Spend and Tax

The Obama-Pelosi Lame Duck Strategy
Democratic House members are so worried about the fall elections they're leaving Washington on July 30, a full week earlier than normal—and they won't return until mid-September. Members gulped when National Journal's Charlie Cook, the Beltway's leading political handicapper, predicted last month "the House is gone," meaning a GOP takeover. He thinks Democrats will hold the Senate, but with a significantly reduced majority. ...

The Reparations Administration
Observers have characterized President Obama's many efforts to nationalize industries a systematic form of "wealth redistribution." But the activities instigated by the White House go beyond redistribution and devolve straight into reparations. Consider: Race Gender Quotas in "Financial Reform" Section 342, which declares that race and gender employment ratios, if not quotas, must be observed by private financial institutions that do business with the government. In a major power grab, the new law inserts race and gender quotas into America's financial industry... ...Section 342 sets up at least 20 Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion. Racial Preferences in Obamacare Transfer...

Gulf Oil Spill: Latest Plan Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Supports Draws Criticism From Federal Government and Scientists
Scientists and government officials fired back at Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal today, saying homegrown plans he is backing to protect the state's delicate coastline could actually do more harm than good. Louisiana governor complains about regulators who reject his plans to combat oil Jindal, a Republican, has criticized the Obama administration for weeks, using fiery language to accuse the government of a lackluster and slow response to the oil spill crisis. ..

Lawyer Who Defended 'American Taliban' Now Heads DOJ Suit Against Arizona
The federal prosecutor tasked with quarterbacking the Obama administration's high-profile case against Arizona's immigration law is no stranger to controversy or the limelight. Justice Department attorney Tony West is a member of the so-called "Gitmo 9" -- a group of lawyers who have represented terror suspects. ..

Here's Why Ben Bernanke Can't Save The Economy This Time
Today's blip down in the jobless claims notwithstanding, there's no doubt that the prospects of a double-dip recession seem to be growing with each major economic announcement. Naturally this has to be causing consternation within The White House and at The Federal Reserve. In fact The Washington Post reports today that the Fed is weighing various measures to save the economy if it falters...

Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah may follow Arizona's lead on immigration law
Attention is focused on Arizona and the federal government's challenge to the state's strict new immigration law, but three other states could adopt similar legislation next year. Lawmakers in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, which have already taken steps against illegal immigration, say that Arizona-style measures have a realistic chance of passing when their legislatures reconvene in 2011. ...

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel. ..

RAHN: Government taxes imaginary income
Most of the current problems facing America stem directly from the failure of our elected representatives to follow the Constitution. Much of what the Tea Party activists are demanding, often without explicitly saying so, is a return to the principles and procedures found in the Constitution. Many of those running for office are venting about excessive spending, deficits, taxation, regulation and so forth, but are struggling to say what they are for and what they would actually work to accomplish once they are elected....

US Ends June With $13.2 Trillion In Debt, Adds $210 Billion In Total Debt, On Track To Breach Debt Ceiling In Under Six Months
n case one is wondering why the House Democrats attached a document to the emergency war supplemental bill that "deemed as passed" a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget, which basically allows the ruling party to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the constraint of an actual budget, here is the answer: on June 30, the US closed the books with just over $13.2 trillion in total debt, an increase of $210 billion in one month, ...

TSA to Block "Controversial Opinion" on the Web
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.
The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon. ...

Illegal Immigration Costs U.S. $113 Billion a Year, Study Finds
The cost of harboring illegal immigrants in the United States is a staggering $113 billion a year -- an average of $1,117 for every “native-headed” household in America -- according to a study conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
The study, a copy of which was provided to FoxNews.com, “is the first and most detailed look at the costs of illegal immigration ever done,” says Bob Dane, director of communications at FAIR, a conservative organization that seeks to end almost all immigration to the U.S. ...

NASA’s spaced-out mission no longer includes … space
The big takeaway from Byron York’s piece on the new mission of NASA will probably focus on making Muslims feel better about their scientific achievements, but that’s really just one part of the problem. The expressed instructions from Barack Obama to Charles Bolden, the new administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, all have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with space. Obama’s three new objectives have nothing to do with anything for which Congress should provide funds to NASA:...

With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932
The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation. "The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession," said Robert Reich, former US labour secretary. "All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing." ...

Obama-Linked PR Firm Runs Anti-Israel Campaign
A top United States public relations firm has taken on a new job: Making Israel look bad on behalf of Qatar. Fenton Communications is working with Qatar on the Al Fakhoora project – an Internet campaign dedicated to breaking Israel's blockade of Hamas in Gaza.
Fenton Communications will be paid almost $400,000 for the project, which describes Israel's insistence on controlling naval access to Gaza as “brutal and inhumane” and “crippling.” It has registered under America's Foreign Agent Registration Act.

The Fight to Repeal Obamacare
The country’s newest conservative advocacy group has decided to take lawmakers to task over Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation’s sister organization, Heritage Action for America, wants healthcare reform repealed and plans to target members of Congress who disagree. Heritage Action, launched just months ago, recently announced its support for a discharge petition introduced by Rep. Steve King (R.-Iowa) that would force a vote on the repeal of Obamacare. King needs signatures from 218 congressmen on the petition in order to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on a bill sponsored by Rep. King which would repeal the law entirely...

Health overhaul may mean longer ER waits, crowding
CHICAGO – Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can't find care elsewhere, may grow even more crowded with longer wait times under the nation's new health law. That might come as a surprise to those who thought getting 32 million more people covered by health insurance would ease ER crowding. It would seem these patients would be able to get routine health care by visiting a doctor's office, as most of the insured do....

Exclusive: ‘Muslims-Only’ Enclave Thrives In Philadelphia
Thanks to U.S. taxpayers, an Islamic enclave is being carved out of the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. And how generous have you been with your tax dollars? You just gave $1.6 billion for the privilege of turning over all this cash to the Islamic community.
The person doing the carving is Kenny Gamble, the author of such hit songs as “Love Train” and “Me and Mrs. Jones.”...

Health law risks turning away sick
The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured. Critics of the $5 billion high-risk pool program insist it will run out of money before Jan. 1, 2014. That’s when the program sunsets and health plans can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends). ...

Regulating Corporate Speech, Chicago-Style
After General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told a private dinner of Italian business executives that he didn't believe China was willing to be a fair business partner, and that the Obama Administration's heavy regulatory approach was not conducive to helping the U.S. economy, senior White House officials, upon hearing about the comments, went into bully mode.

6 Months To Go Until Biggest Tax Hikes In History!
Americans for Tax Reform is reporting that we have six months to go until the biggest tax hikes in American history hits us and hits us hard! The first wave begins by: The Bush tax cuts will expire and personal income tax will rise, marriage penalty will return, the return of the death tax, and higher tax rates on investors.

Obama Mocked Commissions, Then Established Four
President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is meeting today as part of its efforts to craft recommendations by December on how best to address America's red-ink problem. Mr. Obama established the commission in February, saying debt and deficits can "hobble our economy" and "saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden."
Yet the president's decision to establish a commission to address a problem he described as potentially catastrophic seems odd in light of his earlier criticism of commissions in general. As Ari Shapiro noted on National Public Radio today, the president mocked the notion of commissions to address problems back when he was a candidate. .....

Obama Gives John Boehner the Middle Finger Salute in Racine, Wisconsin
Here is video of a juvenile President Obama once again giving the middle finger salute to his political opposition. This time, he saluted House Minority Leader John Boehner. You see him first scratch his temple with his index finger when he mentions the other party, but seconds later, when he mentions Boehner, he scratches again using his middle finger.

Gulf Oil Cover Up: Underneath Gaping Chasm of Gulf Floor is a Mt Everest Sized Cavern
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy. [Click Photo to Enlarge] In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.” [1]...

Tsunami of red ink
Visual perspective

Jobs Market Barely Budges in June as Hiring Stays Weak
U.S. private employers added just 13,000 jobs in June, according to a report published Wednesday that suggested expectations of a big drop in the government's upcoming nonfarm payrolls report were on target.The ADP Employer Services report also said May's gain was revised marginally higher to 57,000 from the original estimate of 55,000.

Kagan can't answer, Do we have the power to tell people what to eat?
Don't think this military-hating Obama worshipper is going to vote in lock-step with the Left? This exchange between Tom Coburn (R-OK) and the Soon-to-be-Prog-on-the-Court, Kagan, provides a hint: Sen. Coburn: "If I wanted to sponsor a bill and it said, ‘Americans, you have to eat three vegetables and three fruits every day,' and I got it through Congress, and it's now the law of the land, gotta do it.... Does that violate the law?" Kagan: "Sounds like a dumb law." Sen. Coburn: "Yeah, I got one that's real similar that I think is equally dumb." (ObamaCare) Kagan: (Pause) "But...

Sarah Palin In Atlanta: Obama Care 'hefty tax hike' For Special Needs Families
She warned that new rules aiming to raise $13 billion by limiting contributions to flexiblespending accounts amount to a “hefty tax hike” for families of special needs children struggling with health care costs. And she said families will wind up with fewer care options.

Examiner Editorial: Nominee Kagan is no justice tabula rasa
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl was only half right in an observation he offered during opening statements in the confirmation hearing of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Said Kohl: “We have less evidence about what sort of judge you will be than on any nominee in recent memory. Your judicial philosophy is almost invisible to us.”...

Biden Visit: "I Was Disappointed, We Waited 3 Hours and I Got 30 Seconds With Him"
Funny how V.P. Biden has plenty of time to fly to Wisconsin for a fundraiser for Russ Feingold, go to the World Cup and watch soccer, come back and play golf with Obama, but he can't seem to find the time to listen to these Parish Presidents who are facing an absolute crisis in Louisiana.. VIDEO

Americans Relate to Founders, Not Progressives
Democrats are reportedly planning to raise $125 million for a campaign to sell Obamacare to the voting public. Apparently, the idea is that what 50-plus presidential speeches and statements and months of congressional debate could not do can be done by $125 million spent on everything from TV ads to community organizers. Maybe. But there seems to be a more fundamental problem here. The Obama Democrats didn't set out to produce an unpopular stimulus package, an unpopular health care bill and an unpopular cap-and-trade scheme...

SCOTUS theater: Kagan kabuki
Today, the curtain officially opens on the Senate “battle” over Obama Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. “Battle” gets ghost quotes because all the poohbahs on Capitol Hill are already treating her confirmation as a “foregone conclusion.” Beltway Republicans will put up just enough of a fight to placate grass-roots conservative activists on Kagan’s radical social views, while the nutroots will pout (but not too loudly) that Kagan isn’t enough of a liberal activist for them. And GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham, after several minutes of obligatory grandstanding mixed with obsequious suck-uppage, will cast his vote with Kagan and Obama — as he did with Sonia Sotomayor (whom he praised as “bold” and edgy”)....

Kudlow, Forbes Debunk Krugman's 'Third Depression' Call
t's hard to imagine an economist being provocative, but Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner, has managed to do so. In his June 28 New York Times op-ed, Krugman argued that since governments around the world aren't willing to double-down on Keynesian policies meant to stimulate the global economy, the United States and the rest of the world are facing a third depression. But on...

Your government at work: Getting it wrong, with amazing consistency
Right now America desperately needs a competent government like the one our Founders gave us. What we have instead is one that is too big, too powerful and painfully dysfunctional.

RBS tells clients to prepare for 'monster' money-printing by the Federal Reserve
As recovery starts to stall in the US and Europe with echoes of mid-1931, bond experts are once again dusting off a speech by Ben Bernanke given eight years ago as a freshman governor at the Federal Reserve.

The Unengaged President
What do General McChrystal and British Petroleum have in common? Aside from the fact that they’re both Democratic-party supporters. Or they were. Stanley McChrystal is a liberal who voted for Obama and banned Fox News from his HQ TV. Which may at least partly explain how he became the first U.S. general to be lost in combat while giving an interview to Rolling Stone: ...

Why Obamacare Is Unpopular
Democrats are reportedly planning to raise $125 million for a campaign to sell Obamacare to the voting public. Apparently, the idea is that what 50-plus presidential speeches and statements and months of congressional debate could not do can be done by spending $125 million on everything from TV ads to community organizers. Maybe. But there seems to be a more fundamental problem here. The Obama Democrats didn’t set out to produce an unpopular stimulus package, an unpopular health-care bill, and an unpopular cap-and-trade scheme.

Robert Byrd, Longest-Serving U.S. Senator and Former KKK Member, Dies at 92
Fox News reports that Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia died earlier today. He was 92 year old. Byrd, Fox says, “had been plagued by health problems in recent years and was confined to a wheelchair.” He served in the U.S. Senate since 1959, which made him the longest serving senator in American history.

2nd Amendment Upheld
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right to bear arms by citizens to state and municipal districts, once and far all guarantee the rights of gun owners. This seriously puts the Constitutionality of Chicago’s handgun ban, and likely makes all such broad based prohibitions illegal. More to follow…

Federal Revenue and the Economy
The Office of Management and Budget reports that total federal revenue more than doubled every decade from 1940 to 1980 (Table 1.3, tables). And from 1980 to 2000, total federal revenue almost doubled every decade, going from $517 billion in 1980 to $1.032 trillion in 1990 to $2.025 trillion in 2000. But in 2010, OMB estimates that total revenue will be only an anemic $2.165 trillion. If the current decade had kept pace with the last two decades, the feds would have receipts in 2010 of $4 trillion.

House, Senate leaders finalize details of sweeping financial overhaul
Key House and Senate lawmakers approved far-reaching new financial rules early Friday after weeks of division, delay and frantic last-minute dealmaking. The dawn compromise set up a potential vote in both houses of Congress next week that could send the landmark legislation to President Obama by July 4.Lawmakers pulled an all-nighter, wrapping up their work at 5:39 a.m. -- more than 20 messy, mind-numbing hours after they began Thursday morning.

Democrat County Supervisor Doesn’t Know Arizona Borders Mexico But Supports Boycott
Democrat County Supervisor Peggy West of the Milwaukee County Board vocally showcased her opposition to the Arizona immigration law and support of a boycott on the state. Her reason for supporting such a measure is simple; if Arizona were a state like Texas, “a state that directly shares a border” with Mexico, she would then think twice about it. According to her, that’s not the case. Arizona is state “removed from the border.” VIDEO

Are Climate Skeptics Lousy Scientists?
The evidence that we are running dangerous risks with the climate is overwhelming. In their zeal to convince the public of this fact, environmental advocates sometimes hype sensational studies and predictions that rest on weak or ambiguous logic. Every time they do, their opponents have a field day.

Ken Salazar gets an ass-kicking. Over to you, Capitol Hill.
My syndicated column follows up on federal judge Martin Feldman’s decision yesterday overturning the Obama drilling moratorium. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has now signaled that he will push for another drilling ban — with brand-spanking new, wholly manufactured evidence, no doubt. Salazar is scheduled to testify to a Senate subcommittee on Capitol Hill later today at 11:00am. He better get the grilling he deserves over his junk science zealotry....

48% See Government Today As A Threat to Individual Rights
Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

Obama Is A 'One-Term President': Investment Pro
Barack Obama is a "one-term president" while the Republicans are likely to take over Congress after this year's elections, according to investor Howard Ruff, editor of the RuffTimes newsletter.With the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showing Obama's approval ratings at a new low of 45 percent, Ruff told CNBC that he thinks the president may not even run for re-election in 2012.

John Stossel: “The More Available Guns are, Crime Tends to Go Down” – Video
Here is video of John Stossel on Fox and Friends where he said the truth is that the more available guns are, “crime tends to go down because the bad guys start to get worried about who has a gun.”

Harris: Obama knew of Blagojevich plot
A top aide to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he believed Barack Obama knew of Blagojevich's plot to win himself a presidential Cabinet post in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate. John Harris, Blagojevich's former chief of staff, testified Wednesday in the former governor's corruption trial that three days after the Nov. 4, 2008, presidential election, the ex-governor told Harris he felt confident Obama knew he wanted to swap perks.

Nancy Pelosi Predicts House GOP Majority
This is just too good. Nancy Pelosi is asking supporters to donate NOW to help prevent "subpoenas and investigations" resulting from a GOP majority. I'll say that again: Pelosi sees a House GOP majority coming at her fast, and she is in full-panic mode....

Government Aggravated Tragedy
When Thomas Paine said, "(G)overnment, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one." He added that when it's self-inflicted, "(O)ur calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." The Gulf of Mexico disaster has been made worse because of Washington acts similar to Great Britain's tyrannical acts that caused our founders to rise up in rebellion in 1776. Let's look at it....

California on 'verge of system failure’
Arnella Sims has seen a lot in her 34 years as a Los Angeles County court reporter, but nothing like this. Case files piling up by the thousands, phones ringing off the hook, forced midweek courthouse closings and occasional brawls as frustrated citizens queue for hours to pay parking fines. “People think we’re becoming a Third World country,” said Ms. Sims, 55. “They don’t understand.” ...

Nungesser furious with White House
Plaquemines parish president Billy Nungesser is furious, drawing a line in the sand with the White House! The Obama Administration has aked for a halt on dredging sand berms off the Chandeleur Islands that just started last week, until the project can be relocated farther into the gulf. Nungesser fired off a letter threatening President Obama to step in and do something or face a tongue lashing on national T.V. "Dammit, it took us long enough to get the permit now they are going to throw rocks at us. They all need to rot in hell for this."...

ACORN Youth Union’ Chapters Were Funded by Justice Department, Says GAO
The U.S. Justice Department gave a group called the New York Agency for Community Affairs a grant of $135,130 in fiscal year 2005 to “provide youth leadership training to students at select New York City schools, form ‘ACORN Youth Union’ chapters, and coordinate student campaigns to address issues such as school funding, neighborhood safety, and school governance,” according to a Government Accountability Office report released this week.

