Top 2010 Quotes

In no particular order, here are Eleven Amazing Quotes of Note for 2010: 

1)Nancy Pelosi: "We have to pass this health care bill in order to see what is in it." This goes along with one politician saying that of course he would not be reading the bill prior to voting on it! There was another who said concerning the part of the Constitution which allows the passage of the bill: I'm not worried about the Constitution." [What a terrific example of the Progressive agenda this was!]

2 )Barack Obama: "I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”  [I'm sure he is one of those who do not like entrepreneurship or the jobs those entrepreneurs provide.]

3) Barack Obama: "Latinos should “punish” their “enemies” at the polls." [This is just one more example of Obama's division of Americans into those of whom he approves and those who bring him displeasure.  A more divisive President I have never seen.]

4) Barack Obama: "We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come along for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.” [But don't we dare call this President a racist!]


5) Barack Obama at his press conference about the "deal" he was promoting during the Lame Duck Session (on the Bush Tax Cuts): "It's tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers unless the hostage gets harmed."  In this case, the hostage was the American people.

6) In November, while speaking at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Mr. Obama was trying to stress the similarity of the U.S. and Indonesia and said "it is a story written into our national mottos."
"In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum — out of many, one," he said, then compared it to the Indonesian motto, "Bhennika Tunggal Ika — unity in diversity."

Members of Congress had to call on President Obama to issue a public correction after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the U.S.'s motto in a speech last month, rather than "In God We Trust."
The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said the president was making "a pattern" of dropping the word "Creator" when he recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.
"By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent - you are casting aside an integral part of American society," the representatives said in a stern letter asking for him to correct the speech.

7) Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore: "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.
"First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.   
One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president." 

As the news item of the day said: U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits were up for renewal on Dec. 31.  [And, of course, the Republicans caved in for the sake of convenience, as well as to not look like obstructionists, by ignoring the evidence by Mr. Global Warming himself.  They passed the extension of ethanol subsidies.]

8) [One year ago] In his 2010 State of the Union address, Obama said: "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected, but all other discretionary government programs will."

9) "Small businesses produce most of the new jobs in this country"

— Barack Obama during signing a new small business assistance package in the East Room / September 27, 2010  [It is therefore interesting that in practice, he works on producing more government jobs as the answer to high unemployment, while admitting that the Bush tax cuts must be preserved because raising taxes would be bad for the economy and job creation.]

10. Nancy Pelosi, on Unemployment Compensation: "If you want to create jobs, the quickest way to do it is to provide more funding for food stamps and have unemployment insurance for people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own...It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance."

11. In my speech, said Janet Napolitano of the National Security Agency,  "although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters."  And - Illegal aliens are now being called undocumented immigrants.

12.On April 15, 2010: Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, President Obama touted his administration’s tax cuts and said that the recent tea party rallies across the nation have “amused” him. “You would think they should be saying thank you,” the president said to applause. [It is clear that Obama thinks of himself as a comedian - and he totally misunderestimated the Tea Party power.]

I now begin my list for 2011, and I am sure there will be plenty from which to choose!  Happy New Year one and all!  And thank you for being here!

 

A Letter to Discovery Channel; National Emergency Powers of Our President; FCC Powers; Federal Debt Powers; New Unconfirmed Appointee to Department of Justice; We Pay Lawyers for Illegal Criminals; Unwarranted Searches in Florida

One of my readers wrote a wonderful message to Discovery Channel, sent to http://corporate.discovery.com/contact/viewer-relations.  Those words follow:

I am very troubled by the planned programming of "The 99" which, in my opinion, glorifies Islam and indoctrinates our children in stealth fashion to Islamic “values” with the use of comic strip characters.  I have reviewed your current Discovery for Kids programming and see no other shows approaching the topic of religion.  Any religion.  If this new program is meant to teach tolerance of Islam within America’s Judeo-Christian culture, then it is fair to expect that Discovery for Kids will create additional shows which glorify the Judeo-Christian (and perhaps other) religions to teach tolerance of these within the Islamic culture.  After all, aren’t radical Muslims the ones who believe that all infidels (i.e., those who do not believe in Islam) should be killed in the name of Allah?  But I imagine this will be left out of your show.

