[above is a photo of Occupy Washington, very close to the White House and the Willard Hotel]
Washington Examiner reports: District authorities have charged an Occupy DC protester with assaulting a police officer and assault with a dangerous weapon – his shoes – after the Occupier kicked a U.S. Park Police officer so hard in the groin that the officer vomited, court documents show.
James Donald Ruffin, of Sandy Springs, Ga., was arrested during an altercation at the McPherson Square Occupy camp Thursday.
Park Police were called to the scene after a reported assault on a female, according to court documents. When they arrived, an unidentified woman told officers that Ruffin had entered her tent, vomited on her and then started jumping on her and others in the tent, according to court documents.
In McPherson Square, Occupiers distanced themselves from the incident, saying Ruffin’s actions were not in keeping with the camp’s nonviolent message. One protester called the incident “immature” and said protesters have no excuses to fight with police, adding that the Park Police have treated Occupiers with respect thus far.
“I think once you lay your hand on a police officer, there’s no good for anyone involved,” said Sarah Hines, a protester at the other Occupy camp at Freedom Plaza.
McPherson Square protester Anthony Sluder said the Occupiers are sending Kellenberger, the injured officer, a get-well card.  [When I visited the Occupy site near the White House, I read the list of  Principles and congratulated the three men sitting there for being the first Occupy group in my knowledge that have such responsible principles.  We did not discuss their desires however.  It is the first real list of demands I have seen, as the group tends to refrain from forming a platform.]

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2011/12/occupier-charged-assaulting-police-officer/2031866#ixzz1hlRhn1IB  

 There were not many protesters present when I visited their encampment.

All photos by Conservativekaren

Obama is one of Ten Most Corrupt Politicans;Philly councilwoman games the system; Alaskan seals sickened by Japanese Fukushima nuclear plant?; Light bulb standards will phase in; Girl Scouts will cease promoting Media Matters website; Conservative states donate more to charity; Obama gives assistance to illegals; Americans pay for China's access to Afghanistan's oil; 2012 unemployment to be 9%; The 10 most corrupt politicians of 2011;

On left is our National Christmas tree, which stands very near the White House.  This year it is short, it is like a Charley Brown tree, and it is almost an embarrassment.  Below is the stately Capitol Christmas tree...
 

Examiner examines: As they do each year, officials at the successful (and feared) public-interest group Judicial Watch released their annual Ten Most Corrupt Politicians list. President Obama makes Judicial Watch’s “Ten Most Wanted” list for a fifth consecutive year. (The former Illinois Senator was also a “Dishonorable Mention” in 2006.)The 2011 list contains several well-known government officials as well as some lesser known -- but equally corrupt -- elected leaders.  [Four are Republicans.  Go to the site for more information.  I present our President:] Obama continues to countenance actions by his appointees that undermine the rule of law and constitutional government:
Despite a ban on funding that Obama signed into law, his administration continues to fund the corrupt and allegedly defunct “community” organization ACORN. In July 2011 Judicial Watch uncovered a $79,819 grant to AHCOA (Affordable Housing Centers of America), the renamed ACORN Housing which has a long history of corrupt activity. In absolute violation of the funding ban, Judicial Watch has since confirmed that the Obama administration has funneled $730,000 to the ACORN network, a group that has a long personal history with President Obama.In 2011,

Barack Obama apparently believes it is his “prerogative” to ignore the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law when it comes to appointing czars. According to Politico: “President Barack Obama is planning to ignore language in the 2011 spending package that would ban several top White House advisory posts. Obama said this ban on “czars” would undermine “the President’s ability to exercise his constitutional responsibilities and take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” In other words, Barack Obama believes he must ignore the U.S. Constitution to protect the U.S. Constitution. 

In an historic victory for Judicial Watch and an embarrassing defeat for the Obama White House, a federal court ruled on August 17, 2011 that Secret Service White House visitor logs are agency records that are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued the decision in Judicial Watch v. Secret Service. The Obama administration now will have to release all records of all visitors to the White House – or explain why White House visits should be kept secret under the law. 

http://www.examiner.com/public-safety-in-national/ten-most-corrupt-politicians-2011-selected-by-top-legal-group