THE NEGLECTED AREAS IN THE CONSTITUTION DUE TO A GOVERNMENT OUT OF CONTROL
I feel like a broken record, but the Constitution is explicit about what the federal government can and cannot do. Article I of that document lists seventeen powers that the federal government can do. The Tenth Amendment was designed to dismiss any notion that the federal government had broad powers beyond those laid out in Article I. The founders' agenda was clear -- very restrictive powers for the federal government and vast powers to the states and local governments. ...

Obama’s Collapsing Base
n a single year Obama lost the support of independent voters and liberal Republicans by passing the left’s agenda. And this year, he is well on the way to losing the support of the left for not passing enough of their agenda. Being too left wing for mainstream America, and too mainstream for the left is not a new problem for the Democratic party. It’s a problem they’ve faced since what had been the counterculture became the party establishment. But it’s a special problem for the man who rose to power as the poster child of the left. Barack Hussein Obama.

Survey: Individual Health Insurance Premiums Jump
People who buy their own health insurance have been hit lately with premium hikes that far exceed increases in premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The nonprofit foundation, which is separate from health insurer Kaiser Permanente, said recent premium hikes requested by insurers for individual coverage averaged 20 percent.

McChrystal’s real offense
There is a lot of uproar about Gen. Stanley’s McChrystal’s disrespectful comments about his civilian bosses in the Obama administration, and President Obama would be entirely justified in firing McChrystal for statements McChrystal and his subordinates made to Rolling Stone. Obama is a deeply flawed commander-in-chief who doesn’t want to be fighting a war on terror, but he is the commander-in-chief. He should have a general who will carry out his policies without public complaint until the voters can decide to change those policies.

Obama’s Thuggery Is Useless in Fighting Spill
Thuggery is unattractive, ineffective thuggery even more so. Which may be one reason so many Americans have been reacting negatively to the response of Pres. Barack Obama and his administration to BP’s gulf oil spill. Take Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s remark that he would keep his “boot on the neck” of BP, which brings to mind George Orwell’s definition of totalitarianism as “a boot stamping on a human face — forever.” Except that Salazar’s boot hasn’t gotten much in the way of results yet.

Democrat Senate to Promote Rapist, Serial Killer Apologist to 2nd Circuit Court
This week, the Senate may take up the controversial nomination of Robert Chatigny for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appleals, after being reported from the Judiciary Committee on June 10th. Chatigny currently serves for the U.S. District Court of Connecticut, where he made his claim to fame by ordering a stay of execution in 2005 for convicted serial rapist and murderer Michael Ross.

Obama and the War against Israel
No other country in the world faces an array of existential threats such as the nation of Israel confronts daily. The world’s only Jewish state is also its most precarious. Geographically tiny, Israel is surrounded by theocracies that reject its very existence as a “nakba” — a catastrophe — and call for its destruction. To carry out this malignant ambition, anti-Israel Islamists have mobilized three rocket-wielding armies, sworn to wipe Israel from the face of the earth.

Club Fed for illegal aliens
Thanks to their international “human rights” advocates, Gitmo detainees receive art therapy, movie nights and video games at their U.S. taxpayer-funded camp in Cuba. Now, the left’s bleeding heart lobby wants to provide similar taxpayer-sponsored perks to illegal alien detainees on American soil. Welcome to the open-borders Club Fed.

Stimulus Surprise: Companies Retrench When Government Spends
Recent research at Harvard Business School began with the premise that as a state's congressional delegation grew in stature and power in Washington, D.C., local businesses would benefit from the increased federal spending sure to come their way....

FCC Moves to Regulate Internet--Even Though the Law Calls for Internet to be 'Unfettered by Federal or State Regulation'
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to begin the formal process of bringing the Internet under greater federal control – a move sought by both President Barack Obama and FCC Chairnman Julius Genachowski--even though federal law calls for an Internet "unfettered by Federal or State regulation."...

Did Kagan Compare the NRA with the KKK?
It has become clear that Elena Kagan, Obama’s most recent Supreme Court nominee, is no friend of gun rights, to say the least. While clerking for Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall in 1987, she wrote the judge that she was “not sympathetic” to a Second Amendment–based challenge to the D.C. gun ban. While serving in the Clinton administration, she wrote a memo that “paved the way for an executive order banning dozens of semiautomatic weapons,” according to the L.A. Times....

BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard
Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor's wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

Obama administration spends $1.2 billion on cycling and walking initiatives
The Obama administration more than doubled spending on cycling and walking initiatives to $1.2 billion (£810 million) last year as it seeks to coax Americans out of their cars.

AZ Wildlife Refuge Closed in 2006 - Obama Surrenders Again
The Obama government whipped out their white surrender flag, and handed some 3,500 acres of U.S. land to the worst of Mexican drug smugglers and human traffickers, keeping their entry into the U.S. completely unimpeded. Actually the white flag flew in 2006. Essentially the same closure notice by the Government was issued then, as was issued yesterday. It appears the Arizona area has been closed to the public since 2006 and the was never officially re-opened. We've surrendered to the same enemy...twice. What is going on?...

Karl Rove Sums Up Obama Oval Office Speech: “Don’t Waste a Crisis” – Video
Here is video of Karl Rove reacting to President Obama’s Oval Office Address last night. Rove said you could sum up Obama’s speech and strategy as, “don’t let a crisis go to waste.” Obama is seeking to use the Gulf Oil Spill as an excuse to “pivot” to his radical Global-Warming hysteria-driven Cap and Trade policy.....Video

Stuck on stupid: Obama’s czar fetish
In his widely-panned, bloodless Oval Office address Tuesday night (did I call this last month or what!?), President Obama tapped his Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as the new oil spill recovery czar. Doesn’t he have enough to do leading the Navy? More to the point, as my latest column below points out, don’t we have enough czars and bureaucrats tripping over each other for Gulf headlines and photo-ops already?...

NPR poll is filled with bad news for Democrats, especially pro abortion Democrats
If the results of a new NPR poll hold, Democrats will not only lose but they will lose big in November. The poll, done jointly by a Democrat and Republican polling firm, surveyed likely voters in 70 House seats both agreed could possibly flip sides. Ten are held by Republicans; sixty are Democrat seats. The survey included 1200 likely voters. There is only a single Republican (Rep. Michele Bachmann) whose district voted for McCain that is deemed endangered, but given the news in this report she might not have too much to worry about.

Weak Speech from an Indecisive Obama
One problem with President Obama’s Oval Office speech was his declaration that 90 percent of the oil spill would be captured in “coming days and weeks.” Ah, if only government were that strong and powerful. Trouble is, the spill rate late yesterday afternoon was again revised upward toward 60,000 barrels per day from the prior estimate of 25,000.

Video--Obama to peddle energy snakeoil tomfoolery in speech tonight
Sticking to the game plan of 'never let a serious crisis go to waste,' Barack Obama intends to use the Gulf oil crisis as an excuse to push for his so-called 'cap-and-trade' tax-on-energy scheme in order to supposedly 'reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels.'
Part of that game plan is to lie about the costs to average Americans. The scheme is nothing more than energy snakeoil tomfoolery.

Nightmare vision for Europe as EU chief warns 'democracy could disappear' in Greece, Spain and Portugal
Democracy could ‘collapse’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned. In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an ‘apocalyptic’ vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money.

Carbon, Cults, and Control Freaks
June 13, 2010 – A scramble by Democrats on Capitol Hill to prevent a particular vote on a particular bill highlights for us two of the most pernicious threats to our liberties. Here’s the story. In 2009 the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency classified carbon dioxide gas—what you exhale from your lungs and what all plants breathe in—as a dangerous pollutant that the federal government can regulate. This means the EPA can regulate automobiles, manufacturing facilities, and pretty much every activity necessary for the support of human life...

Obama’s Response to Oil Spill: Incompetence or Politics?
Question: Is President Obama’s Obysmal response to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the result of his inexperience (i.e., incompetence), or is it due to something far more sinister: politics and his devotion to Unions? I believe the answer to this question will prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that Obama is either the most inept President the United States has ever had… or the most vile and corrupt. Let’s look at some facts:....

Alabama governor blasts oil spill response leadership
A key governor on Sunday blasted the lack of leadership in the US response to the worst ever US oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying decisions were being gummed up in committee. Governor Bob Riley of Alabama said he was more frustrated with the Obama administration's lack of coordination and unity of purpose than he was BP, the British energy giant blamed for the spill. "You can't have a committee making the decisions that are going to impact this entire coastal area," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. ..

Sources: Obama Administration to Support Anti-Israel Resolution at UN Next Week
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that senior Obama administration officials have been telling foreign governments that the administration intends to support an effort next week at the United Nations to set up an independent commission, under UN auspices, to investigate Israel's behavior in the Gaza flotilla incident. The White House has apparently shrugged off concerns from elsewhere in the U.S. government that a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations; b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas; and c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

Obama White House cavalier toward technology policies aimed at preventing abuses of Presidential Records Act
When the administration slapped the wrist of one of its top technology officials this spring for violating Barack Obama’s ethics pledge, a spokesman claimed the breaches were isolated incidents. But a Daily Caller investigation reveals a cavalier attitude at the Obama White House toward longstanding safeguards designed to prevent abuses of the Presidential Records Act and other laws – including acts that carry serious legal implications.

Obama Orders Dance Classes, Movie Nights, and Bingo for Illegal Detainees
The Houston Chronicle reports that the Obama administration has ordered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department to implement multiple modifications to their facilities to make life easier, more comfortable, and pleasant for the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants (approximately 400,000) it detains annually.

Morning Bell: How the White House is Making Oil Recovery Harder
Five weeks ago Escambia County officials requested permission from the Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer, a device pulled behind a tractor that removes oil and tar from the top three feet of sand, to help clean up Pensacola’s beaches. County officials still haven’t heard anything back. Santa Rosa Island Authority Buck Lee told The Daily Caller why: “Escambia County sends a request to the Mobile, Ala., Unified Command Center. Then, it’s reviewed by BP, the federal government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. If they don’t like it, they don’t tell us anything.”...

Why Did The U.S. Refuse International Help on The Gulf Oil Spill?
Despite the vow by President Obama to keep the Gulf oil spill a top priority until the damage is cleaned up, 50 days after the BP rig exploded, a definitive date and meaningful solution is yet to be determined for the worst oil spill in the U.S. history. So, you would think if someone is willing to handle the clean-up with equipment and technology not available in the U.S., and finishes the job in shorter time than the current estimate, the U.S. should jump on the offer....

‘Thousands of Louisianans are going to be out of work because the president wanted a get-tough headline’
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar lied in order to give political cover for Obama administration’s arbitrary six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling. The Wall Street Journal breaks the news on its editorial page: In the wake of the oil spill, President Obama asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to produce a report on new drilling safety recommendations. Then on May 27 Mr. Obama announced a six-month deep water drilling ban, justifying it on the basis of Mr. Salazar’s report, a top recommendation of which was the moratorium. To lend an air of technical authority, the report noted: “The recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.”...

First victim of health care overhaul?
Virginia-based insurance company says “considerable uncertainties” created by the Democrats’ health care overhaul will force it to close its doors by the end of the year. The firm, nHealth, appears to be the first to claim that the new law has driven it out of business. “We don’t know what the rules are going to be, and, as a start-up, our investors need certainty,” nHealth CEO and President Paul Kitchen told POLITICO. “The law created so much uncertainty that is beyond our control.”

Palin to Obama on oil companies: 'Give me a call'
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama's acknowledgment that he hasn't directly spoken to BP's chief executive shows it "bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office." Then, in a Facebook posting Tuesday, she outlined her experience. And she urged Obama to contact experts, including those in Alaska, who have held oil companies accountable. In parts of this state, the effects of the Exxon Valdez disaster are still being felt 21 years after that massive oil spill. ...

The Alien in the White House
The deepening notes of disenchantment with Barack Obama now issuing from commentators across the political spectrum were predictable. So, too, were the charges from some of the president's earliest enthusiasts about his failure to reflect a powerful sense of urgency about the oil spill....

Thanks “hope and changers”: Number of workers unemployed for at least six months at 62 year high
The percentage of unemployed American workers who have spent at least six months straight without a job is now at a frightening 46%! Not since the immediate post World War II year of 1948 has this figure been this high, and the projections are that we will break through 50% by the end of the summer. The inability of jobless workers to rejoin the work force threatens to create a permanent unemployed class with very little stake in our nation except voting for those who promise to keep extending unemployment benefits.

Ax may fall on tax break for mortgages
The popular tax break for mortgage interest, once considered untouchable, is falling under the scrutiny of policymakers and economic experts seeking ways to close huge deficits. Although Congress last year rejected the White House’s proposed cut to the amount wealthier taxpayers can deduct for home mortgage interest payments, the administration included it again in its 2010 budget — saying it could save $208 billion over the next decade

Spill reveals Obama's lack of executive experience
n mid-February 2008, fresh from winning a bunch of Super Tuesday primaries, Barack Obama granted an interview to "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Croft. "When you sit down and you look at [your] resume," Croft said to Obama, "there's no executive experience, and in fact, correct if I'm wrong, the only thing that you've actually run was the Harvard Law Review." "Well, I've run my Senate office, and I've run this campaign," Obama said....

Hotel California's $36,000-per-household bill
In the United Kingdom, Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that his new coalition government will have to invoke austerity cuts that could affect Brits for years, even decades. New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie has turned into a conservative hero for telling an irate teacher who complained about her pay at a town hall meeting that she doesn't have to teach. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill in April to cut pension benefits for new state workers - it raises the full-pension retirement age to 67 and bases pension benefits on the last eight years' salaries - and he's a Democrat.

Dead “farmers” and corporations getting billions of our tax dollars from phony Farm Subsidy Act
A recent study discovered 234 dead people were collecting farm subsidy money just in South Florida alone. These deceased “farmers” received $9.5 million during recent years, but they weren’t the only beneficiaries of government largesse. Another study found, between 2003 and 2007, 2702 people worth at least $2.5 million, including a part owner of a sports franchise, were collecting checks as were supposedly ineligible United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia residents. Records indicate $49 million went to millionaires....

SARAH PALIN’S ENERGY TAX WARNING
Sunday, Governor Palin posted the following message on her Twitter page: “So..because BP, subcontractors & govt screwed up WE get punished w/energy tax that jacks prices & kills jobs & opportunity? Nope,wrong answer.” Roger Ebert, being the brain of the left, had no idea what she meant. I doubt he ever will but if he does ever connect the dots, he’ll never admit it. Moving right along…
Most of us are familiar with the energy legislation that has been a primary goal for the Obama Administration since day one. It was known in the beginning as “Cap and Trade,” or as Governor Palin liked to call it, the “Cap and Tax” bill...

Barack Obama: Let Them Eat Tar Balls
So many parties, so little time. You are Barack Obama, and you know how to party. And now, as oil hits the Florida beaches and dying wildlife and desperate Louisiana fishermen fill the cable news in searing testimony to what Reuters is calling our "worst environmental disaster," you are doing what you do best...party.

We Need a VAT? We Already Have One
Democrats in Washington are struggling to find a solution to the huge deficits created by the Obama Administration spending spree. The Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform recently had its first meeting, and they are widely expected – after the November election, of course – to recommend a national VAT tax as the best way to solve the revenue crisis. The problem is that we have a VAT already.

More Political Climate Science
In today’s odd academic culture, including the world of climate science, academic freedom applies selectively. People use their positions and their email for politicking and electioneering and have no trouble retaining their jobs. But using your email to send out some inconvenient, apolitical weather data that says something your boss or your governor may not like can get you fired. I can’t count the number of emails I received in my thirty years at University of Virginia where this faculty member or that administrator urged me to support some piece of legislation. But the latest email kerfluffle, involving Phil Mote, director of the Oregaon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, goes a bit further.

IT'S OFFICIAL: We're Falling Into A Double-Dip Recession
The Labor Department reports this morning that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were temporary government Census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with population growth. In other words, the labor market continues to deteriorate. The average length of unemployment continues to rise – now up to 34.4 weeks (up from 33 weeks in April). That’s another record.

Obama’s culture of corruption: See, I told you so
In Chicago politics, there’s an old term for the publicly subsidized pay-offs and positions meted out to the corruptocrats’ friends and special interests: boodle. In the age of Obama, Hope and Change is all about the boodle. So it was with the stimulus. And the massive national service expansion. And the health care bill. And the financial reform bill. And the blossoming job-trading scandals engulfing the White House.

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer Says She Asked Obama “When” He Intends to Secure the Border – Video 6/3/10
Here is video of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer describing in detail her meeting yesterday with President Obama at the White House.

Economy adds 431K jobs but few in private sector
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Job creation by private companies grew at the slowest pace of the year in May, even while the hiring of temporary census workers drove overall payrolls up 431,000. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent as many people gave up searching for work. The Labor Department's new employment snapshot released Friday suggested that outside of the burst of hiring of temporary census workers by the federal government many private employers are wary of bulking up their work forces.

Census Worker Claims Job Numbers Are Being Inflated
"What they do is hire you, they train you like a few weeks -- 35, 40 hours of training and give you six hours of productive work and lay you off." a former Census named "Maria" tells FOX News. "Maria" further explains they rehire you so it counts as a new job. VIDEO

Secrecy over Hangar42 tax credit grows Video
WALKER, Mich. (WOOD) - The wall of government secrecy around a movie studio tax break grew higher as the Michigan Film Office was ordered not to divulge information.

