames Republicans; Hillary Clinton to testify on pipeline; Pelosi no longer supporting "Occupy"; ABC to run hit piece on Gingrich; Our Divisive President

The Hill reports: The House on Wednesday evening approved a resolution disapproving of President Obama's request to increase the federal debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion, sending it to a Senate that is expected to reject it.
The House approved the resolution in a 239-176 vote in which just one Republican voted against it, and six Democrats voted for it. But the vote fell far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed for passage if Obama were to veto the resolution. http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/204927-house-approves-resolution-opposing-obamas-debt-limit-hike
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The UK Daily Mail reports: The White House has denied calling for direct talks with Iran in a 'secret letter' to the country's supreme leader.
A conservative Iranian lawmaker had claimed that Barack Obama was trying to open back-channel negotiations with the leadership of the Islamic Republic.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088431/U-S-threatens-Iran-crucial-global-oil-route-blocked.html#ixzz1juSeiMuk
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Chicago Tribune writes: The price of natural gas is plummeting at a pace that has caught even the experts off guard.  A 35 percent collapse in the futures price over the past year has been a boon to homeowners who use natural gas for heat and appliances and to manufacturers who power their factories and make chemicals and materials with it.

The country is flush with natural gas as a result of new drilling techniques that have enabled energy companies to tap vast supplies that were out of reach not so long ago. The country's natural gas surplus has been growing even as the country burns record amounts. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-natural-gas-plunge,0,7715256.story
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Personal Liberty writes: Good news: You don’t need to fret about global war, the economy or even the future value of outstanding U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, at least if China has any say. It is not going to do a single thing to rock America’s boat. In fact, Beijing hopes that things stay smooth as glass, because it holds more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt. And with the direction America is going, the country would love nothing better than to see Barack Obama re-elected.
China’s leaders are not stupid. To them, Obama is the best thing to come along since one-minute rice.
One prominent Republican agrees. Last month, self-promoter extraordinaire Donald Trump wrote an open letter to the President. Trump took issue with Obama regarding the advantages in trade that China is being given, writing: “How little respect the Chinese government has for you.”  http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/keep-china-happy-vote-obama/?eiid=
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal Liberty writes: A group of Bay Shore, N.Y., school students will soon be wearing a watch-like device that allows school officials to track how active they are, officials say.
The devices are called Polar Active monitors and they count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in an effort to combat obesity, the New York Post reported Sunday.
“It’s a great reinforcement in fighting the obesity epidemic. It tells kids, in real time, ‘Am I active? Am I not active?’ We want to give kids the opportunity to become active,” said Bay Shore athletics chairman Ted Nagengast.
The devices are called Polar Active monitors and they count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in an effort to combat obesity, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The monitors are distributed by Polar Electro, of Lake Success, the U.S. division of a Finland firm. They cost $90 each.
School districts in St. Louis and South Orange, N.J., already use the devices, which has raised some privacy concerns, according to the Post. [Where are the parents to say, "Make me" put this "watch" on my child!  What an invasion of privacy!]    http://www.personalliberty.com/news/schools-to-monitor-obesity-in-students/?eiid=
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Expose Obama writes: A hearing has been set for January 26,2012,for the purpose of hearing the complaint of David Weldon,a citizen living in Georgia,where he questioned the Constitutionality of President Obama being allowed on the Georgia presidential ballot.
The hearing here in Atlanta will be on January 26th at 9 a.m. Since this is a public hearing,the public can attend. The location is the Justice Center Building,160 Pryor St,Atlanta,GA – Courtroom G40 on the ground floor.

On January 3,2012,Judge Malihi denied the request from Mr. Obama’s attorneys to dismiss the case accusing him of not being qualified to be on the ballot;and therefore,ineligible to run for President this year in Georgia. They contend that since both of his parents were not citizens,that makes him ineligible. http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/01/17/the-public-can-attend-the-hearing-over-obamas-eligibility-set-in-georgia/
----------------------------------------------------- In this Feb. 27, 2008 file photo, a Vietnamese woman works at a fish market in Nha Trang, Vietnam. It might have surprised you to learn in recent news that Brazil tops Florida as the world's largest orange juice producer. You probably also didn’t know most of our apple juice comes from China. What about the fact that 85 percent of the fish Americans eat is imported, too? Photo: Chitose Suzuki / AP For instance, while 85 percent of the apple juice we drink is imported, only about 7 percent of the apples we eat are. Andy Jerardo, an economist at the USDA, says that's because the juice often comes from China, which produces apples that are inferior for snacking but good for drinking. http://www.chron.com/news/article/Apple-juice-made-in-America-Think-again-2527591.php
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Yahoo writes: The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills.
"I will be unable to invest fully" the federal employees retirement system fund beginning Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on Wednesday on the Obama administration's request to raise the country's legal debt limit to $16.394 trillion. http://news.yahoo.com/treasury-dips-pension-funds-avoid-debt-limit-202850021.html
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The Blaze reports: The “Newsweek” magazine cover from the latest issue has done its job — it’s created quite the controversy and gotten plenty of people talking. If you haven’t seen it, it’s below, along with the cover story headline of “Why are Obama’s critics so dumb?” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/megyn-kelly-blasts-newsweek-author-andrew-sullivan-over-cover-hes-not-an-actual-journalist/

