Tea Partiers unveil results of Contract From America survey

Subject: txt 1st 2010 lbrty


Tea Party Patriots, one of the major groups within the greater Tea Party movement, has posted the results of its Wikipolitics-like effort to give voice to the growing national citizens protest in the form of a Contract From America.

During the past several months, hundreds of thousands of Americans have debated thousands of ideas to solve our nation’s most pressing problems. 454,331 votes were cast. It has been an open process and has provided a genuine opportunity to give voice to a broad cross section of concerned Americans.

The most popular provision of the Contract From America is a requirement that every piece of legislation approved by Congress must include a specific provision of the Constitution that authorizes the bill. This provision was supported by 82 percent of the respondents.

The next most popular provision was rejection of the proposed Cap and Trade anti-global warming bill that would put the federal government in charge of regulating all activities using carbon-based fossil fuels. This provision was supported by 72 percent of the respondents.

The third most popular provision would establish a movement for a balanced budget amendment and a requirement that tax hikes be approved by two-thirds majorities in Congress. This provision drew the support of 69 percent of the respondents.

Show Your Support. Sign the Contract…

http://www.contractfromamerica.org/

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The Revolt of the States

Subject: txt lbrty hstry othr - 2010 -
A major battle is looming over the Tenth Amendment which declares that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Almost everywhere one looks today, the States are in rebellion to the overreaching of the federal government. The process involved is called nullification, a legal theory that a U.S. State has the right to nullify, i.e., invalidate, any federal law deemed unconstitutional. Since the Supreme Court moves at a glacial pace, the States through their legislatures have taken the lead in many cases.

Nullification is not secession as in the case of the Civil War, but there is a history of nullification that includes the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both argued that the States are the ultimate interpreters of the Constitution, arguing that the States could “interpose” themselves to protect their citizens from unconstitutional national laws...

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Senators Vote to Set Aside An Amendment to Ban Earmarks

Subject: txt 1st crpt - libs -
On March 16, the U.S. Senate voted to table, or set aside, a vote for a ban on earmarks. By a vote of 68-29, lawmakers voted against considering the proposal by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. On March 16, the U.S. Senate voted to table, or set aside, a vote for a ban on earmarks.

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Dems Too Scared to Pass a Budget During Election Year

Subject: txt 1st 2010 libs - mny -
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today that Democrats may not 'be able' to pass an actual budget resolution this year because too many members will be skittish about voting for a budget with such a gaping deficit during election season, the Hill reports.

Theoretically speaking, [?!?] Congress is supposed to pass a budget resolution each year...

[Theoretically?]

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Canceled: Hearing That Would Have Grilled CEOs on Health Care

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Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has cancelled a hearing intended to grill CEOs who took a charge against profits because of the health care reform bill. Waxman and others had reacted with outrage and accused the companies of doing it - in essence, to make health care reform look bad.

The cancellation came after they realized what everyone already knew - that the companies were required to do what they did because of accounting rules.

AT&T took a $1 billion charge and other companies including Caterpillar, John Deere, and Valero Energy, and 3M took hundreds of millions in anticipation of the health care bill's financial impact to the companies...

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Hedge fund managers invest on Hill

Subject: txt crpt libs mny -
John Paulson, one of the world’s richest hedge fund managers, has not been shy about spreading his wealth to Senate campaign coffers — or to the chairman of the committee that could directly affect his bottom line. Paulson held a ritzy $1,000-per-head fundraiser for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd last year — and then maxed out his donation with $4,800 more for the Connecticut Democrat’s now-aborted reelection run.

Paulson is hardly alone. According to a review of Federal Election Commission records, the nation’s 10 richest hedge fund managers have dumped nearly $1 million into campaign accounts of senators who’ve given them a friendly reception on Capitol Hill...

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Lift the Fed's veil of secrecy on who got how much bailout money and why

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Washington’s massive and unprecedented $3 trillion taxpayer-funded bailout of failed institutions has given rise to legitimate bipartisan concerns about the nature of the Federal Reserve Bank’s activity, especially given the impenetrable veil of secrecy under which the Fed operates.

The once clear line in America that separates the private sector from the public sector is quickly disappearing, and Washington D.C. is emerging as the financial [?!?], as well as political capital of the country.

In such a troubling climate, the need for government accountability and transparency has never been greater than it is today...

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Obama's Secret Power Grabs

Subject: txt lbrty crpt sclm bbro libs bdd -
President Obama seems to believe that most of his sweeping agenda to transform the country can be accomplished without even a vote of Congress.

