Saturday, September 17, 2011

My Boyne City Gazette Column; Obama racing towards $3 Billion more green energy loans; We lose $14 billion in auto company bailout, and that's good news?; A union raids a grain terminal, smashes windows and threatens security guards; House passes law protecting jobs from government interference; Government protected Obama investors over taxpayers in Solyndra deal


   President Obama, the EPA, and  job losses

   As have presidents before him, President Obama has enacted part of his agenda through signing statements and Presidential orders, thereby bypassing the consent of Congress.  Having failed to pass Cap and Tax, he has given the EPA the authority to impose any regulations it desires using the Clean Air Act to force companies to pay for expensive new equipment or to pay for greenhouse gas emissions. Those companies then must raise their prices to consumers. If a state refuses those mandates as Texas has, the EPA has delayed or refused gas permitting authority.  
   Petoskey recently quashed plans to erect a large windmill because of the unacceptable levels of noise it would create, noise associated with human illnesses such as high blood pressure and infrasonic waves generated by the rotors.  Add to this many other problems: they require vast amounts of land space; they don't work when it is not windy; they need to be heated when the temperature is low; they require very expensive repairs; they kill hundreds of birds; and at best they produce only 2% of needed electricity. 
   Michigan Country Lines wrote, "Even if Congress grants a reprieve on greenhouse gas regulations, red tape from the other EPA rule-making efforts will trigger higher electric bills.  Co-ops expect EPA's rule making will eventually have the practical effect of eliminating coal as a power plant option." As Barack Obama actually said during his campaign, "So if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can.  It's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that is being emitted."  Country Lines finished its newsletter to customers by writing, "We are expecting a number of power plants to simply be retired.  The cost to comply....will simply be too much.”
   The President and CEO or the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity warns of job losses totaling 1.4 million and a 23% increase in electric rates if the EPA mandates are followed.  Green energy companies paid for by taxpayer dollars via Stimulus money, such as Solyndra ($535 million) are frequently going bankrupt.
   The Wall St. Journal called for a suspension to EPA rules; The New York Post warned of an “economic train wreck” if EPA rules take effect; the Texas Public Utility Commission predicted rolling blackouts.  Even John D. Rockefeller (D) asked for a two year delay of rules.   The EPA just sought further delay in their rules, saying the regulations would cost $900 billion per year.
   Even as we hope for alternative energy to fulfill our needs in the future, it is far from being able to do so at this time.  Alternatives are fraught with problems of all kinds, which is why their production needs taxpayer dollars to sustain their production.  America does not have the revenues to keep supporting unworkable projects just to provide a few more, and increasingly temporary jobs.
   In an obvious effort to be re-elected, and knowing that this fall the Republican House planned to legislate to cancel the EPA rules,  President Obama recently did the right thing by using  a proviso allowing him to overrule the EPA.  If he is truly interested in jobs, he should also end his de facto ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and permit the building of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Midwest and the Gulf coast. I imagine he will instead cast the Tea Party as the terrorist, racist group which keeps him from his stated plans to “fundamentally change America.”
   Perhaps his next step should be the repeal of Obamacare, as it is a major reason for current unemployment in the health care fields, as well as freezes on hiring in many companies.  But don’t count on it.  
   Some members of Move On, a very liberal, George Soros-funded organization, are “wondering how they can ever work for Obama’s re-election.”  I’m quite sure they will find a way to continue to support Obama, as they will come to understand that this EPA reversal is but a temporary move.  Jimmy Hoffa, on the other hand, failed to fault Obama, proclaiming that unions are “at war” with the Tea Party and that they will “take these SOBs out.”
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National Journal writes: The Obama administration is in a race against the clock to close by month’s end more than a dozen renewable-energy loan guarantees totaling $9 billion. Of that, just over $3 billion would come from the federal government’s coffers.
It now has to do that amid an escalating political battle over a federally backed solar company spiraling into bankruptcy and facing an FBI probe. President Obama once praised the company, California-based Solyndra, as “the true engine of economic growth.”
At a House hearing Wednesday, there was bipartisan concern about risking more taxpayers’ dollars on renewable energy projects that ultimately fail. While Republicans’ rhetoric was more heated, Democrats agree it is a critical issue.gh
The loans conditionally committed to the companies borrowing from the government total $3.18 billion. The other half loaning from private lenders totals roughly $5.8 billion. Most of the companies are in the solar industry. Of the companies seeking to borrow from the Treasury Department, the biggest loan—worth $1.18 billion—would go to SunPower Corporation Systems to build a solar farm in California. Another hefty loan of $737 million would go to SolarReserve to build a solar farm in Nevada. Most of the money Treasury has available—if loans are closed by Sept. 30—is targeted to solar companies. Of the seven companies borrowing from the government, four of them are in the solar industry, two in biofuels, and one in the wind sector, according to DOE’s website.  http://nationaljournal.com/energy/government-races-to-close-billions-in-renewable-energy-loan-guarantees-20110915
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US News reports: Taxpayers will lose about $14 billion in the government's $80 billion bailout of Chrysler and GM, the White House said Wednesday, portraying the outcome as good news since the losses are far lower than originally anticipated.
Seizing on the figures, the Obama administration took credit for the resurgence of the U.S. auto industry, assuring taxpayers that the government's bailout of Chrysler and GM was an investment worth making.
A report by the president's National Economic Council noted that as Detroit automakers rebound, the taxpayers' loss from the bailout will be about $14 billion, or less than 20 percent of the $80 billion that the Bush and Obama administration used to prop up the companies in 2008. The Treasury Department had expected losses closer to 60 percent."  [Let's not forget that the unions now own a substantial part of GM.]  http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2011/09/16/ford-tv-ad-slams-obama-auto-bailouts
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The AP reports: A federal judge found a union in contempt of court Thursday, a week after police said hundreds of its members raided a grain terminal in southwestern Washington, smashed windows and menaced security guards.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton said he wants the operator of the Longview grain terminal, EGT, to provide him an accounting of the damage for purposes of gauging how much he should fine the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Locals 4 and 21. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WASHINGTON_UNION_CLASH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-09-15-20-11-51
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US Representative Sue Myrick (NC-09) today voted in favor of HR 2587, The Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act, introduced by Rep. Tim Scott (SC-01).
The bill amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from ordering an employer to relocate, shut down or transfer employment. This is especially important given the ongoing situation in South Carolina involving the NLRB and The Boeing Company, which may destroy thousands of jobs on which hardworking Americans were depending. http://myrick.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=22&sectiontree=21,22&itemid=929
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Expose Obama writes: On February 23,the government restructured its agreement with Solyndra to entice investors to sink another $75 million into the failing firm. The restructuring agreement provides that,in case of bankruptcy,those investors get to recoup their funds before taxpayers are repaid. Republican Congressman say this is a clear violation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005,which states taxpayer dollars must “not [be] subordinate to other financing.”
As such,the restructuring alone may be an impeachable offensehttp://www.exposeobama.com/2011/09/16/did-valerie-jarrett-push-corrupt-solyndra-loan-deal/
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Friday, September 16, 2011