Megyn Kelly Segment on Andrew Sullivan and Newsweek | Sullivan Responds 
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National Journal reports: In a decision sure to re-ignite a fierce energy debate, the Obama administration was announcing on Wednesday its rejection of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline because the 60-day deadline imposed by Republicans did not allow adequate time to review an alternate route through critical wetlands in the Midwest. http://nationaljournal.com/congress/obama-rejecting-pipeline-pokes-back-at-gop-20120118?mrefid=subhplead_1
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House Republicans have called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify as early as next week on the Obama administration’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

A bill from Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) to give FERC control over the pipeline’s fate instead of the White House and State Department is “first in line,” Upton said. “Terry has a very good bill,” he said. “But again all options are on the table.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) has a draft bill to allow Congress to approve the pipeline, giving Nebraska officials time to find an alternative route.
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Big Government opines: Of course, when the #Occupy movement first arose, Pelosi and and other members of the Leftist Elite gushed with enthusiasm about the protests:
House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement, which began on the streets of downtown New York City in mid-September.
“I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen,” said Pelosi in an exclusive interview with ABC News “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour. “We cannot continue in a way this is not relevant to their lives.”
For good measure, President Obama added:
The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side.
So, what happened? 
Or, maybe the news that the #Occupy kids had illegally taken over the home of a struggling single dad for their own use proved too much for Dame Pelosi. It’s a nice attempt at a pivot, but make no mistake, the Dems own the #Occupy movement. [At a recent Politico event, Miss Nancy actually said, "Well, we don't really have much of a connection to the Occupy".] http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2012/01/17/dead-movement-walking-pelosi-tries-to-distance-herself-dems-from-occupy-movement/
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Drudge Reports: Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview.
  She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail.

ABCNEWS suits determined it would be "unethical" to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary.
A decision was tentatively made to air the interview next Monday, after all votes have been counted.
Gingrich canceled a press conference on Wednesday to deal with the matter. UPDATE: The AP reports ABC is now likely to air the segment Thursday on NIGHTLINE.
http://drudgereport.com/flash2.htm
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American Thinker opines: Democrat professionals Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen this July pleaded with Obama in a Wall Street Journal column, "Our Divisive President," not to run for a second term.  They describe his leadership as toxically divisive to our country.  According to Gallup, Obama's approval gap after one year was the most polarized in history, with an average approval of 88% among his own party and 23% among Republicans. 
Obama's disdain and hostility to opponents has been quite visible.  He dissed the Supreme Court to their faces, dismissed Congressman Ryan's efforts to work together on the deficit with a "you lost, we won" crack, and told Republicans to shut up and go to the back of the bus.  He rammed through the biggest changes to health care in history by chicanery, to avoid having to make compromises with Republicans through the normal conference process.  He ignored the recommendations of his own bipartisan commission on controlling debt and deficit.  His favorite activity (next to golf) is class warfare.  Obama is indeed the great divider, and the country shows it. 
What else do we know?  To the surprise of many, we now know that Obama does not pay attention to the black community -- he doesn't visit them, talk to them, encourage them, propose policies to benefit them.  He hasn't helped this suffering community, and when he does go to speechify, this is what he says:
Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'.  We are going to press on. We have work to do.
We now see the lazy student, the charmer in the White House, busy at what he likes best: golf, basketball, vacations, parties, speeches, and raising money.  He has not been the policy wonk Democrats dreamed of, President Clinton redux.  Obama doesn't do hard work.  He farmed out his health reform to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, showing no interest or capability in formulating the details of the policy or even working the politics to get it through Congress.  He famously didn't lift the phone to call Capitol Hill and get his signature policy passed.  Obama's only contribution was nonstop speeches, which failed to win over the country.  He doesn't seem interested in or capable of formulating an intelligent economic policy or foreign policy.  He doesn't care enough to even try.
Progressives saw Obama as worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, before even taking office.  Republicans warned that Obama was a psychologically troubled man who deified his anti-colonial father, resented American power abroad, and had a troubling history of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel relationships (think Reverend Wright and Rashid Khalidi), never outgrowing an adolescent idolization of Castro and Che Guevara.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/m-now_we_know_who_was_right_about_obama.html
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Glorious leader to give acceptance speech in [the evil] Bank of America stadium; Obama's Jobs Council calls for all-in approach; Private Facebook messages to be analyzed by government; Recess appointments challenged in court; Eric Holder's prosecution on pro-life educator dropped by judge; Wikipedia shuts down for 24 hr. in protest; Occupy DC throws smoke bombs on White House lawn; Foreign internet voting company has purchased the USA's election results reporting company; What about Obama's college transcripts?; Occupy DC rats cannot be killed; Occupy running out of money; Smoke bombs on White House lawn;

