Libyan Banks Got $35 Billion from US; GM Investment Causes $25 Billion Loss To US; Michigan's Mackinac Center Threatened; UN Staff Killed in Afghanistan; Japan Eathquake Results; PCBs in NY Schools

Bloomberg reports: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.

The biggest borrowers from the 97-year-old discount window as the program reached its crisis-era peak were foreign banks, accounting for at least 70 percent of the $110.7 billion borrowed during the week in October 2008 when use of the program surged to a record. The disclosures may stoke a reexamination of the risks posed to U.S. taxpayers by the central bank’s role in global financial markets. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/foreign-banks-tapped-fed-s-lifeline-most-as-bernanke-kept-borrowers-secret.html
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Bloomberg writes: Arab Banking Corp., the lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.
The bank, then 29 percent-owned by the Libyan state, had aggregate borrowings in that period of $35 billion http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-31/libya-owned-arab-banking-corp-drew-at-least-5-billion-from-fed-in-crisis.html
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The Washington Times writes: "American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM,” President Obama said, according to a piece in USA Today last November. Steven Rattner, former head of the Treasury's auto task force agreed, telling CNN in November: “Recent progress at GM gives reason for optimism that it may be possible for taxpayers to get every penny back.”
In fact, Investor's Business Daily reported that even the White House’s Director of the National Economic Council remarked that the Treasury Department Department had a good chance in "recovering most, if not all, of its investment in" GM.
However, a March 16 Congressional Oversight report, tells a different story. It estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion.

That's only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people.
GM is driving “away from its U.S.-government-financed restructuring with a final gift in its trunk: a tax break that could be worth as much as $45 billion,” reported The Wall Street Journal last November. http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2011/mar/31/barack-obama-losing-84-billion-big-success/
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Free Republic Reports: The Mackinac Center for Public Policy received numerous death threats and bomb threats in the aftermath of national publicity about a Freedom of Information Act request it sent to three public universities. The messages were left on the Center's voice mail Thursday night and early Friday morning, but it is unclear at this point if one or two women were responsible for the threats. Mackinac Center President Joseph Lehman said the Mackinac Center has contacted law enforcement about the threats.

“We, along with the authorities, are doing everything necessary to protect ourselves,” Lehman said. “No threats will prevent us from showing the public how universities spend tax dollars.”
There were five messages left containing death or bomb threats. Four of them appear to be from the same caller. A fifth message was from a woman who left a death threat and, unlike the previous caller, left her name and indicated she lived in a neighboring state. It was unclear if the second caller was the same as the first caller. In one message, a female voice said: “Scotty Walker is dead. So are you. We know where you live.” The woman then recited the Mackinac Center’s address and said, “We are coming up to destroy you.”
In another message, a female who left her name said: “You are on Main Street. You are the first place to be bombed.”...  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2698464/posts
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(CNN) -- The powerful earthquake that unleashed a devastating tsunami Friday appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8 feet (2.4 meters) and shifted the Earth on its axis.
"At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass," said Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).
The quake occurred as the Earth's crust ruptured along an area about 250 miles (400 kilometers) long by 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide, as tectonic plates slipped more than 18 meters, said Shengzao Chen, a USGS geophysicist.
Japan is located along the Pacific "ring of fire," an area of high seismic and volcanic activity stretching from New Zealand in the South Pacific up through Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coasts of North and South America. The quake was "hundreds of times larger" than the 2010 quake that ravaged Haiti, said Jim Gaherty of the LaMont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
  http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T1
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CBS reports: A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/13/scitech/main20042590.shtml
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The New York Post writes: After weathering a winter of intimidation, Mayor Bloomberg has apparently capitulated to an Environmental Protection Agency scare campaign.
The issue: PCBs -- three little letters that are about to sock New York schools with another $700 million funding drain.
The supposedly toxic chemicals are found in old light fixtures in classrooms all over. The feds want them replaced -- no matter the cost.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_epa_dim_bulbs_nHgBB1rMP7cd5BqxMuGfdJ#ixzz1GZZJ7VAo

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Bill Ayers Wrote Obama's Book; 5000 Non-citizens Voted in Colorado; New Hampshire Faces Union Legislation; More Death Threats from a Teacher; Obama to Protect Unions to Enable a Minority to Win Elections; Recycled Newspapers are Poisoning Us; Green Energy Job Obscenely Expensive; TSA to Retest Full-body X-ray Scanner for Safety

Newsbusters reports: Bill Ayers Admits For Second Time He Wrote Obama's 'Dreams From My Father' [Why does this matter? If true, our President not only took the credit for writing this book, he took the royalties. It is one more example of his lying ways, and his close relationship with the radical head of the Weather Underground.] Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/03/27/bill-ayers-admits-second-time-he-wrote-obamas-dreams-my-father#ixzz1HtaB2BYl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hill reports: Republicans on the House Administration Committee want to shore up voter registration rules in the wake of a Colorado study that found as many as 5,000 non-citizens in the state took part in last year’s election.