No praying in the streets of Paris; More money to Dept. of Education results in 4 decade-low SATs; Star Wars video game adds same-sex romances; Solyndra scandal and Obama's campaign bundler; D.C. Mayor's aid admits to voter fraud; $19 Billion in fraudulent state unemployement benefits were paid; Obama administration closes public access to online database of physician malpractice records; EPA again delays global warming regulations

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."
 

The UK Telegraph reports: Praying in the streets of Paris is against the law starting Friday, after the interior minister warned that police will use force if Muslims, and those of any other faith, disobey the new rule to keep the French capital's public spaces secular. 

Claude Guéant said that ban could later be extended to the rest of France, in particular to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles, where "the problem persists".
He promised the new legislation would be followed to the letter as it "hurts the sensitivities of many of our fellow citizens".
"My vigilance will be unflinching for the law to be applied. Praying in the street is not dignified for religious practice and violates the principles of secularism, the minister told Le Figaro newspaper.
"All Muslim leaders are in agreement," he insisted. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8766169/Praying-in-Paris-streets-outlawed.html
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The Washington Post reveals: SAT reading scores for graduating high school seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday.
In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Montgomery and Prince William counties and elsewhere. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sat-reading-scores-drop-to-lowest-point-in-decades/2011/09/14/gIQAdpoDTK_story.html
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Big Hollywood reports: Apparently, after selling somewhere around 500,000 copies to unsuspecting families everywhere, the creators of the video game “Star Wars: The Old Republic” have decided to add same-sex romances to the online feature.
Say goodbye to your child’s innocence.
Though Star Wars: The Old Republic has wooing, romance, and all that soppy stuff one would expect from a BioWare game, the developer had so far said that the MMORPG would only allow coupling with NPCs of the opposite sex, not same-sex pairings. Delightfully, it’s now changed its mind, announcing that same-sex romance will be added post-launch.
The revelation comes from an official statement posted on the game’s official forums (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun):

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2011/09/15/will-game-ask-your-child-to-engage-in-same-sex-relationships/ 

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Expose Obama writes: The Obama administration’s Solyndra scandal goes beyond pressuring career federal employees to approve a $535 million loan guarantee to a company largely held by an Obama crony. When the government restructured the loan in February, officials appear to have broken the law by allowing the company’s private investors to recoup their funds before U.S. taxpayers get their money back.

