Saturday, February 19, 2011

Democratic Dominoes

A great point from M Simon here at Classical Values: the one country notably absent from the recent massive pro-democracy protests across the Mideast is... Iraq. Hmmm, why might that be? Oh right, they already have democracy. The protests in Iraq, by contrast, are Tea Party-like demonstrations against corruption, bad economic policies, and lack of transparency.

In fact, one can reasonably point to Iraq as the animating force for the pro-democracy movement. The violence in Iraq died down around 2008 and by 2009, we started seeing protests in Iran against the rigged elections there (they must have expecially galled Iranians, since millions of them travel to Najaf every year on Shia prilgrimage to a country that actually holds real elections).

As the years went on and Iraq continued having elections, protests, free press, and free speech and it became increasingly clear that the Iraqi democratic experiment was working, the natural empirical response of the people of the Mideast was to demand democracies of their own.

And so (much as happened in Iraq itself) when most had given up hope of success, the neocon dream of an Iraqi Model that would foster a wave of democratic reform across the Mideast has suddenly, dramatically taken wing.

Should this pro-democracy movement continue gaining strength and transforming the Mideast, it will become increasingly undeniable that our actions in Iraq constituted not just a strategic masterstroke but also a humanitarian boon of historic proportions.

Officials Bust 'Large-Scale' Cockfighting Operation In CA; 250 Birds Euthanized...

The operation was discovered after a routine traffic stop on Sunday in Diamond Springs. El Dorado County Sheriff’s deputies pulled over a pick up truck and noticed a suspicious box in the back of the truck.

Unions, Far-Right Protesters Clash on the Streets of Germany (VIDEO)

BERLIN (AP) — German police fired tear gas and water cannons to keep apart groups of far-right supporters and thousands of counterdemonstrators trying to hinder their rally in an eastern city Saturday, police said.

Hundreds of leftist protesters in Dresden tried to break through police barriers, hurling rocks and fireworks at officers who responded with baton charges, tear gas and pepper spray.

Arkansas Bill to cut state benefits to illegal aliens

HB1292 THE BILL TO PROHIBIT ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM RECEIVING ANY STATE BENEFIT EXCEPT IN INSTANCES OF EMERGENCY OR WHEN LIFE-SAVING MEASURES ARE REQUIRED. So far, HB1292 is the special order of business for the House State Agencies and Government Affairs Committee, which meets at 9am on Wednesday February 23rd. We would like people who support the effort to reduce illegal immigration to voice their support for HB1292. You can show up in the Committee Room or stand around the State Capitol. You can make and bring signs, along as they don't have stakes or something that could be used as a "weapon". The Committee should meet for at least 1 1/2 hours, maybe longer.

National Christmas Tree toppled behind the White House

The 42-foot tall Colorado blue spruce snapped at its base during high winds Saturday morning in Washington. The spruce had been in its current location for more than 32 years. It came from the Myers family farm outside of York, Pennsylvania, the Park Service said.

Sure It’s Legal… But Is It RIGHT?

I’d like to ask your indulgence today. Typically we reserve these pages for in-depth analysis of the stock market and economy. But I’ve grown FED UP with the complete lack of coverage that one area of the current crisis has received. Ever since the Financial system started imploding in July 2007, I’ve heard countless folks talk about liquidity, bull markets, bear markets, the dollar, bailouts, etc. But there’s one thing I’ve heard virtually NO ONE talk about. That is: MORALITY or ETHICS. Everyone’s analysis of this financial crisis is far too complicated. The simple facts are that it was created...

Ollie Matson, NFL Hall of Famer from S.F., dies

Ollie Matson, a Hall of Fame football player from San Francisco who became as well known for one game he did not play as for those he did, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 80.

Ohio Democrats can't stall collective-bargaining vote by fleeing

Wisconsin's Senate Democrats delayed a vote this week on a collective-bargaining bill that they oppose by fleeing the state, leaving the chamber with too few members to proceed. But Ohio Democrats shouldn't get any ideas. That won't work here. Voting on a bill in the Wisconsin Senate requires at least 20 of the 33 senators to show up. Republicans control that chamber 19-14, so when all the Democrats ignored orders to vote and instead fled the state, the plan stalled, at least temporarily. But in Ohio, the House and Senate require only that a majority of members be present: 17...

Former Pennsylvania judge found guilty in kids-for-cash scheme

(Reuters) - A federal jury on Friday found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty in a so-called kids-for-cash scheme, in which he took money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit detention centers. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was accused of taking $2.8 million in bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers owned by friends. The jury in Scranton found him guilty of racketeering, money-laundering conspiracy, fraud and filing false income tax returns.

Can You Frisk a Hard Drive?

February 19, 2011 Can You Frisk a Hard Drive? By DAVID K. SHIPLER /snip And there is where concerns have developed about invasions of privacy, for the most complete records on the travelers may be the ones they are carrying: their laptop computers full of professional and personal e-mail messages, photographs, diaries, legal documents, tax returns, browsing histories and other windows into their lives far beyond anything that could be, or would be, stuffed into a suitcase for a trip abroad. Those revealing digital portraits can be immensely useful to inspectors, who now hunt for criminal activity and security threats...

Arkansas Teacher Put on Paid Leave Following Prostitution Conviction

LITTLE ROCK – (AP/The Blaze) – A high school teacher in Little Rock was placed on paid administrative leave Friday after school officials learned she pleaded guilty in November to a prostitution charge. “I was scared more than anything else because I was thinking of my son,” Solona Islam recalled following her arrest last October. “If I do go to jail, what am I supposed to do?” Islam says her financial struggles with credit card debt and caring for her 18-month-old son led her to make a poor decision. She has a masters degree and is working on a Ph.D.

IN WISCONSIN: DEMOCRACY IS ON THE LINE

Democracy is on the line in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin. Will the popularly elected state legislature and governor (both now Republican for the first time in forever) get to run the state or will the union thugocracy, now crowding the streets, prevail? The spectacle of Democratic legislators hiding out in the woods to avoid creating a quorum in their legislatures illustrates, more profoundly than anything else ever could, the extent to which we have lost control of our destiny and government to the public employee unions. The teachers unions, the Service Employees, and AFSME have hijacked state government and...

House Cuts Govt Funding for Public Broadcasting (Ba-bye Big Bird!)

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D) says he knows there's a need to cut back, but doesn't understand why the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) got the ax. During a Saturday interview with Fox News, Blumenauer lamented, "It is unfortunate we are zeroing in on this little piece." The House of Representatives voted to eliminate the CPB's funding as part of a government spending bill that was passed in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides support for ventures like National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS, home of "Sesame Street." Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., says the...

Officials outraged after Texas examiner refuses autopsy for ICE agent

HOUSTON –Some local officials expressed outrage after hearing that The Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office refused to accept the body of a U.S. federal agent who was fatally shot in Mexico. Special Agent Jaime Zapata, 32, died and a second agent, Victor Avila, was wounded Tuesday when they were attacked after being stopped on a four-lane federal highway in northern Mexico. Zapata’s body was flown to Houston for an autopsy Wednesday. The flag-draped coffin of ICE agent Jamie Zapata arrived just after 3 p.m. at the Atlantic Aviation Terminal at Intercontinental Airport. It was supposed to get an escort to...

Teachers union bigs tossed from Albany eatery (cheapskates)

Cops booted an unruly group of city teachers union officials from a posh Albany eatery after they caused a ruckus over their dinner tab. Paul Egan, the union's political and legislative director, set off the fracas - claiming the quail he was served, and finished, wasn't large enough. Egan and about two dozen other members of the United Federation of Teachers spread over three tables at the swank bistro Marché inside 74 State, a boutique hotel down the block from the state Capitol. And with Egan apparently worked into a froth over the size of his quail in the $40...

NC State trooper admits to exposing himself to teen female while on duty

Former state trooper Larry Brandon Lovick, 32, left A former state trooper pleaded guilty Friday to a single charge stemming from a traffic stop during which he admits to handcuffing a woman and later exposing himself. Several other women have come forward to report they also were harassed by this trooper. "The Wake County District Attorney told WRAL that he has reason to believe that Lovick was involved in another similar incident, but that woman chose not to press charges. Highway Patrol documents obtained by WRAL indicate that a third woman also had a similar complaint."

House defies Obama by passing spending-cut bill

The House of Representatives on Saturday approved legislation to cut federal spending deeply through September, a plan that is sure to be stopped by President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate. The Republican-backed bill is a challenge to Obama to show he is serious about closing record budget deficits and sets up the possibility of government shut downs if a compromise is not worked out by March 4, when current funding expires.

"Progressives" Know How Their Bread Gets Buttered

Knee jerk reactions favoring unions is about a lot more than money for the left...

Sen. Brown doesn't want to pursue sex assault case

BOSTON (AP) -- Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has told a prosecutor he doesn't want to seek criminal charges against a camp counselor who he says sexually assaulted him 40 years ago on Cape Cod. Cape and Island's District Attorney Michael O'Keefe tells The Boston Globe that the Republican senator told him he didn't want to pursue the case.

American Way: Barack Obama, cult figure of 2008, left behind by new anti-spending zeitgeist

Something momentous is happening in the United States right now and Barack Obama doesn’t get it. In Madison, Wisconsin last week, up to 40,000 public employees, organised by their unions, the Democratic party and the grassroots Organizing for America group that elected the president in 2008, gathered at the state capitol. Teachers left their classrooms, forcing schools to close. Their objective? To rail against an attempt to balance the budget and curtail union power by newly-elected Governor Scott Walker, a Republican. The Democratic party’s response? Its state senators have fled Wisconsin to Illinois, dodging state troopers as they went, in...

New Haven To Take Legal Action Against Police Union

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano says he will pursue legal action against the police union for the union's Thursday protest outside City Hall. About 200 officers marched from Police Headquarters to City Hall to protest the mayor's decision to lay off 16 officers as part of a plan to deal with the city's budget crisis. The officers blocked Church Street and demanded to speak to DeStefano about his decision. A spokesperson for the mayor says the city is aware that many of the officers who participated in the protest were on duty -- something that is not permitted.

WI Gov.-elect Scott Walker to inherit projected $3.3 billion budget deficit

Wisconsin Gov.-elect Scott Walker was the recipient of the unwelcome news that he will be inheriting a projected budget deficit as high as $3.3 billion over the next two years. Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) published a report announcing there would be a $1.5 billion gap between state revenue and state spending through June 30, 2013. It appears that the news is much grimmer than that, however. Continue reading on Examiner.com: WI Gov.-elect Scott Walker to inherit projected $3.3 billion budget deficit - Madison Political Buzz | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-madison/wi-gov-elect-scott-walker-to-inherit-projected-3-3-billion-budget-deficit#ixzz1ESAsIXFT

Oklahoma could invest in precious metals under proposal

An Oklahoma House panel passed a bill that would allow the state treasurer to invest in silver and gold bullion. The measure now goes to a House budget committee for further review. The state treasurer would be allowed to invest in silver and gold bullion under a bill passed Thursday by a House of Representatives committee. Rep. Mike Christian told members of a budget subcommittee on general government and transportation that gold and silver could be invested as a hedge or safe haven against any economic, political, social or currency problems, including investment market declines, the national debt or inflation....

