After 4 1/2 years, I ceased daily posting to this website. However, I am sending to some people via email my research into the news. If you wish to be included, just let me know by making a comment below. I will not be posting every day as I did before.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, "...and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them."
I post few videos here, but this one is worth your time and lasts 4 1/2 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=3JDT5vBQQr8&vq=medium -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems like a good time to rerun this popular email: WHAT DEBT PROBLEM?
S&P downgrade - this puts it in perspective...
. U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000 . Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000 . New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000 . National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 . Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000
Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:
. Annual family income: $21,700 . Money the family spent: $38,200 . New debt on the credit card: $16,500 . Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 . Total budget cuts: $385
No worries. We're just fine. We'll be pulling out of this any day now. I can feel it.
"The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money" - Margaret Thatcher
The Daily Caller writes: The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) will submit a new ethics complaint against Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, The Daily Caller has learned.
The complaint, which will be filed on Thursday with the Office of Congressional Ethics, takes issue with DNC ads that appear to violate House rules.
Thursday’s complaint will be the second the RNLA has leveled at Wasserman Schultz. Earlier this week the group sent a letter to the OCE about a 30-second ad touting President Barack Obama’s jobs plan. The video featured footage from Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to a joint session of Congress.
House ethics rules prohibit members of Congress from using footage of official House proceedings for political purposes.
The letter that will be sent Thursday doubles down on the original complaint, targeting newly-released Spanish-language ads in Tampa, Denver, Miami and Las Vegas. The ads proclaim in Spanish: “In the face of Republicans, the President can’t do it alone. Read the plan. Stand together for more jobs.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forbes writes: I’ve written extensively about the looming fiscal disaster that is CLASS, Obamacare’s new entitlement for long-term care for retirees. Now, according to an official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Obama administration may be shutting the program down.
This morning, Bob Yee, who was tasked with serving as the actuary of the CLASS program, sent out an email to his colleagues, announcing his departure from HHS, given that “HHS has decided to close down the CLASS Office effective tomorrow.” Yee writes that “I believe I have made a contribution to CLASS to the best of my ability and hope I haven’t embarrassed the actuarial profession too much.” Sebelius promised that she wouldn’t implement CLASS if she couldn’t find a way to make the program work. If HHS is indeed shutting the program down, it would mean that she is honoring that promise. However, Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post is tweeting this morning that, according to the White House, the rumor is “flat-out false.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2011/09/22/hhs-official-administration-is-shutting-down-class-obamacares-long-term-care-entitlement/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RealClearPolitics writes: “I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody," Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said. Warren is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Warren hopes to face off with Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) in the general election. [Her amazing point is that manufactures of anything use the road that someone other than they built, that they used the police and fire stations, etc, that someone else paid for. Huh?] http://realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/21/elizabeth_warren_there_is_nobody_in_this_country_who_got_rich_on_his_own.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo.com reports: American diplomats led a walkout at the U.N. General Assembly Thursday as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fiercely attacked the United States and major West European nations as "arrogant powers" ruled by greed and eager for military adventurism.
The two U.S. diplomats, who specialize in the Middle East, were followed out of the chamber by diplomats from more than 30 countries. They included the 27 European Union members, Australia, New Zealand, Somalia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Macedonia, a U.N. diplomat said. Israel boycotted the speech. [How about just not giving him a Visa for travel in the US in the first place?]http://news.yahoo.com/us-walks-iran-delivers-anti-us-speech-172115419.html
NBC writes: A long-lost, highly valuable Moon rock brought back from the Apollo 17 mission has turned up in the files of Bill Clinton.
The rock was one of 50 presented to each state, and was given to Arkansas while the ex-president was governor. The rock, worth millions of dollars, had been missing since at least 1980 until an archivist found it in old gubernatorial papers. Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as "Arkansas flag plaque." The rock and a state flag were originally affixed to the plaque, but the rock had fallen off and the plaque had been misplaced.
Fox News writes: The inspector general of the Department of Justice undermined and obstructed a congressional investigation by releasing secret tape recordings that corroborate allegations of misconduct in "Operation Fast and Furious," according to a letter written by Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley.
The two lawmakers leading the probe into the Obama administration scandal claim Justice Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar compromised their investigators' ability to get to the truth and potentially prosecute those responsible for selling thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels.
Schnedar failed to even listen to the recordings before handing them over to the actual targets of the investigation, the letter alleges.
