912 Patriots of Lower Bucks - Your Daily Updates ALL in ONE Place!
January 8, 2013
Quote:
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all."
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"Benghazi-gate" Is Not The Only National Security Cover-up By The Obama Regime
07 January 2013
Written by Col. Tom Snodgrass
The Nation Still Awaits Explanation Of The Mysterious LA Missile Launch
Our National Security Illusion Built On Cover-ups
The fact that the American people are being lied to concerning the motivation of the Islamic jihadists who attacked the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi and killed four Americans, the reason for the U.S. unpreparedness for the attack, and the governmental incompetence in responding to the attack is beyond question. However, this incompetence and mendacity is not the only incompetence and mendacity that the regime of President Obama is covering up. On November 9, 2010, a Los Angeles CBS news crew in a helicopter videotaped a flying object streaking off NW into the stratosphere leaving a contrail behind it with the exact profile of a ballistic missile after launch. The Obama regime denies that it was a missile.
Here is the video for you to judge for yourself. HERE
Based on the location of the CBS helicopter, it is estimated that the missile launch occurred about 30-35 miles west of Los Angeles from a position in the Pacific Ocean north of Catalina Island. Incompetence and "Spinning" Begin
Obviously this missile launch startled and alarmed the residents of Los Angeles who immediately began demanding an explanation from the U.S. Government. But the U.S. military officials were as mystified as the civilian populace.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is working with U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) to investigate the mystery launch. They issued the following statement:
NORAD and USNORTHCOM are aware of the unexplained contrail reported off the coast of Southern California yesterday evening. At this time, we are unable to provide specific details, but we are working to determine the exact nature of this event. We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation, and from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
In reaction to this NORAD statement, USAF Brigadier General Jim Cash (retired), who had served as NORAD's Assistant Director of Operations, issued this informed analysis of NORAD's statement:
"NORAD's first shot out of the barrel was "it" was not a threat to North America. That suggests to me that NORAD did in fact observe a missile launch and assessed that it was not a threat to the nation, as the trajectory was away from the mainland.
"There is an assessment process that occurs anytime NORAD observes a missile launch. Utilizing a set protocol, the team leader, who in the past was a Brig. General, assesses whether the launch is a threat to the North America. If assessed as a threat the commanding four- star General is called, who then contacts the President. This entire process must be completed in minimum time, as the President has only a short time himself to make a decision and implement his plan.
"This process is non-negotiable, and practiced so often it is a reflex.
"Now for the language they used, and why it's significant. When they said 'it was not a threat,' 'it' means they meant a missile. Had it been a plane, meteor, or something else, they would have identified it as such; they wouldn't have said 'it.'
"The next statement made by the Pentagon was even more telling. As reported by the media, the Pentagon announced they were going to do a missile count to make sure 'it' was not one of ours. They didn't say they were going to count planes, they said a 'missile count.' In my opinion that statement clearly acknowledged that 'it' was indeed a missile, and they were trying to figure out whose it was."
The Pentagon Tells Americans Not To Believe Their "Lying Eyes"
Americans don't trust Homeland Security or its mission
By Coach Collins, on January 6th, 2013
by George Spelvin, staff writer
Even though the 2013 Rand McNally road atlas does not identify any town named Glynco, Ga, this sprawling 1,600 acre campus with its own zip code-31524- is the locus for extensive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expansion. "Plans are currently under way to build and expand facilities at Glynco to conduct a wide array of programs to support the Homeland Security mission." Located in the midst of numerous senior citizen and retirement communities, the center is in Golden Isles, "...a series of barrier islands noted for their recreation and retirement living atmospheres" according to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center description of the area. (1)
This Training Center is listed on page 1 of a recent, enormous, $1.6 billion DHS ammo buy which included radioactive prevention thyroid pills, radiation proof booths, and those nasty, hollow point bullets outlawed by the Geneva Convention protocols! Georgia Governor Nathan Deal is one of the governing board members of the newly developed Obama administration's formula for rapid response within the homeland. (2)
One commenter to a recent story about the DHS ammo purchase writes, "Everyone must go to the "Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership" website and order the book, GUN CONTROL: GATEWAY TO TYRANNY. It fully details how US Gun Control Acts, specifically the 1968 Gun Control Act was lifted verbatim from the 1938 Nazi Weapons Act for total gun ban. It explains that Thomas Dodd, former US Senator Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) father, was able to obtain the written version of Nazi gun control laws after the Nuremburg Trials which he participated in." (3)
Another commenter explains: "The courts have consistently ruled that the police do not have an obligation to protect individuals, only the public in general. . ." In Warren v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, 444 A. 2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981) the court concluded without exception "...when a municipality or other governmental entity undertakes to furnish police services, it assumes a duty only to the public at large and not to individual members of the community." Police responded to only 200,000 of 700,000 calls for help in Dade County according to former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith. (3)
Yet another contributor to the ammo purchase story wrote: "Hitler disarmed the Jews and others, then murdered about 15 million; Stalin disarmed the Russians, then murdered about 40 million; Mao disarmed the Chinese peasants, then murdered nearly 100 million; over 170 million people murdered BY THEIR OWN GOVERNMENTS in the 20th Century. . .AFTER they allowed those governments to disarm them!" (3)
Chairman Mao, whose little red book is a liberal professor's must read, is quoted as saying, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Stalin would agree, having allegedly said, "The only real power comes out of a long rifle."
"This whole thing scares me and I feel helpless," admits Barb on the ammo thread. She speaks on behalf of a lot of Americans who are "feeling helpless" in the face of a $1.6 BILLION ammo purchase clearly intended for use within the United States! Why is our federal government arming itself against the people it was created to serve? Just what is going on, America?
AAA warns E15 gasoline could cause car damage
Gary Strauss, USA TODAY November 30, 2012
E15, a higher blend of ethanol and gasoline, has rolled out in a handful of states. But its use in older vehicles is generating warnings from AAA, which says E15 could be harmful to pre-2012 vehicles.
The AAA says the Environmental Protection Agency and gasoline retailers should halt the sale of E15, a new ethanol blend that could damage millions of vehicles and void car warranties.
AAA, which issued its warning Friday, says just 12 million of more than 240 million cars, trucks and SUVs now in use have manufacturers' approval for E15. Flex-fuel vehicles, 2012 and newer General Motors vehicles, 2013 Fords and 2001 and later model Porsches are the exceptions, according to AAA, the nation's largest motorist group, with 53.5 million members.
"It is clear that millions of Americans are unfamiliar with E15, which means there is a strong possibility that many may improperly fill up using this gasoline and damage their vehicle," AAA President and CEO Robert Darbelnet tells USA TODAY. "Bringing E15 to the market without adequate safeguards does not responsibly meet the needs of consumers."
ZOA is opposed to the proposed nomination of Chuck Hagel to be U.S. secretary of defense. ZOA has now weighed-in on John Kerry, who President Obama has nominated to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. See below for details.
Please call your U.S. senators yet to raise your concerns about Chuck Hagel - reported to be President Obama's nominee for secretary of defense?
Pennsylvania:
Call Sen. Casey 202-224-6324
Call Sen. Toomey 202-224-4254
New Jersey:
Call Sen. Lautenberg 202-224-3224
Call Sen. Menendez 202-224-4744
Delaware:
Call Sen. Carper 202-224-2441
Call Sen. Coons 202-224-5042
Kerry Problematic Choice for Sec. of State
Kerry Said Syria's Assad Could 'Change' for the Better, Supports Israel Giving up Golan Heights & Eastern J'lem
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to further troubling positions adopted by Senator John Kerry (D-MA), President Barack Obama's nominee to replace Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. According to a leaked diplomatic cable reproduced in the British Guardian newspaper, during a February 2010 visit to Middle East, Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went to Qatar and told Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani and the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa, that he believes Syrian president Bashar al-Assad "wants change ... Senator Kerry said he had wanted a U.S. Ambassador in Syria a year ago, but agreed that the naming of an Ambassador [since then] is a positive development." (The ZOA issued a detailed list of John Kerry's problematic record on Israel and the Middle East).
Senator Kerry also agreed with the Emir "that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu .... needs to compromise and work [for] the return of the Golan Heights into a formula for peace ... Senator Kerry responded [to the Emir's call for the U.S. to open the Golan issue to negotiation] that the U.S. would accept a legitimate discussion of the Golan Heights."
According to the leaked diplomatic document, Senator Kerry also said "we know for the Palestinians that control of Al-Aqsa mosque and the establishment of some kind of capital for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem are not negotiable ... Senator Kerry asserted that HBJ [Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani] was preaching to the converted [when he spoke about the need to rebuild Gaza] and told the PM he was 'shocked by what I saw in Gaza'" ('US embassy cables: Qatar urges Israeli-Palestinian peace effort,' The Guardian [London], November 28, 2010).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, "It is a matter of deep concern to any opponent of terrorism and appeasing Middle Eastern dictators, as well as supporters of Israel, that John Kerry supports the idea of Israel withdrawing from the strategic Golan Heights, which Israel captured after unprovoked Syrian assault in 1967.
"The Golan Heights commands entry into the Israel's Galilee plains below and indeed, until 1967, Syria illegally occupied parts of Israeli Galilee. Israeli farms and homes were regularly shelled and it was once common to see Israeli tractors that were armor plated ploughing fields. Had Israel not held the Golan in 1973, the Syrian surprise attack almost certainly would have cut Israel in half. Senior military strategists, including U.S. generals, have attested that retaining a presence on the Golan is essential to Israeli defense. Yet Senator Kerry clearly supports the idea that Israel should withdraw from the Golan Height for a piece of paper.
"We also know that from this leaked cable as well as other aspects of his record on the Middle East that Senator Kerry has been indulgent of the Assad dictatorship, regarded Bashar al-Assad as someone who could make peace and that he has even been described by the Washington Post as an 'admirer' of Assad. Assad has now murdered 60,000 Syrians, yet Senator Kerry thinks Israel should give up the Golan Heights to Syria.
"It is also deeply troubling that Senator Kerry has told Arab leaders that he believes that eastern Jerusalem, which includes large Jewish neighborhoods and the holiest sites of Jewry, should form part of a Palestinian capital.
"It is clear Senator Kerry has both blinded himself to the realities of Palestinian non-acceptance of Israel and would support an Israeli concessionary policy towards an unreconstructed terror-sponsoring Palestinian regime."
"The ZOA believes that Senator John Kerry, for both American and Israeli interests, is a problematic choice for Secretary of State."
WND EXCLUSIVE
Fed-up Americans to flood D.C. with outrage
"They picked a fight with the wrong people"
by Chelsea Schilling
This month, hundreds of thousands of Americans will march on Washington, D.C., in defense of the nearly 56 million babies killed in the womb since the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion 40 years ago - and now even the millions who can't travel the nation's capital will flood the offices of President Obama, key government officials and mainstream news media with as many as 2 million empty red envelopes bearing a very clear message:
"This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty, a life taken that was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility and life begin at conception."
