Impeach Obama Today

President Romney, how about Al Gore for 'Climate Czar' since you're bringing back retreads and globalist elitist profiteers?

2012-02-01T10:08:00.005-04:00

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Trailer for new movie, "An Inconsistent Truth," via Junk Science, via Climate Depot

"1/31/12, "Newt Beats Mitt on Energy," National Review, Robert Zubrin
Gingrich has revolutionary ideas, while Mitt enlists Bush-era bureaucrats.

"In contrast, Mitt Romney has never been involved in energy issues or evinced any serious interest in the subject. While his 59-point campaign platform includes the same stock phrases endorsing the goal of energy independence that have decorated the planks of every presidential hopeful (of either party) since 1976, he opposes the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency, so there is little reason to believe that anything will change. For his advisers on energy policy, Romney has assembled a group of Bush-administration bureaucrats including:

James Connaughton: As head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for eight years, Connaughton supported and implemented cap-and-trade programs for dealing with air pollutants and, according to his archived White House profile, coordinated “comprehensive climate change strategy, clean technology initiatives, [and] environmental cooperation agreements with our free trade partners.”

Alexander “Andy” Karsner: As the Bush administration’s assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, Karsner managed the Department of Energy’s $1.47 billion applied-science, research, development, and deployment portfolio, which, according to his archived White House profile, promoted “marketplace integration of renewable and environmentally sound energy technologies . . . [with] primary responsibility for education, conservation, regulation and efficient use of our nation’s energy resources, including federal energy management, building codes, appliance standards, and the Energy Star program, amongst others.”

Jeff Holmstead: As EPA air chief for Bush, Holmstead was the self-proclaimed architect of “key parts” of Bush’s climate-change initiative. His interstate clean-air rule set the precedent for the current EPA’s economy-wrecking Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.

Edward Krenik: As the congressional-affairs liaison for the Bush EPA, Krenik helped craft the (ultimately unsuccessful) legislative strategy for the Clear Skies Act, which aimed to implement cap-and-trade programs for NOX, SO2, and mercury emissions from power plants. After leaving the EPA, Krenik joined Holmstead as a senior principal at Bracewell and Giuliani, a law firm specializing in helping clients deal with the EPA....Gingrich seems to understand the depth of this problem well enough to propose the only adequate solution, which is abolition of the EPA. Romney, in contrast, has staffed his energy team with creatures drawn from the environmental-protection-litigation racket, whose essential interests require that the game play on, regardless of the cost to the nation’s security, prosperity, and freedom. While Romney’s regulators might be less pernicious on some issues than their sparring partners currently occupying the environmental-agency thrones — by approving the Keystone pipeline, for example — their one original proposal advanced thus far, awarding drilling permits preferentially to established companies using established technologies, is a formula for suppressing entrepreneurship and technological innovation."....

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Netanyahu wins Likud leadership vote

2012-02-01T08:14:00.002-04:00

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2/1/12, "Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu wins Likud leadership vote," BBC

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US lets in at least 2 murderous Uzbekis, one threatened to kill Obama in 2011, a different one accused of Islamic terror plots vs US in 2012

2012-02-01T04:37:00.007-04:00

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As Ms. Geller notes, "exceptionally biased" on part of AP but worth reading

1/31/12, "US, UN Helped Colo. Man Now Accused of Terrorism," AP, Aurora, Col.

"US, UN Helped Muslim Relocate to Colorado, Now Accused of Jihadi Terror," Pamela Geller, Atlas Shugs

"A man from Uzbekistan that the United States and the United Nations helped relocate to Colorado now faces a terrorism charge.

Jamshid Muhtorov opposed his home country's dictator following a 2005 massacre, endured a brutal detention, and saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge. The 35-year-old fled his country by night dressed as a woman, and the U.S. and the U.N. helped bring him to Aurora in 2007.

Dressed as a woman? Burka?

Now, he's accused of providing material support and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union. The violent group opposes the Uzbek government and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Authorities arrested Muhtorov in Chicago on Jan. 21, the Denver Post reported Tuesday ( http://bit.ly/yHsRIF ).

Federal authorities say the Islamic Jihad Union has claimed responsibility for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, including a March 2008 suicide attack on a U.S. base. The group is also blamed for carrying out simultaneous suicide bombings of the U.S. and Israeli embassies and a prosecutor's office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan."...

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Another Uzbek got in the US with no problem, based himself in Alabama, and was arrested in 2011 for threatening to kill Obama.

7/26/11, "Update: Uzbek national in Pelham indicted on charges of threatening president, weapons possession," Birmingham (Alabama) News, Kent Faulk

"An Uzbekistan native was indicted by a federal grand jury today for threatening the life of President Barack Obama and illegally possessing weapons, including a fully automatic weapon and a grenade, federal authorities announced.

Ulugbek Kodirov, 21, of Uzbekistan, was charged with four counts of threatening the president - on July 9, July 10, July 11 and July 13. He also was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and unlawfully possessing a fully automatic weapon. Both of those weapons counts refer to a Sendra Corporation Model M15-A1 rifle which he bought from undercover law enforcement agents before his arrest on July 13, according to court documents.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, also charges Kodirov with receiving and possessing an unregistered grenade on July 13. He had four grenades, but the powder was not in them, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office."...

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Fox News Detroit backs out of segment on Honor Killing Conference

2012-02-01T04:35:00.002-04:00

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1/31/12, "FOX NEWS (Detroit) Kills Segment on Honor Killing Conference," Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

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Gingrich lost in Florida because he abandoned the strategy that won him South Carolina

2012-02-01T03:48:00.002-04:00

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1/31/12, from Instapundit: "ROGER SIMON: Why Gingrich Lost Big And What’s Next. “After his solid victory in South Carolina, Gingrich did not continue the obvious strategy that got him there – running against Barack Obama by presenting himself to Republican voters as the great orator and thinker who could bring down the noxious incumbent, the man who rose above internecine intra-party squabbles for the greater good of his country. Instead, he did the exact opposite. He spent the balance of his time in Florida running against Romney when he had already beaten the former governor in South Carolina. Talk about dumb. Newt let his personal antipathy overwhelm his good sense. He played defense about the picayune and the irrelevant when he should have played offense on the philosophical and substantial.”

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Open primaries proceed in Washington State, California's may survive, why not help the GOP in its obvious wish to merge with far left democrats?

2012-02-01T02:41:00.015-04:00

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Independent voters aren't far from Republicans in total numbers. Democrats still way ahead. 42 million registered democrats, 24 million independents, and 30 million Republicans. USA Today, 12/23/11

1/20/12, "Appeals court upholds Washington state's open primary system," LA Times, Carol J. Williams

"The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel's decision may signal affirmation for California's open primary system, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party."

"In a decision that could foreshadow survival of California's new "top two" primary system, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a similar Washington state ballot initiative that changed the way voters choose candidates in primaries.

Both states' voters approved measures allowing the top two vote-getters in a primary to advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. The format replaced closed primaries, in which each party chose a candidate for the general election.

The Washington law, which was approved in 2004 and went into effect in 2008, was challenged by the state's Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties on grounds that it limited their constitutional right of association by taking away their authority to choose their candidates.

The political parties also alleged that the new system confused voters because each primary candidate is identified by his or her preferred party affiliation, leaving the impression that the party had endorsed him or her.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit, which hears cases from a nine-state region including California, unanimously rejected those arguments from the Washington plaintiffs.

"There is nothing inherently misleading about equating a candidate's self-declared party preference with party affiliation. ... In light of the clear language of the ballot, the voters' pamphlet and the ballot insert, no reasonable voter would be confused," the appellate panel wrote.

California's "top two" primary format took effect last year, after voters passed Proposition 14 in 2010. Challenges are pending in state and federal court. In August, a federal judge dismissed a suit filed by minor parties that cited the same grounds as the Washington case. That case is under appeal to the 9th Circuit.

The ruling on the Washington case makes it "extremely likely" that the California primary system also will be deemed constitutional, said Richard Hasen, professor of election law at UC Irvine. He noted that California's plan was modeled after Washington's and that similar nonpartisan primaries had passed federal court review elsewhere in the country.

"The position of people who support 'top two' primaries is that it will produce more moderate candidates, because you get a lot of crossover voting," Hasen said.

The idea is that when voters can cross party lines they are likely to reduce the chances that each party's most partisan members will select an uncompromising candidate. In theory, both general election candidates could be from the same party.

Opponents' argument that the change hurts minor party candidates' chances of making the general election ballot aren't persuasive, Hasen said, because "they already have such a tough road that this doesn't make that much difference."

One potential practical flaw in California's system is its exclusion of write-in candidates from the general election, Hasen said. That could leave voters with no real choice in the event of some last-minute scandal or misfortune affecting one of the two successful primary candidates, he said.

California Republicans and Democrats also have looked askance at the "top two" primary. The GOP leadership has talked about circumventing the system by polling its members before the June 5 primary to identify and endorse a preferred candidate.

Those challenging the California primary format have asked the courts to rule by March 29 to give state officials time to revert to a closed primary if the courts find "top two" to be constitutionally flawed."

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"Registered Democrats still dominate the political playing field with more than 42 million voters, compared with 30 million Republicans and 24 million independents."...

12/23/11, "Voters bolt top political parties," USA Today, Richard Wolf

"More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow."...

Housing prices decline in Nov. 2011 for 7th straight month, US economy expected to slow in 2012 1Q

2012-02-01T02:08:00.008-04:00

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1/31/12, "No Housing Bottom: Home Prices Decline For 7th Consecutive Month, Lowest Since 2003," Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden

"The November Case Shiller is out and while not surprising to most, some of those calling for a near-term housing bottom may be advised to reassess (for the 5th year in a row). According to the Top 20 City index composite, prices declined in 17 of 20 MSAs, with gains posted only in Phoenix, Denver and Minneapolis. At 137.52, the Seasonally Adjusted composite dropped to the lowest since February 2003, and is now a third lower than the housing peak in April 2006. Yet the worst news is that, even with a 2 month delay, the housing drop accelerated into the end of the year, and the sequential drop of 0.7% was the biggest decline since March 2011. Which means that except for that errant spike in home prices in April 2011, we have now seen 18 consecutive months of housing price declines since that "rebound" in late 2009. "Despite continued low interest rates and better real GDP growth in the fourth quarter, home prices continue to fall," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, said in a statement. "The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand.""...

