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Happy Birthday
To the US
The Cook County
People ask why Republicans hate unions. They should ask why don't the working people the union-Democrat machine hoses hate unions? ~Bob. Excerpt: In print or online Wednesday, this newspaper's latest expose of rampant public pension abuse ought to stir your fury, and your sympathy: fury that pension officials enabled this corruption, and sympathy for the rank-and-file union members, as well as the taxpayers, who are victimized. You'll learn how Chicago
Occupy Wall Street Petting Zoo
Cartoon. ~Bob
Bill would halt pension double dipping by Chicago
Excerpt: Cross' bill would prevent union leaders who receive city pensions from participating in any union pension plan covering the same work period, regardless of where the leader's labor organization is located or how it is structured. Union pension benefits are not public record, but the Tribune and WGN-TV obtained information confirming that at least seven union officials are accruing benefits in multiple pensions and another retired official already is receiving money from two pensions. One labor leader stands to reap more than $400,000 a year from three pensions covering the same time. During his expected lifetime, he stands to receive about $9 million, according to an analysis based on the funds' actuarial assumptions.
Cain Turns Up New Race Card For Democrats
Excerpt: What to do about Herman Cain? This question goes not to the Republican Party, where establishment candidates such as Mitt Romney privately dismiss Cain as lacking the experience, gravitas and resources to beat President Obama and then to soundly govern the country. Herman Cain is not going to be the GOP nominee. Without a serious star-power staff, a ground game, chits to be called in by the candidate or the candidate's influential network of friends of influence, the fat cats sit on their checkbooks until and unless they believe their horse can win. A serious presidential candidate is not one who, like Cain, breaks from campaigning for a book tour timed to coincide with his unlikely quest for the White House. No, Cain is a clear and present danger to the Democratic Party — and its invaluable, near-monolithic black vote. Cain says things such as: "African-Americans have been brainwashed" into voting for the Democratic Party.
Mars had temperatures as high as 64°F in the past
Alert Podkayne. ~Bob. Excerpt: Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have directly determined the surface temperature of early Mars for the first time, providing evidence that’s consistent with a warmer and wetter Martian past. By analyzing carbonate minerals in a four-billion-year-old meteorite that originated near the surface of Mars, the scientists determined that the minerals formed at about 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit). “The thing that’s really cool is that 18 degrees is not particularly cold nor particularly hot,” says Woody Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology and coauthor of the paper, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on October 3. “It’s kind of a remarkable result.”
Herman Cain And His 9-9-9 Plan Steal The Show At Bloomberg/WaPo Debate
Excerpt: Despite all of the media chatter about a Mitt Romney win at Tuesday night’s Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate, the real stars of the show were Herman Cain and his “9-9-9 plan.” While Romney drove the fork deeper into fading rival Rick Perry, aided by Perry’s underwater tape-recorder delivery, it was Cain who gained the most from the debate, deftly deflecting criticisms of his economic plan, which was mentioned a Ron Popeil-esque 25 times during the debate. The folks giving Romney the win last night aren’t thinking like Republican primary voters, who are watching Herman Cain blast through Romney like a high-fiber pizza crust. It’s true that Romney looked more presidential than his rivals last night, but that’s nothing new, and is the thing that has kept him around 20% in the polls for months. The best example of this was when he shushed a flummoxed Rick Perry back onto his nap mat, but Mitt’s strongest moment came during his defense of the hated Romneycare, during which he implied that opponents of his health care law are heartless, telling Perry, “I care about people.” The exchange most certainly damaged Perry, but it didn’t help Romney, at least not with the voters who are deserting Perry and lower-tier red meaters like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. If they wanted someone who looked presidential, they’d already be supporting Romney. Cain, on the other hand, did exactly what he needed to do to maintain his planetary momentum, introducing his 9-9-9 plan early and often. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman‘s “price of pizza” quip might have scored with a general audience (with an affinity for obvious, overdone jokes), but with conservative base voters, it surely registered as the kind of snobbish, dismissive attitude they’ve come to expect from elites.