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), the panel’s chairman, called the study “a disturbing wake-up call” that should cause every state to review its safeguards to prevent illegal voting.  http://thehill.com/homenews/house/153079-gop-says-5000-non-citizens-voting-in-colorado-a-wake-up-call-for-states

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The Lowell Sun writes: Amid chants from the gallery and thousands of demonstrators in the Statehouse plaza, New Hampshire's Republican-dominated House approved a $10.2 billion budget yesterday that makes deep cuts to social programs and strips public unions of much of their bargaining power.
The House debated the budget for five hours before Republicans pushed it through, 243-124. Early in the debate, chants of "Shame On You!" rained down from a raucous crowd in the gallery, which was temporarily cleared but reopened before the final vote. Outside the Statehouse, thousands more gathered to voice their opposition.
Republican House Speaker William O'Brien called it a historic achievement to pass a spending plan to the Senate that raises no taxes or fees or borrows for operating costs. The loud voices outside weren't the ones speaking to him, O'Brien said.
"The voices that speak to me are the taxpayers who say (the spending is) too much," he told reporters.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_17750493#ixzz1IGwU4erW

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RedWhiteBlue News reports: A Wisconsin early childhood teacher was charged with sending death threats to state Republican lawmakers. 
A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.
Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court.
The subject line of the second email was: “Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!” In that email, she purportedly wrote, “Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks.”
“I hope you have a good time in hell,” she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by “putting a nice little bullet in your head.”  http://redwhitebluenews.com/?p=17702
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Redstate reports: As noted on Tuesday, the FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act is scheduled for a vote today. However, the White House is now stating that it is likely the President will veto the legislation if a provision that gives union bosses the ability to more easily unionize airline (and railroad) employees is not removed.  Under election rules established less than a year ago, in the dark of night by two pro-union National Mediation Board members (both of whom are former union bosses themselves), 75 years worth of precedent on how union election ballot counts are conducted were thrown out the window.
As a result, if employees in the ’spoke’ cities do not participate their non-votes mean that unions need one less vote to win. In essence, not voting under the NMB’s new rules is like voting for unionization. Practically speaking, as long as there is less than full participation, the rule change enables unions to win more elections with a minority of employees voting to unionize—which is just how union bosses want to keep it.  http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/03/31/obama-threatens-veto-if-congress-strips-pro-union-election-rules-in-faa-bill/
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The BBC UK reports: Researchers found toxic chemicals from recycled newspapers had contaminated food sold in many cardboard cartons.
The chemicals, known as mineral oils, come from printing inks.
Cereal firm Jordans has stopped using recycled cardboard and other firms are to ensure their recycled packaging does not contain any toxic oils.
Kellogg's and Weetabix said they were taking steps to reduce the amount of mineral oil in their packaging.
Exposure to mineral oils has been linked to inflammation of internal organs and cancer.

In one scientific paper they describe the potential for mineral oils to migrate into foodstuffs as "frightening".

However, the Swiss food safety authorities have concluded that consumers who eat a balanced and varied diet have no need to worry.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12663183
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John Stossel of Human Events writes: In a new article, "The Myth of Green Energy Jobs: The European Experience," the environmental scientist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute writes, "Green programs in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs for every green job created, while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create almost five jobs in the general economy."
       
Ironically, Obama boasts his initiative "will help close the clean-energy gap between America and other nations." But Green says, "(C)ountries are cutting these programs because they realize they aren't sustainable and they are obscenely expensive." http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42199
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USA Today reports: The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected. 