Daily Caller reports [on the glorious Obama.  I wonder if there will be Greek columns again, just to make him look even more important?  There is a chance I will be there to see for myself.]

Glorious leader seizes Bank of America stadium for the proletariat

Or: Obama Occupies Bank of America.
If there’s one bit of valuable knowledge we can take away from the last few months, it’s that bankers are evil and must be destroyed. And what better way to undermine them than to take over their symbols of wealth and power, using them for a 99% higher purpose?
The Charlotte Observer:
On the final night of this fall’s Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama will deliver his acceptance speech at Bank of America stadium, party sources told the Observer on Monday night…
The move, which would open the speech to the public, is designed to help mobilize voters in North Carolina, a key swing state. It could also serve as a perk to donors, who could be rewarded with skybox seats…
That’s right! He’s standing up to Wall Street by using one of its most prominent symbols to raise funds. But they’re good funds, because they’re going to him, unlike the bad funds that go to Republicans and other vermin. He’s fighting the system from within and stuff. Right?
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The Hill reports: President Obama’s jobs council called Tuesday for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as expediting energy projects like pipelines.

“[W]e should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” states the year-end report released Tuesday by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/204621-obamas-jobs-council-calls-for-expanded-drilling
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All Things D reports: Most notably, the Facebook-Politico data set will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments. While that may alarm some people, Facebook and Politico say the entire process is automated and no Facebook employees read the posts.
Rather, every post and comment — both public and private — by a U.S. user that mentions a presidential candidate’s name will be fed through a sentiment analysis tool that spits out anonymized measures of the general U.S. Facebook population.
This is similar to the way Google offers reports on search trends based on its users’ aggregate search activities. http://allthingsd.com/20120112/facebook-gives-politico-deep-access-to-users-political-sentiments/
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Bloomberg reports: President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of three members to the National Labor Relations Board was challenged in court by the National Federation of Independent Business, which claims a constitutional violation.
The filing yesterday may be the first legal action targeting the White House appointments made without Senate confirmation on Jan. 4 during a brief congressional break. It was made as part of an existing lawsuit in federal court in Washington over a new NLRB rule that requires employers to notify workers of their rights to form a union.
Without a legal quorum, the board has no authority to enforce the rule, the NFIB, which was joined by four other groups and companies in the filing, argued.
“The grounds for the motion are that very significant events have transpired since the filing of the complaints in this case, particularly within the last ten days,” according to the filing. “The president purported to appoint the new members without the advice and consent of the Senate.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-14/obama-recess-appointments-challenged-by-trade-groups-in-lawsuit.html
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Green Mountain Scribes reports: A federal judge has ended Attorney General Eric Holder’s two-year political prosecution of pro-life educator Mary Susan Pine. Holder accused Pine of obstructing the entrance to an abortion clinic, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (“FACE”). Holder sought thousands of dollars in fines against Pine, as well as a permanent injunction banning her from counseling women on the public sidewalk outside the Presidential Women’s Center (“PWC”) abortion clinic, where she has faithfully ministered for over 20 years. Liberty Counsel in granting summary judgment, Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp concluded that “the evidence could not lead a rational jury to find that Ms. Pine’s conduct [i.e., having peaceful conversations with clinic visitors on a public sidewalk] constituted a physical obstruction within the meaning of FACE.” He also concluded that the government lacked evidence to prove not just one, but “all three elements of its FACE claim.” Judge Ryskamp chastised Holder for seeking to apply federal law in a clearly unconstitutional manner: “Stretching the terms of FACE to apply to this case … so that a desire to provide people with information about alternatives to abortion constitutes an unlawful motive, would unjustifiably impinge on Ms. Pine’s First Amendment rights.”
The Government’s decision to prosecute Pine despite having no evidence of wrongdoing prompted Judge Ryskamp to suspect a conspiracy at the highest level of the Obama Administration: “The Court can only wonder whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the Government and the PWC, which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine’s activities rather than to vindicate the rights of those allegedly aggrieved by Ms. Pine’s conduct.” http://greenmountainscribes.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/eric-holders-political-prosecution-of-pro-life-educator-thrown-out-of-court/#more-3484
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NY Times reports: With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment — a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington.
But the tech industry fears that, among other things, they will give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they say are abusing copyrights.
The legislation has jolted technology leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, who are not accustomed to having their free-wheeling online world come under attack. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html?_r=1&hp
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Yahoo News reports: Several hundred protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement converged on the West Lawn of the Capitol Tuesday to decry the influence of corporate money in politics and voice myriad other grievances.
Organizers had touted the rally, known as Occupy Congress, as the largest national gathering of Occupy protesters to date and secured a permit that would have allowed up to 10,000 people to participate. By mid-afternoon, the protest appeared to have fallen far short of those goals.  [One wonders if Democrat National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz thinks this is a peaceful protest?]
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Drudge Report reveals: In a major step towards global centralization of election processes, the world's dominant Internet voting company has purchased the USA's dominant election results reporting company. 
These two independent sources, however, will now be merged into one single source: an Internet voting system controlled by SCYTL, with a results reporting system also controlled by SCYTL.