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National prices now at mid-2003 levels.

1/31/12, "Home prices fell more steeply than expected in November, and consumers turned less optimistic in January, highlighting the hurdles still facing the bumpy economic recovery," Reuters

"After accelerating at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years at the end of 2011, the U.S. economy is expected slow in early 2012.

The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of single-family home prices in 20 metropolitan areas, released on Tuesday, declined 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, a bigger drop than the 0.5 percent economists expected.

The decrease added on to the 0.7 percent decline in October from September.

Separately, an index of consumer attitudes fell to 61.1 in January from 64.8 the month before, as Americans turned gloomy about the job market and income prospects, said the Conference Board, representing private companies.

The data frustrated expectations for an increase after sharp gains in consumer confidence in November and December.

"We are braced for a more bumpy picture over the next few months. A lot of expectations probably ran away or got a little too lofty coming into the end of the year," said Sean Incremona, economist at 4Cast Ltd in New York.

"We are still in a very modest recovery, and we do see consumption slowing this quarter, and data like this supports that picture."

Some improving housing data in late 2011 had raised hopes the recovery was finding its footing. But weaker numbers this month have underscored how lengthy the healing process will be....

""The reality is the housing market is so far from normal that it will take years to get back to its normal state. Similarly it will take a while before it really is contributing properly to economic growth."...

The day's disappointing data took Wall Street lower, undermining earlier optimism over a possible Greek debt deal.

Also weighing on the market was a report that showed business activity in the U.S. Midwest grew more slowly than expected in January - the index fell to 60.2 compared with a forecast of 63 - hurt by a weaker labor market.

A wider reading of the U.S. factory sector is due on Wednesday with the release of the Institute for Supply Management national manufacturing survey.

Last week, the Federal Reserve showed the extent of its concern about the uncertain U.S. economic recovery by signaling it would keep interest rates near zero for nearly three more years. That gloomy assessment was echoed on Tuesday by a Congressional Budget Office report

that saw U.S. unemployment above 8 percent this year and in 2013.

Companies are feeling the pinch too. Growth expectations for first-quarter earnings are declining sharply, due to worries about slowing growth and weak revenue trends at major U.S. firms, according to Thomson Reuters data.

A report released on Monday showed spending was flat in December as Americans focused more on saving.

Once a key pillar of the U.S. economy, Americans have taken a more frugal tack as many struggle with hefty debt burdens.

"With the global economy slowing and domestic fiscal policy a drag on growth, the wellbeing of the U.S. consumer is crucial to the recovery," Alistair Bentley, economist at TD Bank Group, wrote in a note.

"Today's number, coupled with yesterday's disappointing personal spending data, offers a reminder that

underlying demand is still too soft to absorb the economy's excess slack."

On a seasonally adjusted basis, 17 of 20 cities racked up monthly home price declines, and average national prices were around levels seen in mid-2003, according to S&P/Case-Shiller.

Prices in the 20 cities also steepened their year-over-year decline, falling 3.7 percent compared to a 3.4 percent decline in October.

Last week, the Obama administration took steps to head off a new foreclosure crisis but critics and even some supporters said it was unlikely to prove much more successful than other government programs to date.

Some Federal Reserve officials have said the central bank should consider buying more mortgage-backed securities to help boost the struggling sector, though some economists question how effective that would be

with borrowing costs already so low." via Big Government

Congressional Budget Office says unemployment is really 10.0 due to working age people who've dropped out and can't even get a job interview

2012-02-01T01:47:00.006-04:00

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1/31/12, "Latest Congressional Budget Outlook For 2012-2022 Released, Says Real Unemployment Rate Is 10%," Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden

"But probably the most important part is the CBO's discussion on the labor force participation, and the general unemployment rate:

"Participation in the Labor Force. The unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now had participation in the labor force not declined as much as it has over the past few years. The rate of participation in the labor force fell from 66 percent in 2007 to an average of 64 percent in the second half of 2011, an unusually large decline over so short a time. About a third of that decline reflects factors other than the downturn, such as the aging of the baby-boom generation. But even with those factors removed, the estimated decline in that rate during the past four years is larger than has been typical of past downturns, even after accounting for the greater severity of this downturn. Had that portion of the decline in the labor force participation rate since 2007 that is attributable to neither the aging of the baby boomers nor the downturn in the business cycle (on the basis of the experience in previous downturns) not occurred, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 1¼ percentage points higher than the actual rate of 8.7 percent. By CBO’s estimates, the rate of labor force participation will fall to slightly above 63 percent by 2017. The dampening effects of the increase in tax rates in 2013 scheduled under current law and additional retirements by baby boomers are projected to more than offset the strengthening effects of growing demand for labor as the economy recovers further."
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5/25/11, "Disturbing Job Ads: 'The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered'," Huffington Post

Al Gore to Romney Climate Czar? Romney has hired Bush embeds into cap and trade, heavy federal regulation, and 'climate' litigation racket.

2012-01-31T23:24:00.022-04:00

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George Bush melded the GOP into the global warming-democrat party exemplified by Romney. Romney is Obama with slightly less hate.

1/31/12, "Newt Beats Mitt on Energy," National Review, Robert Zubrin
Gingrich has revolutionary ideas, while Mitt enlists Bush-era bureaucrats.

Gingrich seems to understand the depth of this problem well enough to propose the only adequate solution, which is abolition of the EPA. Romney, in contrast, has staffed his energy team with creatures drawn from the environmental-protection-litigation racket, whose essential interests require that the game play on, regardless of the cost to the nation’s security, prosperity, and freedom. While Romney’s regulators might be less pernicious on some issues than their sparring partners currently occupying the environmental-agency thrones — by approving the Keystone pipeline, for example — their one original proposal advanced thus far, awarding drilling permits preferentially to established companies using established technologies, is a formula for suppressing entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Those who hope for better from Romney’s energy advisers have only to look at their record; from 2001 through 2006 they held office with the backing of a Republican president, House, and Senate, and the imperative of a nation confronted by soaring oil prices and a petroleum-funded jihad.

What did they accomplish?"...

— "Dr. Robert Zubrin is president of Pioneer Astronautics, and author of the book Energy Victory. His new book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudoscientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism, will be published by Encounter Books in February 2012." via Climate Depot

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Ed. note: As time goes on the left will understand George Bush was their friend.

Politico's Jonathan Martin uses racial epithet "crackers" to describe voters from Northern Florida, Georgia and Alabama

2012-01-31T23:14:00.008-04:00

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The pejorative term 'crackers' is sometimes used to accuse people of being white.

1/31/12, "Politico's Jonathan Martin Mocks Conservative Florida Voters as the 'Cracker Counties'," NewsBusters, Scott Whitlock

"Politico reporter Jonathan Martin on Tuesday mocked the "cracker counties" of Florida's conservative Panhandle. Talking to Daily Rundown host Chuck Todd, he derided, "Chuck, a lot of the counties in the Panhandle, in north Florida, the cracker counties, if you will...more resemble Georgia and Alabama than they do Florida." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd appeared indifferent to this attack, agreeing, "right." That area of Florida, of course, is where fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough represented when he was a member of Congress. No word yet on how Scarborough has reacted."...via Mark Levin

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Federal government workers make 16% more on average than comparable private sector workers, CBO, Jan 2012

2012-01-31T10:38:00.005-04:00

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Jan. 2012, "Comparing the Compensation of Federal and Private-Sector Employees," Congressional Budget Office

"This analysis focuses on wages, benefits, and total compensation between 2005 and 2010."

"Total Compensation...

Federal civilian employees with no more than a high school education averaged 36 percent higher total compensation than similar private-sector employees.
Federal workers whose education culminated in a bachelor's degree averaged 15 percent higher total compensation than their private-sector counterparts.
Federal employees with a professional degree or doctorate received 18 percent lower total compensation than their private-sector counterparts, on average.

Overall, the federal government paid 16 percent more in total compensation than it would have if average compensation had been comparable with that in the private sector, after accounting for certain observable characteristics of workers."...

Wages: "Federal civilian workers with no more than a high school education earned about 21 percent more, on average, than similar workers in the private sector."...

Benefits:

"Average benefits for federal workers with no more than a high school diploma were 72 percent higher than for their private-sector counterparts.
Average benefits for federal workers whose education ended in a bachelor's degree were 46 percent higher than for similar workers in the private sector."...

via 1/31/12, "Federal Workers Earning More Than Those Paying Their Salaries," Daniel Horowitz, RedState.com

Unemployment in EuroZone record high-BBC

2012-01-31T08:16:00.002-04:00

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1/31/12, "Eurozone unemployment hits new record," BBC

"Unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high at the end of last year, the Eurostat agency has said.

The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the single currency was 10.4% in December, unchanged from November's figure which was revised up from 10.3%.

Some 16.5 million people were out of work in the eurozone in December, up 751,000 on the year before.

The highest unemployment rate remains in Spain (22.9%), while the lowest is in Austria (4.1%).

Unemployment has been rising throughout 2011, as the debt crisis in the region has continued. In December 2010, the unemployment rate in the euro area was 10%."...

Health insurance in Massachusetts is most expensive in the US-Sally Pipes

2012-01-31T06:51:00.004-04:00

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1/30/12, "Healthcare expert Sally Pipes on what could replace ObamaCare," Daily Caller

"“In January of 2006, I was one of the first people to write why Romneycare would be bad for Massachusetts,” Pipes said. “In fact, it hasn’t achieved universal coverage. … Insurance in Massachusetts is the most expensive in the country, even though there is an individual mandate.”

“Romneycare is a microcosm of Obamacare,” she said.... "Sally Pipes, the renowned health care expert and president of the Pacific Research Institute." (scroll down) via John Hendrix

More black teen hate crime in Philadelphia as 3 pulled a white man out of a cab and beat him, hurled epithets

2012-01-31T06:31:00.006-04:00

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"The three teens were black and the cabbie and passenger were white."