As if the proposed content of “The 99” were not controversial enough, the names you have chosen for your comic strip characters are absolutely denigrating to Americans…  While your Muslim characters' names (Jabbar the Powerful and Widad the Loving) are positive and alluring, your American character's name (Darr The Afflicter) is both negative and disagreeable.  What sort of message is this sending to our young, impressionable children about America and being American?   Or perhaps this is part of the plan towards indoctrination…  Make them feel so bad about their country and themselves that they convert to a more “peaceful” and “tolerant” society. Rubbish!

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Newsbusters reveals: "Of course, a lot of noise was made about the Islamic Center, mosque, down near the World Trade Center, but I think there wasn't enough sort of careful analysis and evaluation of where this bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, and how this seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims, which I think is so misdirected, and so wrong -- and so disappointing."

She really winced on that last word. When comedian Mo Rocca said he went to "really fancy schools" and "I cannot tell you five things about Islam," Couric shot back "Maybe we need a Muslim version of The Cosby Show."  [Katie, there WAS a show on tv about an American Muslim family - one full season of 24 - a sleeper cell family who lied as their religion taught them to in order to fit in and be ready when "the call" came through to aid in the destruction of America.  While we can assume that this family was not the typical Muslim family in America, either Muslims here refuse to stand up and shout that radical Islam is an abomination - or radical Islam is such an abomination that the good Muslims fear for their lives for condemning those terrorists and for standing up for their religion of "peace".  While most families in America and Europe are reducing their rates of childbirth, Muslims families continue to have about 8 children each, just waiting for the day when their numbers are large enough to change the politics of America and Europe in ways we will regret.]

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/12/30/katie-couric-maybe-we-need-muslim-version-cosby-show#ixzz19daqotMp

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American Thinker writes about Barack Obama: By way of executive proclamation, President Obama has secured for himself the power to declare martial law in the event of a national "emergency," real or contrived, and without the accountability typically required by the Posse Comitatus Act and the Nation Emergencies Act of 1976. 

This is the legacy of the "conservative" Bush administration.  National emergencies have now been transformed into power-grabbing devices thanks to the virtually unnoticed National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51. 

NSPD 51 empowers the president to co-opt all state and local government authority in the event that he declares a national emergency.  This is a self-declared power not subjugated to the National Emergencies Act of 1976 as in previous directives.

President Obama quickly went beyond NSPD 51, signing an order creating a "Council of Governors" who would be put in charge of declaring martial law.  The directive is in direct violation of Posse Comitatus and the Insurrection Act.  This "Council of Governors" answers only to President Obama.

In October of last year, President Obama declared a national emergency in the midst of the much-hyped swine flu crisis.  This declaration was largely overlooked.  By combining his October declaration with the provisions of NSPD 51, President Obama [and any future President] can now be considered virtually uninhibited by Congress and free to flip the switch at any moment.  http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/feed_me_obama_feed_me_the_plan.html

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The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 21% of Likely U.S. Voters want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet as it does radio and television. Fifty-four percent (54%) are opposed to such regulation, and 25% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
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(CNSNews.com) - The federal government has accumulated more new debt--$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.
That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census. [Now can we finally stop hearing about the Bush debts?] http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/111th-congress-added-more-debt-first-100   
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Newsbusters writes: All right, this president sure knows how to pick them. The Anointed One's nominee to be the number two at the Department of Justice thinks that 9/11 is similar to any other domestic crime. In a 2002 article James Cole wrote, quote, "Our country has faced many forms of devastating crime including countless acts of rape, child abuse and murder. The acts of September 11th were horrible, but so are these other things."
Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/12/30/who-james-cole-whys-he-so-blase-about-911#ixzz19cIegxTQ
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Impeach Obama writes: Shy of her first anniversary on the federal bench, an Obama-appointed judge known for promoting “racial tolerance” has ordered U.S. taxpayers to provide criminally convicted immigrants with “diminished mental capacities” lawyers to fight deportation.
The ruling is believed to be the first ordering government-financed legal representation in an immigration case. Foreign nationals embroiled in deportation proceedings must pay for their own attorney, unlike criminal defendants who get court-appointed lawyers—financed by American taxpayers—as part of due process when they can’t afford it. http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/obama-appointed-judge-u-s-must-give-convicts-lawyers-to-fight-deportation/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=263ed1ef5f-EO_12_30_201012_30_2010&utm_medium=email