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of "an abundance of caution to reassure the public," http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-03-11-tsa-scans_N.htm
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Bin Laden Nukes in US; Compassion for al Qaeda; AP Fact Checks Obama Speech; How to Get Your $50,000; The Fight in Wisconsin; Clare McCaskill's Big, Serious, Sloppy Mistake; Unions Threaten Businesses in Wisconsin; Obama on Sadam Hussein; Transparency Award Awarded in Private; Ohio's Collective Bargaining Laws

CBS Chicago reports on nuclear bombs which may be in the US, put here by Bin Laden's minions:  The threats came in the mail and to date, there have been 25 letters that warn of nuclear bombs destroying America. People who got them called the FBI and CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman learned, the Bureau’s Chicago office is leading the investigation.
FBI Special Agent Andre Zavala said, “Yes, they alarmed a lot of people.”
The letter inside said, “The Al-Qaeda organization has planted 160 nuclear bombs throughout the U.S. in schools, stadiums, churches, stores, financial institutions and government buildings.” It also said, “This is a suicide mission for us.”
The writer, who claims to be Osama Bin Laden, tells the reader the nukes are remotely controlled. “It was clear the writer wanted to scare me,” said Rizzo, “Yes, it frightened me.” Rizzo was one of eight people in the Chicago area to contact the FBI.
Agencies in Oregon, California, Texas and Florida also got the letter with the Chicago postmark.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/29/threats-claim-nuclear-bombs-hidden-all-over-u-s/
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NBC's Matt Lauer, on Wednesday's Today show, startled Michele Bachmann as he tried to convince her that Obama's strategy of bombing Libya was a good way to show support for the rebels as he pressed the Republican Minnesota Congresswoman. "If there are flickers [what on earth is that?], as you say, of al Qaeda among the rebels, would it not be a sign to them or showing them that the United States has compassion and we are willing to use our military might to help all people?" Even Bachmann was taken aback by the thrust of the question as she responded: "Compassion for al Qaeda?"

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2011/03/30/lauer-shocks-bachmann-should-we-show-compassion-al-qaeda-libya#ixzz1I6L1Worm

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The AP fact checked our Presidents speech on Libya and found it to be wanting in many ways.  These reasons include:  In transferring command and control to NATO, the U.S. is turning the reins over to an organization dominated by the U.S., both militarily and politically. In essence, the U.S. runs the show that is taking over running the show.
And the rapid advance of rebels in recent days strongly suggests they are not merely benefiting from military aid in a defensive crouch, but rather using the multinational force in some fashion — coordinated or not — to advance an offensive.
In his pre-presidential book "The Audacity of Hope," Obama said the U.S. will lack international legitimacy if it intervenes militarily "without a well-articulated strategy that the public supports and the world understands."
He questioned: "Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or Burma? Why intervene in Bosnia and not Darfur?"
Now, such questions are coming at him. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFWACvAYca3zjwTnnLh1JG8l2Rtw?docId=f1839ff6dd0e4265b2952651c972f4a5 [I add that another of our President's lies was that George Bush did not have a coalition or the consent of Congress when he clearly did.  Our President also said that it has taken 8 years to effect a regime change in Iraq, and will take less time in Libya.  Mr. President, Saddam Hussein was taken from office in about 2 days, are we have been in Libya far longer already.  When you begin to speak the truth, more people will take you seriously.]
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John Stossel of Fox News reports: Want to get a check from the government for $50,000? If you’re black and willing to say you once “attempted to farm,” the money could be yours.

Why? In the 80’s and 90’s, some Black farmers were allegedly discriminated against by the Agriculture Department. Department loan officers supposedly did the opposite of what Shirley Sherrod was accused of:   they granted government-subsidized farm loans to whites but not to blacks.

Government shouldn’t be giving out government subsidized loans to anyone.  But that’s another story for another time.

When some black farmers sued, claiming discrimination, the USDA agreed to pay $50,000 to every black person who was discriminated against.

According to the census, there were 18,000 black farmers in the country when the lawsuit was filed. But 97,000 black “farmers” have applied for the money.

Black farmer Jimmy Dismuke says it’s fraud. He said lawyers went to black churches and told people who had never farmed to file for the money.

“People say well, how do I qualify?” Dismuke told us. “And then [the lawyers] started talking about potted plants.  They said if you had a potted plant, you can be a farmer.  And if you have a yard and you fertilize it, you're a farmer.”

Despite the fraud, Congress approved $1billion in payments, and when that ran out, authorized another $1.25 billion dollars. Some victims of discrimination may benefit. But plenty of money will go to freeloaders.

And speaking of freeloaders, lots of money will go to lawyers: In the first round of $1 billion, Cross estimates, about $40 to $50 million was paid out to lawyers.  [It has been rumored that our President is now considering to extend the same powers to Hispanic farmers.]

Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2011/03/25/the-real-shirley-sherrod-scandal-tonight-on-fox-news-at-10pm-et/#ixzz1Hjb4xXZf
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RedState writes: Wisconsin liberals have apparently decided to win the fight by trying to remove conservatives from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will presumably soon decide on whether the law stripping the public unions of collective bargaining power was properly passed.
In an especially low trick, a Democrat-backed group has run a sleazy ad essentially making Prosser complicit in child molestation (from his time as a prosecutor), a trick so sleazy that the victim of the molestation has come forward denouncing it.  http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2011/03/29/liberals-continue-all-out-wisconsin-assault/
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The Hill writes: Voters will have to render their judgment on a "big, serious, sloppy mistake," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said of her acknowledged failure to pay taxes on a private plane. McCaskill, who admitted in recent weeks to both using taxpayer money to fund political travel and failing to pay almost $300,000 in taxes on a private plane, said she'd leave it to Missouri voters to make up their minds on the matter. "[T]he voters will have to decide whether this big, serious, sloppy mistake is enough for them to decide not to hire me again," McCaskill said Wednesday  http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/152715-mccaskill-voters-will-have-to-decide-about-big-serious-sloppy-mistake
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From the Labor Union Report: In the letter from Parrett to some businesses, he says that, “It is unfortunate that you have chosen ‘not’ to support public workers rights in Wisconsin. In recent past weeks you have been offered a sign by a public employee who works in one of the state facilities in the Union Grove area. These signs simply said, ‘This Business Supports Workers Rights,’ a simple, subtle and we feel non-controversial statement gives the facts at this time.”
So, by not displaying the “non-controversial” sign means, as a business owner, your business will be targeted by union bosses for a boycott. What’s next?
Will unions be demanding homeowners to put them in their windows as well? And, if they don’t…?  http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/03/30/organized-labor-or-organized-thugs-afscme-openly-threatens-wi-businesses/
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CNS News reports on Obama's beliefs several years ago:  "Now, let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein,” said Obama in his speech. “He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied U.N. resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.”
"... What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."
Obama argued that deposing Saddam militarily was not necessary, because Iraq posed no “direct threat” to the United States. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-2002-toppling-brutal-dictator-dumb
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Politio reports:  President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.

The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0311/not_a_secret_anymore_a00ccd98-0d9e-4822-8936-168f3a51b959.html
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Cleveland.com writes: A drastic overhaul of Ohio's nearly 30-year-old collective-bargaining law cleared the legislature on Wednesday after nearly two months of contentious hearings, raucous protests and passionate debate. Now the fight comes to your doorstep. Republican Gov. John Kasich will sign Senate Bill 5, which will spark a voter referendum effort by Democrats and unions to defeat the bill by putting it before voters on the Nov. 8 ballot.  http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/03/ohio_house_approves_overhaul_o.html
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What are unions advocating - and protecing?

  I wrote the following for Examiner.com/Travers City and the Boyne City Gazette:

  At a time when all Americans must be willing to cut back on expenditures and benefits in order to prevent bankruptcy, this country is besieged by union members who are failing to do the work we taxpayers pay them to do.  Wisconsin unions, including the police, are boycotting businesses which won’t publicly support them.  Some teachers in Michigan have received pay raises of 173% in as little as 11 years, and negotiated increases in health care and retirement benefits of over 200% in the same amount of time.  Keep in mind that their pay reflects a salary for only 9 months of the year. Teachers in several states are allowed to take retirement, immediately return to work full time, and then continue to retain their up to 90% of pre-retirement income while being fully paid for their new job.  It would be nice if we could do that, right? A recent poll in New York City shows that 78% of voters there think that layoffs should be based on performance and not on seniority.  Union thugs and some union members are making multiple death threats in Wisconsin, and making it personal and dangerous by protesting at the home of Wisconsin’s Governor.  We now learn that the Michigan Education Association Board of Directors have voted unanimously to “ratchet up their efforts”, authorizing “significant activities” including work stoppage.  http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/14762   
   This lines up well with the Madison Troublemaker’s School, wherein “working people” (union members) who are “under assault” learn techniques for “fighting back”, as they state.  Even if what they say is true about being under assault, that would be only the 10% of Americans who are unionized.  Many Americans feel they are under assault from having to pay budget-busting union contracts.  http://www.labornotes.org/madison.
   While we are on the subject of troublemaking, the UAW Union recently called for the unionization of the workers for foreign automakers building cars in the United States.  BMW, Volkswagen AG, Toyota and Nissan have been told to either unionize their workers or be singled out with "the largest boycott in the history of the global economy."  This planned boycott will hurt not only the workers, but the American economy. The rationale?  Union membership has declined to the point that without picking up those targeted for membership, the UAW will have no long-term future. The plan is to boycott hundreds of dealerships with the help of retirees, community groups and other unions according to the Union's Secretary Treasurer.  "The UAW has 'enhanced' its relationships with unions in Germany, Japan and South Korea to help with the upcoming campaign" according to the Royal Oak Daily Tribune.
   Returning to our state, Michigan’s budget calls for a mere 5% decrease in funding to schools.  Michigan’s teachers are forbidden by law to strike, for that takes away from their students the right to be educated.  Teachers who participate in an illegal strike are by law  supposed to lose their pay for that day, and the local union is to be fined $5000 for each infraction.  Without weighing in on the proposal for the state to appoint emergency managers for failing school districts, if the schools and their unions had not put in place perks which cannot be supported, this proposal would never have been presented by our Governor.  When unions stop their demands that we the people must pay for their mismanaged pensions and contracts, and begin to pay for non-union pensions which are underwater, taxpayers will be happy to listen.  I don’t think that will happen.  Nor is there enough money to do so.
   This newly proposed law is being roundly protested, of course, because no district wishes to reform their labor union contracts to a position that actually makes fiscal sense.  Unions certainly don’t want to allow employees the right to decide if they even want to be in a union, or if they want part of their dues going to the Democrat party, for that would deny the unions millions of dollars.  Displaying the provocation rampant among unions, the president of our state teachers’ union has compared the management legislation to slavery.  I’m sure many of the 90% who are non-union taxpayers feel that it is they who are the slaves.

Stop the EPA!; UK Telegraph on Obama Views of the World; Investigation of Wisconsin Law Breaking; Al Jazeera's Plan to Bring Children's Channel to US; Dangerous Madrassah Charter Schools; Obama Says he Can't Suspend Deportations; Illegal Chinese Women Creating New US Citizens

Americans for Prosperity writes: For the past few years the EPA has advanced greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. EPA was threatening to issue these regulations as a way to pressure Congress to pass a cap-and-trade energy tax; they failed.  Now President Obama is making good on his threat and pushing through with his disastrous plan.  Congress can stop him. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has introduced an amendment (S. Amdt. 183) to the pending Small Business Innovation Research bill that will stop EPA’s regulations. 
Reid promised to allow a Senate floor vote on an amendment offered by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that would stop the EPA from implementing President Obama’s failed global warming agenda by manipulating the 1970 Clean Air Act. Fearing he would lose the vote – Reid confirmed he won’t allow it to happen until after next week’s recess.
The stakes are huge. Remember Obama’s words: “Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way.” The cat he wants to skin through EPA action? American energy consumers and businesses. He told us so when he explained “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
If the Senate refuses to stop the EPA, the biggest winners will be our global competitors like China and India.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/03/17/harry-reid-running-scared-epa-vote-postponed-leader-tries-bring-democrats/#ixzz1HvhBUR00

The Senators we need to put pressure on to vote YES on the McConnell Amendment: Give then a call!