1/30/12, "Thugs attack cabbie, passenger," Philly.com, S. Farr

"IN A HORRIFIC assault in Center City on Saturday night, three teenagers who were spouting racial slurs pulled a man out of a cab to beat him. And when the cabdriver intervened to stop the assault, the teens turned their rage on him, police said yesterday.

About 8:25 p.m., a cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut streets when two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy approached and started calling the male passenger in the back seat racially derogatory names, police said.

The boys then threw an unknown liquid at the cab before they opened the door, pulled the passenger out and started to pummel him, police said.

When the cabbie got out of the car to see what was going on, the passenger ran away and the teens turned on the cabbie. They punched him in the face, kicked him and threw a liquid on him, police said.

Despite being outnumbered, the cabbie grabbed a tire iron from his trunk, at which time the teens ran away. The driver flagged down a police officer, and the three boys were arrested. They were charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and related offenses.

The cabbie suffered an injury to his right eye and had abdominal and side pain, police said. The passenger remains unidentified.

Police said the three teens were black and the cabbie and passenger were white. Police did not immediately know whether the teens would or could face hate-crime charges.

According to police records, the cabbie worked for Liberty Taxi Co., but a dispatcher working there yesterday was surprised none of the drivers he'd spoken with were aware of the assault. Police declined to provide the name of the driver, so the dispatcher could not confirm whether he was an employee.

"This would be something that would be big news," the dispatcher said. "It would have been a highly charged moment that drivers would be talking about."" via Gateway Pundit

Hidden victims in strangulation of Gulf Oil drilling-many losses will never be recovered

2012-01-31T06:09:00.009-04:00

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1/31/12, "‘Hidden Victims’ of Gulf Drilling Slowdown (Obama’s Negative Employment Multiplier)," MasterResource by Kevin Mooney

"Small business owners who depend upon the economy in the Gulf of Mexico are still victimized by the ripple effects of the moratorium Team Obama put into place after BP oil well explosion in April 2010, documents Greater New Orleans, Inc. after surveying approximately 100 Louisiana-based companies directly involved in the offshore oil and gas industry, led by marine services and ship owners/operators.

The Impact of Decreased Drilling Permit Approvals on Gulf of Mexico Businesses found that 41% of businesses are not making a profit. Other statistics of decline:

* 76% have lost cash reserves

* 27% of businesses have lost more than half of their cash reserves

* 50% of businesses have laid off employees as a result of the moratoria

* 39% of businesses have retained workers but reduced salaries and/or hours

* 46% of businesses have moved all or some of their operations away from the Gulf of Mexico

* 82% of business owners have lost personal savings as a result of the permit slowdown

* 13% of business owners have lost all of their personal savings as a result of the slowdown

Even if the current administration’s anti-energy policies are reversed, this study demonstrates that there is an opportunity cost in terms of lost business that will never be recovered. As the Pelican Institute has previously reported, over 10 oil rigs have already left the Gulf and more could leave soon in the absence of a reasonable regulatory environment that allows for robust energy production on the part of those companies with a proven safety record."...via Tom Nelson

15 yr. old whose parents said 'spent too much time at Occupy Oakland' has killed both his parents

2012-01-31T05:53:00.010-04:00

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1/30/12, "Adopted boy, 15, 'admits to murdering his prison psychologist father and physician mother before hiding the bodies in their car'," UK Daily Mail

"An adopted teenager was arrested on murder charges after police found the bodies of his parents, two highly-educated civil servants, stashed under a blanket inside the family car....

Colleagues of the couple also told the San Francisco Chronicle that the couple had been having problems with their son, who they believed was spending too much time in the Occupy Oakland camp.
Poff, who attended UC Berkley, and Kamin, a graduate of Stanford University, met through friends. The couple adopted because they were unable to have their own children, Robert Kamin's brother Bruce told the Chronicle. They had recently moved to the area and were in the middle of renovating their house." via Atlas Shrugs

Oakland Occupy members still preaching hate the Jews

2012-01-31T05:44:00.002-04:00

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1/30/12, "Occupy Oakland Burns American Flag While Reciting Anti-Semitic ‘Pledge of Allegiance’," Big Government, MRC TV. (From this weekend's Oakland Occupy riots)

"As an American flag burns at Occupy Oakland, the man capturing the videos recites the following:

“I pledge allegiance to a flag of the imperialistic, capitalistic dictatorship. And to the plutocracy for which it stands, privately owned central bank, under the Jews. With inequality and injustice for the 99.” (h/t Moonbat Tracker)
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Gingrich's flat tax would bring business back to the US--Arthur Laffer, Wall St. Journal

2012-01-31T05:25:00.004-04:00

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1/31/12, "Why Gingrich's Tax Plan Beats Romney's," Arthur Laffer, Wall St. Journal

"Newt's flat tax would do a lot more to attract capital, spur growth and reduce compliance costs."

"If we judge both leading contenders in the Republican primary, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, by what they've done in life and by what they propose to do if elected, either one could be an excellent president. But when it comes to the election's core issue—restoring a healthy economy—the key is a good tax plan and the ability to implement it.

Mr. Gingrich has a significantly better plan than does Mr. Romney, and he has twice before been instrumental in implementing a successful tax plan on a national level—once when he served in Congress as a Reagan supporter in the 1980s and again when he was President Clinton's partner as speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s. During both of these periods the economy prospered incredibly—in good part because of Mr. Gingrich.

Jobs and wealth are created by those who are taxed, not by those who do the taxing. Government, by its very nature, doesn't create resources but redistributes resources. To minimize the damages taxes cause the economy, the best way for government to raise revenue is a broad-based, low-rate flat tax that provides people and businesses with the fewest incentives to avoid or otherwise not report taxable income, and the least number of places where they can escape taxation. On these counts it doesn't get any better than Mr. Gingrich's optional 15% flat tax for individuals and his 12.5% flat tax for business. Each of these taxes has been tried and

tested and found to be enormously successful.

Hong Kong, where there has been a 15% flat income tax on individuals since 1947, is truly a shining city on the hill and one of the most prosperous cities in history. Ireland's 12.5% flat business income tax propelled the Emerald Isle out of two and a half centuries of poverty. Mr. Romney's tax proposals—including eliminating the death tax, reducing the corporate tax rate to 25%, and extending the current tax rates on personal income, interest, dividends and capital gains—would be an improvement over those of President Obama, but they don't have the boldness or internal integrity of Mr. Gingrich's personal and business flat taxes.

Imagine what would happen to international capital flows if the U.S. went from the second highest business tax country in the world to one of the lowest. Low taxes along with all of America's other great attributes would precipitate a flood of new investment in this country as well as a quick repatriation of American funds held abroad. We would create more jobs than you could shake a stick at. And those jobs would be productive jobs,

not make-work jobs like so many of Mr. Obama's stimulus jobs."...via Free Republic

Florida GOP, establishment and perhaps Romney trying to write out Allen West

2012-01-31T04:43:00.003-04:00

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"The all-out assault on conservatives in the Republican Party is what is the story of this primary campaign....the establishment Republicans are trying to take the Tea Party out."

1/30/12, "Florida GOP Tries to Write Out Allen West," Rush Limbaugh transcript

"If this doesn't change, do you know what the Florida legislature is doing? They are writing Allen West's district out of existence. I get e-mails from people, "Look at what Romney's doing." I got e-mails over weekend from people, I must have had 15 e-mails, "If Romney's behind this..." And he may well be. The Republican establishment could well be. He's a Tea Partier, and he got to Washington and he didn't toe the line and he didn't shut up and he didn't go to the end of the line and he didn't do what he was ordered to do.

He continued to speak out, said the same things that got him elected. He's a great guy, military veteran, Allen West, and they're trying to write his district out of existence. Florida Republicans are trying to -- in redistricting, write it so that Allen West has no district -- and the Republican establishment, whether it includes Romney or not, is behind it. Well, it's amazing. The all-out assault on conservatives in the Republican Party is what is the story of this primary campaign....

After last Thursday's Republican debate, in the spin room, one of Romney's guys was Florida Representative Will Weatherford. And during the course of his remarks he's trying to spin for Romney after the debate, it's reported that he shed a very dim light on the ongoing redistricting process in the Florida legislature.

"West’s congressional district inexplicably sheds the most out support as compared to all other incumbent Republican and Democrat Congressman. A few weeks back we quoted an unnamed legislator saying that, 'Allen West was screwed', a statement which was originally made about made five months before the purposed maps were made public, leading insiders to believe that the fix was in against Allen West. But in light of Weatherford’s comment, it is increasingly clear that this is a fait accompli." It is going to happen. Weatherford is a Romney guy, and this is why people think that Romney's behind this. And many people do.

"According to Weatherford, those preliminary maps will not change -- at the most, any additional changes would be minimal, and those changes would not make any appreciable difference from the preliminary maps," the ones that, again, write out Allen West. "In addition, Weatherford stated that a deal was struck between him, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and Senator Don Gaetz to finalize these maps and push them through as soon as possible." And Weatherford, it is said here, tried to hide behind a need to comply with federal law. But, look, Florida's getting two additional seats. There's no reason to write anybody out. Florida is getting two additional -- because of the 2010 census. There's no reason to write West out. So there's obviously a political component to this. And, again, the Romney conspiracy is based on the fact that the guy in charge of redistricting is a former Romney supporter.

The Politico says: "Florida Speaker Designate Will Weatherford has been a surrogate for Mitt Romney in the past." Probably current supporter as well. And people ask, "Why does Mitt Romney care about congressional districts in Florida?" What it means is, what many have been trying to warn you of for a long, long time. And that is that the establishment Republicans are trying to take the Tea Party out. The establishment Republicans are trying to take the conservatives out. This is another reason why, in the Republican primary, there is such fevered opposition to Romney and people who despise -- you just heard the previous caller -- who despise the campaign that Romney's running.

Now, Will Weatherford, the Romney guy, is saying he's got no choice, that because of the Voting Rights Act you have to start the redistricting process with where black voters live, and then do the districts that way. It's federal law. You can't draw 'em anymore with political considerations or desires, even if you are the governing or the majority party. And he says it's these two new districts that are causing this, they gotta make room for 'em. I've got an audio sound bite coming up, I've just sent it up to Cookie, where Weatherford explains this in part. He said, (paraphrasing) "Hey, it's the Voting Rights Act and federal law, I've got no choice. Romney is not behind this." He doesn't say that, but that's the clear implication. "...

