Spend and Tax

Why Democrats Don’t Care about $9.7 Trillion in Debt
As reported by the Washington Post: “President Obama’s proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.” CNN adds, “Of that amount, an estimated $5.6 trillion will be in interest alone.” The Post continues: “The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] and the White House [are] . . . both predicting a deficit of about $1.5 trillion this year — a post-World War II record at 10.3 percent of the overall economy. But the CBO is considerably less optimistic about future years, predicting that deficits would never fall below 4 percent of the economy under...

Amnesty For Illegals- Up Next After Health Care
Sometime before the end of April, the health care debate will be over one way or another. After spending the better part (or worst part) of a year alienating much of the American electorate by trying to shove an unpopular bill down down their throats he will be pushing another unpopular policy our way, Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants. Just last week Rasmussen reported that 68% percent of voters say gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of illegal immigrants already living in the United States. But the President and his progressive buddies in Congress will...

New poll spells potential trouble for Democrats
The poll was conducted jointly by Democratic Corps, a Democratic organization, and Third Way, a progressive non-profit organization. It was done mainly to gauge voters' views on Democrats' handling of national security. The poll also found weaknesses for the Democrats on other issues ahead of November elections, in which they hope to defend their strong majorities in Congress. The poll found 60 percent of Americans believe the United States is on the wrong track. It also found that people rated Democrats at about the same level as Republicans, in what amounted to an erosion of the advantage Democrats have held.

George Washington: ‘… the Constitution … is sacredly obligatory upon all.’
Our first president had some excellent advice in his farewell address to the nation, which he delivered via newspaper publication in September 1796. The entire speech remains worth reading today. Some of his points were specific to a time when the United States was young and fragile–the Constitution was less than a decade old, after all–but much of his wisdom continues to hold value.

The Friends of Barack Hussein Obama: the Castro Connection
I have several close Cuban friends who work with the Cuba Council of Churches and you have heard me preach about our affiliation and the Black Theology Project’s trips to Cuba. The Cuban Council of Churches has been a non-partisan global mission partner for decades. I have worked with them for two decades.Non-partisan,” Reverend Wright? Not according to Cuban intelligence defector Juan Vives, who from hands-on experience reports that the Cuba Council of Churches is in fact an arm of Cuba’s ICAP (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos) itself an arm of Cuba’s DGI, Cuba’s secret police, founded and mentored by the KGB and East German STASI. The ICAP’s long-time chieftain was Rene Cruz Rodriguez, perhaps one of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s “friends.”

Ignore and Lie About This at Your Own Risk, Speaker Pelosi, President Obama
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), author of anti-abortion language in the House health-care bill, tells ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" that he's willing to bring down the final bill if abortion language isn't changed: "[T]he bill that they are using as a vehicle is the Senate bill. If you go to page 2069 through page 2078, you would find in there the federal government would directly subsidize abortions, plus every enrollee in the Office of Personnel management plan, every enrollee has to pay a minimum of $1 per month toward reproductive rights which includes abortion. . . . [W]e’re not going to vote for this bill with that kind of language in there." . . .

BREAKING: Activist ‘Green’ Lawyers Billing U.S. Millions in Fraudulent Attorney Fees
Without any oversight, accounting, or transparency, environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable “attorney fees.” The lawsuits they received compensation for had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement.

Starbucks Sticks to Gun Rights Policy at Stores
Coffee chain Starbucks Corp. is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal and said it does not want to be put in the middle of a larger gun-control debate. The company's statement, issued Wednesday, stems from recent campaign by some gun owners, who have walked into Starbucks and other businesses to test state laws that allow gun owners to carry weapons openly in public places. Gun control advocates have protested.

The 7 Words That Will Save America
We expect you to repay your debts." Those seven words could save America. Let me tell you why. Heads, I win ... Surely you've heard of the onslaught of people walking away from their homes because their property is worth less than the mortgage balance. Even borrowers who can afford their monthly mortgage payment are stopping, simply because it doesn't benefit them anymore.

Great Recession Did Not Have To Be Great
Whether the 2007-09 slump was the worst since the 1930s or is merely tied with the 1973-74 debacle is an open debate. The economy appears to be weakening again, fueling fears of a double dip. I am certain, though, that the 2007-09 Great Recession didn’t need to be so great. It could have been, should have been, no worse than the 1990-91 recession.

Losing Our Independence
As more Americans, especially the unemployed, come to rely on government to take care of them, we risk losing our independence.
The Washington Times reports American reliance on government is at an all-time high. This is not our Founders' America. We seem to have declined from a "can-do" spirit, to "can't do" -- at least without government -- and soon, unless we change our ways, "won't do."

Here comes the reconciliation “nobody” is talking about; Update: Oba-kabuki lab coat props reappear; “Make your voice heard;” McConnell: “National referendum” It’s official. After months of threatening to push the button on the so-called nuclear option, reconciliation — the parliamentary maneuver that Harry Reid said “nobody” is talking about and that President Obama said Americans didn’t care about last week — is a go.

DEMINT: White House land grab
You'd think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they're planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West. A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for the federal government to seize more than 10 million acres from Montana to New Mexico, halting job- creating activities like ranching, forestry, mining and energy development. Worse, this land grab would dry up tax revenue that's essential for funding schools, firehouses and community centers.

Save the planet: raise the gas tax to $7 a gallon
[A]ccording to a forthcoming report by researchers at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs," as reported by the New York Times the intellectual commandants of the Ivy League have determined: To meet the Obama administration's targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon.

Find The Endangered Species
Farms and ranches in California might be going out of business due to environmental zeal in protecting so-called endangered species, many of which are easier to find than factories. That doesn’t stop one school from partnering with the federal government to promote the Endangered Species Act.

Dems: Screw bipartisanship, full steam ahead on Obamacare hara-kiri
They’re all in — and they’ve convinced themselves that you do not care about the process. They’ve learned nothing from the Tea Party protests, the town hall revolts, or the Massachusetts election. The White House/Democrat message: Screw you!

Congressional Republicans renew effort to dislodge N.Y. Rep. Charles Rangel
Can Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) survive? The longtime lawmaker from Harlem, one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 and chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, will face another challenge this week related to his ethics problems. Congressional Republicans plan to offer a resolution on the House floor that, if approved, would strip Rangel of the committee post he long coveted before he got the gavel in 2007.

A Blizzard Of Lies From Al Gore
Climate Fraud: Al Gore resurfaces in an op-ed to say that nobody's perfect, everybody makes mistakes and climate change is still real. And he has some oceanfront property in the Himalayas to sell you. If hyperbole and chutzpah had a child, it would be the opening paragraph of Gore's op-ed in Sunday's New York Times. Gore surfaced from the global warming witness-protection program to opine that despite admissions of error and evidence of fraud by various agencies, we still face "an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it."

Top US Marine rejects Obama plan to repeal gay ban
The head of the US Marines said on Thursday he opposed ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the first top officer to break openly with President Barack Obama over the issue. General James Conway told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he disagreed with Obama's plan to repeal the ban. "My best military advice to this committee, to the (defense) secretary, and to the president would be to keep the law such as it is."

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20. For President Obama, the Approval Index has been lower only once (see trends).

MOST CONSERVATIVE, LIBERAL IN CONGRESS ANNOUNCED BY NATIONAL JOURNAL
The 10 Most Liberal Senate Dems/Most Conservative Senate GOPers

House Renews Patriot Act
WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives reauthorized the Patriot Act for one year Thursday. The vote was 315-97 . Many liberals in the House opposed the controversial act, saying it tramps Constitutional protections and civil liberties. Congress adopted the Patriot Act shortly after September 11th.

McCain rips Obama for 'unsavory dealmaking'
A tense exchange during Thursday's healthcare summit in Washington had the feel of a presidential campaign. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) at yesterday's healthcare summit denounced what he called the "unsavory dealmaking" involved in the process used to create the House and Senate healthcare bills that Democrats passed before Christmas. McCain chided the president for promising to bring "change in Washington," yet breaking a promise he made eight times on the campaign trail to make sure negotiations over the healthcare bill would be open to the public.

British Tea Party Movement to launch on Saturday
The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I’ll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details. Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece’s is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year.

Jobless claims up 12% in past 2 weeks
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday. There were 496,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Feb. 20, up 22,000 from a revised 474,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. The prior week, there were 442,000 claims filed.

Obama Readies a Fallback Health-Care Proposal
President Barack Obama will use a bipartisan summit Thursday to push for sweeping health-care legislation, but if that fails to generate enough support the White House has prepared the outlines of a more modest plan.His leading alternate approach would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the comprehensive bill would cover, according to two people familiar with the planning.

ACORN Leaders Attempting Stealth Consolidation
Over the last 18 months, ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis, executive director Steve Kest, and his brother Jon Kest have secretly sought to consolidate ACORN resources and power in its New York branch. We have learned that New York ACORN has shut down its operation in Brooklyn and handed its lease over to New York Communities for Change, a new nonprofit organization formed by community activists and former staff and leaders of — wait for it — New York ACORN.

President Obama Cuts Funding For Successful Educational Programs
Recently, President Obama visited a group of sixth graders at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia to announce his intention to increase federal funding for the “Race To The Top” program, a program that is supposed to provide for educational reforms in four pre-defined areas of assurance. With liitle if any Congressionally set standards, Race To The Top has been called by some the largest discretionary education program in history.

Corruptocrat Eric Holder’s national security cover-up
My column pounds again on Eric Holder over his jihadi lawyer stonewalling. Question: Where’s Mass. GOP Sen. Scott Brown? Remember when he made this one of his key campaign agenda items and carried the banner on the issue during his election night speech: “And let me say this, with respect to those who wish to harm us, I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation – they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime. In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.”

Global Warming Update
Private industry and governments around the world have spent trillions of dollars in the name of saving our planet from manmade global warming. Academic institutions, think tanks and schools have altered their curricula and agenda to accommodate what was seen as the global warming "consensus."

ACORN’s New Shell
ACORN is not dissolving. But some of its local affiliates, in an effort to suggest they’re cutting ties with the organization, are giving themselves new names. The reason is money: ACORN cites a string of “vicious right-wing attacks” — and here I doff the purple pimp hat to James O’Keefe — that have made it hard for them to shake down their usual banker benefactors and nonprofit patrons.

Underemployed Report Spending 36% Less Than Employed
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's daily measure of U.S. employment reveals that 19.9% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed during the month of January, translating to close to 30 million Americans who are working less than their desired capacity. Those who were underemployed reported spending 36% less than those who were employed, $48 per day versus $75 per day.

Obamacare 2.0 Is a Job Killer
WASHINGTON-Fifteen million Americans are unemployed and actively looking for work, and millions more have given up looking. Countless others are underemployed. Many working Americans worry whether they will have a job next month, and Americans who have health insurance fear they may lose it. What should the Washington brain trust do to improve our economic situation? Surely two actions should not be on the table: (1) raise taxes which would discourage employment; and (2) deprive Americans of their health insurance policies.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends).

Jane Hamsher, Grover Norquist Call for Rahm Emanuel’s Resignation
Today, Grover Norquist and I are calling for an investigation into Rahm Emanuel’s activities at Freddie Mac, and the White House’s blocking of an Inspector General who would look into it. The letter follows:

Obama puts forward $1 trillion health care plan
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is putting forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year health care plan that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriated consumers. Posted Monday morning on the White House Web site, the plan would provide coverage to more than 31 million Americans now uninsured without adding to the federal deficit.

Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings. The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

Overview of the President's Proposal from Obama White House this what they say
Good Luck we are into new spin

The Good, The Bad, The Discordant, and the Uncomfortable
Now that I’ve had twelve hours of sleep after four days of three hour nights, I can settle in and focus on the CPAC that was and was not. There was no dominant theme at CPAC this year, which was surprising. The Ron Paul kids were out in force leading him to the straw poll, there was not a great deal of buzz on Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney was more the establishment guy than last time, etc. About the only significant buzz was at the beginning and the end — Rubio and Beck.

The Leader
Posted by Erick Erickson Many, many reporters have asked me who the leader of the conservative movement is right now or who the leader of the tea party movement is.

Don Young: Global warming is a "Scam"
This week Matt Felling interviews Congressman Young about health care, global warming, and the state of Congress. Part 2 of 2 (Video very good)

Arlington scientists find way to make cheap gas from coal
ARLINGTON - How would you like to buy gasoline made from $30 domestic oil versus $75 imported oil? Researchers at UT Arlington say they've found a practical way to make synthetic crude from cheap coal that's common in Texas. They say they are just weeks away from signing a contract for commercial production.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians." The list, in alphabetical order, includes: Senator Christopher Dodd

Brand Spanking New ACORN Scandal-Illegally Using Tax an SEIU Dollars To Support Progressive Agenda
In the mid 1990s, ACORN and the SEIU partnered with other progressive organizations to help form the Marxist New Party, a political coalition. In 1995, Obama sought out their nomination. He was successful in obtaining that endorsement and used a number of New Party volunteers as campaign workers. The fact that Obama received the New Party’s endorsement in his first run for office cannot be dismissed as insignificant. On the contrary, Obama’s ties to the New Party and the New Party’s backers at ACORN and the SEIU are long-standing, substantial, and reveal a great deal about his personal political allegiances....

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Eyes Western Land for National Monuments, Angering Some
More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval.

Sheriff Mack brings states’ rights message to Oklahoma Capitol
OKLAHOMA CITY – Former Graham County, Ariz. Sheriff Richard Mack held a press conference Thursday morning at the Oklahoma State Capitol addressing the issue of states’ rights and the growing 10th Amendment movement. Mack became well known in 1997 when he won a Supreme Court decision that challenged the constitutionality of the federal Brady Bill gun control law based on the 10th Amendment and the doctrine of Separation of Powers. “We were the only ones to sue Bill Clinton on a non-sexual matter,” Mack told the press corps.

A REAL Nuclear Option
Democrats, living in an alternate universe reminiscent of the TV show Lost (my favorite show, F.Y.I.), continue to revive the dead horse that is Obamacare. It has gone so far, they are even considering the ‘dead as a doornail’ public option. From Human Events:

RTTT, SB6696 dangerous; administrators, lawmakers support them
Have you heard about the “Race to the Top” initiative? President Barack Obama and Sec. of Education Arne Duncan want the states to sign on to RTTT, which allows states to compete for one-time “grants” if they agree to make certain permanent changes to public education. It goes a bit like this: “Do it our way, and you can scrabble for these sweet taxpayer dollars. Don’t do it our way, and you can’t even try for the bribe … I mean grant. You also might find yourself with a few other … problems.”

Obama's federal government can weatherize your home for only $57,362 each
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days? Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.

World’s biggest coal company brings U.S. government to court in climate fraud
The world’s largest private sector coal business, the Peabody Energy Company (PEC) has filed a mammoth 240-page “Petition for Reconsideration,” a full-blown legal challenge against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

China unloads $34-billion of U.S. government debt
Amid growing tensions between the two countries, Chinese officials express unease about the ability of the United States to finance its swelling debt China appears to be making good on a long-standing threat to dump U.S. Treasuries. Foreign demand for U.S. government bonds and Treasury bills tumbled by the largest amount on record in December, according to monthly data from the U.S. Treasury Department. And China led the way, cutting its holdings by $34.2-billion (U.S.) and relinquishing its title as the world's largest holder of U.S. government debt to Japan.

Democrats Push HR 4530, a Radical Safe Schools Czar’s Dream Come True
On January 20, 2009 President Barack Obama promised to “begin again the work of remaking America.” He wasn’t kidding. In his first year Barack Obama and Democrats set all kinds of spending records. They managed to triple the national debt in a year and watched the unemployment rate jump to double digits. President Obama dithered and waffled on national security and joined with Marxist dictators to side against an American ally.

Obama Defeats FDR (in Spending Other People’s Money)
After he signed a law last week authorizing the U.S. Treasury to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion, President Barack Obama delivered a characteristically sanctimonious speech. It was about his deep commitment to frugality. “After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility,” he said. “It’s easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What’s hard is actually getting deficits under control. But that’s what we must do. Like families across the country, we have to take responsibility for every dollar we spend.”