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The Blaze reports: Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love and, apparently, paying out massive pensions to public employees who will continue working for the city. Marion B. Tasco, who has been described as being “politically savvy,” will retire from her sixth term as councilwoman, collect $478,057, and then be sworn in on Monday to serve her seventh term, Catherine Lucy and Chris Brennan of the Philadelphia Daily News.
How does she get away with this?
Tasco, along with many of her fellow Council members, is enrolled in Philadelphia’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). DROP allows city workers to collect salary and build up pension money during the last four years of their employment, writes Aaron Kase of Philadelphia Weekly.  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/philly-councilwoman-will-retire-for-one-day-collect-a-478k-pension-and-return-on-monday/
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Personal Liberty writes: Scientists are investigating whether seals in Alaska that have recently fallen ill are being sickened by radiation from the destroyed Japanese Fukushima nuclear plant.
Several seals have washed up on Alaska’s Arctic coastline since July, suffering or killed by a mysterious disease marked by bleeding lesions on the hind flippers, irritated skin around the nose and eyes and patchy hair loss on fur, according to Reuters. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/scientist-think-sick-seals-may-be-radioactive/?eiid=
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The Hill writes: “The major manufacturers have already made the investments to follow the law,” he said. “They’re law-abiding companies who aren’t going to break the law.”

The GOP-backed measure to cut funding for enforcing the light bulb standards “probably is not going to have much impact,” Nadel said. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/201687-despite-gop-opposition-light-bulb-standards-to-phase-in-on-jan-1
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The Blaze reports: On Tuesday, we broke the story of the Girl Scouts using one of its books to direct young girls to the liberal site Media Matters to combat media misinformation. The story took off, with everyone from Fox News to the Drudge Report covering it. The girl at the center of the story was 15-year-old Sydney Volanski, who first noticed the Media Matters reference last year and left the organization over it. Now, Sydney is speaking out.
Sydney joined the crew of “Fox & Friends” on Thursday morning to explain what she found and also to talk about her website, “Speak Now: Girl Scouts Website,” which she co-edits and that was set up to expose other liberal bias within the Scouts.
“My sister and I started a website to help inform families of the more leftward leanings of Girl Scouts because they promise to be neutral politically and about certain social issues,” she explained, “but when you examine the women that they promote and the websites and books that they refer girls to, there is a clear liberal ideology, like with the Media Matters site.”
On a side note, Girl Scouts spokesperson Michelle Tompkins — who did not answer any of our follow-up inquiries — did give a statement to Fox saying that the organization’s material is regularly reviewed and updated and that upcoming versions of the book will not include references to Media Matters. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/15-year-old-behind-blaze-story-on-girl-scouts-speaks-out-clear-liberal-ideology/
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Redstate reports: The Fraser Institute has released their latest report on charitable giving in the U.S. and Canada, and once again North America’s leaders in charitable donations from the Rio Grande to the Arctic Circle reside overwhelmingly in red states. This has been the case for some time, and the reason for it almost certainly comes down to a difference in philosophy regarding charity and the role of private/public institutions in its application. It’s unsurprising that conservatives – who by and large believe in the sovereignty of the individual, particularly in terms of fiscal decision-making – choose to give of their own net incomes to charitable causes and organizations that they find worthwhile. It’s also unsurprising (and stereotypical) that liberals choose to give less of their own net income to charity, instead leaving that responsibility to the government, which replaces the individual as the evaluator and benefactor of charitable organizations and endeavors.  Based on that philosophy of charity and responsibility, it’s no surprise that some liberals have been calling on the government to reduce or eliminate the charitable giving tax deduction. http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2011/12/29/once-again-red-staters-lead-the-nation-in-private-charitable-giving/
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Politico reports: As states across the nation ramp up their efforts to catch illegal immigrants, the Obama administration on Thursday launched a new free hotline for people busted on violations to get help.
The hotline, run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, is available 24/7 for detained individuals to phone if they think they “may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime.”
The new practices are “part of a broader effort to improve our immigration enforcement process and prioritize resources to focus on threats to public safety, repeat immigration law violators, recent border entrants and immigration fugitives while continuing to strengthen oversight of the nation’s immigration detention system and facilitate legal immigration,” ICE wrote in its press release.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70943.html#ixzz1i1Nj1E9p

