The Emmys Sink to a New Low
Family Guy has been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Continuing with the Emmy tradition of validating shows that bash family, religion, and moral values, the Academy put the icing on the cake with "Family Guy." It's based on jokes that are meant to offend and entertain the lowest common denominator.
It's a show that had one character wear a “McCain/Palin” pin on a Nazi uniform lapel; that, shortly after his passing from Alzheimer’s, joked that former president Ronald Reagan was gay; that included a scene about horse semen and bestiality. When creator Seth MacFarlane has been at a loss for quality material (often) he’s reached for the quick Jesus joke.
Now he’s got an Emmy nod for it.
With this nomination, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has completely given up trying for credibility, and instead focused on perpetuating morality-free television by recognizing "Family Guy" as "outstanding."
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Anti-Tea Party Correspondent's Contract Not Renewed by CNN 
The last time we saw CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen, she was arguing with folks at the April 15 Tea Party in Chicago claiming the event was "anti-government, anti-CNN [and] highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox."
Although CNN officials won't blame the decision specifically on this event, the network has decided not to renew her contract.
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FLASHBACK > THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2009
CNN Correspondent Claims Tea Parties 'Anti-Government,' 'Anti-CNN'
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Unsafe at any screed
If like me you have found some hybrid owners to be a bit in your face with their left wing self righteousness, a new insurance industry survey shows some other labels may also fit.
Hypocrite, road hog, speed demon and accident prone come to mind after reading the analysis of the driving habits of 360,000 vehicle owners prepared by San Francisco based Quality Planning Corporation.The result: Hybrid drivers typically drive farther, get more tickets, and have significantly more expensive insurance claims. [PC index, blk to blu, l2r post]
Owning a supposedly environmentally friendly hybrid may actually help increase the number of nonessential trips drivers take, offsetting all the supposed ecological benefits of owning a hybrid.
What makes this even more ironic is that many insurance companies offer discounts to hybrid owners. That is likely to change.
Quality Planning Corporation provides data to insurance companies to help them adjust their rating structures...
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Monday, July 20, 2009
safe-sender repost
Pictures not downloading in Email? Allow images by adding us to your Safe Sender List, or view it in your Browser.
Remembering Apollo 11
40 years ago, three human beings - with the help of many thousands of others - left our planet on a successful journey to our Moon, setting foot on another world for the first time.
The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than one day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2 1/2 hours - but they were surely historic hours. Scientific experiments were deployed (at least one still in use today), samples were collected, and photographs were taken to document the entire journey.
Collected here are 40 images from that journey four decades ago, when, in the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: "In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind". (40 photos total).
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Apollo 11 hoax: one in four people do not believe in moon landin
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A quarter of Britons believe the Apollo 11 mission moon landings in 1969 were a hoax.
Eleven of the 1009 people surveyed thought Buzz Lightyear was the first person on the Moon.
Eleven per cent of people polled thought the Apollo programme was a recent as the 1980s, with just 68 per cent knowing that the first moon landing took place in 1969.
"If one in four Britons today don't believe the moon landings ever happened, then I'm afraid that says a lot about one in four Britons. And what it says isn't very complimentary."
He pointed out that moon rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts were very similar to those returned by a series of unmanned Soviet probes.
"The Apollo moon landing is mankind's most outstanding engineering event so it's deeply worrying that such a large number of people should think the first moon walk never happened and that the public's belief in the legitimacy of science and technology seems to be declining over time."
Veteran astronomer Sir Patrick Moore said about those who believe the moon landings were a hoax:
"If ignorance is bliss they must be very happy."
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Lunar orbiter photographs Apollo landing sites
Forty years after the Apollo 11 voyage to the moon, NASA released photographs from the new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft Friday showing five of the six Apollo landing sites. Shadows cast by the Apollo descent stages are clearly visible and in some cases, the moon walkers' paths can be seen in the disturbed dust.
Reconnaissance Orbiter. The scene is 925 feet across.
"We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill - and to see how well the cameras had come into focus," Mark Robinson, principal investigator of the LRO's main camera, said in a statement. "Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus."