Walter Seltzer dies at 96; former Hollywood press agent made a successful leap to producing

Walter Seltzer, a Hollywood press agent-turned-producer who started out at MGM in the 1930s and made an enduring mark on the industry in the 1980s as a tenacious fundraiser for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, has died. He was 96.

rotest or Reform: Coming to a Statehouse Near You

The protests currently taking place at the statehouses in Madison, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio, may soon be coming to a state near you, as state governors and legislators realize they can no longer continue business as usual. I simply don’t understand what makes public employees think they should be totally exempt from the hardships and requirements that many private sector workers have been experiencing for years. Those in the private sector have routinely been required to pay a substantial portion of the costs of their medical insurance and have seen those costs increasing significantly, year after year.

Madison - Union Operative Attempts to Destroy Tea Party rally's Speaker System (Video)

MADISON, Wisc. — Police officers in Madison detained and subsequently released a labor union operative who attempted, somewhat successfully, to destroy the speaker system at the Tea Party counter rally Saturday. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/19/union-operative-attempts-to-destroy-tea-party-rally%e2%80%99s-speaker-system-video/#ixzz1ESHLhJcz

Members of DU Start "Petition to Indict Sarah Palin as an Accessory to Murder"

In the aftermath of the Jared Loughner shootings, crazed assumptions were being thrown out by the left. From, Loughner is a crazed conservative to, Loughner is a Tea Partier out to get Democrats. The one that finally took with the left, however, was thus: sure, Jared Loughner was crazy, but people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin pushed him to the brink! Enter Democratic Underground. Known as a liberal bastion, "DU" is one of the biggest leftist sites on the internet. Literally minutes after news broke about the shootings in Arizona, DU members were some of the first to blindly...

From Australia: House votes 244-179 to kill U.S. funding of UN IPCC

Breaking News, straight from Climate Depot.Another victory for science! The House votes 244-179 to kill U.S. funding of UN IPCC!‘[The US government] no longer wishes to have the IPCC prepare its comprehensive international climate science assessments’Defund IPCC ‘amendment was sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Missouri), who read aloud on the floor from the 2009 U.S. Senate Report of more than 700 dissenting scientists!(Written by Climate Depot’s Morano) — Luetkemeyer: Americans ‘should not have to continue to foot the bill for an (IPPC) organization to keep producing corrupt findings’Note: U.S. Senate’s 700 Scientist report has been updated to more than a...

AFSCME is a threat to the security and stability of the United States

ALL Americans should learn about AFSCME and deal with the issue now.

Loch Ness Monster Pictures Taken By Kayaker At Lake Windermere In England

Lock Ness monster version of England was seen and pictures were taken by Kayaking couple, Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington on the waters of Lake Windermere, according to a a report by Brett Michael Dykes of The Upshot on Friday, February 18, 2011. The afternoon sight of what is considered a primeval sea monster occurred on the foggy waters of Lake Windermere. The couple revealed that they saw something that appeared to to be “an enormous snake” swimming by the lake. Lake Windermere has the reputation to be the territory of the British version of the Nessie-like serpent. There were...

N. Korea: Long-lost Pictures of Kim Jong-il

At Three Years of Age:1945 While Attending Elementry School(Date Unknown)

(Andrew) Breitbart Gets a Doctor’s Note in Madison

Video of Breitbart getting a note from a corrupt 'doctor'. LOL! You can't makes this stuff up!

N. Korea Digging Several Tunnels at Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site

/begin my summary N. Korea Digging Several Tunnels at Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site At least 2 or 3 of them. L-shaped tunnels. Digging several of them to find the best one for the test. Clear indication of conducting 3rd nuclear test. /end my summary

Why Obama needs to intervene to save a persecuted Afghan Christian (Said Musa may die foir Christ)

An imprisoned Afghan citizen, Said Musa, reportedly faces a possible death sentence for the "crime" of converting to Christianity. His plight represents an appalling human rights violation -- and a potentially serious threat to the Obama administration's Afghanistan policy. Musa's case has thus far not received much attention in the U.S., beyond a few media reports and the valiant alarms raised by religious freedom scholar Paul Marshall. But that may soon be changing, as more and more media, NGOs, and religious groups are learning of his precarious situation. Imprisoned since last summer, Musa has reportedly suffered heinous physical and sexual...

President Threatens Cuts in Social Security

If Republicans in Congress insist on passing a finance bill that contains too many cuts to “vital programs” the President says he will veto it and make cuts in Social Security payments instead. The targeting of Social Security is, according to President Obama, “intended to get people’s attention.” “Look, if I cut back on things like high-speed rail subsidies, corporate bailouts, or bureaucratic headcounts I’d be playing right into my opponents’ hands,” Obama explained. “The average American isn’t going to be motivated to oppose Republican plans to cut spending if this is what we were to cut. But tens of...

Iran releases 2 German journalists held for months

TEHRAN, Iran—Iran freed two German journalists arrested four months ago in connection with a highly publicized stoning case, and Germany's foreign minister went to Tehran on Saturday to bring the reporters home in a rare top-level visit by a Western government representative. An Iranian court threw out the journalists' 20-month prison sentence Saturday, commuting it to a fine of $50,000 each and clearing the way for their release, state media reported.

Budget Battle: Milwaukee Public Schools Responds to Sick-Out (Wisconsin RAT Fleas extend school yr)

Budget Battle: MPS Responds to Sick-OutBy Tim Lethlean Story Created: Feb 19, 2011 MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Public Schools is responding to numerous questions from parents, families, and residents as to how the budget discussions and "sick-out" impact the education process in the district. Below is text produced by MPS in an attempt to answer those questions: **SNIP** Will there be discipline for teachers and others who called in sick to go to the protests in Madison? What happens when the district has to close schools due to teacher absences? What expectation does Superintendent Thornton have for MPS employees during these...

Wisconsin senators' absence raises questions on tactic ('setting themselves up for a BIG failure')

Wisconsin senators' absence raises questions on tacticBy Eric Johnson – 17 mins ago CHICAGO (Reuters) – As demonstrators wrangled on Saturday over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's move to weaken public unions, analysts weighed the consequences of 14 Democratic senators' decision to flee the state to stall the bill's consideration. **SNIP** "As far as the constitution goes, there is nothing that expressly forbids their actions," Copelovitch said. "But if the same thing that is happening in Wisconsin spreads to other states, there should be explicit rules written to forbid it." Senator Jon Erpenbach said Friday that the senators were prepared to...

Obama Administration Won’t Cooperate with Congressional Inquiries

A request by Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, for testimony on the President’s “stimulus package” was rejected by the White House. At issue was the so-called Romer-Bernstein report (authored by Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, and Christina Romer, the former head of the White House Council of Economic Advisors). The report portrays the stimulus package as a great success. The White House has cleared Romer and Bernstein to appear on television to discuss it. “If they can go on TV why can’t they testify in Congress?” asked...

Highland Park man charged with Taliban weapons deal

A 52-year-old Highland Park father is one of two U.S. citizens charged with agreeing to sell missiles and other weapons to the Taliban for their use against American troops in Afghanistan, according to a complaint unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week. Oded Orbach, born in Israel, was among seven men arrested in an international sting operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Paid informants posing as Taliban representatives conspired with the men to ship narcotics through West Africa — with a portion intended for the United States — and to use the proceeds to buy weapons for protecting Taliban-owned...

MS-13 gang member charged with child sex trafficking in Virginia

Last week, Alexander Rivas, 18, was arrested by Alexandria police, following an investigation that began in November, when the father of a 14-year-old runaway told police his daughter was living with Rivas. Court documents state that the girl was found in the gang member’s apartment and she was being used as a prostitute. According to prosecutors, Rivas ran a prostitution ring, operating in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, using underage runaways. The affidavit states that the business catered to “construction workers and illegal immigrants.” On a typical Friday or Saturday night, the operation would see about 100 customers...

U.S. House Votes to Block Unauthorized Record Keeping on Gun Owners

Friday, February 18, 2011 Fairfax, Va. – The U.S. House has voted for an amendment to H.R. 1 offered by Reps. Denny Rehberg and Dan Boren that prohibits the use of federal funds for a new and unauthorized multiple sales reporting scheme proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). The measure passed the chamber (277-149) with broad bipartisan support. “The reluctance of the Calderon and Obama administrations to face reality and pursue real solutions is costing the lives of law enforcement and civilians on both sides of the border,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director for...

Senate Minority Leader Tracked Down At NIU (TWO AWOL Wisconsin RAT Fleas FOUND wandering around)

Senate Minority Leader Tracked Down At NIUSens. Mark Miller, Lena Taylor Talk About Budget Battle Shelby Croft, WISN 12 News Anchor/Reporter UPDATED: 12:55 pm CST February 19, 2011 DEKALB, Ill. -- Two of the 14 elusive state senators surfaced briefly Friday night on the campus of Nothern Illinois University. “If it means that we have to go to Illinois so that we’re not in the parameters of Wisconsin so that we can make that stand and slow it down, then that’s what we needed to do. It was our only option,” said state Sen. Lena Taylor. **SNIP** Taylor made the...

Video: Communist Revolution on the Ground in Madison, Wisconsin

The protests in Madison, Wis, which originally began in opposition to a budget repair bill being debated in the legislature, are now drawing individuals and organizations from beyond the state. This morning MacIver News Service's Bill Osmuski caught up with some Communist organizers from Chicago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-nxSRQNmjs

Millions of Dollars Owed Denied to Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup Crews

Subcontractors say they are still owed hundreds of millions of dollars for their work in the Gulf oil spill cleanup. “I’ve been bullied,” says Rick Myers, owner of Rhino Construction in Bay St. Louis, MS. Myers, who had 650 workers clearing beaches at the peak of cleanup efforts, says his weekly payroll of $1.4 million during that time didn’t take long to burn a hole in his pockets. He, like almost all contractors, took out loans to pay his workers while waiting to receive his payment. Five months later, Myers and other contractors, are still waiting. “I worked 20 hour...

Fake Doctors’ Notes Being Handed Out at Wisconsin Gov. Union Rally

[Madison, WI] As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work this week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for unexcused absences. On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the ‘patients.’ “I asked this doctor what he was doing and he told me they were handing out excuses to people who were feeling sick due to emotional, mental or financial distress,” said Christian Hartsock. “They never performed an exam–he asked me how...