With SCYTL internet voting, there will be no ballots. No physical evidence. No chain of custody. No way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes, chain of custody, or the count.  http://drudgereport.com/flash1.htm
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Real Clear Politics: Ed Henry, FOX News: "I don't know how many years, maybe you do, George Romney released of his college transcripts, but Republicans like to complain that the President has not released his college transcripts. What is the stated reason for that?"
Jay Carney, White House: "I would refer you to the campaign. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/17/carney_dodges_question_about_obamas_college_transcripts_i_would_refer_you_to_the_campaign.html
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CBS News reports: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel. Lately, there have been reports of growing rat infestations around the Occupy DC protests at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square.
Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a “wildlife rehabilitator” as part of their relocation process.
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Wall St. Journal reports: Occupy Wall Street—the movement built on protesting corporate greed and income inequality—is running out of money.
After raising more than $700,000 last fall, protesters who keep track of money for Occupy Wall Street reported this week that the group has about $170,000 in its bank account. Very few donations are coming in, they said.
"If we keep spending at the rate at which we have been doing, we will probably go broke in a month," said Haywood Carey, 28 years old, a member of the movement's accounting group. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577165423192946892.html
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National Review reports: On Michelle’s birthday no less.

The Secret Service was responding Tuesday night to an escalating protest that may have involved one or more smoke bombs being thrown over the White House fence.
An estimated 1,000 protesters have gathered. No arrests have been made, but authorities are on alert.

The Secret Service also deployed a robot to check out the devices on the North Lawn. No one is currently allowed to leave through the North Gate, but those with the right access can go through the White House and leave through the South Gate.The Obamas were at dinner celebrating Michelle Obama’s birthday, but they have since returned to the White House without difficulty.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288400/remember-when-tea-party-threw-smoke-bombs-white-house-jonah-goldberg
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Gingrich hits a home run on jobs; Australia says immigrants, not Australians, must adapt; Obama to raise debt limit again, while Congress in recess?; Some N. Koreans to labor-training camp; AZ ruling against immigration law probably unconstitutional; Rep. Allen West would consider VP position; Obama's appearance on Illinois primary ballot in question; Occupy to be taken over by Democratic Socialists of America; Occupy DC won't leave park; 84% of us disapprove of Congress actions; A sense of victimhood - or a way to lift us up?; SEIU looking for a community organizer on their payroll