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WTSP writes: Florida is among several states now holding what are called "no refusal" checkpoints.
It means if you refuse a breath test during a traffic stop, a judge is on site, and issues a warrant that allows police to perform a mandatory blood test.
It's already being done in several counties, and now Unfried is working to bring it to the Tampa Bay area.
Supporters, though, say you could see the "no refusal" checkpoints in the Bay area by October.
"We don't want to violate people's civil rights. That's the last thing we want to do, but we're here to save lives," Unfried said.
She adds that this type of checkpoint would be heavily advertised, with the goal of deterring any drunk driving.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has recently said he wants to see more states hold similar programs. http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/story.aspx?storyid=165079&catid=250
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Discover Channel contact/viewer relations

http://corporate.discovery.com/contact/viewer-relations/

Muslim "99" Project; Food Control; US Food Sovereignty to the World Trade Organization;

On left are Muslims on Madison Avenue in NYC -
I repeat this news from http://www.coachisright.com/islamic-%E2%80%9Cvalues%E2%80%9D-are-seeping-into-charter-schools-and-via-the-discovery-channel-and-gulen-movement/#  Our school children are facing Muslim indoctrination with “The 99″ project which is set to air in January with a 13 episode series on the Discovery Channel for Kids. President Obama praised this media event for capturing young imaginations by “teaching tolerance for Islam” at his recent Washington, D.C. Presidential Summit speech.
This new series is using animated adventure heroes to depict the 99 attributes of Allah in what the London Times (1) is saying “the show’s mission is to instill old fashioned Islamic values” into our Christian children.
Kathy Bright of the Bright Media network has developed (2) The Shield Bearer project to counter the Islamization of our children by using new God centered action heroes. “The 99″ project describes two Muslim heroes as Jabbar The Powerful: from Saudi Arabia and Widad The Loving: from the Philippines, while calling Darr The Afflicter: the United States role model.
[Here is a note I have sent to Discovery Channel: "I have learned that you are doing a special series for children to indoctrinate them in the wonderful ways of Muslims and Islam. I ask when you will be doing the same for Christians and Jews.....  Couching information about any group of people in an animated venue is a stealth way of reaching children.  In this case, I imagine you will be omitting the truth concerning the danger which radical Muslim terrorists present to the entire world.  Do you plan to speak of the radicals who believe ALL infidels (unbelievers) should be dead, with the killing of each infidel as honoring Allah?"]   Perhaps some of you can join me in my protest.....

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American Thinker continues: The greatest tyrants in history have used food as a method of control.  To state the obvious, people must eat to live.  By controlling the flow of food to people who side with the political intelligentsia, rule is established.  People may challenge tyranny when they have meat on the table.  But who in their right mind would bite the hands of their benefactors (so called)?

Meet the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a new legislative proposal designed to centralize control over food stocks to protect Americans from "terror."

The motive may indeed be to protect the food supply from the actions of terrorists, but what about acts of government terror?

Usually when people ask for power, it is because they want power, regardless of the stated motive.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/feed_me_obama_feed_me_the_plan.html  

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And more from American Thinker: The FSMA doesn't merely wrest control of the food supply from citizens.  Dangerously, the FSMA proceeds to transfer U.S. food sovereignty to the WTO, with one provision reading, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the U.S. is a party."  This provision is significant, since the WTO draws all its food safety standards from the controversial Codex Alimentarius, which is thought by some to be a vast postwar scheme to control the world's population by means of food.  The bottom line vis-à-vis food is that Americans lose control, and foreign bureaucrats gain control.

President Obama is willing to shut off the water in a small town in the heart of America's agricultural center.  
Might he be willing to stop shipments of food to politically opposed states? http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/feed_me_obama_feed_me_the_plan.html   [Oh, you can't believe that?  Yes, it is true, and tens of thousands of farmers are now out of the business of farming, for without water, what can they do? Those who won't inform themselves always believe I am making this up.....  see below -

"Endangered Farms: World hunger hits 1 billion. Yet, Fresno, California farmers are denied water in order to preserve the rights of a small endangered fish. Their farms are dying.