Much of the media and political backlash has focused on the Obama administration’s lobbying for the loan’s swift approval in 2009. George Kaiser bundled between $50,000-$100,000 in campaign contributions for Obama in 2008, and the George Kaiser Family Foundation controls 35.7 percent of Solyndra Inc. Despite analysts’ significant misgivings about the company’s viability, the well-connected company received approval on the administration’s expedited schedule. http://us.mc1610.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?.rand=1170027557&fid=Inbox&mid=1_183194_AG/ci2IAAUZuTnHgJgCKZRWhHXQ#_pg=showMessage;_ylc=X3oDMTBucmhobGR0BF9TAzM5ODMwMTAyNwRhYwNkZWxNc2dz&mid=1_159_AD7ci2IAADslTnL0ZwVy%2BWqqbHE&fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&filterBy=&.rand=241860488&hash=5fe7693ae7d65ec92ea8670a42080e41&.jsrand=826557

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Expose Obama writes: After confessing to what appears to constitute voter fraud, high-level Democratic Party insider Andrea “Andi” Pringle has abruptly quit her post as senior aide to Washington,D.C.,mayor Vincent Gray.
Barely a week into the job,Pringle,who was Gray’s deputy chief of staff,resigned her recently position after admitting she voted in the September 2010 primary election in the District of Columbia even though she was residing at that time in neighboring Montgomery County,Md. In her resignation letter Pringle said she was quitting because she had “become a distraction from the important work of”Gray’s administration,as local media in the nation’s capital have reported.
The resignation comes as several U.S. states initiate a crackdown on voter fraud. It also comes weeks after it was reported that Lessadolla Sowers,a member of the executive board of the Tunica County,Miss.,NAACP,was sentenced to five years in prison for voting 10 times in the names of other people. http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/09/15/acorn-operative-admits-voter-fraud/
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The Wall St. Journal writes: Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show.
he amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. (See a sortable chart of each states’ overpayments) The tally covers state programs, which offer benefits for up to 26 weeks, from July 2008 to June 2011. Layers of federal programs that help provide benefits for up to 99 weeks weren’t included.

Improper payments most often occur when recipients claim benefits even though they have returned to work; employers or their administrators don’t submit timely or accurate information about worker separations; or recipients don’t correctly register with a state’s employment-service organization. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/14/billions-in-unemployment-benefits-paid-in-error/tab/print/
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The LA Times reports: Patient advocacy groups and leading journalism associations are protesting a decision by the Obama administration to close public access to an online database of anonymous physician disciplinary and malpractice records.

The groups are calling on the Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, to restore public access to the data, which journalists, researchers and consumer advocates have relied on to expose dangerous medical practices.

“Reporters for years have used this database to help document lax oversight of doctors by their state's medical boards,” said Charles Ornstein, president of the Assn. of Health Care Journalists, one of three journalism groups that sent a letter to the HRSA administrator Thursday.
“It is important to understand that the law that created the National Practitioner Data Bank requires that information about individual practitioners [doctors, nurses, etc.] must remain confidential,” said HRSA spokesman Martin Kramer.
“When HRSA became aware that a reporter in Kansas City was able to use the information in the Public Use File and other information to obtain details about a specific physician we had no choice but to take down the Public Use File.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-physician-records-20110915,0,6100698.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fpolitics+%28L.A.+Times+-+Politics%29
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The Washington Examiner reports: For the second time in four months the Environmental Protection Agency has confirmed that they will again delay the release of their much anticipated global warming regulations.
An EPA spokeswoman told National Journal Thursday that the EPA will not issue caps on greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to the Clean Air Act by their latest September 30th deadline. The EPA had originally promised the environmental activist groups suing the federal government that they would issue global warming regulations by July 26th.
The EPA's latest retreat on climate change regulation comes almost two weeks after President Obama ordered EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to rescind her ozone ruleshttp://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/epa-delays-global-warming-rules-again

Thursday, September 15, 2011

If you love Obama, help him pass this bill; Prosecutions needed at Justice Department; Nobel Prize winner disgusted over officially stated policy and resigns; China to liquidate more Treasuries and buy American companies; Obama compromises national security by telling secrets;

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."