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News Observer reports: Congressman Walter Jones has fired off an angry letter to President Barack Obama criticizing a deal between the Afghan government and China's National Petroleum Corp. that allows China to be the first foreign country to access Afghanistan's oil and natural gas reserves.
"It is completely unacceptable to send our young men and women to protect China's interest in Afghanistan's natural resources," Jones said in a statement. "How many more of them have to die for a corrupt leader and a corrupt government?"
In his letter to the president, the Farmville Republican asks the president for an accounting "of dollars spent directly and indirectly providing security to Chinese mineral extraction activities in Afghanistan as well as an accounting of Americans killed and wounded providing security to those same operations."
He urged Obama to "dramatically accelerate" the projected 2014 withdrawal date of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/12/30/1741118/jones-troops-shouldnt-help-china.html
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American Thinker writes: Most economists predict that, under current policies, the nation's unemployment rate will be close to 9% through the end of 2012, with the broader measure of unemployment (U-6) running above 16%. GDP growth is predicted to be sluggish, in the range of 2%. Government will continue to lay off workers as growth stagnates and tax receipts remain flat. In short, the economy will remain lousy.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Tax cuts are always a good idea, but not if they are funded by a $37 billion stealth tax on mortgages. A permanent cut in tax rates funded by real spending cuts is the best prescription for growth. As Stanford economist John B. Taylor put it, it is adherence to "the principles of economic freedom" that spurs growth, not short-term intervention by the Federal Reserve or other parties. What Taylor means by "economic freedom" is simply freedom from excessive taxation and regulation, and strict adherence to the rule of law. http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-unhappy_new_year.html
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Ecards for New Year's Greetings; Fluorescent lights cause fires; Americans fund each Chevy Volt sold with $250,000; Saudi children taught jihad techniques at school; Republican Senator Graham opines on dangers of new law; Just whose net worth is rising quickly?: Honor killing, not "Holiday blues"; Ethanol tax subsidy ends; Holder "regrets" false info to Congress; No joke! Americans pay for comedy tour in Mumbai; Iran "doesn't need to shut the Strait of Hormuz" at the time

Taking a page out of Obama's book, you can send an ecard on New Year's resolutions by going to the Republican National Committee website. One of many cards from which to choose, with a photo of our President: "Yes we can hope for change we can believe in because we can't wait to win the future!"  These really are well done, with Nancy Pelosi resolving to read the bills, Biden resolving to give Obama's teleprompter a try, and Harry Reid resolving to finally pass a budget after three years.
http://www.obamaresolutions.com/?e=newsportkp@yahoo.com

Each card has a good resolution!  This is free, but I suppose they do keep your email addresses.  I sent one to myself and can then forward it on, I assume.  It must be in response to Obama's asking supporters to give to him the email and home addresses of Republicans..			75 Cards Sent

-----------aid for by the Republican National Committee
t y Any Candidate Or Candidate's Committee
www.GOP.com

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The UK Daily Mail writes: Compact fluorescent lamps, which will gradually replace traditional incandescent bulbs, are a fire hazard that could burn down your home, experts have warned.
The lamps (CFLs) use electricity to heat an element in the lamp’s base that leads the mercury vapor gas in the coils to emit light. 
But when a CFL can no longer produce light, the electronics in its base will still try to function, sometimes leading to overheating, smoke and fire.   In 2009, standards were revised for materials used in the plastic housing of the base of CFLs sold in North America. But millions are still in use that were produced before the change.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078885/Fire-hazard-fears-compact-fluorescent-lamps.html#ixzz1hk9y8U00
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Michigan Capitol Confidential reports: Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.  http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16192
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Personal Liberty reports: Textbooks used to teach Saudi Arabian children go beyond the basic reading and writing that Western schoolchildren are accustomed to; youngsters in the kingdom are learning to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, kill homosexuals and work toward the complete annihilation of Jewish people.
The textbooks, many of which issued for the 2010-2011 Saudi school year, teach 9th and 10th graders that women are weak and irresponsible and homosexuals should be put to death “because they pose a danger at society.” The books also encourage jihad. One text reads in part: “The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. … There is a Jew behind me come and kill him,” according to Fox News. http://www.personalliberty.com/news/saudi-schools-teach-extremism/?eiid=
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From SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM's (SC-R) floor debate on the new law: As Congressman Paul stated, the bill requires absolutely no supporting
evidence to issue the order of detention, instead leaving it up to the whim
of the Executive Branch to act as Judge, Jury, and in some cases having
already decreed the power to assassinate Americans earlier in the year,
executioner.
The danger behind allowing any law that includes such arbitrary terms, as
"belligerent act" simply cannot be overstated as the Department of Homeland
Security has already published multiple reports labeling those who support
the Constitution or protest the FEDERAL RESERVE to be "domestic
belligerents" and thus in the eyes of the federal government a threat to
National Security.
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Fox News reports: How wealth of members of Congress has TRIPLED in 25 years - while average U.S. family has suffered a DROP in their worth
Median net worth of member of Congress rose from $280,000 to $725,000 between 1984 and 2009
Over same 25 years the wealth of the average U.S. family slipped from $20,500 from $20,600

The wealth gap between those governing the U.S. and the people they represent has dramatically widened, research shows.