Wisconsin Democrats Keep on the Move (Governor may cut funding for AWOL Senators' staff)

State Democratic senators, holed up in out-of-state hotels, gave no timetable for a return to the capital, putting on hold a fiscal bill that would limit collective-bargaining rights for most state workers. "When we go back is ultimately up to the governor's willingness to sit down and talk about this and come up with some sort of resolution," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who fled with 13 colleagues on Thursday to deprive Republicans of the needed quorum to pass the measure. He spoke by phone from a Chicago hotel, where he planned to stay Friday night. But Republicans, surrounded by thousands...

B.C. probing child-trafficking charges in cross-border polygamous marriages

VANCOUVER — In 2005, two fathers from the fundamentalist Mormon community of Bountiful, B.C., drove their 12-year-old daughters across the U.S. border. They went separately and, in one case, the girl’s mother went along. The purpose of the trips? Marriage, according to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court Friday. The girls were “sealed for time and eternity” in religious ceremonies to Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints... The ceremonies took place in the FLDS-controlled twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. In one case, both the girl’s mother and...

Murky gun law

A Milwaukee County judge's ruling that the state's concealed-carry law is unconstitutional in a specific case invites the state Legislature to jump in with some clarity. And that, in turn, presents an opportunity for Wisconsin to rethink its ban on concealed carry and other gun laws. Wisconsin should approve concealed carry but as a trade-off for other changes in gun law. The case at issue involved a Sheboygan County man who was carrying an unloaded pistol in a closed plastic case under the driver's seat, with a five-round magazine within reach. Jeremy Pinnow was searching for his car, stolen earlier...

Common sense in gun decisions a good thing(OR)

I read with sober interest the Feb. 9 editorial, "If you want to get a gun for safety, be sure you think things through." This is sensible, sound, moral advice. People who jump through the hoops, pay the required fees, submit to fingerprinting and a criminal background check, have legitimate reason to obtain a concealed carry permit. These are safety-minded autonomous citizens who rightly don't want to be an unarmed victim being crucially vulnerable to predatory criminals. Too, unlike the murderous Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen, the armed American citizen has no evil desire to shoot people. They collectively hope such never...

Mich. Union Hiring Homeless People to Picket

“Astroturfing: An artificially-manufactured political movement designed to give the appearance of grass roots activism.” If ever you wanted to see a great example of “astroturfing,” then the video below might become a part of your permanent library. The Mackinac Center, a public policy think tank in Michigan, has uncovered an interesting little detail in the local carpenters union’s fight against a non-union developer: the union is hiring down-and-outs to do its picketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUwy_Ot1d4I&feature=player_embedded

Photos: Saturday protests at the Capitol(WI)

Some early photos from Wisconsin capitol. I'll start posting down the thread. Some good, some bad ,some funny

29.4% Of Milwaukee public school teachers send their own children to private schools

Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools. In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester,...

The United States Is Under Attack

The Democratic National Committee and President Obama's Organizing For America are responsible for directing the protests in Wisconsin. As these "union" protests spread throughout the country, Twitter and Facebook are being used as the social network tools for the administration's efforts to destabilize our own country by inciting civil unrest. The following video from FoxNews provides the details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH6v5bWK-0w The next few days will be critical in our nation's history. Will the president and the DNC be successful in the implementation of their Cloward-Piven Strategy? At what point will Americans recognize treason at the highest level of our government? Our...

ICE Cracking Down on Illegal Workers

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada reportedly has the largest share of illegal workers in the nation, yet many local companies say they support efforts to curb their hiring. Across the country, more than 1,000 companies learned they'll face an inspection by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents. Stats from the Pew Hispanic Center shows 10 percent of the people working in Nevada aren't authorized. ICE is taking steps to stop them, but local companies are doing their part to protect the credibility of their business. Every time there's an opening, the response at Rebel Refrigeration and Air Conditioning is overwhelming. "For just...

BYU Democrats, Republicans far from enemies

The BYU Democrats and Republicans met to debate last week, but rather than take their usual stances, the two groups argued for issues opposite their political beliefs. Democrats took the side of laissez-faire capitalism while Republicans championed democratic socialism. While members of both clubs had to argue for ideas they didn’t necessarily believe in, they also found common ground. “Everybody has the capability to move on and be successful,” said Colleen McDermott, a member of the BYU Democrats from Las Vegas, arguing for the benefits lax government regulations in capitalist economies. McDermott cited President Obama and Democratic Senate majority leader...

Distraught mother confronts Ciavarella outside courthouse - VIDEO (Kids for Cash trial)

The mother of man who as a juvenile was incarcerated by fomer judge Mark Ciavarella angrily confronted him outside the courthouse, screaming at him that he was responsible for her son's suicide nine months ago. Sandy Fonzo of Wilkes-Barre was pushed away from Ciavarella by security after she jabbed at him. She had raced to the courthouse from her job in Kingston after hearing a verdict came in so that she could see him taken away in handcuffs. She was incensed that he was allowed to remain free pending sentencing. Fonzo's son, Edward Kenzakoski, had been jailed by Ciavarella when...

Police officer apologises to students, saying they can avoid sex attack by not dressing like sluts

A police officer who said women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like “sluts” in an address to law students college has apologised. Constable Michael Sanguinetti made the stunning remark during a meeting about safety at Toronto's York University. While a more senior officer was talking, Mr. Sanguinetti interrupted and reportedly said: 'You know, I think we’re beating around the bush here. I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this, however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.

President Palin’s First Year

With Executive orders or through Congress, President Palin will seek to: -Repeal what is left of Obamacare -Defund Planned Parenthood -Start the process of sealing our borders -Enforce immigration laws already on the books -Ask for line item veto (no earmarks). She had it as governor of AK and used it -Let the states drill for Oil and gas -Invest in coal and nuclear plants and all the above -Lower corporate, capital gain, inheritance taxes -Deny federal funding for abortions -Shut down the Federal union thug bosses -Start the shut down of the EPA -Start the shutdown of the Energy...

Americans Say Reagan Is the Greatest U.S. President

PRINCETON, NJ -- Ahead of Presidents Day 2011, Americans are most likely to say Ronald Reagan was the nation's greatest president -- slightly ahead of Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton. Reagan, Lincoln, or John F. Kennedy has been at the top of this "greatest president" list each time this question has been asked in eight surveys over the last 12 years.

Obama and Dick Lugar, A Love Story

True adulation. Lugar and Obama absolutely adore each other. A love story for all to enjoy and remember. Reports out of Indiana are saying Richard Lugar will get a primary challenger on February 22. Finally, America is waking up. “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity”-John Adams I pray that those standing up and fighting these liberals and rino’s have been hardened in the fires and are ready for the battle that lies ahead! See video www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZTFYq7aZ5o&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

How to Lose Friends and Not Influence People

The Obama Administration cast its first veto in the United Nations on Friday, February 18, killing a Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlement activity. Its poor handling of the entire episode has left just about everyone angry at the United States , and is therefore a manifest failure of American diplomacy. The Palestinian Authority began to talk about this resolution months ago. The United States could then have adopted a clear position: put it forward and it will be vetoed. That very clear stand might have persuaded the Palestinian leaders and their Arab supporters to drop the...

Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions (No laughing)

Hot off the pages of Mother Jones, Think Progress and AlterNet: As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here. Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.

BE FOREWARNED : Mexico loses 80-100% of crops to freeze, US prices to skyrocket

According to Sysco’s notice sent out this week: “The early reports are still coming in but most are showing losses of crops in the range of 80 to 100%. Even shade house product was hit by the extremely cold temps. It will take 7-10 days to have a clearer picture from growers and field supervisors, but these growing regions haven’t had cold like this in over half a century.” At this time of year, Mexico is a major supplier to the US and Canada for green beans, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, asparagus, peppers and round and Roma tomatoes. Compounding the problem...

KAHLILI: Iranian regime: Israel's days are numbered

Ever since the Iranian Revolution, the radicals ruling Iran have been actively promoting uprisings in other countries in the Middle East with the hope of overthrowing U.S.-backed governments and expanding Islamic rule throughout the region. An official website run by the Iranian government keeps close track of all these events and expresses the Iranian leaders’ excitement about them with the promise that the reappearance of Mahdi is close. They conclude that all the signs are in place and the reappearance is awaiting just one condition: worldwide wars, chaos and famine, in which two-thirds of the world’s population dies.

Wisconsin Is the New France: Entitlement Derangement Syndrome

Union protests in cow country display an invincible sense of entitlement. Imagine for a moment that you are a public school teacher in Wisconsin. While your job is undoubtedly tough (and important), and you're by no means rich, you do make decent money (more than $52,000 per year), and you do have some nice extra perks that most of us don't enjoy. You work about nine months per year, you have ample additional time off for holidays, and you basically can't be fired. Sure, you can get fired for extreme misbehavior—after months and perhaps years of due process—but do you...

Bill Maher Slams Muslim Men’s Treatment Of Women (the left waking up?)

There was some unrest in the Real Time with Bill Maher audience tonight, as one spectator had to be removed from the premises after heckling Maher while the host ripped Muslim countries for their treatment of women – and letting the security guards who escorted him out hear it as well. Maher was having it out with Tavis Smiley over relative treatment of women in Muslim countries and American society – Smiley didn’t argue that Muslim countries often exhibit poor attitudes toward women, but argued treatment of women in America has a long way to go, too. Maher called it...

U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo

U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo MoziloBy E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times February 18, 2011, 4:11 p.m. Federal prosecutors have shelved a criminal investigation of Angelo R. Mozilo after determining that his actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing. As the former chairman of Countrywide Financial Corp., Mozilo helped fuel the boom in risky subprime loans that led to the crippling of the banking industry and the near-collapse of the financial system. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles began probing Mozilo in...

States Revise Rules on Driver's Licenses for Illegal Immigrants as National ID Approaches

The last three states to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses -- Washington, New Mexico and Utah -- are now steeped in battles to revise their laws as a federal deadline approaches for all 50 states to issue identity cards that meet a new national standard. States must be in compliance by May with the regulations laid out in the 2005 REAL ID Act. The law, a recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission that investigated the 2001 terror attacks, creates a national security standard for state-issued identification cards to be used for purposes like boarding airplanes and entering federal...

USC Program Helps to Train Young Muslim Leaders

A new generation of Muslim American leaders is emerging in the United States. And a project at the University of Southern California called American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute is helping to train them. The American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute's approach includes stretching exercises and heart-to-heart sharing of personal stories. One goal is to help young Muslim leaders counteract negative sentiments, like the anti-Muslim protests last year surrounding plans to build an Islamic center near the site of the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. Khuram Zaman, who helps to run an Internet-based Islamic educational site, said, “I think the...

Disgusted Allen West to Dems: Grow Up!