Reason.tv: How to Fix Health Care—Lasik surgery for the medical debate
Make no mistake about it. Health care reform is coming. But what's the best way to fix our health care system, which is an inefficient, complicated mess of private actors, third-party payers, public subsidies, and innumerable state and federal regulations? Should we place our faith in the government or in the free market? Video also on spendandtax youtube page

IPCC gate Du Jour – Antarctic Sea Ice Increase Underestimated by 50%
Several errors have been recently uncovered in the 4th Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These include problems with Himalayan glaciers, African agriculture, Amazon rainforests, Dutch geography, and attribution of damages from extreme weather events. More seem to turn up daily. Most of these errors stem from the IPCC’s reliance on non-peer reviewed sources.

PRUDEN: The red-hot scam unravels
You can fool some of the people some of the time, as Abraham Lincoln observed, and you even can fool all the people some of the time. But you can't fool all the people all the time. Al Gore and his friends got so excited about points one and especially point two that they forgot point three.

Americans Suffer, While Government Workers Prosper
Yet another travesty is unfolding before our eyes in these United States of America. While tens of millions of Americans continue to struggle through difficult economic conditions, with hundreds of thousands more losing their jobs every month, tens of thousands more losing their homes and their businesses, and millions more facing salary cuts and pay freezes, government employees are prospering and getting rewarded financially more than ever.

Audit finds US census preparations wasted millions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Census Bureau wasted millions of dollars in preparation for its 2010 population count, including thousands of temporary employees who picked up $300 checks without performing work and others who overbilled for travel costs.

A one term president? Forget it! Obama was a ONE year president so Bayh and others are jumping
Democrats are in full panic mode. Evan Bayh won’t be the last to jump and run. They’ll throw Barack Obama overboard trying to save their reelection chances, so forget about him being a one term president, Obama was a one year president. Bayh is gasoline splashed on the smoldering coals of Obama’s faux presidency. It will ignite a consuming roaring fire that will burn Obama and his Party beyond recognition.

Mount Vernon Statement Affirms Old Principles
The just-unveiled Mount Vernon Statement, a document crafted and signed by 80 national conservative leaders that spells out the traditional belief in the principles of the Founding Fathers and in the concept of liberty that is spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Now IPCC hurricane data is questioned
More trouble looms for the IPCC. The body may need to revise statements made in its Fourth Assessment Report on hurricanes and global warming. A statistical analysis of the raw data shows that the claims that global hurricane activity has increased cannot be supported.

Breaking: Bayh will retire; Update: Dems have four days until tomorrow to find candidate
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country. “After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned,” Bayh will say.

GM Exec: Hybrids Are Money Losers
General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz continued his habit of talking truth to power last week — despite the fact that his company is now a subsidiary of the U.S. government. GM owners Barack Oama and Nancy Pelosi routinely claim that America is transitioning to a green transportation future, but Lutz stepped all over their lines at an industry event Friday when he said that hybrids will never comprise more than 10 percent of the U.S. market. Lutz was only expressing an industry consensus that hybrid-electrics are niche vehicles (like muscle cars) that enhance a company’s image but are too limited in appeal to go mainstream.

Seattle’s mayor wants law changed so he can make own rules
Freshman Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has dispelled any doubt that he is a disciple of far left liberal politics with his reaction to Seattle’s expected loss in court Friday over the illegal parks gun ban. He wants the legislature to change this state’s 26-year-old preemption statute just so the city can institute the ban that Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer just voided. McGinn evidently drinks the same water as ousted former Mayor Greg Nickels, under whose arrogant mismanagement the ban was adopted last fall.

Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
* Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
* There has been no global warming since 1995
* Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes
Professor Phil Jones Data: Professor Phil Jones admitted his record keeping is 'not as good as it should be' The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the informatio

Statement by Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on the Proposed Feb. 25 Health Care Summit
Washington, Feb 13 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement after being informed of details about the health care summit being planned by congressional Democrats and the White House for February 25: "A productive bipartisan discussion should begin with a clean sheet of paper. We now know that instead of starting the 'bipartisan' health care 'summit' on Feb. 25 with a clean sheet of paper, the president and his party intend to arrive with a new bill written behind closed doors exclusively by Democrats -- a backroom deal that will transform one-sixth of our nation's economy and affect every family and small business in America.

The president's reality problem
t might have been the most revelatory moment of the Obama presidency. In an interview with Time magazine, a chastened President Obama talked of his sputtering Middle East peace initiative. "This is just really hard," he explained. "This is as intractable a problem as you get." As an observation, this is as banal as it gets. After all the wars and all the terror attacks against Israel and all the frustrated American diplomatic forays across the last two administrations, no one should be surprised at the intractability of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

White House Rewrites The History of the War on Terror and Jose' Padilla
Churchill was right, history is written by the victors, and no one believes that more than than President Obama, which is ironic as one of the president's first moves was insulting our ally Great Britain, by refusing their gift of bust of Winston Churchill. The other night, our SCHMOTUS, Joe Biden, stunned audiences by claiming Iraq will go down as Obama's greatest achievements. Obama's opposed almost everything the the previous administration did to win the war including the Surge. Obama's only achievement in Iraq, is keeping with the plans left by the Bush administration, including the withdrawal plan. The same...

Climategate: Inhofe Raises the Temperature
Senator James Inhofe has just turned up the heat on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the UN NGO that is responsible for collecting and reviewing the evidence for anthropogenic climate change — and its chairman, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri.

Who Owns Your PC? New Anti-Piracy Windows 7 Update "Phones Home" to Microsoft Every 90 Days
Greetings. Sometimes a seemingly small software update can usher in a whole new world. When Microsoft shortly pushes out a Windows 7 update with the reportedly innocuous title "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB971033)" -- it will be taking your Windows 7 system where it has never been before. And it may not be a place where you want to go. Imagine that you're sitting quietly in your living-room at your PC, perhaps watching YouTube. Suddenly, a pair of big, burly guys barge into your house and demand that you let them check your computer to make sure that it's "genuine" and not running pirated software. You protest that you bought it fair and square, but they're insistent -- so you give in and let them proceed.

ACORN’s Blind Support for Unions and Their Attacks on Education
ACORN has skirted the law when it comes to voter registration. They were active in an Ohio voter drive at a time when the registration period overlapped early voting, opening the state up for fraud. They have taken an active stance against a Harlem school that may have been just a little too successful for their tastes. ACORN is an organization that, unlike its stated mission, seems to be dedicated to keeping our poorest communities poor, and our biggest unions wealthy.

Climategate, UK Edition: Following the Money, All €4 Trillion of It
There’s a question oft-posed by the proponents of global warming… or of “climate change,” as the new term of art has it, thus allowing warmists to claim both the snowstorm now blanketing America’s East Coast, as well as the melting of that snow, as evidence for their theory. “To what end?” the warmists ask the skeptics. Or, in the lingua franca of conspiracy theorists everywhere: “Cui bono, my friend, cui bono?”

The Real Climategate Scandal
The global warming scandal keeps getting worse. Revelations over the last few weeks show that many important assertions in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were based on misquotes and false claims from environmental groups, not on published academic research as originally claimed. This is on top of the recent mess regarding data, where the three most relied-on data series used by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 assessment report still not been released. Other information indicates that data have been systematically biased to produce a rise in measured temperatures when actual temperatures were falling or flat.

Republican hopes rise in California
Political speculation swirls. Meg Whitman, billionaire former eBay CEO and leading candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California, supposedly prefers not to run in tandem with Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination to run against the three-term Democrat Barbara Boxer.

Backdoor card check: GOP slams pro-union contracting policy
Republicans are up in arms over a pro-union contracting policy currently under consideration by the White House, arguing the measures will significantly increase the cost of government contracts and are part of the Obama administration’s efforts to implement policies that favor organized labor while circumventing Congress.

Analysis of Obama’s National Defense Policy
The Obama Administration’s declinist vision of the country and “blame America first” policy has a negative impact on America’s standing in the world and is permeating into American national security policy, a U.S. Representative said at a Heritage Foundation event.

Obama Contradicts Administration on Drilling
In the Obama Administration, actions and words live in two distinctly different worlds. At a time when news was breaking about some on the Presidents team delaying decisions on oil drilling, Barack Obama decided to speak with the press for the first time in months.

I'm the President's Trusted Counselor
Some people get quoted in presidential speeches by writing heartfelt letters to the president about personal loss, or by doing something heroic, like landing a plane in the icy Hudson River. I just sit in the Oval Office, and mouth off to President Barack Obama, one inanity after the next. And sure enough, my words—word for word, mind you!—show up in his biggest speeches. Who am I? Sotus—Straw man of the United States. I'm Mr. Obama's most trusted rhetorical friend.

Our National No-Energy Policy
Economically sensible states including Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania are developing their enormous, non-traditional, "tight" natural gas reserves. In the process, they are transforming America's energy profile for the next half-century in the face of a federal government indifferent at best to this energy revolution.

Reports: Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson to oppose radical SEIU appointee
I filled you in last October on Craig Becker, the radical SEIU lawyer whom President Obama nominated for a slot on the National Labor Relations Board. Well, in the wake of his abominable health care takeover sellout, beleaguered Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson is reportedly joining the GOP opposition to Becker. The Massachusetts Miracle increases the chances of torpedoing Becker’s nomination.

Business Gears Up to Battle New Obama Workplace Safety Rule
But business representatives, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say the move is the Obama administration's first step toward developing sweeping regulation of ergonomic safety, which could cost employers millions. The spat harks back to the final days of former President Bill Clinton's administration, when, on Nov. 13, 2000, OSHA released more than 1,600 pages of ergonomic rules that took three years to draft.

President's bipartisan call hits wall of dissent
Despite his continued calls for collaboration, just two weeks after President Obama's State of the Union address, the window has closed on the areas of bipartisan cooperation he laid out, with Republicans saying his budget puts some ideas out of play and Democrats taking others off the table.

Recession chugs on, except in government
White House apologists were quick to point to the unemployment rate decline from 10 percent to 9.7 percent as evidence that the recovery is gathering momentum and that President Obama's policies -- especially his $787 billion economic stimulus bill Congress approved last February -- are "working." But the back story behind the figures provides cold comfort.

EDITORIAL: Budget Buster Express
Members of Congress must feel a bit shortchanged by the amount of playtime they received during childhood. Their ongoing fascination with one of the world's most expensive model-train sets, Amtrak, otherwise defies explanation. Politicians continue to treat the heavily subsidized operation more like a prized toy than a solid business operation. The time has come to stop shoveling money into this runaway choo-choo.

How Obama's favorite theologian shaped his first year in office
How is Obama shaped by Niebuhr? Tough talk, but how does it give us insight into Obama? The president's political rhetoric reflects some of Niebuhr's world view, says great-nephew Gustav Niebuhr. He says Obama, like his great-uncle, avoids moral absolutes in his speeches: The U.S. is not always right, and its enemies are not always evil.

Obama: We Can't Back Off Healthcare Reform
Regarding healthcare, Mr. Obama said that he is consulting with Democratic leaders and wants to do the same with Republicans, who will be at the White House next week. "I want to ask them to put their ideas on the table, and then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have a large meeting, the Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward," he said. (Divide and conquer, be aware)


Sen. Bond calls out Obama on improper disclosures of national security info
During my tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I have worked with the Executive Branch to stem the disclosure of sensitive information. In 2006, for example, I introduced legislation that would aid the Executive Branch in prosecuting individuals engaged in leaks of classified information. In the realm of national security, sometimes it is necessary to withhold critical information from the public that may be used by our enemies to harm the American people.

Government-owned GMAC loses $5 billion in 4Q
NEW YORK - Home and auto lender GMAC Financial Services said Thursday it lost $5 billion in the last three months of 2009, as losses from its mortgage operations kept the company in the red for another quarter. GMAC, which is owned by the federal government, is still working to sell its troubled home lending business, ResCap. Mortgage operations overall lost more than $4 billion during the quarter, and GMAC $3.3 billion charge related to its efforts to sell the unit.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
he Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove which Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12. The President received a modest bounce in his ratings following the State-of-the-Union Address, but today’s results suggest that the bounce is fading (see trends).

The credit rating of the United States is at risk, according to ratings agency "Moody's". It's threatened to downgrade the country's triple 'A' status, if the economy grows at a slower pace than expected! "Maximim within 10 years time!" Interesting fact: Faber is famous for advising his clients to get out of the stock market one week before the October 1987 crash. VIDEO

Goldman's Levitt Calls Obama's Gimmick To Keep GSEs Off The Balance Sheet "Shades Of Enron"
A few days ago we made some observations on the just-announced nearly $4 trillion 2011 budget. The key point was that while the ugly numbers already looked like a superglued Frankenstein monster without a Kardasian botox treatment, or even simple lipstick, it would have been truly disastrous had the administration done what Peter Orzsag threatened he would do 2 years ago, namely bring the GSEs, Freddie and Fannie, on the government's balance sheet.

Social Security tipping over into the red
Last month, we noted that Social Security had delivered its worst performance in decades. Now, Allen Sloan warns investors at Yahoo Finance that the entire program has gone into the red — and will stay there. Get ready, Sloan says, for the mother of all bailouts:

Gangster government targets Toyota
What is it about the automotive industry that inspires such thuggish attitudes in the Obama administration? The Examiner's Michael Barone coined the term "gangster government" to describe threats by the White House last spring against Chrysler creditors who had the temerity to insist that bankruptcy laws be followed in the bailout of the perennially ailing third member of the once-fabled Detroit Big Three. Now along comes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood muttering darkly that "we're not finished with Toyota" in the controversy over sticking gas pedals in vehicles made and sold in America by the Japanese automaker.

CSPAN to carry Sarah Palin at National Tea Party Convention.
PALIN 1 When her critics grow shrill and unfriendly journalists circle with whetted appetites, Sarah Palin has the same reaction. She smiles. It is larger than life, universal, genuine, canny, sparkling - and it drives them all crazy. How can you defeat a woman who is fearless enough to smile in the face of the oncoming media train? And smile she does. Perhaps Newsweek is audacious enough to feature Mrs. Palin on its cover in running shorts, emblazoned with the headline, "She's bad news for the GOP - and for everyone else, too."

Brown Victory Could Herald GOP Capture of Senate in November
Gaining momentum off a string of victories culminating in the shocking win of Scott Brown in the Massachusetts race for the U.S. Senate, Republicans suddenly have a clear path to winning back the Senate in November after locking in top-flight candidates overnight in Illinois and Indiana.

Is US bullying Toyota on recall?
CHICAGO — The US transportation chief's public rebukes of Toyota's handling of a massive safety recall have raised eyebrows, given the US government's major stake in rivals General Motors and Chrysler. "The optics are terrible because -- and this is what happens when a government owns a company - the two companies that are going to gain the most out of this are General Motors and Chrysler," said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's business school.

Climate change emails between scientists reveal flaws in peer review
Scientists sometimes like to portray what they do as divorced from the everyday jealousies, rivalries and tribalism of human relationships. What makes science special is that data and results that can be replicated are what matters and the scientific truth will out in the end. But a close reading of the emails hacked from the University of East Anglia in November exposes the real process of everyday science in lurid detail.

Senate rushing to do favors for Big Labor before Brown is seated
Yesterday, Senate Democrats rushed through a party-line cloture vote on Obama's nominee for Solicitor General, Patricia Smith. Smith got 60 Democratic votes even though a Republican senator produced damning evidence that she lied in Senate testimony regarding her role in a controversial program that unfairly benefited labor unions while she was New York State Labor Commissioner.

Obama will be shamed into trying terrorists at Gitmo
The bipartisan blowback against our junior-varsity president's decision to try terrorists in federal court is reaching gale force. The most likely court outside of Manhattan would be in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia. Unfortunately for Obama, Democrat Sen. Jim Webb and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell are standing athwart the bridges crossing the Potomac.

The IRS Is Buying Shotguns!
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division

Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families. In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

Not The Great Depression
Since the financial turmoil began, many analysts, investors and pundits have fretted about a repeat of the Great Depression. They worry that the pain is not over yet and fear that other shoes--like foreclosures or commercial real estate--will drop, causing another economic slide. They worry that when government stimulus winds down, the economy will fall again.

Show ACORN the Money
ACORN and other left-wing advocacy groups could be eligible for up to $3.99 billion in federal funding included in the $3.83 trillion fiscal 2011 budget blueprint that President Obama unveiled yesterday.