Launched June 18, the Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter braked into an initially elliptical orbit around the moon on June 23. It eventually will be maneuvered into a circular 31-mile-high orbit, allowing it to photograph surface features - including the Apollo landing sites - with three times greater resolution than the pictures released Friday.
[More fakes > Apollo 11, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landing sites ]
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ABC's Greenburg: Sotomayor Not 'Liberal Activist' But 'Almost Conservative'
described herself differently, sounding almost conservative.”
[You can't make this stuff up.]
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WaPo Mag Editor: 'Any Latina Could Make a Better Decision Than a White Man'
In today's "She Really Didn't Say That, Did She?" segment, a contributing editor to Washington Post magazine claimed that if Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor were being really honest with America,
"[S]he probably would want to say, 'Not only do I mean a wise Latina, I meant any Latina could make a better decision than a white man could.'"
With that in mind, appearing on CNN's "Campbell Brown" Wednesday, Areu made statements that if made by a white person would certainly be deemed racist (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t NBer dronetek):
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Sotomayor wins 3 GOP senators' support
Three Senate Republicans endorsed Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court on Friday, giving increased momentum to securing President Obama's choice a place on the high court by early August.
Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, joined veteran Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Olympia Snowe of Maine in support of the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court. The senators dismissed allegations from some of their GOP colleagues, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that Sotomayor had shown herself to be a partial jurist... [snip]
Some candidates for other offices used Thursday's conclusion of her confirmation hearings as an opportunity to appeal to Latino voters. Christopher Christie, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, quickly announced his support. But McConnell, who had hinted at his opposition in Senate floor speeches leading up to the hearings, issued a harsh verdict.
He said her previous speeches were a more important barometer of her future rulings than what she told the Judiciary Committee...
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Clinton Urges Global Fight on Terrorism
By VOA News US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged US support in the global fight on terrorism Saturday, as she met with victims of last year's terror attacks in India's commercial city, Mumbai.
[Well, at least she's not using 'overseas contingencies against man-made disasters'.]
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The Gang That Couldn't Shoot -- Period
Last weekend, the New York Times reported that after 9/11, the CIA developed a "secret counterterrorism program" to train hit squads to kill top al-Qaida leaders. It seemed like good news to me. After all, why bankroll an intelligence agency if you can't use it to kill an enemy against whom America has declared war? [snip]
The part of the story that undermined the story: The covert program "never became fully operational, involving planning and some training that took place off and on from 2001 until this year." In plain English that means: Nothing happened -- and no one 'informed' congress because they don't (and aren't required to) share every idea they're kicking around... [snip]
The House Intelligence Committee is now laying the groundwork for a formal investigation. If so, the committee might start by probing how it is that Intelligence Committee members didn't know about a plan that had been reported on the Dec. 15 2002 front page of the New York Times... [snip]
The message to agency staff may be unintended, but it is clear: If there's anyone left at CIA headquarters who wants to defeat al-Qaida, that person would be well advised to hire a lawyer first...
[Some way to fight a war.]
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Tax Increase on 'Rich' People Planned by House Democrats Would Strike More Than a Million U.S. Small Businesses
More than a million small business owners and about two-thirds of the profits earned by U.S. small businesses would be hit by the income tax increase on the ''rich'' that House Democratic leaders want to enact to pay for the health-care reform plan President Obama wants passed this summer...
[Exactly the wrong thing to do at this time {again}.]
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News Media Ignore Impact of Health Care Reform on Small Business
BMI's Julia A. Seymour discussed the media's sparse reporting on health care reform's impact on small businesses July 16 on the Fox Business Network.
"If you look at last night's evening news coverage of this health care reform bill, or as you, you called it, uh, wealth reform bill, two networks out of three ignored the plight of small businesses altogether. "
Seymour also told Varney the news media "constantly attack the wealthy" and get "caught up in class warfare rhetoric.""It's no surprise that they wouldn't be going out and looking for business owners who are going to be damaged, by tax increases or higher regulation in this health care bill."