At least 45,000 jobs have been lost in the area, a pro-Democrat community that has been ignored by the Administration. Few seem to care about their pleas – let alone they food they once produced." http://rightsradio.com/world-hunger-tops-billion-but-fresno-farms-denied-water-to-protect-endangered-minnow/

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Wind Turbines; Unequiped Coal-fired Power; Upton's Energy & Commerce Powers; Human Excrement as Fertilizer; China's Environmental Damage

(Please note that at the bottom of each blog is the symbol "M", to be used to email this material on to others.)

The UK Daily Mail writes: How much electricity do Britain’s 3,150 wind ­turbines supply to the ­National Grid?  Yesterday afternoon, the figure was just 1.6 per cent, according to the official website of the wholesale electricity market.

Over the past three weeks, with demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing.
It gets better. As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate.
Even on a good day they rarely work above a quarter of their theoretical capacity. And in high winds they have to be switched off altogether to prevent damage.

To make matters worse, there is no way of storing the electricity generated on the rare occasions when they are working.
Yet the Government is ploughing ahead with plans to erect 12,500 of these War Of The Worlds windmills in the sea and across our green and pleasant. Some of them will be up to three times the size of the present structures.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342032/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-You-dont-need-weatherman-know-way-wind-blows.html#ixzz19PkVUeEN

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From the LA Times: BASTROP, Texas (AP) — Along a stretch of Highway 21, in a pastoral, hilly region of Texas, is a vegetative wasteland. Trees are barren, or covered in gray, dying foliage and peeling bark. Fallen, dead limbs litter the ground where pecan growers and ranchers have watched trees die slow, agonizing deaths.

Visible above the horizon is what many plant specialists, environmentalists and scientists believe to be the culprit: the Fayette Power Project — a coal-fired power plant for nearly 30 years has operated mostly without equipment designed to decrease emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain. [Wouldn't it seem prudent to use our government resources to aid in providing the equipment that decreases these emission, instead of using funds to create windmills and ethanol, both of which harm the food supply or the environment?  This speaks to aiding our environment while continuing to provide needed power.]  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-vegetative-wasteland,0,4272967.story
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National Journal reports: Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. is ready for battle.
The incoming Energy and Commerce chairman, who has accused the Environmental Protection Agency of impeding economic recovery with its new climate-change rules, aims to block the agency’s planned regulations, or at least delay them in Congress next year.
“The best solution is for Congress to overturn the EPA's proposed greenhouse gas regulations outright,” Upton argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (subscriber) that appeared today, written with Tim Phillips of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.
“If Democrats refuse to join Republicans in doing so, then they should at least join a sensible bipartisan compromise to mandate that the EPA delay its regulations until the courts complete their examination of the agency's endangerment finding and proposed rules," the op-ed said. http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/upton-lays-out-plan-to-block-epa-rules-20101228
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NineMSN.com writes: Shops selling human excrement began operating in North Korea this year, as acute shortages of fertiliser in the sanctions-wracked country put a price on faeces, an analyst said. Aid groups have said human waste has long been used on domestic crops in the impoverished communist state, but there is now a trade in the readily available commodity, a North Korea analyst told a seminar at a South Korean university. "Each household used to use human excrement as fertiliser. But because it's hard to keep up with the amount, 'human manure' shops showed up at markets,"

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8189544/n-korea-shop-found-selling-human-poo

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The UK Guardian writes: China's economic growth is inflicting more than a trillion yuan's worth of damage on its environment each year, according to a government report that increases pressure on planners to slow the breakneck speed of development. In one of the longest-term accountings of ecological degradation, the China academy for environmental planning calculated that the cost of pollution spills, deteriorating soil, vanishing wetlands, and other impacts surged to 1.3tr yuan (£130bn) in 2008. This was equivalent to 3.9% of the country's GDP. (Snip) The central government has increased efforts to clean up the nation's notoriously filthy air and contaminated water, but the report's authors – who are affiliated to the Ministry of Environmental Protection – say the cost of pollution spills and other environmental damage rose by more than 74.8% in the five years up to 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/28/china-130-bn-economic-growth

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TSA Failures; Gitmo's Necessity; Consequences of Directives to Doctors; Chris Asks for Obama's Birth Certificate; Loss of Healt Savings Accounts

News 10 reports: SACRAMENTO, CA - An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.
Update: Whistleblowing pilot explains why he did it
The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit.
He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.
Three days after he posted a series of six video clips recorded with a cell phone camera at San Francisco International Airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm. The pilot recorded that event as well and provided all the video to News10.

