Saturday, December 11, 2010

Obama as Seen by the Asia Times; Obama's Biggest Lie; Obama's Freudian Slips; Obama's Approval Rating Drops;

The Asia Times opines:Napoleon was a lunatic who thought he was Napoleon, and the joke applies to the 44th United States president with a vengeance. What doesn't the president know, and when didn't he know it? American foreign policy turned delusional when Barack Obama took office, and the latest batch of leaks suggest that the main source of the delusion is sitting in the Oval Office.
The initial reports suggest that the US State Department has massive evidence that Obama's approach - "engaging" Iran and coddling Pakistan - has failed catastrophically. The crisis in diplomatic relations heralded by the press headlines is not so much a diplomatic problem - America's friends and allies in Western and Central Asia have been shouting themselves hoarse for two years - but a crisis of American credibility.
How do we explain the gaping chasm between Obama's public stance and the facts reported by the diplomatic corps? The cables do not betray American secrets so much as American obliviousness. The simplest and most probable explanation is that the president is a man obsessed by his own vision of a multipolar world, in which America will shrink its standing to that of one power among many, and thus remove the provocation on which Obama blames the misbehavior of the Iranians, Pakistanis, the pro-terrorist wing of the Saudi royal family, and other enemies of the United States.
Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. With a Muslim father and stepfather, and an anthropologist mother whose life's work defended Muslim traditional society against globalization, Obama harbors an overpowering sympathy for the Muslim world. He is not a Muslim, although as a young child he was educated as a Muslim in Indonesian schools. His vision of outreach to the Muslim world, the most visible and impassioned feature of his foreign policy, draws on deep wells of emotion;

In fairness to Obama, he simply carried forward the Bush Administration's benign neglect of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Bush confirms in his just-published memoirs what was evident at the time: he followed the advice Defense Secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to avoid open conflict with Iran. If provoked, Iran was capable of producing a large number of American casualties in Iraq in the advent of the 2008 elections.  The difference between early 2008 and early 2010, to be sure, is that Iran has had two years to enrich uranium, consolidate its grip on Syria, insert itself into Afghanistan, stockpile missiles with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and build up its terror capabilities around the world. The window is closing in which Iran may be contained. Covert operations and cyber-sabotage might have bought some time, but benign neglect of Iran has reach its best-used-by-date.
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The Washington Examiner writes: No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."
Obama made that particular pledge in a speech to the American Medical Association in June 2009, but he said the same thing, with slight variations, dozens of times during the health care debate. And now, exactly eight months after he signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, we're seeing just how empty the president's promise was.
The New York Times reports there is a "growing frenzy of mergers" in the health care field in which hospitals and other care providers, pressured by the new law's provisions, are joining forces to save money. "Consumer advocates fear that the health care law could worsen some of the very problems it was meant to solve," the paper reports, "by reducing competition, driving up costs and creating incentives for doctors and hospitals to stint on care, in order to retain their cost-saving bonuses."
The Obama administration's answer to the problem will undoubtedly be more regulation. But the wave of mergers is just one of many signs of trouble with the new law.
For example, we know that the government's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has found that the new law will increase health care costs, rather than reduce them, in the coming decade.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2010/11/empty-promises-health-care-will-haunt-obama#ixzz168ioGTJS
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From the liberal Politico: Freudian slips may haunt Obama
President Barack Obama, fresh from his drubbing in the 2010 midterms, is trying to revive his fortunes by pursuing a path toward the middle.
But Obama’s effort to overhaul his image is encumbered by conflicting impressions of who he is that have been engraved in voters’ minds by his own words.

First, there was his condescension toward blue-collar Midwestern voters. At a San Francisco fundraiser, he said, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

There was also the case of Joe the Plumber. “I think when you spread the wealth around,” Obama told him, “it’s good for everybody.”

Other presidential Freudian slips even left a sense that Obama is hostile to accumulating wealth. His lectures to bankers, credit card company executives and health insurers sounded unduly harsh to some voters. Perhaps they felt validated in their suspicions when Obama said in April, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

Added to this, in the weeks before the midterms, was the vision of a snarling partisan voters hadn’t previously seen, the former avatar of “hope and change” dressing down House Minority Leader John Boehner and dismissing Republicans as Slurpee-guzzling incompetents.