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Obama wants to be able to set Medicare reimbursement rates
The White House is asking Congress to give the executive branch more power to limit Medicare's rising costs. A White House letter to top lawmakers on Friday said the move would be "a critical step forward" in controlling health care costs and providing better care.
The proposal would allow an independent advisory board to recommend changes in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, hospitals and other providers. If the president approved the recommendations, Congress could still vote to reject them altogether. But Congress could not approve some recommendations and reject others.
Is there anything this president doesn't want control of? Has America ever had a president more interested in controlling all aspects of citizens' lives than Obama?
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House Panel Votes Huge $500 Billion Tax Increase; Networks Couldn't Care Less
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The House Ways and Means committee approved a half-trillion dollar tax increase overnight, but the ABC and NBC morning news shows offered only a single sentence to the development, while CBS’s Early Show skipped it entirely.
Neither NBC’s Today nor ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned the tax increases $544 billion price tag, as each newscast folded the development into larger pieces on President Obama’s push for health care “reform.”
MRC’s Geoff Dickens noted that neither the Guthrie piece nor a subsequent segment with NBC’s David Gregory on health care specifically mentioned the tax increase, although Gregory had time to dwell on the “sentimental” push on Capitol Hill to quickly ram through a health care bill in the next few weeks as an homage to ailing liberal Senator Ted Kennedy...
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Biden at Forum: ‘We’ve Got To Spend Money To Keep From Going Bankrupt’; It's Not News at AP
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Today Joe Biden was in Alexandria, VA, and said, as reported by CNS News:
People look at me and say, "What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we've got to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" The answer is "Yes,"I'm tellin' ya.
Anyone with a fifth-grade sense of journalism would know that Biden's statement is newsworthy.
But the Associated Press reported on Biden's Alexandria appearance. Here are the first three paragraphs of the wire service's unbylined story:
[All supportive fluff...][snip]
The AP didn't think Biden's incredible statement was newsworthy; it must see part of its job description as "covering Joe Biden's tracks as much as possible, even if we look like ignorant fools when we do it."
The "Essential Global News Network" ought to be renamed the Apparatchik Press.A related entry [with video] is at BizzyBlog.com.
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Obama's stimulus plan is not working
President Barack Obama's plan to attack the recession through massive deficit spending is not producing the results the president promised in February when he convinced the American people to go deep into hock in the name of creating jobs and boosting economic growth.
Obama is well into spending the $787 million approved by Congress for his stimulus programs, and yet the unemployment rate is still climbing and economic recovery remains elusive...
[It was never about economic recovery {tax cuts and regulatory liberalization bring that}. It was and remains about expanding government power - how else to explain it?]
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'Obama vs. Obama on the Stimulus'
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"Obama, then and now" summary of what the president said to get the stim bill passed back in February and what he's saying now.
Irrefutable to anyone honest enough to recognize deliberate deception when they hear it.
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ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SETS UP GREEN POLICE IN BRITAIN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SETS UP GREEN POLICE IN BRITAIN
The Environment Agency is creating a unit of about 50 auditors and inspectors, complete with warrant cards and the power to search company premises to enforce the British Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which comes into effect next year, says the London Times.
Decked out in green jackets, the enforcers will be able to demand access to company property, view power meters, call up electricity and gas bills and examine carbon-trading records for an estimated 6,000 British businesses. Ed Mitchell, head of business performance and regulation at the Environment Agency, said the squad would help to bring emissions 'under control':
- The central unit, based in Warrington, Cheshire, can call on the agency's national network of hundreds of pollution inspectors, many of whom will soon be trained in CO2 monitoring.
- It will also be able to demand energy bills from utilities without the companies under investigation knowing they are being watched.
- Perhaps most worrying for managers will be the publication of an annual league table ranking companies by performance in cutting emissions.
- The government hopes the potential shame of a lowly placing will drive organizations to greater energy efficiency.
[Global Warming Canard: a mechanism to control all activity...]
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Will Dems allow Goldman to manipulate a cap-and-trade market?
Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street leviathan that is heavily invested in the cap-and-trade carbon market scam, has admitted it has developed and used software that can 'manipulate' such financial markets...