Obama promoted his jobs bill in North Carolina on Wednesday, the third stop on what White House press secretary Jay Carney has called a ‘campaign’ for jobs.
Not for the first time, Obama called back to an audience member who shouted ‘I love you’ with ‘I love you back.’
On Wednesday he added, ‘But if you love me you’ve got to help me pass this bill.’”  http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/09/what-it-means-to-love-me--ruminations-from-barack-obama
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American Spectator writes: It's long past time to force mass resignations at, and possible prosecutions of members of, the Obama Justice Department -- and, more broadly, of the West Wing itself. Forgive all the links, but the scope of the corruption is so large as to defy adequate descriptions, in a single column, of each abomination. 
This week, meanwhile, Christian Adams continued Pajamas Media's mind-boggling series of stories on blatantly illegal hiring practices at DoJ. Please read that linked story, and all the previous stories linked therein. This is amazingly disturbing stuff. Of 106 supposedly apolitical hires by the Obama/Holder Civil Rights Division, all 106 are demonstrably, irrefutably leftist activists. Again, these are for "career" slots for which no political bias is supposed to be used to hire them.  
Buried in Christian Adams' latest story on this scandal comes what should be an incredibly explosive allegation: "Worse, Loretta King, while serving as the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights at the outset of the Obama administration, ordered the resumes of highly qualified applicants to be rejected only because they didn't have political or left-wing civil rights experience. Multiple DOJ sources with direct knowledge of hiring committee practices have confirmed this to me."
Then there is the continuing failure of systems that are supposed to ensure that military personnel abroad can get ballots cast and counted, which is part of a seemingly deliberate pattern of obstruction by the Obama/Holder Justice Department.  [And on and on it goes.] http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/15/deep-corruption-at-the-obama-j
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Fox News reports: Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that "global warming is occurring."
The official position of the American Physical Society (APS) supports the theory that man's actions have inexorably led to the warming of the planet, through increased emissions of carbon dioxide.
Giaever does not agree -- and put it bluntly and succinctly in the subject line of his email, reprinted at Climate Depot, a website devoted to debunking the theory of man-made climate change.
"I resign from APS," Giaever wrote.
"The claim … is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this 'warming' period," his email message said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The The UK Telegraph reports: The debt markets have been warned. A key rate setter-for China's central bank let slip – or was it a slip? – that Beijing aims to run down its portfolio of US debt as soon as safely possible. "The incremental parts of our of our foreign reserve holdings should be invested in physical assets," said Li Daokui at the World Economic Forum in the very rainy city of Dalian – former Port Arthur from Russian colonial days. "We would like to buy stakes in Boeing, Intel, and Apple, and maybe we should invest in these types of companies in a in a proactive way." "Once the US Treasury market stabilizes we can liquidate more of our holdings of Treasuries," he said. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100011987/china-to-liquidate-us-treasuries-not-dollars/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Last Human Events opines: Last week the History Channel premiered the documentary "Targeting Bin Laden," which celebrates “the greatest victory in the war on terror.”  It included interviews with President Obama and his key national security advisers and was chock-full of sensitive national security information that reflects the administration’s full cooperation.

The History Channel evidently tapped many of the same sources used by Nicholas Schmidle to write his incredibly “insightful” Aug. 8 article for The New Yorker.  Together, that article, "Getting Bin Laden," and the documentary recklessly expose the identities of national security personnel and our special operating forces’ techniques, tactics, procedures and technologies used in the May 2 raid to take down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Clearly politics was the administration’s rationale for being so generous with our secrets.  Our enemies and Obama’s image benefit, while our national security suffers. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46202
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Republicans beat Democrats in NY and Nevada; Tectonic shift predicted; Obama's diplomatic crisis for America in Middle East; EPA can't sue DTE Energy; Private health insurance decreases, just as Obamacare means for it to; Pennsylvania judge deems Obamacare mandate unconstitutional; NBC to cover a "Day in the life of Ahmadinejad"; Bill prohibiting NLRB to order plant closings considered; White House rushed federal reviews on solar company; Media ignores damaging info on Democrats