Cain Vaults to Lead in Poll: Ex-Businessman Passes Perry, Romney Among GOP Voters
Excerpt: Former restaurant-industry executive Herman Cain has catapulted to the lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, as GOP voters grow disenchanted with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and remain wary of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds. Drawn by Mr. Cain's blunt, folksy style in recent debates, 27% of Republican primary voters picked him as their first choice for the nomination, a jump of 22 percentage points from six weeks ago. Mr. Romney held firm in second place at 23%, his same share as in a Journal poll in late August, while Mr. Perry plummeted to 16%, from 38% in August.
"Civil War 'a real fear' in Afghanistan
Excerpt: Former British Ambassador to Afghanistan Sherard Cowper-Coles offers a bleak assessment of ISAF efforts in Afghanistan
HURT: Is
Excerpt: Is America Washington
House approves trade deals with Colombia, Panama, South Korea
Excerpt: The House approved three free trade agreements with Colombia , Panama and South Korea Colombia Panama and South Korea were far less controversial, as these countries are not wrapped up in the legacy of violence against union members that Colombia Hoover
Obama gets win (for GOP job-creating trade policy) as Congress passes free-trade agreements
Excerpt: Congress resoundingly approved long-stalled trade agreements with South Korea , Colombia and Panama Colombia and Panama are likely to have limited economic impact, the agreement with South Korea is designed to break down barriers between the United States Seoul last week to protest against the South Korea-US Free Trade Agreement, which is currently awaiting ratification by the South Korean and the U.S. South Korea
Poll Dance by Henry I. Miller
Excerpt: Governing by public opinion is admirable, but not when it’s at the expense of sound policy. The eighteenth-century Irish statesman and writer Edmund Burke wrote that in democratic governments, "Your Representative owes you, not only his industry, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion." In other words, political leaders should lead, a concept that seems alien to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Citing a recent poll that purportedly showed that a majority of Americans expressed doubts about the value of free trade, Kirk explained that the Obama administration would not push for free trade agreements with other countries. Despite the inclinations of the lemmings on
Pennsylvania Avenue
and the ignorance of the American people, free trade overwhelmingly benefits society. It allows a division of labor that encourages countries to focus on those things they produce most efficiently—whether that be manufacturing, technological innovation, agriculture, or the provision of services. Free trade stimulates innovation, raises productivity and creates new wealth, thereby raising living standards. How ironic that the U.S.
The spoiled brat uprising: Bringing the Communist revolution to our doorstep?
Excerpt: Cancel elections! "Take out" the "sons of bitches!" Send capitalists to "re-education [read concentration] camps!" Chop their heads off! Kill the bankers! Kill the rich! Kill your parents! Kill! Kill! Kill! "Occupy Wall Street" rioting is not a self-starter with bored white kids on a lark to rush the calendar for Spring Break (though some such "useful idiots" are in the mix). The whole operation — spreading from Wall Street to other cities — is organized by the Working Family Party, a front for the SEIU/ACORN, allied with Democratic Socialists of America. The attack on America United States United States America
Perry backers worry time is running short
Excerpt: Rick Perry supporters are nervous that the Texas Massachusetts
Why Herman Cain can win
Excerpt: Let’s start with this basic fact: Herman Cain isn’t the most likely person to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. That’s Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts
Needed: Skilled Immigrants
Excerpt: Oct. 1 marked the beginning of the new term for recently issued H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. H-1B visas are three-year, once-renewable, employer-sponsored visas designed to allow highly skilled specialty workers into the country for employment. Only 85,000 H-1Bs are issued every year, but as of early September barely more than half of them have been snatched up. Escalating visa fees and unnecessary workplace inspections that catch few fraudsters but impose large costs on businesses are resulting in fewer H-1B petitions being filed, while increasing number of H-1B visa petitions are being rejected by bureaucrats sensitive to political pressures to decrease the number of foreign workers. Combined with the lousy economy, and H-1Bs are more underused than they've been in years. H-1B rules and regulations should be loosened in a poor economy. Highly skilled foreign workers generally create employment opportunities for Americans at large.