Townhall Finance writes: The newest Obama Administration scandal-de-jour, LightSquared, has quickly escalated to involve potentially "guided" testimony to two separate Congressional Committees. Additionally, two witnesses have confirmed that the White House pressured them to alter testimony in favor of LightSquared, a Virginia broadband provider whose executives also made very large Democrat Party campaign contributions.
Further, entire portions of the supposedly independent opinion submitted to a Congressional Oversight Committee regarding LightSquared from four separate government agencies contained "identical language in their written testimony" – a truly remarkable coincidence. http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bobbeauprez/2011/09/23/white_house_fingerprints_on_lightsquared_scandal
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Charles Krauthammer opines: Return of the real Obama
In a 2008 debate, Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama about his support for raising capital gains taxes, given the historical record of government losing net revenue as a result. Obama persevered: “Well, Charlie, what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.”
A most revealing window into our president’s political core: To impose a tax that actually impoverishes our communal bank account (the U.S. Treasury) is ridiculous. It is nothing but punitive. It benefits no one — not the rich, not the poor, not the government. For Obama, however, it brings fairness, which is priceless.
Now that he’s president, Obama has actually gone and done it. He’s just proposed a $1.5 trillion tsunami of tax hikes featuring a “Buffett rule” that, although as yet deliberately still fuzzy, clearly includes raising capital gains taxes.
He also insists again upon raising marginal rates on “millionaire” couples making $250,000 or more. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/return-of-the-real-obama/2011/09/22/gIQAf7dsoK_story.html
Redstate writes: A little over a month ago, in a case that drew national attention, a man was targeted at his home, shot and injured, all because he dared to run union free business. Now, in Buffalo, New York, a case involving outrageous allegations of labor-racketeering and union violence aimed at non-union construction workers and company owners is proceeding through the judicial process. Its outcome, however, may have wide-ranging ramifications on a national level.
“We’re not condoning the allegations or arguing that union officials are completely immune from prosecution,” said Jonathan D. Newman, a lawyer for the AFL-CIO. “Instead, we simply want to make sure that the [federal law] is not interpreted in a way that could have a chilling effect on legitimate union activity.”
Floyd Reports writes: Eric Holder Promotes UN Redistribution of Wealth to “Fight Terrorism”
The Huffington Postreports that the attorney general and supreme representative of his people told the UN Secretary-General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Conference “Tuesday that the Obama administration will do its utmost to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay before next year’s presidential elections.” Bloggers on the Left and theRight have noted Holder’s hypocrisy. None has yet reported that this recycled 2008 campaign promise came as part of a speech that invited the UN to create an “international legal and policy framework” for waging the War on Terror in “civilian courts,” and which pledged to redistribute taxpayer dollars to fight such “root causes” of terrorism as global income “inequality.” Eric Holder vowed to bring terrorists to the mainland, diminishing U.S. wealth to the Third World, and UN norms to the halls of power.
As the centerpiece of this feckless conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of a new UN anti-terrorism center — financed by Saudi Arabiain New York City.
On Monday, Holder addressed the United Nations Secretary-General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Cooperation. Holder asserted on 9/11 world leaders agreed “to respond to national challenges with international action, with global solutions, and with a renewed commitment to collaboration.”
Saudi Prince Faisal al-Saud insisted, “‘Terrorism has no religion’…adding that the religion that the terrorists profess should not be accused of terrorism. [And we have always been careful to say it isn't.] http://floydreports.com/the-uns-new-center-for-counter-terrorism-funded-by-saudi-arabia/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chicago Tribune writes: All it took to give nearly two dozen labor leaders from Chicago a windfall worth millions was a few tweaks to a handful of sentences in the state's lengthy pension code.
The changes became law with no public debate among state legislators and, more importantly, no cost analysis.
Twenty years later, 23 retired union officials from Chicago stand to collect about $56 million from two ailing city pension funds thanks to the changes, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation found. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-legislation-watchdog-20110921,0,4724416.story
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNS News writes: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat—and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.” http://cnsnews.com/news/article/usda-secretary-we-must-create-appropriate-transition-what-americans-eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Judicial Watch opines: Bucking the national trend to curb illegal immigration, the country’s most populous state has passed a law forbidding private businesses as well as state and local governments from screening workers’ immigration status.
It’s a baffling move on the part of legislators in a state—California— with well-documented financial struggles and a whopping 12.1% unemployment rate. Never the less, lawmakers have sent a bill to the governor that will essentially ban any employer—private or public—from using a national online database known as E-Verify to check workers’ immigration status. California cities that currently use E-Verify must immediately stop if the bill becomes law.