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."
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The Washington Post writes: With the outcome of his own reelection effort 14 difficult months away, President Obama suffered a sharp rebuke Tuesday when voters in New York elected a conservative Republican to represent a Democratic district that has not been in GOP hands since the 1920s.
Bob Turner, the winner, cast the election as a referendum on Obama’s stewardship of the economy and, in the state’s Ninth Congressional District, which has a large population of Orthodox Jewish voters, the president’s position on Israel.
With 75 percent of the precincts reporting at press time, Turner had a commanding lead, with 53 percent of the vote, compared with 47 percent for Weprin.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republican-wins-democratic-new-york-house-seat/2011/09/13/gIQAoos5QK_print.html
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Big Government wrote: Just as Weiner kept on making critical errors every step of the way as his personal scandal unfolded earlier this year, President Obama has done everything in NY-09 to show that he is no friend of Israel and has no clue how to create jobs or learn from his many mistakes.
I predict a tectonic shift among American Jews and within the Democratic Party if Obama doesn’t quietly retire. All the spinning in the world can’t spin away the trend of Scott Brown, the Tea Party victory of November 2010, and now the Turner earthquake.
Many Democrats are awakening to the reality that their party has been hijacked by a radicalism completely unfamiliar to their parents’ and grandparents’ Democratic Party. http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2011/09/13/after-turner-earthquake-in-weiner-district-democrats-civil-war-against-obama-begins/
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Daily Caller reports: Late Tuesday night National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Pete Sessions painted the Republican win in the special election in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District as a snapshot of the problems Democrats will face in 2012.
“Nevadans have handed an unpopular President Obama and his party yet another rejection message for making a bad economy worse,” Sessions added.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/14/nrcc-on-nevada-victory-democrats-just-saw-their-2012-playbook-fall-apart/#ixzz1XvS9osPO
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Fox News reports: The Obama administration is scrambling to contain an emerging diplomatic crisis in the Middle East, as Israel's closest Muslim allies lash out at the country in a string of demonstrations some fear could jeopardize an already-fragile peace. 
The latest flare-up occurred over the weekend, when hundreds of protesters in Cairo stormed the Israeli embassy, forcing Israeli diplomats to flee. That comes on top of a prior clash between Egyptian and Israeli officials after Palestinian militants coming by way of the Sinai Peninsula attacked Israeli targets last month. Three Egyptian officers were killed as Israel returned fire. 
To make matters worse, Turkey earlier this month moved to expel Israel's ambassador and downgrade diplomatic ties, escalating a long-simmering dispute over Israel's raid last year on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship. 
This all comes in the run-up to a planned vote at the United Nations on Palestinian statehood, which has the potential to fuel more unrest along the Israeli border regardless of the outcome. [I guess all our President's Muslim outreach is not getting the desired, loving results after all.]  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/12/us-scrambles-to-ease-tension-as-israel-s-ties-with-allies-erode/?cmpid=cmty_email_Gigya_U.S._Scrambles_to_Ease_Tension_as_Israel%27s_Ties_With_Allies_Erode
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Michigan Messenger writes: A federal judge has decided that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can’t sue DTE Energy for failing to install pollution control equipment at the company’s Monroe plant during an equipment upgrade last year.
Business Week
reports:
After more than a year of litigation, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman didn’t need a trial to convince him to rule in favor of the utility. He said the Environmental Protection Agency went to court too soon and needs to collect more data to determine whether improvements at Monroe Unit 2 have caused an increase in emissions. http://michiganmessenger.com/52391/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-pollution-from-dte-coal-plant
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The Washington Times reports:  "Over the last 10 years, private health insurance has continuously decreased," said Brett O'Hara, chief of the Census Bureau's Health and Disability Statistics Branch. "The number of people covered by government programs has increased for the fourth consecutive year."

According to the data, employment-based coverage dropped by 1.5 million, while the number of people covered by government programs rose by 1.8 million and now stands at 31 percent of the population. http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2011/sep/13/census-fewer-people-covered-work-health-insurance/
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Philly.com reports: The requirement in the national health-care overhaul law that individuals buy health insurance is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday in a question that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to settle.

Conner, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush, said the individual mandate is an unconstitutional extension of authority granted to the federal government under the Constitution's commerce clause.
"The nation undoubtably faces a health care crisis," Conner said. "Scores of individuals are uninsured and the costs to all citizens are measurable and significant. The federal government, however, is one of limited enumerated powers, and Congress's efforts to remedy the ailing health care and health insurance markets must fit squarely within the boundaries of those powers."
While most of the massive law can remain intact, Conner said, certain provisions are linked to the health insurance requirement and must also be struck down. Those provisions are designed to guarantee that insurance companies cannot discriminate against or deny coverage to the sick or people with pre-existing conditions.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20110913_ap_pafederaljudgerulesagainstinsurancemandate.html
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Jerusalem Post writes: In the lead-up to next week's UN General Assembly in which he was scheduled to speak, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allowed NBC's Ann Curry to shadow him in Iran for a feature entitled, "A Day in the Life of Iran's President." http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=237771
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Yahoo News writes: House Republicans, angry over the government's labor dispute with Boeing Co., are taking up a bill that would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board from ordering any company to close plants or relocate workers, even if a company flouts labor laws.
The measure would undercut a high-profile lawsuit filed in April that accuses Boeing of violating labor laws by opening a new production line for its 787 airplane in right-to-work South Carolina. The board says Boeing is punishing unionized Washington state workers for past strikes.
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The Washington Post reports: The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar-panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s factory, newly obtained e-mails show.
The Silicon Valley company, a centerpiece in President Obama’s initiative to develop clean energy technologies, had been tentatively approved for the loan by the Energy Department but was awaiting a final financial review by the Office of Management and Budget.
The August 2009 e-mails, released to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-pushed-500-million-loan-to-solar-company-now-under-investigation/2011/09/13/gIQAr3WbQK_print.html
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American Thinker writer describes America's problems with a mostly left media: I had been a leader of the Marxist students at Occidental College myself, starting in 1976 when I founded the precursor of the Democrat Socialist Alliance on campus.  The young Obama I knew was a Marxist socialist who would have been quite comfortable with Communist party members like his Hawaii mentor Frank Marshall Davis, retired domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers, or active socialist politicians like Illinois State Senator Alice Palmer.
The Obama I knew was nothing like the lifelong pragmatic centrist that he was pretending to be in the 2008 presidential campaign.  When I talked politics with the young Obama, he expressed a profound commitment to bringing about a socialist economic system in the U.S. -- completely divorced from the profit motive -- which would occur, in his lifetime, through a potentially violent, Communist-style revolution.  In this context, I saw my report on young Obama as a key piece of evidence suggesting a profound continuity in his belief system
Once I saw the significance of my face-to-face observations on the young Obama, I went out of my way to get my story on record with the Orange County Register.  I tried to contact, among others, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, the folks behind the Swiftboat ads, and the McCain campaign.
I thought I would get a phone call back from Fox News -- someone, somewhere -- and I still do not understand why no one seemed to catch on to the urgency of the situation.  I understand that I did not have audio tape of young Obama.  I did not have any photos or home movies.  Nevertheless, I was extremely active in the leftist politics and counter-cultural milieu of Occidental College in the 1970s. 
What shocked me about my experience in the summer of 2008 is that I thought my experience as a Williams College political science professor, my small business owner status, and my visibility in the Orange County community would allow my message to immediately go to the very top of the McCain campaign.  I thought my story would be welcomed by Fox News.  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/even_republicans_rejected_info_about_obamas_past.html
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