EDITORIAL: Osama and Obama on global warming
n his State of the Union address last week, President Obama said there was "overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change." In his most recent message to the world, Osama bin Laden said that climate change "is not an intellectual luxury but an actual fact." It's nice to see these two leaders can agree on something. The hitch is that the man-caused catastrophic global warming theory is dead, and it needs to be buried.

Obama's Budget Has One Small, Missing Piece.... For $6.3 Trillion Dollars
Today, to much fanfare, the administration released its ridiculous $3+ trillion budget (we say + because at that size the one thing certain is that the budget will certainly never hit the target and while we wish it would be lower, we are certain it will end up materially higher), which consists of a "short" 192-page summary section and a 1420 page appendix. We are confident that not one politician will read the whole thing from cover to cover.

Obama Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers
Now for the bad news — in an effort to show the world how inclusive, sharing, cooperative, and international America can be, the Obama administration set off on a plan to surrender control and key management of the Internet by the U.S. Department of Commerce and their agents.

Feds claim authority to regulate in-state commerce
The federal government is claiming in court documents demanding the dismissal of a gun-law challenge in Montana the authority to regulate in-state commerce under the Constitution's Commerce clause. But the plaintiff in the case says the court needs to review that provision in its amended form – since the 10th Amendment, adopted after the Commerce Clause, can be viewed as modifying the Constitution's provisions regarding the regulation of commerce, specifically granting additional authority to states.

U.S. Attorney Reviews Call for Probe of SEIU Activities with White House, Congress
Federal prosecutors are reviewing a request for an investigation into whether Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act for his frequent visits to the White House and with members of Congress in 2009. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and its subgroup the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) sent letters to acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of the District of Columbia asking for a probe.

Obama Sends Congress $3.8 Trillion Budget, Soaring Deficits Projected
President Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget Monday for fiscal year 2011, pushing a plan that includes new jobs-creation programs but is projected to add nearly $1.3 trillion in deficit spending on top of the current year's projected $1.6 trillion deficit.

New U.S. air strategy in Afghanistan: First, do no harm
NANGAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — As his commander greeted a local leader in a district government building one day recently, Air Force Technical Sgt. Tyler Woodson, 20, scurried past them and ran up three flights of stairs to the roof. There, Woodson, of Macon, Ga., surveyed the town. He saw children playing soccer in an adjacent field, trucks traveling on the main throughway and, several hundred yards away, a glorious range of mountains touching the sky. (New rules make life harder for US forces)

GOP eyes Murray Senate seat
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) isn’t yet considered highly vulnerable in 2010, but a new poll coupled with Scott Brown’s upset win in Massachusetts has Republicans rethinking their chances against the three-term senator.A poll released Thursday from Moore Insight, an Oregon-based GOP polling firm, showed Dino Rossi, a two-time Republican candidate for governor, leading Murray, 45 percent to 43 percent, with 9 percent undecided.

Fear and hostility toward open carry in Olympia
Wrapping up this week’s coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on SB 6396 – Sen. Adam Kline’s measure to ban so-called “assault weapons” – the story would not be complete without noting an incident that occurred outside the hearing room.
Prior to the hearing, as several Open Carry activists gathered in the hallway of the John A. Cherberg Senate Office Building, Washington CeaseFire’s Ralph Fascitelli approached a member of the State Patrol’s security team and, after pointing out that there were visibly armed citizens in the building, demanded of the trooper: “Do you know if they’re loaded?”

Deficit of Trust: Most Voters Don’t Believe President’s Assertions About Economy
During his State-of-the-Union address Wednesday night, President Obama spoke about a deficit of trust between the American people and political leaders. New Rasmussen Reports polling on the president’s speech shows just how deep that trust deficit has become.

Reps to Request Info on White House Health Care Deals
In a rare display of bipartisanship, a top House Democrat agreed to back a Republican lawmaker's quest for details of closed-door deals the White House made with industry insiders to produce a healthcare reform bill. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he'd help Dr. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) seek information on the names of representatives from the pharmaceutical, device, hospital, doctor, and insurance sectors, who met with White House officials regarding healthcare reform.

Cirque du Jihad: Coming to a federal court near you?
Imagine this nightmare courtroom scenario: Unhinged Jew-bashing, open mockery of American soldiers, juror intimidation, and coldly calculated exploitation of U.S. constitutional protections by a suspected al Qaeda defendant. Well, there’s no need to wait for the Gitmo terror trial circuses. New York City is already getting a glimpse of the future.

We Can Have Zero Unemployment, Virtually Overnight
All this talk of unemployment is preposterous. Think of it. We live in a world with lots of imperfections, things that need to be done. It has always been so and always will be so. That means that there is work to be done, and therefore always jobs. The problem of unemployment is a problem of disconnect between those who would work and those who would hire.

A Speech Befitting a One-Term President
Participating in interviews before the State of the Union address, I tried not to sound skeptical in expressing hope that the president would somehow re-connect with Americans seething after a year that has left the homeland less secure, the jobs market less buoyant and our politics more deeply partisan.

Ares dead? Obama officials say Constellation is a 'failed moon program,' anxiety builds in Huntsville
Per a NASA spokesman, Obama has killed the country's manned space program by cutting all funding for it. The Constellation program was to be the next manned space program to send people back to the Moon and build a Moon base, then to send astronauts to Mars. Obama wants the money for increased spending on his constituants. Killing the Constellation Program means the $9B already spent is down the drain and an estimated 4,600 jobs will have been ended. HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Anxiety about the future of manned space flight - and 2,200 local jobs - is building amid reports that President Obama will propose a 2011 NASA budget Monday that weakens or kills the Constellation program, which includes the Ares I and Ares V rockets.

Dartmouth Prof: America in Decline, Recession is Just the Tip of the Iceberg, Obama to Blame
Video...“The money he’s spent is all short-term thinking…it’s all expenditures, not investments that would change the competitive advantage of the U.S.,” the professor says, drawing a stark distinction between President Obama and the President he’s often compared to: FDR. “This current recession is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Richard D’Aveni, a professor of strategic management at Dartmouth’s Tuck School. “If things don’t change and we don’t start investing for the long-term, we are going to look like China.”
And by that, D’Aveni doesn’t mean a rising economic power: He means the standard of living in the U.S. will fall and China’s will rise “until we’re all equalized. I don’t think that’s what we want.”

Senator Patty Murray Puts 2,000 Jobs at Risk in State of Washington
Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) January 27, 2010 -- The latest government reports show 4.2 million jobs were lost in 2009, the most in one year since the government started tracking payrolls in 1939. 2,000 employees of the 106 private-sector bus companies with authority to operate in the State of Washington are now at risk of being added to that statistic. This prospect comes courtesy of an amendment Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) placed in the recent Department of Transportation appropriations bill that exempts King County Metro Transit in the state of Washington from the charter rule they agreed to abide by when they accepted federal funds. Under the charter rule, public transit agencies that are supported by taxpayer dollars are not allowed to operate shuttles if a private carrier is available and capable of performing the work.

Just How Leftist Has the Democratic Party Become?
Who will win the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party? Truth be known, that battle has already been won, and the proof that liberals (or progressives, statists, etc.) have been victorious goes well beyond their assault on liberty under Obama. The “liberalization” of the Democratic Party — a party which in the last three decades has nominated Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama for president — actually occurred well before Chicago on the Potomac began playing....

Mark Pryor tosses more dirt on health care rationing’s grave.
The Hill article is surprisingly garbled - I assume that they’ll clean it up this morning - but the original article (”Pryor: Health care reform may not happen this year“) is a lot clearer. The short version is that they’re back at the ‘discussion phase’ for a health care rationing bill, which is legislature-speak for “we’re going to drop the subject, and hope that you will, too.” Every day that it doesn’t get done is a day closer to the day that it won’t get done, and if it’s not done this year, it definitely won’t get done. At least, by Democrats.

The State of the Union Is No 'Reset' Button
It was a tense moment in the West Wing. Less than a year into a new president's term, a Senate seat was slipping to the opposition and taking with it the balance of power in the upper chamber. The president's agenda was suddenly at risk. If this sounds like Republican Scott Brown's upset victory in Massachusetts last week, it was actually Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords's defection in 2001. Mr. Jeffords's decision to bolt the party cost the GOP not the 60th vote, but a razor-thin majority. Yet following the defection, George W. Bush passed his signature tax-cut package, No Child Left Behind education reform, and a budget that cut in half the growth of discretionary domestic spending from the sizzling 16% rate of President Bill Clinton's last budget.

Dick Morris: Speech Won't Undo Obama's Damage
Political guru and regular Newsmax contributor Dick Morris says that President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union Speech may give him a short-term bounce, but as long as unemployment remains high, no mere speech -- no matter how eloquent -- can reconnect him to the American people.

New US home sales slide in December
Sales of new homes in the US unexpectedly dropped in December, the latest sign that government support is causing swings in the performance of the housing market.New home sales fell by 7.6 per cent last month after falling by a revised 11.3 per cent in November, commerce department figures showed. Wall Street analysts predicted an increase.

The next big scam: carbon dioxide
Deloitte Forensic calls it “the white collar crime of the future.” Kroll, a business risk subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, the global professional services firm, calls it “a fraudster’s dream come true.” These two global financial services firms are referring to carbon trading markets, a business that is estimated to explode from $132-billion in 2009, mostly in the European Union, to $3-trillion by 2020 as jurisdictions around the world join in carbon trading, part of the “cap and trade” system that governments are embracing. more:

WRAPUP 1-Geithner takes hot seat at AIG hearing
* Panel wants to know if AIG bailout served taxpayers -- * Taxpayer money used to prop up 'hollow shell' -- * Geithner says rescue vital to avert broader meltdown -- * Bernanke, Geithner pay price for anger over AIG...

Media Matters Is Vewy, Vewy Angwy About Beck Documentary
Maloy is correct that Beck seeks to link modern progressivism with communist atrocities. But what Maloy doesn’t accept is that Beck is right to do so. This doesn’t mean that modern progressives necessarily want to slaughter their opposition; however, they are in the same ideological camp as their more bloodthirsty communist (and fascist) cousins. As I’ve written, in the documentary Beck sought to show his audience that too many Americans admire leftist totalitarian mass murderers and too many Americans don’t know about the horrors these merciless killers have inflicted on humanity....

Could California Really Default?
After Standard & Poor's downgraded California's bond rating yet again earlier this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and members of his administration sounded practically schizophrenic, on the one hand warning the legislature that the state had to get its fiscal house in order while simultaneously deriding the notion that California would ever fail to pay its obligations.

Democrats woo Snowe, Collins in hope of saving health reform legislation
Centrist Democratic senators have circumvented party leadership to approach Maine GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins about reviving healthcare talks. Democrats such as Sens. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Max Baucus (Mont.) have approached Snowe within the past week to discuss her potential support for various healthcare proposals.

Jobless Claims and Long Term Unemployment
Two of the most cited economic indicators over the past year have been first time jobless claims and continuing jobless claims. Both have declined by a third since their respective peaks in the spring and summer of last year.

Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill
For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That's $2,200 a day - more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment. CBS News asked members of Congress and staff about whether they're mindful that it's public tax dollars they're spending. Many said they had never even seen the bills or the expense reports.

AP Source: Federal deficit projected at $1.35T
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest congressional budget estimates due Tuesday predict a $1.35 trillion deficit for this year, a top Capitol Hill aide says. The Congressional Budget Office figures confirm the massive problem facing President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies just days before his Feb. 1 budget submission. The White House says Obama will propose a three-year freeze on domestic agency budgets, though the savings would barely make a dent.

It's the budget, Mr. President
Dear President Obama: Our country continues to grapple with pressing economic challenges. The exploding national debt will mean higher interest rates and inflation, diminished private-sector investment and job-crushing tax hikes. Unless addressed, each of these threats could significantly impede a recovery and jeopardize our nation’s long-term growth prospects.

Founding Fathers Smiling After Supreme Court Campaign Finance Ruling
The Supreme Court’s action in striking down the worst censorship provision of McCain-Feingold restores vital free speech protection in America. The First Amendment does not allow the government to silence its critics, and Thursday’s decision would make our Founding Fathers applaud -- they built this country out of a revolution founded upon a critique of oppressive government. But fast forward to 2010, this week, instead of applauding the Supreme Court’s ruling, America’s current president is responding by issuing an ominous threat against our highest court.

Barack Obama is in denial
Barack Obama is in trouble. His signature health care reform has been doomed by the Democrats losing their Senate super-majority. He needs to reconnect with ordinary Americans, his advisers tell him. So what does he do? He does a long interview with Diane Sawyer, the new ABC News anchor, in which he states that his big mistake was “we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right”.

Public's Priorities for 2010: Economy, Jobs, Terrorism
As Barack Obama begins his second year in office, the public’s priorities for the president and Congress remain much as they were one year ago. Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation continue to top the list. And, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, defending the country from future terrorist attacks also remains a top priority.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

NEW Evidence: Climate Change Scientists Are Manipulating Data
Its been a bad couple of months for Al Gore and his man-made climate change "scientific consensus." Between Climategate, the phony hockey stick, The NASA climate change guru who refused to fix bogus numbers, and the big Himalayan Glacier Melt even some climate change believers are starting to wonder which data is real and what has been manipulated. Over the weekend we were informed that Dr Murari Lal, one of the UN's Climate Change gurus knew all along that the Himalayan glacier melt prediction which turned out to be 300 years off, might be bogus. But the prediction was not...

January Markets Signal A Textbook Recession
Let's be clear that we're not calling for a U.S. recession (in the technical GDP-decline sense) in 2009. We're just saying that asset classes traded as if we're entering one. Check out the chart from Econompic below....

If This Isn’t Inflation, Then What Is?
Over the last year, I have written extensively about the economic crisis on The Bottom Violation. I’ve positively flogged the proverbial dead horses of quantitative easing and impending dollar collapse to the point where my arm feels like it’s going to fall off. And many of you have politely — and sometimes not-so-politely — offered to tell me just exactly how wrong I am.

Social Security COLA: Congress Gets Pay Raise, Seniors & Others Did Not
I'm sure many senior citizens, handicapped and those who are temporarily disabled noticed their Social Security check did not include a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2010. In fact, it is possible Social Security recipients will not receive a COLA for up to three years, according to reports out of Washington, D.C. This is the first year a COLA increase has not been afforded to Social Security recipients for over 30 years.

Wall Street Reeling After Obama’s Financial Reform Proposals (Video)
Wall Street is reeling following the White House’s financial reform proposals. The News Hub panelists argue the merit of the effort.

Senate Dems Not Sure They Can Get Enough Votes to Reconfirm Bernanke
Amidst the voter anger at Wall Street and Washington, D.C., ABC News has learned that the Senate Democratic leadership isn't sure there are enough votes to re-confirm Ben Bernanke for another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Banker War, Accuses President Of Being Anti-Capitalist
This morning's Gartman Letter was not the usual rhetoric about commodity prices and the U.S. dollar. Today, Dennis Gartman went off on President Obama and his war on bankers. The Gartman Letter: THE US$ HAS TURNED RATHER SHARPLY FOR THE WORSE, and we shall mince no words here this morning for few words were minced yesterday by our young, and we fear misguided, President when he stood before the cameras of the world and threw down the gauntlet to the banking system, challenging it directly....

Brown Victory Has Dems Flip-Flopping on Filibuste
Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts is propelling Democratic discussions of resorting to reconciliation to evade a Republican filibuster on their healthcare bill — prompting conservative accusations of hypocrisy.

Glass-Steagall: A Red Herring for the Financial Crisis
The causes of the Great Recession of 2008-2010 (and possibly beyond) have been debated and explored in many publications, including on these pages. One of the arguments that I see frequently, even among Conservatives, is that the banking industry collapse was a direct result of the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 by the Republican Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. Today, Obama is expected to announce the creation of a new regulatory scheme that would effectively be Glass-Staegall II.

Earmarks for Donations in No. Va.
Over at Old Dominion Watchdog, Paige Winfield is reporting that long-time Northern Virginia Dem representative Jim Moran may become the poster boy for the kind of lawmaker Americans are getting fed up with. Matthew Berry, one of three GOP foes in this year’s race, charges Moran “has received over $80,000 this year in campaign contributions from executives, PACs, and lobbyists of companies for which he has requested earmarks totaling over $50 million.

Initial jobless claims unexpectedly rise
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly-laid off workers seeking jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, as the economy recovers at a slow and uneven pace. Layoffs have slowed and the economy began to grow in last year's third quarter, but companies are reluctant to hire new workers. The unemployment rate is 10 percent and many economists expect it to increase in the coming months.