·         Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine

·         Sen. John Tester, Montana

·         Sen. McCaskill, Missouri

·         Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio

·         Sen. Robert Casey, Pennsylvania

·         Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan

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The UK Telegraph has this to say about our President: The past few weeks have betrayed a number of startling truths about the way Obama views the world. Here are 10 of them:
1. Obama prefers to follow Europeans rather than lead them.
2. Obama’s failure to consult Congress further illustrates that much of his campaign rhetoric about President George W. Bush’s foreign policy was bogus
3. Obama will go to war even when there’s no vital American interest.
4. Obama accepts the notion that an American imprimatur on military action is distasteful – running the risk of fuelling anti-Americanism. He seems reluctant to try to persuade nations that America is a force for good, perhaps because he is unsure of this himself.
5. Obama dithers and delays before making a decision and then appears to regret it and pursues the policy he has chosen with half-heartedness
6. Obama is a good speaker but a poor communicator.
7. Obama has a tendency to take “tough” action because he’s afraid of appearing weak
8. Obama really does believe in the “international community” and the intrinsic goodness of the UN.
9. Obama will go to war, but would prefer not to admit it.
10. Obama is prepared to go to war with muddled military objectives and no plan for the end game.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100081483/barack-obamas-libya-policy-dither-delay-distaste-and-regret/
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Redstate reports: University of Wisconsin professor William Cronon, recently elected president of the American Historical Association and Democrat party hack blogs at Scholar and Citizen, a rather pompous exercise in self-promotion, and decided to interject himself into the ongoing budget debate — guess on which side — with this post: Who’s Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere? (Hint: It Didn’t Start Here) in which he offers helpful hints like: Basic Tools for Researching Conservative Groups and undergoes a rapid descent into lunacy in which he identifies the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as the driving force behind American conservatism. As an aside, other than a belief that the rules don’t apply to them the left also holds dear the belief that any force that opposes them is the function of a conspiracy. Hence the frothing over the Koch family.
Unfortunately for Professor Cronon he works in Wisconsin, a state with a fairly “progressive” open records law.The Wisconsin GOP issued a records request:
From: Stephan Thompson
Subject: Open Records Request
Dear Mr. Dowling,
Under Wisconsin open records law, we are requesting copies of the following items:
Copies of all emails into and out of Prof. William Cronon’s state email account from January 1, 2011 to present which reference any of the following terms: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell.
Now Cronon, naturally, is crying and not only is he crying, he is crying foul. His argument, here, is essentially that it doesn’t matter whether he broke the law, his cause was just http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2011/03/27/wisconsin-gop-investigates-illegal-political-activity-makes-the-left-angry/
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Media Bistro reports: Fast Company is reporting that Al Jazeera is in talks with Comcast and Time Warner to bring Al Jazeera’s Children’s Channel to the U.S. as early as 2012. The channel carries syndicated and original programming – translated  into English – that currently runs on the Arabic-language channel of the same name.
So what kind of programs can people expect? Well, there’s Saladin, a cartoon which tells the story of the Crusades from the vantage point of a Muslim warrior, and a documentary about children living in the Gaza Strip, just to name a couple.  http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/al-jazeera-to-bring-childrens-channel-to-the-u-s_b29770
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According to Canada Free Press:

"Fethullah Gulen, was dubbed 'the most dangerous Islamist on planet earth,' is now under investigation by the FBI. for his network of charter schools throughout the country.

The 140-plus charter schools, according to a newly released federal document, may serve as madrassahs where students are “brain-washed” to serve as proponents of the New Islamic World Order that Gulen purportedly seeks to create.

The Gulen schools, which have been established in nearly every state in the union, bear such innocuous names as the Magnolia Science Academy, the Sweetwater Branch Academy, the Science Academy of Chicago, the Pioneer Charter School, the Horizon Science Academy, the Noble Academy, the Dove Science Academy, the Bluebonnet Learning Center, and the Beehive Science and Technology Academy.  http://www.redcounty.com/content/jacksonville-school-part-fbi-investigation-islamic-indoctrination
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The Washington Times reports: President Obama said Monday that he does not have the power to suspend deportations, putting the nail in a plan some administration officials had explored that could have granted de-facto legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
A number of immigrant-rights advocates have called on the president to use executive authority to stop deportations, and memos surfaced last year showing that Homeland Security lawyers had looked into the legal implications. But Mr. Obama, in a town hall hosted by the Spanish-language Univision broadcast network, said that’s not an option.
“There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president,” Mr. Obama said. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/28/obama-rules-out-back-door-legalization-of-immigran/
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The LA Times reports on efforts to unionize auto workers in the south: "It is pretty hard to see the union breaking through," said James Rubenstein, an auto industry analyst and geography professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. "It would have to be a plant where the working conditions have gotten so bad that people are up in arms and furious with management. There really aren't any bad factories anymore. These plants are now warm and fuzzy."
King's organizers have been hitting the pavement as he tries to persuade companies to allow the union to make its case directly to the workers.
King wants Hyundai and the other foreign companies making cars in the South to agree to a set of organizing principles for "fair elections" that would allow the union to make its pitch to employees in a setting that's free of workplace "tension, fear and discord."  [The union lost elections at the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tenn.]. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0329-autos-unions-20110329,0,4755334.story?page=2&utm_medium=feed&track=rss&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20latimes%2Fbusiness%20%28L.A.%20Times%20-%20Business%29&utm_source=feedburner
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The LA Times reports on "new US citizens" this time from China: From the outside, they looked like other recently built San Gabriel townhouses — two stories, Spanish style, with roofs of red tile.
Inside they were maternity centers for Chinese women willing to pay handsomely to travel here to give birth to American citizens.
Southern California has become a hub of so-called birthing tourism. Operators of such centers tend to try to blend in, attracting as little attention as possible.
But on quiet, residential Palm Avenue, neighbors had noticed an unusual number of pregnant women going in and out, and some complained about noise.
On March 8, code enforcement officials shut down three identical four-bedroom townhouses functioning as an unlicensed birthing center.  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-birthing-center-20110325,0,5726974.story
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Johnny Len, American hero; Demonstrations Turn Violent in London; Demonstrations in PA and Detroit; Pakistan's Nuclear Missiles; George Soros Plans; Biden Staff Holds Conservative Speaker in Closet; "War" Declared on Fox and Conservative Groups; $1 Billion and Counting For Libya War; Politico Lists President's Failures