-------------------------------

Ed. note: More and more states have open primaries. I'll be working to effect that in NY State. Soon there will be no reason to be a registered Republican.

Note to Batchelor et al: The GOP is in no danger. It died during GW Bush, became 'non-partisan,' loves Obama, and sees the Tea Party as its only enemy

2012-01-31T01:42:00.010-04:00

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After being MIA the Ohio Republican Party finally has a purpose: Keeping Tea Party people out.

1/30/12, "Ohio Republican Party’s Outrageous New Tactic to Keep the Tea Party Out," Big Government by Bytor

"There was breaking news last week of an upcoming meeting that has been called for the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) State Central Committee. Below (link) is an excerpt of the memo sent out to committee members....

Talk about trying to protect their established incumbents! To be seated on the committee, a person will have to have voted in the Republican primary in 2008, 2010 and 2012. This is a pretty brazen move by Chairman Kevin DeWine and his allies. This rule, if adopted, is clearly intended to make it harder for outsiders to be seated on the State Central Committee, even if they are elected to the position.

The timing of this is no accident. There are two clear goals here.

1. Keep the Tea Party out. And this one isn’t new. Back in 2010, the ORP outraged many conservatives when it used the tea party brand and sent out mailers with a “Tea Party Values” logo that endorsed…Jon Husted. Ohio conservatives know that Husted can hardly be described as “Tea Party”.

Yet, while ORP was associating itself with the Tea Party on paper, they were simultaneously putting incumbent Central Committee members on the mailers to appear as though they were endorsed. The same incumbents that the rash of newly politically active tea party types were running against. Ohio Liberty Council described it as a declaration of war against the Tea Party and a violation of committee rules and state law.

(4/24/10): The Ohio Republican Party (ORP) after spending more than a year “Missing In action” as the Tea Party movement fought against the bailout, Cap and Trade and the Health Care bill, has finally swung into action. It is bombarding Republicans throughout the state with cards endorsing candidates for the State Central Committee in order to defeat … not liberal Democrats … but Republicans from the Tea Party movement.

A suit has been filed with the Ohio Elections Commission about the perceived violation of party rules and state law with these endorsements, which have not been authorized by the ORP’s governing board. In an initial review, the OEC ruled that there is “Probable Cause” and ordered that the case be held by the full Commission. In his defense, ORP Chairman DeWine argued that it was perfectly acceptable for the Party to endorse incumbents. However one incumbent who has a reputation for standing on principle against DeWine (Rousseau), was not endorsed by the Party; instead the Party endorsed his challenger.

So, even 2 years ago, the ORP was asking tea partiers for their votes and claiming that their preferred establishment candidates had “tea party values”. But when some of those same voters wanted to get involved by running for a seat on the committee,

they were told that they weren’t welcome.

Also to be discussed at the upcoming, besides the proposed amendment: endorsing all the incumbents again.

It also is possible that the central committee could take up a proposal tabled at a previous meeting that would call for the endorsement of all incumbent central committee members for re-election in the March primary.

Now, with this new proposed rule, they’re planning to go even further to keep the Tea Party out.

2. To protect Kevin DeWine’s Chairmanship. The ORP knows that many of this years challengers to committee incumbents would vote against him in the next election for chairman. What better way to protect yourself than to create a new rule to make it harder for new people to the party to be seated on the committee?

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Republican Party chairman wants to change the rules for who can serve on the party’s state central committee, a proposal that comes about a month before GOP voters elect the next 66-member group.

The move could help Chairman Kevin DeWine fend off a challenge to his leadership. DeWine and Gov. John Kasich are locked in a messy election-year battle for control of the party.

Perhaps the most outrageous part of this is the outright brazen timing. Candidates have already filed for the election. They’re already on the ballot! The election is only 5 weeks away. What are they going to do if a person is elected, but doesn’t meet their new rule? At least one candidate has already been identified as not meeting the proposed new criteria. They’re creating a recipe for chaos.

But apparently Kevin Dewine doesn’t care, as long as it helps him hold on to his chairmanship. He obviously isn’t confident about his fortunes, and is doing all he can to rig the system. This is just another example to add to the mountain of evidence that

Ohio conservatives can’t trust Kevin DeWine."...

=================

Nov. 8, 2006, Rush Limbaugh on the Bush crowd selling out to democrats

Afghan woman is killed by her husband and mother in law for giving birth to a daughter-BBC

2012-01-30T10:07:00.004-04:00

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The mother-in-law tied the 22 yr. old's feet together while her husband strangled her.

1/30/12, "Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl'," BBC

"A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter.

The murdered woman's husband, a member of a local militia, is also suspected of involvement but he has since fled.

The murder took place two days ago in Kunduz province. The baby girl, who is now two months old, was not hurt.

The birth of a boy is usually a cause for celebration in Afghanistan but girls are generally seen as a burden.

Some women in Afghanistan are abused if they fail to give birth to boys. And this is just the latest in a series of high-profile crimes against women in the country....

Senior officials told the BBC that the mother-in-law, known as Wali Hazrata, tied the feet of the 22-year old woman, who was known as Stori,

while Stori's husband strangled her."

Rush Limbaugh monologue after Bush crowd got crushed in Nov. 2006: 'no more carrying water for people who don't deserve it'

2012-01-30T08:35:00.011-04:00

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On the day before the Florida primary, we remember Rush Limbaugh's words in Nov. 2006 when Bush "Republicans" (ie 'non-partisan Republicans') handed congress back to the democrats:

1/30/12, "Vanity: Rush it's time to kick over "the bucket"!!!," Free Republic, by Vanity

Vanity: "What is this "bucket"?...You know, the one that carries the GOP's water.

Rush in 2006 after the GOP was handed it's hat, it was you who said,

Wednesday, 11/8/2006 RUSH: “I Feel Liberated” (”from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don’t deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don’t deserve it.”)

Here’s Rush beginning approximately at the top of the third hour monologue:

Rush Limbaugh: “Now, I mentioned to you at the conclusion of the previous hour that people having been asking me how I feel all night long. I got, “Boy, Rush, I wouldn’t want to be you tomorrow! Boy, I wouldn’t want to have to do your show! Oh-ho. I’m so glad I’m not you.” Well, folks, I love being me. (I can’t be anybody else, so I’m stuck with it.) The way I feel is this:

I feel liberated, and I’m going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don’t think deserve having their water carried. Now, you might say, “Well, why have you been doing it?” Because the stakes are high! Even though the Republican Party let us down, to me they represent a far better future for my beliefs and therefore the country’s than the Democrat Party and liberalism does.

I believe my side is worthy of victory, and I believe it’s much easier to reform things that are going wrong on my side from a position of strength. Now I’m liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don’t deserve it, to try to carry the water and make excuses for people who don’t deserve it.

I did not want to sit here and participate, willingly, in the victory of the libs, in the victory of the Democrat Party by sabotaging my own. But now with what has happened yesterday and today, it is an entirely liberating thing. If those in our party who are going to carry the day in the future — both in Congress and the administration — are going to choose a different path than what most of us believe, then that’s liberating. I don’t say this with any animosity about anybody, and I don’t mean to make this too personal.

I’m not trying to tell you that this is about me. I’m just answering questions that I’ve had from people about how I feel.

There have been a bunch of things going on in Congress, some of this legislation coming out of there that I have just cringed at, and it has been difficult coming in here, trying to make the case for it when the people who are supposedly in favor of it can’t even make the case themselves — and to have to come in here and try to do their jobs.

I’m a radio guy! I understand what this program has become in America and I understand the leadership position it has. I was doing what I thought best, but at this point, people who don’t deserve to have their water carried, or have themselves explained as they would like to say things but somehow aren’t able to? I’m not under that kind of pressure.

Am I making myself clear on this, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) No, I’m not lying. Snerdley’s concerned. I’ve not lied about anything I’ve said. Let me try this a different way. (sigh) I’m going to have to think about this. I tried to make it as clear as I can.

I’m not going to eat my own, and I’m not going to throw my own overboard, particularly in a campaign, and particularly when the country is at war — and I’m not going to do it for selfish reasons, and I’m not going to do it to stand out, and I’m not going to do it to be different. I’m not going to do it to draw attention from our enemies. I’m not going to do anything I do so that the Drive-By Media will like me or think that, “Ooooh, Limbaugh has changed! Ooooh, Limbaugh is coming around!”

That’s not my thinking. My thinking is: the left doesn’t deserve to win. My thinking is: the country is imperiled with liberal victory. We may not have the best people on our side, but they’re better than what we have on the left.

There hasn’t been in the ideology in the Republican Party, any conservatism for at least two to maybe four years. You could argue Bush was more of an ideologue in the presidential campaign of ‘04, but in looking at what happened yesterday, it wasn’t conservatism that lost. Conservatism won when it ran as a Democrat. It won in a number of places. Republicanism lost. RINO Republicans, country club blue-blood Republicans, this nonpartisan Republican identity, that’s what went down in flames.”"

End of monologue..."...

Governor Scott Walker's reforms saving Wisconsin taxpayers money while services are running smoothly. Now the union bosses are really mad

2012-01-30T05:27:00.007-04:00

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Public sector unions collect taxpayer money in the form of dues. The unions then use many millions from the dues to back certain politicians. It's simply a money-laundering scheme. If it's not, let them reduce dues to $10 per year instead of $1100.

Winter 2012, "It’s Working in Walker’s Wisconsin," City-Journal.org, C. Schneider

"The unions’ battle against Walker’s reforms has rested on the argument that the changes would damage public services beyond repair. The truth, however, is that the reforms not only are saving money already; they’re doing so with little disruption to services. In early August, noticing the trend, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that Milwaukee would save more in health-care and pension costs than it would lose in state aid, leaving the city $11 million ahead in 2012—despite Mayor Tom Barrett’s prediction in March that Walker’s budget “makes our structural deficit explode.”...