Democrats hear an overdue message
Don’t buy the spin that it was all Coakley’s fault. It’s true that Martha was her own “Massachusetts Miracle,” combining the down-home, populist charm of John Kerry with the political skills of the ’88 Dukakis campaign. But Bay State voters have proven they’ll elect just about any Democrat, no matter how lame.

GOV PALIN ANALZYES BROWN WIN WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
In her role as a Fox News Contributor, Sarah Palin was among the first to weigh in on Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race last night. Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in a special election held to fill the Senate seat which was previously filled by Edward M. Kennedy.

The fallout: Democrats rethinking health care bill
Republican Scott Brown’s upset win in Massachusetts Tuesday threatened to derail any hopes of passing a health reform bill this year, as the White House and Democratic leaders faced growing resistance from rank-and-file members to pressing ahead with a bill following the Bay State backlash.

Banks, experts eye possible ways around Obama fee
That is already the case with U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed fee on banks, designed to ensure that Wall Street banks pay up to $117 billion to reimburse taxpayers for the financial bailout: Bankers, lawyers and consultants are already considering ways to avoid paying the fee.

Afgahnistan: Rules of Engagement that can only lose a war and Obama knows it.
One source tells me an F 16 pilot routinely is given targets yet told, “If something happens, it’s your fault.” Huh? Another source tells of his son recently returned from a second Iraq tour of duty after having his vehicle hit by a bomb. (Spend and Tax deals with money mostly, yet sometimes issues smell so bad and are egregious we must report)

Geithner Will Testify On Secretive Bailout Deals
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set to testify before a House probe into his role in deals that sent billions of bailout dollars to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other big banks. Staffers for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform say Geithner is confirmed to appear at a hearing Jan. 27 on the bailout of American International Group Inc.
Dems Back Cadillac Taxes
In a potential step forward for Obamacare, Congressional leaders and the White House stated they had reached an agreement with labor groups over the taxation of high end health care plans, something labor unions had long opposed. The deal was one of the larger hurdles left for Democrats as they try to push health care through before the President’s State of the Union address.

Slug the Obama Story 'Disconnect'
The first thing I learned in journalism is that every story has a name. At WEEI News Radio in Boston, the editor would label each story with one word, called a "slug," and assign a writer to write it for air. This week's devastating earthquake would be slugged "Haiti." A story about a gruesome murder might be "Nightmare."

Colossal Miscalculation On Health Care
Honorable and intelligent people can disagree over the substance and details of what President Obama and congressional Democrats are trying to do on health care reform and climate change. But nearly a year after Obama's inauguration, judging by where the Democrats stand today, it's clear that they have made a colossal miscalculation.

Right to Work Tax on The Horizon
It looks like the Unions, Obama and Pelosi have struck a deal. And their deal will punish those that are not part of the Union Class. Right to Work states will soon be feeling the heavy hand of government for not being aligned with the Labor Unions if a new provision in the Health Care bill is allowed to pass.

Wall Street, politicians still don't get it
There were many lists made of the "best" and "worst" of 2009. List-makers did themselves proud ticking off item after item.
But -- understandably, because it's a nonfinancial crowd -- one item got away from them: The 30-year Treasury bond turned in its worst performance in 40 years, as the yield rose from about 2.7% to about 4.6%. (For the layman, yields rise as bond prices fall.)...

Dollar Crisis Looms if US Doesn't Curb Debt: Experts
The United States must soon raise taxes or cut government spending to curb its debt, and failure to act will risk a crippling dollar crisis as investor confidence ebbs, a panel of experts said on Wednesday...

Warren Buffett's Chinese Cars Will Start Killing The US Auto Industry As Soon As This Year
BYD, the upstart Chinese electric car maker Warren Buffett famously has an investment in, is planning enter the U.S. market as soon as the second half of this year. Considering the U.S. market entrance by multiple new auto players (from Chinese firms BYD and Geely, to India's Tata and even U.S. upstart Tesla Motors) expect auto industry competition to get far more intense than it already is.

How The New "Reform" Bill Is Really The Mother Of All Blank-Check Bailouts
It has been more than a year since all hell broke loose on Wall Street and, remarkably, almost nothing has been done to prevent all hell from breaking loose again. In fact, close your eyes and you could be back in the wilds of 2007. Bankers are still making wild bets, still devising new derivatives, still piling on debt. The big banks have access to money almost as cheaply as in 2007, courtesy of the Fed, so bank profits are up and bonuses as generous as at the height of the boom...

Gun Laws' author says it's time to push 'freedom to carry'
Alan Korwin, author of "Gun Laws in America," notes the move is underway in places like "Texas and elsewhere" to replace "Right to Carry" with "Freedom to Carry." In his latest "Page Nine Report/The Uninvited Ombudsman," he writes: ...

Probability of a Crisis Will Build in 2010
So says the team of equity analysts at Barclays. Although policymakers helped avoid the second Great Depression, Barclays believes we have simply kicked the can down the road. As their head of U.S. equity strategy said in November, the likelihood of Japanese style de-leveraging stagnation remains very high....

Poll: Obama Health Care Marks Hit New Low
President Obama's approval rating on handling health care is at an all-time low, according to a new CBS News poll, something that is helping to drag down his overall approval rating. Just 36 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama's handling of health care, according to the poll, conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. ....

AIG, autos offset Treasury bank bailout profits
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. taxpayer profits from bank bailout investments are being offset by estimated losses from American International Group and automakers and mortgage payment cuts for struggling homeowners, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Monday. The Treasury estimated net losses on its $700 billion bailout program at $68.5 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009....

GM's Lutz: Higher gas tax would help
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Bob Lutz is generally not a close ally of environmentalists. The vice chairman of General Motors is a frequent critic of fuel economy rules and once declared that global warming was a "total crock" of excrement, although he used a more common and colorful word in that description.

The Best Argument EVER For Tax Reform
Some people are fighting for a fair tax, replacing our income tax structure with a VAT, a Value Added Tax(country wide sales tax). Others argue for a Flat tax, one tax rate on income for everybody, no deductions etc. Both sides are fighting for the same basic concept. simplify the way the federal government collects taxes. America's Tax Structure is just so complicated and is getting more complicated every day. The best proof for this argument was made by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman on C-Span (video at bottom of post).....

The mini ice age starts here
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists. Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in
summer by 2013.

Removing the Public from Public Discourse
It seems that when you want a bill passed in Washington, the thing to do is go behind closed doors to shut out the American people’s voices. That’s the situation with the health care bill at the moment, as some Congressional leaders meet in private to craft a final version. I can’t ever remember C-SPAN pleading with Members of Congress to allow them access; almost always, it is the other way around.

Obama Betrays Campaign Pledge, Keeps Subsidy Loopholes for Mega Farms
Washington, D.C. January 6, 2010 – In a complete reversal of his number one agriculture campaign platform pledge, President Obama has issued his verdict on farm subsidy loopholes – the loopholes for mega farms win and family farmers and federal taxpayers are the big losers.

Time for Tim to go!
After a string of personal and political bungles by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, critics of the country's top money man are wondering what it takes to lose your job in Washington DC. Geithner's fielding a fresh round of criticism after e-mails surfaced last week that showed he forced insurance giant AIG to keep quiet about tens of billions of dollars in payments it made to several Wall Street banks -- payment that represented full payouts funded by taxpayer cash that the banks otherwise wouldn't have received...

White House Economic Adviser: Jobs Picture is 'Still Terrible'
Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer said it's devastating that some workers have been unemployed for two years and that job losses were continuing nearly a year after passage of the so-called stimulus bill.

Governor Schwarzenegger Slams ObamaCare
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of only a few Republican officials to have publicly come out in favor of ObamaCare. In October of 2009 he even submitted a statement of support. Now, he's back...

Could the Fed Be Manufacturing Another Stock Market Crash?
A week ago, I wrote an essay titled Bonds, Not Stocks, Will be the Big Story in 2010. In it, I detailed how the US Treasury is now facing a debt spiral: a situation where it needs to issue roughly $150 billion of new debt per month WHILE rolling over TRILLIONS in existing debt at a time when investors are willing to lend to it for shorter and shorter periods of time.

MAKING 2010 A GREAT YEAR FOR AMERICA
So we are starting a new year. All of us have our personal aspirations. Some are seeking a new job, others want new business opportunities, others still want to make major purchases for their home or companies. Then there are those who simply want good things for themselves and those they love. I also think that people, more than we have seen in years, have hopes and dreams for this country. That is certainly the case with me....

13 State AGs Categorically Reject “Nebraska Compromise;” To Litigate if Not Removed
As I had referenced in a previous posting, lots of State-level resistance is brewing against the congressional healthcare plan, HR3590. Now AmericanGrandJury.org has posted an article summarizing that Alabama Attorney General Troy King has gone on the offensive regarding the “Nebraska Compromise.” What is the premise of the compromise? According to one of Mr. King’s pressers:....

Cornhuckster Sen. Ben Nelson: We shoulda waited on Demcare
Sen. Ben Nelson said Tuesday it was a mistake for the Obama Administration to take on massive health care reforms in 2009, and suggested efforts would have been better spent addressing the economy.heck out Nelson’s latest spin on his Cornhusker Kickback. See, it’s all a misunderstanding. His special deal for Nebraska is really a special deal for everyone! There just wasn’t enough time...

Conservatives Finish 2009 as No. 1 Ideological Group
Uptick owing largely to more independents calling themselves conservative by Lydia Saad PRINCETON, NJ -- The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup's initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009. More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined. Since 1992, there have been only two other years -- 2003 and 2004 -- in which the average percentage...

Geithner had AIG hide details about payments to banks
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer's payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.

Stimulus Watch: Now it’s fake zip codes
Recovery.gov, the Obama administration’s supposedly transparent attempt to let citizens know how every dollar of the $787 billion stimulus package was spent, is turning out to be a lot more comic fiction than fact. Not only have fake jobs been reported in phantom congressional districts...

The Trouble with China
China seems to be determined to continue to peg the value of its currency against the dollar. Then it points its finger at the United States anytime someone representing the United States raises a question about its practice. As long as China continues to follow this policy, the United States is locked into a corner with no really good options.

Unions Insert Provision in Healthcare Bill That Singles Out Construction
Early versions of the Senate’s far-reaching health care bill said that small businesses with fewer than 50 workers would not be penalized if they failed to provide insurance. That was before labor unions in the construction industry went to work and persuaded Senate leaders to insert five paragraphs. Their provision, added to the 2,074-page bill at the last minute, singles out the construction industry for special treatment, in a way that benefits union members and contractors who use union labor.

2010 Will Be Worse
The year 2010 is likely to be the pivotal year where pundits stop referring to the recession and begin openly talking about a depression. Our economic problem is rather simple to describe: There is too much debt relative to income and/or wealth. Below is a single graph that depicts the condition of our economy....

A Hell of a Decade
In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time Magazine proclaimed the period to be "the decade from hell." The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history.

The "Stimulus" Picture Crumbled
On Dec. 22, the networks calmly, briefly and quietly acknowledged the news that the government revised its economic-growth number for the third quarter downward, from 3.5 percent to a less impressive 2.2 percent. As 2009 comes to a close, the media elite are showing enormous patience with the pace of a recovery, without any troublesome talk of whether Barack Obama's dramatic expansion of government is helping or hurting the economy.

Obama provides unlimited loss coverage to Fannie Mae and Freddie Ma
A Christmas Eve White House decision that nobody will notice. President Obama and his treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, have elected to increase loss coverage for the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $200 billion to unlimited for the next three years.

Rasmussen: Ben Nelson down 30 points to Heineman after health-care reversal
Couldn’t happen to a nicer flip-flopper. Most Nebraskans appear to agree. Despite getting hundreds of millions of dollars for his home state in a grubby deal with Harry Reid for his vote on ObamaCare, 55% of Nebraskans disapprove of Nelson’s performance, with only 40% approving. Interestingly, that number remains exactly the same among men and women.

Nancy Pelosi's grip on House slips
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not accustomed to the word she’s been hearing far more frequently in recent days: “no.” Over the past two weeks, Pelosi has faced a series of subtle but significant challenges to her authority — revolts from Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Blue Dog Coalition and politically vulnerable first- and second-term members.

Changes in ObamaCare will require businesses to count part-time workers for coverage penalties
A Democratic aide says a new provision in the health care bill will require businesses to count part-time workers when calculating penalties for failing to provide coverage. The bill originally passed by the Senate only penalized businesses for full-time workers who weren’t covered. The Senate bill is being used as the basis for a final package President Barack Obama wants Congress to pass in the next few weeks.

Legislative analyst: California greenhouse gas law could cost some jobs
The Legislature's nonpartisan analyst says California's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law could cost jobs in the near term, while its long-term impact is uncertain. But, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor concluded in a letter released Monday, the overall impact of the law on the state's gargantuan economy "will probably be modest."
Andy Stern and Barack Obama: Fiscal Responsibility Fraudsters
Everything you need to know about President Obama's commitment to fiscal responsibility and cost containment can be summed up in two words: Andy Stern. The profligate, corruption-coddling head of the powerful Service Employees International Union was named to the White House debt commission last week. If Obama thinks Stern holds the cure for our government spending woes, you can be certain his latest health care prescription will be fiscal hemlock.

Broadcasters: We Don't Need Government to Tell Us How to Serve Our Public
The FCC began its first workshop on the future of media and serving the information needs of the community March 4 with a series of panelists outlining what they said was essentially a lack of any quantifiable public interest obligations on broadcasters. Broadcasters countered that serving the public with programming they needed and wanted was part of their DNA, or in the case of news, RTDNA, and that there was no need for the government to mandate more specific public interest requirements.

BREAKING: ‘Anti-Lobbyist’ Obama Administration Recruited Left-Wing Lobbyists to Sell Bogus ‘Green Jobs’
After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

Holder’s Justice Department Full of Terrorist Defenders
At the rate the Obama Administration is going, it may rival the Nixon Administration in its cover-ups and dishonesty. The new revelation that at least nine attorneys in the Justice Department have previously defended accused jihad terrorist follows closely after another incident remarkably similar in broad outline: the Rashad Hussain debacle. Both feature the Obama Administration apparently turning a blind eye to sympathy for jihad terrorists, followed by clumsy attempts to cover up its indifference once the whole thing came to light.

Romneycare model a dud
President Barack Obama didn’t use the “n” word - or even the “r” word, “reconciliation.” But he made it clear he’s ready to go to Democrat DefCon4, give the partisan launch codes and inflict Obamacare on the American people at any political cost. In defending his decision to go nuclear, Obama talked about insurance company “abuses.” He talked about premium hikes in California. He talked about a sick mom in Wisconsin. He even talked (in extremely modest ways) about Republican ideas like tort reform and fighting Medicare fraud. What Obama didn’t mention was Massachusetts...

Michele Bachmann Vs. Alan Grayson On ObamaCare
Larry King hosts, this is a Video

Ratigan & Media Attempt to Brand Tea Parties Racist
As a black proud Tea Party patriot, I am extremely offended by MSNBC TV show host Dylan Ratigan's baseless accusation that the Tea Party Movement (my white brother and sister fellow patriots) embraces Nazis and racists. Ratigan's attack epitomizes the liberal media's commitment to protect Obama and his radical agenda at all costs. They have a genuine disdain for freedom, capitalism and We The People. No tactic is too low. Ratigan's rant: ....

Abuse of Power
The Wallstreet Journal March 3, 2010 Abuse of Power An undemocratic disservice to our people and to the Senate's institutional role. A string of electoral defeats and the great unpopularity of ObamaCare can't stop Democrats from their self-appointed rendezvous with liberal destiny—ramming a bill through Congress on a narrow partisan vote. What we are about to witness is an extraordinary abuse of traditional Senate rules to pass a bill merely because they think it's good for the rest of us, and because they fear their chance to build a European welfare state may never come again. *** The vehicle is...

Why moral conservatism is indispensable to liberty
My intention here is not to aim any blue-on-blue friendly fire at libertarians. Instead, I want to point out that the belief that you can have liberty without a foundation in Judeo-Christian biblical morality, or even that you cannot have liberty unless you toss this morality aside, is completely contrary to reality.