California’s famously liberal governor, 73-year-old Jerry Brown, is expected to sign the measure (Employment Acceleration Act) which couldn’t come at a worse time for the state with the largest concentration of illegal aliens. Besides record-high unemployment,
The move also comes as local governments across the U.S. pass laws making E-Verify mandatory, especially to screen candidates that will get paid with taxpayer dollars. California’s measure also conflicts with a bill (Legal Workforce Act) pending in the U.S. House that would require that all of the nation’s employers use E-Verify. The Texas congressman who introduced the measure says it could open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans and legal immigrants. http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/sep/calif-ban-e-verify
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The UK Daily Mail reports: The author of a controversial book that has rocked the White House has hit back at claims of plagiarism - and produced a tape recording of a female colleague complaining about the 'hostile environment'.
Yahoo News writes: The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts.
The measure failed by a vote of 195 to 230, with 48 of the chamber's most conservative Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.
It was an embarrassment for House Republican leaders who have at times struggled to rein in rank-and-file conservatives.
Republican leaders got little help from Democrats, who objected to a $1.5 billion cut to an electric vehicle loan program. Republicans included the cut to offset the cost of increased disaster aid.
The New American writes: Shell Oil is set to tap Alaska's vast oil reserves now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final air quality permit to allow exploration development north of the Arctic Circle. The permit allows Shell to set up its Noble Discoverer drillship in the Chukchi Sea along with a fleet of support vessels including icebreakers and oil spill response crafts. The company will be allowed to operate them no more than 120 days annually starting in 2012. The permit sets strict air pollution control limits on the drilling equipment.
In a press release, EPA explained the new permits are revised versions of those issued to Shell in 2010. At the time, environmental activist groups challenged them, and EPA's Environmental Appeals Board decided the original permits did not meet Clean Air Act standards. The new ones restrict fleet emissions by more than 50 percent from the levels allowed in 2010. EPA says it granted the new permits based largely on state-of-the-art pollution control equipment recently installed on the Discoverer and on Shell's agreement to further reduce emissions by adding more controls to its drilling fleet.
EPA also announced two other air permits yet to be finalized: one for Shell's drilling rig Kulluk to operate in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea next year and another for ConocoPhillips to begin drilling in the Chukchi Sea in 2013. It will issue final permits after public comment review. http://thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/9067-shell-gets-alaska-drilling-go-ahead-from-epa
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hill reports: On Thursday, House leaders will pay tribute to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), less than a year after the House formally censured the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will speak at a ceremony to unveil Rangel’s official portrait as chairman of the storied committee, which the longtime New York Democrat led from 2007 until March 2010, when party leaders pressured him to give up the post amid a growing ethics scandal.
The portrait itself was the subject of controversy. Just nine months into his term as chairman, Rangel asked the Federal Election Commission for permission to use campaign funds to pay for the portrait, which his lawyer said would cost more than $64,000. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/183047-house-leaders-to-honor-rangel-nine-months-after-censure
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The Washington Times reports: Before Solyndra went bankrupt and its headquarters were raided by the FBI, law firms that highlighted their work on the loan-guarantee package received millions of dollars in legal fees, according to payments disclosed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Morrison Foerster, which represented the Department of Energy as the loan guarantor, received more than $1.9 million for legal services. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which represented Solyndra, received more than $2.4 million.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy said it’s customary in commercial loan transactions for the borrower to pay or reimburse the fees of the lender and guarantor counsel. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/21/lawyers-netted-millions-in-solar-loan-deal/?page=all#pagebreak
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Government opines: The awful launch week for the over-hyped, expected bestseller The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by controversial author Joe McGinniss, just got worse. Much worse.
After a week of universally scathing pans from the reflexively anti-Palin establishment media, McGinniss now faces the fight of his literary life: the accusation that he seems to have knowingly submitted a book to his publisher, Crown/Random House, that was filled with unproved “tawdry gossip” and rumors that lacked “factual evidence.” http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2011/09/22/explosive-email-shows-anti-palin-author-mcginniss-random-house-likely-published-literary-hoax/
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The European Union Times reports: President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on “making” the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was “controlled,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.
“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn.
“One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters,” said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama’s chief campaign manager.
“We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it,” Dunn said.