Daily Caller reports: Asked by debate co-moderator Juan Williams whether he could understand why his comments that “black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps” and that “poor kids lack a strong work ethnic” and perhaps should “work as janitors in their schools” were insulting to Americans — especially African-Americans — Gingrich dismissed the notion out of hand.
“No, I don’t see that,” he said bluntly to wild applause.
“New York City pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. You could take one janitor and hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out,” the former House Speaker said.
“They would actually have money in their pocket. They would learn to show up for work. They could do light janitorial duty. They could work in the cafeteria. They could work in the front-office. They could work in the library. They would be getting money which is a good thing if you’re poor. Only the elites despise earning money.”
Williams followed up by asking Gingrich to respond to emails that suggested Gingrich intended to “belittle the poor and racial minorities” with his words.
“Well, first of all, Juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history,” Gingrich responded to more cheers.
“Now, I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable. Second, you’re the one who earlier raised a key point: The area that ought to be I-73 was called by Barack Obama a corridor of shame because of unemployment. Has it improved in three years?  No. They haven’t built a road, they haven’t helped the people, they haven’t done anything.”
“So here’s my point,” he concluded. “I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness. And if that makes liberals unhappy, I am going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn some day to own the job.”
The crowd again erupted, rewarding what sounded more like a sermon than a debate answer with what pollster Frank Luntz later said was the first standing ovation he had ever witnessed during a presidential debate.
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Silents Speech reports: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the  government targeted radicals in a bid to head off  potential terror attacks.
Separately, Gillard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying she supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques.
Quote:   ‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT.  Take It Or Leave It.
“I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.  ‘This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom’   We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish,  Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of  our society . Learn the language!’ http://silentsspeech.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/australian-prime-minister-does-it-again/
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Powerline reports: Pursuant to the Budget Control Act, brought to you by the GOP leadership’s sellout, Obama notified Congress yesterday that the federal debt is approaching the statutory ceiling of $15.194 trillion. [The actual total debt is already $15.237 trillion, but a small amount is not subject to the limit.]  As such, he is calling on Congress to grant him another $1.2 trillion in debt, conveniently enough to last him until after the election, with the possibility of saddling his successor with a tough decision over yet another debt limit increase.  It is really more of a notification than a request.  Obama will automatically receive his $1.2 trillion supercharged credit card unless two-thirds of Congress votes to disapprove of the request within 15 days.
In just three years, he has accrued $4.6 trillion in debt, more than Bush amassed during his entire eight-year tenure.  Now he will add another $1.2 trillion by the end of his first term, and, thanks to the horrendous budget deal, which was cheered on by the same outlets that are now fawning over Mitt Romney, there’s nothing we can do about it.
But here’s the question: If Congress is in recess and cannot fulfill its responsibility to advice and consent, as the President has suggested, how can Obama fulfill his obligation of submitting a certification to Congress?