“Over this past week I have watched and listened to members of the House of Representatives from across the aisle. “I am appalled at their ignorance, belligerence, and dishonest rhetoric filled with empty emotional platitudes. Have they no shame in realizing that their inept, incompetent failures are the reason why we are debating this continuing resolution. They failed to pass a budget during the 111th Congress. “Have they no honor in realizing that their fiscal irresponsibility over the past four years has resulted in our standing on the precipice of a fiscal canyon from which we may not recover....

The case of the part-time pedophile

Well, that's what Perry Mason would have called it. But 21st century Europe is a long way from Erle Stanley Gardner. On Tuesday, in a story headlined "Austrian Court Upholds Islam's Blasphemy Rules", Nina Shea reported: Today, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a young Viennese mother, was convicted under section 283 of the Austrian penal code of vilifying religious teachings for her negative commentary on Islam in a lecture before a political-party gathering in Vienna; she was fined 480 Euros. Sabaditsch-Wolff, a diplomat’s daughter, had lived and worked for several years in various Middle Eastern Muslim countries, and at the lecture in question...

Newly elected Republicans in state capitols launching strongest challenge to unions in decades

Republicans who swept into power in state capitols this year with promises to cut spending and bolster the business climate now usher in a new era of labor relations that could result in the largest reduction of power in decades for public employee unions. The question GOP governors and lawmakers are now facing is exactly how far they can go without possibly alienating voters they won over in the midterm elections last fall. In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker is going for it all — the elimination of collective bargaining rights for public employees plus sharp increases in their health...

Marchers protesting Birk decision clash with Police (Seattle Riot Live)

SEATTLE -- Dozens of protestors marched on the streets on Friday, calling for justice in the fatal shooting of Native American woodcarver John T. Williams. The crowd gathered at Westlake Center, then soon took to the streets in protest of King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg's decision not to file criminal charges against Ian Birk, a former Seattle police officer. But what started out as a peaceful protests with signs and slogans quickly boiled over as protestors clashed with police, prompting some officers to use pepper spray on the crowd. Marchers smashed the back window of a police cruiser as tensions...

100% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents. Is This How a President Should Act?

The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to mobilize thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals. Their efforts began to spread, as thousands of labor supporters turned out for a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, to protest a measure from Gov. John Kasich (R) that would cut collective-bargaining rights. By the end of the day, Democratic Party officials were working to organize additional demonstrations in Ohio and Indiana....The White House political operation, Organizing for America, got involved Monday, after Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy...

The Influence Of Saul Alinsky On The Campaign For Human Development

A broader concept and theology of ministry was emerging from Vatican II, one which gave new status and recognition to lay Catholics. The role of the clergy within this emerging theology was less than clear and a massive exodus from the priesthood began. In the U.S. an estimated 3,413 priests resigned from diocesan and religious priesthood between 1966 and 1993.(29) The departure of large numbers of men and women religious paralleled the departure from the priesthood.(30) Thus the acculturation of U.S. Catholics occurred amid a time of profound uncertainty, crisis, and change. The Impact of Vatican II For U.S. Catholics,...

Obama’s anti-Israel agenda - Echoes of president’s Jew-baiting pastor in foreign policy

Mr. Obama‘s decision to betray Israel should come as no surprise. He is a privileged liberal who reflects the values and prejudices of the academic left. The cultural milieu of his intellectual formation was steeped in hatred of America and the West. His father was an anti-colonial socialist determined to destroy European imperialism. His mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed communist. His pastor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a black nationalist known for his Jew-baiting. His seminal intellectual influences were revolutionary Marxists such as Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. They championed the belief - prevalent among college radicals -...

"Winning the Future" Means Winning in Madison

Now the battle has been joined. It has long been understood that the 2010 elections were just the beginning of the struggle to reverse America’s current decline. It will take at least two or three election cycles to correct decades of bad policy choices. We aren’t staring into the fiscal abyss because of any single policy or event, but rather the cumulative effect of dozens, if not hundreds, of flawed decisions made by fickle politicians who capitalized on the fact that the American public was largely disengaged. In the end, these decisions created a vast political class who live off...

Wisconsin is free: Scott Walker for president

Perry used to be famous for his flirtation with talk of secession. Maybe we should encourage him to revisit it. — Gail Collins, in The New York Times How about Wisconsin? Somewhere between the first cries of the Tea Party in February 2009 and the November election in 2010, the states in the middle of the continent suddenly came to realize what Texas and Alaska have known all along: They are free. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says his party has been emboldened by massive protests against his controversial budget plan, The Hill reports. He says the demonstrators who filled the...

A Rendell --- and now Corbett --- Bailout: Building Ships With No Buyers

Freindly Fire Note: On February 17, Governor Tom Corbett authorized the $42 million shipyard bailout. Two ships will now be constructed --- even though there are no buyers, nor any in the foreseeable future --- and hundreds of union jobs will now be subsidized. So much for the pledge of responsible government and fiscal restraint, especially in light of the $5 billion budget deficit. The wildly successful model that Gov. Christie has given his colleagues --- popularity will rise if you stick to your campaign promises --- is, incomprehensibly, falling on deaf ears. It is bad enough Corbett is being...

Report: Congressman urged to get psychiatric help

PORTLAND, Ore. — Senior staffers of U.S. Rep. David Wu were so alarmed over the Oregon Democrat's erratic behavior just days before the November election that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment, a newspaper reported Friday evening. The Oregonian, citing interviews with a number of anonymous staff members, reported on its website that Wu was increasingly unpredictable on the campaign trial and in private last fall, and had several angry and loud outbursts and sometimes said "kooky" things to staff around potential voters and donors. The Willamette Week newspaper carried a similar report Friday on its website.

Prepare To Give Up All Private Data For Any Gold Purchase Over $100

A week ago, when we reported on a move by the Dutch central bank that ordered a pension fund to forcibly reduce its gold holdings, we speculated that "this latest gold confiscation equivalent event is most certainly coming to a banana republic near you." And while we got the Banana republic right, the event that we are about to describe is not necessarily identical. It is much worse. A bill proposed in the State of Washington (House Bill 1716), by representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia, whose alleged purpose is to regulate secondhand gold dealers, seeks to capture "the...

Rep Silvestre Reyes: Amendment undermines ATF gun-trafficking ability to Mexico(TX)

Rep. Silvestre Reyes released the following statement: Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) voted against an amendment late tonight to H.R. 1, the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, that hinders the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to crack down on the trafficking of weapons into Mexico. The ATF has recently proposed a rule change that would require firearms dealers in southwest border states to report multiple sales of long guns, like semi-automatic assault rifles. The proposed amendment undermines the Attorney General’s ability to investigate and stem illegal gun-trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico. “As a former law...

Ga. Lawmakers Push to Repeal Ban on Guns in Church

ATLANTA - A Georgia lawmaker says faithful church goers are sitting ducks, defenseless against a potential act of violence and some pastors agree. That's why they're pushing to repeal the state ban on guns in houses of worship. State Representative Bobby Franklin has introduced a bill that would give the faithful the option to carry a gun to their house of worship, but others say that's one place that should be off limits to weapons. The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in the Bill of Rights. But in Georgia...

The Time is Short

The Time The phrase “the present time” is an obvious eschatological/prophetic reference. To what particular “time” did Jesus refer? And what was so special about it? Note first, that Jesus specifically refers to this time—that is, His and His audience’s time—not some time of judgment in the future. Whatever He’s talking about, it refers to the people he was talking to. Second, this “time” is compared to a discernable event. Whatever they should have been aware of, it was as clear as storm clouds gathering in the west. When people see something like that, they react—take action—accordingly. Third, this “time”...

N.Korea 'Importing Animal Feed for Human Consumption

N.Korea 'Importing Animal Feed for Human Consumption 'North Korea is reportedly importing animal feed grain from China to distribute on the market for human consumption as the regime struggles with food shortages. According to Radio Free Asia, Pyongyang gave the animal feed to its military as well as to merchants, bringing down the surging cost of rice. A source in North Korea said the feed is commonly darker in color than normal rice and is often mixed with chaff and stones. The U.S.-based broadcaster said lower prices caused by several natural disasters in China last year allowed the North to...

The Real Crisis That Will Soon Hit the US

Forget stocks, the real crisis is coming… and it’s coming fast. Indeed, it first hit in 2008 though it was almost entirely off the radar of the American public. While all eyes were glued to the carnage in the stock market and brokerage account balances, a far more serious crisis began to unfold rocking 30 countries around the globe. I’m talking about food shortages. Aside from a few rice shortages that were induced by export restrictions in Asia, food received little or no coverage from the financial media in 2008. Yet, food shortages started riots in over...

Margaret Thatcher on Defeating Socialism

"Trying to cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leaches" Much like close friend and fellow happy-warrior Ronald Reagan, British PM Margaret Thatcher loved to take on her liberal opponents... and had a lot of fun doing it. The House of Commons' raucous debate atmosphere also provided an ideal platform that often had Lady Thatcher at her very, very best. But also as Reagan did, the Iron Lady respected historical precedent... and knew what she was talking about: Thatcher proved it by turning her country around almost single-handedly, establishing an opportunity society that rejected socialist malaise while rewarding performers...

'Right To Work' Bill Puts Republicans, Democrats At Odds (Indiana)

INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers will hear a bill Monday that would allow Hoosiers the right to refuse to join unions or pay dues. Republicans said the "Right to Work" bill would bring new jobs to Indiana. Democrats called the bill "War on the Rights of Workers" and said it would only benefits employers, 6News' Norman Cox reported. The Right to Work bill is just one of a number of bills seemingly targeting unions. Others include a reduction in unemployment benefits, restrictions on teacher bargaining rights, a permanent ban on future governors' ability to allow collective bargaining for state employees and...

Nampa (Idaho) police: Tom Luna threatened, vehicle vandalized (for proposing education reform)

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's vehicle was vandalized overnight at his Nampa home and he and his family have received threats, he told police. “Yes, he has made us aware of threats to him and family members and we are looking into those, and we are aware of those, and we are doing what we can to provide protection,” Nampa Police Deputy Chief Craig Kingsbury said. On Saturday night, a man who identified himself as a teacher reportedly showed up at Luna's mother's home in Nampa in order to speak with her about the superintendent's contentious education...

Enterprise Strike Group Transits Suez Canal, Enters US 5th Fleet

USS ENTERPRISE, Red Sea (NNS) -- Enterprise Carrier Strike Group (CSG) transited the Suez Canal and entered the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR), Feb. 15. Enterprise transited the canal along with guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) and fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8). "Our ability to use the Suez Canal in a routine manner and according to long-standing plans demonstrates the ongoing stability of this important waterway," said Rear Adm. Terry B. Kraft, commander, Enterprise CSG. The 120-mile Suez Canal, constructed in 1869, runs north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in...