Back in 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to let public employees unionize. The unions spent the next half-century productively, generating lavish benefits for their members. By the time Walker took office in 2011, the overwhelming majority of state and local government workers paid nothing toward the annual contributions to their pension accounts, which equaled roughly 10 percent of their salaries per year. The average employee also used just 6.2 percent of his salary on his health-insurance premium. Among Walker’s reforms, therefore, was requiring employees to start paying 5.8 percent of their salaries, on average, toward their pensions and to double their health-insurance payments to 12.4 percent of their salaries. These two changes, Walker estimated, would save local governments $724 million annually, letting him cut state aid to localities and reduce Wisconsin’s $3.6 billion biennial deficit....

What had the unions most up in arms, however, was a reform that ended mandatory dues for members. Wisconsin unions were collecting up to $1,100 per member per year in these obligatory payments, which they then spent on getting sympathetic politicians elected. In the last two elections, for instance, the state’s largest teachers’ union spent $3.6 million supporting candidates. Walker’s reform meant that government workers could now opt out of paying these dues—savings that could help offset those workers’ newly increased health and pension payments, the governor said. The unions knew that, given the option, many of their members would indeed choose not to write a check—and

that this would strangle union election spending....

The collective-bargaining component of Walker’s plan has yielded especially large financial dividends for school districts. Before the reform, many districts’ annual union contracts required them to buy health insurance from WEA Trust, a nonprofit affiliated with the state’s largest teachers’ union. Once the reform limited collective bargaining to wage negotiations, districts could eliminate that requirement from their contracts and start bidding for health care on the open market. When the Appleton School District put its health-insurance contract up for bid, for instance, WEA Trust suddenly lowered its rates and promised to match any competitor’s price. Appleton will save $3 million during the current school year....

Over the summer, a sign surfaced that the public wasn’t as alarmed by the Walker agenda as the unions would have liked. ...

The manner in which the public unions ran the campaigns was telling. Because they realized that public-sector collective bargaining wasn’t the wedge issue that they’d expected, not a single union-backed ad mentioned it— even though it was the reason that the unions had mobilized for the recall elections in the first place. Instead, the union ads cried that Scott Walker had “cut $800 million from the state’s schools.” This was true, but the ads neglected to mention that the governor’s increased health-care and pension-contribution requirements made up for those funds, just as Walker had planned. That the unions poured nearly $20 million into the races, by the way, validated another argument of Walker’s: that mandatory dues are a conduit through which taxpayer money gets transferred to public-sector unions, which use it to elect Democrats, who then negotiate favorable contracts with the unions. In this case, the newly strapped Wisconsin unions had to rely heavily on contributions from unions in other states. In the end, Republicans held four of the six seats and retained control of the Senate. Democrats nevertheless bragged about defeating two incumbents, but that achievement was more modest than it appeared. One of the Republican incumbents was in a district that Barack Obama had won by 18 points in 2008. The other losing Republican had been plagued by personal problems relating to his 25-year-old mistress. Meanwhile, two of the challenged Republicans, Alberta Darling and Sheila Harsdorf, won more decisively than they had in 2008"....via Instapundit

----------------------------

Ed. note: If Governor Walker finds himself with free time (via recall) in the next few months, how about "Walker for President?"

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NY City Transit just like watching MSNBC or Al Jazeera, they accept ads with particular political view points and turn down others

2012-01-30T04:18:00.018-04:00

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The NYC Metropolititan Transit Authority rejected an ad Ms. Geller thought might at least balance out the anti-Israel ads MTA was running in subways.

1/30/12, "The Civilized Man vs. the MTA Savages," Pamela Geller, American Thinker

"A lawsuit is challenging New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority's restriction of free speech and sanctioning of Jew-hatred in the city's subways. More

Last September, the human rights organization American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), of which I am executive director, filed suit against the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority's restriction of free speech and sanctioning of Jew-hatred in the city's subways. Jew-haters can run ads suggesting that Israel's self-defense is the obstacle to "peace." But our ad calling terrorism against innocent civilians "savage" was banned, deemed "demeaning" and "insulting" to savages. And now, in response to our discovery motion, we have received some highly revealing documents showing how the MTA acted inconsistently and out of political bias in rejecting our ads....
What is so unnerving about the MTA emails is the casual acceptance among MTA staffers of anti-Semitism, their casual acceptance of the anti-Israel ads, and their knee-jerk negative reaction to my simple and true ad. And on a not unrelated note, the e-mails between the mainstream press and the MTA are very cozy. Jennifer Fermino of the New York Post reassures the MTA in a September 20 e-mail that a story about our pro-Israel ads had been set to be on the front page, but was moved off the front page and reduced: "Now its only 7 inch story, very short.""....(MTA emails at link.)
--------------------------------
Here is an MTA Ad scorning the Tea Party, 9/26/11:
Here are ads MTA ran scorning Republicans:
photos of MTA ads via Atlas Shrugs
But the MTA wouldn't run an ad against savage behavior:
photo of ad from Atlas Shrugs
-----------------------

Honor killing stories don't mention they were Islamic honor killings. Father kept daughter out of school for a yr, pleas to police ignored

2012-01-29T22:31:00.008-04:00

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The honor killing court case will cost Canada taxpayers millions of dollars.

1/29/12, "Shafia family guilty of murder; judge condemns 'sick notion of honour'," Globe & Mail

"The murder trial of three Afghan-Canadians accused of drowning four relatives in a so-called “honour killing” came to a cathartic end Sunday afternoon as the defendants were convicted on all charges. ...

The 10-member family – one husband, two wives, seven children who were all Ms. Yahya's progeny – settled in Montreal in 2007 after fleeing Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in 1992 and spending years in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates....

The defendants pleaded not guilty to what the prosecution contended was a carefully planned but clumsily executed quadruple murder, disguised as an accident, committed chiefly to cleanse the Shafia name and reputation of shame brought about by the victims’ rebellious conduct, particularly Zainab’s and Sahar’s interest in boys and dating.

‪The trial began Oct. 20 and in its final weeks it drew big crowds, often lining up well ahead of time for a spot in the 150-seat courtroom.

It was also expensive. A police source directly involved in the case estimated the final tab will run into millions of dollars.‬...

Barb Jagger, 52, who for a couple of weeks shared a cell with Ms. Yahya...

She recalls her cellmate as quiet, pleasant and evidently deeply religious. She would pray five times a day, Ms. Jagger said, and often read the Koran. ...

The fourth person in the vehicle was Mr. Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53, who had entered Canada illegally, posing as his cousin, but who in fact was part of a polygamous marriage....

=====================

One of the now dead daughters feared for her life and asked police to place her in a foster home but they wouldn't. The article won't even say the word Islam. 4 people are dead, the police ignored the girl's plea because everyone is afraid of Islam.

1/29/12, "Shafia’s daughter asked to be placed in foster care prior to murders," Globe & Mail

"The Shafia girls turned to neighbours, school authorities and police to report troubles at home."...

-------------------------------------

This story also refuses to say the word Islam. It says one of the girls had a "Christian boyfriend" but how is that relevant if they won't mention the family is Islamic? It at least reports one daughter was forbidden to attend school for a year and at one point fled to a shelter in fear of her father. No one intervened because they're all afraid of Islam.

1/29/12, "Afghan parents, son guilty in 'honor' killings," AP via MSNBC

"Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret....

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant....Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation."...

Car in which 4 Islamic honor killing dead bodies were found, Canada Press.

Oakland Occupy terrorists break in City Hall, burn American flag, block traffic, throw rocks & bottles at police, damage art work created by children

2012-01-29T22:02:00.009-04:00

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"Domestic terrorists"

1/29/12, "300 Occupy Oakland protesters arrested after clash with California cops," AP via NY Daily News

""These demonstrators stated their intention was to provoke officers and engage in illegal activity and that's exactly what has occurred today," Santana said.

The group assembled outside City Hall late Saturday morning and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects....

Quan said that at one point, many forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children....

Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, echoed Reid's sentiments and said that what was going on amounts to "domestic terrorism."...

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall."...photo AP

Miami Herald makes headline for their guy Romney (who even Soros says is like Obama) with poll that doesn't even focus on GOP primary voter

2012-01-29T10:10:00.013-04:00

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Another Miami Herald fantasy poll they use to make big headlines and say "it's all over." They could have polled 3 Republicans but they don't tell you. They just say they polled people "likely to vote in the general election." Based on that they run a headline that Romney is ahead.

1/28/12, "Poll: Romney holds big lead over Gingrich in Florida," Miami Herald, M. Caputo

"About this poll

The telephone survey of 800 registered Florida voters — all likely to vote in the general election — was conducted Jan. 24-26 for The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, Tampa Bay Times [this is the St. Petersburg Times recently renamed], Bay News 9 and Central Florida News 13.

The poll was conducted by MasonDixon Polling & Research, a nonpartisan, Jacksonville-based company.

The margin of error overall is 3.5 percentage points.

For GOP primary questions, the margin of error is 4.5 percentage points....

Gingrich is badly trailing Romney by 11 percentage points, garnering just 31 percent of likely Republican voters heading into Tuesday’s presidential primary, according to a Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald/Tampa Bay Times [until recently known as the St. Petersburg Times] poll released late Saturday night."...via Free Republic

-------------------------------------------

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/28/v-fullstory/2613266/poll-romney-holds-big-lead-over.html#storylink=cpyvia Free Republic---------------------------------

From the article: Cuban voters in Miami-Dade listen to Rush Limbaugh

"“The Cuban voters here will probably be more homogenous in how they vote than in other parts of the state,” said Dave Custin, a top-tier Miami-Dade political consultant.

“Cubans don’t like to throw their vote away, unless they feel the need to cast a protest vote,” he said. “But Romney does have some problems. Cubans are either Catholic or hard-line Christian-conservative voters. A lot of them don’t like that Romney is Mormon. And they think he’s a Massachusetts liberal. Cubans watch Fox. They listen to Martha Flores at night on Spanish radio. But they listen to Rush Limbaugh during the day.”"...