GOP demands more Sestak docs
Republicans are going to keep hammering away at the Joe Sestak job offer allegations. Reps. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, and Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, sent another letter to White House Counsel Bob Bauer on Wednesday, asking the White House to disclose specifics about any job offer to Sestak (D-Pa.) in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary.

Democrat-Turned-Republican Turned Out of Office
The most dramatic story from Tuesday's primaries was the overwhelming defeat of Democrat-turned-Republican Rep. Parker Griffith in Alabama’s 5th Congressional District. Stalwart conservative State Rep. Mo Brooks whalloped Griffith by a margin of 51% to 33%, despite the incumbent's support from the National Republican Congressional Committee and a spending advantage of nearly 10-to-1 over Brooks....

White House political team stumbles, bumbles
They toppled Hillary Clinton, crushed John McCain and managed to get the first black man elected president of the United States. But now a series of recent missteps just keeps getting worse for Barack Obama’s political operation, already under fire from inside the party for losing its golden touch.

Sinking 'Climate Change'
Three modern myths have been sold to the American people: the promise of a transparent administration (President Obama); the promise of a more ethical Congress (Speaker Pelosi); and the myth of "global warming," or climate change.The first two are daily proving suspect and now the third is sinking with greater force than melting icebergs, if they were melting, which many believe they are not...

Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model
ORONTO (Reuters) – Pressured by an aging population and the need to rein in budget deficits, Canada's provinces are taking tough measures to curb healthcare costs, a trend that could erode the principles of the popular state-funded system. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, kicked off a fierce battle with drug companies and pharmacies when it said earlier this year it would halve generic drug prices and eliminate "incentive fees" to generic drug manufacturers....

Jodie Evans, Obama Fundraiser & Anti-Palin Activist, + Bill Ayers Behind Attack On IDF (Video)
Barack Obama’s close family friends, terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and top campaign bundler Jodie Evans from Code Pink are top activists with the Gaza flotilla group that attacked the IDF today. Code Pink activist and radical leftist Jodie Evans was one of Barack Obama’s top bundlers during the 2008 campaign. This radical also rushed the stage during the Sarah Palin speech during the RNC convention at the Xcel Center. (See Photo) Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for World Net Daily, reports from New York: The group behind the Gaza flotilla that engaged in deadly clashes with Israeli commandoes...

BP and the Union Foot on Obama's Neck
Elizabeth Birnbaum, Director of Minerals Management (MMS) at the Department of the Interior, resigned over the BP spill, in a classic, sacrifice-a-pawn, let-the-heads-roll, political sacrificial lamb ploy that folks in DC have witnessed countless times. Someone had to go. Anger over Obama Administration inaction, coupled with recent disclosures that government employees in the Department of Interior’s MMS division were often watching porn and taking drugs, demanded a head. So, the call went out, and Birnbaum was the sacrificial pawn.

Issa: Explanation of Sestak Deal Is Bad Cover-Up of Crime
A California congressman who called it an "impeachable" offense for the administration to offer Rep. Joe Sestak a job in exchange for his quitting a Senate bid said Sunday the cover-up, as usual, appears worse than the crime. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said the explanation for the Sestak affair -- that former President Bill Clinton offered the Democratic congressman an unpaid position on an advisory board if he would drop his challenge against party-switching Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter -- is not plausible because as a sitting congressman Sestak couldn't have served on a presidential commission. "It's a crime because they've...

Barack Obama in crisis: Zzzz
My column today examines the diffident demeanor of our commander-in-chief in crisis. To his oil spill and Christmas Day bomber press events, I should also add his bizarrely detached initial remarks about the Fort Hood jihadi attack — which he treated as an afterthought. Remember? Once is an oddity. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a condition.

Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough: The U.S. Collapse Will Follow Europe's, And Bernanke Will Be Fired
The domino effect of debt maturity is coming to America, says Keith McCullough, CEO of Hedgeye Risk Management. "The U.S. is on the road to perdition and it is not going to end well." "When you burn your currency, you promote inflation and you enrage your citizens," says McCullough. He says that Ben Bernanke will soon be voted out for his excess borrowing policies and failure to deliver on promises to cut the Fed's balance sheet. This is a Video

Deepwater Oil Spill - Top Kill Update, Restarting the Mud, and Comment Thread Great Page for information
This is yet another update and comment thread, talking this time about restarting the mud and the events that follow. Caution is needed in interpreting results. I find in reviewing my analyses that I was at times misled by appearances of transparency, when it really wasn't there. The live video is shown above the fold; my comments are below the fold.

Yes, the Gulf Spill Is Obama's Katrina
As President Obama prepares to return to the Gulf Coast Friday, he is receiving increasing criticism for his handling of the oil spill. For good reason: Since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up on April 20, a lethargic Team Obama has delayed or blown off key decisions requested by state and local governments and left British Petroleum in charge of developing a plan to cap the massive leak. Now the slow-moving oil spill threatens Mr. Obama's reputation, along with 40% of America's sensitive wetlands. Critics include some of his most ardent cheerleaders, who understand that 38 days without an administration solution is unacceptable.

Head of Marxist-led institute joins Obama team
NEW YORK – The policy director at a George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization calling itself Free Press has just taken a key State Department position, WND has learned. Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott has been named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department. "We will miss Ben's leadership, wise counsel, and strategic brilliance – for Free Press and the overall movement for media and technology policy in the public interest," said Free Press President Josh Silver.

Lord Monckton wins global warming debate at Oxford
Lord Monckton wins global warming debate at Oxford UnionPosted on May 24, 2010 by Anthony Watts I’m waiting for actual photos of the event from the official photographer, but for now I’ll make do with what can be found on the Internet. For those who don’t know, the Oxford Union is the top of the food chain for scholarly debate. This is a significant win. Founded in 1823 at the University of Oxford, but maintaining a separate charter from the University, The Oxford Union is host to some of the most skillful debates in the world. Many eminent scholars and...

'Glenn Beck': ShoreBank's Tangled Web
his is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," May 20, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. GLENN BECK, HOST: I want to talk to you a little bit about ShoreBank. And all you need to know about ShoreBank in Chicago is it's a really good local bank — that's it — a really good local bank. I want to start over here. Do you remember Crime Inc.? This is a story that we've been telling you here for a while. And I just want to run this down.

Obama File 104 Radical Royalty - Obama's Federal Reserve Pick - Sarah Bloom Raskin
A seat on the U.S Federal Reserve Board, carries tremendous power. The seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. A full term is fourteen years. During that time, a board member can influence the financial policies of the world's most powerful economy. In some ways the seven men and women, have more power than Congress or even the President himself.

Private pay shrinks to historic lows
Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

House to vote on raising the oil tax
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The House is expected to vote this week on whether to quadruple the oil tax to pay for the damages from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But as dramatic as the increase might seem, analysts say that consumers will barely feel it.

Sestak, Blagojevich & Obama: Chicago-Style Politics Illegalities Or Politics As Usual?
Within days, former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will go on trial for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat after Obama won the presidency. In 2008 Patrick I. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, released tape recorded conversations with then-Governor Blagojevich, alleging that Obama's vacated seat was available to the highest bidder. Blagojevich was indicted. He now faces charges of corruption for trying to sell or trade Obama's seat and pressure potential Blagojevich campaign contributors. Blagojevich has fervently denied these allegations and he is pressing that all of the recorded tapes be released, especially those he had with members of Obama's administration....

About that Sestak attempted bribe, White House says 'trust us!'
Or, as the LA Times Top of the Ticket blog puts it: "Obama White House probe of Obama White House finds no Obama White House impropriety on Sestak." Peter Baker from the New York Times: But the White House wants everyone who suspects that something untoward, or even illegal, might have happened to rest easy: though it still will not reveal what happened, the White House is reassuring skeptics that it has examined its own actions and decided it did nothing wrong. Whatever it was that it did. "Lawyers in the White House and others have looked into conversations that...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).

SEIU, HuffPo and Media Matters: Is an Unholy Alliance About to Unravel?
If you haven’t read by now all the headlines on this story, you’ll want to start at the beginning and read the first post, SEIU Storms Private Residence, Terrorizes Teenage Son of Bank of America Exec. Because as each day passes, new facts are popping up. The story seemed so outrageous at first. After all, the thought of over 500 screaming and chanting protesters surrounding a Bank of America lawyer’s private residence while the man’s teenage son, home alone, hid frightened inside a bathroom – it’s just so extreme, even by SEIU’s standards.

Sestak, White House deflect job-offer questions
Rep. Joe Sestak, the brand-new Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs each dodged questions Sunday about Sestak's claim that the Obama administration offered him a job last summer if he would skip a primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter. The issue, with implications of potential illegality by the White House, has rekindled in the five days since Sestak defeated Specter, who fled the Republican Party to seek a sixth term. GOP leaders are pressing Sestak and the administration to provide details of discussions.

Poll: Floridians favor immigration law like Arizona's
TALLAHASSEE - A St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 Exclusive Statewide poll shows a majority of Floridians would support the same immigration law that Arizona has just passed.

Hit Job: ABC News Attempts to Align Climate Change Skeptics with White Supremacists
At first, Michael Mann, a Penn State professor and a central figure in the Climategate scandal, but best known for his discredited "hockey stick graph" didn't like being mocked in a YouTube video. Now Mann is alleging he's a victim of hate groups. On ABC's May 23 "World News Sunday," a segment from anchor Dan Harris alleged that threatening e-mails Mann received were part of a "spike" in violence aimed at the global warming alarmist community.

Charles Djou: How did a Republican win in Obama's Hawaii hometown?
Republican Charles Djou won the special election in Hawaii's First Congressional District – the Honolulu district where President Obama grew up. Djou is only the third Republican Hawaii has elected to Congress since statehood.

VIDEO: Rape Suspect Deported Nine Times
Jose Lopez Madrigal, the man accused of raping a woman in Edmonds, WA last Sunday, is an illegal alien with a lengthy rap sheet who previously has been deported no less than nine times as reported by Chris Ingalls for KING.

Debt crisis: In Japan, Greece is the word
TOKYO, Japan — The ongoing crisis in Greece has focused global attention on sovereign debt, with many eyes inevitably drawn to Japan, the public finances of which — at least on paper — make those of Athens look almost healthy. Sovereign debt now amounts to about 200 percent of Japan's GDP, while the figure for Greece is 115 percent. A report released by Switzerland's IMD business school on Wednesday estimates it will take Japan until 2084 to bring its debt down to a manageable 60 percent of GDP level; Greece will need until 2031, and the U.S. until 2033...

Unions to spend $100M in 2010 campaign to save Dem majorities
At least two influential unions will spend close to $100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents. Union officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen — who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country.

The “Chicago Way” Goes Nationwide
From time to time, media reports have referred to a unique brand of systemic corruption and political hardball tactics as being “the Chicago Way. “ The term is taken from the motion picture adaptation of “The Untouchables.” The screenplay was written by David Mamet. Although the exploits of Eliot Ness were exaggerated in the film, much like the original television series which often dispensed fiction for fact, the drama nonetheless struck a responsive chord.

US Leading Index Falls; Factory Activity Disappoints
An index meant to gauge the future strength of the U.S. economy fell slightly in April, marking its first decline in more than a year, a private industry group said on Thursday.

Calderon Criticism of Arizona Law Overlooks Mexico's Tough Immigration Policy
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been ripping into Arizona's immigration law as he tours Washington -- while appearing to disregard the way his own country cracks down on immigrants along Mexico's southern border.

Palin: 'Emulate' Arizona
Sarah Palin is urging each state bordering Mexico to follow Arizona’s lead in passing tough new immigration enforcement laws.
“Every other state on the border should emulate what Arizona has done. Jan Brewer, the governor of Arizona, has taken it upon herself and the state government to do what the feds should have been doing all along,” Palin said during an interview Wednesday night with Fox Business Network.

Senators load financial overhaul with irrelevancies
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., wants the government to finish building the 700-mile fence between the U.S. and Mexico. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants to end the health insurance industry's antitrust protection. West Virginia's two senators want help with mine and oil rig safety. They all want to add these things to the financial regulatory overhaul bill that's moving through the Senate, even though their ideas have little or nothing to do with oversight of financial markets.

Obama Madoff with Our Tax Dollars
Don't you just love it when rich executives get implicated in corporate scandals and the media starts asking obvious questions, like "Didn't anyone see this coming?" "Who is responsible for watching these guys?" And "Why weren't they caught sooner?" While this scenario seems to play out every several years or so, the tale of Bernie Madoff and his billion-dollar Ponzi scheme seems to have topped them all.

Kagan hired Obama man who wants to censor Net
NEW YORK – It was President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, who hired radical regulatory czar Cass Sunstein as a Harvard law professor. Sunstein, like Kagan, has advocated extraordinary restrictions on speech and expressed extreme views on other topics. In February 2008, Kagan, as dean of Harvard Law School, announced the arrival at Harvard of Sunstein, then a longtime University of Chicago scholar. Kagan called Sunstein "the preeminent legal scholar of our time." ...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. Today’s rating is the lowest earned by the president since the passage of his health care proposal two months ago (see trends).

Spend and Tax Way of Saving the Planet
Yes, Spend and Tax is on a 10 day two-week spring sales trip, selling global cooling kits to liberals. This annual springtime sales event is an opportunity by a conservative to help defeat global warming and put liberals in their proper place in history....

Poll: Obama has Lost Almost Half of his US Jewish Support
United States President Barack Obama has lost nearly half of his support among American Jews, a poll by the McLaughlin Group has shown. The US Jews polled were asked whether they would: (a) vote to re-elect Obama, or (b) consider voting for someone else. 42% said they would vote for Obama and 46%, a plurality, preferred the second answer. 12% said they did not know or refused to answer.

America has good reason to worry about Greece
At the end of last week, the US looked hard at Greece and was scared. So tiny an economy should not be bringing all of Europe low and even threatening to explode the euro, but it is. What started as a US financial crisis plunged Europe into recession; was Europe about to return the compliment? What, Americans began to wonder, did Europe’s problems tell them about their own?

Solicitor General Elena Kagan has called for Socialists to unite...(Catholic Caucus)
"We are living in the days of the Apocalypse - the last days of our era...The two great forces of the Mystical Body of Christ and the Mystical Body of Antichrist are beginning to draw up the battle lines for the catastrophic contest." - Archbishop Fulton John Sheen. White House aides expect President Obama to select Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. See here. Ms. Kagan, while attending Princeton University as an undergraduate, entitled her senior thesis "To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933." In her thesis, Ms. Kagan wrote, "In our times [this was...

U.S. Debt Shock May Hit In 2018, Maybe As Soon As 2013: Moody's
Spiraling debt is Uncle Sam's shock collar, and its jolt may await like an invisible pet fence. "Nobody knows when you bump up against the limit, but you know when it happens it will really hurt," said fiscal watchdog Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Obama Drops to -13 in Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index
President Obama has fallen to -13 once again in the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index. Those who "strongly approve" of his performance as President is now down to only 27%, while 40% "strongly disapprove."

Obama’s ‘New Normal’ Is Unacceptable
As Unemployment Rises, White House Waves White Flag On Creating Jobs While Pushing Job-Killing, European-Style Agenda IT’S UNACCEPTABLE FOR WHITE HOUSE TO ALLOW HIGH JOBLESS RATE TO BE ‘NEW NORMAL’ Today, BLS Reported That Unemployment Rose To 9.9 Percent In The Month Of April, Up From 9.7 Percent. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 5/7/10)...

Dems may abandon House race in Hawaii
WASHINGTON – Despite spending more than $300,000, frustrated House Democrats may abandon efforts to win a special election in Hawaii after quiet diplomacy failed to end a high-level party feud that threatens their prospects. "It's an extremely difficult race, since two Democratic candidates are splitting the vote," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

More Evidence Team Obama Stopped Shahzad Monitoring Begun Under Bush-Clinton
As I posted yesterday, there was a disturbing blurb in a NY Times article that indicated Faisal Shahzad, the now infamous Times Square Bomber, was under surveillance as a potential terrorist during the Bush administration. George LaMonica, a 35-year-old computer consultant, said he bought his two-bedroom condominium in Norwalk, Conn., from Mr. Shahzad for $261,000 in May 2004. A few weeks after he moved in, Mr. LaMonica said, investigators from the national Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF] interviewed him, asking for details of the transaction and for information about Mr. Shahzad. It struck Mr. LaMonica as unusual, but he said detectives told him they were simply “checking everything out.”...

New U.S. Push to Regulate Internet Access
WASHINGTON—In a move that will stoke a battle over the future of the Internet, the federal government plans to propose regulating broadband lines under decades-old rules designed for traditional phone networks. The decision, by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, is likely to trigger a vigorous lobbying battle, arraying big phone and cable companies and their allies on Capitol Hill against Silicon Valley giants and consumer advocates.

Is Michelle Obama a Birther?
The question has to be asked, now that a second YouTube video has surfaced in which Michelle Obama refers to her husband as a Kenyan. In a rather whiny harangue during a fundraiser in Tampa in December 2007, in which she discussed how hard it was for her and her husband to pay off student loans from "good schools," Michelle Obama said the following:...Video

Obama's Attempt To Subvert The Constitution
Video from Hannity show

McCain in tight Arizona fight against rebel challenger
PHOENIX, Arizona (AFP) – Republican lawmakers hoping to return to power in November must first prevail in battles in states like Arizona, where veteran Senator John McCain is locking horns over his seat with a "Tea Party" upstart. McCain, 73, headlined the Republican ticket in the 2008 White House race, losing in the historic poll to Barack Obama.