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Media Ignore Boxer's Racist Treatment of Black Chamber CEO
On Thursday, NewsBusters asked if the media would notice Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.) being called out by the CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce for her racist and condescending treatment of him during a Senate hearing.
Such seemed a particularly important question as this disgraceful event occurred on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP.
Yet, according to LexisNexis, not one major media outlet other than FNC thought it was at all newsworthy that Harry Alford called Boxer "God-awful" for pitting the opinions of other black organizations against his.
You think this would have been boycotted, especially on the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, if Boxer had an "R" next to her name instead of a "D"?
For those interested in hearing more from Alford, he was interviewed by LA radio host and Sarah Palin documentarian John Ziegler Friday, and made some comments about Boxer I guarantee media will also ignore (video embedded below the fold, h/t Hot Air):
Audio: Harry Alford calls Barbara Boxer a racist
If you thought Harry Alford had decided to forgive and forget the treatment he received from Barbara Boxer, think again. The chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce told John Ziegler on his KGIL radio show that the Senator treated him like “some ignorant jigaboo up there,” and flat-out called her a racist. In fact, Alford said that she’s worse than the explicit racists with whom he’d dealt over the years:
video
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Why Democrats Win, Why Republicans Lose
Why are the Democrats winning? Because they are not politely inert.
Barbara Boxer’s rude and imperial treatment of Black Chamber of Commerce head Harry Alford not only shows the disdain many liberals hold black American, it also showed why the Republican party has become incapable of convincing the American people that their a better choice.
Sitting to Boxer’s right at the committee hearing was Senator James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma. Inofe’s behavior during the dust-up is a veritable microcosm of everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party. Instead of sharing in Mr. Alter’s indignation and directly challenging Boxer on an attempt at political persuasion bordering on racism, Senator Inhofe was politely inert.
Why are the Democrats winning? Because they are not politely inert. Readers may recall an exchange between Boxer and Inhofe back in 2007 during which Boxer directly confronted and scolded Inhofe in front of a smiling Al Gore during Senate committee meeting on Global Warming.
Democrats are visceral about their beliefs and they confront, challenge, and “get in the faces” of their opponents. By doing this they control the debate on issues that will shape the future of America. When Republicans refuse to get outraged they send a dangerous signal to the public: maybe conservative beliefs just aren’t worth defending.
Senator Inhofe had a glorious chance to help defend a black man under assault by the imperial Senator Boxer. He failed, and for a crucial moment, so did the conservative movement.
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Only ABC Cites 'Devastating' CBO Judgment & 50%+ Tax Rates to Pay for Health Care
[Credit where due - and it's Tapper again...]
Of the broadcast network evening newscasts on Thursday only ABC's World News related how, as Jake Tapper put it,“Congress's chief budget analyst delivered a devastating assessment yesterday of the health care proposals drafted by congressional Democrats,”
Tapper relayed how the Tax Foundation determined it would push top tax rates to over 50 percent in most of the country, and that “if the President signed the House bill into law, which he has not ruled out, he would be breaking this campaign promise.” Viewers then saw a clip of Obama from last September: “Everyone in America, everyone, will pay lower taxes than they paid in the 1990s under Bill Clinton.”
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[Jake's really in danger of losing his invite to the White House Correspondence Dinners...
FLASHBACKs >
ABC's Jake Tapper Hits Obama for Specifics on Health Care Plan
Kudos: Jake Tapper Critical of Obama's 'Tiny' Budget Cut Efforts
ABC Offers Skeptical Take on Obama's Stimulus Claims; CBS, NBC Uncritical
Janeane Garofalo: There Is Almost No Liberal News Outlet in America
"[T]he media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing."
[Right: and our MSM being center-right explains why it's constantly giving her airtime.
You can't make this stuff up.]
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Friday, July 17, 2009
Al Qaeda American Terrorist Condemns,Mocks Obama in New Audio Tape
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An American who left the United States to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia is strongly condemning President Obama’s efforts to seek “a new beginning” with the Muslim world, mocking Obama's “magic of charisma” and warning of more attacks against U.S. interests."...pretend to extend your hand in peace, we cannot and shall not extend our hands, rather, we shall extend to you our swords.