----------------------------------

1/28/12, "George Soros says there 'isn’t all that much difference' between Romney and Obama," UK Daily Mail, Toby Harnden

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/28/v-fullstory/2613266/poll-romney-holds-big-lead-over.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/28/v-fullstory/2613266/poll-romney-holds-big-lead-over.html#storylink=cpFor GOP primary questions, the margin of error is 4.5 percentage points." via Free Republic

Soros: 'Not much difference between Romney and Obama'

2012-01-29T09:32:00.011-04:00

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1/28/12, "George Soros says there 'isn’t all that much difference' between Romney and Obama," UK Daily Mail, Toby Harnden

"'If it’s between Obama and Romney, there isn’t all that much difference except for the crowd that they bring with them.'
Soros theorised that 'Romney would have to take Gingrich or Santorum as a Vice President and you probably have some pretty extreme candidates for the Supreme Court' but the 'Obama administration is a bit exhausted' so presumably - he implied - a Romney administration would at least have the advantage of renewed vim."

No one fought harder than Senator Obama against moves to halt reckless home loans which ended up destroying the entire world economy.

2012-01-29T09:20:00.005-04:00

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1/28/12, "How I woke up to the untruths of Barack Obama," UK Telegraph, C. Booker

"As a rising young Chicago politician in 1995, no one campaigned more actively than Mr Obama for an amendment to the US Community Reinvestment Act, legally requiring banks to lend huge sums to millions of poor, mainly black Americans, guaranteed by the two giant mortgage associations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was this Act, above all, which let the US housing bubble blow up, far beyond the point where it was obvious that hundreds of thousands of homeowners would be likely to default. Yet, in 2005, no one more actively opposed moves to halt these reckless guarantees than Senator Obama, who received more donations from Fannie Mae than any other US politician (although Senator Hillary Clinton ran him close)."...via Tom Nelson

Hate Crimes in US in 2010 per FBI: 67% against Jews, only 12.7% against Islamists

2012-01-29T07:18:00.004-04:00

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"2010 FBI Hate Crime Statistics," FBI.gov

"Religious bias

Of the 1,552 victims of an anti-religion hate crime:

67.0 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
12.7 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias.
4.2 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias.
3.0 percent were victims of an anti-Protestant bias.
0.5 percent were victims of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
9.1 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion).
3.5 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group)."

via Atlas Shrugs

Under Romney a criminal CO2 lawsuit was filed vs the US resulting in the 5-4 Supreme Court CO2 decision favoring bankers, Mass. v EPA

2012-01-29T05:18:00.040-04:00

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6/26/06, In "Massachusetts v EPA, "Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly is leading the group." Romney AG used "rising sea levels" on Mass. coast as reason to give standing to one state v every other state in the US. The case was first brought in 2003 by the State of Mass. ...4/6/07, "Wall Street understood this. When the EPA decision came down, Entergy stock jumped to an all-time high of $107.52 per share."

6/26/2006, "U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Greenhouse Gas Rules," Bloomberg, Stohr

"The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider a bid by environmentalists and 12 states to force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate car and truck emissions that may contribute to global warming.

The justices today said they will review a lower court decision that said the EPA had discretion under the Clean Air Act to refuse to regulate tailpipe emissions on the grounds that more scientific and technical studies were needed. The Bush administration had urged the court not to consider the case.

High court involvement raises the prospect of new regulations on automakers including General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., companies already facing sales slides. Depending on how broadly the court rules, the case might also affect utilities, which have fought efforts to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases from power plants.

``This case goes to the heart of EPA's statutory responsibilities to deal with the most pressing environmental problem of our time,'' the states and environmental groups argued in their appeal. Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly is leading the group."...

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The Supreme Court 5-4 decision came out a few months after Romney left office, but Mass. brought the suit v the EPA 4 years earlier (in 2003). Romney may smile and say he didn't personally litigate the case. It is also true it was litigated with taxpayer paid state employees during the entire 4 years he was in office, lead by his AG, an employee of Mass. for the purpose of criminalizing every taxpayer in the United States. As chief executive of Mass. Romney could and should have withheld public employees from using taxpayer time on a matter intended to criminalize the entire US.

4/3/2007, "Justices Say E.P.A. Has Power to Act on Harmful Gases," NY Times, Greenhouse

"Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the only way the agency could “avoid taking further action” now was “if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change” or provides a good explanation why it cannot or will not find out whether they do.....

Court cases around the country had been held up to await the decision in this case. Among them is a challenge to the environmental agency’s refusal to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, now pending in the federal appeals court here. Individual states, led by California, are also moving aggressively into what they have seen as a regulatory vacuum....

Even in the nine months since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the first case, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 05-1120, and accelerating since the elections in November, there has been a growing interest among industry groups in working with environmental organizations on proposals for emissions limits....

If the decision sowed widespread claims of victory, it left behind a prominent loser: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who argued vigorously in a dissenting opinion that the court never should have reached the merits of the case or addressed the question of the agency’s legal obligations.

His dissent, which Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. also signed, focused solely on the issue of legal standing to sue: whether the broad coalition of states, cities and environmental groups that brought the lawsuit against the environmental agency four years ago should have been accepted as plaintiffs in the first place....

Chief Justice Roberts said the court should not have found that Massachusetts or any of the other plaintiffs had standing....

Massachusetts, one of the 12 state plaintiffs, met the test, Justice Stevens said, because it had made a case that global warming was raising the sea level along its coast, presenting the state with a “risk of catastrophic harm” that “would be reduced to some extent” if the government undertook the regulation the state sought.

In addition, Justice Stevens said, Massachusetts was due special deference in its claim to standing because of its status as a sovereign state. This new twist on the court’s standing doctrine may have been an essential tactic in winning the vote of Justice Kennedy, a leader in the court’s federalism revolution of recent years. Justice Stevens, a dissenter from the court’s states’ rights rulings and a master of court strategy, in effect managed to use federalism as a sword rather than a shield....

The decision overturned a 2005 ruling by the federal appeals court here."

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Romney as Chief Executive of Mass. was the power behind the criminal lawsuit against the EPA:

"The Case Profile of Massachusetts v. EPA

The following is a case profile of the legal trial eponymously titled ‘Massachusetts v. EPA’:

Date of the Trial: November 29th, 2006

Legal Classification: Administrative Law; this legal field associated with events and circumstances in which the Federal Government of the United States engages its citizens, including the administration of government programs, the creation of agencies, and the establishment of a legal, regulatory federal standard.

Accused Criminal Activity: The following criminal activity and charges were cited by citizen petitioners – via the State of Massachusetts against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within the appeal brought forth subsequent to the initial ruling:

The State of Massachusetts mandated that the EPA was in direct violation of the precepts latent within Environmental Law, which is comprised of statues expressing the regulatory procedures with regard to the mitigation of pollution and the organization of federal measures undertaken in order to protect the collective human health within the United States upon the denial to regulate Greenhouse gasses."

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"This year, Americans spent almost 8.5 percent of their incomes on gas, about $4,155, the highest share since 1981." US Supreme Court Justice Breyer totally on board with it. "Raise the price of oil through the roof," Breyer said.

1/12/12, "Consumer head (Bryson) wants consumers to pay more for energy," Washington Examiner opinion, Murray and Bier

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4/6/07, "Editorial: Ruling on EPA favors Big Energy," Washington Examiner, T. Carney

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Ed. note: Romney was Gov. of Mass., its Chief Executive, from Jan 2003 to Jan. 2007. Romney made Massachusetts the first state to regulate CO2 in Jan. 1, 2006. Under him the state of Massachusetts sued the US government to force regulation of CO2. His current campaign adviser writes this month in the NY Times that we need to raise gas taxes to help global warming. And Romney protested outside a coal plant in 2003 saying the plant "killed people."

Saudi Arabia sharia forces train and finance Nigerian terrorists to enact sharia law by any means necessary

2012-01-29T04:23:00.010-04:00

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"Everyone must abide by sharia or we will kill you, even Muslims. Even if you're my own father you will be killed." We don't need to rule Nigeria but it must observe sharia. The whole world must observe Sharia.

1/27/12, "Boko Haram vows to fight until Nigeria establishes sharia law," UK Guardian, M. Marks

"The Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed almost 1,000 people in Nigeria, will continue its campaign of violence until the country is ruled by sharia law, a senior member has told the Guardian.

"We will consider negotiation only when we have brought the government to their knees," the spokesman, Abu Qaqa, said in the group's first major interview with a western newspaper. "Once we see that things are being done according to the dictates of Allah, and our members are released [from prison], we will only put aside our arms – but we will not lay them down. You don't put down your arms in Islam, you only put them aside."

Qaqa, whose name is a pseudonym, said the group's members were spiritual followers of al-Qaida, and claimed they had met senior figures in the network founded by Osama bin Laden during visits to Saudia Arabia.

The interview comes a week after Boko Haram claimed responsibility for Nigeria's single deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 186 people in the northern city of Kano.

In an audio message posted on YouTube on Friday, the group's current leader, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to bomb schools and kidnap family members of government officials.

"If [security forces] are going to places of worship and destroying them, like mosques and Quranic schools, you have primary schools as well, you have secondary schools and universities, and

we will start bombing them."

Shekau rejected calls for a negotiated peace from President Goodluck Jonathan, who on Thursday called for the shadowy sect to step out of the shadows and engage in dialogue....

The Guardian was able to contact Abu Qaqa through an intermediary from the group's home state. The go-between has been in contact with the group since its inception, and met with its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, several times before he was killed in 2009. For most of the interview he used a voice modulator, but local journalists confirmed that his undisguised voice matched recordings of previous interviews.

Qaqa said Shekau and others had travelled to Saudi Arabia for training and funding. "Al-Qaida are our elder brothers. During the lesser Hajj [last August], our leader travelled to Saudi Arabia and met al-Qaida there. We enjoy financial and technical support from them. Anything we want from them we ask them."

He said recruits from neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger had joined the group. A recent UN report said weapons from Libya may have been smuggled to Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb via Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

Security officials and diplomats in Abuja said they had no evidence of a link with al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, but an official confirmed that "elements of Boko Haram have made contact with external groups". ...

In the decade since it first appeared, Boko Haram has graduated from crude driveby attacks on beer parlours to bombing security buildings in the northern Muslim heartland. Its most audacious attack targeted the United Nations building in the capital, Abuja, killing 25 in August. In recent weeks, Christians institutions have increasingly come under fire. A Christmas Day bomb attack on a packed church just outside the capital claimed almost 40 lives.