Obama's Supreme Court Choice: No Evangelicals Need Apply
When Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the media was full of stories of an historic first, a barrier broken. The first Latina to serve on the high court is certainly something to note. Justice Clarence Thomas was only the second black American to be nominated to the Supreme Court. His confirmation hearings, however, were hardly the stuff of "let's make history." ...

Top hedge fund mgrs donate almost exclusively to Dems
The world’s top-earning hedge fund managers have bankrolled almost exclusively Democratic campaigns, according to Silla Bush of The Hill: The top 10 highest-paid hedge fund managers in 2009 have dished out campaign contributions almost only to Democrats.

The jihadists’ deadly path to citizenship
America’s homeland security amnesia never ceases to amaze. In the aftermath of the botched Times Square terror attack over the weekend, Pakistani-born bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad’s U.S. citizenship status caused a bit of shock and awe. The Atlantic magazine writer Jeffrey Goldberg’s response was typical: “I am struck by the fact that he is a naturalized American citizen, not a recent or temporary visitor.” Well, wake up and smell the deadly deception.

Obama biggest recipient of BP cash
While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

Failure-in-Chief
The controversies over the Arizona immigration plan and the Obama Administration’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf may not seem related, but they have a key common characteristic: both originate in the failure of Washington. In both cases, President Obama faces a real danger of a political backlash from which he will be unable to recover.

Big Brother is Watching You: Section 1071 of the Dodd Bill
So far, the Dodd bill has been an exercise in the principle that the more the American people learn about this legislation, the less they like it. Now, it has been revealed that in Section 1071 of the bill (pp. 1417 of the Lincoln-Dodd substitute) that banks will now be required to keep a data log on all depository accounts including, “checking account, savings account, credit union share account, and other types of accounts, as defined by the [Consumer Financial Protection] Bureau.”...

IBD/TIPP Poll: 60% Favor New Arizona Immigration Law
Editorial pages may rage against the Arizona immigration law, but a solid majority of Americans support it, an IBD/TIPP poll found. Sixty percent back the law, with 40% strongly favoring it, according to preliminary results. Meanwhile, 30% oppose it, with 20% strongly disapproving it. The remaining 10% are unsure.

Spend Less. Tax Less. Our Future Depends on It
America’s national debt is “unsustainable” and existing budget challenges “cannot be solved through minor tinkering.” This was the message from Doug Elmendorf, Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, when commenting recently on our nation’s fiscal outlook. According to Elmendorf, public debt is set to reach $20.3 trillion by 2020 under President Obama’s latest budget proposal to Congress. Based on this projection, which takes into account other deficit spending over the last year, the national debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product will rise from 53 percent to 90 percent over the same period.

Time Square Bomber a Democrat and Obama Donor?
There are reports that Faisal Shahzad, the failed Time Square bomber was a registered Democrat in Connecticut and may be a donor to Obama’s campaign. This comes after the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg openly speculated that the bomber might be “somebody with a political agenda who doesn’t like the health care bill or something.” Contessa Brewer, a “reporter” for MSNBC went further, actually hoping the terrorist here wasn’t Islamic and was disappointed that it wasn’t a right winger.

Federal Government Outpaces Private Sector in Job Creation
PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's Job Creation Index for April reveals significantly more hiring within the federal government than in the private sector. Both show a substantially more positive picture than state and local governments, where firing far eclipses hiring.

Yes, Keep Drilling
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens to do as much damage to U.S. energy policy as it has to the environment. Obama’s weeks-old executive order allowing for limited coastal exploration — which we never considered a sure thing — has been stayed and will probably be rescinded....

Exclusive: Liberals Don’t Trust the Free Enterprise System
We went to a rather amazing and informative meeting recently where a mild-mannered senior Congressman was asked the following question by a self-admitted hard-nosed, go-strictly-by the-numbers accountant from a major accounting firm: “These numbers about the deficits and debt going forward are so astounding. Why don’t Congressional leaders and the White House see the need for massive budget-cutting right now?”

Are public sector employees the Democrats' achilles heel?
The debt is shaping up as a major issue in the 2010 elections and beyond. Republicans have, of course, been talking about it ever since the debate over the stimulus bill in early 2009. And the issue has caught on to the point that President Obama felt compelled to establish a high profile commission to make recommendations about how to deal with the debt.

Obama's Katrina': an Illustrated Timeline. Oil Spill
20 April 2010: An oil rig rented and operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, killing 11 workers.
22 April 2010: The Deepwater Horizon collapses into the sea and sinks....(Good Timeline)

Big Story Here...Glenn Beck Ties Obama To Multi Trillion Dollar Carbon Trading Scam
Glenn Beck, you must watch these videos. This good information on Carbon Trading

A Stranger in Our Midst
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply....

Republican Leader: We'll Try to Repeal Pro-Abortion Health Care if We Win House
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The top Republican in the House of Representatives said today that GOP lawmakers will try to repeal the pro-abortion health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law if Americans give them the majority after the November congressional elections. House Republican Leader John Boehner, who is getting an award from a pro-life group for trying to stop the abortion funding in the bill, made the remarks in an NPR interview.

Obama Helped Kill Immigration Reform In 2007 - Will Media Remember?
With immigration reform back on the front page thanks to Arizona's new controversial law, it's going to be very interesting to see how the Obama-loving press report what he did concerning this issue when he was a junior senator from Illinois in 2007. For instance, David Broder's "How Congress Botched Immigration Reform" published in Thursday's Washington Post didn't even mention Barack Obama's name.

Whistling past the death panel
President Obama has selected Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Berwick is a Harvard professor, a pediatrician, and the CEO of a nonprofit that, according to its website, has a staff of over 100 people. These seem like dubious qualifications to head a massive organization with a budget greater than that of the Department of Defense.

Jobless claims underscore fragile labor market
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance fell slightly less than expected last week, government data showed on Thursday, implying only a gradual labor market improvement. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 448,000 in the week ended April 24, the Labor Department said....

Obama’s Shadow Government
Adolfo Carrion, Aneesh Chopra, Ear; Devamey, Kenneth Feinberg, Carol Browner, Ed Montgomery, Todd Stern, Cass Sunstein, Ron Bloom, and John Brennan. If none of them ring a bell, it is because they and others are all part of a shadow government of some thirty “czars”; advisers to President Obama who did not submit to the Senate confirmation process and are exempt from Congressional oversight.

Beyonce Knowles Gets $425,000 Taxpayer Bailout On Her House In Texas
Unlike say, Nic Cage or Lindsay Lohan, Beyonce Knowles is living the life. She and her husband Jay-Z are worth a reported $265 million and she's still the hottest singer on radio.

'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war:' US generals given baffling PowerPoint presentation to try to explain Afghanistan mess
Its coloured charts, graphs and bullet-points are supposed to make the most incomprehensible data crystal clear. But even the sharpest military minds in American were left baffled by this PowerPoint slide, a mind-boggling attempt to explain the situation in Afghanistan. 'When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war,' General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander, remarked wryly when confronted by the sprawling spaghetti diagram in a briefing.

Obama Denies Individual Aid for Storm Relief
President Barack Obama has denied aid to individuals affected by March’s massive storms and Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she plans to file a formal appeal. The decision comes just days after Obama approved the state’s request for a “major disaster declaration,” which provides financial help to state and municipal governments in Fairfield, Middlesex and New London counties.

RNC: Obama playing on 'class warfare and race'
The Republican National Committee Tuesday night accused President Obama of making "an appeal based on class warfare and race" after Obama outlined his party's midterm strategy of returning people who voted for the first time in 2008 to the polls in November.

Investigate this. (The Big Lie) GM Loan Repayment
Last week General Motors chairman and chief executive officer Edward Whitacre took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to make an important announcement: "The GM bailout: Paid back in full.". Whitacre asserted that GM had paid back all the funds it borrowed from the United States in full with interest. Whitacre omitted two facts that rendered his column highly misleading. They are the kind of omissions that constitute securities fraud when made by a company in connection with the purchase or sale of a security or when a company reports its financial results.

Protesters Speak Out Against Obama Visit
MACON - On the eve of President Obama's visit to Macon, not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat. More than 1,100 people attended a rally Tuesday night in opposition of President Barack Obama and his policies.

Obama can’t stop talking about Arizona law that DOJ hasn’t reviewed yet
Oh, there’s no doubt that the DOJ will challenge the law — the politics demands it, which is one reason why Holder expressed his concern today — but wouldn’t it be keen if the country’s chief law enforcement officer held off on prejudicing public opinion about it until the review is done? In theory (albeit not in political reality), Holder could come back and say that the law is constitutional, which would leave The One … where? Shrugging it off after all but pronouncing it a tool for racial profiling today?

Value Added' is GDP, U.S Output Minus U.S Input. They Tax What They Want Less Of.
I studied Economics at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. When an economist reads 'VAT', they don't think "a value-added tax", as you mere workers/taxpayers are meant to think, but rather an economist sees "a Tax on the Value Added".

1 in 3 San Francisco employees earned $100,000
More than 1 in 3 of San Francisco's nearly 27,000 city workers earned $100,000 or more last year - a number that has been growing steadily for the past decade. The number of city workers paid at least $100,000 in base salary totaled 6,449 last year. When such extras as overtime are included, the number jumped to 9,487 workers, nearly eight times the number from a decade ago.

Democrats Admit Companies Were Correct In Warning Of Major Losses Due To ObamaCare
You recall Waxman’s outrage over large companies, such as AT&T, informing its shareholders that they will be taking large hits due to ObamaCare:....

Democrats only hope in November will be voter fraud, especially absentee ballot voter frauds
With each passing week the chances of the Democrats losing control of one or both Houses of Congress grows. Republican resolve to vote coupled with the lack of enthusiasm among Democrats and the return to the GOP by Independents paints a bright picture for conservatives eager to retake the reigns of power. Nevertheless, experience tells us the Democrats will fight like cornered animals and survival will be their only rule. One of the most powerful liberal Democrat weapons has always been absentee voter fraud so this election will see plenty of it.

Obama seeks to 'reconnect...young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women' for 2010 - Ben Smith: Obama seeks to 'reconnect...young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women' for 2010

New Poll Shows WA Democrat Sen. Patty Murray Trailing Potential GOP Opponent by 10-Points!
A new Survey USA poll out of Washington shows incumbent Democrat Sen. Patty Murray trailing prospective GOP Senate Candidate Dino Rossi by 10-points, 52%-42%!

Attorney General Eric Holder Attends Celebration for Black Nationalist Group
Attorney General Eric Holder gave the keynote speech at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Student National Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, North Carolina. The organization was formerly known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee but explicitly rejected nonviolence and expelled all whites from membership.

Obamacare, Expensive? Say It Ain’t So!
There is absolutely no way that Obamacare will save money, unless they have massive cuts in Medicare.

Obama: Ariz. immigration bill 'misguided'
PHOENIX (AP) -- President Obama called a tough Arizona immigration law "misguided" Friday and said it could violate people's civil rights, ramping up pressure on the state's Republican governor to veto the nation's toughest legislation against illegal immigration. Mr. Obama said he has instructed his administration to examine the Arizona bill to see if it's legal, and said the federal government must enact immigration reform at the national level -- or leave the door open to "irresponsibility by others."

The numbers prove it: Democrats have destroyed our economy since taking control of Congress
A new report from Americans for Limited Government (ALG) clearly shows that the Democrats have destroyed our economy since they took control of our lives in January of 2007. The most eye catching of ALG’s data items is the sad comparison of the rate of 4.6% unemployment at the start of 2007 and today’s alarming 9.7%. In real terms this means while there were about 7 million unemployed workers when the Democrats took over, today that number has more than doubled to 14.8 million out of work Americans. ..

Don’t Think That Cap-and-Trade Is Over
.... But nations need use only half the revenues from selling permits to the power and industrial sectors for those kinds of climate-related projects, leaving plenty of money for other purposes — and that means carbon trading should soon look like manna from heaven for cash-strapped treasuries.

No New Public School Bailout
he $787 billion stimulus law President Barack Obama signed last year included a $100 billion bailout for the nation's public schools. Last week, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat, proposed yet another bailout for public schools. This one carries a $23 billion price tag and would cover only the coming school year.

Exploiting the Oklahoma City bombing
When a former president seizes such a tragedy for partisan purposes, it is no wonder a new Pew Research poll found that a modest 22 percent of voters say they trust Washington to do the right thing most of the time.

Dem to Obama: Push immigration or I’ll tell Latino voters to stay home
A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) is arguably President Barack Obama’s biggest Democratic critic in Congress. And he’s not fond of Obama’s top advisers at the White House, either. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) member has strongly criticized the administration’s policy on deportation and questioned its commitment to far-reaching reform. Some Democrats have felt little urgency in pursuing the controversial issue, partly because they see no risk...

Premium pay costing S.F. big bucks
One of the biggest bulges in San Francisco's budget crisis is the $86 million a year that the city spends on premium pay - money that rewards employees and managers for everything from working nights to having toiled for the city for 10 years. For example, in addition to her $273,112-a-year salary, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White earned enough in various pay premiums in 2009 to bring her total to $290,o27. The chief's extra pay comes in the form of a "fire education incentive premium," which goes to all firefighters who have an associate's or bachelor's degree or 10...

Americans Are More Skeptical of Washington Than Ever
By almost every conceivable measure, Americans are less positive and more critical of their government these days. There is a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government—a dismal economy, an unhappy public, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials. These are among the principal findings from a new series of Pew Research Center surveys. Rather than an activist government to deal with the nation's top problems, these surveys show that the general public now wants government reformed and a growing number want its power curtailed. With the exception of greater regulation of Wall Street, there is less...

Goldman Sachs: Summary (Goldman Gave Dems 75% Of Its Campaign Donations In The 2008 Election Cycle
Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks was also among the many banks in 2008 and 2009 to receive billions of dollars in taxpayer money to help it stay afloat... The firm tends to give most of its money to Democrats... Cycle 2008 Total: $5,934,089. Democrats: $4,463,788 (75%). Republicans: $1,459,961 (25%) Total contributions 1990-2010: Democrats 64%, Republicans 35%.

The Gates Memo: World’s Least Well Kept Secret
So, under the headline “Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive,” the New York Times reports that according to anonymous government officials: “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability.”..

S.E. CUPP ON RELIGION, TEA PARTIES, BARACK OBAMA, MICHELE BACHMANN, AND SARAH PALIN
One of our favorite Conservative commentators, S.E. Cupp, has written a new book: “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity” In support of this book S.E. sat down for an interview with Newsmax TV and discussed a variety of topics from religion, and the media’s continual disdain thereof, as well as Barack Obama’s radicalism and how the media simply can’t handle strong, smart, and attractive Conservative women.

Taxpayers foot State Department's stiff liquor bill
Months after President Obama urged federal agencies last year to cut wasteful spending, the U.S. Department of State paid $3,814 to fill an order of Jack Daniel's whiskey for gratuities at one of its many overseas embassies. The booze buy wasn't unusual. Last year alone, the State Department sent taxpayers tabs totaling nearly $300,000 for alcoholic beverages — about twice as much compared to the previous year, according to an analysis of spending records by The Washington Times.

The Revolt of the States
The Revolt of the States By Alan Caruba President Obama, his weird circle of advisors (czars), and the ideologues within the Democrat Party led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid only have a few months left to completely destroy the separation of powers between the States and the federal government. A major battle is looming over the Tenth Amendment which declares that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Almost everywhere one looks today, the States...

WE ARE ALL TEA PARTIERS TODAY
We are all Tea Partiers today. Whether we’re marching on Washington or demonstrating in our own town. Even if we’re home with kids or at work like usual. We’re all Tea Partiers, and if circumstance doesn’t allow us all to stand shoulder to shoulder, we do stand heart to heart. Today, we are one.

Schools Can't Keep Up, As Ranks of Insured Expand, Nation Faces Shortage of 150,000 Doctors in 15 Years
The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors. Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Health insurers still the bad guy – LA Times journalistic malpractice
The attacks on insurance companies continue this morning, with Matt Drudge linking to the “Healthcare overhaul won’t stop premium increases” story at the Lost Angeles Times. Not once – not once – does the Times look into why the premiums are increasing. Noam N. Levey immediately mentions the public outcry at double-digit premiums in his article this morning, and he continues to refer to “major companies” who are going to “boost premiums”, and how some states and the federal government are powerless to prevent “insurance company” increases throughout his piece.

Crash course: Your illustrated guide to the Tea Party saboteurs
The one-year anniversary of the nationwide April 15 Tax Day Tea Party counterinsurgency is fast approaching — and publicity-seeking malefactors of all stripes want in on the spotlight. Over the last week, conservative activists online have thoroughly exposed the loser behind an Internet call to “Crash the Tea Party.” His name is Jason Levin. To follow his trail, check Free Republic here, Canada Free Press here, and Velvet Hammer here. After failing to cover his tracks, Levin is now basking in the glow of attention on his tpartycrasher Twitter page and on his personal Twitter page (where he brags that he has hit the big time and “gone viral:”) ...

More than 200,000 jobless counting on an extension
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- More than 200,000 jobless Americans are anxiously waiting for the Senate to restore their extended unemployment insurance. These folks were expected to stop getting checks last week after lawmakers failed to extend an April 5 deadline to file for federally-paid benefits before adjourning for a two-week recess. A total of a million people could lose benefits this month if the Senate doesn't act, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Hillary Rodham Clinton…Supreme Court Nominee
Don’t rule it out. Obama is a tough position on this justice nomination. It is unlikely that anyone he will pick will have the liberal stature of Justice Stevens. Even the most liberal persons mentioned for the job are not up Stevens repute. Stevens is a unique judicial figure. He is the last of the liberal diehards, whose ideological stances are unmovable to a large extent. He, by and large, unifies the liberal bloc unlike anyone else on the court....