Kentucky's Bunning again blocks jobless benefits
WASHINGTON – Sen. Jim Bunning has again blocked the Senate from extending unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless. The Kentucky Republican objected Tuesday to a request by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a fellow Republican, to pass a 30-day extension of jobless benefits and other expired measures. The measure would also extend highway programs and prevent a big cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

EDITORIAL: Canada's warning against government health care
President Obama and congressional Democrats are ramping up efforts to ram through a government takeover of the health care system. The vast majority of Americans are opposed to this bureaucratic power grab because they know government will do what it always does, which is increase cost while lowering efficiency and service. In case there's any doubt, all you have to do is look to our neighbor to the north for tales of doom and gloom that come with nationalized health care.

Democrat states giving new meaning to red white and blue as they steadily disintegrate
Question: What’s the new significance of red white and blue? Answer: The Democrat controlled BLUE states are hemorrhaging RED ink and bleeding tax payers WHITE. Between 2004 and 2008 two things happened in New Jersey. It got Bluer and its tax base got smaller. An estimated $70 billion worth of taxable wealth and another $2 billion in charitable giving has run out of the state. New Jersey’s Chamber of Commerce traces the start of the wealth exodus directly to 2004 Democrat crafted tax increases on the so-called “wealthy.” In recent years Maryland has imposed a Millionaire’s Tax with similar results. In the span of one year its number of “millionaires” dropped by 30% causing as loss of millions of tax dollars.

Why Americans Hate Washington
n January, the Senate joined the House in passing "pay-as-you-go" rules to require Congress to pay for new discretionary spending. On Feb. 12, President Obama signed the bill. "Now Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody else," Obama crowed. Less than a month later, Obama and fellow Democrats are busily demonizing a lone senator for pushing Washington to spend responsibly. It seems this administration is all for fiscal restraint — as long as you don't mean it.

Charlie Rangel ruling puts Nancy Pelosi in a jam
The House Ethics Committee's decision to admonish New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel over improper corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean leaves both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the ethics committee itself facing some difficult questions. When then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was admonished by the ethics committee in October 2004, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders went on the offensive against him.

CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens' rights
Washington (CNN) – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

China To Purchase Half of IMF's Gold
China has confirmed the intention to purchase 191.3 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund at an open auction, Finmarket news agency said. World central banks started to increase their gold reserves after prices on gold began to climb in 2001. The IMF sells gold within the scope of a program to diversify sources of income and achieve an increase in lending.

Downtown Seattle street crime scaring away visitors
SEATTLE - Local leaders, alarmed that increasing crime is hurting business and the city's reputation, are calling for action to cut down on criminal activity and street disorder in downtown Seattle.At a forum Thursday morning in Pike Place Market, a whole smorgasbord of ideas were presented to tackle the problem - everything from more police to limits on where people can panhandle.

City of Angels on brink of abyss
Los Angeles, the second-largest US city, is facing a crisis of funding not seen since the darkest days of the Great DepressionTwo and a half years after the official start of the worst economic downturn and fiscal crisis in nearly 80 years, America's economy is supposedly growing again, the stock market is halfway recovered from the lows of 2008 and early 2009, and the unemployment plunge seems to have been halted.

The Fourth Rail
Entitlement programs or, more specifically, reforming them before they bankrupt the nation, is considered the Third Rail of Politics. We now have, however, a Fourth Rail, just as pernicious, doing just as much damage to our national financial well-being and perhaps threatening our liberty even more than Social Security and Medicare. That Fourth Rail is the growth of the public sector work force, i.e. employees of federal, state, and local governments, and the massive money- and power-hungry unions which represent them.

An Orchestrated Campaign Against Toyota in Overdrive?
On Sunday, Toyota learned what it was like to be one of Detroit’s Big Three in the days before they hit upon hard times and Uncle Sam formally entered the car business. Some are treating what Toyota is going through in its fight to deal with the gas pedal- and floormat-related sudden acceleration issues raised by consumers and the government as a bit of a justifiable payback. After all, they argue, the company received kid-glove treatment from car quality reviewers for so many years, perhaps well after they truly deserved it.

Dept. of Homeland Security Loses over 1,000 Computers in One Year
Thankfully, I’ve never lost a computer. The Department of Homeland Sercurity (DHS), on the other hand, cannot say the same.
New documents show that component agencies of DHS, specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined to lose no less than 985 computers in fiscal year 2008. Along with other component agencies in DHS, well over 1,000 computers were lost.

Top General: 'Serious Concerns' on Gay Policy
Top Army and Air Force officers said Tuesday they would be reluctant to overturn a 17-year policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military without more time to ascertain it won't hurt the services. "I do have serious concerns about the impact of a repeal of the law on a force that is fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight and a half years," Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told Congress. "We just don't know the impacts on readiness and military effectiveness."

New home sales hit record low in January
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades.

ACORN Roasted?
Reports say it is changing it's name across the country, and reorganizing under new local community groups to get away from the notierity the name ACORN has, to some, engendered. Fox News paid a visit to the ACORN office in Brooklyn, New York and found a banner with the name "New York Communities for Change" added to the front entrance. The employees inside the office said it is a whole new organization.

The $15B Porkulus II cloture roll call vote: Scott Brown, the Voinovich pay-off & business as usual
he Republicans who joined the Dems to end debate on the phony jobs boondoggle that even the Associated Press points out will create a puny number of jobs: Scott Brown, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and retiring Sens. George Voinovich and Kit Bond.
Yes, sigh, Scott Brown. Looks like he hasn’t taken up my suggested D.C. itinerary. But those of us who knew all along what we were getting — a game-changer who vowed to torpedo Demcare, but who was not an ideological conservative — are not surprised. And I pointed out Brown’s moderate record several times on Fox and on this blog during the campaign.

White House Appoints ClimateGate Scientist as New US Climate Change Guru
Thomas Karl, was recently appointed to lead the National Climatic Data Center, the Commerce Department's new climate change office is a new position that will collect climate change data and disseminate it to businesses and communities. In announcing the new job, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, said the office will "help tackle head-on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change. In the process, we'll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs." In his new job, Karl is going to fit right in, just like the CRU, Thomas Karl is accused of the suppression of evidence unhelpful...

Breaking His Pledge? Obama Calls for Increasing Payroll Taxes on ‘Households’ Earning Less Than $250,000 Per Year
CNSNews.com) - President Obama presented a new health care plan on Monday that calls for raising the Medicare payroll tax on some households earning less than $250,000, an apparent breach of his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on families earning less than that amount. The president’s plan also calls for increasing taxes on interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

White House Accused of Federal Crime in Specter, Bennet Races
"Whoever solicits or receives … any….thing of value, in consideration of the promise of support or use of influence in obtaining for any person any appointive office or place under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." -- 18 USC Sec. 211 -- Bribery, Graft and Conflicts of Interest: Acceptance or solicitation to obtain appointive public office
"In the face of a White House denial, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak stuck to his story yesterday that the Obama administration offered him a "high-ranking" government post if he would not run against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary."


Health Savings Accounts Are The Answer
With this week’s “health care summit” between President Obama and the Republicans, one hopes that the GOP will do a better job than they have done thus far in promoting the benefits of Health Savings Accounts. If they had done so in the past, ObamaCare would likely never have come into consideration. While structured differently than traditional health insurance plans, it is precisely this structural difference that holds the key to reigning in runaway health care inflation. Health Savings Accounts should also have a nearly universal appeal to a particularly vital population in this debate, namely, doctors.

The Depression's Already Here for Some Countries in Europe
This is the second to last installment in my pan-European sovereign debt crisis series. After covering western and southern Europe, we are moving eastward. Before we go any further, be sure you have caught up on the previous portions: 1. Can China Control the "Side-Effects" of its Stimulus-Led Growth? Let's Look at the Facts - Explains the potential fallout of the excessive fiscal stimulus in China. While not European, it is quite likely to kick off the daisy chain effect.

10 Huge Flashing Danger Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Headed For Disaster
Most Americans believe that the U.S. economy will fully recover from this recent recession and will soon become stronger than ever. But that is definitely not what is happening. The truth is that the very foundations of the U.S. economy are coming apart and we are headed for a massive amount of financial trouble as a nation. Collectively, the U.S. government, U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. This mountain of debt has enabled us to enjoy a spectacular standard of living for the past several decades, but now the bills are coming due and nobody seems to even realize how great of a financial disaster the U.S. now finds itself in the middle of.

Holder admits nine Obama Dept. of Justice officials worked for terrorist detainees, offers no details
Attorney General Eric Holder says nine Obama appointees in the Justice Department have represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department. But he does not reveal any names beyond the two officials whose work has already been publicly reported. And all the lawyers, according to Holder, are eligible to work on general detainee matters, even if there are specific parts of some cases they cannot be involved in.

Breaking: Reid Signals Support For Reconciliation Vote On Public Option
In another surprising step forward for the public option, Senator Harry Reid’s office says that if a final decision is made to pass health reform via reconciliation, the Majority Leader would support holding a reconciliation vote on the public option. With more and more Senators signing on to the letter urging Reid to hold an up or down vote on the public option under reconciliation rules, Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau sends over a statement signaling Reid’s qualified support for the move:

Conservatism is the future of America
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, the liberal media in America (i.e. about 90% of the print press) had written off conservatism as dead and buried. An avowedly left-wing president worshipped with almost messianic zeal across much of the world, from Paris to Nairobi, had swept into the White House, bolstered by a Democrat-dominated Congress in both the House and the Senate. The Right appeared broken, divided, and disillusioned, rudderless and leaderless, supposedly the political equivalent of the remnants of Custer’s Last Stand.

U.S. approves settlement for black farmers
The Obama administration announced a $1.25 billion settlement Thursday to resolve charges by thousands of black farmers who say that for decades the Agriculture Department discriminated against them in loan programs. Cabinet officials exhorted Congress to approve the deal by setting aside money for the farmers, who have fought through three administrations to secure a measure of justice. In the starkest cases, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, farmers lost their property after local administrators slow-pedaled loan applications, leaving them unable to plant key crops.

CNN's Sanchez and Velshi Omit Stack's Communist Sympathies
A trend is beginning to develop in the media reports concerning Joe Stack, the man who allegedly smashed a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas: his disgust for capitalism and support of communism must be ignored at all cost. As NewsBusters previously reported, both Time.com and a blog posting at the Washington Post have conveniently skipped two crucial sentences at the end of Stack's suicide note: The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Top U.S. Climate Official: 15 Years With No Global Warming Is Not a Trend
(CNSNews.com) - When asked yesterday whether she agreed or disagreed with one of the world’s top climate-change scientists that there had been no statistically significant global warming over the last fifteen years, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Jane Lubchenco would only say “that it is inappropriate to look at any particular short period of time to discern the long-term trend.”

PPI Shows Inflation Way Higher Than Anticipated, Jobless Claims Take Big Bump Up
Here's a pair of numbers the market won't be happy about: January PPI was up 1.4% and core was up 0.3%, both of which were worse than expected. (Economists were looking for 0.9% and 0.1% respectively) Jobless claims jumped to 473,000. Analysts had been looking for about 450,000.

Stimulus Failure By The Numbers
3.5 MILLION: Jobs Obama Promised Stimulus Would Create By End Of 2010. (President Barack Obama, Remarks At The Signing Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Press Release, Denver, CO, 2/17/09) 3.3 MILLION: Jobs Lost Since Obama Made That Promise. (U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 2/16/10) ....

No dip in earmarks despite White House push for transparency
Transparency requirements pushed for by the Obama administration have not changed the total spending on earmarks for 2010, according to a study by a group critical of the practice. The amount of money directed by lawmakers in 2010 to specific projects back in their districts adds up to $15.9 billion, according to the analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense, Earmarks in 2009 added up to a total of $19.9 billion. But that figure drops slightly below the 2010 total to $15.6 billion when taking out $1.8 billion included in an emergency war-spending bill, another $2.3 billion in earmarks for the Army Corps of Engineers operations and maintenance projects and roughly $200 million for earmarked disaster aid.

String of ominous signals for U.S. economy
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 is the day upon which the perfect economic storm began for the United States. A string of ominous signals for the U.S. economy were reported in various media outlets around the world, none of which made front-page, headline news in the American mainstream media. First, America's largest creditor, China, sold off most of its U.S. treasuries to Japan, a sign that the Asian communist country has lost its stomach for holding the vast majority of U.S. debt. That dubious honor now goes to Japan.

2009 Old And Busted: Global Warming Causes More Foggy Days in San Fran. 2010 New And Hot: Global Warming Causes Less Foggy Days in San Fran..


Most Think Half-A-Loaf In Taxes Is Enough
Most Americans favor a law that would limit the amount of taxes paid to state, local and federal governments so that no one would pay more than 50% of their total income in taxes. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% of adults nationwide favor such a limit. Nineteen percent (19%) are opposed, and another 19% are not sure.

Gallup: Democrats Like Socialism
Via-RUSH: "Socialism Viewed Positively by 36% of the American People." This is a Gallup poll: "More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of 'socialism,' while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives." On the Democrat side it looks like 61% of liberals think socialism is a great idea.

Rubio to speak at conservative conference
Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio will give the kickoff address at the 37th annual Conservative Political Action Conference this week, The Washington Times has learned. A record turnout of more than 10,000 activists from around the country, including "tea-party" leaders, is expected at the three-day event, which for decades has been the largest gathering of conservatives.

The Problem Is Government Unions
The Senate's decisive defeat of confirmation of radical labor lawyer Craig Becker is the first tangible result of the Massachusetts Miracle, which made Scott Brown the 41st Republican in the U.S. Senate. Two red-state Democrats also voted not to proceed toward a vote on President Obama's nomination of Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

White House defends year-old stimulus
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, defending his economic stimulus plan on its first anniversary, is dispatching his Cabinet across the country to try to calm an anxious public as Democrats head into potentially devastating midterm elections.

Experts: Something wrong in Democratic party
Evan Bayh's decision not to seek re-election to a seat Democrats considered somewhat "safe" in the Senate is a clear indication that something is wrong with the Democratic Party, some experts said Monday.

Billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump wants Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize stripped from the Global Warmingist-in-Chief.

Want to Control Deficit? Rein in State Spending
The United States of America is swimming in an ocean of debt and Washington’s most recent budget, estimated to increase the federal deficit to at least a whopping $1.35 trillion, threatens to raise sea-levels even higher.

Climategate: Phil Jones Finally Proves Al Gore Right — The Debate Is Over
Now that Climategate ringleader Phil Jones has admitted that there has been no global warming (man-made or otherwise) since at least 1995, and that the world was warmer in medieval times than now, I only have one question. Where do the so-called global warming skeptics go to get their reputations back?

World may not be warming, say scientists
The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution. In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.

New Rule on Guns in Parks Takes Effect February 22
On February 22, a new law on guns in national parks takes effect. The new law repeals a National Park Service rule that has long prohibited Americans from possessing firearms in national parks for self-defense. The Coburn amendment, passed last spring by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the U.S. Senate, will allow people to possess, carry and transport firearms in national parks, in accordance with state law.

Think Color Of Money, Not Trees When It Comes To 'Green' Jobs
President Obama has spent billions on so-called green job programs as part of the economic recovery and plans to spend billions more. He has repeatedly argued this will create good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced. But, according to the green groups themselves, these jobs can be highly expensive, often costing well more than $100,000 per job in subsidies and/or tax credits. Just last month, the White House said it was spending $135,294 per job to create 17,000 green jobs.

Increasing Government Power Threatens Freedom
Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit.

Where the U.S. went wrong on the Christmas Day bomber
It seems to me unlikely that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will be known to future generations of lawyers for generating any groundbreaking legal principle or issue. But when it comes to illuminating our public discourse about the "global war on terror," he is right up there with Clarence Earl Gideon, Ernesto Miranda or even Jose Padilla. His case presents in one tidy package virtually all the issues that arise from the role intelligence plays in this struggle and compels us to examine what the law requires and what it doesn't.

Johnston: Administration’s Job Prediction ‘Somewhat Disingenuous’
Western Corporate Federal Credit Union Vice President of Economic and Market Research Dwight Johnston today called the Obama Administration’s prediction of an average net increase of 95,000 jobs per month “somewhat disingenuous.” Johnston credits the increase to an influx of 1.2 million 2010 Census jobs, which works out to 100,000 per month on average, he said. The WesCorp economist has been consistently predicting the increase in his market commentaries, warning readers that payroll figures will improve from early March until the end of June; but by the end of the year, all but 100,000 Census jobs will be gone.