It found that the median net worth of members of Congress rose 15 per cent from 2004 to 2010 as the net worth of the richest 10 per cent of the country remained for the most part flat.
Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/congress/2011/12/27/members-congress-net-worth-tripled-over-last-25-years-us-family-struggles#ixzz1hq73ykv7

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Bare Naked Islam reports: As usual, the media ignored the obvious honor-killing elements of this massacre. Aziz Yazdanpanah had lost control of his family. His wife had left him. His daughter was dating a non-Muslim. And he killed them all. Just as the Ft. Hood Jihadist Massacre was labeled “Workplace Violence,” the Obama-subservient  media are trying to pass off this mass honor killing  as “Holiday Blues.” 

Neighbors said the family was Muslim but had always hung Christmas lights on their home — except this year. . . .
But a more ominous portrait emerged of Yazdanpanah in interviews with some of his daughter’s other classmates.
“She would come to school crying and telling us her dad was crazy,” said Lacie Reed, 18. “He wouldn’t let her wear certain things. He was always taking her phone away, checking her call history and checking her text messages.”
Friends said Nona’s father had installed cameras all around the home so he could watch the family’s comings and goings. Others said he nailed her bedroom window shut so she could not sneak out at night and see her boyfriend. http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/well-well-well-the-texas-christmas-day-massacre-of-7-people-including-the-killer-was-a-muslim-honor-killing-after-all/
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Detroit News writes: United States has ended a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol.
Congress adjourned for the year on Friday, failing to extend the tax break that's drawn a wide variety of critics on Capitol Hill, including Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Critics also have included environmentalists, frozen food producers, ranchers and others.
The policies have helped shift millions of tons of corn from feedlots, dinner tables and other products into gas tanks.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth praised the move.
"The end of this giant subsidy for dirty corn ethanol is a win for taxpayers, the environment and people struggling to put food on their tables," biofuels policy campaigner Michal Rosenoer said Friday. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20111224/AUTO01/112240320
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Examiner writes: US Attorney General Eric Holder is feeling the heat over Fast & Furious. His department oversaw a vast gunrunning operation that sent thousands of firearms to Mexican drug cartels.

The operation violated US law, Mexican law, and international treaties between the US and Mexico.

The Wall Street Journal even accused the DOJ of facilitating the sale of fragmentation grenades to Mexican drug cartels.

Internal memos show that Fast & Furious was a "false flag" operation to justify more gun control measures in the United States.

 Holder now tells the press that he "regrets" giving Congress false information in a letter about Fast & Furious. However he has yet to address accusations of perjury in his under oath testimony to Congress. http://www.examiner.com/charleston-conservative-in-charleston-sc/eric-holder-regrets-false-letter-to-congress-blames-white-people

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Expose Obama writes: The opening line is the story itself. Next week, three Indian-American comedians — Rajiv Satyal,Azhar Usman and Hari Kondabolu — hit the stage in Mumbai. They will be taking their “Make Chai Not War” jokefest to India for seven days of comedy shows and stand-up workshops.
By itself there is nothing particularly newsworthy about these three men hopping on a plane to tell jokes in India. Comedians cross borders (real and imaginary) every night.
What is making this tour unique enough to get international attention is that — wait for it — it’s being paid for by the United States government. [laugh track]… http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/28/obama-pays-muslim-hindu-comedians-to-do-stand-up-in-india/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reuters reports: "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated," the Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail.
Iran, at loggerheads with the West over its nuclear program, said on Tuesday it would stop the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports.
"Closing the Strait of Hormuz for Iran's armed forces is really easy ... or as Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water," Iran's navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told Iran's English-language Press TV on Wednesday.
"But right now, we don't need to shut it ...," said Sayyari, who is leading 10 days of exercises in the Strait. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/28/us-iran-hormuz-closure-idUSTRE7BR09E20111228
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Democrats "win" Lie of the Year contest; "Occupy" will interfere with Iowa caucuses; Stopping S. Carolina's photo ID law; Kansas will expand legislation on illegals, will invalidate all contracts with illegals; Nebraska Democrat Senator not running again; Obama asks for increase in debt ceiling as soon as Congress went home; Crony Capitalism example; America still the greatest nation on earth

I love this depiction of our Capitol - the disfunctional place that it is, taken by my disfunctioning camera!
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The liberal Politico writes: Dems' 'Mediscare' A Dubious Winner
Now, PolitiFact has chosen the Democrats' claim as the 2011 Lie of the Year.  The Democratic attack about "ending Medicare" was a pervasive line in 2011 that preyed on seniors' worries about whether they could afford health care (Drobnic Holan and Adair, 12/20).