With 1 in 5 Americans out of work, Obama issues over a million green cards
The Department of Homeland Security has just reported that during 2009, they issued 1,130,818 new Green Cards to foreign nationals, allowing them to work legally in this country. That number represents the fourth highest number of cards issued in one year. 750,000 of the new Green Cards were given to the families of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The top four recipient nations are as follows:
-Mexico…164,920
-China…receiving 64,238
-Philippines…60,029
-India…57,304

Value Added Tax (VAT): imported from Mexico?
The value added tax: politicians already call it “the European tax” which is a warning sign. Usually the Euro sticker is put on unpopular measures to make them seem like they are a really smart thing to do. Really? It is true that the French were the first to implement VAT – they agree on all kind of perversions. Unfortunately the Value Added Tax is a disease that spread internationally and America is one of the few places that showed resistance to the bug so far. President Obama and friends are ready to introduce the VAT nightmare in the USA.

College Paper Shows Obama Was a Raving Anti-American Kook
Well, what do you know? The state-run media can do research. It only took them 8 months after the election to release this crazy Far Left anti-American article Barack Obama wrote while in college.

Greenpeace Funded by the Political Class
Far-left advocacy group Greenpeace receives large donations from rich and powerful people, enough to drown the entire notion of political independence and non-partisanship. The mechanism of receiving funding – through foundations – is the same as the opposition “right wing” organizations that it criticizes for funding bias.

Our Bloated Federal Goverment Is Already Much, Much Bigger Than You Think
How much money does it take for governments of sovereign nations to do their job? Different countries obviously have different answers. Countries run by social democratic or socialist parties will spend lavishly on cradle-to-grave social systems. On the other hand, citizens in non-socialist countries have more choice over how to spend their money. When Americans think of really countries with really big governments, they probably think of Sweden or France or Finland. Most of Europe is thought to have much larger governments than the United States.

The Return of "Kick Me" Foreign Policy
Jeane Kirkpatrick, when she arrived at the United Nations as U.S. ambassador in 1981, was asked how the new administration’s foreign policy would differ from its predecessor’s. “Well,” she said in a story President Reagan loved to recount, “we’ve taken off our ‘kick me’ sign.” She was then asked, “Does that mean, if you’re kicked, you’ll kick back?” “Oh, not necessarily,” she answered. “But it does mean that if we’re kicked, at least we won’t apologize.”

Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the leader of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection, a Democratic official said. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans. "Now with health care done, he’s retiring," a friend said. "He has thought about retiring for the last three cycles, but was always talked into staying: to elect John Kerry to help end the war, to elect a Democratic majority to get health care done."

PALIN’S GAME CHANGING SPEECH STREAMING LIVE FROM THE SRLC
The Southern Republican Leadership Conference kicks off in New Orleans, Louisiana today with Sarah Palin serving as the keynote speaker tomorrow. Ron Devito, of “US for Palin” and a contributing columnist for The Cypress Times will be streaming Palin’s speech live for all to see. Devito says internet users can, “…see the Southern Republican Leadership Conference live at US 4Palin. Additionally, we will have two authors, Missy Stewart and Adrienne Ross on location filing dispatches.”

Obama Sells Out US Allies
Since taking office in January, 2009, President Barack Obama has seemingly gone out of his way to damage the US relationship with many of our allies around the world. Obama has sold out key allies such as the UK, Israel, Poland and the Czech Republic and he has insulted others such as Australia, by canceling his trip there so he could save his own political hide back home. This is ironic since Obama ran on a platform of reconnecting the US with the rest of the world after the so-called ‘cowboy diplomacy’ of the Bush years. Whether intentionally or simply due to lack of experience and understanding, Obama has already done substantial long term damage to US relationships and he still has nearly three years to go.

Vulnerable Democrats are tiptoeing on health care
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — First-term Rep. Betsy Markey is convinced that once people learn what's in President Barack Obama's new health care overhaul law, they'll support it. But it's not a message she was eager to carry in person to her constituents in Republican-leaning eastern Colorado. During Congress' two-week Easter break, she reserved any discussion of health care reform for conference calls, an op-ed piece and an appearance at a small-town Rotary Club — all small-bore outreach.

FODEMAN: Obamacare's doctorless world
In rural areas of the country, obtaining a doctor's appointment is practically mission impossible. Even in cities such as Boston and Manhattan, it can be very difficult for patients to attain the medical care they badly need, particularly for Medicare and Medicaid patients. From New York's Upper East Side to the heartland to San Francisco's Haight Ashbury, a striking physician shortage exists in this country. The reasons for the dearth of doctors are complex, but one thing is certain: The "health care reform" that President Obama ardently pushed down the public's throat and recently signed into law will not increase the scant supply of doctors. In fact, it will make the problem worse.

Black conservative tea party backers take heat
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement—and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president. "I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.

Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them. Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.

Tea Party Going Mainstream? Polls Suggest Movement Gaining in Popularity
Tea Partiers have been dismissed as a fringe, but two new polls suggest the conservative movement might be going mainstream. A Rasmussen poll released Monday found more Americans identify with the Tea Party groups than with President Obama. According to the survey, 48 percent of voters said the average Tea Party activist is more aligned with their views on major issues than the president. Forty-four percent said Obama's views are closer to theirs.

Islamic Terrorist Training Camps in USA
The Spread of Homegrown Terrorists - Islamic training camps in America's back yard. Why are these communities left to flourish...(VIDEO)

Automaker Pensions Underfunded by $17 Billion
DETROIT — The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by a total of $17 billion and could fail if the automakers do not return to profitability, according to a government report released Tuesday.

H idden public option in Obamacare
Does the recently passed health care reform legislation contain a public health insurance option? Simply put, no. Does it contain a confusingly worded work-around that will allow the federal government to issue public funds for what will essentially amount to a public option? You betcha!…Yep, that’s right, Obamacare contains what essentially amounts to a public option, run by non-profit(tax exempt) health insurance organizations, funded by the tax payers, determined by a panel of government bureaucrats. The bill refers to this hidden public option as the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program.

Barack Obama to limit nuke strikes
BARACK Obama has departed from previously accepted policy by declaring the US would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that adhered to an international treaty agreement - even if they launched attacks using biological or chemical weapons. The President's decision to limit the potential use of US nuclear weapons is included in a revamped strategy to be issued today...

More Patients? ObamaCare Will Make It Up On Volume
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., explained why people were upset over ObamaCare this way, “They just didn’t understand how we could save money on this by adding more people to the system.” Sounds like Walz is making a withdrawal from SNL's Change Bank, somehow producing profits from "volume." But Walz, who hails from Minnesota’s First District, isn’t the most vulnerable of incumbents, so he may not have to improve his explanation of why he voted for ObamaCare to survive.

Doing the Dow Math on Obamacare
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Several major companies have already outlined first-quarter charges related to Obamacare, so we used these figures as a guide then dredged through annual filings to give investors our best estimate of other firms' exposure.

Obamacare's Taxes on Working Families
Medicine Cabinet Tax ($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin)

Bank of Mom and Dad Shuts Amid White-Collar Struggle
FAIRFIELD, Conn.—When Maurice Johnson was laid off a year ago from his six-figure salary as a managing director at GE Capital, it wasn't his future he was worried about. It was his children's. The family income of the Johnsons is a fifth of what it used to be. And the children are about to feel the pain. Mr. Johnson's two oldest are attending his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, at an annual cost of $50,000 apiece. And his youngest daughter, 15 years old, recently began her own college search. Mr. Johnson isn't sure whether he'll be able to help her to go to college, or even to get the older kids to graduation.

What Obamacare will cost doctors
One of the most interesting, if unanticipated, effects of posting YouTube videos is managing the "comments" section. I have a serie s of politically oriented song parodies that I have posted over the past eight months. The first, "One Single Payer System", has more than one million views (thanks to links posted in blogs such as The American Thinker). However, I did not realize I would be taking up the job of de facto moderator for a running debate with more than 1,200 entries in the case of "Single Payer".

U.S. government a big commercial real estate player
Evidence of the federal government's growing influence on Washington area commercial real estate is illustrated in big deals it is working on both sides of the table: auctioning a 127,000-square-foot Bethesda building previously occupied by the National Institutes of Health and moving to snatch up vast spaces in buildings on the private market that have been vacant for months.

Unemployment Rates By Country 2007-2010 [Visuals]
Click the Arrow Button and watch the visuals change monthly up to January 2010

The Fed's Last Hurrah
During the 1990s, inflationary Federal Reserve policy fueled a tech stock bubble. When that bubble burst, the Fed inflated a larger one in real estate. Now that the real estate bubble has burst, the Fed is inflating the biggest bubble of them all - a bubble in government. While the earlier booms at least provided the illusion of prosperity and some fun while they lasted, the government bubble will cripple the economy and deliver widespread misery to the vast majority of Americans.

States fear that five words in Obama health law will open door to lawsuits
he addition to existing law of five words, and a comma, may cause a world of hurt to state governments. Tucked away on page 466 of President Obama’s 2,704-page health-care bill is a provision that changes the definition of “medical assistance,” the term describing what states are required to provide to Medicaid recipients. States have in the past been required to provide payment for services to physicians. Now, under the new definition, states will be liable for ensuring provision of “the care and services themselves.”

ObamaCare and the Constitution
The constitutional challenges to ObamaCare have come quickly, and the media are portraying them mostly as hopeless gestures—the political equivalent of Civil War re-enactors. Discussion over: You lost, deal with it. The press corps never dismissed the legal challenges to the war on terror so easily, but then liberals have long treated property rights and any limits on federal power to regulate commerce as 18th-century anachronisms. In fact, the legal challenges to ObamaCare are serious and carry enormous implications for the future of American liberty.

Wall Street Journal: ‘Rather Have Sarah Palin In Oval Office Than Obama’
Norman Podhoretz, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote an interesting piece on why some GOP intellectuals do not understand Sarah Palin: In Defense of Sarah Palin Nothing annoys certain of my fellow conservative intellectuals more than when I remind them, as on occasion I mischievously do, that the derogatory things they say about Sarah Palin are uncannily similar to what many of their forebears once said about Ronald Reagan.

GOP Hits Obama's Recess Appointments
Republicans on Sunday excoriated President Obama for ignoring bipartisan opposition to a top Labor Department nominee and going ahead with a recess appointment after the Senate left Capitol Hill for spring break. On Saturday, Mr. Obama made 15 recess appointments to fill key administration posts at the Departments of the Treasury, Homeland Security and others. Among them was Craig Becker, a former union lawyer tapped to head the National Labor Relations Board whose nomination has been filibustered by senators on both sides of the aisle.

Could Bringing Politicians Home Increase Accountability? I like this it would get the Congress out of Washington
teleconference. The impetus for the plan at that time was national security. To this day, there remains speculation regarding the intended target of United Airlines Flight 93. Had it crashed into Capitol Hill, the legislative branch may have been critically affected. Decentralizing Congress, it was argued, would ensure the continuity of government against a localized attack....

Big employers rethink their healthcare plans
Washington — AT&T Inc. said Friday that it would record a $1-billion noncash expense in the first quarter related to the newly passed healthcare law, joining a growing list of large U.S. companies. The AT&T write-down is the largest reported so far. Caterpillar Inc. this week recorded a $100-million charge in the first quarter, and Deere & Co. said it would report a one-time $150-million expense.

327 House members tell Obama to make U-turn on US-Israeli relations
Barack Obama talks a lot about the “spirit of bipartisanship.” Now he’s had a chance to see it for himself, thanks to a series of diplomatic fumbles between the White House and Israel, usually one of America’s closest allies. More than three-quarters of the US House of Representatives signed a letter expressing dismay over the direction of the alliance, warning that the “highly publicized tensions” aren’t helping America’s interests:...

Most Say Tea Party Has Better Understanding of Issues than Congress
In official Washington, some consider the Tea Party movement a fringe element in society, but voters across the nation feel closer to the Tea Party movement than they do to Congress. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of U.S. voters believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress. Only 30% believe that those in Congress have a better understanding of the key issues facing the nation.

Senate Refuses to Exempt Veterans from Health Bill™s New Tax on Prosthetics and Other Medical Devices; Also Refuses to Exempt the Disabled and Children The Senate defeated three separate amendments offered to the health-care reconciliation bill on Wednesday night that would have abolished or limited the impact of a new tax on medical devices”including prosthetics, such as artificial limbs”that was enacted in the new health-care law President Barack Obama signed on Tuesday.One of those bills would have completely repealed the new tax, another would have exempted those in veteran's health programs and members of TRICARE (the government insurance plan for military personnel, veterans and their families) from its impact, and a third would have exempted children and the disabled, including disabled veterans.

REPEAL Why and how Obamacare must be undone
In the days since the enactment of their health care plan, Democrats in Washington have been desperately seeking to lodge the new program in the pantheon of American public-policy achievements. House Democratic whip James Clyburn compared the bill to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Vice President Biden argued it vindicates a century of health reform efforts by Democrats and Republicans alike. House speaker Nancy Pelosi said “health insurance reform will stand alongside Social Security and Medicare in the annals of American history.”

How the Left fakes the hate: A primer
I’m still on semi-vacation, but the Left never takes a break from falsely accusing the Right of fomenting hatred and violence through political speech. The MSM never takes a break from whitewashing leftist intolerance, death threats, and extremism — and engaging in selective reporting (or rather, non-reporting) of the long history of leftists’ manufacturing of hatred for political gain. My syndicated column fills in the missing context....

2,000 House staffers make six figures
Nearly 2,000 House of Representative staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 staffers who earned the maximum $172,500 — or more than three times the median U.S. household income. Starting salaries on Capitol Hill are still low — many entry-level congressional jobs pay less than $30,000 a year. And many of the most highly paid staffers could make several times the maximum by jumping to lobbying and consulting jobs in the private sector.

Mike Pence: This Law Will Not Stand
In the dead of night on Sunday, Democrats rammed their health-care overhaul through Congress. Some say we made history. I say we broke with history, turning our back on this country’s finest traditions of limited government, personal responsibility, and the consent of the governed. Republicans remain committed to reforming health care in a way that honors these values. For the past year we have suggested ways to fix the system by reducing costs—specifically through instituting tort reform and by allowing Americans to purchase insurance across state lines.

Absolute Proof That We Need 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 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 $600 Billion plus in brand-spanking-new taxes passed as part of the Obamcare bill only serves to add to the tax code confusion. But Americans shouldn't feel bad because the general...

Telecom giant challenges FCC role in broadband
One of the nation's biggest telecommunications providers urged the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday not to assert its authority over Internet services, a challenge that comes as the agency embarks on a 10-year effort to greatly expand broadband access across the country. Verizon Communications said that the FCC's power over high-speed Internet services is "at best murky" and offered recommendations to Congress that could take away much of the agency's power.

Exclusive: Steny Hoyer explains taxing Americans for lack of health insurance
Well, actually, he doesn’t, although he should. My good friend Jason Mattera graciously allowed us first crack at publishing his brief interview with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, taped by his colleague Alyssa Cordova of the Claire Boothe Luce Institute. The author of the new book Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation starts off the chat pleasantly enough, disarming Hoyer by thanking him for all his work on health-care reform, before asking him exactly who thought it was a good idea to sic the IRS on Americans for not buying the right kind of health insurance: VIDEO

Communist Goals 1963 and Now
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America. At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen...

Bad Day for Bart
The outlook for Stupak’s political future changed as quickly as his position on Obamacare....

Oops: Chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship
Exclusive The peer leading the second Climategate enquiry at the University of East Anglia serves as a director of one of the most powerful environmental networks in the world, according to Companies House documents - and has failed to declare it. Lord Oxburgh, a geologist by training and the former scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence, was appointed to lead the enquiry into the scientific aspects of the Climategate scandal on Monday. But Oxburgh is also a director of GLOBE, the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environmen

Black GOP candidate slams Obama for exploiting race
One of the GOP's handful of black candidates for Congress condemned President Barack Obama of exploiting race for political gain. Allen West, the Republican challenging Rep. Ron Klein (D) in Florida's 22nd congressional district, sharply criticized the Obama administration for having allegedly declined prosecuting the New Black Panther Party on voter tampering charges for political reasons.

BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - Adding Mud to the Well - and Open Thread
Admiral Allen held another briefing yesterday in which he elaborated a little more about the procedures to be followed when the two wells, the relief (RW) and the original (WW) are joined. He also promised that in a briefing tomorrow, he will bring together the different numbers that have been used for well positioning - the measured depth and the true vertical depth – so that everyone can start talking from the same page....

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 26% 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 -17 (see trends). ...

Ethanol industry wants same rubber stamp BP got
Once more, Big Energy is pushing Washington to ram through policy changes without nearly enough study, putting consumers and the environment at risk. Nope, we're not talking about offshore oil drilling and BP. This time it's the powerful "renewable fuels" industry saying that regulators are needlessly worried and that everything will work out fine....

Obama's Milky Way
Barack Obama is not a Muslim, said Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign, adding slyly, "as far as I know." Reeling from losses that followed this whispering campaign, Obama denied its implication and faked up an eager interest in Christianity. "I was sworn in with my hand on the family bible," he pouted. ..

Congressman Dicks finds a way around earmarks rule
Year after year since 2004, Rep. Norm Dicks has landed earmarks for a tiny Port Townsend company, Intellicheck Mobilisa. In all, Dicks, D-Bremerton, has sent more than $20 million to support the startup, including a no-bid $4.5 million contract last year for its trademarked Littoral Sensor Grid, which transmits data from a system of buoys.
Executives of the company have given $26,000 in campaign contributions to Dicks...