Iran is now a 'nuclear state' says Ahmadinejad as thousands take to the streets
Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning. As Gordon Brown warned that the world's patience is wearing thin, Ahmadinejad told scores of cheering Iranians that the Islamic Republic is capable of producing weapons-grade uranium. He spoke as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran to mark the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Obama Beats Generic Republican by 2 Points
I'm no psephologist, but my guess is that's not where Axelrod wanted to be at this point.

Climategate: Obama’s National Climate Disservice
Under the pretext that “Americans are witnessing the impacts of climate change in their own backyards,” and that they “increasingly are asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for information about climate change in order to make the best choices for their families, communities and businesses,” this week the Obama administration unveiled its National Climate Service (NCS).

Can We Start Questioning Global Warming?
As we go into the final days of Snowpacolypse, Snowmageddon, ar as one hockey blog writer dubbed it, “Keyser Snowze”, it’s time to ask some real questions from the Global Warmongers. I’ve seen a few reports of journalists claiming that these blizzards are further proof of Climate Change caused by Global Warming.

Different Shades of Truth: a professional explains what’s behind the headlines of a polling Story
For months now there have been many national polls released that showed growing disapproval of the various health care reform proposals circulating in the halls of Congress. Still, in the face of increasing dissatisfaction, congressional Democrats unwisely pushed forward. Republicans have made major gains in the minds of the public because of the Democratic missteps. Sampling to fit a template

Why Natural Gas Vehicles Won't Decrease Oil Dependence
Natural gas is the fossil fuel du jour. At Davos, BP CEO Tony Hayward described unconventional natural gas as a 'complete game changer'. The rest of the panel agreed. In December Exxon Mobil (XOM) bought XTO Energy for $41bn to access its resource base of 45tcf (trillion cubic feet) of unconventional natty.

Americans Losing Hope, Looking For Change
Voters are souring on the economy and the government’s remedies, according to February's IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index. It fell 4.1% to 46.8, matching December’s level and the weakest since July. “Persisting high unemployment and a wobbly stock market dampened January’s optimism,” said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, IBD’s polling partner. Readings below 50 signal pessimism

Chrysler Bankruptcy, case of judicial fraud? Dealership Attorneys to appeal Motion denial
Friday Feb 5th, Judge Gonzalez of the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, in the Chrysler Bankruptcy case denied a Motion brought on behalf of over 70 of the former Chrysler Dealers to overturn the Rejection Order which stripped them of their franchises in the spring of 2009.

With Federal Stimulus Money Gone, Many Schools Face Budget Gaps
Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation’s schools are approaching what officials are calling a “funding cliff.”

The 19 Televised Pleadings by Obama to the GOP on Health Care
The Dem-only, GOP stiff-arm that the Trillion dollar President has been treating the nation to for the last year on health care is supposed to go away in one televised meeting. After forcing the end of the only bi-partisan process in Congress and insisting that Congress go the Dem-only route — here are the 19 things the Trillion dollar President is really asking the GOP to help him do:

Doctor Zero’s Answer to Socialism
In his article, Doc Zero not only eviscerates the concept of socialism as a beneficial force while enumerating its many sins, he also proposes the antidote for it, in the form of unbridled capitalism in all its glory, along with a dramatic transfer of power from federal to state level, and a drastic dose of belt-tightening, especially of social programs so beloved by liberals, such as PBS and NPR, in order to get through the rest of this financial crisis and put America back on her proper path.

U.S. 11% Unemployment Coming by May?
Over the weekend I received an email from Irishscot2, a poster on MarketWatch, regarding seasonal adjustments to the unemployment rate.

Brown: Stimulus Didn't Create One New Job
Newly-sworn Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown says the last economic stimulus bill did not create even one new job, a claim that most economists would dispute. Brown made the assertion moments after he was sworn in Thursday by Vice President Joe Biden to the seat held for nearly half a century by the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. Convening his first news conference, Brown said the last economic stimulus bill didn't create a single new job. He added that it may have retained some jobs, but didn't create any new ones.

SARAH PALIN DISCUSSES THE DANGERS OF OBAMA’S OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING
For sane people, this should be a no brainer , but we are talking Obama and his communist thugs. They are determined to destroy this country one way or the other. What better way than to run up a debt so large that it can never be paid? Now some may say, well so what! Others may say that well…we will just print money. Oh sure, hyper-inflation will follow, and it’ll take a bushel basket full of money to buy a loaf of bread, but we’ll get by. (Yes, there really are people saying that!)

Don't Be Fooled By Lower Unemployment Rate, Job Losses Continue to Mount
Beneath the headlines, the government reported the U.S. economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the recession officially began in December 2007, a sharp upward revision from 7.2 million previously reported; that includes 930,000 jobs more than previously estimated in the 12 months ended March 2009.

Why Obama Hates the Recent SCOTUS Decision
A major provision of the “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002?, aka McCain-Feingold, was largely dismissed by the Supreme Court on January 21, 2010. President Obama’s reaction was swift and almost comically over the top.

Obama Backs Down After Anti-Vegas Remarks
LAS VEGAS -- President Barack Obama is known for having a way with words, but some lawmakers from Nevada wish he would pipe down about trips to Sin City. After sparking a firestorm of criticism from Nevada's elected officials for suggesting that people saving money for college shouldn't blow it in Las Vegas, Obama told U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a letter that he wasn't saying anything negative about Las Vegas.

Climategate': Cooking data in UK since 1990? Suprise, suprise!!!
A climate change research centre in the UK may have been manipulating data - to support the theory that mankind is responsible for global warming - for the last 20 years. That's according to new analysis of the centre's work. VIDEO

President Obama: “Every Economist from the Left and Right” Says Stimulus Has Saved or Created At Least Two Million Jobs At the end of November, Congressional Budget office Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote that because of the stimulus bill “in the third quarter of calendar year 2009, an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million people were employed in the United States..” But clearly other economists are much more skeptical, including Dan Mitchell at the libertarian Cato Institute, and J.D. Foster at The Heritage Foundation.

Brown to Be Sworn in Thursday, Giving GOP 41 votes
Sen.-elect Scott Brown, the Republican who upset the political world to wrest the longtime Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy from the Democrats will be sworn in to office Thursday afternoon. Brown's swearing-in will give Republicans 41 seats in the upper chamber. "Once we get his certificate, we expect to swear him in tomorrow afternoon as early as 5 o'clock, which is earlier than he suggested," Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told TheHill.com Wednesday.

Justice Defends Ruling on Finance
WASHINGTON — In expansive remarks at a law school in Florida, Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday vigorously defended the Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision.And Justice Thomas explained that he did not attend State of the Union addresses — he missed the dust-up when President Obama used the occasion last week to criticize the court’s decision — because the gatherings had turned so partisan.

Budget-strapped states avoid the word 'taxes'
DENVER | Faced with severe budget shortfalls after a steep economic recession, state legislatures and governors are trying to raise money without raising taxes — at least not technically.

Oh (no) Canada
You've heard the mantra, chanted by everyone on the left, from Michael Moore to The New York Times: America's profit-centric health-care system is dismally inferior to that of Canada's purely pristine humanitarian-driven version.

How climate-change fanatics corrupted science
Quick, name the most distrusted occupations. Trial lawyers? Pretty scuzzy, as witness the disgraced John Edwards, kept from the vice presidency in 2004 by the electoral votes of Ohio. Used car dealers? Always near the bottom of the list, as witness the universal understanding of the word "clunker." But over the last three months a new profession has moved smartly up the list and threatens to overtake all. Climate scientist.

Strange case of moving weather posts and a scientist under siege
It is difficult to imagine a more bizarre academic dispute. Where exactly are 42 weather monitoring stations in remote parts of rural China? But the argument over the weather stations, and how it affects an important set of data on global warming, has led to accusations of scientific fraud and may yet result in a significant revision of a scientific paper that is still cited by the UN's top climate science body.

Leaked climate change emails scientist 'hid' data flaws
Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based. A Guardian investigation of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia's climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced.

President Obama’s budget seeks an end to tax break for the middle class
Grappling to contain record deficits, President Barack Obama is seeking to end a middle-class tax break he once said would be permanent. The $3.8 trillion budget request rolled out by the White House on Monday would renew the Making Work Pay tax credit for fiscal 2011, but then would have it sunset.

An Obama-Sized Government
The president has a peculiar understanding of leadership. By all accounts, federal fiscal policy has now run completely off the rails. Budgetary pressures have been building for years because of unconstrained entitlement spending and Washington’s unchecked appetite for ever-more activist government. But what had been a chronic problem that all involved knew needed corrective action has now become, in the Obama years, a full-fledged disaster in the making.

America's 'Free' Falling Economy
Competitiveness: The latest index of economic freedom shows America falling fast, being ranked for the first time as "mostly free." We've fallen behind Canada, and it's look out below. Our accelerating descent into a command-and-control economy with government pulling the strings is taking its toll.

The President's Priorities One of the greatest spend-while-you-can documents in American history.
One rule of budget reporting is to watch what the politicians are spending this year, not the frugality they promise down the road. By that measure, the budget that President Obama released yesterday for fiscal 2011 is one of the greatest spend-while-you-can documents in American history.

Obama budget exposes nuclear lie
In his State of the Union Address, President Obama purported to reach across the aisle by endorsing a “new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants”…before pushing cap and trade. The nearly $4 trillion budget he released today exposes his nuclear lie.
It zeroes out funds for the besieged Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility in Nevada — one of the few, prominent Obama campaign pledges that he looks like he’s actually fulfilling:

The Hottest Hoax in the World
t was presented as fact. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, led by India’s very own RK Pachauri, even announced a consensus on it. The world was heating up and humans were to blame. A pack of lies, it turns out. The climate change fraud that is now unravelling is unprecedented in its deceit, unmatched in scope—and for the liberal elite, akin to 9 on the Richter scale. Never have so few fooled so many for so long, ever.

Michael Moore To Receive Taxpayer Subsidy He Criticized In 2008
Michael Moore's schlockumentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" has been approved for a taxpayer-funded subsidy he once criticized.
According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan Michigan-based think tank, Moore's 2009 film is set to receive an undisclosed amount of money from the Michigan Film Office.

New revelations provide more embarrassment in global warming hoax
New revelations concerning the global warming hoax have led to more embarrassment for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Telegraph of the U.K. has uncovered the fact that rather than doing its own scientific investigations on the hypothesis that glaciers are receding, the Panel instead relied on non-scientific, anecdotal evidence in a magazine article and in the dissertation of a master's degree student.

Climate chief was told of false glacier claims before Copenhagen
The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt. Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists.

Scientists broke the law by hiding climate change data: But legal loophole means they won't be prosecuted
Scientist at the heart of the 'Climategate' email scandal broke the law when they refused to give raw data to the public, the privacy watchdog has ruled. The Information Commissioner's office said University of East Anglia researchers breached the Freedom of Information Act when handling requests from climate change sceptics.

Generic ballot polls suggest possible epic party disaster for Dems
The Real Clear Politics average on the generic ballot now shows Republicans ahead 46%-42%. This is historically unprecedented.
Except for a single CNN/USA Today poll conducted right after the Republican National Convention, September 5-7, 2008, which seems to have been an outlier, Republicans didn’t take the lead on the generic ballot—which party’s candidate will you vote for in House races—until March 9-15, 2009, in Rasmussen polling (which samples likely voters and whose results have therefore leaned more Republican than those of other pollsters since Barack Obama’s inauguration). Republicans since took a lead in the NPR poll (July 22-26), Gallup (November 5-8), Bloomberg News (December 3-7), Battleground (December 6-10), CNN/Opinion Research (January 8-10) and Democracy Corps (January 7-11).

The public face of gun-rights battle
Southwest Side resident is part of next month's Supreme Court test of Chicago's gun ban. From behind the wheel of his hulking GMC Suburban, 76-year-old Otis McDonald leads a crime-themed tour of his Morgan Park neighborhood. He points to the yellow brick bungalow he says is a haven for drug dealers. Down the street is the alley where five years ago he saw a teenager pull out a gun and take aim at a passing car. Around the corner, he gestures to the weed-bitten roadside where three thugs once threatened his life.

Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze'
It reads like a dream order for a wild frat party: Maker's Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey's Irish Crème, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey … and Corona beer.

Knoxville TN company closing, laying off 315 (Green jobs company going under!!!)
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - IdleAire - a Knoxville-based company praised as offering a green technology option to long-haul truck drivers has closed its doors. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the shut-down of IdleAire on Thursday left 315 people without jobs - 60 of them in Knoxville. IdleAire provided heat, air conditioning, electrical outlets, Internet link, telephone and cable television connections through a console that attached to truck window openings, allowing drivers to turn off their engines at truck stops.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17 (see trends).

PALIN DROPS THE HAMMER: "PRESIDENT OBAMA, YOU HAVE A CREDIBILITY GAP"
We kind of figured Sarah would have something more to say about President Obama’s State of the Union speech. As you will read, she doesn’t disappoint. Sarah was pulling no punches when she appeared on the Sean Hannity Show:

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17 (see trends).

Secret AIG bailout docs leaked; Update: Bernanke on the hot seat
Eeenteresting. About a week ago, the SEC agree to cover-up bailout documents for AIG until 2018. The documents relate to the backroom bank bailout payments at top dollar to AIG counterparties — which know-nothing Tim Geithner was grilled about today on the Hill. The leak comes as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke heads to the Hill himself to secure a second term.

Beyond the Whining, What Did the President Propose?
The President, not too surprisingly, said a lot last night in the State of the Union - and by that, I mean he used a lot of words. But what did the President actually propose? In short - it was the same thing we’ve been hearing from him since his campaign - the government creates jobs, the government needs to control healthcare, and the government needs to spend a lot on education. But it was notable in its inconsistency - proposing a (partial, and small) spending freeze while proposing massive government “investment” in numerous programs - and its disconnect from the free markets.

Geithner Draws Fire Defending Fed On AIG Bailout
Democrats and Republicans alike pummeled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday over his role in the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG Inc., venting public anger over Wall Street's return to prosperity while unemployment stands at 10 percent.

McDonnell: Country Can't Afford Democratic Spending
WASHINGTON – The nation cannot afford the spending Democrats have enacted or the tax increases they propose, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Wednesday in the Republican response to the State of the Union address.

State of the Union: Barack Obama gets an F for world leadership
As expected, Barack Obama’s 70 minute State of the Union address focused heavily on the economy and the domestic political agenda. This was hardly surprising in the aftermath of last week’s catastrophic defeat for his party in the Massachusetts special Senate election, where the Republicans scored an historic victory. American voters are turning strongly against the president’s health care reform package as well as his big government vision for the economy, which has contributed to spiraling public debt and mounting unemployment, now standing at over 10 percent.

Obama: 'I didn't sign off on those shady health care deals.' Really?
Mary Katharine Ham notes that President Obama tells ABC: “Let's just clarify. I didn't make a bunch of deals [on health care]. ... There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked.” But the Washington Post reported on December 20 that Obama's top aides were involved in the negotiations with Nelson: .....

Help wanted: $24,000 to stop Glenn Beck, 'tea-baggers'
Help-wanted ads are appearing on Craigslist that offer to pay citizens $24,000 a year, plus health insurance, to "counter the hysteria and lies of Glenn Beck and other talking heads" and "stop the tea-baggers!" The ads are being posted by Grassroots Campaigns, a canvassing group that has performed services for the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org. Its postings can be found among Craiglist listings in Chicago, Ill.; San Francisco, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; Philadelphia, Penn. and Austin, Texas.

Obama Spending Freeze Trickery: Freeze Locks in 20% Department Budget Increases Over FY 09 and 10
Barack Obama is up to some spending "freeze" trickery when he claims that he will seek a freeze on a part of the budget for some domestic programs. In reality, the Obama "freeze" will actually lock in an already weighty, 20%, average increase for FY 09 and 10 in the budgets of departments that Obama claims will have their spending "frozen" for three years. These departments exclude the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and others which administer programs like Social Security. According to Charles Krauthammer who appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, what Obama wants to do is to deviously preserve massive increases in departments that Obama instituted last year under the guise of helping the economy rise out of the recession through massive government-spending increases.

Obama aims to ax moon mission
NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way. When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon....