• Just four days after the party-line vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a Web ad, saying seniors will have to pay $12,500 more for health care “because Republicans voted to end Medicare.”

• Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the DCCC, appeared on cable news shows and declared that Republicans voted to “terminate Medicare.”

• A Web video from the Agenda Project, a liberal group, said the Ryan plan would leave the country “without Medicare” and showed a Ryan look-alike pushing an old woman in a wheelchair off a cliff.
• And just last month, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a fundraising appeal that read, “House Republicans’ vote to end Medicare is a shameful act of betrayal.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70705.html#ixzz1hlQgQgA0

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AP reports: Already they [Occupy] have interrupted Michele Bachmann and drawn a withering putdown from Newt Gingrich as "all noise, no thought."

Now, to the dismay of Iowa Republicans, Occupy activists in Des Moines are vowing to expand their protests as GOP presidential hopefuls converge on the state that speaks first in the race for the party's presidential nomination. 

Gingrich dismissed them as the "one-tenth of one percent" and noted he'd been similarly heckled during an earlier stop in Iowa City. "All noise, no thought, tried to drown out conversation," he said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OCCUPY_IOWA_CAUCUSES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-27-16-06-38

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

"Although the state has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud and safeguarding voter confidence," it didn't provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud that is not already addressed by the state's existing voter identification requirement," said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney for civil rights, in a letter to state officials.
In its letter, DOJ rejected South Carolina's voter ID law, in large part because the state failed to provide "any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any other type of fraud..."  Requiring a state to provide evidence of extensive fraud sets an elevated standard specifically rejected by the Supreme Court and in direct contradiction to the Court's opinion endorsing photo identification and previous precedent. 
Also in its letter to South Carolina, DOJ asserted that requiring a voter to obtain a photo ID might burden voters to obtain the necessary documentation and prevent them from voting.  The Supreme Court had previously disposed of that argument by essentially stating that the burden to travel to an elections office with proof of identity or to a drivers license agency to obtain the appropriate identification is no more a burden that traveling to a polling place to cast a ballot.  The Supreme Court found the law was not discriminatory.  DOJ failed to take into account that voter turnout had increased in voter ID states thus speculating that voter ID would decrease turnout had no evidentiary basis and counter to existing statistics since implementation of the law.   http://electionlawcenter.com/2011/12/24/contradicting-supreme-court-doj-rejected-sc-photo-id-law-due-to-lack-to-voter-impersonation-fraud.aspx
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USA Today writes: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has helped legislators in several states craft laws aimed at illegal immigrants, said legislators will continue expanding programs such as E-Verify, which businesses can use to check the immigration status of job applicants.

Yet it's a new provision in Alabama's law that has become popular. Kobach, a Republican, said Alabama was the first state to invalidate all contracts entered into with illegal immigrants. A strict reading of the law could mean any contract, including apartment leases and basic work agreements, can be ruled null and void.

Another aspect of Alabama's law forbids illegal immigrants from conducting any "business transaction" with a government agency. An Alabama federal judge ruled that the state must stop using that provision to prohibit illegal immigrants from renewing permits for their mobile homes, but it's being applied elsewhere.

The combination of those provisions "has led to nothing short of chaos in the state," said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, which was part of a lawsuit against Alabama's law. "They've been applied to a striking range of activities, from getting tags on your cars to getting public utilities to changing title on your cars."

Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican and founder of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, said he's already added the Alabama laws to his "wish list" for the upcoming session. http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-12-21-Contracts_ST_U.htm

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National Journal announces: Ben Nelson To Announce Retirement from Senate

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., will announce later on Tuesday that he will retire after two terms in office, according to a senior Democratic operative familiar with his plans. Nelson's decision is a serious blow to Democrats' hopes of maintaining its slim Senate majority, turning what would have been a competitive red-state Senate race into a very likely GOP pickup next year.
News of Nelson's retirement is especially tough for Democrats, given that outside groups poured over $1 million in ads on his behalf to shore up his standing in the state. The ads were also aired in hopes of convincing Nelson to run for a third term.
Republicans have aggressively targeted Nelson this year, and outside GOP groups had already begun pouring money into the state, hitting him over his vote for President Obama's health care law.
Follow this story on nationaljournal.com as it develops » 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reuters writes: The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government's debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official on Tuesday.
The approval is expected to go through without a challenge, given that Congress is in recess until later in January and the request is in line with an agreement to keep the U.S. government funded into 2013. Under the agreement struck in August during the showdown over the government's debt limit, the cap is automatically raised unless Congress votes to block the debt-ceiling extension. 
The deal called for raising the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion to serve the nation's borrowing needs into 2013 and also included mandatory cuts to the federal budget deficit. Since then, the extension has been increased twice by a total of $900 billion.
The debt limit currently stands at $15.194 trillion and would increase to $16.394 trillion with the reques
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-usa-treasury-debt-idUSTRE7BQ0KU20111227

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American Thinker writes about crony capitalism: John Kerry specializes in using advance information on upcoming bills to make investments, which Schweizer correctly characterizes as a form of insider trading. During the ObamaCare debate of 2009 Kerry invested $200,000 in the healthcare company ResMed, the value of which shot up over 70%, a tidy little windfall even to a man married into one of the richest families in the United States. At the same time, ObamaCare cut Medicare reimbursements, so Kerry dumped all his shares in United Health, a medical insurance company deeply dependent on Medicare. Kerry, it seems, didn't have to pass the bill to know what was in it.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/throw_em_all_outand_good_riddance.html#ixzz1hpkzk1Ly

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American Thinkers opines: This century will be an American century, much like the last one.  Despite what President Obama believes, we are not one nation among many, we are the United States of America, the greatest nation on earth, and the last best hope for humanity. 
The only thing standing between the United States and continued exceptionalism is the dreary delirium of Barack Obama, whose dismal socialist policies have been a spectacular disaster for the nation.
Now they say, the Chinese that will bury us.  Falling behind China is a recurring theme in many of Barack Obama's speeches.  We have to do as they do, or we risk losing out.  State directed capitalism is the wave of the future, resistance is futile.  Americans must pay more taxes, and give the President more control...of well...everything.
America, because of immigration and a birthrate near replacement level, will not be aging the way Russia, Japan, Europe and China are.  Despite Barack Obama's best effort, we have comparatively little racial, religious and economic strife, a moderately free press, and the most economic freedom and mobility the world has ever known. 
We have a dynamic economy and are still the world's largest manufacturer.  America is blessed with an abundance of natural resources.  Due to improvements in technology, we now have potential fossil fuel resources to last us 200 years or more.  Since much of it is on federal lands, some have said the royalties to the Treasury have the potential to pay off the national debt.  To paraphrase Joe Biden, it is a big fracking deal.
Even if Mr. Obama wins reelection, he can only delay the coming energy independence of America, he cannot prevent it.  Citizens, not thrilled with him now, will be irate when their electric bills triple and gasoline is $10 a gallon.  All that oil, coal and natural gas will come out of the ground.  Obama, as a modern day King Canute trying to command the tide, will be powerless to stop it.  
Four more years of this President will leave the nation miserable and divided, with high unemployment, a moribund economy and a bloated bureaucracy.  With another term, Barack Obama will continue his transformation of America into a land of perpetual trillion dollar deficits and a national debt measured in the tens of trillions of dollars.  We will be weak militarily, morally and economically.  Lesser nations, like those discussed here, would not survive 8 years of hope and change, but we will not be defeated.   
The only thing standing between America and continued preeminence is Barack Obama.  The sooner we realize that, and rid the nation of the abomination of his presidency, the better.  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/m-americas_greatness_will_defeat_obama.html
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States may now decide on minimum benefits of health insurance packages; "War on Terror" money spent on clown shows, fish fry ads, and snow-cone machines; Voter ID and Eric Holder; Absentee Voter ID fraud in Troy, NY; Obama won't be bound by newly signed omnibus law; A laziness in Obama; Obama's "civilian national security force" in new defense reauthorization bill?'; Gingrich agrees with Romney 's Health Care law, individual mandate; New defense authorization act is a slip into tyranny;