TSA withdraws ‘controversial opinion’ restriction on web use
A new policy blocking access of Transportation Security Administration employees from websites with “controversial opinion” content has been withdrawn, a spokesman tells The Examiner: I wanted to let you know that after further review, TSA determined the “controversial opinion” category may contain some sites that do not violate TSA’s policy and therefore has concluded that the category is no longer being considered for implementation. Our intent is not, and never has been, to limit our employees’ ability to access or share “controversial opinions.”...

DOJ vs. Arizona: The battle over preemption
Here it comes. After months of advance hype and threats, Team Obama is reportedly set to file suit against the state of Arizona over its immigration enforcement law. The Washington Post says the filing could come today. The word of the day: “Preemption.”...

New Portman Ad: “Cap and Trade” Could Tax Us for “Turning on a Light, Using our Computer, or Even Cooking Dinner” – Video
Here is video of a new Rob Portman ad in Ohio that slams the “Cap and Trade” legislation being pushed in Washington right now by Obama and the Democrats. Portman says the legislation would amount to an “energy tax,” and that it would be a “job-killer.”

SENATOR HARRY REID’S CAMPAIGN FORCED TO TAKE DOWN DECEPTIVE WEBSITE
RENO, NV – U.S. Senator Harry Reid’s campaign was forced to take down a website that falsely represented itself as Sharron Angle’s campaign website and attempted to deceive Angle supporters into giving their personal information to the Reid campaign. Reid’s campaign received a Cease and Desist Notice complaining of “nefarious actions,” including the abuses of proprietary materials from the Angle campaign website and for potentially violating the privacy of supporters who may have been submitting personal information to be used for U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s campaign....

Climategate' was 'a game-changer' in science reporting, say climatologists
This Wednesday sees the publication of the Muir Russell report into the conduct of scientists from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), whose emails caused a furore in November after they were hacked into and published online. Critics say the emails reveal evasion of freedom of information law, secret deals done during the writing of reports for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a cover-up of uncertainties in key research findings and the misuse of scientific peer review to silence critics....

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT: Barack Obama: The great jobs killer
Obama is as hopeless, helpless, clueless and bankrupt of good ideas as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in late September. This "community organizer" knows as much about private-sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics...

Congressional Report On Obama’s Gulf Oil Incompetence
More later as I digest all this, but Darrell Issa has released a congressional report on the Gulf oil disasrer(without the Dems who are shuddering at facing the incompetence of their ‘hope & change’ leader). It is very damning. It discusses a fraudulent hoax being played on the American people:...

Anger, frustration on rise in Gulf disaster
This Fourth of July weekend New Orleans will be packed with nearly 300,000 people, as the National Education Association holds its annual convention, and folks from across the country descend on the Crescent City for three days of partying and concerts featuring Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire, all headliners at the 16th annual Essence Music Festival...

Schwarzenegger orders min wage for state workers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday ordered about 200,000 state workers to be paid the federal minimum wage this month because the state Legislature has not passed a budget, but the state controller is refusing to comply.

You’re doing a heck of a job Craigie!” FEMA credit cards used for birthday cards, golf umbrellas
Given his disastrous handling of the Gulf oil leak isn’t it time for somebody to kick Obama’s FEMA Director Craig Fugate in the butt and say, “You’re doing an awful job, Craigie”? If you’ve wondered what FEMA is doing besides sitting and watching our Gulf region disintegrating before his eyes, here’s some news that will make you want to scream. ...

Obama: Government Will Spend $795 Million To Create 5,000 Rural Jobs
President Obama announced new government investments that will expand broadband connections in rural areas across the country.

Comprehensive immigration platitudes
President Obama will deliver another worthless speech this morning. Don’t take my word for that. The open-borders lobby itself has such “low expectations” that some of its activists are wishing for the days of open-borders Bush. The White House says it won’t offer any specific policy proposals. But there will be plenty of paeans paid to “comprehensive immigration reform” — second only to “hope and change” as the most vapid, emptiest rhetorical construction in Washington.

National debt soars to highest level since WWII
The federal debt will represent 62% of the nation's economy by the end of this year, the highest percentage since just after World War II, according to a long-term budget outlook released today by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office....

Summer Slowdown: Why the Economic Recovery May Be Stalling
The rest of the summer won't necessarily be cruel, but it will at the very least be slow, according to some leading economists. The big gains seen in important measures of economic health like gross domestic product just a few months ago are being replaced by more modest increases, they say. "I don't expect robust growth," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office who was John McCain's top economics advisor during the 2008 presidential campaign. "This is a slow, steady crawl-out." ...

US jobless claims surge more than expected
WASHINGTON, USA — New claims for US unemployment benefits jumped more than expected last week, official data showed Thursday on the eve of the key June jobs report. Initial claims for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 472,000 in the week ending June 26, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 459,000, the Labor Department said. The leap was sharply higher than the consensus analyst forecast of 458,000 claims. The four-week moving average, which helps smooth out weekly volatility, rose 0.7 percent to 466,500....

Obama's fiscal fantasyland
"Irresponsible" refers to Congress and the Obama administration - and here's why. For thousands of years, businesses, organizations, governments and even individuals have relied on a basic tool to make sure they do not spend or borrow more than they can service - it is called a budget. Yet, for the first time since 1974, when the current rules were put into effect, the U.S. House of Representatives does not intend to pass a budget resolution. The main purpose of the budget resolution is to set discretionary spending caps for the coming fiscal year...

The $5 trillion rollover
Banks around the world must refinance more than $5 trillion of debts in the coming three years, a massive rollover that poses threats to financial stability and growth. The need to replace these debts, which are medium and long term, will place pressure on bank profit spreads and in turn may either prompt deleveraging, where banks sell assets that they can no longer economically finance, or simply lead to a bout of credit rationing, where borrowers must pay more to borrow, thus crimping investment and economic growth...

Big Labor controlled House Democrats holding up $30 billion troop funding to satisfy their masters
Congressional Democrats are showing which side they are on when it comes to standing with the American people and our combat troops or with their Labor Union masters. The House Appropriations Committee, which is controlled by Democrats, is holding back $33 billion in supplemental war funding designated to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’ve halted the process while they try to add $10 billion in payoffs to California and New York so they can keep paying their public employees instead of making budgets cuts. Every penny of that $10 billion will go to unionized Public Employees.

Controversial Internet Kill Switch Passes
Cyberspace Security bill, dubbed Internet Kill Switch has passed the Senate. Internet kill switch gets Senate approval by President Obama. The cyberspace security bill that will give President Barack Obama the power to shut down the Internet has passed. However, the bill does give the government limited power in the communications sector....

States struggle to pass budgets without stimulus
NEW YORK (AP) - For at least 30 cash-strapped states counting on federal stimulus money, the news was a stunning blow: A deficit-weary Congress had rejected billions in additional aid, forcing lawmakers into a mad scramble to balance their budgets. Now, with a new fiscal year just days away in most states, many governors are proposing to make up for the shortfall with tax increases, cuts in essential services and potential layoffs of thousands of public employees...

HARRY REID CALLS SOCIAL SECURITY INSOLVENCY A "MYTH"
RENO, NV -- During the Nevada Democratic Party Convention that was held over the weekend, Senator Harry Reid called the idea of Social Security insolvency a “myth” while claiming that the fund should remain solvent for at least another 40 years. Reid went on to say that this “myth” was perpetuated in order to scare senior citizens,as noted by reporter Jon Ralston.

Governor Rick Perry and Jan Brewer Sound Off
Texas Governor Rick Perry and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer criticized the Obama administration’s border plan on Monday, saying it did not do enough to quell border violence.

SCOTUS theater: Kagan kabuki
oday, the curtain officially opens on the Senate “battle” over Obama Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. “Battle” gets ghost quotes because all the poohbahs on Capitol Hill are already treating her confirmation as a “foregone conclusion.” Beltway Republicans will put up just enough of a fight to placate grass-roots conservative activists on Kagan’s radical social views, while the nutroots will pout (but not too loudly) that Kagan isn’t enough of a liberal activist for them. And GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham, after several minutes of obligatory grandstanding mixed with obsequious suck-uppage, will cast his vote with Kagan and Obama — as he did with Sonia Sotomayor (whom he praised as “bold” and edgy”)....

Justices extend gun owner rights nationwide
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution's Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit "the right to keep and bear arms," advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights. By a narrow, 5-4 vote, the justices also signaled, however, that some limitations on the right could survive legal challenges.

Crooked Chris Dodd and Banking Queen Barney’s bill is a slush fund for anti American activists
The new “ Restoring American Financial Stability Act (RAFSA) of 2010? is a fraudulent slush fund designed to aid the Marxist Democrats’ shock troops of destruction. It will rob our banking system of billions of dollars and redirect them to “civil rights” groups like ACORN, so says an analysis completed by Investors.com. We knew this was coming and here it is. This extortionist’s dream looks like Van Jones might have written it. RAFSA gives the lying tax cheat Timmie Geithner the power to liquidate banks owned by Middle Americans while exempting minority owned Obama approved banks. ..

Double Dip? We're Already in Recession
Often when we ask poignant questions, we don't get the answers we're seeking. Instead, we get more questions. However, it's in the asking of these questions that we often find insight. Consider the question, “Is the economy recovering?" It seems that it is. After all, the US Commerce department reports that we had 2.7% GDP growth last quarter and 5.6% in the last quarter of 2009. By definition, when we have two straight quarters of GDP growth, we're supposed to technically be out of a recession. Then, why is it that we continue to ask, “Are we out of the woods yet?" Inevitably, that's a much more important question investors should be asking. ...

The Commonwealth Fund Rags On U.S. Health Care
One of the disappointing things about healthcare policy research is that its volume is inversely proportional to its quality. Each year, sheaves of research papers are produced by academics and think-tankers, thick with tables and charts, purporting to argue that 62% of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses, or that 45,000 people a year die because they don’t have health insurance. These studies are then broadcast uncritically by the press, and repeated as gospel by soundbite-seeking politicians. Unfortunately, the methodologies used in such research are often poor, and in the two examples above, intentionally misleading. (Megan McArdle is one of the few writers who has tackled this subject well.)...

Filling Sen. Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat
With the death early Monday of Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D), West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III (D) must select an interim replacement for a legend who many in the state and elsewhere consider one of a kind. A quirk in West Virginia's laws appears to state that the replacement will likely hold the seat for the remainder of the late senator's record ninth term, through 2012; therefore, Byrd's death would not impact the partisan makeup of the chamber, nor would it directly impact the pending 2010 elections. However, there is some ambiguity in the law that has left some election experts questioning the what should happen with the seat.

LA Gov. Bobby Jindal Urges Obama to “Listen to the Federal Judge”; “You Can Drill Safely” – Video
Here is video of GOP Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaking at a rally of workers and calling on the U.S. Government to not fight the decision of a Federal Judge to strike down President Obama’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling. “Listen to the Federal Judge. Listen to your own hand-chosen experts who are telling you,’You can drill safely – just provide the proper ovesight.’”..

Democrats Fix Strategy for Undefined Climate and Energy Bill (Here we go again)
Emotions surged during a "thrilling" caucus gathering in which Democrats plotted to bring a vote on climate legislation to the floor this summer. They promised to challenge resistant Republicans to oppose a measure focusing on polluters as oil from the site of an exploded rig continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico.But the party faces the same thorny questions it did before the rousing "rank and file uprising," as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) described the meeting. The questions include whether Democrats have enough support among their own members to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions.

Barack Obama's inner circle really is clueless about the military
General Stanley McChrystal was the right man for Afghanistan. He was one of the few in the top military ranks who understood counterinsurgency. Unfortunately, he had to go and spoil it all. He and his staff had a mass stupidity attack and shot off their mouths to a freelance Rolling Stone reporter who gleefully printed critical comments about President Obama, Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. McChrystal has done stupid things with the press before, so his relief of command was required.

Gregoire seeks to counter suit challenging health-care Washington State
Gov. Chris Gregoire is joining three fellow Democratic governors in asking a federal judge to consider their opposition to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the nation's new health-care law. The lawsuit filed in March by 13 state attorneys-general challenges the new law's requirements that everyone purchase health insurance and that states expand Medicaid coverage for the poor.

Extraordinary Measures
Ben Bernanke, student of the great depression, is convinced like most monetarists that it was caused primarily by a contraction in the money supply. Several things contributed to that contraction, Smoot-Hawley tariffs etc. But if you have to point to a single cause, monetarists are firmly (and reasonably) convinced that money supply was it. With that in mind you can imagine Ben Bernanke with a huge plunger, trying to force a fluid though a blocked pipe. As he adds pressure at his end, the risk to the whole system increases so long as nothing happens at the other end. That’s...

An open letter to President Obama from Jon Voight
You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy — and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm's way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world.

Does The Gulf Spill Mean The U.S. Is Headed For Gas Lines, Higher Food Prices And A Broken Economy?
As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis enters a third month, the economic impact of this environmental nightmare is starting to become clearer. The truth is that the "oil volcano" spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf has absolutely decimated the seafood, tourism and real estate industries along the Gulf coast. Not only that, but energy industry insiders are now warning that the chilling effect that this crisis will have on offshore drilling could precipitate a new 1970s-style energy crisis....

Someone Had To Say It
As we await the result of the meeting between President Barack Obama and General Stanley McChrystal over the latter's comments about the former in a recent magazine article, the phrase "someone had to say it" comes to mind as it has many times in the past week. With virtually every issue facing the nation, the president's leadership and decision making abilities have been coming up short and, like the child who stated the obvious in the classic fable, someone had to say that the Emperor has no clothes.

Obama Labor Secretary Promises Help for Illegal Aliens in PSA
VIDEO

Borrowers exit troubled Obama mortgage program
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration's flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat. More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.

Existing Home Sales Tumble Unexpectedly in May
Sales of previously owned homes fell unexpectedly in May as delays in processing mortgage applications hampered the closing of contracts benefiting from a popular homebuyer tax credit, an industry group said on Tuesday.The National Association of Realtors said sales fell 2.2 percent month over month to an annual rate of 5.66 million units from an upwardly revised 5.79 million-unit pace in April.

Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?
When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

Rahm Emanuel expected to quit White House
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the "idealism" of Barack Obama's inner circle.

One Year After Its Bankruptcy, GM Is Still Married to the UAW
Detroit — They’re b-a-a-a-a-ck. Actually, they never left. And that’s the problem. It’s fitting that — one year to the month since GM declared bankruptcy — the annual United Auto Worker’s convention is being held here amid renewed, militant calls that the Detroit Three give back last year’s labor concessions. In retrospect, the White House–engineered bankruptcy looks like a brilliant move, artfully dodging a prolonged bankruptcy of a major American industry in the middle of a national economic free-fall.

Why sue Arizona and not Missouri?
In a visit with Ecuadorian officials Secretary of State Hillary Clinton let slip that the Obama Administration intends to sue the state of Arizona over recently passed immigration laws. While Hillary's speaking out of turn may have forced the Administration's hand, a Justice Department spokesman confirmed that the DOJ was building a case against Arizona and would likely bring suit in the near future.

Afghan Military Inside US Goes AWOL: 17 Afghans Somewhere in the U.S.
I found this at Chicago Ray's. What an appalling report. In my first reading, I thought 17 Afghan soldiers attending Lackland Air Force Base's English Language school went AWOL - fleeing into the heart of America. Then I read that the 17 disappeared over a period of two years. but here's the good news: non have disappeared over the last three months. That likely means at least one disappeared four months ago. See an update below.

What kind of zoo is B. Hussein Obama running?
I honestly have no confidence in the CIA, DOD, NCIS, NSA, Treasury and I am tossing in the political wing of the FBI doing Holder's bidding, as Obama just imported 17 Afghani Taleeban al Qaeda to America, via the United States Air Force into Texas, and after giving them complete high level security access..........Obama lost them.

Democrats fates will hinge on Obama's handling of spill
Democrats had planned to campaign this fall on health care reform, but President Obama's deep pivot to the BP oil spill changes both the equation and focus of midterm campaigning. Whether the shift helps or hurts Democrats is unclear...

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-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 (see trends).

Obama's disastrous Gulf disaster team
In his Oval Office speech Tuesday night, Barack Obama explicitly acknowledged his decision to allow some new offshore drilling -- a move that came shortly before the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Rather than take full ownership of the decision, however, Obama said he had been misinformed when he made it. "A few months ago, I approved a proposal to consider new, limited offshore drilling under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe – that the proper technology would be in place and the necessary precautions would be taken," the president said. "That was obviously not the case on the Deepwater Horizon rig."...

The Truth about the Unemployment Rate in America
Changes in the unemployment rate are driven by interaction of job destruction, which consists of job losses through voluntary and involuntary job termination and job creation resulting in the hiring of employees. This interplay of job destruction and job creation drives the changes and direction of the unemployment rate. James Sherk at the Heritage Institute points out in his latest article that job losses in the current recession are not as severe as they were during the recession in 2001. The reason the unemployment rate is so much higher in the current recession is due to the lack of job creation....

Obama’s Healthcare Give Away to Union Special Interests
One of Obamacare’s new rules states that if your employer finds it necessary to change healthcare providers to a more cost effective plan they will lose their federal health plan exemptions. This will cause employers to drop employees from health plans forcing workers onto government sponsored plans. So much for Obama’s hoary idea that you can “keep your doctor if you like him.”...

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends). ..