AIG and NY Fed: Who's Involved?
Jim DeMint may not be ready to call this a "cover up" but DeMint also is bringing to the forefront a number of points that I have repeatedly made, specifically: --- * It was securitized debt that was rife with fraud that led to the blowup. But what's not being said - still - is that without this fraud-laced securitization party there would have been no bubble either! --- * DeMint asserts that Ben Bernanke and the FOMC was involved in the bailout and secrecy play with regard to AIG. No, really? The NY Fed doesn't pass gas without the approval of the FOMC! So yes, the FOMC was involved - and it is only reasonable to assume so was Bernanke....

Dem leaders coalesce on health care strategy
Democratic congressional leaders are coalescing around their last, best hope for salvaging President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul. Their plan is to pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats, senior Democratic aides said Monday. Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it's unclear whether they have enough votes to carry it out.

Transcript: Diane Sawyer Interviews Obama
ABC's Diane Sawyer's interview with President Obama at the White House. So, looking back a year, going before a joint session of Congress. What's the biggest difference in going this week?

Kennedy family furious at Martha Coakley's poor Senate campaign
he Kennedy family has come out swinging against failed Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley, who lost the race to succeed Ted Kennedy. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, niece of Ted Kennedy, has told the Daily Beast bluntly that Coakley did not campaign enough.

The Astroturf Presidency
I predict you’ll start seeing the question as a popular bumper sticker soon (a la “Who is John Galt?”…and voila, someone has already made a t-shirt!). It’s a handy rhetorical rejoinder the next time the White House or your nutroots neighbors and co-workers try to tar the Tea Party or any other grass-roots revolts against President Obama as phony, top-down operations...

Dick Morris: Pelosi and Reid Plot Secret Plan for Obamacare
Highly informed sources on Capitol Hill have revealed to me details of the Democratic plan to sneak Obamacare through Congress, despite collapsing public approval for healthcare "reform" and disintegrating congressional support in the wake of Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts.

Climate Change Authority Admits Mistake
One of the most alarming conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a widely respected organization established by the United Nations, is that glaciers in the Himalayas could be gone 25 years from now, eliminating a primary source of water for hundreds of millions of people. But a number of glaciologists have argued that this conclusion is wrong, and now the IPCC admits that the conclusion is largely unsubstantiated, based on news reports rather than published, peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Timothy Geithner warns of Ben Bernanke fallout
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that the financial markets would view a Senate rejection of Ben Bernanke's renomination as "very troubling" but said he's sure the embattled Federal Reserve chairman will prevail.

Obama Administration Steers Lucrative No-Bid Contract for Afghan Work to Dem Donor
The Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

Protesters Ignored Again
Every year on January 22 citizens across the nation March for Life in Washington D.C. to protest the 1973 decision of the US Supreme Court that legalized abortion on demand. And every year the media treats the story as insignificant. Just imagine if 300,000 people coalesced in Washington D.C. to protest so-called global warming, the amount of exposure they would have received.

Federal government responds to Montana Firearms Freedom Act
The United States government has filed a Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit filed by the Montana Shooting Sports Association and the Second Amendment Foundation. The suit was filed the support the Montana Firearms Freedom Act which declares that any firearms made and retained in-state are beyond the authority of Congress under its constitutional power to regulate commerce among the states.

Unions Try to Monopolize Green Jobs
House Education and Labor Committee Republicans yesterday held a forum to examine Big Labor political cronyism permeating the Obama administration’s agenda. Hosted by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), senior Republican on the committee, witnesses included Steve Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes and Elaine Chao, former U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Roach: Double Dip Recession Now 40% Likely
Morgan Stanley's Steven Roach thinks it's pretty unfair of politicians to be putting so much blame on banks alone for the financial crisis, as if to forget the role ratings agencies and government itself. Moreover, he also thinks a double dip recession is pretty likely:

Obama Demagogues the Court’s Ruling
The president issued a written statement yesterday on the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down most of the McCain-Feingold campaign statute. It read: With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics...

Obama's New Banking Regulations Leaked To Insider Traders
Last night it seemed like a surprise when the WSJ reported that Obama was about to wage war on Wall Street with new limitations on bank size, leverage, and prop trading. But it wasn't a surprise to everyone! ....

Democrats propose $1.9T increase in debt limit
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.

Barack Obama's dangerous second year
With approval ratings tumbling, Barack Obama has no choice but to become a more partisan leader in the year aheadAs Barack Obama's second year as president commences, a degree of political soul-searching looks likely. After all, one year ago Obama was lauded by Americans from across the political spectrum.

A Final Look at Massachusetts Election Night Poll
As noted in data released earlier, 56% of Massachusetts voters named health care as the most important issue. That suggests it was a big issue, but Democrat Martha Coakley actually won among those voters by a 53% to 46% margin.

New W.H. Comm Director Has a Dim View of Fox News
"I have the same view of Fox that Anita [Dunn] had, which is that Fox is not a traditional news organization. They have a point of view. That point of view pervades the entire network both the opinion shows, like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, but also through the newscasts during the day," Pfeiffer said.

Health Care Reform, Abortion, and Scott Brown [VIDEO]
Scott Brown is not what one would call an ardent pro-lifer. His record puts him squarely mid-field. Yet his victory in the Massachusetts senate race could be the boon that pro-lifers and conservatives have been needing.

EDITORIAL: Obama's $59 billion giveaway to unions
Democrats didn't learn their lesson from the public outrage over vote buying. Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, and Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, are still reeling from fallout over the hundreds of millions their states will get for a deal to buy their votes for the government health care takeover.

Son of Climategate! Scientist says feds manipulated data
In a one-two series of Climategate aftershocks that assuredly will further rattle the global warming community, a report has been issued by U.S. researchers accusing government agencies of cherry-picking temperature readings used to assess global temperatures, and a series of embarrassing e-mails were released revealing what happened when a blogger dared to point out a mistake by NASA climate scientists.

Health Care Mandate Applies to All -- Except the Amish
While most Americans will have to prove they have insurance or face a fine under the health reform legislation that is now nearing the finish line in Congress, at least one group won't have to worry.

FCC looks to control internet
The Federal Communications Commission is considering aggressive moves to stake out its authority to oversee consumer access to the Internet, as a recent court hearing and industry opposition have cast doubt on its power over Web service providers.

Hoyer: Democrats aim to clinch healthcare deal this weekend
Democrats are hoping to finalize a healthcare deal this weekend, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday. Hoyer said that on the heels of several days of marathon negotiations to hammer out a final healthcare bill, Democrats hope to announce a final agreement within the next 72 hours.

Pat Buchanan Townhall.com Columnist Is a U.S. Default Inevitable?
We were blindsided. We never saw it coming. So said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein of the financial crisis of 2008. He likened its probability to four hurricanes hitting the East Coast in a single season. Blankfein was reminded by the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee, Phil Angelides, that hurricanes are "acts of God." Financial crises are manmade.

Obama Seeks Tax Hike on Financial Firms to Recoup Cost of Bailout
President Obama plans Thursday to propose a sharp increase in the taxes paid by the nation's largest financial institutions designed to raise $90 billion over the next decade while constraining the industry's ability to take large risks and reap outsize rewards, a senior administration official said.

Retail sales unexpectedly fall in December
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly fell in December as consumer spent less on vehicles and an array of other goods during the holiday shopping month, data showed on Thursday, raising concerns about the durability of the economy's recovery.

Murkowski Holds Out Option of Vote on Plan to Block EPA
Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday left open the possibility that she would seek a vote next week on stopping the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from going forward with regulations to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. "I do not believe and I don't believe that most of my colleagues in the Senate believe that the EPA is the entity that is the best suited to develop climate-change policy for this country," Ms. Murkowski (R., Alaska) told reporters. "I'm trying to get a time-out.

Physicians Say Government ‘Never Will’ Understand
More than 40 percent of physicians participating in a single-question online poll said they feel the U.S. government “never will” understand how declining reimbursement rates from Medicare negatively affect the care patients receive from their physicians.

WALK: Brown Soars and Coakley Sours
The run-up to the special election in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy has brought a surprising possibility to the forefront: Massachusetts might not be as reliably liberal as the conventional wisdom holds. In all but two of the last ten presidential elections, Massachusetts has awarded its electoral votes to a Democrat. The two elections that it went Republican: 1980 and 1984 – Ronald Reagan. What does this mean, and why is it important? ....

On Healthcare Reform, the Tax Collector Tolls for Thee
Quietly, over the weekend, the Associated Press released a short news item grudgingly admitting that the Senate’s healthcare bill would cause insurance premiums to rise. Some of the AP’s outlets didn’t even spike it; Yahoo featured it all day on their homepage, and even the Chicago Tribune didn’t totally bury it; the Trib printed it in their Sunday edition… either with surprising honesty, or perhaps by accident, on the Obituaries page.

Small-business index fell in December
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. small businesses are still shedding jobs and cutting inventories amid weak sales and low expectations, the National Federation of Independent Businesses reported Tuesday. The NFIB small-business index fell in December to 88.0 from 88.3 in November, the lobbying organization said.

Hungarian Physicist Dr. Ferenc Miskolczi proves CO2 emissions irrelevant in Earth’s Climate
For years now, we have been told that science is dedicatedly attempting to find out how the Earth’s Climate works. With all possible seriousness, the most publically vocal of these scientists, those working for the UN’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), have for the last several years blamed the warming they “found” on Carbon Dioxide...

Darrell Issa On AIG: "The American People Deserve Somebody's Head On A Platter"
Darrell Issa asks the key question: "If not Tim Geithner then who? What's wrong with a system that the New York Fed can hand out your tax dollars in these quantities and not think it is particularly important to make sure it's the right amount." And more questions:...

China Ends U.S.’s Reign as Largest Auto Market
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- China supplanted the U.S. as the world’s largest auto market after its 2009 vehicle sales jumped 46 percent, ending more than a century of American dominance that started with the Model T Ford. The nation’s sales of passenger cars, buses and trucks rose to 13.6 million,....

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15 (see trends). ...

U.S. rules altered for foreigners with HIV
Last Monday, for the first time in 22 years, foreigners with HIV were legally allowed to enter the United States without their infection status being considered.

Hold Geithner to account on AIG matter
If Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner abused his former position with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to encourage the American International Group (AIG) to conceal essential information regarding inappropriate activities from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Geithner should not merely be removed from his Cabinet position. He should be prosecuted.

Fear of the dragon
MANY people start the new year by resolving to change their old ways. Not China. On December 27th Zhong Shan, the country’s vice-minister of trade, declared that China will continue to increase its share of world exports. Figures due out on January 11th are expected to show that China’s exports in December were higher than a year ago, after 13 months of year-on-year declines. China’s exports fell by around 17% in 2009 as a whole, but other countries’ slumped by even more....

51% Still Blame Bush for Nation’s Economic Woes
As the nation’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, 51% of voters nationwide continue to believe that the economic woes can still be blamed on Administration of George W. Bush. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 41% hold the opposite view and believe the policies of Barack Obama are to blame.

TAKE-A-LOOK: US employers unexpectedly cut jobs in December
U.S. employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December, cooling optimism on the labor market's recovery and keeping pressure on President Barack Obama to find ways to spur job growth.

Colorado jobless fund needs loan
Colorado is borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to keep afloat its unemployment-insurance fund, which will go broke in two weeks without the cash infusion. Don Mares, director of the state Department of Labor and Employment, told lawmakers about the fund's precarious condition Thursday at a meeting of the Joint Budget Committee.

Civil Rights Division Lawyers Slapped With Sanctions
For the last nine months, the Justice Department has been stonewalling requests for more information about its dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther party. The department has denied requests for information about the case from newspapers and members of Congress, and is refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The Man Who Can Stop Obamacare
The Democrats have gotten to the precipice — to borrow President Obama’s word — of victory on health-care reform for one reason above all others: 60 votes. Their supermajority in the Senate empowered them to muscle through a sprawling mess of a bill by partisan fiat. If the ball had bounced the other way in a close race or two (or if Arlen Specter had felt more loyalty to his party of decades), the Democrats wouldn’t have gotten to 60....

“The cities in China are filthy. They don’t even manufacture brooms.
They sweep the streets with twigs bound together with twine.” Such is the absurd economic analysis that one stock broker gave me for why China is not a thriving economy. On the other hand while the Obama administration is nationalizing our banks, energy sector, and car industry [the last of the manufacturing assembly sector], China is creating a vibrant economy that relies more on the free market then does the United States.


Pending Home Sales Post Record Plunge in November
Pending home sales unexpectedly plunged in November, according to a report issued Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors, posting their largest drop on record after several months of positive gains for a closely-watched indicator of housing market activity.
According to the industry group, November pending home sales activity dropped by 16%.....

C-span Letter to Congress (PDF)
C-SPAN's Brian Lamb's letter to the congressional leadership

Gun owners flex their right to carry arms at Livermore event (This is outside spending and tax yet we are strong 2nd amendment supporters) LIVERMORE — They brought their guns to downtown Livermore — to have a cup of coffee and demonstrate their right to literally bear arms. A group of more than a dozen people met at a downtown cafe Saturday afternoon, some of them had unloaded semi-automatic pistols holstered to their belts with their ammunition clips readily available

Obama's Ill-Advised Small-Business Tax Cuts
In a speech last month at the venerable Brookings Institution, President Barack Obama laid out a series of objectives meant to stimulate economic activity. As he put it, "Our work is far from done." Obama's proposed economic package includes an elimination of capital gains taxes on small-business investment as well as an extension of business equipment write-offs. Small businesses

New Credit Card Law Punishes Responsible People
If your credit is good, or your credit card balance is low, you may soon pay more on every credit card bill. Why? Congress passed a misguided new credit card law, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. As a result of it, you may end up paying an annual fee. And you may end up losing your percentage rebates, your cash back, or your rewards program.

No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds
ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) — Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere. However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18 (see trends).

Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents
The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during President Obama's first year in office. This far exceeds the spending for any other first-year president.

APNewsBreak: 13 AGs threaten suit over health care
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska's political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday. "We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and the 12 other attorneys generarls...

Rasmussen: Opinions on ObamaCare hardening
Have recent revisions to ObamaCare in the Senate improved its standing with likely voters? According to the latest Rasmussen polling, not at all. And updating voters on the plan’s provisions make almost no difference at all:However, the continuing debate over ObamaCare and its provisions are making a difference to some people … mostly state governors looking at gigantic unfunded mandates via Medicaid. It isn’t red-state governors doing all of the objecting, either.......

Thomas Sowell: 'Making history' even if it kills us
The only thing healthy about Congress' health insurance legislation is the healthy skepticism about it by most of the public, as revealed by polls. What is most unhealthy about this legislation is the raw arrogance in the way it was conceived and passed. Supporters of government health insurance call its passage "historic." ...

Congressional Candidate Schiffer Seeks Repeal on Carbon Dioxide Law
Paul Schiffer, Republican candidate for Congress in Ohio's 16th Congressional District, has already written legislation to repeal last Monday's decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calling carbon dioxide a "pollutant." Paul Schiffer pledged to introduce and fight for this repeal in January 2011 after being elected in November 2010.

Obama becoming pathetic?
To his embarrassment, when he walked into a meeting with the leaders of Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC), to which he had not been invited, all the chairs were filled.Some say that he had crashed the meeting and others that his aides had told him that the head of China was there waiting for him. He finally realized there was no chair set for him to sit on and had to wait while an aide to one of the leaders gave up his seat for the President of the United States.

GM Plans Pontiac Fire Sale
General Motors Co. is offering its dealers hefty incentives to move thousands of leftover vehicles from its discontinued Saturn and Pontiac brands. The unusual tactic could inflate the car maker's December sales and cut the cost to car buyers by as much as 46% off the sticker price.

Obama’s 6 Worst Policy Decisions
6. Bailing Out GM. “His policy of public investments prevented necessary liquidations. The businesses he hoped thus to save either went bankrupt in the end, after fearful agonies, or were burdened . . . by a crushing load of debt. [He] undermined property rights . . .pushed federal credit into the banks and bullied them into inflating . . .” Historian Paul Johnson wrote that of Herbert Hoover. You can almost substitute Obama’s name for Hoover’s in every detail. By the way, Government Motors sales are declining at 3 times the rate of the industry as a whole. Hoover would be proud....

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes: 1. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT): This marks two years in a row...