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/01/we-must-be-really-really-stupid.php
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Personal Liberty writes: An unidentified source told Daily NK:
The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.
Immediately after the mourning was allowed to stop, North Korean officials reportedly began conducting “criticism sessions” at all levels of industry, in enterprises and by local people’s units to find out who didn’t mourn enough. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/north-koreans-still-crying/?eiid=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Examiner.com writes: In a stunning development that could potentially send the nation into a Constitutional crisis, an astute attorney who is well-versed in Constitutional law states that the ruling against the state of Arizona by Judge Susan Bolton concerning its new immigration law is illegal .
"Does anyone read the U.S. Constitution these days? American lawyers don’t read it. Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton apparently has never read it. Same goes for our illustrious Attorney General Eric Holder. But this lawyer has read it and she is going to show you something in Our Constitution which is as plain as the nose on your face.
"Article III, Sec. 2, clause 2 says:
"In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction."
In other words, the Judge in the Arizona case has absolutely no Constitutional jurisdiction over the matter upon which she ruled.  As the Constitution makes abundantly clear, only the U.S. Supreme Court can issue rulings that involve a state.
This means that neither Judge Bolton nor the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, to which the case is being appealed, have any legal standing whatsoever to rule on the issue.
Thus, U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder filed the federal government's lawsuit against the state of Arizona in a court that has no authority to hear the case.
In a related development, another explosive discovery was made by those who actually take the Constitution seriously.  The Constitution specifically allows an individual state to wage war against a neighboring country in the event of an invasion, should there be a dangerous delay or inaction on the part of the federal government.  This information was cited by United Patriots of America.
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Palm Beach Post reports: No town hall meeting or constituent confab with freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, feels complete until an audience member asks the tea party celebrity if he'd consider being the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee.
"I've always said that that's something I'd have to pray about, I'd have to talk to my family about, make sure we make the right decision," West began. "But if someone asks you to step up and serve your country, I'm not going to turn my back on my country."
West added: "I'm not going to say no, but I doubt that I'm on anyone's list for consideration." http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/u-s-rep-allen-west-wont-turn-my-2103679.html?printArticle=y
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Defend the vote reports: In Illinois we have the craziest election system.  Reputed to be the most corrupt, Illinois does not have any oversight or audit of the early vote.  In the smaller counties using optical scan systems, this is problematic but not as consequential as in Chicago and Cook County. In both election jurisdictions they vote electronically with an electronic ballot system that has never been audited; both in terms of the actual vote count and of the software recording the vote. 18% of the vote in Illinois NEVER sees the light of day. 
Ten days ago we pulled petitions for various presidential and delegate candidates running for office in Illinois.  The original purpose was to investigate voter registration fraud. This investigation continues.
On Friday. January. 2012, I requested 60 petitions of these candidates.  Each petition is placed on a single CD. 59 CD’s were correct.  The one for Barack Obama was blank.  Naturally on Saturday morning, we quickly appealed to the Board of Elections, requesting the petition be sent immediately. 
Upon inspecting the petitions, it was quickly discovered that Mr. Obama’s ballot application had significant errors.  Frankly, we were astounded to see how sloppy it was; missing notary signatures, missing pages, and with slews of unregistered voters.
  As a result, three of us have decided to challenge Mr. Obama's petitions.  What does this mean? It means we do not believe he has the 3000 good signatures required by Illinois law to get on the ballot.  If we prevail, Mr, Obama will not appear on the ballot in the Primary election.  I don't know what the ramifications are for the General election in November.  http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dc7e34c0cb16d56936e2a2607&id=b77333fb7a&e=3e3215dfa5
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Daily Caller reports: Occupy DC Is Not Leaving McPherson Square, Will Not Cave to Mayor Gray’s Political Posturing
[This is the same park whose signs and tents I photographed while recently in D.C.  The peaceful, organized encampment I saw, I have learned, followed their injury of a police officer, and now they refuse to leave - thinking they alone have the right to make the laws.  I should have known it was too good to be true, their mid-afternoon calm.]
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/16/occupy-dc-wont-be-driven-from-their-filthy-rat-infested-encampments-you-fascists/#ixzz1jilUucqg
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Washington Post reports: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a new high — 84 percent of Americans — disapproving of the job Congress is doing, with almost two-thirds saying they “disapprove strongly.” Just 13 percent of Americans approve of how things are going after the 112th Congress’s first year of action, solidifying an unprecedented level of public disgust that has both sides worried about their positions less than 10 months before voters decide their fates. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/84-percent-of-americans-disapprove-of-the-job-congress-is-doing-poll-finds/2012/01/11/gIQAhQVr3P_story.html
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The great Thomas Sowell explains to us: Gross inequalities in skills and achievements have been the rule, not the exception, on every inhabited continent and for centuries on end. Yet our laws and government policies act as if any significant statistical difference between racial or ethnic groups in employment or income can only be a result of their being treated differently by others.
Nor is this simply an opinion. Businesses have been sued by the government when the representation of different groups among their employees differs substantially from their proportions in the population at large. But, no matter how the human race is broken down into its components -- whether by race, sex, geographic region or whatever -- glaring disparities in achievements have been the rule, not the exception.
Higher achieving groups -- whether classes, races or whatever -- are often blamed for the failure of other groups to achieve. Politicians and intellectuals, especially, tend to conceive of social questions in terms that allow them to take on the role of being on the side of the angels against the forces of evil.
This can be a huge disservice to those individuals and groups who are lagging behind, for it leads them to focus on a sense of grievance and victimhood, rather than on how they can lift themselves up instead of trying to pull other people down.
Again, this is a worldwide phenomenon -- a sad commentary on the down side of the brotherhood of man. http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/01/17/an_ignored_disparity/page/full/
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Washington Examiner writes: Something questionable is going on when a state chapter of the Service Employees International Union advertises on the SEIU national website a "Lead Internal Organizer/Home Care (LiA)" position paying up to $65,000 a year for somebody with the following qualifications:
• Train and lead members in non-violent civil disobedience, such as occupying state buildings and banks, and peaceful resistance.
• Plan and execute strategic direct action field plans including banner drops, bank takeovers, and capitol occupations with membership, other local unions, and coalition partners.
• Execute field plans for special campaigns including contract campaigns, ballot initiatives, COPE contributions, general membership growth and the broader campaign to fight for a fair economy.
(For those not familiar with SEIU nomenclature, "COPE" stands for Committee on Political Education, which the national union describes as the "300,000 SEIU members, staff and retirees who contribute an average of $7 a month." That at least explains the source of some $25.2 million of SEIU's beaucoup campaign money for Democrats.)
According to the SEIU ad, the person hired for this position would be responsible for leading an eight-member team whose work focuses on building "networks to take action in a variety of campaigns. The LiA team does not handle traditional representational duties, such as contract enforcement or bargaining." In other words, this person will head one of many similar teams doing work that has nothing to do with anything traditionally associated with labor unions like bargaining on behalf of employees.
No, what SEIU is looking for is somebody who has no qualms about joining with other union-trained cadres and like-minded people from other organizations to invade government buildings such as state buildings and private banks --
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/01/bored-union-organizing-seiu-gears-thuggery/2102236#ixzz1jirCDL9z
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Monday, January 16, 2012