Obama has a pattern of sidestepping Congress that will only get worse in the aftermath of the health care fight and the pending financial “reform” legislation.

For a full explanation of all of these threats as well as action items on how to stop them, please check out the interactive version of the chart on www.ObamaChart.com.

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Higher minimum wage, lower earnings

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"In 2007, the United States enacted legislation that incrementally applies the US minimum wage to American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)... American Samoa's private sector economy is largely based on the tuna canning industry, and the closure of one of its two tuna canneries in September 2009 significantly affects the labor market and economy...

Until recently, the garment industry was central to the CNMI economy and employed close to a third of all workers; however, by early 2009, the last garment factory had closed."

The Government Accountability Office.

Source: The Government Accountability Office.

Change in median annual inflation-adjusted earnings in American Samoa from 2006 to 2008: -6%

Percentage of American Samoa tuna canneries that have closed since minimum wage increase: 50%

Percentage of CNMI garment factories that have closed since then: 100%

Fraction of private sector employees who work for employers who plan to close or relocate by the end of 2010: 84%

Source: The Government Accountability Office.

[Again and again: for every 10% increase in an arbitrary minimum wage there's a 2% reduction in employment levels. When you consider the devastating effect an unemployed person has on an economy, such policies are lunacy - yet year after year...]
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Construction Groups Decry Obama's New Union Friendly Policy for Federal Projects

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Advocates for the recession-battered construction industry are lining up to challenge President Obama's new policy backing the use of union labor for large-scale federal construction projects. The policy, which went into effect Tuesday, 'encourages' federal agencies to have construction contractors and subcontractors enter project labor agreements (PLAs) for all construction projects.

Those agreements require contractors to 'negotiate' with union officials, recognize union wages and benefits and abide by collective-bargaining agreements.

Opponents of the policy are calling it a payoff to unions. They say it will unfairly steer federal construction contracts away from non-union shops...

[Exactly. Those not practicing the proper socialist behavior will be punished.]

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California At The Breaking Point

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A new Stanford study says California's public-employee retirement funds are $500 billion in the hole.

It's news that unions and their candidate, Jerry Brown, don't want to hear.

The government union money machine has had a good [for them] run. But increasingly there are signs that it is heading for a crackup with the taxpaying public.

Such an event may occur as early as this November in California, where the machine has had probably its greatest 'success' at the cost of the most fiscal damage...

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California Dems Won't Honor Boy Scouts

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Thousands of Boy Scouts across California will be gathering this weekend to celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting in the Golden State – but they won’t have the blessing of Democrats in the California Legislature.

Assembly Democrats killed a proposed resolution honoring the Boy Scouts of America. The measure died in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. Three Republican voted to support the Boy Scouts — seven Democrats voted against the measure.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Committee chairman Mike Feuer led the opposition – “citing the Scouts’ history of not allowing gays to serve in their leadership.”

Republican Assemblyman Curt Hagman is a former Eagle Scout. He called the Democrats’ action “kind of crazy.”

“With all the resolutions we do here, they’re not all perfect,” Hagman told the Times. “If you don’t support it, just [don’t vote for] it, but to oppose the Boy Scouts on their birthday seems silly.”

[More liberal 'tolerance' for ideas not identical to their own.]

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The Naked Left
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The establishment media, which has been obviously tilted to the left for fifty years, petulantly denies any leftist bias. This utter denial continues more than forty years after Agnew's speech against the television elites in 1969 and in spite of polling data, such as a Gallup poll which shows a huge plurality considering the media more liberal than conservative and a Zogby Poll which shows 64% of Americans seeing a liberal bias in the media.

Why do these elites lie about what they believe? Newspapers used to proudly proclaim their advocacy of partisan positions. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking an editorial stand. The problems of the establishment left media are these:

(1) They do not compete against each other by exposing the stories which are being ignored or tilted, so these clusters of corporations act like constituent parts of a monopoly or a trust, and

(2) they lie about their biases, perversely pretending to be the noble, neutral mediators of public discourse... [snip]

Ordinary people grasp the awfulness of vast legislation pushed through Congress without a single Republican vote and before members of Congress could feel the full dragon's breath of constituent fury.

The left was never more naked than in the crass spectacle last month...