Jan. 22, 2013, is the 40th memorial of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Now that day has been designated Red Envelope Day as Americans plan to send a visual expression of moral outrage deep into the halls of Congress, beyond the marble columns of the Supreme Court and into the Oval Office.
Red Envelope Day 2013 gives participants the choice to send red envelopes to:
I know there is a lot going on and many are over whelmed. But please keep in mind that is the objective. Cloward and Piven - over load the people so they become so over whelmed they give in and give up. So just keep this in mind. A lot of what is going on is to divert our attention from the real issue. BENGHAZI.
PLEASE purchase 10 postcards. PLEASE ask EVERYONE you know and all members of your group to purchase just 10 postcards and send them to Representative Darrell Issa.
Examples of what you can put on the card are:
WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHO GAVE THE ORDER TO STAND DOWN IN BENGHAZI and PROSECUTE THEM TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW
"WE THE PEOPLE" DEMAND AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF BENGHAZI
"WE THE PEOPLE" DEMAND TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT BENGHAZI
Use one of the statements, use them all or make up your own but please just 10 postcards from the post office or purchase Gadsden postcards from agenda21today.com. You can buy just a couple or you can buy 1000 for $85 (includes shipping in the USA).
Phone calls are also recommended. Just think if we and everyone we knew sent 10 postcards and made 1 phone call to Rep. Issa it might just make a difference.
Representative Darrell Issa
Washington DC Office * 2347 Rayburn House Office Building * Washington, DC 20515 * Phone: 202-225-3906 * Fax: 202-225-3303
The stamp for a post card is 32 cents. That is $3.20 for postage on 10 cards. My Gadsden cards ARE IN THE MAIL. Please let me know if you decide to participate. Let me know if you are getting a group together for a postcard writing campaign to Rep. Issa.
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests"- Patrick Henry
To fix "THE SYSYEM" We must become "THE SYSTEM" - k. bracken
"The change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice." - Barack Hussein Obama
"The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." - Ayn Rand
If you want to understand what is happening to our beloved country please watch this important movie. Please share it with everyone.
Memorial Lecture
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013
7:30pm
The Annual Jay Michael Swartz Memorial Lecture: An Evening with Michael Medved
For Men and Women Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013 7:30pm *Pre-lecture dinner 6:15pm At the Glazier Jewish Center | 25 N. State St.
Fee: $36 *Pre-lecture dinner with Michael Medved (includes lecture): $100
AMERICAN JEWS AND CHRISTIAN EVANGELICALS: IRRECONCILABLE ENEMIES OR INEVITABLE ALLIES?
Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and bestselling author. His daily show is heard by over 3.75 million people across the country. Born in Philadelphia, Michael won admission to Yale at age 16 as a National Merit Scholar. He majored in American History and graduated with honors, before attending Yale Law School, where his classmates included Bill and Hillary Clinton. Michael wrote his first bestseller at age 26 - "What Really Happened to the Class of '65?" - a skeptical reconsideration of the "counterculture" of the 1960's that became a weekly TV series on NBC.
Many American Jews distrust and even fear the rise of the evangelical Christianity. They see this religious movement as a threat to the survival of Judaism in the United States and to the continuance of a society that values pluralism and religious liberty. On the other hand increasing numbers of American Jews view evangelicals as natural allies, not just when it comes to support of Israel, but on a range of social issues here in the U.S. In this provocative presentation, Michael Medved will explain where Jews and Christians already agree, and where they can never agree, in their participation in the ongoing battles shaping American society.
Lubavitch of Bucks County * 25 N State Street * Newtown, PA 18940 * 215-497-9925
Dear Fellow Conservative,
Registration for CPAC 2013 is now open! The American Conservative Union's legendary annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is scheduled for March 14-16, 2013 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
Register Now for CPAC 2013 Don't miss your chance to help take our country back to the right. To register now and reserve your space, visit conservative.org.
Join the Celebration In honor of CPAC's 40th Anniversary, we look forward to joining conservatives from across the nation for CPAC 2013, celebrating the accomplishments of the movement while also energizing the next generation of conservatives.
New Location CPAC 2013 boasts a new location at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Complimentary CPAC shuttle busses to and from the Gaylord Center will be available at convenient locations across the National Capitol Region. Details will be released in the coming weeks; please visit conservative.org for updates.
CPAC Past & Present The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation's Capital since 1973, and it now stands as the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. Additionally, the ACU this year hosted two regional CPACs designed to energize and mobilize Midwest and Mountain West conservatives, giving them the tools needed to defeat the liberal agenda in 2012 while also highlighting rising conservative stars and issues in the region. Stay tuned for details on 2013 regional CPAC locations!
Interested in Sponsoring CPAC 2013? National and local partners are critical to achieving a successful event. CPAC 2013 provides an excellent platform to promote your message and network with the leaders and activists who are on the frontlines of the conservative movement. We invite you to review the special opportunities available to join the action at CPAC 2013 by visiting conservative.org.
This email was sent by: American Conservative Union 1331 H. St., NW Washington, DC, 20005,
The Great Betrayal: Obama's Wars and the War in Iraq
Jul 18th, 2012
Daniel Greenfield's new Freedom Center pamphlet,The Great Betrayal: Obama's Wars and the War in Iraq, is an effort to understand the politics of the "war on terror" which has now reached a final punctuation point with the U.S. decision to speed its withdrawal from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan (where success was once deemed so crucial to national security), and to practice an incoherent form of regime change in Libya while ignoring more serious threats in Syria and Iran.
The war on terror began, Greenfield shows, as an admirable bipartisan commitment soon after the tragedy of 9/11-an effort to transcend party lines not only to punish those who attacked our country but also to interrupt planning for further attacks and try to stop the international spread of the Islamic jihad behind the attacks. But the Democratic Party, with the honorable exception of a few individuals like Richard Gephardt and Joe Lieberman, turned its back on a war soon after authorizing it, and did so at a time when American troops were facing hostile enemy fire.
Although Senate Democrats on the intelligence oversight committee had been granted access to every piece of data available to the White House, they now accused President Bush of tricking them to secure their approval. In fact, their own about-face was entirely dictated by political considerations when a Sixties antiwar activist, Howard Dean, surged ahead in the Democratic primary polls and it appeared for a moment that Americans were on the side of retreat and capitulation.
Although regime change in Iraq had been official U.S. policy since Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, Democratic senators such as John Kerry who only months earlier had supported the war effort now launched demoralizing attacks on the American commander-in-chief and his troops in the field, stigmatizing it as "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time." If the truth was the first casualty of their war against the Bush administration, the second casualty was the principle of bi-partisanship that had guided foreign policy debates throughout the Cold War, the principle that "politics stops at the water's edge." Now partisan politics trumped security.
The unrestrained attacks on the Iraq War as illegal and unjustified went largely unanswered by Republicans who failed to call the Democratic saboteurs of the nation's war effort to account or to decry the risk their cynical attacks posed to American servicemen and women on the battlefield. As Greenfield demonstrates, the Democrats' partisanship had consequences not only in Iraq but elsewhere in the region: the paralysis that resulted from their "anti-war" campaign led straight to the destruction of Lebanon and the installation of a terrorist army, Hezbollah, there as a regime within a regime. And it emboldened an overtly Islamofascist regime in Iran not only to supply the IEDs responsible for most of our troop fatalities in Iraq but also to proceed with a nuclear program aimed directly at Israel and the West.
The Great Betrayal shows that Barack Obama's abandonment of Iraq is a betrayal of all the Americans and Iraqis who gave their lives to establish freedom in that country. And the result of his policies in Afghanistan has been as disastrous. While the President presented his rationale for pursuing war there as the pursuit of al-Qaeda, after abandoning his "surge" (which resulted in two thirds of all America's Afghan casualties there and the resurgence of the Taliban allies of al-Qaeda), he blithely prepared for withdrawal as if national objectives had been met.
Order your copy of The Great Betrayal today by clicking here.
Individuals sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood's sinister agenda have infiltrated the Obama Administration.
Brainwashed by the Muslim Students Association and then propelled in to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the David Horowitz Freedom Center tracks the path of Huma Abedin and other Muslim sympathizers who have navigated their way into positions of great influence in the Obama Administration. Everything is revealed in the explosive new Freedom Center pamphlet, "The Muslim Brotherhood in the Obama Administration," written by Frank Gaffney, national security expert who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center is committed to educating the public on the Muslim Brotherhood's sinister Agenda. That is why we are giving away this pamphlet for FREE.
Monday 3-4pm "Bordering on Insanity" - Sue Payne and Frosty Wooldridge
Tuesday 3-4pm "American Freedom Watch" - Karen Schoen with contributors John Estabrooks and Dr. Ronald Myers
Wednesday 3-4pm "Patriots Watch" - Billy Baer and Dan Haggerty
Thursday 3-4pm "America's Black Shield" - Ted Hayes and Terrance Lang
Friday 10-11pm "Veterans' Weekly Forum" - Rich Davis and David Bellavia
January 5, 2013
Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits
By REED ABELSON
Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers.
Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own.
In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers' filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014.
In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month.
The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.
Under the health care law, regulators are now required to review any request for a rate increase of 10 percent or more; the requests are posted on a federal Web site, healthcare.gov, along with regulators' evaluations.
The review process not only reveals the sharp disparity in the rates themselves, it also demonstrates the striking difference between places like New York, one of the 37 states where legislatures have given regulators some authority to deny or roll back rates deemed excessive, and California, which is among the states that do not have that ability.
New York, for example, recently used its sweeping powers to hold rate increases for 2013 in the individual and small group markets to under 10 percent. California can review rate requests for technical errors but cannot deny rate increases.
Action Alert! Courageous Legislator Needs Your Support
Friends of Liberty,
In the APC Newswire sent out last week there was a local news story from Fauquier County Virginia concerning Martha Boneta, a farmer whose private property rights are being seriously violated by the county.
Virginia Delegate Scott Lingamfelter heard about Mrs. Boneta's struggle and has come to her aid. On Tuesday, January 8th at 11:00am Delegate Lingamfelter will be holding a press conference introducing House Bill 1430, also known as "The Boneta Bill".
This bill is designed to protect Mrs. Boneta and others like her from the grasping hands of government entities acting illegally and infringing private property rights.
If you are in the area and can attend the press conference, I strongly urge you to do so. Even if you don't live in Virginia you can help by spreading the word. Send this to as many people as possible in order to bring this struggle to the attention of the public.
Delegate Lingamfelter has stuck his neck out in order to sponsor this bill and it is imperative that we show our support. If you can attend the event, please do so. If not, please help support this courageous State Legislator by emailing him personally at slingamfelter@scottforVA.com to voice support, and please share this email with your own lists of friends, neighbors and activists from across the country.