First was the suggestion, made during an interview on a Latino radio station, that Latinos should “punish” their “enemies” at the polls, followed later by the awkward attempt to walk it back by saying he meant “opponents.”
Obama then undermined the sincerity of his repeated calls for Republicans to work with him as equals, saying as the midterm campaign headed into its final week, “We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.”
In Obama’s case, the accumulation of comments that seem contrary to the image he conveys not only will create perceptions the president will find difficult to dislodge but could prompt questions about his sincerity.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45103.html#ixzz168Xpp6wE
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President Obama, writes the LA Times, has passed the Big 4-0 -- going the wrong way.
Turns out voters were not simply satisfied to spank the Democrat and his party in the Nov. 2 midterm elections with historic losses in the House of Representatives.
Obama's job approval rating as calculated by the Zogby Poll has now sunk to 39%, a new low for his 22-month presidency that began with so much hope and excitement and poll numbers up around 70. As recently as Sept. 20, his job approval was 49%.
A whopping 60% now disapprove of his job, up from 51% disapproval Sept. 20. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/11/obama-romney-palin.html
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Friday, December 10, 2010

Ethanol Production Killing Birds; Dealing With Climate Reality As It Unfolds; Florida Offshore Oil Drilling Banned til 2017; House Panel May Be Eliminated' Environmental Groups In Error; Changing the Rules of Evolution

The Columbus Dispatch, in Ohio, ran a large article on Nov. 28, 2010 concerning American efforts for ethanol production.  It could wipe out as many as 2/3 of the bird species that nest near farms.  For instance, in Ohio the northern bobwhite and Henslow's sparrow each have seen their populations decline by more than 90%, while the numbers of meadowlark have declined more than 70%.  Where are the environmentalists when we need them?  When demand for biofuels rise, farmers convert more grasslands to farmland.
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Conservativeblog.org writes: As UN negotiators attempt to lower the expectations bar on the climate change talks that kicked off recently in Cancun, keep your eye on Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s special climate change envoy and the U.S. government’s representative at the talks. Already he is promising U.N. officials that the U.S. will cut carbon emissions even though Congress never approved legislation and the American people are against any such measures.
Todd Stern told the Washington Post:
[T]he United States is standing firm on its pledge to reduce its emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 even without domestic legislation having passed, and would not endorse any deal in Cancun that did not embody the fundamental political agreement forged last year. http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2010/11/29/us-special-envoy-promising-co2-emissions-cuts-even-without-d.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nationalcenter%2Fblog+%28Amy+Ridenour%27s+National+Center
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The Local, Sweden's News in English writes: Stockholm is forecast to experience its coldest seasonal temperatures for over 100 years this week as winter weather takes hold of the country, according to the Swedish Meteorological Institute (SMHI).  http://www.thelocal.se/30516/20101130/
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The UK Daily Express writes: TRYING to halt global warming is a waste of time – we should simply adapt to it, a leading climate expert claimed yesterday.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an “illusory goal”, said Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University, Australia.
He said that CO2 – emitted by burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas – is a “minor” greenhouse gas. And he argued that the past decade has seen a “lack of warming” and that “no significant warming has occurred since 1958.
Professor Carter spoke out as governments from around the world gather for the latest climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.
He told Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation: “Despite an estimated spend of more than £64billion since 1990 looking for a human global temperature signal, assessed against geological reality, no compelling empirical evidence yet exists for a measurable, let alone worrisome, human impact on global average temperature.
“Dealing with climate reality as it unfolds represents the most prudent, practical and cost-effective solution to the global warming/climate change issue.” http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/214792/-Learn-to-live-with-climate-change-says-leading-expert
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Oil drilling off the coast of Florida will be banned until 2017 because of the recent Gulf oil spill, says this Administration.  [Meanwhile Brazil and others will be drilling and charging us for the oil they take.]
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Bloomberg reports: Republicans will eliminate the House committee created by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to highlight the threat of climate change, Representative James Sensenbrenner, the top Republican on the panel, said today. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/pelosi-s-climate-change-panel-will-become-casualty-of-republican-takeover.html
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The Orange County Register writes: Frantically focused special interest groups have a habit of defeating their own goals, and hurting their own self-interest, from an excessive pursuit of it. Labor unions are a classic case in point: They have often been so greedily intent on exacting every concession from the companies they are bargaining with that they put those companies out of business, and their own members out of work.
Environmentalist groups are another classic case of this. They have routinely pushed programs that allegedly benefit the environment but, in reality, don't. For example, they helped stop nuclear power 30 years ago, which surely exacerbated the very problem – global warming – that so concerns them now. A number of prominent Greens now realize their error. Very rapidly, corn that was being used to feed animals and people was diverted to the ethanol boondoggle. The U.S. ethanol industry now uses over 40 percent of all the corn grown in the United States (fully 15 percent of the corn produced worldwide). One unintended negative consequence was rapidly discovered: shortages in cattle feed, and human food. This was folly incarnate: taking perfectly good food and trying to use it to derive fuel. By 2008 food prices were at record levels.
The ethanol subsidization program was dubious from the start. A major study in 2005 argued that ethanol actually requires 29 percent more fossil-fuel energy to produce than the energy it delivers. http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/ethanol-278591-corn-gore.html
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American Thinker writes: An article from Science magazine published in September makes the case that human activity is causing the mass extinction of ocean life. "The current global crisis may therefore permanently alter the biosphere's taxonomic composition by changing the rules of evolution."  ...........  
[While admitting that "mass extinction has occurred before in geological history", that species have arisen and then become extinct, Jeffrey Folks, the author of this article believes:         
"the idea that human activity should be radically curtailed in a vain attempt to halt natural fluctuations in climate or sea life is worse than absurd: it is an irrational form of extremism that serves as the justification for an all-out assault on human liberty." 
For the environmental faithful, however, there is a simple solution to the purported damage that humans do to the environment. It is the same solution environmentalists have been hawking for fifty years, ever since the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Stop using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically altered seeds. Stop mining and logging. Stop drilling for oil and gas. Stop manufacturing cars, and stop building suburban homes. Stop consuming meat and dairy products, and stop producing so many flatscreen televisions and everything else that comes out of a factory. And stop having children. Just stop. Stop and stare wistfully off into the pleasant green countryside. Stop and relish your single bowl of rice and locally grown turnip. Huddle there in your damp, chilly cave, warm yourself with your hand-woven linen, and bask in the knowledge that when your brief existence draws to a close, you will have had no impact whatsoever on the earth or its millions of species.