White House Mob Organizing

…The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through LOVE. Gal 5:6 “Yeah Johnny I understand your dad has been out of work for over a year and lost his house, but they want me to pay 5% of my pension! I’m willing to sacrifice as long as it doesn’t inconvenience me.” The second Revolutionary War has been declared by King George Obama using his Organizing Against America turncoats. This time it’s the union dragoons against the taxpayers. The teachers and public employees have had it so good for so long they believe we work for them and now...

Breaking: House Votes to Defund UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Breaking: House Votes to Defund UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change By Noel Sheppard Created 02/19/2011 - 11:05am The House of Representatives on Saturday voted to defund the United Nations' controversial Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Depot reported moments ago: Another victory for science! House votes 244-179 to kill U.S. funding of UN IPCC! 'It no longer wishes to have the IPCC prepare its comprehensive international climate science assessments.' Hip hip hooray! Of course, as this was mostly along Party lines, it seems quite doubtful this would pass in the Senate and even more unlikely it would survive an...

“Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada”: Genocide Deniers, Hypocrites, Character Assassins

Ambassador James Bissett Former Canadian Ambassador in Yugoslavia James Bissett, Chairman of The Lord Byron Foundation, unveils some disturbing facts about a gauche Bosniak outfit that has tried to “ban” Dr. Srdja Trifkovic from speaking at UBC Vancouver next week. It's an eminently postmodern, grimly amusing little story... A Bosnian-Muslim propaganda front, calling itself The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada, has tried to have Dr. Srdja Trifkovic “banned” (South African Apartheid-style) from speaking at the University of British Columbia next Thursday, February 24. What is outrageous is that, over the years, the “Institute” has indulged in World War...

Previously on Canada's (lack of) healthcare:

This list of Live links available at the enclosed  site link:

CanadaCare: Woman dies waiting 90 minutes in ER. “She was crying out, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’. . . Nobody attended to my daughter”
Video: Canadian official uses cookie as shield against answering questions of why healthacre system is failing
Reason TV: The Road to CanadaCare? Sally Pipes on The Truth About ObamaCare
Single-Payer Hell: Canada about to force seniors to pay for their own care because of soaring costs
Video: The tea party chronicles, episode 10 - Canada's healthcare and the US Constitution
Single-Payer Hell: Canadian brain cancer patient refused life-saving drugs because he escaped to US for treatment instead of dying
Single-Payer Hell: Canadian Premier That Came To US For Heart Surgery Says “It’s my health, it’s my choice”
Single-Payer Hell: disabled Canadian Lin Gilbert loses 2+ years fighting uncompassionate healthcare bureaucracy
Single-Payer Hell: Cheryl Baxter Escapes Canada To The U.S. For Care After 8 Years Of Pain
Video: Single-Payer Hell: The Cheryl Baxter Story
Videos: What Canadians Want You To Know About Their Healthcare System - Part 2
Videos: What Canadians Want You To Know About Their Healthcare System
Government-Run Healthcare Is A Prescription For Death
Video: Single-Payer Hell: The Lindsay McCreith Story
Single-Payer Hell: In Canada, Citizens Participate In Lottery To Determine Who Sees A Doctor
Detroit MSM starting to notice: Why are Canadians getting health care in Detroit?
Single-payer hell: Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver, leaked paper reveals
Deroy Murdock: Government medicine stumbles in Canada, U.K.
President of the Canadian Medical Association: "health-care system is sick, imploding..."
British National Health Service Sends Patient With Chest Pains Home With Pain Pills, Patient Dies
Paul Krugman Gets An Unexpected Response Regarding Canadian Health Care

Gun dealers and employees in New York arrested for providing information to customers:

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says a 10-month investigation found the gun dealers modified assault rifles to bring them in compliance with state law. The dealers then would instruct the undercover officers posing as customers how to change them back into full-fledged assault weapons.

You can take the community organizer out of the community, but you can't take the community organization out of the community organizer

Isn't it amazing to see the same guy who has constantly railed against the banksters, business and Wall Street, standing 100% behind groups across the nation that fleece local, state and federal taxpayers on a 1000x magnified scale? Yes, I'm talking about America's unions and it makes me think something of our Leader:

You can take the community organizer out of the community, but you can't take the community organization agitation out of the community organizer.

The spread-the-wealth cavalry has arrived in Madison and Obama and co. sent 'em.   (MORE)

Senator Toomey’s Legislation Would Protect Financial Markets During a Debt Limit Showdown

There will be several pivotal fiscal policy battles this year and the fight over the debt limit may be the most crucial.

This is a “must-pass” piece of legislation, so it will be a rare opportunity for fiscal conservatives in the House to impose some much-needed spending restraint.

FBI Pushes for Surveillance Backdoors in Web 2.0 Tools

The FBI pushed Thursday for more built-in backdoors for online communication, but beat a hasty retreat from its earlier proposal to require providers of encrypted communications services to include a backdoor for law enforcement wiretaps.

SO IS THIS THE HOPE, OR THE CHANGE?

“In an unprecedented move, the number of investors fearing a catastrophic stock market crash is rising even with the stock market at 2 ½ year highs. The unusual dislocation comes from two distinct reasons: a lack of trust in the U.S. financial markets following the so-called Flash Crash last May and the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2007.”

ObamaCare Creates Unemployment for Lower-Wage Families

ObamaCare is said to provide affordable health care for all, including those on low incomes. However, the cost to employers of higher medical insurance will hurt many...  (MORE)

Lara Logan and Media Rules

Identity politics are nothing more than socially acceptable bigotry.

Chinese Regime Developing Military to Defeat US, Says Report

While U.S. officials continue to attempt to conduct business with the Chinese regime, behind the scenes, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building a military intended to defeat the United States.

“It is clear that we are dealing with a military that is focused and serious about finding ways in which to defeat us should a conflict occur,” states a testimony given to the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, by Roger Cliff of the RAND Corporation, on Jan. 27.

Obama’s Answer to Reducing the Debt: Don’t Count the Interest

 So, how much in interest do we owe? Take a look here for that figure. Also, remember that Q1 of fiscal year 2011 is just about to end, we still have three more quarters to go! Also, here’s a chart for anticipated outgoing money for Social Security in 2011, which should be just over $175 billion:    (MORE)

Which Flag?

“[H]ave you noticed how many of the union protesters are invoking the Egyptian uprising against Hosni Mubarek? And carrying the Egyptian flag? Because the freely and fairly elected Governor of Wisconsin is just like the former dictator of Egypt . . It’s a good thing they are not carrying the Gadsden Flag, because that would be uncivil.”
– Professor William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection

UPDATE: Indebted to Michelle Malkin for the following list, but too lazy to do the arithmetic myself, I ask if any of our readers will be so diligent as to count the number of Wisconsin public school officials whose reported 2010 salaries exceeded $100,000.

UPDATE II: Dave C counts 859 names on the list. Dave’s blog is At the Point of a Gun. Now, if someone would care to figure the combined annual salary of these 859 school officials, and calculate their average annual salary . . .

UPDATE III: Calvin Dodge employs spreadsheet software to calculate that these 859 individuals collect a combined $97.9 million a year, with an average annual salary of $114,000.

And yet the protesters in Madison say it would be grossly unfair to expect these public servants to contribute more toward the cost of their pensions and health insurance.

Year Prorated Salary Full Name Position Title District:   (MORE)

‘Raymond Noodles’?

I’m pretty sure it’s pronounced Rah-men noodles, but whatever. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) thinks it’s terrible that kids have to eat them because they don’t have Planned Parenthood:

“The Damage Obama Has Done”

I lifted the following chart from “The Damage Obama Has Done” by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:

It's On

Tea Party notables plan descent on Madison, Wisconsin to counter union rallies

Democratic Civility (VIDEO)

The party of calm, rational, discourse versus reality.  

Michael Savage – February 17, 2011 part 1 (VIDEO)

DNC Expands Role In Labor Protests To Ohio, Indiana

10 Ways In Which Google Runs The World

As far as mega corporations in bed with the government go, Google sits somewhere close to the top of the tree. The company was seeded with CIA money and is literally an a corporate arm of the intelligence community.

The following ten facts highlight how much influence Google has, and how the company has seemingly abandoned its own corporate motto, “Don’t be evil”.

3 Arrested For Burning Cross Near Home Of African-American Family...

All three are charged with bias intimidation and conspiracy to commit arson. The charges carry a three- to five-year sentence upon conviction.

U.S. Gov‘t Software Creates ’Fake People’ to Spread Message via Social Networking

The contract opportunity (PDF) — posted last summer at FedBizOpps.gov — actually calls for the development of an “Online Persona Management Service” for the U.S. Air Force, a software that would help a single user manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. According to the contract proposal, the software could be deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there is no guarantee it would not be used domestically as well.

George Soros: ‘President Obama Has Lost Control’

In a pre-recorded interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria set to air Sunday morning, investment billionaire George Soros accuses President Barack Obama of having “lost control” of the national economy and criticizes the Democratic president for allowing Republicans to set the national agenda.

Furthermore, Soros goes on to predict that Obama‘s policy shortcomings will have a negative impact on the nation’s economic recovery and accuses the GOP of mixing economic and ideological priorities at the expense of the American worker.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Florida Police Obtain Warrant to Search ‘All Persons’ in Apartment Complex

For months, Sarasota police officers watched drug dealers openly sell crack cocaine and marijuana from a vacant lot behind the Mediterranean Apartments in Newtown. Officers tried to arrest dealers, but suspects often fled and managed to disappear into the neighborhood. The pressure to make arrests peaked in July 2009, when a man's mutilated body was found in one of the apartment units. So that December, the agency tried something it had never done before. It sought permission from a judge to search anyone and everyone who parked or set foot in the apartment complex parking lot. More than a dozen...

No helmet? That's a $275 ticket — even if you're not on wheels.

Dad loses appeal of ticket he got holding 5-year-old's hand as child learned in skate park OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A dad who was baffled when an Oceanside police officer gave him a citation for not wearing a helmet inside a city skate park was found guilty Wednesday when he tried to fight the ticket in traffic court. But his fine was suspended. “Are you serious?" That was the reaction by Steve Malfatto after Officer Gary Truscott gave him a citation on Oct. 29. Malfatto was upset because he was wearing sandals, didn't have a skateboard, and was simply holding his...

Gov. Cuomo must lead to fire incompetent teachers, reform pensions

This is the year when there will be no eleventh-hour rescue from the loss of teachers, firefighters, child welfare aides and virtually every other category of municipal worker. This is the year the money runs out. That was the message of Mayor Bloomberg's budget presentation yesterday. Washington is broke. Albany is broker. And the city is $1.6 billion short of cash. The only question is how to minimize the damage to the quality of life. Although the facts are inescapably clear, New York's politico-labor establishment remains stubbornly and deliberately in denial. With the exception of Gov. Cuomo, not one of...