Romneycare receives setback from court; France downgraded as well as socialism; UN peacekeepers take cholera to Haiti; Government's financial reporting is abysmal; Devout Muslim now on Homeland Security Advisory Committee; Department of Defense smart cards compromised; Dolphins to seek Iranian mines in Strait of Hormuz; We need to spend more to help immigrants assimilate; Obama's foreign policies put us in danger; U.S. continues downward in Economic Index of Freedom; Health and Human Services Secretary obstruct investigation and then destroy evidence, when governor; The government we have is not the government we need

Townhall Finance reports: One of the ways Massachusetts officials have tried to temper RomneyCare’s cost overruns was by denying participation to legal immigrants. Last week, the Commonwealth’s highest court ruled that restriction violates the Massachusetts Constitution:
Massachusetts cannot bar legal immigrants from a state health care program, according to a ruling issued Thursday by the state’s highest court…
The ruling said that a 2009 state budget that dropped about 29,000 legal immigrants who had lived in the United States for less than five years from Commonwealth Care, a subsidized health insurance program central to this state’s 2006 health care overhaul, violated the State Constitution.
“This appropriation discriminated on the basis of alienage and national origin,” wrote Justice Robert J. Cordy of the Supreme Judicial Court, ruling that the action “violates their rights to equal protection under the Massachusetts Constitution.”…
State officials say they will abide by the decision, although they are not yet sure how to pay for the change.
“This decision has significant fiscal impacts for the commonwealth, adding somewhere in the range of $150 million in annual costs to what is already a very challenging budget,” said Jay Gonzalez, secretary of administration and finance.
No doubt their “pay for” will involve another unpopular minority.
Former Romney/Obama advisor Jonathan Gruber has written that RomneyCare  was already costing the state $50 billion more than projected by 2009.  Of course, supporters have been hiding RomneyCare’s costs (and exaggerating its benefits) all along. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelfcannon/2012/01/15/romneycare_just_got_150_million_more_expensive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human Events writes: Well, it’s finally happened. Once again, socialism has put a silver fork in itself. Standard & Poor​’s has downgraded France’s AAA credit rating, giving the country side-eye on claims to have its debt under control. This means the country will now have to pay it all back at an even higher interest rate. 

Who are we kidding? No one’s paying back any debts right now. You need money to do that. When was the last time France had any extra cash lying around? It’s like raising the interest rate on the credit card of a smack addict whose pumping his capital into his veins faster than any German, Chinese, or Russian can slip him a tenner.

No amount of hot air and spin could ultimately keep socialism afloat. It’s a good lesson for those in America and other parts of the world who think that Europe is in any way an exemplary, sustainable alternative to free-market limited government capitalism. If capitalism is perceived to not be working in America -- as the Occupy Wall Street movement has argued -- then it’s because the system isn’t capitalist enough. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48802
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Yahoo News reports: Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time.
The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 -- two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base. [Unintended consequences of doing "good"] http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-un-soldiers-brought-deadly-superbug-americas-194141189--abc-news.html
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Washington Times reports: The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual audit of federal agency financial statements, 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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World Net Daily reports: Homeland Security is on the hot seat. Back in October 2010, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano named the devout Muslim Mohamed Elibiary to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. The Texas Department of Public Safety now says that Elibiary may have been allowed to gain access to a highly sensitive database of intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of the material he found in that database to a media outlet for a story about “Islamophobia” in the Public Safety Department.
Who else is the devout Elibiary shopping sensitive intel to? Mohamed Elibiary was one of the speakers at a December 2004 conference in Dallas entitled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary,” that is, the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran and the violent Muslim global revolution to install a universal Islamic government. When Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News challenged him about his appearance at this conference, Elibiary threatened Dreher, writing: “Expect someone to put a banana in your exhaust pipe.” I warned about Elibiary’s appointment back in 2010.
It is bad enough that Napolitano appointed Elibiary to the Homeland Security Advisory Council in the first place, but it gets even worse. When questioned last week by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, at the U.S. Immigration and Enforcement hearings, Big Sis, Janet Napolitano (with the most disturbing hairdo and hair color that I have ever seen), admitted that she has been giving secret clearance to Muslim Brotherhood-tied operatives here in the U.S. http://www.wnd.com/2011/11/362889/
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The UK Register writes: A new strain of the Sykipot Trojan is been used to compromise the Department of Defense-sanctioned smart cards used to authorise network and building access at many US government agencies, according to security researchers.
Smart cards are a standard means of granting active duty military staff, selected reserve personnel, civilian employees and eligible contractors access to intranets at US Army, Navy and the Air Force facilities. They can be used to get into buildings or, when used in conjunction with a static password, to access networks.
Chinese hackers have adapted the Sykipot Trojan to lift card credentials from compromised systems in order to access classified military networks, according to researchers at security tools firm AlienVault. An adapted version of the Trojan targets PCs attached to smart card readers running ActivClient, the client application of ActivIdentity, in what's been described as a 'smart card proxy' attack. [And if we believe that our proposed internet identities, forced by government, would be secure - we are fools.] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/13/sykipot_trojan_dod_smart_card_attack/
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The Atlantic Wire reports: If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy has a backup plan to save one-fifth of the world's daily oil trade: send in the dolphins. 
The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, “The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines.” To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/01/militarys-weapon-against-iranian-mines-high-tech-dolphins/47384/
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National Review writes: The U.S. is not spending enough on helping immigrants to assimilate, argues a USC professor in the New York Times. We should redirect “the billions of dollars spent on border enforcement” to the education budget, both to federal student loans and to community and four-year state colleges, says public-policy professor Dowell Myers.
Myers projects that by 2030, 18 percent of second-generation Hispanic students will have a college degree. He apparently means that as good news; in fact it is a sign of how slowly progress between the generations is occurring, since the Hispanic graduation rate in California was 10 percent in 2006. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288133/stingy-immigrants-heather-mac-donald
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American Thinker opines: Shakespeare's Mark Antony beseeched his countrymen to "lend me your ears."  Is it time to ask Americans to lend their eyes to see how President Obama's foreign policies have endangered our country?
1. Failure to Support Iranian Democracy Protesters:  
2. The Nuclear Countdown:
3. Turkey -- Ally or Enemy?
4. Russian "Reset":