I urge each and every one of you to take on this fight as your own, if they can do this to Mrs. Boneta, they can do it to you. A victory for freedom in Virginia is a victory for all Americans.
In Liberty,
Tom DeWeese President American Policy Center
RedState Morning Briefing
For January 8, 2013
Somewhere in America, a Notre Dame fan thinks God is smiting them for letting Barack Obama speak on campus. Really, the answer is much simpler than that - just root for the SEC. For those of you adamantly anti-Alabama, Joe Scarborough might just be insufferable for you this morning. Fair warning.
1.Harry Reid Plotting to Abolish the Filibuster
There is no breathing room this year for those of us who fight endless GOP capitulations in Washington.Within the first few weeks of the new session, we must confront a grave assault on the Filibuster in the Senate.
Harry Reid is plotting some version of the "nuclear option" to limit the filibuster when the Senate convenes to adopt the rules package for the new Congress.It essentially works like this.Every rules change in the Senate requires a 67-vote threshold to adopt the change.Harry Reid is offering the absurd argument that the Senate is not a continuous body, and is therefore not governed by the rules of the previous session on the first day of the new Congress (before the rules package is adopted).With that in mind, he plans to abolish the filibuster on "the motion to proceed" and limit the minority's ability to offer amendments when they vote on the rules package.He plans to do this with a simple majority vote.
Although the Senate already convened last Thursday, Reid used a parliamentary procedure blocking any adjournment of the Senate, so that the body will technically remain in its first "legislative day." This will provide him with the opportunity to pull the trigger later this month.. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Witness Protection Program Needed: Obama's NLRB Gives Unions License To Intimidate & Retaliate Against Witnesses
It's a strange thing when, in a democracy*, dissent is stifled by those that presume to value dissent.
Notwithstanding the union-backed effort to end Senate filibusters, time and time again, both publicly and behind-the-scenes, Barack Obama and his union cronies and backers work to stifle-even purge and eradicate-any form of dissent if it does not benefit union bosses.
3.Blackburn: 'America Deserves Better Than Abortion'
POn January 4th, Congressman Marsha Blackburn introduced the first pro-life bill in the House for the 113th Congress.The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 61) seeks to prevent the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from giving more money to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.In her statement, Blackburn points out that, in 2010, Planned Parenthood received over $340 million from the federal government under the Title X family planning program. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
January 8, 2013
I Will Not Be Intimidated Steve McCann I own a handgun today because of the experience of coming face to face with the evil that permeates some men's souls. More
Good News: You May Be Spared Execution Daren Jonescu Those who continue to live on the Russian Roulette principle with regard to progressives and their recent proposals -- "oh come on, surely they don't mean it literally" -- can take heart: your odds of survival are getting better More
Dianne Feinstein, Dishonest Fundraising, and Gun Control William A. Levinson Our side's goal in repelling the latest Democrat war on guns must be not to defend our constitutional rights, but rather to counterattack decisively. This is something the American people need to take very seriously. More
Erasing Israel from the Map Eileen F. Toplansky Using textbooks as propaganda is nothing new. Hitler filled the minds of German youth with vile depictions of Jews in textbooks. It continues today with Palestinian militants and their Western allies. More
Gun Control and the Paradox of Liberty Christopher Brownwell Liberals say they want gun control because they want to end the bloodshed. But beware. What is at the heart of support for gun control is not love of men, but hatred for them. More
Good Ideas Grow Leviathan Whitson G. Waldo, III One of the biggest threats to liberty is the deluge of laws based on good ideas and the best of intentions. More
When seconds count... January 7, 2013 The timeline at Sandy Hook makes the point that if we expect the police to arrive in time to save us from a gunman, we're deluding ourselves. More
Tens of thousands of people across America on Saturday showed their support for Hobby Lobby, the Christian-owned company now facing millions in fines for fighting against Obamacare.
That the elected officials in the Legislative Branch do not howl in protest over the usurpation of the Separation of Powers presents as a frighteningly, but all to true, commentary on just how constitutionally illiterate (or subversive) our elected officials have become.
An online petition asking the White House to designate the Catholic Church as a "hate group" for its views on marriage is drawing criticism for generating unjust animosity.
The grim reality of the nation's current financial debacle is that each and every year the government spends in excess of a trillion dollars more than it can afford.
Wilders has paid a price for his condemnation of Islam. Since 2004 Wilders has lived under constant police protection "like a prisoner" due to similar death threats.
Rather than face the necessity of deep cuts in borrow-and-squander budgets will lead to the involuntary reset of the entire system, depriving every vested interest of their share of the swag.
The U.S. Congress on New Year's Eve drastically cut the budget for U.S. intelligence agencies, including satellites and other technology, beginning in 2013.
It's a Golden Pass for liberal millionaires and billionaires who support higher Obama taxes for everyone but themselves. Meet the Democratic tax evaders of the year
Did you know that if everyone who visited our FSM website this year donated just $1, we would easily exceed our annual budget?
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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, The Family Security Foundation relies upon the thoughtfulness and (tax-deductible!) generosity of visitors like you.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ~ Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama filled out his national security team today with the formal nominations of former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense and Counterterrorism Adviser John Brennan to be Director of the CIA. (By the way, some liberals are demanding to know why Obama keeps appointing so many white men!)
Normally a Cabinet secretary will fight for the best interests of his or her department. But Hagel will give Obama cover to gut the Defense budget. In addition, Hagel has a terrible record when it comes to confronting America's radical Islamic enemies, especially Iran.
You don't have to take my word for it. The New York Times reported yesterday that Hagel "has long been an opponent of unilateral American sanctions against Iran... Notably, he was one of only two senators to vote against the Iran-Libya sanctions act in 2001."
In 2008, Hagel single-handedly blocked a sanctions bill that had 72 co-sponsors, including then-Senator Barack Obama. CNN described Hagel's position on Iran as being "to the left of President Obama."
Hagel also seems to have a problem with Israel and "the Jews." When Hagel ran the USO, he fought bitterly to shut down the USO post in Haifa, reportedly saying, "Let the Jews pay for it." In 2009, Hagel signed a letter urging President Obama to negotiate with Hamas.
On CNN yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) described Obama's selection of Hagel as an "'in-your-face' nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel." Today, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) declared his opposition to Hagel, saying, "Sen. Hagel's record of opposing Iran sanctions is troubling. His views and positions on the Middle East and Israel are contrary to the Administration's own stated policies, and there are concerns from members of both parties about this nomination."
Senator Wicker is right. There is bi-partisan opposition to Hagel. ABC reported yesterday that Hagel does not yet have the support of 50 Senate Democrats. Moreover, MSNBC's Chuck Todd reported this morning that "as many as 10 Democratic senators could vote against Hagel."
And then there is Obama's other nomination, John Brennan. At first glance, Brennan might seem like a logical choice for the CIA -- a 25-year veteran of the CIA and counterterrorism advisor to the president. But his ideology makes him a bad choice. It was John Brennan who tried to convince us that jihad was a peaceful, "legitimate tenet of Islam." And in a 2010 speech, he referred to Jerusalem by its Arabic name, "Al Quds."
There is an old saying in Washington: "Personnel is policy." Obama's nominations of these individuals to key positions tell us a lot about the policies we can expect this administration to pursue in the years ahead.
Conservatives who have been fighting against Obama's radical agenda for years are not surprised by these appointments. But for millions of Americans who may have been confused by his rhetoric, it is getting harder by the day to avoid the obvious -- Obama is a leftist ideologue whose economic policies are socialistic and whose foreign policies are weak and pro-Islamism.
Second Amendment In Obama's Crosshairs
When it comes to other aspects of the left's radical agenda, it is increasingly obvious that Second Amendment rights are in Obama's crosshairs. Sales at gun stores across the country are soaring. Gun manufacturers say they will need six months to fill orders. Background checks that would normally be completed in minutes are now taking days due to the sheer volume. This "panic buying" isn't being driven by hunters and NRA members. Many Americans are fearful that this administration is about to limit their Second Amendment rights.
By the way, the Second Amendment isn't really about hunting or sports shooting. Here's a history lesson for the day: The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Why? The British troops were attempting to seize an arms depot and gunpowder.
Our Founding Fathers had firsthand experience with a dictatorial government that moved first to disarm its own citizens, a pattern that has been repeated throughout history. The Second Amendment was written to preserve our liberty.
But in the wake of the Newtown shootings, congressional liberals are planning a broad attack on the Second Amendment. Legislation reportedly being drafted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and others, including Vice President Biden's commission, goes far beyond specific items like assault weapons or high-capacity magazines. In fact, it's even starting to unnerve some Democrats on Capitol Hill.
When pressed by ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday as to whether she would back the Obama Administration's push for gun control legislation, Heidi Heitkamp, the newly elected Democrat senator from North Dakota, said this: "What I hear from the administration -- if the Washington Post is to be believed -- that's way, way in extreme of what I think is necessary or even should be talked about."
Heitkamp added that these extreme proposals would not pass Congress, and I believe she is right. But as we have seen with the EPA, immigration and marriage, this president is willing to ignore the law and stretch the limits of the Constitution to accomplish his goals.
Democrats Demand More Of Your Money
If you thought Democrats would be satisfied with the $600 billion in tax hikes they got in the fiscal cliff deal, think again. The Hill reports today that Democrats are demanding at least $1 trillion more in higher taxes now!
Why? Simply because they believe you are undertaxed. On CNN yesterday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said, "I can tell you that there are still deductions, credits, special treatments under the tax code which ought to be looked at very carefully. I think we need to open our minds on tax revenue." What Durbin really wants to open is your wallet!
Stephen Moore has a very revealing column in today's Wall Street Journal. Moore interviewed Speaker John Boehner about his lessons from the fiscal cliff negotiations with Barack Obama. Boehner repeatedly tried to explain to the president that we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Moore wrote:
"[Boehner] repeated this message so often, he says, that toward the end of the negotiations, the president became irritated and said: 'I'm getting tired of hearing you say that.'"
I don't know if Boehner was surprised by this presidential retort. If he was, he should not have been. Obama sees no problem, moral or otherwise, with piling mountains of debt on our children and grandchildren. Steel yourselves, my friends. It's going to be a rough ride.
CAIR Ad Campaign Tries to Rebrand 'Jihad' as a Positive Word
January 7, 2013
Al Jazeera buys Gore's TV network
Current TV, co-founded by Al Gore, has been sold to Al Jazeera, which hopes with this deal to increase its penetration into the American market. It's no secret that Current TV has struggled for years to gain viewers and any traction in the marketplace.
This is the same Al Jazeera owned by the government of Qatar, whose Arabic channel was trusted by Osama bin Laden to get out his videos and other statements.
Gore looks to be making $100 million on the deal, which is great for his pocketbook but bad for America.