Jesse Jackson Jr. Calls for Obama to Take 'Extraordinary Constitutional' Action on Unemployment
Excerpt: File this one under “bizarre.” According to the Daily Caller, on Wednesday, Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson compared congressional opposition to President Barack Obama’s “American Jobs Act” to the Confederate “states in rebellion.” But this isn‘t the most offsetting portion of Jackson Jackson America
Jobs Plan Fails, but Obama Doesn't Get the Message
Excerpt: When President Barack Obama began his Midwest "jobs tour" in August, he set out to campaign for the passage of a yet-to-be-released plan to turn around the country's stagnant economy. But after the details of that plan emerged--more stimulus spending and higher taxes--and when the Democrat-controlled Senate put the measure up for a vote this week, the President's plan was defeated. Even members of the President's own party opposed more taxing and spending as a way of pulling America
Olive Garden: American flag display would disrupt dining experience
Excerpt: Officials with the parent company of Olive Garden restaurants say they're sorry if a decision regarding an Alabama Kiwanis club's desire to display the American flag caused any concern. The comments come after 80-year-old Marti Warren of Anniston said she wasn't allowed to bring an American flag into an Olive Garden for a planned Kiwanis Club banquet in the east Alabama town of Oxford Warren
Arrogant White Liberal Tells Herman Cain How To Be Black.
Excerpt: Watching MSNBC white host Lawrence O'Donnell chastising black presidential candidate Herman Cain for not participating in the 1960s civil rights movement infuriated me. O'Donnell accused Cain of cowardly sitting on the sidelines while blacks and whites marched and protested for black civil rights. How dare this white guy who does not have a clue what it was like to be black in America Jordan Jordan
Excerpt: No one knows where the accusations leveled against Iran Iran planned to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington would amount to an act of war against the United States Bethesda , Md. US convert to Islam, claimed that the murder was “an act of war” and fled to Iran United States France Berlin Iran
Editor, WSJ
Please ask the smelly, unemployed communists and leftists whining about how bad our (relatively) free market is who they voted for. I'll wager heavily that over 90% of them voted for Barack Obama. --John Jaeger (And Obama got more Wall Street contributions than any candidate in history. He doesn’t even stay bought. ~Bob.)
Stop Picking on Me
Excerpt: Remember back in 2008, when 84,000 people gathered at Invesco Field to hear then candidate Obama give his nominating acceptance speech. Apparently, another 40 million people watched it on tv – I was not one of them, by the way. But back then, everyone waited with bated breath for the Messiah to speak. It seems like fewer and fewer people are listening these days. Well, maybe they’re listening, but they’re certainly not hearing. When he’s not campaigning, which he hasn’t stopped doing since 2008 (someone forgot to tell him he won), the President is telling everyone to be civil. Hell, he doesn’t even listen to himself. At one point, he suggests we all learn to “disagree without being disagreeable,” but a few months later, he accuses the Republicans of holding the public hostage by blocking extended unemployment benefits. While pandering to his Spanish-speaking constituents, he tells them “we should punish our enemies and reward our friends” and then sarcastically attacks those, like myself, who want a stronger border, by saying, “maybe they’ll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat.” Ridicule me all you want, Mr. President, but it doesn’t make you look like much of a leader. (I did watch his 2008 Victory speech on TV. As I told a liberal friend who went, it reminded me of Nuremburg. Every time the crowd chanted “Yes, We Can!” in lock step, I heard, “Seig Heil!” Same technique. Bob.)
Anti-war protesters interrupt House hearing
Excerpt: Anti-war protesters waged an intense protest Thursday, interrupting testimony by Pentagon leaders before being forcibly removed by U.S. Capitol Police officers.
Six demonstrators were arrested during a House Armed Services Committee hearing within the Rayburn House Office Building Iraq Iraq
The lie of Jerusalem
The message of the video linked below may seem to be primarily religious.