Obama promised to "reset" relations with Russia.  The effect to date is all gain for Russia, all loss for the U.S.  Obama quickly reneged on a U.S. missile defense agreement with democratic Poland and the Czech Republic, thereby indicating that no friendly country can rely on the U.S.  Russia responded to Obama's unilateral magnanimity by, e.g., refusing to compromise on missile defense in Europe or strategic arms reductions, as well as by continuing  aggression against tiny Georgia.  Obama seems determined to further reward Russia with unilateral strategic arms reductions (the only known college or law school paper by Obama advocates shedding all nuclear weapons) and pulling U.S. troops from Europe.  It is not possible to identify any advantage to the U.S. in the "reset" with Russia.
5. Fading of the Arab Spring: 

Obama's policies have facilitated the ascendancy of hard-line Islamist political power throughout the Mideast.
6. Israel-Palestinians:
7. Will Our Armed Forces Be Adequate to Protect Us

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Washington Examiner writes: Every year that Barack Obama has occupied the Oval Office, the United States has fallen lower in the Economic Index of Freedom compiled annually by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. America was fifth in the ranking in 2008 (surpassed only by Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland and Australia), then dropped to sixth in 2009, eighth in 2010, ninth last year, and now 10th. The index measures, according to its authors, 10 categories of economic freedom: labor, business, trade, fiscal responsibility, government spending, monetary policy, investment, financial regulation, property rights, and absence of corruption. Scores in these categories are averaged to create an overall score for each of all 184 nations.
But increased federal spending never happens in a vacuum. It is invariably accompanied by more bureaucratic regulation. This has especially been true under Obama, whose administration has added at least 46 major new regulations, which are estimated to impose at least $100 million in added compliance costs on private-sector businesses. As Heritage's Ed Feulner observed, "Each new edict means a new government bureaucracy that individuals and businesses must navigate. Each new law opens the door for political graft and cronyism."
At the root of the spending and regulatory explosion under Obama -- and the resulting decline in U.S. economic freedom -- is his obvious disdain for the Constitution's limits on executive branch power.
What there hasn't been is anything like a demonstration of resolve in Congress to stand up to Obama and force his compliance with the Constitution. There is only one way to do that on appointments and that is to withdraw funding for any action taken by the appointees in question.
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The New American opines: A state Governor and her appointees obstruct an investigation into repeated coverups of child rape. When they find they can no longer stave off the inevitable, they destroy the evidence. Along the way they try to have the prosecutor disbarred. The Governor later becomes a member of the President’s Cabinet. These are the makings of a major scandal that should be plastered across the front page of every newspaper in America. Instead, hardly anyone has heard of it. Why?

The answer is twofold. First, the former Governor is current Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Second, her administration’s actions were undertaken in an effort to protect the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. One needn’t be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why the mainstream media have chosen to ignore the story. http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/10274-as-kansas-governor-sebelius-destroyed-evidence-to-protect-planned-parenthood
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Bloomberg writes: President Obama: “The government we have is not the government that we need,” Obama said yesterday at the White House. “Our economy has fundamentally changed — as has the world — but our government, our agencies, have not.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-13/obama-will-seek-authority-to-merge-agencies-in-effort-to-shrink-government.html
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