In the absence of such fear, [he writes], vast government agencies would have no justification for existing, hedge funds trading carbon credits would collapse, and generous ethanol, biofuel, wind, and solar subsidies would be withdrawn. 

Fortunately for the environmental profiteers, there always seems to be a new scientific theory -- itself generously subsidized by taxpayer money (as is Alroy's research, which is funded in part by the National Science Foundation) -- confirming the need for these parasitical institutions. Now that the theory of man-made global warming has been unmasked as the fraud that it is, get ready for the next-generation justifications for global environmental control. Mass extinction is probably as good a candidate as any. http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/apocalypse_now_or_pretty_soon.html
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The Register reveals: A group of top NASA boffins says that current climate models predicting global warming are far too gloomy, and have failed to properly account for an important cooling factor which will come into play as CO2 levels rise.
According to Lahouari Bounoua of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and other scientists from NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), existing models fail to accurately include the effects of rising CO2 levels on green plants. As green plants breathe in CO2 in the process of photosynthesis – they also release oxygen, the only reason that there is any in the air for us to breathe – more carbon dioxide has important effects on them. 
The NASA and NOAA boffins used their more accurate science to model a world where CO2 levels have doubled to 780 parts per million (ppm) compared to today's 390-odd. They say that world would actually warm up by just 1.64°C overall, and the vegetation-cooling effect would be stronger over land to boot – thus temperatures on land would would be a further 0.3°C cooler compared to the present sims.
International diplomatic efforts under UN auspices are currently devoted to keeping global warming limited to 2°C or less, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/08/new_model_doubled_co2_sub_2_degrees_warming/

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Verified by FactCheck.org - Babies Equal Income; Misuse of Welfare Checks

The Truth: according to TruthorFiction.com:
Dr. Sebastian J. Ciancio, of Danville, Illinois, told TruthOrFiction.Com that he is the author of  this commentary about a conversation that he had with an emergency room physician.  He emailed his commentary to syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh and a few friends. Soon afterwards his commentary went viral on the World Wide Web.
Dr. Ciancio also told us that several unauthorized versions of his email have been circulating the Internet that have included photos and might have been modified by others.