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GOP Reps Offer Bill to Ban Interior Dept. From Hindering Border Agents

The unknown gunman who murdered an Arizona rancher three weeks ago entered and exited the U.S. illegally in an area where border agents are widely prohibited from using motorized vehicles, constructing roads and installing surveillance structures, federal agents have confirmed.

The development prompted four Republican congressmen to introduce legislation on Wednesday that will ban the Interior Department from using environmental regulations to hinder agents along the border, including at the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, a 2,300-acre parcel near where rancher Robert Krentz was killed on March 27 [pictured right] ...

Democrats are expected to block it from a floor vote...

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CNN to Advertisers: We're the Only 'Non-Partisan' Cable Network

CNN, a network known for its consistent liberal bias, is now incredibly touting itself as "the only credible, nonpartisan voice left" on cable television. Elliott noted that this spin was being pitched by the network at a Tuesday morning event for advertisers at the Time Warner Center in New York City. The New York Times writer highlighted the meeting hosted by CNN executives, and their overall strategy...

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Bowing To China

Subject: txt 1st othr 2010 libs - bdd - vals -
At the start of the Nuclear Security Summit, we see an all-too-familiar gesture from our president. Is it a matter of courtesy, an idiosyncrasy or the administration's acceptance of a new world order?

If there ever was an iconic tribute to the idea of U.S. exceptionalism, it was the fact that the American flag was never dipped during the parade of athletes at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. We never dipped or bowed to anybody, with the possible exception of figurehead royalty.

Now we bow to everybody — from Saudi royalty to Japanese emperors to Hu Jintao at the opening of the security summit in Washington on Monday. We also apologize to everybody from the Muslim world to the European community for any past actions or words that may have given the impression we thought America was special...

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MSM Yawns As Leftists Openly Plot To Sabotage Tea Party, Misuse Social Security Numbers

Subject: txt 2010 lbrty msm -
Left-wingers recently unveiled a new website, CrashTheTeaParty.org, aimed at sabotaging the Tea Party movement and inflicting harm on Tea Party supporters by doing Lord-knows-what with their Social Security numbers. Michelle Malkin has identified the creator of the website as one Jason Levin of Portland, Oregon and posted a detailed account of his background and how the website came to be.

Levin told reporters his group has 65 'leaders' in major cities who are attempting to recruit members to infiltrate Tea Party events on tax filing day, April 15, when Tea Party supporters are planning rallies across the nation.

Website supporters say they plan to impersonate Tea Party movement supporters and do things at official Tea Party events aimed at discrediting the movement. They plan to act

“in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV interviews, etc.) to further distance them from mainstream America and damage the public’s opinion of them. We will also use the inside information that we have gained in order to disrupt and derail their plans.”

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Oops: Congress Won't Even Be Able to Keep the Plans They Have Under Obamacare

Subject: txt hcare crpt fnn libs -
"Significant unintended consequences." Who woulda thunk it?

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.

For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.

The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?

Good to see the New York Times is now curious about that question, after the bill has passed.

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Great Minds Think Alike, and So Do New York Times Legal Reporters

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New York Times legal reporter Charlie Savage's original online report on the long-expected retirement of liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (filed Friday afternoon) had a familiar ring to it which went beyond the usual effusiveness the paper bestows on liberal justices.

While noting Stevens held down the left wing of the Supreme Court, Savage twice emphasized the court's "increasingly conservative" nature in his original nytimes.com posting:

[It's been evenly split 4-4 with Kennedy the 'swing' justice. My, that is horrible.]

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POLL: 39% Say Supreme Court Too Liberal, 25% Too Conservative

Subject: txt bbro libs msm -
At the same time, 45% believe that justices nominated by Obama will be too liberal, with seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans saying the president’s nominees will be too liberal, 76% of Democrats saying Obama’s picks will be about right.

But fifty-six (56%) of those not affiliated with either major party expecting the president’s nominees will be too liberal with less than half as many (27%) say they'll be about right.

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Twofer...

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Once upon a Mattress

Great Britain is about twenty-odd years ahead of our country in the race to socialist oblivion.

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The Coming British Non-Election

The coming British election is a total crock, being a "regional" affair only between shades of socializing liberals within an anti-democratic European Super-State.

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Why work when I can get £42,000 in benefits a year AND drive a Mercedes?

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The Davey family's £815-a-week state handouts pay for a four-bedroom home, top-of-the-range mod cons and two vehicles including a Mercedes people carrier.

Father-of-seven Peter gave up work because he could make more living on benefits.

Yet he and his wife Claire are still not happy with their lot. With an eighth child on the way, they are demanding a bigger house, courtesy of the taxpayer.