George Soros On The Economy: “President Obama Has Lost Control”

In an interview set to air this weekend, George Soros accuses President Obama of “losing control” and letting Republicans set the agenda on the economy. Talking to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the billionaire investor says “President Obama has lost control of the agenda. The agenda is now in the hands of the Republican Party.” Soros says the president’s failure to control the economic agenda will have a negative impact on the recovery, accusing Republicans of mixing economic and ideological priorities at the expense of the economy:

Bahrain opposition received training from Hezbollah

WikiLeaks to release over 100 new Bahrain revelations tonight.

Bodies Stacked 8 Deep At Cemetery (Chicago)

CHICAGO (CBS) – Cook County sheriff’s officials have found bodies stacked on top of each other – some buried eight at a time — at a south suburban cemetery. As CBS 2’s Susanna Song reports, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says Homewood Memorial Gardens, at 600 Ridge Rd. in Homewood, desecrated the bodies of people who couldn’t afford to purchase burial plots.

Somali pirates hijack yacht with four Americans aboard

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somali pirates on Friday hijacked a yacht with four Americans aboard in the Indian Ocean, a non-governmental organization monitoring regional maritime activity said. Ecoterra International said the S/V Quest was seized in the afternoon 240 nautical miles (275 miles) off the coast of Oman.

Obama advisers report income: They're rich

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's new chief of staff Bill Daley and incoming senior adviser David Plouffe (pluff) have filed financial disclosure forms showing - no surprise - they're rich. Daley reported getting more than $20 million in salary, bonuses and other income last year.

Wisconsin Governor Has the Power to Replace the Vacant Democratic Legislators

Wisconsin Constitution Page 48 The Democratic Legislators have vacated their posts and moved to another state, there is no question that the governor is well within his rights to call an election. God speed Wisconsin!

Sarasota detective fired for trying to secede from U.S. (Declared himself a "sovereign citizen.")

SARASOTA - Last April, a veteran Sarasota Police homicide detective went to the courthouse and tried to secede from the United States of America. The detective, Tom Laughlin, filed a convoluted document declaring himself a "sovereign citizen." The filing included a thumb print on each page and a photocopy of 21 silver pieces — the price to become a "freeman." In doing so, Laughlin, 42, joined a small but growing group of U.S. citizens who claim they are not subject to federal law, that they no longer have to pay taxes and that their homes are their embassies. Last week,...

Obama Administration Encourages Federal Workers to Stay Home to Lessen Carbon Footprint...

Obama Administration Encourages Federal Workers to Stay Home to Lessen Carbon Footprint on Nation’s Capital (CNSNews.com) - Thousands of federal workers stayed home for at least some part of this week after pledging through teleworkexchange.com not to commute to work to mark Telework Week, Feb. 14-18.The Web site, which acts as a platform for federal agencies and other interested parties to promote and implement telecommuting, claims that 39,141 people – much of them federal workers in the D.C. metro area – pledged to work at least some of the five-day workweek from home. The amount “saved” by cutting commuting costs...

Hawaii to keep Obama 'birth certificate' secret

The Hawaii state legislature has abandoned plans to develop and sell for $100 a newly created document carrying the official seal of the state designed to convince an increasingly skeptical American public that Barack Obama actually was born in Hawaii. There is no indication the Hawaii state legislature made any effort to locate Obama's long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate in the vault archives of the Hawaii Department of Health as part of its work. But the bill, HB1116, died in the House Health Committee without a hearing, after the legislature missed a Friday deadline for the plan to advance to the...

Under high congressional pressure, U.S. vetoes controversial Israel resolution

The U.S. vetoed a controversial Palestinian Authority resolution at the United Nations Security Council as pressure on the administration mounted in the House. A letter urging Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to stand up against the resolution condemning Israel quickly racked up signatures in the House on Friday. Reps. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) circulated the letter, which had been signed by at least 110 members, making the rounds beginning Thursday afternoon and again later on Friday. The members responded to reports that a presidential statement condemning Israeli settlements could be

America Quiet on the Execution of Afghan Christian Said Musa

A terrible drama is unfolding in Afghanistan: There are reports that Said Musa, whose situation I described at Christmas, will soon be executed for the ‘crime’ of choosing to become a Christian. (For background, see here.) Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped...

Mayor of large NYC suburb resigns after conviction (Democrat wife abuser)

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- The mayor of one of New York City's largest suburbs resigned Friday, two months after his conviction on domestic violence charges brought by his wife. White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley, who is appealing, said he realized he needs more time to spend on personal matters than a mayor can afford.

WI, GOP might not need Democrats to pass controversial legislation

MADISON — Republicans might not need Democrats after all to pass some of the most controversial elements of Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill, Marquette University law assistant professor Richard Esenberg said. “That’s just sort of a twist that occurs to me,” Esenberg said. The Senate convened Thursday morning to vote on the legislation that, among other provisions, strips 175,000 state employees of most of their collective bargaining rights. But when roll call was held, Democratic senators were nowhere to be found. Because the legislation is deemed a fiscal bill, three-fifths of the Senate needed to be in attendance...

FLASHBACK: Milwaukee teachers union files suit over lack of Viagra coverage

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association has filed a civil suit claiming that MPS' exclusion of Viagra and other drugs that treat erectile dysfunction from its health insurance plans constitutes sexual discrimination against male employees. Last September, an administrative law judge dismissed an earlier ruling that sided with the union, which filed an equal rights complaint in 2008. The state's Labor and Industry Review Commission upheld the decision in June. The union now seeks a review of that decision by a Milwaukee County circuit court judge. "This is an issue of discrimination, of equal rights for all our members," said Kristin...

California Woman Held for Duct-Taping Toddler

HESPERIA, Calif. -- A California woman is under arrest after authorities say she duct-taped her 2-year-old son San Bernardino County deputies say 19-year-old Danyella Higgins was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of cruelty to a child. Deputies went to the home of the Hesperia woman after a photo was sent to her friend showing her 2-year-old son with duct tape around his hands, feet and mouth. The recipient called authorities. The San Bernardino Sun says Higgins told authorities she was taping up a window and thought it would be funny to tape up her son.

Wisconsin Law on Declaring Vacancies in the Legislature

Section 17.19 (1)  Members of legislature. In the office of state senator or representative to the assembly, by election, as provided in s. 8.50, for the residue of the unexpired term. In addition, an anticipated vacancy in the office of state senator or representative to the assembly may be filled as provided in s. 8.50 (4) (e). 17.06  Removal of state officers; impeachment; address. 17.06(1)(1) Any civil officer of this state may be removed from office by impeachment for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors as provided in article VII, section 1, of the constitution; and any supreme...

Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico to retire (another rat jumps the ship)

Democrat Jeff Bingaman is expected to announce that he won't seek reelection in 2012. The loss of the chamber's fifth-most-senior Democrat is a blow to a party that already faces a number of election challenges.

Obama administration replaces controversial 'conscience' regulation for health-care workers

The Obama administration rescinded most of a federal regulation Friday designed to protect health workers who refuse to provide care they find objectionable on personal or religious grounds. The Health and Human Services Department eliminated nearly the entire rule put into effect by the administration of President George W. Bush during his final days in office that was widely interpreted as allowing such workers to opt out of a broad range of medical services, such as providing the emergency contraceptive Plan B, treating gay men and lesbians and prescribing birth control to single women. Calling the Bush-era rule "unclear and...

France Plans Nation-Wide Islam and Secularism Debate

France’s governing party plans to launch a national debate on the role of Islam and respect for French secularism among Muslims here, two issues emerging as major themes for the presidential election due next year. Jean-François Copé, secretary general of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, said the debate would examine issues such as the financing and building of mosques, the contents of Friday sermons and the education of the imams delivering them. The announcement, coming after a meeting of UMP legislators with Sarkozy on Wednesday, follows the president’s declaration last week that multiculturalism had failed in France. German Chancellor Angela..

Fountain of youth from the tap (environmental lithium)

Scientists demonstrate that environmental lithium uptake promotes longevity(Jena, Germany) Professor Dr. Michael Ristow's team along with Japanese colleagues from universities in Oita and Hiroshima have demonstrated by two independent approaches that even a low concentration of lithium leads to an increased life expectancy in humans as well as in a model organism, the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. The research team presents its results in the online edition of the scientific publication European Journal of Nutrition which is now online (see hyperlink below). Lithium is one of many nutritional trace elements and is ingested mainly through vegetables and drinking water. "The scientific...

Happy Birthday to the Organ-Trafficking Capital of the Balkans (Kosovo)

Three years ago today the state of Kosovo was forcibly carved out of Serbia and given its independence by the United States and the European Union. The Western powers were determined to show how friendly and non-discriminatory they were towards Islam, so they created an Islamic gangster state in the heart of the Balkans.....

Was Wednesday's 'sick out' by Madison teachers an illegal strike?

State law prohibits public school teachers from striking. So did Wednesday's "sick out" by Madison School District teachers constitute an illegal strike? No, said John Matthews, Madison Teachers Inc. executive director, who called the event "a political action," not a strike. "They're not protesting against their employers," he said. "The employer had nothing to do with this. This is trying to save public education in Wisconsin." Madison school officials didn't respond immediately Wednesday to requests for comment. Peter Davis, legal counsel with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, which administers the state's collective bargaining laws, declined to say whether the action..

Cinco de Mayo T-shirt case continues

School board's motion to dismiss...denied! "The controversy from Cinco de Mayo 2010 at Live Oak High School that spurred a federal civil rights lawsuit by the parents of three students who were asked to turn their American T-shirts inside-out or leave school is moving through the federal judicial system after Federal Judge James Ware issued his decision Thursday." This means that the case will continue and the judge recognizes that it is a First Amendment issue, which the school denies.

Memos: Firefighter refused call to Tucson shooting (Dem fireman; shocking story)

TUCSON, Ariz. – A veteran firefighter refused to respond to last month's deadly shooting spree that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded because he had different political views than his colleagues and "did not want to be part of it," according to internal city memos. Mark Ekstrum's insubordination may have delayed his unit's response because firefighters had to stop at another station to pick up a replacement for him, the Arizona Daily Star reported. While the crew was not among the first called to the supermarket where six people were killed and 13 others wounded, a memo from Ekstrum's supervisor said...

American Airlines closes former TWA base in Kansas City (Union Betrays Members)

When American Airlines Inc. bought Trans World Airlines Inc. in 2001, one of the prime assets was TWA's enormous maintenance base in Kansas City and its team of skilled workers. But American has shrunk its workforce and its fleet significantly since then. On Friday, American closed the 53-year-old Kansas City facility. "It's really about sizing the maintenance capacity to fit the size of the airline now," American Airlines president Tom Horton said this week. "That's what it's all about." The April 2001 purchase of TWA came just as the airline industry was heading into a recession, with the decline accelerated...

Will This Be The Most Open Congress Ever? [Here, the People Rule.]