I have a special favor to ask of all of you today.  Please write a note to Johnny Len, 89 years old and recently honored by becoming a US citizen.  Either comment at the end of my blog, write to me at conservative.karen@yahoo.com, or write his daughter at marchfr@gmail.com if you would.  Johnny came here from Poland, enlisted in the US Military, and won several awards for his bravery during WWII.  He spent one night, for instance, just rowing a boat back and forth across a river, delivering fellow soldiers to safety while being fired upon the entire time.  He has been afraid for decades, I've learned, that he would be deported, for he couldn't prove he is a citizen.  After recently visiting the WWII Memorial in DC, and being overwhelmed by the gratitude and standing o's he got there, his daughter finished a 2 year effort to get his citizenship.  She succeeded, and the photo on the left (Johnny in red) was taken on the day he became a US Citizen.  Let's give him our gratitude and appreciation for what he did for America, shall we?  Thank you so much!  The time for telling them is drawing to a close.  If any of you know a WWII vet, I ask if you know there is a program in place to take them to DC, expenses paid, to give them honor?  If you ask, I'll find the info for you.
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The UK Independent reports: Organisers of a huge protest against the Government's public spending cuts tonight hailed the demonstration a "fantastic success" after hundreds of thousands of people joined the biggest event of its kind for over 20 years.

Between 400,000 and 500,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters, council and NHS workers, other public sector employees, students, pensioners and campaign groups from across the UK marched through central London to a rally where union officials and Labour leader Ed Miliband condemned the "brutal" cuts in jobs and services.   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/half-a-million-activists-join-anticuts-march-2253791.html 
Now for the other side of the story, from the UK Telegraph:
A ragtag army of anarchists, squatters, student militants, environmental activists and radical academics planned the spin-off protests that led to violence during Saturday's march against cuts. Disparate groups had been plotting for months to use the 400,000-strong March for the Alternative as cover for creating mayhem across London, with the stated ambition of shutting down the capital  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8409263/TUC-march-The-militants-behind-the-violence.html

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RedState writes: Today, England’s trade unions and their friends on the Left had a massive demonstration on the streets of London. It devolved into ‘madness‘ as anarchists hijacked the demonstration, breaking in windows, assaulting police, and generally causing mayhem. Union leaders were not displeased.

Trade union leaders, who put on 600 coaches and nine trains to ferry protesters to the capital, insisted they only wanted a ‘safe, well-stewarded and family-friendly event’
But Len McCluskey, leader of the country’s biggest union, ramped up the rhetoric, saying anger towards cuts in public spending ‘needs to find a release’. http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/03/26/the-chicken-the-egg-london-unions-school-madison-mobs-on-anarchy/

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The Blaze reports:  Last week you saw SEIU protesters take over a bank in Stroudsburg, PA when they stormed a lobby in an effort to call out a CEO. Then you learned that a former (maybe) SEIU official hatched a secret plan to target JP Morgan Chase through massive loan defaults. Now we have video of United Auto Workers (UAW) protesters staging a rally outside a Bank of America in Detroit on Thursday. The gathering was so large it shut down the branch for 30 minutes.
Chants of “Money for schools, not for banks!“ and ”That’s not right!” echoed throughout the street as UAW president Bob King accused the bank of not paying taxes: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/uaw-union-protesters-shut-down-detroit-bank-of-america/

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The UK Telegraph reports: Violent anarchists who rampaged through London during anti-cuts protests are planning to target the royal wedding, police intelligence have suggested. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8410157/Anarchists-plan-to-target-royal-wedding.html