Our tired President, leaving for $4 million golfing vacation in Hawaii.  I took this photo as his helicopter was rising from the White House grounds on Friday December 23.
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Forbes opines: Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, shocked many in the wonk world by announcing that she was going to allow the individual states to make the call on the minimum benefits required to be included in the health insurance packages offered to customers through the state run health care exchanges.
It did not have to be this way.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gave the HHS Secretary the power to establish the rules on what benefits and coverage insurance companies must, at a minimum, offer throughout the country. Had the Administration accepted this responsibility, rather than playing pass the hot potato, it would have not only insured uniformity of basic benefits but also taken the matter out of the hands of the lobbyists who will now be very busy writing the rules that will be rubber stamped by anti-Obamacare legislatures in many American states.
Is the president now backing off his landmark achievement to gain a little political cover as he heads into 2012 or is the Administration simply acknowledging the importance of state sovereignty when it comes to how health care operates on the state level? http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/24/is-obama-chickening-out-on-obamacare/
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Lowering the Bar writes: Every time you think "homeland security" can't get more ridiculous, it gets more ridiculous.
There have been plenty of examples already showing that large amounts of your tax money supposedly earmarked for the "War on Terror" end up getting used for purposes that are, shall we say, less than mission-critical. Back in 2006, we learned that $25 million in homeland-security money had been handed out in just one grant program with no controls at all, which resulted in $77,000 going to local fire departments to fund "puppet and clown shows," and another $22,000 for an "educational robot." An Indiana county got in trouble for using its $300,000 Electronic Emergency Message Boards, intended to notify the public about things like evacuation routes, to advertise the volunteer fire department's charity fish fry. This is just the local stuff, not counting the umpteen billions spent on naked scanners that don't do any good.
The Daily News was able to confirm that the the snow-cone machines were funded by a grant from the Michigan Homeland Security Program, but nobody seems to have had a good answer for the "appropriate use" question, surprisingly enough. Two ways to go in that situation: (1) admit it was a mistake or a bad decision, and fix it; or (2) insist that yes, there is an entirely valid purpose for incorporating an Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine into your anti-terrorism plan.

“It is used to attract people so they can be educated and prepared for homeland security,” [Sandeep] Dey said from his office in Muskegon. “More importantly, they (homeland security officials) felt in a medical emergency the machine was capable of making ice packs which could be used for medical purposes.” http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/12/the-homeland-security-snow-cone-machine.html

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Wall St. Journal writes: In the Attorney General's telling, the movement in the states to require voters to show some ID is a revival of minority disenfranchisement a la Jim Crow. A growing number of minorities, he said in a speech last week, are now worried about "the same disparities, divisions and problems" that beset the country in 1965 and "many Americans, for the first time in their lives . . . now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up" to the promise of democracy for all
Mr. Holder's remarks are especially notable because they come as the Justice Department is reviewing voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina for "preclearance" under the Voting Rights Act. The states' plans require voters to present photo ID like a driver's license or passport to vote, a measure endorsed by the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker in 2005 to protect the integrity of the ballot.
The court's liberal lion, then-Justice John Paul Stevens, wrote for the majority that Indiana's law "is unquestionably relevant to the State's interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process." Indiana offered free voter ID cards to all citizens, so the inconvenience of picking up an ID at the Department of Motor Vehicles wasn't an undue burden and was reasonably balanced by the state's interest in reducing fraud, Justice Stevens wrote.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577100313135266898.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
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National Review, however, writes: The latest voter-fraud convictions in Troy, N.Y., must be very inconvenient to the public-affairs propagandists over at the DNC and the NAACP, as well as liberal media outlets like the New York Times. It just ruins their constant refrain that there is no voter fraud in the United States. 

Eric Shawn at FOX News reports that two Troy city officials, the city clerk and a councilman, along with two Democratic political operatives, have pled guilty to forging absentee-ballot signatures and casting fraudulent ballots in the 2009 Working Families Party primary. The WFP is the political party associated with ACORN.