Here is the Dr. Ciancio's letter:

Dear Mr. Limbaugh,

I was speaking to an emergency room physician this morning. He told me that a woman in her 20's came to the ER with her 8th pregnancy. She stated "my momma told me that I am the breadwinner for the family." He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies and babies get money for the family. The scam goes like this: The grandma calls the Department of Children and Family Services and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for these children. DCFS agrees and states that the child or children will need to go to foster care. The grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and thus receives a check for $1500 per child per month in Illinois. Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free, not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid) plus a monthly "Link" card entitling her to free groceries, etc, and a voucher for 250 free cell phone minutes per month. This does not even include WIC and other welfare programs. Indeed, grandma was correct in that her fertile daughter is the "breadwinner" in the family.

I hope you share this story with your listeners so that they know how the ruling class spends their tax dollars.

Also, many thanks for the fine service you provide in educating people about the merits of conservative thinking.

Cheers,

Sebastian J. Ciancio, M.D.
Urologist, Danville Polyclinic, LTD.

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Free Republic writes: Bay State welfare recipients can play the slots, pick up a six-pack of beer or nab a flat-screen plasma TV under loosey-goosey Bay State restrictions that allow those on the dole to treat taxpayers’ wallets as their own personal ATM.
Recipients of the Department of Transitional Assistance programs get Electronic Benefits Transfer cards that work like regular debit cards, allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs and use it for whatever they want - all with scant oversight by the state.
State officials were unable to say how many liquor stores and bars accept the EBT cards. Nor could they say for certain that welfare cash isn’t being used on Lottery tickets or even casinos. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2603660/posts
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The Bangor Daily writes: In the wake of turmoil in California where lawmakers found welfare recipients were using their state issued debit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs at casinos and massage parlors, two key state lawmakers say Maine faces the same accountability issues. http://new.bangordailynews.com/2010/07/18/politics/maine-lawmakers-seek-control-over-welfare-cards/
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Here's my question:  how could anyone argue against the need for changes in our Welfare laws?  This method of ours just creates more Americans with an entitlement mentality, more people pushed into lifetime welfare instead of a ride out of poverty.  Why are they not at least having to do some menial labor in order to get their money - and this includes those who will possibly be receiving Unemployment Compensation for up to three years if President Obama's ideas are passed into law....

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Al-Jazeera TV on Your Tax Dollars; Sharpton Vs. Limbaugh; More ObamaCare Waivers; Republicans Are Hostage Takers; Ethanol Credits on Chopping Block; WikiLeaks Shows US Lack of Security

Floyd Reports writes: One of the Obama administration’s top priorities is “diversifying” the nation’s airwaves. Its commitment to public broadcasting and outreach to Muslims has made the unthinkable possible: This week, publicly funded Pacifica Radio will begin airing an hour of “news” from the radio affiliate of Al-Jazeera television. AJE news will be heard early in the morning in three of the network’s five markets — including New York City. The network’s remaining two affiliates — including WPFW in Washington, D.C.– will pick up the AJE broadcast early next year.
By 2011, the voice of Osama bin Laden’s preferred network will be heard in two of the three 9/11 attack sites at taxpayer expense.
According to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s 2009 Annual Report, taxpayers gave Pacifica Radio’s five stations nearly $1.6 million last year alone, down slightly from $1.75 million in 2008. The station-by-station-breakdown is as follows: http://floydreports.com/you-pay-1-5-million-for-public-radio-to-air-al-jazeera-news/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=fc6622f257-
EO_12_07_201012_7_2010&utm_medium=email
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Floyd Reports reports: Al Sharpton told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz he has scheduled “a series of meetings next week” with federal officials to discuss kicking Rush Limbaugh off the airwaves. Rush’s rhetoric, Sharpton claims, is racist. However, this time the FCC is headed by an Obama appointee equally committed to removing conservative ideas from the airwaves.
The good reverend said he has been “talking with all the civil rights groups” about joiningthe anti-Limbaugh purge, saying, “We’re not going to stand by and let publicly regulated radio and television just go for marketing and promoting this kind of racism.” As examples of Limbaugh’s alleged racism, Sharpton cited Paul Shanklin’s satirical song “Barack the Magic Negro” (a term first coined by the Los Angeles Times) and his use of the phrase “Driving Miss Nancy” (which Limbaugh uttered while bashing “the white racist leadership of the Democratic Party”). http://floydreports.com/al-sharpton-will-ask-the-fcc-to-kick-rush-off-the-air/?utm_source=Expose+Obama&utm_campaign=fc6622f257-EO_12_07_201012_7_2010&utm_medium=email
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News from Atlanta: The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.