READ MORE
[Meanwhile, in America...]
FLASHBACK >
Cheney's Top Ten Points Every American Should Consider
It's indisputably an achievement of the Bush administration that it prevented the US from being attacked after 9/11. By ramming this point home, Cheney tees things up for some very tough questioning of Obama in the event that the US is attacked again..
Journalist Tells of Harrowing Protest Experience...
Over the last few weeks dozens of Iranians yearning for a more democratic government, striving to beat back the oppressive Mullahs, desperate to live free, have been killed in the streets of Iran during democratic protests. In China Uighurs and members of the religious sect Falun Gong are constantly attacked, imprisoned, tortured and killed for their ethnicity or beliefs by Chinese officials. Not long ago Buddhist Monks were killed by police for their protests in the streets of Myanmar. And on a nearly daily basis, members of the Taliban are killing villagers for not observing their oppressive rule in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We live in times of violent protests tearing at some of the most oppressive governments in the world. And so, Australia's ABC fielded a report about one "violent" protest experienced by one of its own reporters. Was it murderous Islamists attacking villagers? How about Chinese thugs killing ethnics? Perhaps it was an Iranian Mullah ordered massacre of citizens wanting democracy that frightened her so much?
Uh, no. It was Orthodox Jews - that spit on her.
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RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE: GOOD INTENTIONS, BAD POLICY
[Unless you work for the government]
Minimum wage advocates argue that increases are needed to reduce poverty for the "working poor," and that these increases can be implemented without negatively impacting employment. The reality, however, is that increases in the minimum wage come with serious negative costs, particularly for those workers whom the increases are intended to help, says the Fraser Institute.
The most damaging consequence of minimum wage increase is that employers respond by reducing the numbers of workers they employ and/or the numbers of hours their employees work. In other words, minimum wage increases result in higher unemployment for low-skilled workers and young people.
In Canada, 14 studies have reviewed the effects of minimum wage increases in the Canadian provinces, specifically British Columbia. According to Fraser:
- A 10 percent increase in the minimum wage is likely to decrease employment by 3 percent to 6 percent among all young workers.
- Those individuals earning between $8 and $10 an hour will see the greatest effect and 4.5 percent to 20 percent will lose their employment.
- Even for those workers who retain their employment after the minimum wage increase, they are likely to see a drastic decrease in the amount of hours worked.
Additionally, the Journal of Labor Economics found that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would decrease on-the-job training for unskilled workers by two percentage points. This will entrench them in the unskilled workforce, decreasing chances for vertical mobility.
[Ah, but in America virtually all government unionized employees' compensation is 'indexed' to the federal minimal wage, meaning every time it goes up so does the pay of every 'represented' public employee. This is why they keep passing such increases despite their obvious lunacy.]
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MANDATING UNEMPLOYMENT: CONGRESS PREPARES TO KILL MORE JOBS
There's been a long and spirited debate among economists about who gets hurt and who benefits when the minimum wage rises. But in a 2006 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, economists David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine, and William Wascher of the Federal Reserve Bank reviewed the voluminous literature over the past 30 years and came to two almost universally acknowledged conclusions:
- First, "a sizable majority of the studies give a relatively consistent indication of negative employment effects." [I.e., for every 10% increase, there's 2% job loss]
- Second, "studies that focus on the least-skilled groups (i.e., teens, and welfare moms) provide relatively overwhelming evidence of stronger disemployment effects." [I.e., it's predominantly minimum wage earners that get sacked]
Proponents argue that millions of workers will benefit from the bigger paychecks. But about two of every three full-time minimum-wage workers get a pay raise anyway within a year on the job. Meanwhile, those who lose their jobs or who never get a job in the first place get a minimum wage of $0. [worse than '0', they typically start/continue drawing on some form(s) of government assistance - from contributor to consumer - a huge delta] And single mothers without jobs also lose out on other benefits provided by programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Consider a single mom with two kids who earns the current $6.55 minimum at a full-time, year-round job:
- In 2009 she receives a $5,028 EITC cash payment from Uncle Sam -- or about an extra $2.50 per hour worked.