Brigitte Gabriel appeared on Hannity this past Friday to discuss Al Jazeera and this impending sale.
Brigitte Gabriel Criticizes Sale of Gore's TV network to Al Jazeera
Law Enforcement Today---In Hancock, NY an Islamic community that sits on 80 acres of land has decided to form its own government. They call their community: The Town of Islamberg. They have their own mayor, deputy mayor and five town council members. None of them are elected, of course.
They even boast that their "town" provides departments of education, medical, finance and land development services.
This Islamic compound has truly become a city-state. Though not recognized as a legitimate township by the City of Hancock, this Islamic community nevertheless enforces its own laws on the "citizens" within its borders. They do so by using the iron fist of Sharia law.
Look, most of these people are not born in the USA, they have visas from the USA,, The President and Congress gave them to them.
Look you think if the fiscal cliff was scary, Ask yourself this would these people kill me or cut my throat in a minute! yup, it's like this, They would kill you asap. So be aware contact your Congressman, Senators and tell them you want something done.
But they won't!!
Obama wants Jihad in America then his will can be established. It doesn't have to be on a large scale just enough to cause a stirring of the pot. When you have a number of small conflicts like (school shootings, mall shootings, Muslim Jihad attacks, etc.) you can justify a ban on all assault rifles which leads to a ban on all weapons.
Lets remember who the BIG enemy is not the only enemy but the BIG ONE and that is our own government and I say this across the board because there is no party for the American people. They all want absolute control of the people to do their will to the people.
"Government is not the solution Government is the problem". - Ronald Reagan-
Hagel Nomination Shows Obama's True Intentions with Israel
Choice is a blow to U.S.-Israel relations and Obama's relationship with Jewish community
RJC Urges Senate to Vote No on Hagel
Washington, D.C. (January 7, 2013) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition today expressed its strong opposition to President Obama's decision to name former Senator Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense. Hagel's record regarding Israel and his positions on Iran raise serious concerns for Americans who care about Israel and about a strong and effective U.S. policy in the Middle East.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, "This nomination is a blow to U.S.-Israel relations, to the President's relationship with the American Jewish community, and to U.S. security in the Middle East. It signals that the President, having been re-elected, will now distance himself from Israel. We hope that when Senator Hagel's weak record is laid on the table, Senators will rightly decline to support his nomination."
The RJC was the first major Jewish organization to go on record as strongly opposing a Hagel nomination. Many others, including the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, JINSA, and the Zionist Organization of America, have also signaled their serious concerns about Hagel.
In addition, members of the Senate from both sides of the aisle have expressed their opposition, or withheld their expected support, for their former colleague's nomination.
Background: Excerpts from Chuck Hagel's record
* October 2000: Hagel was one of only 4 Senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel.
* November 2001: Hagel was one of only 11 Senators who refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to continue his policy of not meeting with the Yasir Arafat until the Palestinian leader took steps to end the violence against Israel.
* June 2004: Hagel refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to highlight Iran's nuclear program at the G-8 summit.
* December 2005: Hagel was one of only 27 Senators who refused to sign a letter to President Bush to pressure the Palestinian Authority to ban terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections.
* August 2006: Hagel was one of only 12 Senators who refused to write the EU asking them to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
* August 2006: Anti-Israel group CAIR wrote in praise of Hagel, "Potential presidential candidates for 2008, like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Joe Biden and Newt Gingrich, were falling all over themselves to express their support for Israel. The only exception to that rule was Senator Chuck Hagel..."
* March 2009: Hagel was one of 10 former and current foreign policy officials who signed a letter urging Pres. Obama to open direct talks with Hamas leaders.
* On Iran: Hagel, writing in a May 2006 article for The Financial Times, explicitly ruled out the military option against Iran that Pres. Obama claims to have 'kept on the table.'
# # #
The RJC is the national grassroots organization of Jewish Republicans.
Obama Would Call on Military to Disarm Americans During National Emergency
Army manual provides blueprint for confiscating guns of rioters and dissidents
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com January 2, 2013
The blueprint for how Americans would be disarmed during a declared civil emergency is contained in an Army manual that outlines a plan to confiscate firearms to prevent them falling into the hands of rioters or dissidents.
Given the imminent introduction of Senator Dianne Feinstein's draconian gun control legislation, which would instantly criminalize millions of gun owners in the United States if passed, concerns that the Obama administration could launch a massive gun confiscation effort have never been greater.
In July 2012, the process by which this could take place was made clear in a leaked US Army Military Police training manual for "Civil Disturbance Operations" (PDF) dating from 2006. Similar plans were also outlined in an updated manual released in 2010 entitled FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations.
The document outlines how military assets will be used to "help local and state authorities to restore and maintain law and order" in the event of mass riots, civil unrest or a declaration of martial law.
On page 20 of the manual, rules regarding the use of "deadly force" in confronting "dissidents" are made disturbingly clear with the directive that a, "Warning shot will not be fired."
"Restrictions on the sale, transfer, and possession of sensitive material such as gasoline, firearms, ammunition, and explosives will help control forces in minimizing certain forms of violence," states the document on page 40.
The issue of gun confiscation is also covered in the manual, which makes clear that every effort will be made to prevent "rioters" and "dissidents" from having access to weapons.
A few weeks ago, Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick said he would vote to avoid the Jan. 1 fiscal cliff to protect people in "places like Levittown" from having their taxes spike by thousands of dollars a year, as the Bush tax cuts expired.
Odd. Why protect Levittown? The four municipalities that comprise that sprawling, iconic suburban middle-American heartland (Bristol Township, Falls, Middletown and Tullytown) voted 61 percent for Barack Obama on Nov. 6, 2012. Levittown voted for big government. Now let them pay for it.
The national debt stands at $16,432,706,000,000. According the U.S. Treasury, the obligation on this $16 trillion note is $136,260 per American household. Amortized, it is about $379 a month over 30 years.
Levittown, it's time to settle your entitlement tab. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If you doubt this, go to the Dallas Diner on Route 13 and try to get a free lunch. Tell the waitress, "I'm entitled." You will be thrown out.
Levittown, it feels good to have President Obama hose the rich on your behalf, but he has just hosed you - and Congressman Fitzpatrick is OK with this.
Fitz and Obama are reticent about it, but look closely at your first paycheck for this year. If you are a typical $50,000-a-year working stiff, you will find your take-home pay light by about $40, and for every paycheck hereafter.
That's because on Jan. 1 the federal payroll tax increased from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent. That's right, Levittown. Fitz and Obama wish you a Happy New Year with a 2 percent pay cut.
Feel hosed, Levittown? You ain't seen nothin' yet. The tax hits will keep on coming.
In a few weeks, when you receive your W-2 forms, look at Box 12. Under ObamaCare, all businesses are required to list the value of your employer-provided health insurance. The hope-'n-changers say this is merely "informational." You know, as they said they would not raise taxes on the middle class "in the worst economy since the Great Depression," but just did.
It has been long-desired by liberal Democrats and big-government Republicans like George W. Bush (Yes, the evildoer Bush!) to reduce or eliminate this entitlement tax credit, count your employer health insurance as income, and tax it. Why? They believe it is unfair that some get this tax perk through work, while others don't. They disdain the lack of egalitarianism. It's very French.
Obama tried taxing employer health insurance on "the rich," a feeble p.r. move to close the federal deficit.
Feeble, because the truth is, Mr. and Mrs. Levittown, if you eliminated all the tax breaks for all "the rich" in America, confiscated their wealth, even selling Donald Trump's toupées on eBay, the cash would last a month, and be gone.
CONGRESS and President Obama have pushed through a relatively modest stopgap measure to avoid the "fiscal cliff," but over the coming years, the United States will confront another huge cliff: Social Security.
In the first presidential debate, Mr. Obama described Social Security as "structurally sound," and Mitt Romney said that "neither the president nor I are proposing any changes" to the program. It was a rare issue on which both men agreed - and both were utterly wrong.
For the first time in more than a quarter-century, Social Security ran a deficit in 2010: It spent $49 billion dollars more in benefits than it received in revenues, and drew from its trust funds to cover the shortfall. Those funds - a $2.7 trillion buffer built in anticipation of retiring baby boomers - will be exhausted by 2033, the government currently projects.
Those facts are widely known. What's not is that the Social Security Administration underestimates how long Americans will live and how much the trust funds will need to pay out - to the tune of $800 billion by 2031, more than the current annual defense budget - and that the trust funds will run out, if nothing is done, two years earlier than the government has predicted.
We reached these conclusions, and presented them in an article in the journal Demography, after finding that the government's methods for forecasting Americans' longevity were outdated and omitted crucial health and demographic factors. Historic declines in smoking and improvements in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease are adding years of life that the government hasn't accounted for. (While obesity has rapidly increased, it is not likely, at this point, to offset these public health and medical successes.) More retirees will receive benefits for longer than predicted, supported by the payroll taxes of relatively fewer working adults than projected.
Remarkably, since Social Security was created in 1935, the government's forecasting methods have barely changed, even as a revolution in big data and statistics has transformed everything from baseball to retailing.
This omission can be explained by the fact that the Office of the Chief Actuary, the branch of the Social Security Administration that is responsible for the forecasts, is almost exclusively composed of, well, actuaries - without any serious representation of statisticians or social science methodologists. While these actuaries are highly responsible and careful and do excellent work curating and describing the data that go into the forecasts, their job is not to make statistical predictions. Yet the agency badly needs such expertise.
The Obama administration started talking to the Iranian regime even before the 2008 elections, and those talks have continued apace. They have recently hit a snag over a familiar subject: hostages.
Chuck Hagel, apparently President Obama's choice to be secretary of Defense, has really stepped in it. Or rather, everyone has just been reminded that he stepped in it big time in the past, and now he's furiously trying to backpedal his way out.
An advertisement opposing Chuck Hagel sponsored by the pro-gay conservative group Log Cabin Republicans put the group in the public eye as the group had not been in months, perhaps years. Indeed, the group will likely have a higher profile in coming years. And GOProud is hoping to increase its clout among conservatives.
Congressman Steve King released the following statement today after introducing
H.R. 140, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013; H.J. Res 16, to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution; and H.R. 132, the ObamaCare Repeal Act. King was sworn in yesterday to mark the beginning of the 113th Congress and will now represent the new 4th District of Iowa.
H.R. 140, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013: "We need a common sense solution to fix the flawed interpretation of the Constitution's citizenship clause, and 'The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013' does just that," said King. "The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of 'anchor babies' must end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws in this country do not encourage law breaking."
H.J. Res 16, to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution: "The Founding Fathers envisioned a robust market based economy," said King, "and our current tax policies do not encourage that system. Replacing the current income tax with a consumption tax will ensure that productivity is not punished in our country, but rewarded."