White House urged downplay of al Quaida at 9/11 services; Our President's demeanor; Lower Manhattan Development Corp refuses federal funds for Ground Zero mosque; Luminant drops 500 employees due to EPA regulations; Longshormen obey Teamsters President with violent protest; Why Congress should not pass Obam DeFazio expresses Democrat discontent with Obama's direction; Shreveport police target gun owners; White House using press office for campaign work

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."
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Daily Caller writes: President Barack Obama’s speech memorializing the thousands of 9/11 terror victims played down the identity and purpose of their attackers.
Obama did not identify the attackers as Islamists or al Qaida members, and did not describe their purpose, but labeled them vaguely as “hateful killers.”
Prior to Sunday’s commemorations, guidelines the White House issued to administration officials urged them to downplay al Qaida. The terror group’s members “still have the ability to inflict harm … [but] Al Qaeda and its adherents have become increasingly irrelevant,” according to a copy of the guidelines publicized Aug. 29 by the New York Times.
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American Thinker opines:  During the nationally broadcast 9/11 ceremony from New York, President Obama stood there in a Bill Clinton pose --  his nose perched high in the air -- seemingly unmoved even as others wept and bowed their heads in prayer.  It was a troubling and incongruous posture for the leader of a nation commemorating the worst terrorist attack in American history.
Obama's expression of remoteness and arrogant disdain was so palpable that the Wall Street Journal chose to feature it on the front page of the Monday edition.  In a striking photograph taken by Kristoffer Tipplaar, Obama is pictured with his nose at a 45-degree angle standing next to George Bush, whose face, furrowed from the effects of eight years in office, is bowed deep in prayer.  In the photo, former President Bush comes across as just the sort of humble and reverent man he is; Obama appears to hold himself above the proceedings, uncomfortable among the ordinary folk gathered for the occasion and deeply contemptuous of everyone there.
Then George Bush rose and addressed the grieving families from the fullness of his heart.  Bush read from a letter by Abraham Lincoln to a mother who had lost five sons in battle.  Like Lincoln, who signed his letter "Yours, very sincerely and respectfully," Bush managed to convey his deep sense of respect and regard for the assembled 9/11 families.  It was surely no accident that those in attendance, including thousands of family members of the victims, broke into spontaneous applause at the conclusion of Bush's moving remarks.
While Obama fulfilled his responsibilities on 9/11, he appeared to do so ungraciously, as if he resented having to commiserate with ordinary folk.  Or perhaps he was upset at having to share the stage with George Bush.  Maybe he was simply uncomfortable at having to appear before an unvetted audience of ordinary citizens, men and women who were not hand-selected members of a public-sector union or students at a liberal university.  Perhaps he feared that this audience of real Americans would allow their real feelings toward him to be known.
Most bowed their heads in sorrowful reflection, and many wept.
But president Obama did not.  He stood through most of the ceremony gazing off into the blue, as if he were some kind of grandee above it all.  No tears ran down his face, even as George Bush fought back his emotions and Laura Bush wept openly.  Obama's nonverbal message that day was, "I am not one of you.  The 'war on terror' that America entered on that fateful day is not my war.  I am superior.  I am privileged.  I can do as I wish, and no one can judge me." http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/09/the_player_and_the_president.html
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Dick Morris writes: Dear Friend,
Thanks to your support and the outpouring of 71,000 signatures, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has refused federal funds for the Ground Zero Park51 Mosque! They made their decision at their meeting on Wednesday, September 7th.
Your pressure was, I believe pivotal in stopping our tax money from going to this offensive project. We will keep you informed if the Park51 Mosque sponsors try it again!
Thank you!
Dick Morris http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/congrats-and-thank-you-federal-funds-denied-for-park51-mosque/
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Daily Caller writes: Texas energy company Luminant announced on Monday new burdensome Environmental Protection Agency regulations are forcing it to close several facilities, which will result in about 500 job losses.
The company will be idling — stopping the usage of — two energy generating units. It will also cease extracting lignite from three different Texas mines.
The EPA regulation Luminant cites as too burdensome is the new Cross-State Air Pollution rule, which requires Texas power generators to make “dramatic reductions” in emissions beginning on January 1, 2012.