'We can't afford holidays and I don't want my kids living on a council estate and struggling like I have."

She insists her husband would do any job 'as long as we could still afford the lifestyle we have now'.

Mrs Davey, who spends £160 a week at Tesco, says she does not intend to stop at eight children. Her target is 14.

"I've always wanted a big family - no one can tell me how many kids I can have whether I'm working or not."

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The Scientific Socialism of Today

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A certain kind of mind believes that human beings exist as objects to be experimented upon as society is perfected by the privileged class -- a utopia engineered by elites...

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Ruled by Children

Subject: txt sclm libs - 2010 -
One of my favorite lines from the New Testament appears in Corinthians II, Chapter 13, verse 11: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man, I put aside childish things.” It is hard to shake the notion that Americans have voted a lot of children to serve in Congress and the greatest child of all, Barack Obama, to be our president.

Who else but children would continue to enact new programs that “entitle” Americans to receive all manner of services for which there is no money?

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DECRYING THE UNION PENSION BAILOUT BILL

Subject: txt crpt libs mny -
Sen. Robert Casey (D-Penn.), wants Americans to bail out union pension plans underfunded by hundreds of billions of dollars. Casey's bill, the Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act of 2010, is similar to that of Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), and Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), who seek to bail out pension plans with their proposed Preserve Benefits and Jobs Act of 2009, introduced last fall.

Under these bills, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) would, at the request of the plans, have the authority to take over the pension obligations of employers who have withdrawn from the plans, and pay the benefits out of taxpayer dollars.

By bailing out the plans, Congress would compromise the remedial provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Act requires underfunded pension plans to put their houses in order by raising retirement ages; increasing contributions by employers, workers, or both; and lowering benefits. A bailout would remove any incentive for multiemployer pension plans to reorganize their plans responsibly.

The driving force? Unions, who want to be free of pension obligations so that they can focus on higher wages in future contracts...

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Unions’ Big Shift to Government

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Unionism is failing miserably in this age of a greater world market and an increase in competition for business across the globe. More nations than ever have left behind the 18th century and are taking bold steps into a world made smaller by technology. No longer is but a handful of nations leading the world in manufacturing while the rest wallow in abject poverty. This greater competition is increasing the standard of living in nearly every corner of the earth but because there is so much competition, unions in the U.S. are dying out.

But these antiquated, jobs killing unions won’t go quietly into the night and they’ve found their path to existence: government. Unions are growing wildly in the public sector because there are no market forces to curb their excesses.

Like a criminal racket, the taxpayers are constantly being robbed by politicians to pay unions so that unions can give donations back to politicians only to repeat the cycle. It easily invokes the old idiom of Robbing Peter to pay Paul - and the taxpayers are Peter...

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Special Report: How the Media Have Dismissed and Disparaged the Tea Party Movement

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So how have the supposedly objective media covered one of the biggest political stories in recent years?

The Media Research Center has a new report out today, reviewing every mention of the Tea Party on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening newscasts, Sunday talk shows, and ABC’s Nightline from February 19, 2009 (when CNBC contributor Rick Santelli first suggested throwing a “Tea Party” to protest government takeovers) through March 31, 2010.

Among the major findings:

■ Given its demonstrated influence, network coverage of the Tea Party has been minuscule...

■ Such coverage is piddling compared to that lavished on protests serving liberal objectives...

■ Network reporters were dismissive of the first Tea Party events in 2009: “critics on the Left say this is not a real grassroots phenomenon at all"...

■ After the September 12, 2009 rallies, the networks suggested the Tea Party was an extreme or racist movement...

■ Overall, 44 percent of network stories on the Tea Party (27 out of 61) suggested the movement reflected a fringe or dangerous quality...

■ While network reporters have strained to protect left-wing causes (such as the anti-war movement) with the outrageous acts of individual protesters, they were quick to smear the entire Tea Party based on isolated reports of poor behavior.,,

Given how the networks have provided fawning coverage and helpful publicity to far-less consequential liberal protest movements, their negative treatment of the Tea Party is a glaring example of a media double standard.

Rather than objectively document the rise and impact of this important grassroots movement, the “news” networks instead chose to first ignore, and then deplore, the citizen army mobilizing against the unpopular policies of a liberal President and Congress.

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34% Say They Or Someone Close To Them Part of Tea Party Movement

Subject: txt 2010 lbrty -
Twenty-four percent (24%) of U.S. voters now say they consider themselves a part of the Tea Party movement, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

That’s an eight-point increase from 16% a month ago.