H.R. 132, ObamaCare Repeal Act: "ObamaCare was bad policy when it was passed, and it is still bad policy today," said King. "Businesses and households are dealing with soaring healthcare costs as it is implemented across the country. My bill would repeal ObamaCare in its entirety."
Video: Former Marine Throws Down Gauntlet To Feinstein's Assault Weapons Ban
Jan 07, 2013 01:50 pm
Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposed assault weapons ban does much more than ban assault weapons. It requires the government to create a massive database on all gun owners, complete with photos, fingerprints, serial numbers, and government "certification." This of course was the route the United Kingdom and Australia took before banning all guns. But a former [...]
Video: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates The White House
Jan 07, 2013 01:30 pm
RINO-in-Chief John McCain raked Rep. Michelle Bachman and other conservatives over the coals for merely requesting that the apparent Muslim Brotherhood influence on the Obama Administration be investigated. It was a matter of public record that Huma Abedin, Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton-and thus having access to top secret information-has [...]
Video: Sheriff Boycotts Gun Store For Refusing To Sell Assault Weapons To The Public
Jan 07, 2013 01:10 pm A Georgia gun store in order to keep automatic weapons out of the hands of the public-a clear violation of the Second Amendment-has determined that they will only sell to law enforcement officers. But a local sheriff is now boycotting the store for this unconstitutional policy. Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com Related posts: Obama [...]
Video: Judge Napolitano: Congress Making Obama King
Jan 07, 2013 01:00 pm
Congress keeps ignoring Obama's trashing of the Constitution, so that one might as well call Obama "King Hussein." Related posts: Congressman Steve King Hammers Napolitano On DREAM Act Policy Congressman Steve King hits Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hard... Judge Napolitano's Take On Obama Assasination Teams It is sad that Fox News cancelled the Judge's [...]
Great American "Wild Bill" tells Americans why Obama's plan to disarm Americans will make us increasingly helpless to criminals. Related posts: Rearm, Not Disarm Socialists convince many able Americans that government should monopolize use... Let's Turn Around, America! Wild Bill tells us how to turn around America-or more...
Video: Obama Trying To Scare America With Financial Apocalypse
Jan 07, 2013 12:40 pm Never let a crisis go to waste-even if the crisis is phony. So says Tea Party giant Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of Obama continually threatening a financial apocalypse if he doesn't get his way. Related posts: Ron Paul: Greatest Threat Is Another Financial Crisis - Not Iran I am glad to see someone has their [...]
Video: CAIR Ad Campaign Tries To Rebrand 'Jihad' As A Positive Word
Jan 07, 2013 12:35 pm
This is the nexus of the radical Left and radical Islam: if you control language you control reality. That if you neuter the term "jihad," used by Hezbollah and Hamas, then they no longer become terrorist groups. Oh, and CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) just happens to be a Muslim Brotherhood front group [...]
Video: Dem. Rep: Debt-ceiling Blank Check Is Like Emancipation Proclamation
Jan 07, 2013 12:30 pm Democrats, injecting race into every aspect of politics, liken Obama's blank check-i.e., dictatorial power-in raising the debt ceiling to the Emancipation Proclamation. This particular Democrat, Danny K. Davis, just happens to be a communist. This wouldn't have anything to do with wanting to grant Obama dictatorial powers, would it? Related posts: CBS' SCHIEFFER PARROTS AL [...]
Jan 07, 2013 12:25 pm We have created an economy with an extremely high cost-basis, and as a result it is brittle, fragile and vulnerable to cuts as modest as 4%. In economies dependent on ever-rising consumption, austerity had a negative connotation even before its politically charged meaning commandeered the public debate. When the entire Status Quo depends on discretionary [...]
Jan 07, 2013 12:20 pm Crystal Dixon, formerly employed at the University of Toledo, was fired "after she wrote a personal letter to the editor of a local newspaper objecting to the characterization of homosexuality as being the same as race." I thought our nation's universities were bastions of diversity. They are not. They are cesspools of forced conformity to [...]
House GOP Freshman Condemn Cliff Deal; Want Spending Cuts
Jan 07, 2013 12:15 pm In talking to several of the 34 Republican freshmen who were sworn into the House of Representatives last Thursday, Human Events found two common denominators: first, most of the lawmakers who were elected to the House last fall roundly denounce the tax bill enacted by the lame-duck Congress in the twilight hours of 2012; second-and [...]
Frank In The Senate? Bad Idea , Says Massachusetts Activist
Jan 07, 2013 12:10 pm A Massachusetts-based pro-family activist thinks it's likely that recently retired Democratic Congressman Barney Frank will be appointed as a replacement for Senator John Kerry should he become Secretary of State. Frank has confirmed to The Associated Press that he asked Governor Deval Patrick last week to appoint him as interim senator until a special election [...]
Jan 07, 2013 12:05 pm Creating and sustaining a nation of zombies is expensive. Large sections of the US population have been turned into zombies. Retirees. Medicare dependents. Food stamp recipients. Disabled people. They are not necessarily bad people. They are not necessarily dishonest or lazy. But rather than add to wealth, they consume it. And when you have too [...]
Jan 07, 2013 12:00 pm WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has turned away a challenge from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and other Social Security recipients who say they have the right to reject Medicare in favor of continuing health coverage from private insurers. The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand a federal appeals court ruling [...]
Annual Cost To Taxpayers For Obama Family Is $1.4 Billion
Jan 07, 2013 11:55 am How would you like to live a life of luxury without spending a dime out of your own pocket? You can fly anywhere in the world on a private jet, have staff waiting on you hand and foot and even have your mother-in-law live with you for free. This past weekend, I did a piece [...]
Video: How Many Illegal Drone Strikes Have Been Authorized By Obama?
Jan 07, 2013 09:28 am
Obama and Axelrod decide who will live and who will die from their next authorized drone strike. It must be nice having the power of life or death over people, especially without a trial. Then again, he is the chosen one so he can do as he wishes when he wishes, including ending peoples lives [...]
Video: Glenn Beck Makes 'Obama' A Four Letter Word
Jan 06, 2013 01:20 pm
On-air personality Glenn Beck doesn't shy away from controversy; and this time, he has banned his employees from saying "Obama." Related posts: Sheriff Arpaio Ripped For Investigating Obama By Glenn Beck Glenn Beck verges on foolishness in this attack on Sheriff... An Open Letter To Glenn Beck, Et Al. (including - but not limited to [...]
The Fate Of The Republic Is In The Hands Of One Man...
Jan 06, 2013 01:08 pm Chief Justice John G. Roberts will give, by long-standing tradition, the following Oath to Obama on January 21, 2013: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United [...]
The good news is that Pelosi is not alone... (I meant to say Chris Christie, not Jim Christie!) Related posts: Mark Levin Holds Nancy Pelosi In Contempt Mark has a lot to say about Nancy Pelosi shooting... Yes, Nancy Pelosi, We're Serious: On The Constitutionality Of Obamacare America anxiously awaits the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare. [...]
America's Culture Of Death: We Need Abortion Control, Not Gun Control
Jan 06, 2013 12:56 pm "The most merciful thing a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it." -Margaret Sanger America does not have a gun problem; we have an apathy problem. Our consciences have been seared, and protecting the innocent is no longer a priority. We have become desensitized to evil, the very evil [...]
Video: Obama To Criminalize Gun Owners While Legalizing Illegal Aliens
Jan 06, 2013 12:53 pm
And the Senate plans a "nuclear" option to confiscate our guns... Related posts: Michael Savage: Millions Of Illegal Aliens Elected Obama Excellent radio commentary by Michael Savage aired on November 26......... Man Hires Illegal Aliens To Vote For Obama In The 2012 Election Elwood proves how easy voter fraud is...... Continue to Post...
NAACP Says Black Republican Doesn't 'Believe In Civil Rights'
Jan 06, 2013 12:43 pm As the lone black member currently serving in the U.S. Senate, South Carolina Republican Tim Scott began taking heat from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People even before he was sworn in Thursday. Giving him a failing grade, NAACP President Ben Jealous claimed Scott "is not one of" the "Republicans who believe [...]
Video: Hurricane Sandy Relief Victim Slams Obama, Calls Him A Phony And A Liar
Jan 06, 2013 12:39 pm
Hurricane Sandy victim Scott McGrath of Staten Island gives his opinion of FEMA and the Obama administration's handling of the storm relief effort. Related posts: Please Help Hurricane Sandy Victims In Staten Island Hurricane Sandy victims in Staten Island are suffering far more... Bracing For Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy is battering the East Coast this [...]
The "AFCS" Is Dead, And The "KJR" Now Rules In America!
Jan 06, 2013 12:32 pm Police stations from all around the USA are gearing up for a new plan for school shootings. The new plan is that after someone shows up at a school and kills a bunch of students and then kills himself, the police department will descend on the school in mighty force to scare the crap out [...]
Video: Why NOT Questioning Hillary Clinton's Illness Is Media Malpractice
Jan 06, 2013 12:29 pm
Several media types are outraged that anyone, especially Fox News and Republicans, would dare question Hillary Clinton's illness. Related posts: Media Hails Hillary, Picks On Palin by Erin Brown New twist on the old media... Bill & Hillary Clinton Are Moderates Next To Obama? Don't Fall For It! In September, President Bill Clinton, as [...]
Jan 06, 2013 12:17 pm Imagine you're walking down a road and you see a can. What do you do? Do you kick it down the road? If not, what do you do with the can? I suppose we could ask those in Washington or the media elite since they're the ones always talking about kicking some can down some [...]
Video: Ex-Thief: NY Paper's Gun Map Would Have Made Job Easier
Jan 06, 2013 11:42 am Reformed professional thief explains how Journal News' request for list of names and addresses of gun permit holders can lead to more crime... Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Related posts: MSNBC Host: "I Have A Right To Know...Who Has A Gun" A weekly publication in New York, The Journal News, has... NY County: Releasing [...]
Jan 06, 2013 11:38 am Fellow Americans, it's time yet again to reach deep within, while also strengthening ties that bind with our national extended family. Vance Major, aka the V Man, is a quiet patriot who spends most of his waking hours helping others: family, friends, and strangers get his attention. They get so much of his attention he [...]
So far most of the critical discussion about Chuck Hagel for SecDef is that he said mean things about homosexuals, or is hostile to Israel, if not in fact anti-Semitic. So far I'm curious that people on the Left in particular are forgetting Hagel's key role in derailing the egregious Kyoto Protocol in its infancy. He was the key person behind the "Byrd-Hagel" resolution in the Senate in 1997 denouncing the Kyoto treaty in the draft form that existed at the time. The Byrd-Hagel resolution was essentially a missile aimed at the Clinton administration that said Don't even think of bringing this crap treaty to the Senate if it doesn't include India and China. It passed by a vote of 97 - 0; think of who was included in that vote for this to happen-such prominent "climate deniers" as Babs Boxer and John Kerry.