The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card.
"As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here," the pilot narrates.
Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. "I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter," the pilot remarked. http://www.news10.net/news/article.aspx?storyid=113529&provider=top&catid=188
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Commentary Magazine reports: The Obama administration now acknowledges what the rest of us already knew. You can’t close a facility housing stateless unlawful enemy combatants with a presidential signature. “The White House admitted Sunday it would be unable to shut Guantanamo Bay in the near future, even as it acknowledged the U.S. naval prison camp is a rallying cry for Islamic extremists,” the AFP reports. For a White House skilled in the art of dangerous mixed messages, this is a magnum opus. The damage is inflicted both at home and abroad. In total, incoherence triumphs. Amid accounts of  the Great Obama Comeback, let’s not lose sight of the enduring challenges created by the Great Obama Discombobulation. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/385072
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When the government will pay doctors for end of life instructions EVERY year, and will evaluate those same doctors on the kind of care they give, the procedures they order, and the fullness of their care (in order to chastise or praise them), isn't that the government promoting seniors and sick people, young and old, to give up the gift of life and step aside so that others can get the "rationed" care?  I think so, too.  But don't you dare call them Death Panels.  According to reports from the NYT, people were told to keep this latest directive quiet, away from media and bloggers, as long as possible in order to let the directive have its power.  I'm not comforted...... 
"Section 1233 of the bill passed by the House in November 2009 — but not included in the final legislation — allowed Medicare to pay for consultations about advance care planning every five years. In contrast, the new rule allows annual discussions as part of the wellness visit."  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/politics/26death.html
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Expose Obama reveals: Our school children are facing Muslim indoctrination with “The 99″ project which is set to air in January with a 13 episode series on the Discovery Channel for Kids. President Obama praised this media event for capturing young imaginations by “teaching tolerance for Islam” at his recent Washington, D.C. Presidential Summit speech.

This new series is using animated adventure heroes to depict the 99 attributes of Allah in what the London Times (1) is saying “the show’s mission is to instill old fashioned Islamic values” into our Christian children.... 
Another very troubling and similar trend is threatening to take over America’s charter school movement. “A secretive foreign network of Islamic radicals now operates dozens of charter schools which receive government money (3) but are not required to adopt a state approved curriculum” says reporter Stephen Schwartz…. http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/12/27/obama-praises-teaching-tolerance-for-islam-islamic-charter-schools/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=8d59ddcf79-EO_12_27_201012_27_2010&utm_medium=email
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Chris Matthews: "I don’t understand why the Governor doesn’t just say ’snap it up . . . send me a copy right now.’ And why doesn’t the President just say ’send me a copy right now.’ Why doesn’t Gibbs and Axelrod say ‘let’s just get this crappy story dead.’"  [Conservatives and those interested in the Constitution have always wanted to know the same thing, Chris - is he spending almost one million dollars to hide it because he IS illegitimate, or because he wants to keep having the issue with which to deride us? It seems important even to Chris Matthews that this President is legitimate now.  I have wondered if the birth certificate would show that Frank Marshall Davis is the father - but it has been mentioned in comments on another site this humorous possibility: it would show that he was originally a girl.  There does seem to have to be some reason...., doesn't there?   http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-matthews-why-doest-obama-say-send-me-a-copy-of-my-birth-certificate-right-now/
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The Boston Herald writes: Thanks to Obamacare, the one bright light in many people’s complicated and burdensome health-care spending plans is about to be taken away. That little bit of tax-free medical spending that some of us have enjoyed for years, the health savings plans and the pretax money they provided for over-the-counter remedies . . . cough syrup, saline solution and even toothpaste . . . now will require a doctor’s note. “It’s too bad,” said Kim Martin of Roxbury, shopping yesterday in the Egleston Square Walgreen’s, “because I really liked having a health spending plan.” http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1305789&srvc=home&position=emailed

Kathleen Sebelius's Power; Medicare Ruling for Yearly Advanced Planning for Death; Full Reading of Constitution on Floor of House; Legislation to Secure Our Borders

Powerline Blog points out: As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius is giving us a preview of coming attractions. Jeffrey Anderson explains:

Not satisfied with the colossal amounts of power that she would acquire under Obamacare if it isn't repealed, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued a 136-page "rule" that will now give her (and her subordinates) largely unchecked power to pass judgment on the prices of health insurance throughout the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that 43 states already regulate and approve health insurance premiums, Sebelius claims that we need an additional, more centralized, protection against insurers' unseemly "profit motive." But a far greater threat to the future of American republicanism is posed by the impulse that animates Sebelius and the bulk of the Obama administration: the power motive. It's staggering that one person would think that she should ultimately get to decide what a product, which Obamacare would soon require all Americans to purchase, should cost. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal writes that Sebelius's "rule" marks "an effort to end-run Congress, which by some miracle declined to give HHS the formal legal authority to explicitly block premium increases, despite a direct appeal from President Obama." Not having been granted that formal power, "Ms. Sebelius is creating by regulatory fiat larger de facto powers to achieve the same end."

The linked Wall Street Journal editorial concludes: "Politicized rate-setting is the new reality of the U.S. health insurance market, not that consumers will in any way benefit." http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/12/027993.php
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Newsmax reveals: On December 3rd, the Obama administration seemingly flouted the will of Congress by issuing a new Medicare regulation detailing -- "voluntary advance care planning" that is to be included during patients' annual checkups. The regulation aimed at the aged "may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment," The New York Times reported.

The new provision goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011 and allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. Critics say it is another attempt to limit healthcare options for the elderly as they face serious illness.

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner said during the healthcare debate that, “This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.”

Specifically, the measure was known as Section 1233 of the bill passed by the House in November 2009. It was not included in the final legislation, however. It allowed Medicare to pay for consultations about advance care planning every five years. In contrast, the new rule allows annual discussions as part of the wellness visit.

Read more:  Obama Embraces 'Death Panel' Concept in Medicare Rule  [This is just one more example of Obama's new way to govern withouth being restrained by our Constitution and by Congress: his Czara and Departments will make the laws, whether we like it our not.  Watch for more.]  http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/obama-death-panels-medicare/2010/12/26/id/381043?s=al&promo_code=B5BE-1

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The Washington Times writes: The Constitution frequently gets lip service in Congress, but House Republicans next year will make sure it gets a lot more than that - the new rules the incoming majority party proposed this week call for a full reading of the country's founding document on the floor of the House on Jan. 6.
The goal, backers said, is to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress - and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.  [One wonders if this will inspire Congress to undo the work of the EPA, The Sec't of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Interior and the President's Executive Orders, etc.]  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/23/we-the-people-to-open-next-congress/
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The LA Times writes: When Republican lawmakers take over the House and gain strength in the Senate after the new year, a decadelong drive to overhaul the immigration system and legalize some of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants seems all but certain to come to a halt. When New York Republican Peter T. King takes over the House Homeland Security Committee in January, he plans to propose legislation to reverse what he calls an "obvious lack of urgency" by the Obama administration to secure the border. 
As his first order of business, Smith plans to hold hearings about workplace enforcement and expanding the employee identification program, E-Verify, which is set to expire in 2012.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immigration-20101227,0,1495981.story
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The Hill writes: President Obama will spend more time outside of Washington, D.C. next year engaging with the public, according to a top White House adviser and close friend of the president. One year before Obama faces reelection, he is expected to make a greater effort to connect with potential voters after facing charges being too aloof during his first two years in the Oval Office. The president's "biggest regret" was that because of economic turmoil, "He had to spend almost every waking hour in Washington working on solving that crisis," senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said. [I am laughing out loud!  Here is a President who knows only  how to run a campaign for his reelection - who took around 8 vacations- denigrated and made fun of the great mass of conservative Americans- wanting to spend more time with Americans. This ought to be good.  Oh - that's right!  He won't be spending his time with the "unwashed masses", most likely.] http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/135115-jarrett-obama-to-spend-more-time-outside-of-dc-in-2011
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The Washington Examiner writes: Who's doing the most to hobble the productive power of the U.S. economy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson or Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar? President Obama's top two Cabinet appointees on environmental issues are running neck and neck in their race to see who can issue the most job-killing, growth-suffocating bureaucratic edicts. Regardless of who "wins" their contest, of course, the losers will be the rest of us. We will have to endure long-term double-digit unemployment, skyrocketing energy and utility costs, and the loss of individual freedom that inevitably accompanies the growth of government regulation. http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2010/12/obamas-regulators-kowtow-big-green-imperil-economy 
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