DEALER’S PILING ON, IN LEGAL BID TO DEFEND RIGHTS TO THEIR FRANCHISES
(Dec. 26, 2009) — Last night Attorney Leo Donofrio filed an Omnibus Motion to Reconsider in the case RE: in Chrysler LLC et al., in the name of Attorney Stephen Pidgeon and himself, and on behalf of more than 20 Chrysler Dealerships, seeking to recover monetary compensation for the loss of their franchises and contractual rights with Chrysler.

BILLIONAIRES TO GO OUTWITH A BANG IN 2010
In five days the United States will enter the New Year with the mother of all loopholes. The estate death tax is abated for one year: 2010. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in order to take advantage of this chasm, one has to pay the ultimate price. He
or she must die before next year is over. In order to prevent the government...

Courts play referee role in California budget cutting
During his first year in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger railed against state lawmakers, calling them "girlie men" and "obstructionists." As he enters his final year, Schwarzenegger is targeting a different branch of government: judges who "are going absolutely crazy."

Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Farce
The global warming jamboree in Copenhagen was surely the most outlandish foray into intellectual fantasizing since the fourth-century Christian bishops assembled in 325 AD for the Council of Nicaea to debate whether God the Father was supreme or had to share equal status in the pecking order of eternity with his Son and the Holy Ghost.

Obama’s Latest Appointment: A Reflection of his Radical Past
Victor Davis Hanson, in his PJM post today, perfectly delineates where Obama and company come from. But I think Hanson misses one clear link that had been identified during the campaign, but generally ignored. This is Obama’s clear ties to the socialist movement, particularly the cadre of both the so-called Committees of Correspondence, a breakaway split from the Communist Party U.S.A.

Insist that GOP Make Repeal of Government-Run Health Care a 2010 Issue
Among conservatives, the GOP is often referred to as the "Stupid Party" for its tonedeaf, ham-handed, wrong-footed management of key issues like taxes and government spending. With the Senate's passage of government-run health care legislation, Democrats are making their bid to replace the GOP as not just the Stupid Party, but the stupidest party since the Whigs owned the title in the first half of the 19th century

Routine Turned to Mayhem on Terror Flight (This outside spend and tax issues yet good story)
Seconds after passengers spotted flames climbing above the back of a window seat midway down the left side of Northwest Flight 253, Friday's routine descent toward Detroit's main airport turned into horror, mayhem and instant heroism.

Senate votes on Obama healthcare today, but many lawsuit challenges already taking shape
Well, this morning is the biggest Senate vote of all-time ever. Or at least the next one ever. On healthcare. no longer called healthcare reform. But wait! After all of this healthcare talk, all of this healthcare debate, all of the healthcare writing and maneuvering and advertising and arguing. After all of this, none of it may matter. Or at least significant parts of it.

Press Release from Office of the Governor of Texas
AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry today sent a letter asking other governors to join him in ongoing efforts to assert the constitutional rights of states as guaranteed under the 10th Amendment with regard to the federal health care bill being forced through by Congress. He urged the governors to support and join efforts by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and several other state attorneys general to determine the constitutionality of a compromise in the pending federal health care legislation exempting the state of Nebraska from increased Medicaid costs resulting from the bill’s passage.

Healthcare overhaul opponents attack Sen. Landrieu
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Nearly 400 protestors crowded the sidewalk outside Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in downtown Baton Rouge Tuesday afternoon. Landrieu's mind appears to be made up on the highly controversial healthcare overhaul, but some constituents in Baton Rouge say she needs to reconsider her position as the Senate gets closer to passing it.

Is Obamacare Unconstitutional?
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and his counterparts in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington state are probing the constitutionality of the bribe given to Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) in exchange for his vote for Obamacare. The backroom deal which has been called the Nebraska Compromise and the Cornhusker Kickback, permanently exempts Nebraska from paying Medicaid costs that all other 49 states must pay.

Ben Nelson: Legislator of the Year
Too bad Barack Obama hasn’t followed through on his promises of legislative transparency. Then we all could have watched Harry Reid live on C-SPAN handing an oversized Publishers Clearing House–style $100 million check to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson.

Big Government Backlash
President Obama's approval rating has sunk below 50% for the first time, but for our money the bigger polling news is the way his agenda is turning the public against activist government. Last week's NBC/Wall Street Journal survey asked whether voters thought that "government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people" or if "government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals...

Democrats pass first hurdle in health care rationing bill.
Last night, while most of you were sleeping, the Democratic Party took a long step forward towards passing their health care rationing bill. The details are arcane Senatorial procedure, but two things must be taken away from it: 1. No Republican Senator - no Republican Senator; not even the ones typically called ‘RiNOs*’ - voted to ration your health care and make you a criminal for not wanting insurance.

Senate Dems’ Ignored America’s Opposition And All Voted For Government-Run Health Care, But They’ll Finally Hear The People In November
Polling Confirms The Obama-Reid Bill is “A Piece Of Legislation That Large Swaths Of The American People Neither Want Nor Think Will Work.” “The White House -- as we wrote yesterday -- is dead set on passing the health care bill and will stop at nothing politically to get it done. But, new data in the NBC/WSJ poll suggests that simply passing a bill -- whatever is in it -- won't solve Democrats' political problems...

Seedy Chicago Politics Passed Health Care Bill: Graham
The United States Senate reached an agreement on health care reform legislation this weekend, and they couldn’t have done it without a bit of Chicago grit. At least, that’s what South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham thinks. But it’s no compliment.

The Angry Breakfast Group ( This so true)
We have a small group of retired men who meet for breakfast from time to time – mostly to talk politics. Most of us are conservative, but we do have one liberal member, and our talks are usually spirited. I have noticed these past few months that we have stopped talking about politics almost entirely, and I think I know the reason: we are all so angry that we are afraid that we will say something to our liberal friend that will destroy our friendships forever...

Is "Green" The "New Imperialism" Or The "New Communism?
The real failure in Copenhagen to get firm, legal commitments to cut greenhouse gases to slow global warming is a failure of paradigm and process. It is time to end the guilt-tripping, finger-wagging, top-down, United Nations-based regulation-and-punishment paradigm and shift to a more positive, bottoms-up, individual-behavior, incentive-based model. It is time to design a positive, glowing picture of a better possible life for Asians, Americans, Europeans, poor and rich alike by presenting positive pathways of behavior to a sustainable future. Innovation to create incentives to change individual and CEO behaviors will ultimately prove better than negotiations among 197 national politicians. If ever there was a job for innovators and design thinkers, this is it.

McCain: Obama administration has been more partisan than Clinton White House
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave his challenger in the 2008 presidential election a stiff review Sunday as President Barack Obama nears completion of his first year in office. "[Obama] said there would be a change in the climate in Washington," McCain said. "There's been a change. It's more partisan. It's more bitterly divided than it's been."

Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri
The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007.

10 Housing Markets Where Prices Have Gone Up
The housing market is showing some signs of recovery. Sales are up and prices have stabilized after falling for three years. The ten metro areas that enjoyed the greatest home-price increases over the past year (through June 30, 2009) largely missed the housing boom and didn't indulge in subprime-lending excesses. (Note conservative states)

America rejects Obama's climate agenda
Today, Obama peddled the left's fear-mongering war on science in Copenhagen. The goal: to force through the greatest redistribution of wealth scam in history.It is worth noting that the will of people is overwhelmingly against him, as usual... * Only 34% (the Democrat base) now believe that climate change is even man-made.

Obama: 'Time for talk is over'
COPENHAGEN — A visibly angry Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet at China and other developing nations Friday, declaring that the time has come "not to talk but to act" on climate change.

Welcome to Obamaland: Please Leave Reality at the Door
In an interview with ABC News, President Obama once again proved to be one of the best spinners in Washington, D.C. The United States, he said, will go “bankrupt” if his multi-trillion dollar health care plan America cannot afford, isn’t passed by Congress.

Global Wealth Can Heal the Planet
As the Copenhagen climate summit comes to close, it seems fair to say that rarely has a gathering of so many doing so little gotten so much attention. But Copenhagen does have its uses. For starters, it reminds us that environmentalism continues to be a cover for uglier agendas.

Minority Leader Fumes: No One Has Been Allowed to See Health Care Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As even more new language continues to pile up in Sen. Harry Reid's massive manager's amendment to the health care bill, which is being constructed behind closed doors, the leader of the Senate Republicans slammed the Democrats for planning to hold a vote on a bill no one has seen yet.

House approves $290 billion increase in debt limit
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Wednesday passed legislation giving the federal government the ability to borrow a whopping $290 billion to finance its operations for just six additional weeks.

Hutchison introduces motion to send health care bill back to committee
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In an effort to stem billions of dollars in tax increases that would begin in several weeks and to improve transparency in the health care debate, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today introduced a motion with U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) that would send the government-run health care legislation back to the Senate Finance Committee with instructions that no taxes or fees be imposed on American families and businesses until the supposed benefits of the bill have begun.

Obama’s involvement in Chicago Climate Exchange—the rest of the story
Good news to know that the truth will always out—even when you’re Barack Obama. “Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress” is a FOXNews story by Ed Barnes. In short, “While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president.”

Medicare, Social Security drying up faster than expected
Trust funds that support Medicare and Social Security have eroded due to the recession and will run out of money earlier than expected, government officials say. Medicare, the government health care program for seniors, is projected to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than previously predicted, according to the 2009 annual report by program trustees.

Climategate goes SERIAL: now the Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming Climategate just got much, much bigger. And all thanks to the Russians who, with perfect timing, dropped this bombshell just as the world’s leaders are gathering in Copenhagen to discuss ways of carbon-taxing us all back to the dark ages.

Copenhagen – Hypocrisy – Fraud – Confidence Trick
Over the next few days in Copenhagen, World leaders will try to work out how they can produce something positive from what has been somewhat of a debacle, as each day, a new crisis seems to be thrown up. Led by the Major leaders of the most important Countries, they will attempt to work out something. Both the UN, and those major World leaders need something positive to save losing face, the UN on the overall scene, and those major World leaders at home, because they want to take any decision here back home to implement their own agendas...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
he Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12 (see trends).

The Fiction Of Climate Science
Many of you are too young to remember, but in 1975 our government pushed "the coming ice age." Random House dutifully printed "THE WEATHER CONSPIRACY … coming of the New Ice Age." This may be the only book ever written by 18 authors. All 18 lived just a short sled ride from Washington, D.C. Newsweek fell in line and did a cover issue warning us of global cooling on April 28, 1975. And The New York Times, Aug. 14, 1976, reported "many signs that Earth may be headed for another ice age."

Increasing the debt limit, along with the peril
After passing a $447 billion spending bill Sunday, Congress faces a Jan. 1 deadline to raise the ceiling on the national debt even as a bipartisan expert panel warned Monday that the United States faces a potential funding crisis.

U.S. producer prices soar 1.8% in November
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Prices at the wholesale level rose across-the-board in November setting off a new debate over whether the recovering economy is starting to generate inflation pressures. Higher energy costs pushed the U.S. producer price index to surge 1.8% in November, the Labor Department reported Tuesday -- a rate that far exceeded analysts' expectations.

Senate Democrats on Verge of Deal
Don’t believe everything you hear. The Senate Democrats are not on the verge of a collapse. They are on the verge of compromising every single thing they want just so they can get a “health care reform” bill passed.

The Secret Plan to Pass a Global Tax
With President Barack Obama attacking "fat cat bankers on Wall Street," left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) see a great opportunity to pass a global tax on financial transactions that could generate at least $700 billion a year from the U.S. and other "rich" countries. They are expecting Obama's support.

Congressmen Call on Justice Department to Appeal ACORN Ruling
Two congressmen called on the Justice Department Monday to appeal a recent decision in federal district court that found the government's move to cut off funding to ACORN was unconstitutional. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., described the Dec. 11 decision by Judge Nina Gershon as "preposterous."

The Cost of Our National Debt in Pictures
Late this December, the Unites States Treasury will reach the $12.1 trillion statutory ceiling on the national debt. It will mark the 91st time Congress has had to raise the debt limit since the original $43 billion ceiling was established in 1940.

US still tops in health care
Pay no attention when Democrats bemoan the lowly state of our national health care system. The study used to promote that nonsense has a serious flaw in it as Betsy McCaughey points out in a New York Post op-ed:

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.

Obama Gives Britain the Cold Shoulder
Britain is the only European country President Barack Obama can really count on to respond positively to his plea for NATO to provide extra forces for Afghanistan. So why is it, then, that the Obama administration can barely conceal its disdain for a nation that, by its deeds, time and again proves itself to be America's staunchest and most reliable ally?

EDITORIAL: Black Panther battle intensifies
The dispute between the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Justice Department is starting to look like the legal equivalent of World War II's Anzio campaign, which represented a major escalation late in the war. The battleground is the controversy about the department's decision to drop voter-intimidation cases against members of the New Black Panther Party. The commission is mounting a massive legal assault; Justice is refusing to be budged; and the casualties could be high.

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: The little man behind the curtain ...
Only "two rogue scientists," as the oh-so-reassuring Climategate Deniers would have us believe? Walter Williams, esteemed economics professor at George Mason University, last week summarized Climategate, to date: "New evidence proves that climatologists and environmental policy advocates have not only fed us lies...

America Under Barack Obama
"I try to avoid hyperbole, but I think Obama is possibly the most dangerous and destructive president we have ever had."—Nat Hentoff Nat Hentoff has had a life well spent, one chock full of controversy fueled by his passion for the protection of civil liberties and human rights. Hentoff is known as a civil libertarian, free speech activist, anti-death penalty advocate, pro-lifer and not uncommon critic of the ideological left.

"EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed" Great move, this is a AD yet the movie is worth your time

Massive Cap-and-Trade Fraud
Europe's cap-and-trade program which is designed to reduce CO2 emissions is rife with fraud thanks to organized crime's alleged involvement in the market as reported by the European Police Office (EUROPOL): The European Union (EU) Emission Trading System (ETS) has been the victim of fraudulent traders in the past 18 months. This resulted in losses of approximately 5 billion euros for several national tax revenues. It is estimated that in some countries, up to 90% of the whole market volume was caused by fraudulent activities. In France prosecutors have "opened a criminal investigation of four men allegedly involved in a...

After climate talks, scientists worry about enforcement
COPENHAGEN — Ray Weiss looks at the chanting protesters, harried delegates and the 20,000 other people gathered here for a global warming summit and wonders: What's the fuss all about? Weiss, a geochemist who studies atmospheric pollution at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says the numbers at the core of the debate in Copenhagen are flawed.

National Job Approval (INDEPENDENTS ONLY): Pres. Barack Obama
Our National Obama Job Approval chart for all populations is available here, and by party preference among Democrats and Republicans, and for populations of all Adults.

Climategate distracts at Copenhagen
COPENHAGEN — “Climategate” has muddied the good green message that was supposed to come out of the United Nations climate change talks here, forcing leaders to spend time justifying the science behind global warming when they want to focus on ending it.

Controversial EPA Ruling Linked to 'Climategate' E-mails
Republicans and conservative think tanks are calling for the Obama administration to revoke its declaration that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant subject to EPA regulation on the grounds that the EPA's primary source of information for the finding was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Corruption among public officials destroying America
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent John Gillies warns that corruption is tearing at the fabric of American Society. In a speech reported in the Guardian by Gillies, who has been with the FBI for 27 years and led some of the major anti-corruption drives, focused on crooked financiers and unscrupulous officials.

Destination Denmark: Political scuffle breaks out over Pelosi's delegation
A political scuffle has broken out about which lawmakers will be allowed to go to Copenhagen, Demark, on a congressional delegation led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Days before legislators are scheduled to discuss global warming at a climate change summit, accusations flew about the politics of who gets a codel invitation.

Coal company cuts 500 jobs, blames environmentalists
Chalk up another 500 to the list of jobs President Obama will need to create or save. A Pittsburgh-based coal company, CONSOL Energy, will lay off nearly 500 of its West Virginia workers next year and its CEO blames environmentalists dead-set against mountaintop mining who have waged “nuisance” lawsuits for the job loss

New Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected to 474K
The number of newly laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling for five straight weeks.

Get ready: There’ll be a price for health benefits
WASHINGTON - Have your checkbooks and credit cards ready. There's a price for health care security. President Barack Obama's overhaul — now looking like it really will happen — should give uninsured Americans options they've never had before. But it won't be a free ride.