One of the more recognizable business names included on the newly-expanded list of waivers issued by the feds is that of Waffle House, which received a waiver on November 23 for health coverage that covers 3,947 enrollees. Another familiar name was that of Universal Orlando, which runs a variety of very popular resorts in the Orlando, Florida area.  Universal was given a waiver for plans that cover 668 workers.

These waivers deal with limited health benefit plans, sometimes referred to as "mini-med" policies, which companies as large as McDonald's use for some its employees. http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2010/12/07/more-health-waivers/
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Real Clear Politics quotes Obama at yesterday press conference about the "deal" he is promoting on the bush Tax Cuts: "It's tempting not to negoitate with hostage takers unless the hostage gets harmed," President Obama said at his Tuesday press conference.

"In this case, the hostage was the American people," Obama said.  [Can any of you remember any other President who has denigrated in such terrible ways those who disagree with him?  It is common practice for this one, I'm sorry to say.  He is just un-Presidential.]  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/12/07/obama_calls_the_gop_hostage_takers_over_tax_cut_compromise.html
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The Wall St. Journal adds: Does President Obama like or loathe the two-year tax deal he has struck with Republicans? It was hard to tell from his grudging, testy remarks Monday and yesterday, but perhaps that's because he realizes he is repudiating the heart and soul of Obamanomics as the price of giving himself a chance at a second term. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703296604576005182416429402.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
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The Washington Post writes: President Obama, long criticized by many in his own party for lacking appropriate passion, delivered a blunt and confrontational message to his liberal critics during a press conference today. Faced with increasing criticism from liberals over his decision to compromise with Republicans on a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, Obama openly chastised the party's base -- warning them of being "sanctimonious" and reminding them that "this country was founded on compromise". He also rejected the idea that he had failed to make good on a series of promises he made to the left (and the country) during the 2008 campaign. "There is not a single thing that I said I would do that I have not done or tried to do," Obama asserted. Obama, to be fair, didn't only single out Democrats for criticism. He compared negotiating with Republicans to negotiating with hostage takers and said he only did so because of the danger that the hostage -- aka the American public -- would be harmed. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/the-anger-of-barack-obama.html?hpid=topnews
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National Review Online writes: After more than three decades, the U.S. ethanol blenders’ tax credit and the ethanol-import tariff that was put in place to offset it are set to expire at the end of the year. The way things are looking, we may finally be rid of these indefensible and parochial market distortions. The ethanol tax credit alone costs taxpayers over $6 billion per year. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/254780/let-protectionism-expire-harry-de-gorter
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ABC News reports: The Australian government Wednesday blamed the United States, not the WikiLeaks founder, for the unauthorized release of about 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables and said those who originally leaked the documents were legally liable. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd also said the leaks raised questions over the "adequacy" of U.S. security over the cables. "Mr (Julian) Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network," http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=12340124
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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Whatever it Takes; Another Ethics Complaint Against Rangel;

Ronald Reagan, Jr.'s statement on Hardball with Chris Matthews:  Ends Justifies the Means: — Bring a Gun [or whatever it takes] to Fight for Social Justice   [his father must be rolling around in his grave.] http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ends-justifies-the-means-ron-reagan-jr-bring-a-gun-to-fight-for-social-justice/

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The New York Post reveals: The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned.
The FEC is acting on a complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center filed after The Post reported last month that Rangel paid nearly $400,000 from his PAC.
Lawmakers are only allowed to use money in their individual campaign funds for legal fees, or they can set up legal defense funds for such costs.