...And about time. The Democrats' style of management—on ObamaCare, cap and trade, financial regulation, stimulus—was to secretly craft bills and ram through a vote, denying members a chance to read, to debate, to amend. She's right, and the Center for Fiscal Accountability took great care to call attention to former Speaker Pelosi's abuse of the gavel and avalanche of broken promises on transparency. The open rule process has allowed for a bit of political theater - if you were willing to stay up until four a.m. some nights when votes finally came to a close to watch it - but...

(CT) AFL-CIO chief wants more taxes, not employee concessions

Organized labor made two complaints Thursday about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposal for a $1.5 billion tax increase: It's not big enough, and the rich won't pay enough of it. "It has to go much higher," said John Olsen, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. But how high? Is Olsen, a former Democratic state chairman, advising the first Democratic governor in 20 years to rely exclusively on taxes to erase a $3.2 billion deficit? Should Malloy double his proposed tax increase? Olsen wouldn't say. Neither would House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, who gave Olsen a 60-second introduction at the...

Microsoft bans open source license trio from WinPhone

Some open-source apps for Windows Phone and Xbox have been banned from Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace. And there's uncertainty hanging over the rest. Apps licensed under GPLv3, Affero GPLv3, and LGPLv3 cannot be sold and distributed on the marketplace, according to Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace Application Provider Agreement. Microsoft has also reserved the right to exclude "any equivalents" of the GPLv3, Affero GPLv3, and LGPLv3 trio.

House votes to defund Planned Parenthood

The House just approved Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, checking off a hot-button social issue even as it set up a bigger showdown over defunding the health care law.

The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present. A group of Republicans on the floor applauded when the vote hit 218

HELP WANTED

This little New Zealand-based blog, punches well above its weight.

Don't Like It? Riot

Welcome to another new normal: If you don't like something your government is doing, or if your government is not doing something you think it should be doing - riot. Don't wait for one of those pesky elections. Take over the square, the roundabout or the state house and demand that the government do - or stop doing - what you want. I understand that Hosni Mubarak was a despot in dictionary meaning: A ruler with absolute or virtually absolute power and authority. A fair election was never going to happen in Egypt while Mubarak was in power and the...

Dallas Mullahs Protest Being Compared to John Wiley Price

The fit continues to hit the shan down in Dallas, where Dallas Tea Party activist Jeff Turner is under fire for referring to a local County Commissioner (John Wiley Price) as 'Chief Mullah' during a recent public meeting. Local representatives of the Religion of Peace are holding a press conference to denounce Turner: Jeff Turner, who is active in the Dallas Tea Party, called Price "Chief Mullah" several times while criticizing the commissioner for how he handled the exit of county Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet last month. Price also took offense and let Turner and others in attendance know that...

Walker irked by Obama's meddling (Wisconsin Gov. tells the Hussein regime to butt out)

Walker irked by Obama's meddlingBy MJ LEE Updated: 02/18/11 9:27 AM Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, confronted with thousands of protesters outside of the state capitol in Madison, says “it would be wise for the president” to stay out of his state’s business. “I think we’re focused on balancing our budget,” Walker said on Fox News Friday morning. “It would be wise for the president and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budget, which they are a long ways from doing.” The governor – just a mere six weeks into his job – added that he is...

Boy, 16, 'attacks mother with claw hammer . . . ' because she took away his Playstation

A 16-year-old son has allegedly confessed to killing his mother because she took away his Playstation games console. Kendall Anderson attacked his mother Rashida with a claw hammer while she slept, bludgeoning her 20 times, police say. When the hammer attack didn't kill her, the South Philadelphia teenager dragged the 37-year-old downstairs and tried to 'cremate her' in the kitchen oven, according to a court report in the Philadelphia Inquirer. When that failed, he grabbed a chair leg and beat her around the head, before dumping her body in an alley behind the house, it is claimed. 'The victim's body...

Our 2nd amendment rights threatened by…The United Nations!

In 2006, the United Nations decided it was time to explore “…the feasibility, scope and draft parameters for a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons.” The Bush administration voted against the creation of this proposed Arms Trade Treaty, believing that such oversight would be more productive on a national level. But on October 30th, 2009 Barack Hussein Obama reversed course, quite possibly turning the sovereignty of the United States, its Constitution and the rights of its gun owning public over to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the member states....

Why the West Will Win

This image shows why the West will eventually triumph over radical Islam.

FDR warned against collective bargaining for government unions (read his 1937 letter)

My dear Mr. Steward: As I am unable to accept your kind invitation to be present on the occasion of the Twentieth Jubilee Convention of the National Federation of Federal Employees, I am taking this method of sending greetings and a message. Reading your letter of July 14, 1937, I was especially interested in the timeliness of your remark that the manner in which the activities of your organization have been carried on during the past two decades "has been in complete consonance with the best traditions of public employee relationships." Organizations of Government employees have a logical place in...

Deval Patrick signs 'bathroom bill', sets off 'firestorm'

In a move blasted by opponents as an “end run” around lawmakers, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday quietly signed a controversial transgender rights executive order, called the bathroom bill by critics, making it illegal to discriminate against state workers on the basis of “gender identity.” “This is going to set off a firestorm, and it’s certainly something the governor should have given us a heads up on,” said House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones (R-North Reading). Patrick signed the changes with no announcement. The measure was a major issue during Patrick’s tough re-election battle last year. The executive order, unlike a...

An Amazing, Depressing* Look At The World's Demographic Shift From 1950-2050

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has published a huge report on Asian demographics. In it, the team lead by Sadiq Currimbhoy has published a fantastic set of population "pyramids" that show the way a given population breaks down by age at any given time. If you're in the developed world, you'll be depressed at how old you're getting. And if you're in the developing world, you'll see there's years and years of relative youth ahead. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE CHARTS

He’s only your President if you belong to a union

The Wisconsin Teachers Union spills the beans. Their motto has been revealed. "Screw the children. It's all about me"In 1981 PATCO, the air traffic controllers' union went on an illegal strike. Pres. Ronald Reagan ordered them back to work with small success. Reagan fired those who ignored the return to work order. The time has come for this to happen again. As Skookum has posted, Barack Obama has sided with the teachers' union. This is no surprise as he has rescued unions at great cost to Americans at large. There's more to this story. A lot more. Democrats are making...

U.S. Charges 2 Immigrants With Possessing Rifles

PHOENIX – Federal prosecutors in Arizona say two illegal immigrants from Mexico have been indicted after they were found to possess a combined 222 assault rifles and five pistols that authorities say were headed to Mexico. Prosecutors said Thursday the two immigrants possessed the weapons in May and August, and that the guns were later seized in the border city of Laredo, Texas.

Wisconsin Student Solution To The State Deficit: Tax The Rich! Video

Maybe the best video you will watch coming out of the Wisconsin Teachers job action. But then again, there’s so much. The teachers have made up the bulk of the protestors pushing back against Tea Party Governor Scott Walker’s austerity plan. But it’s the students … ahhh … the students, who have provided able backup with people power and … ways to solve the crisis. Teach … your children well … their parents hell … and so yada, yada. As teachers disrupted class at the state capitol to protest Scott’s plan to change the mostly teachers compensation plans, students took...

Wisconsin State Assembly live video feed

Live streaming video from the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Mostly reps just recognizing constituents who are "in the capitol"...

Colts hold news conference to speak out against gun bill

The bill would allow people to carry a gun almost anywhere in Indiana. That means licensed gun owners would be able to bring their firearms into libraries, parks, and sports arenas, including Lucas Oil Stadium. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay held a news conference Thursday to voice his opposition to Senate Bill 292. The bill would allow people to carry a gun almost anywhere in Indiana. That means licensed gun owners would be able to bring their firearms into libraries, parks, and sports arenas, including Lucas Oil Stadium. "It's not taking an issue of bearing firearms or anything. It's about,...

Who’s Polarizing America?

American politics just keeps getting more polarized. Be assured that Obama wants it that way... Obama’s long-term hope is to divide America along class lines (roughly speaking, tax payers versus tax beneficiaries). Obama’s attack on the Supreme Court at his 2010 State of the Union address, his offensive against the Chamber of Commerce, his exhortation to Hispanics to punish their enemies, and several similar moves were all efforts to jump-start a populist movement of the left. Like his socialist organizing mentors, Obama believes that a country polarized along class lines will eventually realign American politics sharply to the left. Yet...

Joe the Plumber Gets an Online TV Show

Finally. Only two years after he stopped reporting for PajamasTV, he returns for the Right Network. http://rightnetwork.com/episodes/whaddya-know-joe-trailer

Joe the Plumber Gets an Online TV Show

Finally. Only two years after he stopped reporting for PajamasTV, he returns for the Right Network. http://rightnetwork.com/episodes/whaddya-know-joe-trailer

Abortion debate boils over in House

The wild three-day, going into four, spending debate on the House floor reached a hot pitch last night over an amendment by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Reps. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo and Gwen Moore, D-Wisc., delivered scathing rebuttals to emotional anti-abortion pleas by two Republicans, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., and Chris Smith, R-NJ.

Photos: WI protesters call Gov. Walker a dictator, put crosshairs on his face

What is happening in Wisconsin is disturbing. Protesters have jumped on the Egypt bandwagon, claiming that “Cairo has moved to Madison,” which trivializes the real brutality and lack of openness of the Mubarak regime, and claims a moral standing for the unions that they simply have not earned. The issue is that the state faces a $137 million budget shortfall (in the short term, and about $4 billion over the long term), and the government unions have negotiated benefit packages for themselves that are no longer sustainable. Something has to give, but the unions and Democrats are working together to...

Obama losing ground across the Middle East

Obama losing ground across the Middle East It would be easier to forgive the Obama administration's lackluster handling of the political crisis in Egypt over the last couple of weeks if things were going their way elsewhere in the Middle East. Unfortunately, they're not. Start with Iran. Despite two years of engagement, Tehran is still developing nuclear weapons — significantly shaking stability in the Middle East as they do. And, sorry: neither cyber ops like the “Stuxnet” computer virus (which the U.S. may have been behind) nor U.N.-prescribed economic sanctions seem to have put much of a hitch in the...

US 2011 Inflation: 10.6%?

We thank Sean Corrigan of Diapason Securities for bringing our attention to the MIT Billion Price real time inflation Index (first reported here) who points out that based on the ongoing surge in prices, which have increased by 1.25% in the last 25 days (December 31, 2010: 101.085, February 14, 2011: 102.353), a simple annualization indicates a 10.6% increase in prices in 2011! With all undue respect to the Chairsatan (and other "disinflationists") it is time to bring Volcker out of the freezer once again. Look for the 30 Year to pass 5% in a few weeks. Oh yes, M2...

VETERAN’S GROUP DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM SEC. OF STATE CLINTON

Video at link As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University yesterday condemning governments that arrest protestors and do not allow free expression - and lauding freedom of speech on the Internet - 71-year-old military veteran Ray McGovern was grabbed from the audience in plain view of her by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes and hustled out of the building and, according to McGovern and his supporters, was “brutalized and left bleeding in jail.” What McGovern did was simply remain standing silently in the audience and turned his back on her as...