As for the constant liberal claims that voter fraud does not occur, one of the Democratic operatives who pled guilty, Anthony DeFiglio, told New York State police investigators “that faking absentee ballots was a commonplace and accepted practice in political circles, all intended to swing an election.” And whose votes do they steal? DeFiglio was very plain about that: “The people who are targeted live in low-income housing, and there is a sense that they are a lot less likely to ask any questions.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/286557/yes-virginia-there-really-voter-fraud-hans-von-spakovsky

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The Hill writes: President Obama said Friday he will not be bound by at least 20 policy riders in the 2012 omnibus funding the government, including provisions pertaining to Guantanamo Bay and gun control.
After he signed the omnibus into law Friday, the White House released a concurrent signing statement saying Obama will object to portions of the legislation on constitutional grounds.
"I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient," Obama said in a statement as he signed the bill into law.
The statement also objects to numerous unnamed provisions in the bill that would require executive branch officials to clear everyday spending decisions with appropriators.
Of these extra conditions, Obama writes, "our spending decisions shall not be treated as dependent on the approval of congressional committees. [If you are interested in actions which can be considered those of a dictator, read the full article.  He signed the bill and immediately said he will comply only on the items with which he agree.]
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/201245-obama-says-he-wont-be-bound-by-guantanamo-gun-control-portions-of-omnibus
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World Net Daily writes: Way back in July 2008, when Barack Obama was just a candidate for the presidency, he gave a speech in which he called for the creation of a "civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the U.S. military.
No one in the media reported it.
I think Obama may have pushed his "civilian national security force" through the Congress and signed it into law.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about the defense reauthorization bill that sailed through both houses of Congress and was signed into law recently. I called it, "The day habeas corpus died."  http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=380161
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Gingrich ’06 Memo: “Agree Entirely With Gov. Romney” on Health Care

ABC News opines: To conservatives, the biggest strike against Mitt Romney is the health care plan he put in place in Massachusetts, but Newt Gingrich lavished praise on Romney’s plan after it was passed in 2006. “We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans,” Gingrich wrote in 2006.
And, Gingrich wrote, the key to achieving that goal was doing what Romney did in Massachusetts:  Requiring everybody who could afford it to buy health insurance.  In fact, Gingrich makes an impassioned case for the so-called individual mandate — which is also at the center of President Obama’s health plan — on conservative grounds.
“We also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System,”http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/gingrich-06-memo-agree-entirely-with-gov-romney-on-health-care/
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The Hill writes: GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warned that the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by Congress this month, will accelerate the country’s “slip into tyranny” and virtually assures “our descent into totalitarianism.”
“The founders wanted to set a high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty,” Paul, the libertarian congressman, said Monday in a weekly phone message to supporters. “To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/201335-rep-paul-says-defense-bill-assures-descent-into-totalitarianism
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Eric Holder and the Oklahoma City bombing.....with names

This information is showing up on a growing number of online news sources.  I will keep you posted on what we learn about its veracity, but just to keep you in the loop, here it is: AG Eric Holder was responsible for 168 deaths in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing…and more


Free Republic reports: Documents obtained by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show then Clinton Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder authorized members of the FBI to provide explosives to Oklahoma City bombing criminals Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols immediately prior to the April, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building.
Holder had authorized the FBI to provide the explosives to McVeigh and Nichols in conjunction with a Clinton Administration undercover operation named PATCON, an acronym for “Patriot Conspiracy.” As Jesse Trentadue describes it, “PATCON was designed to infiltrate and incite… militia[s] and evangelical Christians to violence so that the Department of Justice could crush them.”
Both Waco and Ruby Ridge are now known to have been PATCON inspired, Department of Justice plots. Shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing, Holder instructed FBI agents to recover from Terry Nichols any remainder of the explosives the Bureau had provided him and McVeigh.
To the chagrin of Eric Holder, the explosives were later discovered by another agency, complete with the fingerprints of both Nichols, McVeigh and 2 FBI agents.
Holder had reportedly offered Nichols respite from the death penalty for his cooperation in recovering the explosives. Obviously the Deputy Attorney General considered covering up his criminal complicity in the bombing eminently worth sparing Nichols just punishment for the murders of 168 innocent Americans.
Jesse Trentadue accidentally came across PATCON while investigating the murder of his brother Kenneth at the hands of the Clinton Department of Justice.
An FBI informant familiar with the Oklahoma City bombing story, Kenneth was found hanged in his cell after having been jailed by the FBI. Though an official FBI report had listed Kenneth as a suicide, it was obvious that he had been severely beaten and his throat cut http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2822262/posts

A Christmas gift for you and your family

Someday I will learn to put the video right here for you to see.  This one is worth linking to, it's worth listening to and watching, and it is 10 minutes which will change the level of appreciation for your blessings.   Merry Christmas, one and all!  [Thank you to my sister for sharing.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-HeETwJSUc&feature=player_embedded

                                                    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

conservativecorner-karen.blogspot.com


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