Fox hit back this past Friday, releasing a video of Dunn speaking to high school students last June in which she lists her two “favorite political philosophers,” including Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung, whose draconian policies are blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of people. http://www.eutimes.net/2009/10/white-house-boasts-we-control-news-media/
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Fox News opines: There can be no doubt that some jobs will in fact be created by this plan. However, it is much more difficult to identify the jobs that it destroys or prevents from coming into existence. Here’s a case in point: the $4,000 tax credit for hiring new workers who have been unemployed for six months or more. The subsidy may make little difference in effecting the high end of the job market, but it really could make an impact on minimum wage jobs where rather than expanding employment it will merely increase turnover.
Since an employer need only hire a worker for 6 months to get the credit, for a full time employee, the credit effectively reduces the $7.25 minimum wage (from the employer’s perspective) to only $3.40 per hour for a six-month hire. While minimum wage jobs would certainly offer no enticement to those collecting unemployment benefits, the lower effective rate may create some opportunities for teenagers and some low skilled individuals whose unemployment benefits have expired. However, most of these jobs will end after six months so employers can replace those workers with others to get an additional tax credit.
The plan creates incentives for employers to replace current minimum wage workers with new workers just to get the tax credit. Low skill workers are the easiest to replace as training costs are minimal. The laid off workers can collect unemployment for six months and then be hired back in a manner that allows the employer to claim the credit. The only problem is that the former worker may prefer collecting extended unemployment benefits to working for the minimum wage!
The result will simply create classes of winners (those unemployed for four or five months) and losers (the newly unemployed and the long term unemployed). Ironically, the law banning discrimination against long-term unemployed will make it much harder for such individuals to find jobs. http://nation.foxnews.com/peter-schiff/2011/09/20/ceo-blows-away-congressional-hearing-i-was-fined-hiring-too-many-people
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The Blaze reports: The U.S. and other allies are scrambling for a path to push Palestinians back into direct peace negotiations with Israel, but prospects appear to be grim. Diplomatic efforts by Western member states aimed to head off a UN resolution on Palestinian statehood have achieved little or no progress thus far. In a weekend interview, an Iranian official described the effort as merely another step in a much broader plan. Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Egypt, openly conceded in an interview with Al-Watan al-Arabi, that the PA’s push for full membership as a UN member state “is a step towards wiping out Israel,“ and that ”the Palestinians must follow a correct example and complete all the measures to prevent the Zionist Entity from depriving them their rights.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/iranian-ambassador-u-n-vote-on-palestinian-statehood-is-a-step-towards-wiping-out-israel/
Yahoo Finance reports: It's not just millionaires who'd pay more under President Barack Obama's latest plan to combat the deficit.
Air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages are among those who would pay more than $130 billion in government revenues raised through new or increased fees.
Airline passengers would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip flight and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal workers would face an additional 1.2 percentage point deduction from their paychecks to contribute $21 billion more for their pensions over the same period. Military retirees would pay a $200 fee upon turning 65 to have the government pay their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. They'd also pay more for non-generic prescription drugs.
And it'll cost corporate jet owners a new $100 fee for each flight.
The fees aren't taxes. They're charged to people who use government services or receive benefits such as taxpayer-subsidized health care, and they typically defray the government's cost of providing a service. The fee on corporate jets and other private passenger planes, for example, would raise about $1 billion a year to help finance the cost of air traffic control. Recreational flyers won't have to pay. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-government-fees-pepper-apf-4120540659.html?x=0&.v=2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Yahoo News writes: U.S. hospital and drug industries lashed out at provisions of President Barack Obama's deficit reduction plan that would saddle them with more than $200 billion in federal healthcare spending cuts.
Lobbyists vowed to fight proposals for Medicare, which covers the elderly, that are aimed at saving $135 billion on prescriptions by requiring drugmakers to provide steeper rebates similar to those for Medicaid, which covers the poor.
The New York Post wrote: Not that there was ever any doubt, but the Associated Press ran the numbers on President Obama’s soak-the-rich tax scheme, and guess what?
The president’s a fibber.
The news agency culled figures from a number of key authorities -- like the IRS and the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center -- and demonstrated conclusively that top US earners pay far higher rates than other folks. And foot a wildly outsized portion of the federal tax tab.
Townhall writes: In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention, as the Attorney General in Mexico is so concerned, she’s made the point that at least 200 Mexicans have been killed with these weapons and probably countless more,” Issa said.
Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to “walk,” and that only 600 have been recovered, http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2011/09/20/attorney_general_in_mexico_200_murders_result_of_operation_fast_and_furious
[I have read part of President Obama's Jobs Bill because I read about the following and wanted to find out for myself. I don't understand why the next two items are not being shouted about on Fox News......]