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Fox News reports from ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan is beefing up its arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles by embracing China as its new strategic arms partner and backing away from the U.S., analysts have told Fox News.  http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/26/switching-sides-pakistan-expands-arms-allegiance-china/?cmpid=cmty_email_Gigya_Pakistan_Switches_Sides%2C_Expanding_Arms_Allegiance_With_China_
and_Leaving_U.S._Behind
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Patriot Update reports: Two years ago, George Soros said he wanted to reorganize the entire global economic system. In two short weeks, he is going to start – and no one seems to have noticed.
On April 8, a group he’s funded with $50 million is holding a major economic conference and Soros’s goal for such an event is to “establish new international rules” and “reform the currency system.” It’s all according to a plan laid out in a Nov. 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for “a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order.”
The event is bringing together “more than 200 academic, business and government policy thought leaders” to repeat the famed 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that helped create the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Soros wants a new “multilateral system,” or an economic system where America isn’t so dominant.
The Soros empire is silent about this new Bretton Woods conference because it isn’t just designed to change global economic rules. It also is designed to put America in its place – part of a multilateral world the way Soros wants it. He wrote that the U.S. “could lead a cooperative effort to involve both the developed and the developing world, thereby reestablishing American leadership in an acceptable form.”
That’s what this conference is all about – changing the global economy and the United States to make them “acceptable” to George Soros. http://patriotupdate.com/4640/media-ignoring-plans-by-george-soros-to-remake-the-entire-global-economy
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The UK Daily Mail writes, as reported in the Orlando Sentinel: The White House website proudly says ‘President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.’
But try telling Vice President Joe Biden’s staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.
But some guests were shocked by the Vice President’s staff.
One emailed the paper saying: ‘I was in attendance at the Fundraiser and enjoyed a nice lunch.
‘If I had known there was a reporter stuffed in the closet, I would have been compelled to stand up and demand answers.
‘I would also like to know if this is actually legal to treat people like caged animals. I’m disgusted by these actions.’
Florida state law says kidnapping entails ‘forcibly, secretly or by threat confining, abducting or imprisoning another person against her or his will and without lawful authority.’  [You can't make this stuff up!]

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370371/Vice-Presidents-staff-lock-journalist-closet-hours-fundraiser-stop-talking-guests.html#ixzz1HnlW2JYx

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The Washington Examiner write about Brock, Media Matters' founder, who has declared war on Fox News and conservative groups such as RedState, for whom I write:  He doesn't appear to ask the IRS to change his organization's tax status as a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation.
Being a C3 puts MM in the non-profit, non-commercial sector, and it also bars the organzation from participating in partisan political activity. This new, more aggressive stance, however, appears to run directly counter to the government's requirements for maintaining a C3 tax status.
To that end, Brock told Politico that MM will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests ..." Murdoch is the founder of Fox News and a media titan with newspaper, broadcast, Internet and other media countries around the world.

Beyond the partisanship issue, explicitly declaring that your purpose as a tax-exempt non-profit public foundation is to interfere with the commercial interests of somebody else's legal business enterprise falls nowhere within the scope of purely educational activities.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/media-matters-breaking-law-its-war-fox-news#ixzz1HtcAjKay

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The Washington Examiner opines about Media Matters: Beyond the partisanship issue, explicitly declaring that your purpose as a tax-exempt non-profit public foundation is to interfere with the commercial interests of somebody else's legal business enterprise falls nowhere within the scope of purely educational activities.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/03/media-matters-breaking-law-its-war-fox-news#ixzz1HtbtBzOf

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The taxpayers' bill for operations in Libya is headed to at least $1 billion in a conflict that the Pentagon chief said Sunday was not "a vital interest for the U.S."  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/03/28/2011-03-28_droppin_bombs__bigtime_bucks_in_libya_mission_nears_1_billion_yet_nation_is_litt.html

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Left-leaning Politico, after listing this President's achievements in their eyes (there has been no successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil; President Barack Obama and his colleagues have, thus far, skillfully handled the popular eruptions in Tunisia and Egypt — though those crises are far from over; they strengthened sanctions against Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program; and reset U.S.-Russia relations and completed the New START Treaty), has this to say: But the administration’s record of failure is equally as long. It has not seriously tackled our deficit and debt problem, the single greatest threat to long-term U.S. power and influence.

Right now, nobody has a successful formula for helping Pakistan — with its 100-plus nuclear weapons — arrest its systemic decline; or for coercing North Korea to slow its growing nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. So the administration gets the benefit of the doubt on those two perplexing problems.
Obama has, however, failed in the most important presidential power: to act as a wise commander in chief. He is seriously mismanaging all three wars the U.S. is now engaged in.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52007.html#ixzz1Htgq9SYt

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