- Other federal income supplements, such as the refundable child tax credit, add another $1,900 or so.
- Thus at a wage of $6.55 an hour, her actual pay becomes $10.02 an hour -- more than a 50 percent increase from the current minimum.
But that single mom can't collect those checks if she doesn't have a job, and the tragedy of a higher minimum wage is that it will prevent tens of thousands of working moms striving to pull their families out of poverty from being hired in the first place.
[Who cares? As long as the government labor unions are kept happy...]
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image toon mny bbro bdd = Pelosi putting up min wage increase during layoff meeting
'Green guidelines' are unaffordable
As if the real-estate market wasn't depressed enough and taxes weren't high enough, the House last week passed the controversial cap-and-trade, global-warming bill that among many other things would require households and businesses to retrofit their buildings to meet new strict "green guidelines"
Retrofits would cover everything from air quality to energy and water usage, and would require the use of government-approved "green" supplies and materials...
[It's not just the biggest tax increase in the history of the planet {literally}, it's also the single largest assault on individual liberty that has ever been attempted in America {at least, by Americans}.
It must be defeated - speak loudly and often...]
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Then >
"OPPOSE WAXMAN-MARKEY CAP-&-TAX BILL"
Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
OBAMA BLOCKS NEW ENERGY EXPLORATION
Although the President regularly expresses verbal support for a comprehensive energy plan, his Administration has demonstrated that no matter how many Americans are out of work, it will continue to take steps to proactively discourage certain types of economic development -- including the creation of natural gas jobs, oil drilling jobs and nuclear jobs.
Exactly a year ago, President Bush issued an executive order lifting the ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and opened the door for new energy production and the creation of millions of new energy jobs in our country.
But today -- July 14, 2009 -- a defacto ban remains in place only because the Obama Administration has actively blocked the new five-year leasing program which would open areas for offshore exploration and development. The Obama Administration's decision has prevented:
Americans from enjoying 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs annually across the country and $70 billion in additional wages each year.
And the federal government from receiving over $2.2 trillion in total tax receipts -- revenue that would go a long way towards addressing the historic $1.8 trillion deficit .
In addition to obstructing the creation of future American energy jobs, the Obama Administration is also eliminating current energy jobs. On February 4th, the Interior Department withdrew areas offered for 77 oil and gas leases in Utah that thousands of Utah citizens were depending on for employment.
Environmentalists may cheer the Obama Administration's obstructionism as a victory against "Big Oil" but the truth is that fewer drilling leases equal lost jobs, higher unemployment, a higher national deficit, and increased dependence on foreign oil.
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NINE-MONTH WAIT FOR ARTHRITIS TREATMENT:
Thousands of rheumatoid arthritis sufferers in the United Kingdom face a lifetime of agony because they are not being treated quickly enough through the government-run Nathional Health Service, according to a new report by the National Audit Office:
- Guidelines state that patients should receive treatment within three months of the first symptoms appearing.
- But the average wait is nine months -- and general practitioners (GPs) are not trained well enough to know what help to offer.
- There is no cure, but experts say that if arthritis is diagnosed in the first three months, drugs can be given which limit its progression; this means the disease will not be as painful as it would have been if the condition was diagnosed later.
This is a nasty disease, a progressive auto-immune disease, which attacks otherwise healthy joints. Early symptoms are joint pain and stiffness and it leads to inflammation and loss of strength. It also affects other parts of the body, such as the heart and lungs, and is also associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
The report found that the average length of time from the onset of symptoms to treatment has not improved in the past five years.
[The inevitable evolution of government run health care.]
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ABC's John Stossel: 'I Hate It That ABC Didn’t Run My Piece'
John Stossel on Monday blogged about the fact that ABC bumped a planned segment of his that is skeptical towards universal health care, saying, "Yes, I am sick of the coverage of Michael Jackson. I hate it that ABC didn’t run my piece." According to TV Newser, the report, which would have aired on the June 26 edition of 20/20, has now been rescheduled for the July 17 edition of the show.