Al Gore went off to Kyoto at the 11th hour to beg for some kind of fig leaf he could take back to the Senate, but was sent packing with no concession at all. (The Chinese, I am told by permanent State Department staff who were in the room, were especially blunt, asking Gore: "We don't understand you Americans. Do you expect us to be poor forever?") The rest, as they say, is history. As we noted here the other day, the Kyoto farce is now dead in everything but name only.
I wonder what Al Gore thinks of this nomination? (He's probably too busy counting his new Arab oil millions. Heh.) I wonder if the environmentalists will say something cross about Hagel. Not everyone on the Left has forgotten this. The Daily Kos Kids have their knickers bunched up at least:
But it's important to consider his entire career in making such a choice - including Hagel's fierce and tragically successful efforts to kill the Kyoto climate treaty in the U.S. Senate.
Hagel was a Congressional observer in Kyoto during the negotiations over the landmark climate change treaty in 1997. His position on Kyoto was never ambiguous: "We will kill this if the president signs it." Or as he put it a few years later, in over-the-top language in support of the Bush administration's limp approach to the issue:
"The Kyoto Protocol would have eliminated millions of jobs in America. It would have driven our economy downward. It would have eliminated opportunities for investment, such as clean energy technology, in developing countries. It would have driven a stake through any hope of prosperity for America. . ."
Is all of this disqualifying? . . . The U.S Defense Department has a larger environmental footprint than any organization on the planet. It also must, to be truly strategic and forward-looking, incorporate climate change into all of its planning. . .
Will Defense Secretary Hagel rein in these efforts as getting ahead of the "free market"? Will he kill efforts to incorporate climate change in DOD strategic planning because the science is "uncertain"? Will he be a voice in White House debates to continue the tradition to which he has so substantially contributed, of the US doing nothing but delay, delay, delay getting serious about this global threat?
All of these questions need to be asked, both by those considering Hagel's nomination, and those who may be asked to approve it. Because we cannot afford any more delay in tackling climate change, and anyone who counsels such must be simply and completely pushed out of the way.
This could be more fun than I thought. If liberal Senators don't ask about this, I hope some Republicans will, just for the discomfort it will cause on the Left.
In addition to nominating Chuck Hagel, President Obama has also tapped John Brennan, Deputy National Security Advisor, to head the CIA. Though less controversial than Hagel, the Brennan pick sends similar policy signals.
Nathaniel Botwinick at NRO reminds us that Brennan's handling of the Christmas Day "underwear bomber" led several Republican senators to call for his resignation. Critics slammed the administration's rush to treat the bomber as a criminal rather than an enemy combatant. Asked what the drawbacks of treating him as an enemy combatant were, Brennan responded, "There's - there are no downsides or upsides in particular cases. What we're trying to do is to make sure we apply the right tool in the right instance. In this case, we made a determination that he should be tried in U.S. criminal court."
I see. If his CIA gig doesn't work out, Brennan's mastery of "coach speak" might land him a job helping Mike Shanahan explain why he left an injured Robert Griffin, III in at quarterback for the Redskins yesterday.
Botwinick lists some of Brennan's other greatest hits:
* He claimed to be untroubled by the 20 percent recidivism rate among Guantanamo detainees: "You know, the American penal system, the recidivism rate is up to something about 50 percent or so, as far as return to crime. Twenty percent isn't that bad." *According to a former CIA official, John Brennan was "instrumental in preventing...an operation in 1998 that would have killed or captured Osama Bin Laden." *He supported direct talks with Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization, second only to al-Qaeda in the number of Americans it has killed. * Brennan is the leader behind America's push to kill rather than capture almost all suspected terrorists, thus depriving us of possible intelligence. * He was one of the driving forces behind the aborted trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City: "We are trying to push this forward as best we can, but we also need non-obstruction from certain forces in our government. . . There are stiff winds delaying us from bringing this man to justice."
We have discussed the woeful Mr. Brennan here, here, and here, for example.
I should also note that the left doesn't like Brennan, primarily because of his lead role in directing drone killings and his endorsement of most Bush-era interrogation practices. So we have at least this consolation - the new CIA head believes in killing terrorists and, when necessary, perhaps using harsh methods to obtain information from them. Unfortunately, these are but two prerequisites for effectively performing the job.
In writing about Chuck Hagel, I have been disinclined to accuse him of anti-Semitism. One can hold noxious views about Israel without disliking Jews. And if one isn't terribly bright, one can sometimes state anti-Israel views in ways that suggest (but don't prove) anti-Semitism.
But this piece by Elliott Abrams makes me wonder whether Hagel has a problem with Jews. Abrams cites two sources of concern. The first is the view of the Jewish community in Nebraska, Hagel's home state:
The former editor of the Omaha Jewish Press recalled that "Hagel was the only one we have had in Nebraska, who basically showed the Jewish community that he didn't give a damn about the Jewish community or any of our concerns." Another community leader commented that "During his last year in office, we knew he was not going to run again, he never returned any of our calls."
The second source of concern is Hagel's attitude towards the Sixth Fleet's USO Center in Haifa, Israel. Despite the great success of that facility (the Israeli who headed it was given a prize by the U.S. Navy for her work) Hagel wanted to shut it down. Fair enough, if you're a fiscal hawk. But in stating his case, Hagel said, "Let the Jews pay for it."
The evidence marshaled by Abrams should be of concern to the Senate Armed Services Committee in its consideration of Hagel's nomination:
They ought to call as witnesses some of the Nebraska Jewish leaders who recall Hagel as a man hostile to their community and ask why they formed that conclusion. They ought to call those who attended the USO meeting where Hagel said, "Let the Jews pay for it," and ask about his demeanor at that session. That the USO had budget problems is clear, but what other locations did Hagel seek to close? Did he ever suggest that the Japanese or Germans or Emiratis or Italians pay for a USO site? Did he ever suggest that Italian-Americans or Japanese-Americans pay for USO facilities overseas? Did he ever try, in good faith and without bigotry, to work with the American Jewish community and the government of Israel to see if, in fact, additional private support could be found for the immensely popular Haifa site-or did he just say, "Let the Jews pay for it," with the hostility recalled by Nebraskan Jews?
Perhaps there are answers, and perhaps Mr. Hagel actually has no problem with "the Jews." But one purpose of confirmation hearings should be to find out.
We already knew that Hagel is not above low prejudice - his comments about the gay nominee for ambassador to Luxemburg demonstrate that. It is hardly far-fetched, therefore, to believe that Hagel's references to Jews and the "Jewish lobby" reflect prejudice.
Presidents define themselves in large measure by the fights they pick, especially if these fights create tension with members of their own party or base. By nominating Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, President Obama has picked a fight that most would consider unnecessary, and that fight puts him in tension with some Democratic Senators and a portion of his base.
He thus defines himself. Not as a president who wants to tilt away from Israel and away from confrontation with Iran; Obama can (and I would argue has) defined himself that way without nominating Hagel. Rather, he defines himself as wanting publicly to stick it to Israel and its strongest U.S. supporters - to rub their faces in his redirection of U.S. policy. As Lindsey Graham says, this is an "in your face" nomination.
Obama deepest desire is to be transformational. Any U.S. president can part company with Israel on important matters, Hagel's claims about the power of the "Jewish lobby" notwithstanding. George H.W. Bush did it.
But Bush did not transform America's relationship with Israel; nor is there any evidence that he wanted to. Obama wants to, and seems to believe he can accomplish this by winning a showdown with the dreaded "Jewish lobby."
Accordingly, nominating a Defense Secretary who merely agrees with Obama about Israel and Iran would not have been sufficient. Obama, it appears, needed to nominate Hagel.
By doing so, he guarantees a bruising struggle. Jennifer Rubin probably exaggerates, but not by much, when she predicts that the coming battle "will potentially suck up much of the oxygen in the Senate, put other issues like gun control on hold and threaten to become the blockbuster hearing of the Obama presidency as the Judge Robert Bork hearing was in the Reagan administration."
But that struggle is the point of the nomination, not a reason for looking elsewhere, to pros like Ashton Carter or Michele Flournoy or to politicians who, like Hagel, opposed the war in Iraq and think the U.S. should tilt away from Israel. (Hagel, it should be remembered, voted for the war in Iraq).
This is a fight Obama believes he needed to pick. The fact that he has picked it will help define the second term of his presidency.
What stunned House Speaker John Boehner more than anything else during his prolonged closed-door budget negotiations with Barack Obama was this revelation: "At one point several weeks ago," Mr. Boehner says, "the president said to me, 'We don't have a spending problem.'"
It's actually worse than that. Speaker Boehner explains:
The president's insistence that Washington doesn't have a spending problem, Mr. Boehner says, is predicated on the belief that massive federal deficits stem from what Mr. Obama called "a health-care problem." Mr. Boehner says that after he recovered from his astonishment-"They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system"-he replied: "Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with ObamaCare. But, Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem." He repeated this message so often, he says, that toward the end of the negotiations, the president became irritated and said: "I'm getting tired of hearing you say that."
STEVE adds: Check out Ross Douthat's New York Times column on Boehner from Saturday ("Boehner, American Hero") while we're on this subject:
It's increasingly taken for granted that he's an ineffective speaker who holds his position mostly because nobody else wants the job - an anti-Sam Rayburn, a survivor who's liked but not feared. The only compliments he ever seems to earn are backhanded, rueful, there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I.
Yet at the same time, Boehner has done his country a more important service over the last two years than almost any other politician in Washington.
That service hasn't been the achievement of a grand bargain with the White House, which he has at times assiduously sought. Nor has it been the sweeping triumph over liberalism that certain right-wing activists expect him to somehow gain. Rather, it's been a kind of disaster management - a sequence of bomb-defusal operations that have prevented our dysfunctional government from tipping into outright crisis.
Once cowed at the thought of provoking 2nd Amendment supporters, leftists will soon attempt to ban "assault weapons" (and much more) as legislation offered by Diane Feinstein makes its way to the Senate floor. It seems that DC liberals have finally become convinced that American gun owners are too cowardly, too lazy or too dependent upon the generosity of Big Brother to fight for their 2nd Amendment rights.
During the past 4 years, the gun banning left have watched as American buyers broke sales records in the purchase of semi-automatic rifles. Opting for these and other powerful, efficient weapons it is estimated that some 100 million private citizens are now in possession of over 300 million firearms. And these numbers continue to grow with each passing month.