Illegal Immigrants Being Targeted by Kansas Government

Illegal Immigrants in Kansas should perhaps start singing “California, here we come” as conservative state leaders begin working on legislation

"The List" Obama's One Hundred and Eighth Week in Office

Obama's One Hundred and Eighth Week in Office"The List" for 2/17/2011Obama's proposal to start charging Canadians an inspection fee to enter the country has upset Canadians Obamanomics: Silver Closes at $31.74/troy oz.Sixty-four former Chrysler dealers sued the U.S. government on Thursday, saying the Obama administration violated their rights by closing their stores during the automaker's bankruptcy without compensationThe Justice Department asked a federal judge in Florida on Thursday to tell states that they must continue to enact the Obama administration's health care overhaul despite the judge's ruling that the law is unconstitutionalThe House voted Thursday to dethrone nine White House...

Apocalypse Now: Wisconsin vs. Big Labor; Plus: More out-of-state union recruiting & another teacher

This is a critical moment in the nation’s battle to dig itself out of debt and free itself from the iron grip of public union monopolies. As you know from reading this blog, the Wisconsin showdown has been a long time coming. I remind you that there are many brave workers exposing the corruption and costs of compulsory unionism. Today’s syndicated column gives an overview of the Big Labor battle in Wisconsin — now spreading to Ohio and Indiana, where the DNC/OFA are organizing the community of grievance-mongers kicking and screaming against overdue reforms. Like someone famous always says: Change...

The Dems' tantrum (WI: Dem' childish prank mock...)

The Dems' tantrum In a snit, Senate Democrats run and hide - making a mockery of the democratic process. Democrats in the state Senate threw a temper tantrum Thursday - essentially they took their ball and went home. Actually, they didn't go home. They apparently went to Illinois, just out of reach of their obligations. By boycotting an expected vote on Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill, they were able to prevent action on the measure. Twenty senators are required for a quorum; the Republicans have only 19. The Walker plan is deeply divisive. We're not supportive of some aspects...

Democrat suggests 'ObamaCare' rhetoric should be banned from House floor

Democrat suggests 'ObamaCare' rhetoric should be banned from House floor By Pete Kasperowicz - 02/18/11 09:57 AM ET House Republicans and Democrats started Friday morning's debate over whether to defund last year's healthcare law, and as part of this debate sparred over whether members should be allowed to call that law "ObamaCare." After two House Republicans called it "ObamaCare," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) asked the chairman whether these "disparaging" remarks should be allowed on the House floor. "That is a disparaging reference to the president of the United States; it is meant as a disparaging reference to the president...

Obama joins Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill

MADISON, WIS. - President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits and planning similar protests in other state capitals. Obama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would change future collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers. The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to get thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in...

Allstate sues JPMorgan Chase over sale of toxic RMBS

Insurance giant Allstate is suing JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 47.72 -0.21%) and subsidiaries Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual for fraudulently selling the insurer more than $750 million in residential mortgage-backed securities backed by toxic loans. In its complaint, Allstate alleges the defendants "made numerous misrepresentations and omissions regarding the riskiness and credit quality" of the loans backing the securities sold as part of the transaction. JPMorgan Chase acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual — along with the banks' assets — back in 2008 when the housing meltdown hit. While both firms are technically defunct, each still has structured finance trading platforms...

Jews Speaking Civilly to One Another?

Jews Speaking Civilly to One Another? by Norma Zager “Who hates the Jews more than the Jew?” Henry Miller The other night I attended a Jewish Federation event about how Jewish people can learn to have a peaceful discourse about Israel and agree to disagree in a friendly manner. This was apparently necessary because the subject has grown to such aggressive proportions, Jews, who never had the capacity to get along anyway, are actually threatening the very health and welfare of the Jewish State. Why am I not shocked to learn that Jewish people engage in vicious self-destructive behavior, even...

It is here! Mexican drug cartels ! MURDER FOR HIRE IN USA - COMMISSIONED BY MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL

Here is our 2 billionth "wake up call" about Mexico and drug cartel violence. Just how many more do we need before we truly wake up and aggressively face this issue????? Now the cartels are hiring people to assassinate in the USA! (Mr. President, please listen to your Secretary of State Hillary Clinton! She is right about Mexico and you are wrong. Mexico is like Colombia of 20 years ago...and it is inching into our country.) --- Three arrested in Palmdale, CA were found with 2 AR-15s and a thousand rounds of ammo.... Lieutenant in the Arrellano Felix sought for...

Anarchists linked to arson at Governor's Mansion

An Austin-based anarchist group whose members were prosecuted for plotting to bomb the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., three years ago has been linked to the unsolved June 2008 arson fire that gutted the Texas Governor's Mansion, officials said Thursday. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that a white Jeep Cherokee photographed by surveillance cameras at the mansion four days before the fire has been "connected to people who were part of that anarchist group." The connection was confirmed about three months ago, he said. The Jeep is believed to have been doing...

Wisconsin GOP sends state troopers after Democrat ('en route' for RAT leader Mark Miller)

Wisconsin GOP sends state troopers after DemocratAssociated Press Updated: 02/18/2011 10:33:09 AM CST Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate have asked the governor to send state troopers after Democratic leader Mark Miller. Senate Democrats are boycotting a Senate vote on a bill that would strip public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights. They have been missing from the Capitol for a day and a half. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he has asked Gov. Scott Walker to send two state troopers to Miller's home in Monona. He says he believes the troopers are en route.

Alan Korwin: Time for National Carry Laws

Recent events have made it painfully obvious that murderous trouble can erupt at any time and in any place. It is a clear and present danger. We can no longer afford to pretend such dangers do not exist. It is irresponsible to continue to imagine that police can be everywhere, or that they can respond with sufficient speed to prevent a homicidal rampage. Police are second responders. The first responders are always we, the people, on the scene as events unfold. The time has come to insist upon robust restoration of our right to defend ourselves, to keep and bear...

What is your general view of labor unions? CNN Poll

What is your general view of labor unions? Poll is about halfway down the page. Link to CNN Poll

Do We Really Need Black History Month? In 2011 America, there’s no need for anything like it.

To feel that something is tired in the idea of Black History Month isn’t, despite what one might hear from some quarters, racist. When Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week in 1926, he hoped that the need for such a celebration would gradually recede. For the week to morph into a month did not exactly bear out his wishes, and today, even black people brandish an array of objections to Black History Month. Actor Morgan Freeman wonders why the history of his people must be relegated to a single month. Others more recreationally inclined consider it suspicious that February...

Yet another emerging crisis

What does it say about America's standing in the world when Canada kind of hates us now and openly mocks our ragged economy? President Obama's proposal to start charging Canadians an inspection fee to enter the country has Canada all agog. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the U.S. should not try to balance the budget on the backs of Canadian tourists: “They're running deficits down there well over a trillion dollars a year,” Harper said in the Toronto Star. “Some 40 per cent plus of the American spending is financed by borrowing. These are enormously challenging figures.” Overlooking the...

An Open Letter to the Children of Wisconsin

Are you enjoying your time off kiddos? Welcome to the real world! All that stuff your teachers have been telling you about democracy and elections, well, it was all a load of Wisconsin cow fodder. In the real world agitators, blackmailers, and community organizers trump the law. Elections only matter to your teachers when they win. If they lose it’s time to take to the streets and protest, and file injunctions in the nearest available court. They learned that from their hero, Barack Obama. When he got elected they were happy, remember? Do you also remember how excited they were...

Now They Are Coming for Us

Pastor Niemoeller didn’t speak out until it was too late, then wound up in a concentration camp, scheduled for execution. At the last moment, he was rescued by American troops. But there is no outside force to rescue us. If we hope to be rescued, we must rescue ourselves. We arrogantly assumed that we have the right to treat some human beings as less than human. But why did we assume that others would not do the same to us? Why did we think that others would not declare us to be “useless eaters” who were a “drain on the...

Feds bust E. Houston sex-slave ring 10 arrested; victims freed after raid

The federal indictment, unsealed on Thursday, paints a vicious picture of Maria Rojas, aka "Nancy," an alleged ringleader in an international sex trafficking ring that pimped out girls as young as 14 inside a compound on the city's east side. It was Rojas, a 46-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, who prosecutors say co-owned La Costeñita Bar and a neighboring compound in the 8000 block of Clinton Drive, where the Mexican pimps — the padrotes — brought the girls, prosecutors charged. And it was Rojas who decided which girls worked the bar, who was friends with the pimps, who once held...

Birthers arent like truthers

There's a new poll showing that a majority of Republicans doubt that President Obama was born in the United States. Are they paranoid-type thinkers, like the 9/11 Truthers, looking for things to connect up and suspecting that conspiracies lie underneath things that other people think are as they've been presented in the media? I think we need to see that they are not. They have one issue. One question. They have suspicion about one thing, and that suspicion notably hasn't led them into other theories. There's one factual issue — the immensely important matter of the President's qualification — that...

Suburban Survivalists Begin Hoarding Food, Water and Weapons. Here’s How to Get Started

A new breed of survivalists is emerging in this country. I affectionately refer to them as Suburban Survivalists. She (yes, she) is most likely a minivan driving soccer mom who spends most of her time running the household, brushing up on her survival skills by watching Bear Grylls, and practicing target shooting on the weekends. Advertisers already know the power and influence of these women. They make almost 80% of the family purchasing decisions, thus wielding significant power over a large portion of the GDP. While the husband is bringing home the bacon, she is figuring out how she can...

Report: Sadat's Killer back in Cairo

As posted on Twitter: Anthony G. Martin @welshman007 Anthony G. Martin Later, folks--by the way, my news alert is ominous--the man who was banned after Sadat's murder is now back in Cairo!! Islamic EXTREMISM!

Democrat – “Abortion Better Than a Life Eating Ramen Noodles”

Oh boy: Most macabre abortion defense of the night so far: Just a little while ago on the floor, Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Gwen Moore argued that abortion was better for unplanned babies than a life “eating Ramen noodles” or “mayonnaise sandwiches.” Wow.....just wow. What a perfect illustration of the liberal mindset, and it comes from one of the most ignorant Democrats in the house. I mean I'm pretty sure many of us had to eat Ramen in our younger days due to finances. Guess its a good thing our mothers didn't abort us worrying about that fact eh? Geez..... It...

The Citizenship Status of Our 44 Presidents

A famous Holmesian dictum provides that "a page of history is worth a volume of logic."

Analysis: Barbour followed by Confederate images

JACKSON, Miss. – Does Haley Barbour have a Confederate problem? It's a question hounding Mississippi's Republican governor as he gears up for a possible 2012 presidential run.