But Qaqa said the rights of the country's 70 million Christians, who represent half of Nigeria's population, "would be protected" under the group's envisioned Islamic state. "Even the prophet Mohammed lived with non-Muslims and he gave them their dues." But he said everyone must abide by sharia law: "There are no exceptions. Even if you are a Muslim and you don't abide by sharia, we will kill you. Even if you are my own father, we will kill you."

Speaking fluent but non-native Hausa, the lingua franca across the Sahelian belt on the cusp of the Sahara desert, he said: "It's the secular state that is responsible for the woes we are seeing today. People should understand that we are not saying we have to rule Nigeria, but we have been motivated by the stark injustice in the land. People underrate us but we have our sights set on [bringing sharia to] the whole world, not just Nigeria."

Sharia law is already in place across 12 states in the Muslim-majority north. Few believe the group's radical ideology has traction in Nigeria's mainly Christian south, which is also home to millions of Muslims and has so far been out of the group's reach.

Raising his voice for the only time during the interview, Qaqa denied reports that some governors in northern Nigeria paid the group monthly allowances in exchange for immunity from attacks. "May God punish anyone that said so," he said, before adding that the group has popular support in the north....

"People were singing songs in [northern cities] Kano and Kaduna saying: 'We want Boko Haram'," Qaqa said, describing how the group can blend into the communities in which it operates. "If the masses don't like us they would have exposed us by now. When Islam comes everyone would be happy," he said.

Diplomats say Nigeria's security services are belatedly attempting to gain control of the situation, which was previously dismissed as an internal, northern squabble often fuelled by politicians with personal grievances."...via Weasel Zippers

Gingrich maintains national lead over Romney, Gallup, Jan.22-26

2012-01-28T10:05:00.003-04:00

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1/27/12, "Gingrich Maintaining Grip on New Lead," Gallup Poll, Lydia Saad

Poll dates Jan. 22-26. Nationwide. via Lucianne
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Florida primary pits Tea Party vs cocktail party per Politico

2012-01-28T07:24:00.005-04:00

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Thank heaven for Politico. It's so nice to be pigeon-holed.

1/26/12, "Florida primary pits tea party vs. cocktail party," Politico, Jonathan Martin, Tampa, Fla.

"As the Republican race moves to a state defined by the extremes in recession-era America — where the underwater and unemployed live just a few miles from the 1 percent — a sharp class divide is emerging between the two top contenders.

Mitt Romney’s crowds look like something out of the president’s suite at a University of Florida football game — prosperous, trim, Tattersall-clad, and supportive but not rowdy.

Newt Gingrich supporters, with their spray-painted signs, American flag tees, flip-flops and fanny packs, more closely resemble a group that would fit in nicely playing a few bucks at the dog track.

Exit poll data and unmistakable anecdotal evidence from their events reflects an unfolding campaign in which Romney does best with voters that are a lot like him — wealthy, well-educated and lukewarm about the populist tea party movement. Gingrich is appealing most to Republicans who earn under six figures, make up the core of the middle-class and are worried about their economic prospects

and furious at the establishment.

It’s the Tea Party and the cocktail party.

Tampa attorney Paul Phillips illustrates the gap. He came to Romney’s Tuesday morning State of the Union pre-buttal dressed for a business meeting, sporting a blue pinstriped suit and a smart polka-dot tie.

“I’m an educated elitist,” Phillips said before Romney spoke in a warehouse that has closed during the economic recession. “I mean seriously, I don’t view the tea party with a very good light. Most of them quote the Constitution and don’t understand it. It’s pretty scary, actually.”...

“They were the only two intellectual, credible people in the race. It was obvious that they would be the final two,” Phillips said. “However, given Newt’s past, I just don’t see him as someone I want in the presidency for four years.”

In contrast, Steve Bonnell, an HR manager from Lithia, Fla., said he came with a Gadsden flag and spray-painted "USA Hearts Newt" sign to the Tampa debate Monday because he was "trying to save America."

“He’s able to articulate what the American people are thinking,” Bonnell explained about why he likes Gingrich.

And what’s that?

“We want our country back,” he said. “We want to abide by the Constitution. We’re nearly bankrupt in every sense of the word.”

Republicans prefer to ignore class differences within their auto mechanic and hedge funder coalition, but the establishment vs. insurgency battle between Romney and Gingrich increasingly resembles the beer track-wine track epic battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama."...via Sharon Calvert

Fanatical Obama supporter threatens to kill Sheriff Arpaio

2012-01-28T04:09:00.005-04:00

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"He won't [expletive] with Obama."

1/27/12, "MCSO: Obama fanatic threatens to kill Arpaio," Fox11Arizona.com

"A “fanatical supporter” of President Barack Obama is the prime suspect in an investigation into an Internet death threat against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Adam Eugene Cox, 33, was arrested in Tennessee Friday on an unrelated warrant for assault.

Working with MCSO, deputies in Knoxville, Tenn., served a search warrant and seized evidence from Cox’s home on Friday after an investigation into the death threat came to light in October.

In that threat, Cox stated Arpaio and his family would be killed, according to MCSO. His postings read, in part: “I plan to kill Arpaio first. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out. I promise you this. He won’t [expletive] with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him.”

-----------------------------------

Instapundit says: "Well, given the President’s extremist, eliminationist rhetoric, this sort of thing was bound to happen, I suppose."

6/14/2008, "Obama: ‘If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun’," WSJ. via Instapundit

Sarah Palin: I doubt establishment GOP would 'use same harsh tactics against Obama they're using against Gingrich'

2012-01-28T00:01:00.011-04:00

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Sarah Palin says GOP establishment attacks v Gingrich are really attacks against the Tea Party, independents, and a new order. Gingrich is establishment, but the big establishment is in the tank for Romney. These are the same guys who destroyed this country (the entire Bush crowd), never acknowledged doing so, and don't expect to win the White House anyway (per Rush). If the GOP establishment doesn't want Gingrich, then he must be the winner. It's up to him now. ed.

1/27/12, "Sarah Palin: “this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history”," Legal Insurrection

"Wow.

Sarah Palin just launched a thousand points of fright at Team Romney and the Republican establishment who have been going after Newt’s relationship with Ronald Reagan, via Facebook:

"We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent….

I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008….

But this week a few handpicked and selectively edited comments which Newt made during his 40-year career were used to claim that Newt was somehow anti-Reagan and isn’t conservative enough to go against the accepted moderate in the primary race. (I know, it makes no sense, and the GOP establishment hopes you won’t stop and think about this nonsense. Mark Levin and others have shown the ridiculousness of this.) To add insult to injury, this “anti-Reagan” claim was made by a candidate who admitted to not even supporting or voting for Reagan. He actually was against the Reagan movement, donated to liberal candidates, and said he didn’t want to go back to the Reagan days. You can’t change history….

What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice.

In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 that didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all….

Now, I respect Governor Romney and his success. But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end.

And I question whether the GOP establishment would ever employ the same harsh tactics they used on Newt against Obama. I didn’t see it in 2008. Many of these same characters sat on their thumbs in ‘08 and let Obama escape unvetted. Oddly, they’re now using every available microscope and endoscope – along with rewriting history – in attempts to character assassinate anyone challenging their chosen one in their own party’s primary. So, one must ask, who are they really running against?" via Free Republic

Drudge Report Boycott Thread at Free Republic

2012-01-27T23:52:00.003-04:00

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1/27/12, "Official Drudge Report Boycott Thread," Free Republic

Interesting comments. (I was banned from Free Republic many years ago but still read it. ed.)

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Arizona Tea Partiers greet Obama limo. In sharp contrast to leftists who greeted George Bush in 2001, not a single egg was thrown

2012-01-27T22:20:00.007-04:00

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In 2001 leftist mobs attacked George Bush's inauguration. No one complained. Today, if Tea Partiers politely stand with a sign greeting Obama's limo in Arizona they're promoting violence, are racist, and harming America. (good photos at link)

George Bush 2001 Inauguration Day with eggs. More Tea Partiers in Arizona in Feb. 2009.

via Instapundit, link to Bush riots via icarizona commenter

Romney's Mass. AG filed lawsuit to force US government to regulate CO2 in 2006, yielded decision Obama is using to shut down economy

2012-01-27T12:44:00.010-04:00

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"An artist’s rendering of Supreme Court oral arguments in Mass v. EPA, Nov. 29, 2006. The picture sits on the wall of (then Mass. AG lawyer) James Milkey’s courthouse office."

9/30/10, "Mr. Mass v. EPA: An Interview with the Man Who Put Climate Change on America’s Legal Map," Yale Climate Media Forum

Romney made Massachusetts the first state to regulate CO2. Under him the state of Massachusetts sued the US government to force the regulation of CO2. His current campaign adviser writes this month in the NY Times that we need to raise gas taxes to help global warming. And of course Romney protested outside a coal plant in 2003 saying the plant "killed people." But of course NONE of this means that Romney will do what he's been doing for years as a carbon copy of Soros.

Romney epitomizes the end of the line for the so-called Republican Party. Special thanks to the entire Bush family. Romney was Mass. Gov. from Jan. 2003 to Jan 2007.

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Spain's unemployment rises to 22.8% in 4Q 2011

2012-01-27T06:22:00.003-04:00

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1/27/12, "Spain's unemployment total passes five million," BBC

"The National Statistics Institute said 5.3 million people were out of work at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter.

The rate rose from 21.5% in the third quarter to 22.8% - the highest rate in nearly 17 years."...

Most say Supreme Court should reject Health Insurance mandate, Kaiser poll-WSJ. Jackass Romney couldn't care less.

2012-01-27T06:11:00.004-04:00

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Poll conducted Jan. 12-Jan. 17.

1/26/12, "Poll: Most Say High Court Should Reject Health Insurance Mandate," WSJ.com

"A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that more than half of Americans say the Supreme Court should rule that the health overhaul law’s requirement to have health insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional.

The poll by the nonpartisan foundation found that 54% of those surveyed said the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate while only 17% said the court should uphold it and 29% either didn’t know or didn’t answer.