The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member.
Yesterday, the Harlem pol said he's ready to put the incident behind him.
"In all fairness, I was not found guilty of corruption, I did not go to bed with kids, I did not hurt the House speaker, I did not start a revolution against the United States of America, I did not steal any money, I did not take any bribes, and that is abundantly clear," he said.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/rangel_in_deeper_with_new_ethics_NN5qV3bXesmA99ZPPDytiO#ixzz17LqJ0ymF
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Wire Update writes: In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange demanded the complete removal of every United States leader, from the lowest government official all the way to the highest office, for their involvement in spying on UN officials — including the resignation of President Barack Obama. In other words, anarchy. "The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be credible nation that obeys the rule of law," Assange told the newspaper through an internet phone call. "The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval. Obama should say what he knew about this illegal order and when he knew it. If he refuses to answer or provide no evidence that approved those actions, he should resign." http://wireupdate.com/wires/12995/julian-assange-calls-for-anarchy-complete-removal-of-us-chain-of-command-including-president-obama/
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The Washington Times writes: "We have heard the grass roots loud and clear [regarding fluorescent light bulbs], and will have a hearing early next Congress," said Mr. Upton, a Michigan Republican who is facing several others in his party in a bid to earn the gavel of the powerful committee [the House Energy and Commerce Committee]. "The last thing we wanted to do was infringe upon personal liberties — and this has been a good lesson that Congress does not always know best."
Indeed, the compact fluorescent lamp, or CFL, has become a symbol of government overreach for many consumers, who wonder what was wrong with the incandescent bulbs that have lighted their kitchens, family rooms and bedrooms for more than a century.
Still, they were slow to catch on, prompting industry, environmentalists and lawmakers to team up and give consumers a push. Mr. Upton joined Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, to co-sponsor legislation to phase out incandescent bulbs beginning in 2012. Their bill was incorporated into the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which passed with wide bipartisan majorities and was signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush.
But in the intervening years, CFLs have joined low-flow toilets in drawing the scorn of consumers, and some argue that the bulbs' mercury content poses a safety and environmental hazard.
Some consumers even said they are stockpiling incandescent bulbs to defy the phaseout. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/6/upton-flips-a-switch-on-cfl-bulbs/
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The Daily Caller writes: New Jersey Republican Rep. Scott Garrett plans to introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives Tuesday that would require all legislation to cite an enumerated power in the Constitution that grants authority for the bill’s mandate.
Garrett, founder and chairman of the House Constitution Caucus, told The Daily Caller that the resolution is the direct result of the American people’s expressed desire for Congress to return to its Constitutional roots. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20101207/pl_dailycaller/resolutiontobeintroduceddemandingalllegislationciteconstitutionalauthorization
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The Washington Times writes: Members of Congress on Monday called on President Obama to issue a public correction after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the U.S.'s motto in a speech last month, rather than "In God We Trust."
The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said the president was making "a pattern" of dropping the word "Creator" when he recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.
"By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent you are casting aside an integral part of American society," the representatives said in a stern letter asking for him to correct the speech.
Last month, while speaking at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Mr. Obama was trying to stress the similarity of the U.S. and Indonesia and said "it is a story written into our national mottos."
"In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum — out of many, one," he said, then compared it to the Indonesian motto, "Bhennika Tunggal Ika — unity in diversity." http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2010/dec/6/obama-muffed-us-motto/
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Monday, December 6, 2010

Dream Act Fatwa; The Helen Thoma Award; America's Wikileaks Debacle; Texas Law Proposed Against Obamacare

Americans for Legal Immigration reveals: Dream Act Amnesty supporters, including the President of Immigration Clearinghouse, have issued a fatwa calling for the murder of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC's President William Gheen following his appearance on Fox and Friends.

Local police and the FBI have been contacted and reports have been filed concerning these threats and civil rights violations that are coming from Dream Act Amnesty supporters. The Dream Act Amnesty would give legal status, college access, and voting rights to over 2 million illegal aliens.