1)Obama’s Jobs Bill, Section 376: A State shall not be immune from a suit brought in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this Act. A State's receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity.The Constitution states that any powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution are reserved, respectively, to the states or the people. [Apparently all that needs to happen to change the Constitution is to have a President just write a law turning it on its ear. For sure - don't take my word for it; go to: No wonder he is repeating that this needs to pass now - before we can read it.]
The Supreme Court ruled that federal courts may enjoin state officials from violating federal law. [Just change the federal law with an Executive Order - easy!]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Redstate writes: On Wednesday, the public comment period will be closing on a Department of Labor proposal that the majority of America knows nothing about and even fewer understand.
If enacted as drafted, the union cronies within the Department of Labor will require every private-sector employer and service provider (whether or not they ever talk directly to employees) to file financial statements with the Obama Labor Department if the service provider’s services indirectly affect employees’ choice to unionize or not. Unless you act by commenting here, this rule change will likely take affect. [See link to and sample comment below.]
Once the financial information—which includes the service provider’s entire company (or firm’s) receipts (even from other clients)—are submitted, it will become public information. It will then be published on the Department of Labor’s website and available to union bosses. What’s more, willful failure to file the financial information is a criminal violation, punishable by either imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Here are the types of vendors (and the employers that hire them or purchase goods from them) who will likely be caught up in the DOL’s new proposed rules: (for instance)
Writers (or authors) who may write a website, publication, sell a book, or other material that may promote a positive employee relations culture, thereby dissuading employees from unionizing
Website designers who may be contracted to design and build a website to be used for internal communications with employees
Consultants who coach management on how to structure and effectively manage employee teams
The Detroit Free Press writes: Both of Michigan’s U.S. senators are now calling for a formal investigation of Chinese trade practices related to electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow wrote U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Wednesday asking for action to determine whether China is attempting “shakedowns” of American companies to turn over their technology secrets.
Today, Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin sent his own letter to Kirk and acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank.
“The Chevrolet Volt represents intellectual property developed in the United States and paid for by General Motors research and development dollars,” Levin wrote. “The U.S. government must not allow China to coerce American companies to give their technology away to foreign competitors in order to have access to their markets.” http://www.freep.com/article/20110916/BUSINESS01/110916044/Stabenow-Levin-join-call-probe-China-electric-vehicle-shakedowns-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- World Net Daily reports: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona has constituted a special law enforcement posse to investigate allegations brought by members of the Surprise, Ariz., Tea Party that the birth certificate Barack Obama released to the public April 27 might be a forgery, WND has learned.
The posse, under the authority of Arpaio's office, will consist of two former law enforcement officers and two retired attorneys, headed by Michael Zullo, a retired police detective originally from Bergen County, N.J.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MSNBC reports: More than 1,000 demonstrators descended on New York City's Financial District on Saturday for what could be a days-long protest of what they said was corporate greed favoring the rich at the expense of ordinary people.
The rally, dubbed Occupy Wall Street on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook where word was spread, spurred the New York Police Department to lock down Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, local media reported.
Police set up checkpoints to allow only those who could prove they lived or worked on Wall Street to enter, the New York Daily News reported. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44564317/ns/us_news-life/
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RedState writes about the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration : Their list of “demands” includes (among others), this gem:
Yahoo News reports: Speculation over the state of relations between Washington and Riyadh were stirred again this week when the former Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, wrote a blistering New York Times opinion piece.
He warned that if Washington carried out its threat to use its veto to halt the Palestinian drive for statehood recognition in the UN Security Council, it would put at risk Saudi-US cooperation in numerous areas.
"The 'special relationship' between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people," Prince Turki wrote.
International Business Times opines: Michele Bachmann has made more factual gaffes than any of the other Republican presidential candidates, according to PolitiFact.com, a nonpartisan Web site that vets public officials' statements. Of the 35 Bachmann statements that PolitiFact.com had vetted as of Friday, only 14 percent were rated true or mostly true. Nine percent were rated "half true," and 77 percent -- more than three-quarters -- were rated mostly false, false or "pants on fire," a category reserved for assertions that are not only inaccurate but "ridiculous," according to the editors of the Web site.