Disagreeing With Laffer
Policy matters--especially tax rates. Over time few things affect economic activity more than absolute and relative tax rates. In addition, changes in tax rates, particularly when they can be anticipated ahead of time, can also result in shifts in the timing of economic activity. Recently, Arthur Laffer--prominent economist and inventor of the Laffer Curve--fretted about the economic impact of the expiring (2003) Bush tax cuts. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece he wrote that the tax hikes would lift growth in 2010 but cause a double-dip recession in 2011 when the rates actually went up...

The Washington Post Watches Bob Etheridge and Yawns
The Washington Post, the newspaper than mentioned “Macaca” in approximately 100 articles, op-eds, editorials about the 2006 Virginia Senate race between George Allen and Jim Webb, watches the video of Rep. Bob Etheridge, North Carolina Democrat, physically assaulting a questioner and concludes it warrants three paragraphs on page C3, in the Reliable Source gossip column. The opening sentence? “So what really happened when Rep. Bob Etheridge ran into a couple of self-described ‘students’ on the streets of D.C. last week?”...

Lieberman: Obama Wrong on Radical Islam
The new National Security Strategy released by the Obama White House last month refuses to recognize that our nation is at war with violent Islamist extremism, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The Independent Democrat from Connecticut writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that the 2006 National Security Strategy correctly identified America’s enemy as transnational terrorists who “exploit the proud religion of Islam to serve a violent political vision.” The new Security Strategy omits that statement.

Listen & Learn: Mark Levin on Senate Dems Granting the EPA Unconstitutional Powers
So here's 15 minutes of the Great One Mark Levin telling it like it is. I dedicate this clip to my liberal Jewish friend who has blocked my posts on Facebook because she's too offended to read anything that doesn't jibe with her MSNBC-NPR-filtered reality.....

Uncle Sam shelled out more bonuses in 2009
The Obama administration gave one in four government workers extra compensation in fiscal 2009, according to a June 10 story in Federal Times, based on information obtained from the Office of Personnel Management by Asbury Park Press. The New Jersey newspaper annually compiles federal compensation data and makes it available to the public through an online database.

Online and Offline, House Republicans Leading the Way
Everywhere we look, technology has changed our daily lives—from the way we pay our bills, to the way we buy plane tickets or keep in touch with friends and family. Yet perhaps the most glaring omission of using technology to meet customer demands is with the government. Uncle Sam has done little to take advantage of the opportunity to flatten our governing system and give Americans a direct voice in setting the priorities of our country. With each borrowed dollar and each passing day the need grows for the American people to take back their government and set the country on the right course. Harnessing new communications technology offers one promising way to make public participation easier and more effective. ...

Private Equity's Peculiar Plight: So Much Capital, So Little Credit
The private equity industry has what would seem to be an enviable problem. Despite a recent history of turning solid corporations into debt-laden cripples, leveraged buyout firms are sitting on $445 billion of committed capital. That's how much private equity has raised — but not yet spent — from investors like pension funds and endowments. Sounds like $445 billion is a good problem to have. But it's not that simple....

Maine oil spill team, others wait in frustration
PORTLAND — State officials and other Mainers are eager for a chance to help fight and clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has more than two miles of absorbent boom ready to go. It also wants to send oil-skimming barges and a team of trained responders.

Forget ‘Recession’: It’s a Depression for Urban Minorities
Unemployment over 20% for Hispanics, African Americans in some cities, and 'jobless recovery' doesn't offer much hope While economists wring their hands over the weak "recovery" underway, with new jobs in May mostly due to temporary Census hiring, an even starker crisis is playing out in urban areas across the country: There are near Depression-level unemployment rates for minorities in some metropolitan areas.

The Ass Obama Should Kick Is His Own
The President of the United States is looking for an ass to kick. “I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar,” he said Monday, “we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.”

Census Costs Skyrocket 325% Versus 2000
Last week in speech at the K. Neal International Trucks Plant in Maryland, President Obama trumpeted the May Unemployment Numbers. "The economy added 431,000 jobs. Now this is the fifth month in a row we've seen jobs grow. - This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day" the president said. Well let's dig a little deeper into this 431,000 jobs. Only 41,000 of these jobs were in the private sector and 390,000 of these jobs are temporary census workers bringing the total to 550,000 census workers (an estimated 1.4 million temporary workers will be hired in total). To put that in perspective, that is once census worker for every 560 people in America.

Can Black Americans Afford Obama?
My March 2008 column "Is Obama Ready for America?" started out: "Some pundits ask whether America is ready for Obama. The much more important question is whether Obama is ready for America and even more important is whether black people can afford Obama." Let's look at this...

SPENT ( the Democrats have given us a boom in government and hesitant businessmen)
Who needs a debt commission when White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is on the case? He wants to allow federal agencies to redirect half of any unnecessary, unspent money in their budgets to other initiatives and half to deficit reduction. Currently, agencies must return all money they don’t spend, giving them an incentive to spend it all. Let’s say Congress goes along: The move would affect all of about $25 billion a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. In May alone, the deficit was $142 billion. In the first eight months of the fiscal year, it was...

Washington Post Exposes BP ties to Eco-Groups, Other Media Ignore Controversy
British Petroleum’s (BP) reputation has been marred by the April oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill which is still gushing more than 40 days later. But according to The Washington Post, the reputation of some left-wing environmental groups has also been polluted by the incident.“[T]he Nature Conservancy lists BP as one of its business partners. The Conservancy also has given BP a seat on its International Leadership Council and has accepted nearly $10 million in cash and land contributions from BP and affiliated corporations over the years,” Joe Stephens wrote for the Post May 24....

Poll: Nevadans back Arizona law on illegal immigration
A majority of Nevadans would welcome an Arizona-style law to crack down on illegal immigrants, according to a new poll commissioned by the Review-Journal.The survey showed 57 percent of Nevadans would support giving local law enforcement the power to ask people already stopped for possible violations of the law to show proof they are in the country legally, then arrest those who couldn't provide that proof. Thirty-two percent of Nevadans said they would oppose such a law, while 11 percent were undecided....

Administration Advances Plan to Federalize Private Pension System
RALEIGH — In February, the U.S. Treasury and Labor departments jointly announced they were seeking public comment on proposed design changes to employer-sponsored 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts that would centralize the private pension system under structures created and administered by the government. Supporters say these changes are needed to ensure Americans save more for their retirement and have lifetime income options that prevent them from outliving their retirement savings, protecting them from market risk...

U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP: Chart of Day
June 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.”

Telling The Truth About The Deficit – The Speech That Needed To Be Made…
He used a speech this morning to paint a near-apocalyptic picture of a country in which wasteful public spending has run up unsustainable debts. He said: “There are three simple reasons why we have to deal with the country’s debts. One: the more government borrows, the more it has to repay; the more it has to repay, the more lenders worry about getting their money back; the more lenders start to worry, the less confidence there is in our economy.

Angle now leading GOP field, beating Reid in latest poll
Either Tea Party favorite Sharon Angle has harnessed a massive amount of momentum, or Mason-Dixon has trouble getting a consistent poll out of Nevada. Their latest survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Angle jumping to a large lead in the Republican primary for the US Senate seat, continuing a trend that has been developing for several weeks. In a reversal of a poll from less than two weeks ago, the latest survey shows Sue Lowden as the only Republican losing to Harry Reid in the general election — and Danny Tarkanian as the best match against the incumbent:

Comprehensive Immigration Reform means Amnesty to Obama
No matter how much one says it—It cannot be said enough discussing any subject with a Progressive Liberal is like stepping through an alternate Orwellian world full of doublethink and newspeak. For example, the term Comprehensive Immigrant Reform means Amnesty to Progressives like president Barry Hussein Soetoro. Not because I say it does but because they say it does. (see 1:25min video)

FairTax Television Program Goes National July 4th!
Made possible by generous donations from FairTax supporters and private investments that funded production costs, Americans across the nation will see a 30 minute television program on the FairTax. The FairTax National Victory Campaign is looking to broadcast the FairTax TV Program on or around July 4th . The Campaign will keep you posted on the exact times and channels when the information becomes available.

EXCLUSIVE: Documents Show Kagan's Liberal Opinion on Social Issues
Elena Kagan has kept her cards so close to the vest that in the days after President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, some on the left worried she was too moderate to replace liberal Justice John Paul Stevens. But in documents obtained by CBS News, Kagan--while working as a law clerk to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall - made her positions clear on some of the nation's most contentious social issues.

Looks like Zucker is history, and you know what that means…
There is also widespread chatter inside MSNBC that their days of being a propaganda machine for Obama are over. Comcast is not likely to keep the formula of all liberal hosts (I know, I know, Joe Scarborough – we’ll get to him) all liberal guests, and agitators thinly disguised as reporters and news anchors. And prime-time might be the first to go.

Mexico opens California office to provide ID for illegals
The Mexican government is opening a satellite consular office on Catalina Island -- a small resort off the California coast with a history of drug smuggling and human trafficking -- to provide the island's illegal Mexican immigrants with identification cards, The Washington Examiner has learned. The Mexican consular office in Los Angeles issued a flier, a copy of which was obtained by The Examiner, listing the Catalina Island Country Club as the location of its satellite office. It invites Mexicans to visit the office to obtain the identification, called matricular cards, by appointment.

Payrolls in U.S. Increase in May Less Than Forecast
June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Employers in the U.S. hired fewer workers in May than forecast and Americans dropped out of the labor force, showing a lack of confidence in the recovery that may lead to slower economic growth. Payrolls rose by 431,000 last month, including a 411,000 jump in government hiring of temporary workers for the 2010 census, Labor Department figures in Washington showed today. Economists projected a 536,000 gain, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Private payrolls rose a less-than-forecast 41,000. The jobless rate fell to 9.7 percent.

More than 40m now use food stamps
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans receiving food stamps in March topped 40 million for the first time as the jobless rate hovered near a 26-year high. Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases totaled 40.2 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier and 1.2 percent more than in February, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday in a statement on its website. The number of recipients has set records for 16 straight months...

Bill would give DHS emergency cyber powers
We're learning more about the cybersecurity package forming in the Senate. Wired.com reports Sen. Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.) wants to give the federal government the power to take over civilian networks' security, if there's an "imminent cyber threat." It's part of a draft bill, co-sponsored by Senators Lieberman and Susan Collins, that provides DHS with the authority to ensure that critical infrastructure stays up and running in the face of a looming hack attack...

AP Sources: Admin talked jobs with Romanoff
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration dangled the possibility of a government job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forgo a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, officials said Wednesday, just days after the White House admitted orchestrating a job offer in the Pennsylvania Senate race...

BP preps to restart riser cut
BP has freed the saw it was using to cut the riser in preparation for a new containment device on the Macondo well after the diamond blade became stuck and is getting ready to restart the cutting operation. Noah Brenner & Anthea Pitt 03 June 2010 00:07 GMT The UK supermajor is bringing the diamond saw back to the surface after freeing it at about 1 pm local time, BP confirmed.

Bush would waterboard terrorist again
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- Ex-President George W. Bush says if he had it to do over, he'd still waterboard Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks.

All aboard the peace thug flotilla: “The army of Muhammad will return!”; Update: Israel is ready for the next jihadi ships; U.N. condemns Israel, of course
Video taken by IDF naval boat shows the passengers of the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships in the ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla, violently attacking IDF soldiers who were trying to board the ship after having sent repeated requests for the boat to change course. Large groups of passengers surrounded soldiers and beat them with metal poles and chairs, and threw one soldier over the side of the ship. Some passengers grabbed pistols from the IDF soldiers and opened fire. As a result of the attacks, seven IDF soldiers were injured, and nine of the passengers were killed...

The Real Public Service
Every year about this time, big-government liberals stand up in front of college commencement crowds across the country and urge the graduates to do the noblest thing possible-- become big-government liberals. That isn't how they phrase it, of course. Commencement speakers express great reverence for "public service," as distinguished from narrow private "greed." There is usually not the slightest sign of embarrassment at this self-serving celebration of the kinds of careers they have chosen-- over and above the careers of others who merely provide us with the food we eat, the homes we live in, the clothes we wear and the medical care that saves our health and our lives....

Courts' leanings give Florida health-care reform lawsuit fighting chance
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's high-profile lawsuit against the federal health-care reform law has been the subject of hot debate in legal circles since it was filed in March. The case's arguments aren't strong but may be viewed favorably by the Pensacola-based U.S. Northern District Court of Florida, where it was filed, two constitutional law scholars told The Times-Union.

Health Care Law 60% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law
The latest weekly Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey on the recently passed national health care bill finds that 60% of U.S. voters now want to see it repealed. That’s down three points from a week ago but is the second straight week to find support for repeal of the bill at 60% or above. Prior to the past two weeks, weekly polling since the law was passed in March had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%.

ACORN insider lays out the 'stealth socialism' strategy
Anita Moncrief has written a worthwhile personal account of her involvement with ACORN, and effectively lays out the entire strategy the Alinksy left, and its chosen instrument, Barack Obama, to "fundamentally change" America. Moncrief describes the moment in 2008, when she went from unwitting to witting, in terms of the strategy to make America into a people's socialist republic.

Orrin Hatch to Imus: “Many Believe the President Responsible for Destruction of Our Country” – Video
Here is video of Sen. Orrin Hatch talking to Don Imus, where Hatch said “many people believe the President (Obama) is responsible for the destruction of our country.” The out-of-control spending Obama has engaged in since becoming President has pushed the nation to the brink. Hatch cited the fact that “18% of all wages” in America are now paid out by the Federal Government. The Utah Senator pointed out that Obama “is creating jobs – but they’re all Government jobs.”

Refusing the Entitlement Lollipop
WASHINGTON -- In closing the deal on health care reform, Democratic leaders assured wavering legislators that the plan would grow more popular with time as its benefits became clear. "We have to pass the bill," argued House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, so that the public "can find out what is in it." Presidential adviser David Axelrod predicted that Republicans would pay a political price for their opposition. "Let's have that fight," he said. "Make my day." Consistent with this belief, the administration recently has been rolling out attractive elements of the law, including coverage for dependents up to age 26.

Racists pass strict illegal immigration bill - in Massachusetts?
With one lawmaker citing President Lincoln's respect for the rule of law, the Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown this afternoon on illegal immigrants and those who would hire them, going further, senators said, than any immigration bill proposed over the past five years. In a surprising turn of events, the legislation replaced a narrower bill that was passed Wednesday over the objections of Republicans.

Kaboom! The rock that will remake global politics.
The words most often used by the heads of oil companies to describe the boom are “revolution” and “game changer.” Industry historian Daniel Yergin calls it “the shale gale.” Admittedly, serious questions remain as to whether shale gas will pass the ecological test—critics say it can’t be extracted safely in proximity to groundwater, and the EPA is engaged in a two-year study of extraction techniques. But, if producers can develop it on a global scale, we may be looking at a geopolitical disturbance as great as the 1970s Arab oil embargoes.

Obama Appoints Health Care Rationing Czar
Wait a minute! What did that title read? “Rationing Czar?” But Obama and the Democrats promised us that there wouldn’t be any rationing and that anyone who made such a claim was guilty of “fear-mongering.”

US Senate to vote in June to stop EPA carbon rules
WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) - The Senate is set to vote next month on permanently stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating pollution linked to global warming from factories, utilities and oil refineries, a spokesman for Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Tuesday. The Republican effort, which enjoys the support of at least three Democrats, is unlikely to become law. But a strong vote for the measure could further undermine chances for separate legislation to control emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that President Barack Obama wants.

Senate Dems to give federal commission say over legal immigrant workers
Democrats crafting an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws are bringing a new approach to a long-stalled debate: giving a federal commission some power over the future flow of legal foreign workers.

Financial Reform Bill Is A ‘Disaster’: Sen. Gregg
The financial regulatory bill is a “disaster,” and its proposed consumer protection agency would create a Fannie and Freddie “on steroids,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. told CNBC on Monday.

Obama’s Nominee to Run Medicare: ‘Please Don’t Put Your Faith in Market Forces’
(CNSNews.com) – Dr. Donald Berwick, nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the agency that runs Medicare, published an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), advising leaders of Britain’s socialized health care system: “Please don’t put your faith in market forces.”...

A Non-Cranky Defense of the Gold Standard
In today’s New York Times, Ross Douthat takes on Rand Paul and paleoconservatism on the Civil Rights Act and other issues. “Like many groups that find themselves in intellectually uncharted territory,” writes Douthat, “they have trouble distinguishing between ideas that deserve a wider hearing and ideas that are crankish or worse. (Hence Ron Paul’s obsession with the gold standard and his son’s weakness for conspiracy theories.)”...

Professor Get’s BOOOed For Dissing Arizona Law! Video
A professor at an Arizona Graduation uses her pulpit at the ceremony to berate the Arizona governor for the new immigration law instead of congratulating and encouraging the graduates on their big day. You can imagine her surprise when the entire audience erupts in a huge, rumbling boo for almost the entire 5 minutes she is trying to speak. She completely misrepresents the law by saying:...
Axelrod: No evidence that Sestak is telling the truth
The White House attempted to push back against allegations that Barack Obama or his staff attempted to bribe Joe Sestak into withdrawing from the Democratic Senate primary by offering him a job, but they may be creating bigger headaches with their defense. Axelrod tells CNN’s John King that there is “no evidence” that the bribe attempt ever happened, even while he acknowledges that it would have been “a serious breach of the law.” In order to believe that there is “no evidence,” though, one has to discount the repeated direct testimony of Sestak himself (via The Daily Caller):..

Health Care Law 63% Favor Repeal of National Health Care Plan
Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63% of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan passed by congressional Democrats and signed into law by President Obama in March. Prior to today, weekly polling had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%.