Republican opposition to the Democrats’ 2010 health care overhaul law is intense, with 73% of Republicans having an unfavorable view of it. By contrast, 62% of Democrats view it favorably....

The poll, conducted from Jan. 12 to Jan. 17, has a three percentage point margin of error."...via Weasel Zippers

GOP House 'leaders' ceding control to Senate on major legislation, bypass normal floor process in House

2012-01-27T06:04:00.002-04:00

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1/26/12, "Let the Full House Decide Major Legislation," RedState.com, Daniel Horowitz

"In recent months, there has been a disturbing trend among House leaders to jettison the floor process in the House in favor of a shortcut straight to conference committee with the Senate. They claim that this is needed in order to finish all the “must-pass” legislation on time. In reality, they are undermining their own majority in the House, while abdicating gratuitous power to the Senate. You would think that Republicans would be eager to leverage the power of the House – the one body they control – as much as possible. Instead, they have shown that their desire to forge deals supersedes transparency, as well as the leverage of their own conference."...

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New home sales down UNEXPECTEDLY in Dec. 2011. Total 2011 worst on record since 1963-Bloomberg

2012-01-27T05:43:00.009-04:00

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"Stocks reversed gains after the figures."...Median price of new home down 12.8% in Dec, 2011. Fewest new homes on the market in US history in Dec. 2011.

1/26/12, "Sales of U.S. New Homes Unexpectedly Decline in December," Bloomberg

"Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in December for the first time in four months, capping the slowest year on record for builders.

Purchases of single-family properties decreased 2.2 percent to a 307,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for a rate of 321,000 home sales. Last year marked the worst year for the industry in records going back to 1963....

Following a lull in 2011, a wave of foreclosures may hamper the recovery in real estate as more distressed properties are put on the market.

“Builders continue to contend with a number of existing homes that are deeply discounted,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina....

Today’s figures underscore the Federal Reserve’s view that the housing market is holding back the U.S. expansion. In 2011, builders sold 302,000 homes, down 6.2 percent from 2010. Sales in the Northeast and West were also the lowest on record, while purchases in the South were the weakest since 1966.

Stocks reversed gains after the figures. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.1 percent to 1,324.92 at 10:46 a.m. in New York after climbing as much as 0.6 percent earlier. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.95 percent from 2 percent late yesterday.

Economists’ Projections [November revised down-Ed.]

Projections from the 75 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 309,000 to 350,000. The government revised November sales to a 314,000 rate from a previously reported 315,000.

The December decrease in new-home purchases was led by a 10.1 percent drop in the South, the biggest decline since May 2010. Sales also fell in the Midwest. Demand increased 46.7 percent in the Northeast, a rebound from the 16.7 percent decrease the previous month.

The median price of a new house purchased last month declined 12.8 percent, the biggest drop since February 2009, from December 2010 to $210,300, today’s report showed.

The supply of homes at the current sales rate increased to 6.1 months’ worth from 6 months in November. There were 157,000 new houses on the market at the end of last month,

the fewest on record."...

via Instapundit

Warren Buffett's hard luck secretary just bought a second home

2012-01-27T05:27:00.002-04:00

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1/25/12, "Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home," TheSmokingGun.com, via BigGovernment

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Claim 'most scientists agree' on man-caused climate change and CO2 is patently false, candidates should know- WSJ, 16 scientists sign

2012-01-27T02:23:00.017-04:00

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"Follow the money." Some scientists won't speak up for fear of being demoted 'or worse.' We've had "no warming for well over 10 years."

1/27/12, "No Need to Panic About Global Warming," Wall St. Journal opinion signed by 16 scientists

"There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy."

"Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article:

"A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

Perhaps the most inconvenient fact is the lack of global warming for well over 10 years now. This is known to the warming establishment, as one can see from the 2009 "Climategate" email of climate scientist Kevin Trenberth: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't." But the warming is only missing if one believes computer models where so-called feedbacks involving water vapor and clouds greatly amplify the small effect of CO2.

The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause. Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.

The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere.

Although the number of publicly dissenting scientists is growing, many young scientists furtively say that while they also have serious doubts about the global-warming message, they are afraid to speak up for fear of not being promoted—or worse. They have good reason to worry. In 2003, Dr. Chris de Freitas, the editor of the journal Climate Research, dared to publish a peer-reviewed article with the politically incorrect (but factually correct) conclusion that the recent warming is not unusual in the context of climate changes over the past thousand years. The international warming establishment quickly mounted a determined campaign to have Dr. de Freitas removed from his editorial job and fired from his university position. Fortunately, Dr. de Freitas was able to keep his university job.

This is not the way science is supposed to work, but we have seen it before—for example, in the frightening period when Trofim Lysenko hijacked biology in the Soviet Union. Soviet biologists who revealed that they believed in genes, which Lysenko maintained were a bourgeois fiction, were fired from their jobs. Many were sent to the gulag and some were condemned to death.

Why is there so much passion about global warming, and why has the issue become so vexing that the American Physical Society, from which Dr. Giaever resigned a few months ago, refused the seemingly reasonable request by many of its members to remove the word "incontrovertible" from its description of a scientific issue? There are several reasons, but a good place to start is the old question "cui bono?" Or the modern update,

"Follow the money."

Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet. Lysenko and his team lived very well, and they fiercely defended their dogma and the privileges it brought them.

Speaking for many scientists and engineers who have looked carefully and independently at the science of climate, we have a message to any candidate for public office: There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to "decarbonize" the world's economy. Even if one accepts the inflated climate forecasts of the IPCC, aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically.

A recent study of a wide variety of policy options by Yale economist William Nordhaus showed that nearly the highest benefit-to-cost ratio is achieved for a policy that allows 50 more years of economic growth unimpeded by greenhouse gas controls. This would be especially beneficial to the less-developed parts of the world that would like to share some of the same advantages of material well-being, health and life expectancy that the fully developed parts of the world enjoy now. Many other policy responses would have a negative return on investment. And it is likely that more CO2 and the modest warming that may come with it will be an overall benefit to the planet.

If elected officials feel compelled to "do something" about climate, we recommend supporting the excellent scientists who are increasing our understanding of climate with well-designed instruments on satellites, in the oceans and on land, and in the analysis of observational data. The better we understand climate, the better we can cope with its ever-changing nature, which has complicated human life throughout history. However, much of the huge private and government investment in climate is badly in need of critical review.

Every candidate should support rational measures to protect and improve our environment, but it makes no sense at all to back expensive programs that divert resources from real needs and are based on alarming but

untenable claims of "incontrovertible" evidence.

Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris;
J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting;
Jan Breslow, head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University;
Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society;
Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences;
William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton;
Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.;
William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology;
Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT;
James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University;
Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences;
Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne;
Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator;
Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem;
Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service;
Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva."

via Climate Depot

Rally for Egypt Revolution in Times Square, Jan. 21

2012-01-26T15:07:00.004-04:00

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1/26/12, "Jan 21-Times Sq: Global Day in support of Egyptian Revolution ( vid and pics)," TheSilentMajority.wordpress.com, AmericanValues

Many more great pictures from Silent Majority website, via Atlas Shrugs

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Al-Qaida forces partnered with US taxpayers in Libya ouster of Gaddafi, al-Qaida and allies now rising from Gulf of Aden to Suez Canal

2012-01-26T14:31:00.009-04:00

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1/24/12, "America and the Arab Spring," CarolineGlick.com (originally published in the Jerusalem Post)

"The same literalist approach that has prevented Western observers from reading the writing on the walls in terms of the Islamists' domestic empowerment has blinded them to the impact of Egypt's political transformation on the country's foreign policy posture. US officials forcefully proclaim that they will not abide by an Egyptian move to formally abrogate its peace treaty with Israel. What they fail to recognize is that whether or not the treaty is formally abrogated is irrelevant. The situation on the ground in which the new regime allows Sinai to be used as a launching ground for attacks against Israel, and as a highway for weapons and terror personnel to flow freely into Gaza, are clear signs that the peace with Israel is already dead - treaty or no treaty.

Egypt's transformation is not an isolated event. The disgraced former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived in the US this week. Yemen is supposed to elect his successor next month. The deteriorating security situation in that strategically vital land which borders the Arabian and Red Seas has decreased the likelihood that the election will take place as planned.

Yemen is falling apart at the seams. Al-Qaida forces have been advancing in the south. Last spring they took over Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province. In recent weeks they captured Radda, a city 160 km. south of the capital of Sana.

Radda's capture underscored American fears that the political upheaval in Yemen will provide al- Qaida with a foothold near shipping routes through the Red Sea and so enable the group to spread its influence to neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Al-Qaida forces were also prominent in the NATO-backed Libyan opposition forces that with NATO's help overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in October. Although the situation on the ground is far from clear, it appears that radical Islamic political forces are intimidating their way into power in post-Gaddafi Libya....

He (Obama) and the country he leads are looked upon with increasing contempt and disgust throughout the Arab world....

As al- Qaida and its allies rise from the Gulf of Aden to the Suez Canal; and as Mubarak continues to be wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher, the US's rapid fall from regional power is everywhere in evidence." via commenter on Atlas Shrugs

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Politico and Media Matters: 'By any means necessary' we will be the only voice

2012-01-26T14:07:00.009-04:00

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Some on the right praised Politico when it first came out and now realize they were made fools of.

1/26/12, "Media Matters: The Unpaid Research Department of Politico," Big Journalism, John Nolte

"Whether they choose to acknowledge it or not, everyone in media understands what Media Matters for America (MMfA) is really about.

MMfA is an online group of modern-day book burners, a tax-exempt gang of bullies and propagandists dedicated to snuffing out conservative political opinion from the national discourse. To accomplish that goal, the George Soros-funded organization uses boycotts, intimidation, and the like.

Another of Media Matters’ obvious goals is to affect the mainstream media’s political narrative using these same tactics. Any story that might damage the left is immediately targeted by MMfA, using outright lies and half-truths.

The bottom line is that Media Matters is not dedicated to correcting or clarifying or illuminating truth; they’re dedicated to a left-wing political agenda which they intend to achieve

by any means necessary, including outright blacklists and censorship."...