Another 10% say they are not a part of the movement but have close friends or family members who are.

The rise in Tea party support is perhaps not surprising at a time when more voters than ever (58%) favor repeal of the national health care plan just passed by Democrats in Congress and signed into law by President Obama. Most voters remain convinced that the health care plan will require an increase in taxes on the middle class as a time when 66% of voters believe America is already overtaxed.

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Absence of key U.S. allies at summit amplifies doubts about Obama’s foreign policy

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... but for all the hoopla, the event will be missing America’s strongest allies. As remarkable as it is, the fact that neither British Prime Minister Gordon Brown nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are attended President Obama’s nuclear security summit in Washington Monday and Tuesday is astounding, but relations with both countries — Israel in particular — have grown strained under Obama...

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Terror plot targeted Times Square, Grand Central stations

Subject: txt gwot - Source:
New York - The three men accused of plotting to bomb the New York City subway last year planned to attack trains at Times Square and Grand Central stations, a federal law enforcement source said Monday.

Najibullah Zazi and his two co-defendants wanted to inflict maximum casualties around the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The plot was foiled when the FBI began following Zazi and police stopped him on a bridge into New York. Zazi said that prompted him to dump his bomb materials and return to Denver, Colorado, where he was working as a shuttle driver, authorities said.

Prosecutors have said they plan one or two more arrests overseas...

[GWOfT]

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Al Pacino, Katie Holmes spark Muslim protest

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Filming for Al Pacino and Katie Holmes' new movie sparked outrage from local Muslims who protested about their use of the Koran.

According to Page Six, local Muslims had gathered to oppose the use of a prop which referred to Islamic holy book, The Koran. Pacino was shooting scenes for the police thriller Son of No One alongside co-stars Ray Liotta and Channing Tatum in Queens when a group from a nearby mosque came together to complain about a sign mentioning the religious text...

Movie bosses are said to have immediately co-operated...

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IF WE EUROPEANIZE, EUROPE IS IN TROUBLE

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There's been an ongoing debate about whether America should become more like Europe. The battle lines are split almost perfectly along left-right lines ideologically. Liberals like Europe's welfare states, unionized workforces (in and out of government), generous benefits, long vacations, etc. Conservatives like America's economic growth, its dynamism and innovation. Everyone agrees that you can't have Europeanization without European-size governments.

This debate misses something. We can't become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America. Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America. The most obvious and most cited illustration of this fact is national defense:

Europe's defense budgets have been miniscule because Europeans can count on Uncle Sam to protect them. Britain, which has the most credible military in NATO after ours, has funded its butter account with its gun account. From 1951 to 1997 the share of British government expenditure devoted to defense fell from 24 percent to 7 percent, while the share spent on health and welfare increased from 22 percent to 53 percent...


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DID FDR END THE DEPRESSION?

[History]

The economy took off after the postwar Congress cut taxes, say Burton Folsom Jr., a professor of history at Hillsdale College, and Anita Folsom, director of Hillsdale College's annual Free Market Forum...

Congress—both chambers with Democratic majorities—responded by just saying "no."

No to the whole New Deal revival: no federal program for health care, no full-employment act, only limited federal housing, and no increase in minimum wage or Social Security benefits.

Instead, Congress reduced taxes...

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House leaders launch program aimed at increasing racial diversity of staffers

House leaders launched a much-discussed program on Tuesday to increase racial diversity among congressional staff by intensifying recruitment and retention efforts. The initiative, launched by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), comes in the wake of a study that revealed only 13 percent of House chief of staffs were minorities.

The House initiative creates several programs to increase the hiring of top-ranking minority employees, including a diversity-oriented awareness program and a ''resume bank'' 'targeting' diverse candidates...

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Online sites win journalism firsts at Pulitzers

ProPublica, in an historic first for online journalism, won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for investigative reporting about controversial deaths at a New Orleans medical center following Hurricane Katrina. Its recognition marked the first time an online service won a top journalism award given annually by the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University.

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Alleged drunk driver hits judge he faced in 1998

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A man has been charged with driving drunk and hitting the car of a retired Maryland judge who once spared him jail time in previous drunk driving case.

The suspect, 45, was scheduled to be in court Wednesday to face trial on eight charges related to the August crash where he hit a car being driven by retired Montgomery County District Judge Edwin Collier. Collier, 86...

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