We Know About Soros — But Who Is Maurice Strong?
Canadian mogul and avowed socialist Maurice Strong manipulates governments to benefit his "green" portfolio and those of his friends: George Soros, Ted Turner, Al Gore, and China. Intercontinental Exchange has agreed to purchase the parent company of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the preeminent market for trading carbon credits. This is a market that exists solely to capitalize on possible federal legislation that would mandate reduced greenhouse gas emissions or the purchase of “pollution credits.”...

Jindal tired of waiting for approval, to build sand booms Video
(NECN: Barataria Bay, La.) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) said the state will not waiting for federal approval to begin building sand barriers to protect the coastline from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Oil has pushed at least 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes, with two major pelican rookeries awash in crude. Gov. Jindal was critical of the amount of boom his state received to ward off the oil seeping toward the coastline. But his major gripe comes at the expense of the Army Corps of Engineers, who have yet to give the go-ahead for the building of sand booms to protect the Louisiana wetlands. He used photographic evidence of oil breaking through hard booms, soft booms and another layer of protection, before being finally being corralled by a sand boom built by the National Guard.

US State Dept backs sharia law on Muhammid images
The State Dept certainly does not speak for the majority of Americans, and one has to wonder when will they start enforcing sharia law in America... Meanwhile, the State Dept., Obama, Holder et al, are absolutely SILENT on the Muslims using Facebook to threaten killing Americans.

The Chicago Climate Exchange: a web of lies and corruption brought to us by Barack Obama
Barack Obama, said, “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” We thought it was dead, but it’s not. Renamed “The Power Bill,” the odious Cap and Trade legislation is back. Estimates say for every green job created, our economy will lose two jobs, but powerful conspirators in and out of government who are pushing the “Power bill” don’t care. They’re behind the Chicago Climate Exchange about which Glenn Beck has said “We’re facing the dismantling of our way of life.”

Elena Kagan's Reliance on Foreign Law Worries Pro-Life Group on Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Elena Kagan's reliance on foreign law for statutory interpretation presents another concern for pro-life advocates, says Americans United for Life in a new memo about President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. The pro-life legal group says Kagan could use it as another basis to support legal abortions.

You Better Read This, Gold & Greece: Not What You Think
There is so much hysteria in the hard money camp on Greece and the European Union that one had better start looking at the facts otherwise it could cost you a lot of money. Before discussing the Euro, Greece and Gold, let me go over some important concepts:
The economic problems faced by all countries are rooted in paper money systems. In fact, paper money systems are one of the root causes of socialism and socialist thought....

Uh oh: Leading economic indicators slip in April
In fairness to the AP, this result could be considered “unexpected.” The march towards recovery appears to have at least temporarily halted in April, as leading economic indicators declined for the first time since last spring. The boost from fourth-quarter inventory management appears to have dissipated, and with it any hope of momentum over the summer:....

Some surprising House GOPers helping Democrat/Union scheme to kill conservative revolution by 2012
Forcing government workers to join a union as a condition of employment is an old New York State Democrat trick. This sneaky stunt is known as the “Agency Shop” rule. Now thanks to Democrat union puppets, and a few surprising Republican dupes, Congress is working toward making the whole country an “agency shop.”

No Justice for Panther prosecutor
Something is wrong with a Justice Department that treats its own attorneys worse than it treats civil-rights violators those attorneys would prosecute. On Friday, after evasive testimony by Justice official Thomas E. Perez to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, department attorney J. Christian Adams resigned in obvious disgust at the deep-sixing of a voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

Interior secretary acknowledges lax oil regulation
WASHINGTON (AP) - Grilled by skeptical lawmakers, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday acknowledged his agency had been lax in overseeing offshore drilling activities and that contributed to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "There will be tremendous lessons to be learned here," Salazar told a Senate panel in his first appearance before Congress since the April 20 blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. Describing pending reforms in the Interior Department, Salazar cited a "collective responsibility" for the spill that included the federal agency he manages, he said. ...

Another Very Bad Night for Obama, Democrats and the Media
The U.S. dollar and good news for Democrats have a lot in common these days. No matter how much of either liberals print, the absolute value keeps declining. To be fair, the Jurassic media is actually half right in their group think analysis that yesterday's elections were more evidence that the prevailing mood in the country is simply anti-Washington. But the half they get wrong is very wrong indeed. As such, they are losers yesterday...

Eric Holder Can't Read?
Congressman Ted Poe of Texas exposed this liberal arrogance May 13 at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. He was questioning Attorney General Eric Holder on the "controversial" (to the media, that is) Arizona immigration law. He asked an elementary question, although to liberals, it was shocking in its insolence: "Have you read the Arizona law?" ...

Lift another Chicago rock, and what do we find?
Yep, Chicago’s ShoreBank is the poster child bank for the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act is now being warned of being wiped out by the FDIC. But wait! The politically connected bank is getting a last minute Robin Hood attempt by none other than Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup in an attempt to raise $125 million, except (as good traders that never lose money) the bank heroes are $25 million short. Gee, why would these banks be so generous all of a sudden?

SCOTUS fight: Boxing Elena
-Dean Kagan has taken positions that are disturbingly out of the mainstream. For example, driven by her view that the “don’t ask; don’t tell” policy adopted by a Democrat Congress and President Clinton is “a profound wrong–a moral injustice of the first order,” she argued that it violates the First Amendment for the United States to withhold funds from colleges that ban the military from recruiting on campus. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected this view.

Fannie Mae seeks $8.4B in aid after 1Q loss
WASHINGTON (AP) - Fannie Mae has again asked taxpayers for more money after reporting a first-quarter loss of more than $13 billion. The mortgage finance company, which was rescued by the government in September 2008, said it needs an additional $8.4 billion from the government to help cover mounting losses. Fannie Mae says it lost $13.1 billion, or $2.29 per share, in the January-March period. That takes into account $1.5 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of $23.2 billion, or $4.09 a share, in the year-ago period...

Climate Change: The Smell of Money
Thanks to Glenn Beck, we get bit more insight into the tangled web that The House of Global Warming was built on. Who would have thought? Goldman Sachs has been working hard to save the environment for years. Generation Investment Management (GIM) was founded by Al Gore, and a few friends, which included David Blood (former Goldman executive), Mark Ferguson (Goldman) and Peter Harris (Goldman). They are the fifth largest shareholder in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Then in 2006, when the CCX needed some extra funding, who should step up to buy 10% of the company – Goldman Sachs....

Obama's court pick is imminent -- POTUS to seek line-item veto -- Britain sorting out 'hung parliament' -- Did Dow tank on 'fat finger error'? -- Palin + Facebook = Yahtzee
DRIVING NEXT WEEK -- Look for President Obama to name his Supreme Court pick Monday, and look for it to be Solicitor General Elena Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean. The pick isn’t official, but top White House aides will be shocked if it’s otherwise. Kagan’s relative youth (50) is a huge asset for the lifetime post. And President Obama considers her to be a persuasive, fearless advocate who would serve as an intellectual counterweight to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia, and could lure swing Justice Kennedy into some coalitions The West Wing may leak the pick to AP’s Ben Feller on the later side Sunday, then confirm it for others for morning editions. For now, aides say POTUS hasn’t decided, to their knowledge. Kagan pic and bio

Jobs up 290,000; jobless rate rises to 9.9 pct.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More confident employers stepped up job creation in April, expanding payrolls by 290,000, the most in four years. The jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent as people streamed back into the market looking for work.

The Obama Administration Attacks For-Profit Colleges
Tuition-driven schools are the latest front in the Obama administration’s campaign to control as much of the higher-ed industry as possible.

NorCal Students Wearing U.S. Flag Shirts Sent Home
MORGAN HILL (CBS) --On Cinco de Mayo, five northern Californial high school students came to school in red, white and blue, and got a very public lesson in school politics and free speech. The boys came to Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill on the Mexican holiday, wearing t-shirts, shorts and shoes emblazoned with American flags.

ObamaCare rationing confirmed
You may remember that during the long debate prior to the enactment of ObamaCare socialized medicine, Democrat leaders sharply rejected claims that ObamaCare would lead to government rationing of medical care. Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said last August on ABC, "Let me just say, A, there's no rationing in any of these bills, so we don't have to worry about that." And President Barack Obama himself said at a rally in Pennsylvania that the real culprits for the rationing of care were health insurance companies: "The insurance companies continue to ration health care. ... That's the status quo in America, and it's a status quo that's unsustainable."...

Fed's Lacker warns about inflation complacency
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Federal Reserve officials must not get complacent about the inflation outlook even though the unemployment rate remains high, said Jeffrey Lacker, the president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank.

Breaking--ObamaCare prompts top companies to consider dropping employee coverage
In a stunning revelation Wednesday, several top U.S. corporations are seriously considering dropping employee health insurance coverage in light of what they see as the inevitable consequence of ObamaCare--skyrocketing costs. The companies state that after their legal experts poured over the thousands of pages in the new law, it will cost them less to pay the fines for not providing healthcare coverage for employees than continuing to provide employer-paid health insurance benefits.

Liberals are from Mars, Conservatives are from Earth
One of the things I like so much about writing for American Thinker is the comments page. Readers offer so much: tips for books to read, quotes to ponder, spiritual inspiration. And then there are times when the comments absolutely floor me. I was shocked that readers were shocked about my previously viewing Marxism as sublime. I was astonished that readers were astonished about my young client's freak out about styrofoam.

The Global War on ... Well, Something
Even as investigators were hunting for the perpetrator of the botched "man-caused disaster" in Times Square, our cool homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, was reassuring a frazzled nation that the failed bombing appeared to be an isolated incident -- a "one-off" -- and avoided the notion of (much less the word) "terrorism." Thankfully, law enforcement agencies refrain from leaping to conclusions before they have all the facts. Not Janet. And citizens should not infer anything based on a litany of historical and anecdotal evidence, even after the fact, lest some group feel demonized....

For some, health insurance means keeping the faith
Masters, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is part of a growing number of Americans who are members of faith-based ``health sharing ministries'' where members directly pay for each others' medical bills. Members also pray for each other, and a ``get well'' card from a stranger isn't uncommon. National healthcare reform will force millions of Americans to buy insurance or face fines, but a little-noticed provision excludes people like Masters who belong to such groups.

Republicans Sound Alarm on Administration Plan to Seize 401(k)s
In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options. The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement -- which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme. And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.

President Obama Should Be Repealing the Capital Gains Tax, not Making It More Burdensome
Every economic theory – even socialism and Marxism – agrees that long-run growth and higher living standards are closely tied to saving and investment (a.k.a., capital formation). Yet because of double taxation, the current tax code penalizes those who are willing to forego current consumption to finance future prosperity. In an ideal system such as a flat tax or national sales tax, by contrast, there is no tax bias against income that is saved and invested.

Arizona forced to act by the federal government’s willful negligence
“Southern Arizona is a war zone controlled by outside criminal forces,” said Patrick Bray of the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, and ranchers say the problem has been festering for years. They have been warning of the rising level of drug-cartel-related violence that has already claimed the lives of 10,000 people in Mexico since late 2006, and could further spill into the U.S....

Phony Luis Gutierrez (D Mexico City): Living with Hispanics good for your family but not for mine
During Saturday’s illegal rally supporting illegal aliens outside of the White House Congressman Luis Gutierrez was arrested chanting “Si se puede” (Yes, it is possible) and wearing a shirt saying “Arrest me not my friends” in English. Gutierrez has made a career out of helping illegal aliens drain whatever they could out of America. Here’s some information about the hypocritical Luis Gutierrez .

US inflation up 2% in March


DEVASTATING: Video Shows Feds Knew Of Potential Ecological Disaster Immediately After Rig Explosion
This is devastating. Federal officials knew of the potential ecological disaster after the oil rig explosion on March 22nd. Video from NOAA site shows officials knew quickly of potential for massive oil flow VIDEO A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons. The video appears on a federal Web site. It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAAÂ’s Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston..

EDITORIAL: Big Brother loves 'financial reform'
The next time you make a withdrawal from an automated teller machine, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner might be watching over your shoulder. Boosted by the sweeping, 1,400-page financial regulatory proposal currently making its way through the Senate, Mr. Geithner would have unprecedented, real-time access to a wealth of personal and corporate financial data - all in the name of protecting the public.

Barack Obama, America’s Selective Salary Policeman
President Obama spoke the most revealing and clarifying 10 words of his control-freak administration this week: “I think at some point you have made enough money.” Peddling financial regulatory reform at a rally in Quincy, Ill., Obama then ad-libbed peculiar definitions of what he called the “American way” and the profit motive: “(Y)ou can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.”

Boehner: GOP could pick up 100 seats
House Republicans could win 100 or more seats in this fall's elections, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday.
Boehner said he believes there is no seat that the GOP cannot win during this election cycle, judging by Sen. Scott Brown's (R) improbable win in January's special election in Massachusetts.

It’s For Your Own Good
Since I’ve been otherwise occupied making a living, it’s reassuring to know that my government is looking out for me. In just the last month, our tireless public servants have proposed numerous measures that will make my life better and more worry free.
No longer will I have to worry about drug addicts being able to rig a urine test. The Senate is set to vote on a measure that would make it illegal to sell fake urine for the purpose of falsifying a drug test. Whew....

Health law’s heavy impact
In the days leading up to the dramatic late-night vote on President Barack Obama’s health plan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it …” Now that ObamaCare has passed, it is slowly dawning on people what the new law means for the country and for Washington state. ObamaCare sweeps away a host of state regulations and permanently alters our state’s insurance market. From now on, the federal government will manage the health care of all Washingtonians. The 2,700-page law contains a complex web of mandates, directives, price controls, tax increases and subsidies.

Obama's aid decision stirs anger
Since last month's floods, residents and business owners in communities across southeastern Connecticut whose properties were damaged have heard repeated assurances that the federal government would cover their noninsured losses. Both the state and New London County easily exceeded the monetary threshold needed to qualify for disaster assistance, and last week President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration that allowed aid to begin flowing to the state and municipalities to cover their costs.

GM repays federal loan with government money
You'd think that General Motors Co., having been rescued by U.S. taxpayers, would be more up-front with them. In an ad that has been blanketing the airwaves since last week, General Motors Chairman and chief executive Ed Whitacre boasts that "we have repaid our government loan, in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule."

Police state: How Mexico treats illegal aliens
My syndicated column today responds to Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s demagoguery on Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. Calderon has a long history of bashing the U.S. — and then getting rewarded for it with billions of dollars in foreign aid (see here, here, and here)....

Obama administration defies congressional subpoena on Fort Hood documents
The Obama administration said Tuesday it would provide more information to Congress about the Fort Hood shootings but continued to defy a subpoena request for witness statements and other documents.

Family-Killing Linked to Muslim Prison Conversion
A Muslim man has confessed to killed his wife and three others in Chicago this month because she refused to wear Muslim garb and adopt his new-found faith. He is one of many to have converted to Islam in American prisons.

Deep secrets of Obamacare
Yesterday I wrote about the Waxman/Stupak political theater of the absurd involving the charges against earnings taken by Caterpillar and other big companies because of Obamacare. On a related note, House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking minority member Joe Barton released a staff memo indicating that four big companies under investigation by committee Democrats see incentives in dropping employer health care coverage thanks to Obamacare. Rep. Barton's press release is here. The press release explains:

Supreme Court: Mojave cross can stay
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Wednesday that a federal court went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its longtime home in California.

Republicans mock Obama's trips as a 'jobless tour'
Republicans poked fun at President Barack Obama's "Main Street tour" on Tuesday, pointing to the high unemployment rates in the states he's visiting. The Republican National Committee (RNC) mocked Obama's trips to Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, calling it the "jobless tour," and highlighting companies in each state which have claimed adverse effects from the president's healthcare law, as well as the increases in the unemployment rates in those states.

The Yellow Brick Road to OzbamaCare
Contemplating how we got to ObamaCare brings to mind the L. Frank Baum classic Wizard of Oz. Both require the complete suspension of disbelief in favor of magical thinking and the bestowing of God-like abilities to mortals....
Californian officials spend £10.8 million on 'fish ladders'
Californian officials have been accused of wasting millions of dollars on concrete fish ladders, cameras and fishways to allow endangered trout to spawn in streams.

Obama Abandons Climate Bill in Congress, will have EPA Regulate CO2 Instead
The recent announcement of the Democrat’s switch of focus from Cap and Trade energy legislation to immigration reform is simply an administrative slight of hand. Barack Obama and the rest of his co-conspirators in Washington including Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid know full well that a hard fought political battle in Congress over an energy bill was unnecessary. Instead they have given the EPA their blessing to unilaterally determine CO2 limits for the nation.

Actuaries for Medicare and Medicaid: 14 million will lose employer-based health care coverage
Government actuaries for Medicare and Medicaid have released a bombshell report confirming almost everything Republicans said about the downside of passing Obamacre health care reform. 14 million Americans will lose employer-based health care coverage.

The Hidden Agenda of the Southern Poverty Law Center
In an excellent piece “What's behind the anti-Tea Party hate narrative?” the Washington Examiner’s Chief Washington Correspondent Byron York notes that “Many of the claims that extremism is on the rise in America originate in research done by the Southern Poverty Law Center....

Open Season on Democrats: Ohio Represents Major Pickup Opportunity for GOP
Republicans in Ohio’s 16th Congressional district are suffering through a blistering primary that will end in two short weeks. After that, it’s open season on incumbant Democrat Rep. John Boccieri, who is in hot water over his votes on health care and cap-and-trade.

GOP seeks SEC records on Goldman
Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight committee, is demanding a slew of documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission, asserting that the timing of civil charges against Goldman Sachs raises “serious questions about the commission’s independence and impartiality.”...