[Call me confused.  Hasn't the company CEO heard that President Obama has overruled the mandates of the EPA, using a Presidential order?  Will these 500 jobs be counted as some of the jobs gained and lost by the Obama administration?]
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/12/epa-regulation-forces-closure-of-texas-energy-facilities-eliminates-500-jobs/#ixzz1XlYFr4B2
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The Stir opines: On Labor Day, James Hoffa told a pro-union crowd in Michigan to take those Tea Party ‘son of a bitches’ out. He told President Obama, who spoke just after the Teamsters president, that the unions were his army, and they were ready to fight for America.
Apparently the longshoremen (dock workers – yes, I had to look it up) of Washington State were confused as they directed their siege at another union, rather than the ‘violent’ Tea Party.  Hundreds of members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union stormed the port of Longview [http://news.yahoo.com/longshoremen-storm-wash-state-port-damage-rr-144921214.html] on Thursday morning, holding six guards hostage, breaking windows, cutting brake lines, and dumping the grain at the center of the dispute.
The union was protesting over the port hiring another union to work there, when they believed that to be their exclusive right. Because, you know, what better way to prove that you’re the best person for a job than to terrorize people and vandalize the facility in which you wish to work? The union thugs threatened the sergeants called to the scene with baseball bats, claiming that this was just the beginning. A temporary restraining order had been issued several days prior, in anticipation of such an attack. http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/125773/union_thugs_destroy_private_property
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Daily Caller opines: “The president says no games, no politics. This is all about a game in politics,” Krauthammer said. “The offset he’s proposing — this radical increase in taxes, which he proposed in 2009 and which the Congress dominated and controlled the entirely by the Democrats, rejected out of hand, at the time Obama wanted that money to offset ObamaCare, and the Democrats rejected it. So it has zero chance of passing in Congress.”
Krauthammer explained that even if the current Congress passed the bill, future Congresses may not stick to it, making it “an empty proposal.”
“Second it kicks in remarkably to the tax increases assuming it’s passed, after Obama election – an incredible coincidence,” he continued. “And lastly, it’s the increase in taxes and the offset will take a decade. All the money will be spent in a year, a year-and-a-half and it will be a decade in which it’ll paid off by Congresses in the future not bound by the current Congress.”
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Spectator writes: "In my district, the enthusiasm for him has mostly evaporated. There is tremendous discontent with his direction.… I have one heck of a lot of Democrats saying, 'I voted for him before, don't know if I can do it again.' "-- Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/13/obama-catches-barking-dog-synd
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Expose Obama writes: When Robert Baillio was pulled over by a member of the Shreveport police department,he learned that Shreveport’s Democratic mayor,Cedric Glover,believes firearms belong only in the hands of the police.
The mayor is a member of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns.” In fact,Glover is such a believer in disarming his electorate that his officers are trained to identify likely gun owners for the purpose of harassing them into giving up the practice of driving while armed.
The officer who detained Baillio – ostensibly for the improper use of a turn signal – later admitted it was actually the display of bumper stickers on the young man’s truck that prompted the stop.
One sticker read,“NRA Member.” Another proclaimed:“Armed we are Citizens,Unarmed we are Subjects.” http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/09/12/democrats-have-police-harass-gun-owners-on-the-streets/
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RedState writes: Then, a most peculiar thing happened. The White House spammed reporters’ e-mail boxes (something that was supposedly stopped in 2009) and began issuing union press releases of unions backing the unwritten “jobs bill.” For the moment, try to ignore the fact that the White House press releases are touting Obama campaign donors’ acceptance of the unwritten jobs bill. [That is another, though related, issue.]
For the White House press office to become the ministry of propaganda for the likes of AFL-CIOAFSCME, NEA, SEIU, SteelworkersTeamsters, UAW and UFCW—almost all of whom have their wagons hitched to Obama’s re-election wagon and will gain more dues from Obama’s plan to spend more money—is something that is both entirely new, as well as disturbing.
What is even more disturbing is the lack of questioning from the media. Of course, this silence could be explained by the fact that much of the media is represented by the Communications Workers of America. The CWA, for its part, did send out it’s own press release.