"I try my best in the national media to represent the 59% of Americans found in certified polls who oppose the Dream Act Amnesty," said William Gheen President of ALIPAC. "Now I am receiving death threats from Dream Act leaders who are also posting my home address, while encouraging grenade attacks on me because I oppose Amnesty."

William Gheen appeared on Fox News at 6:15am EST on Tuesday, November 30, 2010. In the interview, Gheen said that the Dream Act Amnesty was a "Political Teddy Bear with a hand grenade in it," and that passage of the Dream Act Amnesty could eventually lead to "millions of innocent American students, workers, and voters being displaced and replaced by illegal aliens." http://www.alipac.us/article5896.html
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CNN reports: The alma mater of journalist Helen Thomas will not bestow an award that had been given in her name, making the decision after the 90-year-old scribe made more controversial comments about Jewish people.
Wayne State University, the Detroit, Michigan, institution that Thomas graduated from in 1942, said in a statement Friday that the school will no longer give out the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media Award.
"Wayne State encourages free speech and open dialogue, and respects diverse viewpoints," the school's statement said. "However, the university strongly condemns the anti-Semitic remarks made by Helen Thomas during a conference yesterday." http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/12/04/helen.thomas.award/
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The Hill reports: [Want to understand what would make Newt Gingrich say that this [Obama] Administration] "deserves a large share of the blame for the massive amounts of classified information revealed through WikiLeaks?" Gingrich said the leaks are "a scandal of the first order" and that they demonstrate the Obama administration is "shallow" and "amateurish" when it comes to national security.
"You have a private first class who downloads a quarter million documents, and the system doesn't say, 'Oh, you may be over extended?' I mean, this is a system so stupid that it ought to be a scandal of the first order," Gingrich said. "This administration is so shallow and so amateurish about national security that it is painful and dangerous."
He also said the U.S needs to act fast in shutting down WikiLeaks and finding Julian Assange.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/132037-gingrich-blames-obama-on-wikileaks-labels-assange-a-terrorist
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The UK Independent opines: Battered by a scandal which seems to provide a fresh wave of embarrassment with each passing day, the US government is being forced to undertake a major reshuffle of the embassy staff, military personnel and intelligence operatives whose work has been laid bare by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
The Obama administration was yesterday facing a crisis in its diplomatic service, amid growing evidence that the ongoing publication of a tranche of supposedly-confidential communiqués will make normal work difficult, if not dangerous, for important State Department employees across the world.
A mere 1,100 of the roughly 250,000 secret documents obtained by the website have so far been published, leading to fears that the unhelpful revelations will continue for months to come, destabilising US relations with almost all of its key allies and inflaming tensions with already-hostile governments in the Middle East and beyond. "In the short run, we're almost out of business," a senior US diplomat told the Reuters news agency, saying it could take five years to rebuild trust. "It is really, really bad. I cannot exaggerate it. In all honesty, nobody wants to talk to us ... Some people still have to, particularly (in) government but ... they are already asking us things like, 'Are you going to write about this?'  [This is what happens when people such as Kiss of rock fame vote for the first black President because it says something so good about himself and America.  Now he regrets that he didn't take into consideration that he was totally unqualified to do the work.  Thank you, all those who did the same in spite of evidence being available.  I have a suggestion for others who are filled with remorse - work like there is no tomorrow to rid this country of this President at the next election, fight with all your strength to repeal, defund, and prevent more of his Progressive agenda while he remains in office.  You owe it to America.] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/us-forced-to-shake-up-embassies-around-the-world-after-wikileaks-revelations-2152167.html
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Fox News reports: Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.
 
Assange warned: “We have over a long period of time distributed encrypted backups of material we have yet to release. All we have to do is release the password to that material, and it is instantly available.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/05/wikileaks-ready-release-massive-insurance-file-shut/#ixzz17KtyME00
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Texans take their rights seriously. A bill that has been prefiled for the 2011 state legislative session creates penalties of up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in jail for anyone guilty of the "felony" of attempting "to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation" of Obamacare, the president's plan that effectively nationalizes the health-care decision making process. http://snooperreport.com/snooper-report/tag/texans-take-their-rights-seriously
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