Rick Perry scored better than Bachmann, but still very poorly. PolitiFact.com vetted 81 statements by the Texas governor and found that 23 percent were true or mostly true, 27 percent were "half true," and 49 percent were mostly false, false or "pants on fire." Mitt Romney (48 percent true, 35 percent false) and Ron Paul (55 percent true, 23 percent false) had more respectable numbers, though by no means excellent. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/215496/20110917/bachmann-campaign-2012-gaffes-politifact-hpv-vaccine.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Daily Caller reports: A little lizard is creating big concerns for Texas.
The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, also known as the Sand Dune Lizard, inhabits the Permian Basin, one of America’s top energy producing regions. It contains more than 20 of the nation’s top 100 oil fields and, in the counties identified with lizard habitat, is keeping an estimated 27,000 jobs intact.
Despite the White House’s laser focus on jobs, the administration has its sights on putting these lizards on the Endangered Species List — a move which would severely limit oil production and kill area jobs in order to make the Permian Basin a protected habitat for the lizard.
“The wolf at the door is the lizard; we’re concerned listing it would shut down drilling activity for a minimum of two years and as many as five years while the service determines what habitat is needed for the lizard. That means no drilling, no seismic surveys, no roads built, no electric lines,” said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association (PBPA).
News Busters writes: Even at the $100,000 under $200,000" level, taxes were 11.9 percent and 16.3 percent respectively.
Yet when you get to $500,000 and over, the numbers jump to as high as 25.8 percent and 29.7 percent respectively.
That certainly isn't what the media are telling you, is it?
To be sure, at the $10 million and over number, taxes drop a bit because these folks clearly make more of their total income in investments than most people. However, even they paid higher percentages than anyone making less than $500,000 AGI or TI.
As such, this idea that millionaires are in general paying less tax percentagewise than - ahem - secretaries has absolutely no basis in fact.
Wouldn't it be nice if so-called journalists actually shared this information with the public rather than the "rich aren't paying their fare share" nonsense we constantly hear and read?
National Review editors write: Mr. Obama and his favorite campaign underwriter, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, have tried to bring in a bumper crop of political hay out of the fact that Mr. Buffett alleges that he pays taxes at a lower effective rate than does his secretary. There’s rather less to that than meets the eye: Mr. Buffett, the third-wealthiest man currently walking the earth, pays himself a salary of only $100,000 a year, and says his secretary earns around $60,000. (If his secretary has a spouse similarly employed, the couple may very well earn a combined salary higher than Mr. Buffett’s, as indeed do any number of police detectives and high-school principals.) Mr. Buffett pays no taxes on dividends accruing to the many shares of stock he holds in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, simply because the firm does not pay a dividend, while most of his personal wealth has been put into a trust. Each of those facts — the relatively low salary, the lack of dividend payments on Berkshire Hathaway shares, the trust — is part of a calculated strategy to avoid paying taxes.
Beyond his centerpiece tax hike, the president has packed his proposal with a mess of phony savings. Amusingly, the president has included “savings” from forgone Iraq and Afghanistan spending that was never going to happen in the first place — and then counted interest that was never going to be paid on the money that was never going to be borrowed for the spending that was never going to take place. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/277700/obama-hits-bottom-editors?page=2
NBC Chicago reports: A new hotline being unveiled Monday aims to help illegal immigrants clear up confusion about deportation.
Modeled after those for the homeless or victims of domestic violence, the "first-in-nation" crisis hotline will serve callers 24 hours a day. It launches Monday afternoon at Jane Addams Hull House.
Volunteers will take calls and direct people facing deportation to lawyers and social service agencies by asking them a checklist of questions to help determine the right course of action.
"In the last five years, 48,330 people have been deported from the Chicago ICE region, leaving an estimated 80,550 children without a parent," the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said in a statement.
Chuck and Stephanie Fromm already have been fined $300 for holding Bible studies for their friends at their home, and they face the potential for additional fines of $500 for each study held, according to a legal team taking their case to court.
The newest conflict over Bible studies in homes in America arose in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where city officials say city code section 9-3.301 prohibits religious organizations in residential neighborhoods without a conditional-use permit, a sometimes very expensive procedure.
The code cites “churches, temples, synagogues, monasteries, religious retreats, and other places of religious worship and other fraternal and community service organizations.”
But a Bible study in a home? http://visiontoamerica.org/4119/city-demands-christians-get-permit-for-bible-study/
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I began this blog when my local liberal newspaper (in a Republican district) not only refused to print any of the negatives about Barack Obama, but then refused to run my letter to the editor entitled Ten Reasons Not To Vote For Obama! I realized it's time to do something more than fume about it! I hope you learn some things your paper is not teaching you....
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