Regardless of their support for Obama’s unwritten plan, however, the fact that the White House’s press office is being used as a campaign vehicle on behalf of the President’s donors is uncharted territory that bears closer examination.
It’s too bad the press is unwilling to do its job once again.  http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/09/12/crickets-chirp-as-white-house-spams-sends-out-union-press-releases/
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Monday, September 12, 2011

[I was recently asked how the top 10% of wage earners could be so successful in convincing the other 90% of Americans that they should not be taxed at higher rates.] The National Taxpayers Union posts the following information: The top 10% of wage earners pay almost 70% of all taxes paid, while almost 50% of American wage earners pay NO income tax, some getting money above and beyond welfare just because they didn't earn enough.  [As Margaret Thatcher famously said, "The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.]
http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html
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[I pointed out that "the rich" must also pay Medicare taxes on every dollar they make, unlike Social Security, which is limited to the first $106,8000 earned.  I was roundly criticized as being totally wrong.]  As stated by government websites listed below:  Beginning in 2013, an additional HI [Medicare] tax of 0.9 percent is assessed on earned income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. This additional HI tax rate [above the base of 2.9%] is not reflected in the tax rates shown in the table.
For Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) program, the taxable maximum was the same as that for the OASDI program for 1966-1990. Separate HI taxable maximums of $125,000, $130,200, and $135,000 were applicable in 1991-93, respectively. After 1993, there has been no limitation on HI-taxable earnings. [That would be 2.9% plus an extra .9% for those who earn $200,000 or more.  For someone earning  $200,000, his Medicare taxes went up from $3097 (on $106,800 of income) to $7800 on his total income.  Isn't this a tax raise?  It means that for every $1 million of taxable income, the taxpayer would pay $38,000 just to cover Medicare taxes.  As you can see, this has been true for more than 8 years. Hating the rich and actually believing that they need to pay far more in taxes demonstrates an effective strategy by media and government liberals that class warfare is alive and well.  Yes, the uber-rich who escape almost all taxation by using the system of laws governing taxation [like GE's Jeffrey Immelt, Obama's jobs czar] should have those vehicles taken away.  Those who work long hours (yes, the rich really do work hard, too), provide jobs and benefits, take risks, and improve our lives should not be taxed at rates that send them and their companies elsewhere.] http://www.ssa.gov/oact/COLA/cbb.html#Series    http://www.ssa.gov/oact/ProgData/taxRates.html
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With taxation in mind, the following came to me via email.  It is verified by Snopes:
This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat.  Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day.  It's a short but good read.  Worth the time.  Worth remembering!


                                545 vs. 300,000,000 People    -By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.  [Well, most Presidents do.]

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. [At this time a possibly unconstitutional Super Committee will write the code.]

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.  No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating  deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.  If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal  government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in  Iraq and Afghanistan ....

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they  alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of  them out of office and clean up their mess!

Be sure to read all the way to the end:

                               Tax his land,
                               Tax his bed,
                               Tax the table,
                               At which he's fed.
                         
                               Tax his tractor,
                               Tax his mule,
                               Teach him taxes
                               Are the rule.
                         
                               Tax his work,
                               Tax his pay,
                               He works for
                               peanuts anyway!
                         
                               Tax his cow,
                               Tax his goat,
                               Tax his pants,
                               Tax his coat.
                     
                               Tax his ties,
                               Tax his shirt,
                               Tax his work,
                               Tax his dirt.
                     
                               Tax his tobacco,
                               Tax his drink,
                               Tax him if he
                               Tries to think.

                               Tax his cigars,
                               Tax his beers,
                               If he cries
                               Tax his tears.

                               Tax his car,
                               Tax his gas,
                               Find other ways
                               To tax his ass.

                               Tax all he has
                               Then let him know
                               That you won't be done
                               Till he has no dough.

                               When he screams and hollers;
                               Then tax him some more,
                               Tax him till
                               He's good and sore.

                               Then tax his coffin,
                               Tax his grave,
                               Tax the sod in
                               Which he's laid...

                               Put these words
                               Upon his tomb,
                               'Taxes drove me
                               to my doom...'

                               When he's gone,
                               Do not relax,
                               Its time to apply
                               The inheritance tax.

                               Accounts Receivable Tax
                               Building Permit Tax
                               CDL license Tax
                               Cigarette Tax
                               Corporate Income Tax
                               Dog License Tax
                               Excise Taxes
                               Federal Income Tax
                               Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
                               Fishing License Tax
                               Food License Tax
                               Fuel Permit Tax
                               Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
                               Gross Receipts Tax
                               Hunting License Tax
                               Inheritance Tax
                               Inventory Tax
                               IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
                               Liquor Tax
                               Luxury Taxes
                               Marriage License Tax
                               Medicare Tax
                               Personal Property Tax
                               Property Tax
                               Real Estate Tax
                               Service Charge Tax
                               Social Security Tax
                               Road Usage Tax
                               Recreational Vehicle Tax
                               Sales Tax
                               School Tax
                               State Income Tax
                               State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
                               Telephone Federal Excise Tax
                               Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
                               Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
                               Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
                               Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
                                Telephone    State   and Local Tax
                               Telephone Usage Charge Tax
                               Utility Taxes
                               Vehicle License Registration Tax
                               Vehicle Sales Tax
                               Watercraft Registration Tax
                               Well Permit Tax
                               Workers Compensation Tax


STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
 
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/reese.asp