The five minute segment will look at the problems that countries such as Canada and Britain have faced with government-run health care. In an online version of the story, Stossel (see file photo above), Andrew Sullivan and Andrew Kirell wrote,"In England, shortages of dentists have caused hundreds of people to wait in line just for an appointment. The queues can be so long that some people have resorted to pulling out their own rotting teeth, using vodka and pliers as tools."
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The long game plan
As much as the Republicans have been suffering from the electoral blues lately, a different kind of an affliction seems to be rising in Democratic ranks. It's called overconfidence. Exhibit A is the title of a new book by Democratic consultant James Carville: "40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation."
[To start: have less than half of Americans pay federal income taxes, make them dependent on the government for their health care, use environmoralism to control every aspect of their lives and implement some form of 'fairness doctrine' to silence decent, and it's literally possible: a permanent Democrat majority.]
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What is DOJ hiding in the New Black Panther case?
Republican Congressmen want to know the answer although Democrats seem perfectly content to have a bunch of thugs physically blocking access to polling places, using racial slurs and carrying nightsticks.
To try and find out why the Obama Justice Department dropped the case (or at least to get them on record saying it was for political purposes), a group of prominent GOP lawmakers have dispatched a letter to the DOJ Inspector General asking him to look into the matter.
This Washington Times editorial aptly titled "Flak Panthers" has the details
But there really isn't much of a mystery why the case was dropped after the defendants offered no defense and the Department had a slam dunk win in its grasp; one of the local New Black Panther party defendants was carrying credentials at the time of his arrest indicating he was a member of the local Democratic party committee.
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FLASHBACKs >
Return of the Black Panther
Justice is stonewalling on voter intimidationU.S. Commission on Civil Rights Demands Answers on Voter Intimidation Case Dismissal
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Bias you can BET on
During a commercial break, they gave a news update. An announcer said,"They tried to get the Bronx kid, Sonia Sotomayor, but she beat them".
There was not one mention of Sotomayor's controversial racist statements.
Thus, black viewers who don't follow the news closely are led to conclude that those "evil racist white republicans" are at it again trying to block a person of color.
I wonder how BET reported the Democrats' trashing of black, Clarence Thomas and Hispanic, Alberto Gonzalez? [snip]
With the majority of black Americans getting their news from black and white liberal-biased media, there is very little chance of them hearing the truth. Fortunately, I escaped the liberal plantation in the early 90s when I started listening to brilliant black conservatives like Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams.
I thought, "Why haven't these guys ever been featured on Oprah or honored at the NAACP awards?"
[Recommended > ]
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CNN's Toobin: 'Preposterous' to Believe in 2nd Amend. Right Back at Harvard
During CNN’s coverage of the Sotomayor hearings on Wednesday, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, a graduate of Harvard Law School, implied that the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision to uphold the Second Amendment was revolutionary: “When I was in law school...the idea that you had a Second Amendment right to a gun was considered preposterous....But the Supreme Court [in Heller]...said that...individuals have a personal right to bear arms.”
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[Meanwhile, in the real world...]
Suit Thrown Out That Would Have Stoped Guns In Restaurants Bill
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A judge has thrown out a lawsuit intended to keep Tennessee's new restaurant gun law from going into effect.
A group of restaurant owners went to court Monday to try and stop a new law that would let people carry handguns into restaurants...
[Bet the service improves.]
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50% Say 'Rigged' Election Rules Explain High Reelection Rate for Congress
Why do virtually all members of Congress get reelected despite the public's disapproval of the legislative body they serve in? One answer frequently heard in Washington, D.C. is that “people hate Congress but love their own congressman.”
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 23% of voters really accept this answer. Those 23% believe members of Congress get reelected because they do a good job representing their constituents.
However, 50% believe the high reelection rates result from election rules that are “rigged to benefit members of Congress.” It is worth noting that the word “rigged” is a strong term included in this survey question. The fact that half the nation’s voters believe the election rules are "rigged" is a testament to the high levels of distrust in the country today.