Yet it's against this backdrop of America's unprecedented determination to assert the fundamental permanence of 2nd Amendment guarantees that Diane Feinstein, Michael Bloomberg, Barack Obama ... Continue Reading:Left convinced Americans will not fight for 2nd Amendment rights
Even though the 2013 Rand McNally road atlas does not identify any town named Glynco, Ga, this sprawling 1,600 acre campus with its own zip code-31524- is the locus for extensive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expansion. "Plans are currently under way to build and expand facilities at Glynco to conduct a wide array of programs to support the Homeland Security mission." Located in the midst of numerous senior citizen and retirement communities, the center is in Golden Isles, "...a series of barrier islands noted for their recreation and retirement living atmospheres" according to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center description of the area. (1)
This Training Center is listed on page 1 of a recent, enormous, $1.6 billion DHS ammo buy which included radioactive prevention thyroid pills, radiation proof booths, and those nasty, hollow point bullets outlawed by the Geneva Convention protocols! Georgia Governor Nathan Deal is one of the governing board members ... Continue Reading:Americans don't trust Homeland Security or its mission
On Friday, Georgetown University Professor Louis Michael Seidman defended his controversial views about some purportedly �evil� provisions in the Constitution in an interview with Fox News� Megyn Kelly. Watch the Fox News anchor challenge Professor SeidmanHERE.
Author Scott Colbert has deleted the offensive tweet he posted on Friday to Crystal Wright, known as �@GOPBlackChick.� He also locked his Twitter feed, but not before conservative commentator and bestselling author Brad Thor highlighted it on his own Twitter account. The offensive tweet cost Colbert his publishing deal. See the full storyHERE.
On Friday, Sen. Rand Paul indicated that he�s thinking about running for the U.S. presidency. Unfortunately for the Seonator, this news was eclipsed the following day when police announced that his son was arrested after a flight from Kentucky to North Carolina. Get the latest update and read the statement from Senator Paul HERE.
Rapper Eminem is known for his edgy music, which generally includes explicit lyrics and controversial themes. That�s why last week�s media report alleging that the performer has become a born-again Christian sparked so much interest. Faith Editor Billy Hallowell digs into the storyHERE.
A recent book claims to have pinpointed the top 10 jobs most likely to attract psychopaths � one of which hits particularly close to home for us here at TheBlaze. (That means our careers are on the list!) See the other professions mentioned on this controversial chartHERE.
The streaming player Roku � a device that�s used to stream content like Netflix, Hulu, TheBlaze TV and other subscriptions through the Internet onto a television � recently signed a deal with Time Warner Cable to offer an app that will allow it to function like a traditional cable box. Learn why this could be a big deal for youHERE.
Glenn Beck: Tonight, Glenn is going to share some of the exciting plans currently in development at the American Dream Labs. Get a glimpse of the future of innovation. Tune in at 5pm ET or on-demand on TheBlaze TV.
Real News: There's already a sequel to the Fiscal Cliff, more on Obama's new cabinet selections, and a visit from Buck Sexton's 'Commie Bear.' Watch Real News at 6pm ET -- only on TheBlaze TV.
Can you believe this video? It's a phenomenon. In fact, it was sent to more than 289,000 people in just the first 24 hours! This video is the 'shot heard around the world' the establishment prayed would never come. Before it's banned, watch it here.
There is no shortage of depressing news in the world, which is why TheBlaze regularly offers stories and videos that may give you a brief break from bad news. Today, we are sharing a 3:27 music video that parodies LMFAO�s pop smash hit �Sexy And I Know It.� This one is called, �I�m A Daddy And I Know It.� Put the news on "pause" and clickHERE.
You've heard all the phony claims about mankind warming up Planet Earth, but finally there's a voice of common sense who says there hasn't been any heat-up for a large number of years.
What's the REAL truth in the climate-change debate?
Radio giant: We need 'NATIONALIST' party with this BIBLE figure
One of the biggest names in American radio says the nation can't pussyfoot around any longer.
It's time for a "nationalist" party to rescue the country from the charade of both Democrats and Republicans, and this famous Bible character is suggested as the model.
"The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern." ~ Ronald Reagan
Feds Arm To The Teeth Through Obvious Front Company --To What End?
DHS Purchases Another 200,000 Rounds Of Ammunition America's Conservative News
You may not be able to own a gun much longer but don't worry. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has you covered and has just purchased another 200,000 more rounds of ammunition.
Federal Food Stamp Program Spent Record $80.4B In FY 2012 By Patrick Burke CNSNews.com
During fiscal year 2012, the U.S. government spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a $2.7 billion increase from FY 2011. (Fiscal year 2012 ran from Oct. 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2012.)
Judge Orders Eligibility Attorney To Stay Away By Bob Unruh World Net Daily
Florida Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll, who previously cited the fictitious judge in "Miracle on 34th Street" in a ruling, now says he's done with arguments over Barack Obama's eligibility.
Obamacare Layoffs, Hiring Freezes Begin By Wynton Hall Breitbart.com
Obamacare opponents warned that forcing companies employing 50 or more full-time workers to buy healthcare would prompt employers to slash jobs and worker hours. And that's exactly what's happening, says one of President Barack Obama's favorite economists, Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics.
In an interview with Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, newly re-elected House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) opened up about President Obama's utter unwillingness to cut a single dollar from federal spending. In a stunning admission, Obama reportedly told Boehner, "We don't have a spending problem."
Boehner added that President Obama continues to maintain that America's federal deficit is caused not by governmental overspending but by ...(more)
The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress are launching a massive gun control campaign as the President begins his second term and a divided Capitol Hill returns to work ...(more)
Obamacare opponents warned that forcing companies employing 50 or more full-time workers to buy healthcare would prompt employers to slash jobs and worker hours. And that's exactly what's happening, says one of President Barack Obama's favorite economists, Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics ...(more)
January 7, 2013
Latest Studies:31 new items, including a Hudson Institute report on how flexibility in spectrum licensing can spur innovation, and a Heritage Foundation recap of the 10 worst regulations of 2012
Notes on the Week:Fiscal deal raises taxes on the middle class and penalizes wealth creation, propagandist against genetically modified food changes mind, education standards written behind close doors, and more
Capital gains taxes move the wrong way. In the fiscal cliff deal, capital gains taxes increased from 15 percent to 23.8 percent. That's the wrong direction. As Chris Edwards explains, any capital gains tax rate above zero unfairly penalizes the very behavior on which economic growth depends:
[Capital gains taxes] penalizes frugal people and rewards the spendthrift. That's because earnings are taxed a second time when saved, while immediate consumption does not face a further tax. That makes no sense because it is frugal people-savers-who are the benefactors of the economy since their funds get invested in the new businesses and new capital equipment that generates growth. [...]
Another problem is "lock-in," which occurs when taxpayers delay selling investments that have large unrealized gains in order to avoid the immediate tax hit. [...] Economic growth is synonymous with economic change, and thus growth is dependent on capital being moved from older to newer uses. Capital gains taxes create a barrier to that beneficial movement. [...]
A key reason for reducing tax rates on both capital gains and dividends is that the underlying income is already taxed at the corporate level. Corporate profits in the United States bear a heavy burden from an average federal-state tax rate of 40 percent. When individuals receive corporate profits in the form of dividends and capital gains, the income is taxed again. By contrast, wage and interest income are only taxed at the individual level because they are deductible to corporations. [...]
Double taxation of capital gains and dividends disadvantages corporate equity compared to debt. The result is that firms tend to overleverage, which makes them more unstable and vulnerable during downturns. ["Advantages of Low Capital Gains Tax Rates," Cato Institute, December 2012]
Of all the tax cuts of the Bush-Obama era, the income-tax cuts for the so-called rich (households earning $250,000 or more) were the least expensive in terms of forgone revenue. The Bush tax cuts for $250,000-plus were estimated by the CBO to deprive the Treasury of about $80 billion a year; the income-tax cuts for the middle class were estimated to cost $220 billion a year; the payroll-tax holiday, which disproportionately benefits the poor and middle class, cost about $120 billion a year. [...]
The expiration of the payroll-tax holiday will reduce the real income of middle-class and working-poor households by around 1.5 percent on average. So while the fiscal-cliff deal raises taxes on those making $400,000 and up, it also raises taxes on workers in the bottom (0.00 percent) income-tax bracket, who do pay payroll taxes. [...]
But not all the rich folks got a tax hike. As usual, well-connected special interest groups-from Hollywood to the booze lobby-secured sweetheart deals for their own narrow interests. So the industry that employs Sean Penn and Ed Asner gets a nice fat tax break, and poor people with jobs get the shaft. The people who rail against "corporate welfare" and "crony capitalism" took the time to cut a nice side deal for the rum industry. You will notice that the Bacardi family is not poor. That's Washington. [National Review Online, January 2]
In late July, Finance Chairman Max Baucus announced the committee would soon convene to craft a bill extending many expiring tax credits. This attracted lobbyists like a raw steak attracts wolves. [...]
After packing 50 tax credit extensions into the bill, the committee voted 19 to 5 to pass it. But then it stalled. The Senate left for the conventions and the fall campaign. Meanwhile, House Republicans signaled resistance to some of the extensions - especially for green energy.
One lobbyist said he didn't worry too much about the Baucus bill because "we knew the House wasn't going to pass it." But another lobbyist, who had worked on the Puerto Rico issues, said he saw Baucus' bill as an important starting point that "set the parameters" of a future fight with House Republicans.
But there never was a fight. Baucus' bill sat ignored until last week, when the White House sat down with Senate Republicans to craft a deal averting the fiscal cliff.
A Republican Senate aide familiar with the cliff negotiations tells me the White House wanted permanent extensions of a whole slew of corporate tax credits. When Senate Republicans said no, "the White House insisted that the exact language" of the Baucus bill be included in the fiscal cliff deal. "They were absolutely insistent," another aide tells me. (The White House did not return requests for comment.)
Sure enough, Title II of the fiscal cliff legislation is nearly a word-for-word replication of the Family and Business Tax Cut Certainty Act of 2012. [Washington Examiner, January 2]
Federal lawmakers, meanwhile, passed 219 bills over the past two years. That total, laments Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post, makes the 112th Congress the least productive ever: "The 112th Congress has done far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948), which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the 'Do-Nothing Congress.' Those lawmakers passed 906 bills that became law." [Huffington Post, December 28, 2012]
Two-hundred and nineteen new laws aren't enough, thinks the Huffington Post writer. She must have been reading really fast. The famous Iowahawk provides an alternate view: "[A] 'do-nothing Congress' is sort of like a 'do-nothing arsonist.'"
I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.
As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.
So I guess you'll be wondering - what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist. [MarkLynas.org, January 3]
National education standards are being written behind closed doors. You, dear taxpayer, are probably paying for your state to participate in meetings of the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of the major organizers of the defacto national education standards known as Common Core. Want to know what those education bureaucrats are planning? You're out of luck. Because the CCSSO is a private organization, open meetings and open records laws don't apply, reports Joy Pullman:
State membership in each related CCSSO committee costs $16,000 each year, and states can and do participate in several committees. Lead state Indiana, for example, participates in the math and social studies committees, where 23 and 10 states, respectively, are members, said Indiana Department of Education spokesman Adam Baker. On its latest financial statement, the CCSSO reported $2,187,626 in revenue from membership dues for all activities in 2011.