Twenty-eight percent (28%) aren’t sure how to explain the extraordinarily high level of job security enjoyed by incumbent legislators.
[They know, they just weren't sure how to spell gerrymandering.]
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News Executives In The Tank
The network news divisions are enjoying the unprecedented coverage they're providing President Obama, not just because they support him, but because White House specials are cheap and do well in the ratings.
"Obama should change his middle name from Hussein to Nielsen,"
quipped longtime TV reporter Gail Shister (Snip)laudatory coverage leads to popularity, which leads to higher TV ratings, which leads to more laudatory coverage...
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DID YOU KNOW?...
Monday night Democrats voted to shut down the U.S. House Representatives rather than allow a handful of Republican Congressmen to speak on the floor. What could have been so offensive or frightening about our discourse that Speaker Pelosi felt she had to protect her party by gagging free speech in the House ?
In fact, they had planned to speak on the lack of transparency of the House since Democrats took control... [snip]
So the Speaker obviously feels that if the public is truly aware of her party’s agenda, they will reject it. She is now making sure the public is kept in the dark by trampling the centuries-old democratic traditions of the House.
What are those traditions? Every day that the House is in session, following the final vote of the day, representatives are allowed the privilege of free speech on the House floor in what is known as “Special Orders.” They may speak for one minute, five minutes, or one hour segments, and must request their time in advance. Time is allocated equally to both parties on a first-come basis... [snip]
Instead, Republicans were met with locked doors....
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'We Took Sides, Straight and Simple' Against Palin'
On AOL Politics Daily, long-time White House reporter Carl Cannon bluntly declared that the political press gave Sarah Palin a raw deal in the 2008 campaign, and seriously failed to scrutinize Joe Biden, especially his fact-mangling and odd statements in the vice presidential debate. Cannon summed up:
"In the 2008 election, we took sides, straight and simple, particularly with regard to the vice presidential race. I don't know that we played a decisive role in that campaign, and I'm not saying the better side lost. What I am saying is that we simply didn't hold Joe Biden to the same standard as Sarah Palin, and for me, the real loser in this sordid tale is my chosen profession.'
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Barack Obama Campaign Promise No. 517:
Negotiate health care reform in public sessions televised on C-SPAN
"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. ... What we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."Barack Obama, Town hall meeting on Aug. 21, 2008, in Chester, Va.
So far, substantial negotiations on health reform have been held behind closed doors. These include two agreements with the drug industry and hospitals to reduce costs over the next 10 years. In Congress, some of the committee bill writing sessions have been open, but negotiations are also taking place behind closed doors.
Obama promised — repeatedly — an end to closed-door negotiations and complete openness for the health care talks. But he hasn't delivered. Instead of open talks of C-SPAN, we've gotten more of the same — talks behind closed doors at the White House and Congress.
We might revisit this promise if there's a dramatic change, but we see nothing to indicate anything has changed. We rate this Promise Broken.READ MORE
House orders 'In God We Trust' engraved in new visitor center
Washington - The national motto, "In God We Trust," will be engraved in the Capitol Visitor Center, responding to critics who said Congress spent $621 million on the new facility without paying due respect to the nation's religious heritage.
The House voted 410-8 Thursday to direct the Architect of the Capitol to engrave ''In God We Trust'' and the Pledge of Allegiance in prominent places in the three-story underground center...
[HOW did a 3-story-621-million National visitor center get built without these cornerstones?
A: Intentionally. The only was you can understand how a conservative nation such as our must constantly battle with such liberal activism is that they've infiltrated and dominate so many of our institutions - most notably a) academia, b) the media, and c) government (not elected 'representatives', but bureaucrat 'lifers').
It's why government must be kept as small as possible...]
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India wants births remote-controlled
Mumbai - India intends to harness the passion-killing properties of late-night television to help control a potentially catastrophic population explosion. Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for the country to redouble its efforts to bring electricity to all its huge rural population.''people will watch TV until late night and then fall asleep. They won't get a chance to produce children''
[Worked for America.]
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