Multiply just one membership fee by 46 participating states for a minimum of $736,000 in tax dollars the CCSSO receives each year for an initiative reshaping nearly every textbook, replacing nearly all state tests, overhauling teacher training nationwide, providing the basis to measure teachers, and creating nationwide data repositories for student grades, behavior, attendance, and more. [...]
Indiana resident Heather Crossin, whose children attend schools implementing the Core, attempted to attend an October 2012 CCSSO meeting in her Indianapolis hometown. Crossin called Michele Parks, a CCSSO meeting planner, to see if she could attend. No, Parks said. Crossin asked to see a list of people on the Social Studies standards writing team: "I was told that was not available for public release," Crossin said. [...]
CCSSO receives tax money from more than state dues. It receives millions from the U.S. Department of Education.
"Approximately 13% and 33% of the Council's revenue and 25% and 34% of accounts receivable were provided by U.S. Department of Education grants or contracts for fiscal years 2011 and 2010, respectively," the nonprofit's 2010-2011 financial statement reads.
Applying the 2011 percentage to that year's revenues yields an estimated $3,450,930 in CCSSO revenue from the federal government, just in that year. In 2011, $558,000 came from the 2009 stimulus bill for CCSSO's involvement with one of two networks creating new tests to fit the standards. [Heartland Institute, January 3]
To Do: Hear from a Pro-Gun Liberal
* Hear some ideas on how to reduce gun violence without trampling on the Second Amendment. The Cato Institute hosts Craig Whitney, author of Living with Guns: A Liberal's Case for the Second Amendment.
* Watch FrackNation, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney's new documentary on fracking. It premier's January 22, on AXS TV.
* Are you an aspiring video journalist? If so, get your application in for the 2013 Searle Film Fellowship at Reason.tv. The application deadline is January 15.
214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002-4999 phone 202.546.4400 | fax 202.546.8328
Why All the Cool Kids Are Reading Executive Order 13423 By Lindsey Burke
A war of words is brewing. But this one doesn't involve slinging insults. It's a battle over what forms of writing - novels, poems, and non-fiction - will define English instruction for millions of American schoolchildren in the years to come.
Sparking this war is the Common Core standards push - an effort to nationalize the standards and assessments upon which every public school in America would base its curriculum. The Obama administration has poured billions of dollars into the effort via federal "Race to the Top" grants.
As always when it comes to federal largesse, there are strings attached. And in this case, it's pulling the rug out from under classic literature.
Literacy experts point out that The Common Core denigrates the value of teaching literature in the classroom. Instead, English teachers are being told that 50 percent of their course material must be derived from "informational texts."
Indiana Lawmaker Seeks to Pull Out of Common Core Initiative
Sen. Scott Schneider of Indianapolis calls for ending Indiana's participation in the national Common Core Standards.
Number of the Week
200,000
Arizona school children will be eligible for school choice through Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) this fall, thanks to a law passed earlier to expand the program to students in underperforming public schools.
ESAs are an innovative approach to school choice that provides the maximum level of flexibility for educational opportunity.
"It is immoral to say to any parent or student you must go to a poor-performing school because that is the school in your ZIP code. That is not acceptable."
"The Common Core's clear preference for workforce-oriented reading matter is stirring the ire of academics across the political spectrum who perceive all this as an assault on the liberal arts," writes Heartland Institute's Robert Holland in the Orange County Register.
National School Choice Week is planning "the first-ever nationwide, whistle-stop train tour in support of school choice." Check it out here!
About The Heritage Foundation Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Even Democrats in Congress aren't huge fans any more. It seems after passing the law and finding out what's in it, the allure has faded-so much so that Congress actually repealed part of Obamacare in the fiscal cliff deal last week.
That's right-part of Obamacare has been completely undone. It was the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, essentially a new entitlement program for long-term care. But this new government program for people who end up needing assisted living or other long-term services was poorly designed and bound to fail, as Heritage's Alyene Senger explains.
"CLASS was a bad deal for both taxpayers (who would likely have had to bail out the program) and beneficiaries (who would be better served by choosing among private options)," Senger wrote.
The program was so poorly designed that one of its own administrators warned Congress in 2011 that the program could collapse.
This is just one example of how poorly thought out Obamacare was-but this example so captured Congress's attention that it spurred action. Another part of Obamacare that just took effect, the medical device tax, started making some Senators uneasy before it was scheduled to begin.
A group of 18 Senators, including such outspoken Democrats as Al Franken (MN), John Kerry (MA), Charles Schumer (NY), and Debbie Stabenow (MI), asked Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to delay the tax, which falls on every item used in medical treatments, from stents to syringes, IV tubes, and prosthetics.
As Heritage senior policy analyst Curtis Dubay noted, this tax will mean more than just higher prices:
Depending on how these businesses pass the tax on, it could result in higher prices for their customers (e.g. patients), lower returns to their shareholders, or fewer jobs for their workers. As we explained earlier, evidence is mounting that it is their workers that will bear the brunt of the tax.
More taxes, higher prices, and lost jobs-no wonder the Senators wanted to delay it! If only they had considered those effects before many of them voted for Obamacare in the first place.
The medical device tax is only one of five of the new taxes that start in 2013 and one of the 18 tax hikes spread throughout Obamacare. Many of these tax hikes, like the medical device tax, will hit hard-working Americans.
Even Democratic governors are unsure about this law. Many governors are weighing the costs of setting up a state health exchange and expanding their already troubled Medicaid programs. The nation's governors, like the U.S. Congress, are figuring out that Obamacare is an unworkable monstrosity.
VP Biden: Hispanics "the Center of this Nation's Future"
Seeking to consolidate support from Hispanic lawmakers ahead of an all-out amnesty battle, Vice President Joe Biden last week called Hispanics "the center of this nation's future."
Administration Announces Final Rule to Circumvent Federal Admission Laws
The new rule issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes it easier for certain illegal alien family members of U.S. citizens to stay in the U.S. while they seek a green card.
New Border Crossing Station Will Be Fully Automated
A few days after Christmas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a final rule establishing the first automated border crossing station in Big Bend National Park along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
* How do I sign a check on the front? * Why stop at Gun Free Zones? We should also create Crime Free Zones! * I voted for Change, so how come things are still the same? * The National Socialist Party had nothing to do with Socialism, right? * We have weekends off, thanks to unions. If enough people join unions, we can get the other five days off. * My body is my business, but so is what other people earn. * Why read the Constitution when you can watch the Daily Show? * Voting "D" = free stuff. Voting "R"= bummer, I'll have to work. * We keep voting democrat, but we're STILL poor. * The First lady is like Kim Kardashian, except with other people's money. * Someday I'll live in my OWN basement.
Essential Reading: The history of Walt Disney's Imagineering? It's no secret that Glenn is a BIG fan of Walt Disney. Disney has served as an inspiration for the direction he is headed in 2013. And while Disney may be best known for its theme parks, movies, and animation, it's another niche that Glenn has taken special interest in as he develops his American Dream Labs. Find out what it is HERE.
You won't believe what Glenn has planned for 2013 and beyond...
All this week on TheBlaze TV Glenn is unveiling his vision for the network for 2013 and beyond. Remember when Glenn left Fox News and many on the left and elsewhere predicted Glenn's demise? That claim has already been proven wrong and it's only the beginning. Wait until you see what Glenn has in store - the left will be begging for the day Glenn was only on 1 hour a day! Here is a little hint from Glenn on what you can expect this week.
5pm ET -The Glenn Beck Program: Get the first look inside Glenn's American Dream Labs and what he has in store for 2013 and beyond...
6pm ET - Real News: There's already a sequel to the Fiscal Cliff, more on Obama's new cabinet selections, and a visit from Buck Sexton's 'Commie Bear.'
7pm ET - Wilkow!: Andrew talks about "Liberals and Gun Control".
TheBlaze Radio Network: Listen to Jay Severin LIVE every weekday afternoon from 2-5pm ET on TheBlaze Radio. Check out the network's full lineup HERE.
"Ambition Inflation" is on the rise
If you've ever seen one of the bad American Idol auditions, it's pretty clear that the youth of America don't have a great sense of self. But, they didn't arrive here on their own. No, this is a group of kids that have been given participation trophies and told how wonderful and special they are their entire lives. How bad is it getting? Glenn has the details on radio.
Joy Behar cool with terror friendly al Jazeera, scared of Glenn Beck
No one has ever accused Joy Behar for being an intelligent lifeform. The reason for this is there is a very large mountain of evidence indicating her to be what some would describe as 'really really dumb'...to use the clinical terminology. On Leno last week Joy expressed no qualms with working for the terror friendly al Jazeera but she was really scared of Glenn Beck. Good thing for Joy both employers would likely fire her, so she doesn't have to worry about it. See Glenn's reaction HERE.
Glenn announces epic Misfits Ball
Despite billing himself as a uniter, "that guy" has alienated quite a few different groups of people. Whether it's the rich, anyone in the oil business, anyone in the Tea Party, anyone who listens to talk radio or Glenn Beck, anyone who is 'bitterly clinging' to God or their guns, a large chunk of the population has not been made to feel welcome by this administration. So, Glenn Beck has decided to hold a Misfits Ball during the inauguration celebration for all those who have been alienated by "that guy" in the Oval Office. Glenn announces what is sure to be an epic party on radio today.
Glenn's Daily Prep: Every morning, Glenn's producers put together stories and research for Glenn to review before he discusses the plan for the radio and television shows. Get more insight into what shapes Glenn's show each and every day with the stories he looked at this morning HERE.
Quaker meeting house torched by unions
Ahhh, unions. They rank about as low as Joy Behar on the intelligence scale and prove it by resorting to violence instead of trying to successfully argue their position. Since leftist unions generally have indefensible positions and requirements, they have to beat the snot out of people to keep them in line. The latest absurd incident comes at a Quaker meeting house of all places. MORE
Inspiring: Mercury One receives donation from Iowa Prison? When Glenn received a phone call from Anamosa State Penitentiary he had no idea what to expect. But once he was off the phone he was nothing short of inspired. The inmates, who earn a wage of 52 cents/hour gave Mercury One a donation of $100 dollars to help provide aid to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort. That's 32 days of work. Glenn shares the incredible story on radio.
Very important Burger King update: Pat & Stu test Burger King's new menu items in the name of science (aka their stomachs). WATCH
Glenn's e-book thriller series: Great news! The sixth episode in the WRATH & RIGHTEOUSNESS e-book series has been released! There are ten episodes in total (about 5-6 full books worth of content), and we're releasing them over the course of about one year. Download episodes 1-5 to catch up, then get the latest installment in the series HERE. Have a question or comment about the series? Visit our FAQ page.
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Essential Reading: The history of Walt Disney's Imagineering?