But from a purely secular standpoint, it's significance is this: Islamists who say that Jerusalem Jerusalem
Maid held for casting “spell” on family
You could make a hell of a Sitcom about the Saudi Religious Police. Except it would create riots, violence and probably murder from members of the Religion of Peace, so no one would have the guts in Hollywood. ~Bob. Excerpt: Saudi Arabia ’s religious police arrested an Indonesian housemaid for casting a magic spell on a local family and “turning its life upside down,” a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom Bisha
Don’t go all Islamophobic on me. All cultures are equally valid. Just tough for her she was in an equally-valid Muslim culture. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that A 12-year-old Christian girl was abducted and raped for eight months. The rapists have not been arrested because of their affiliation with a militant Muslim organization. The police are also refusing to order a medical checkup. The Judicial Magistrate of the area took her statement under section 164 Cr Pc (Criminal Procedure Code) but has not made any orders for her security. One of the rapist claims that he has married the girl but she denies that any marriage took place during her abduction and captivity. The police have warned the Christian parents that it would be better to hand over the girl to her 'legal' husband (the rapist) otherwise a criminal case will be filed against them.
Pop Goes the Green Jobs Bubble
Excerpt: Before his American Jobs Act failed to pass a Senate cloture vote Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a last-ditch speech to talk up his troubled bill. Not once did Obama mention "green jobs" -- his erstwhile jobs of the future. Smart move. Obama's 2009 $787 billion stimulus package included $500 million for training programs that were supposed to create new green jobs for thousands of middle-class Americans. Last month, however, the Department of Labor's inspector general conducted an audit that found that as of June 30 -- with one-third of the funds spent and more than 50,000 participants -- only 10 percent of trainees were placed in jobs. And only 1,336 participants, or 2 percent, had held jobs for six months or longer. The audit reported that grant recipients "expressed concerns that green jobs had not materialized and job placements into subsidized employment had been much less than expected." The inspector general recommended that the Labor Department cut its losses and run -- in Washington-speak. The audit advised that the department reassess grants and "obtain an estimate of funds each grantee will realistically spend given the current demand for green job-related skills" so that whatever is left of the remaining $327 million can be put to better use.
Don’t Tell Me You Were Surprised at Iran
Excerpt: If you thought — as so many of the overnight experts have declared — that there was anything new about Iranian terrorists operating on American soil, forget it. Iranian agents have been busy in this country for quite some time. Just ask the FBI, who within the past few years broke up a very worrisome group of radical Muslims in Washington , D.C. Iran in cahoots with (what the Iranians thought was) drug runners in the United States Tehran Middle East . I think he’s exactly right on this. Ron P.)
The Facts About Clinton
Smuggled Libyan weapons flood into Egypt
Excerpt: Large caches of weapons from Libya are making their way across the Egyptian border and flooding black markets in Egypt ’s already unstable Sinai Peninsula , according to current and former Egyptian military officials and arms traders in the Sinai. Egyptian security officials have intercepted surface-to-air missiles, most of them shoulder-launched, on the road to Sinai and in the smuggling tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip since Moammar Gaddafi fell from power in Libya in August, a military official in Cairo Israel Gaza could add significantly to the threat against Israel Libya
Who's behind the
Wall St.
protests?
Excerpt:
Anti-Wall Street
protesters say the rich are getting richer while average Americans suffer, but the group that started it all may have benefited indirectly from the largesse of one of the world's richest men. There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America
My message to Herman Cain
It looks like Herman Cain may well be our next president, and he is infinitely better than Obama, no doubt. But whether he wins or not may depend on how well he articulates solidarity with the growing no. of people on both sides of the political spectrum who now understand that the Fed played a major role in the world economic crash -- by setting artificially low interest rates during the housing bubble that drove prices to the sky and ruined banks when it popped, and then by forcing the public to accept the idea of bailouts for failed banks, which helped bring about the biggest sovereign debt in history. http://www.hermancain.com/contact-us
I agree with your message, but I wanted to let you know that the unelected Federal Reserve and its total power to print money and set interest rates is now perceived by a growing no. of Americans as a threat to the world economy. Why am I telling you this? Because if the Democrats coopt this issue, you will have to be able to deliver a strong message to show you will try to bring the Fed under the control of Congress. Americans are not buying any more "we know best" and bailouts. You may squeak by anyway even if you don't make a good showing in this issue, but the risk is high that you will lose if you try to ignore it or minimize it. --Don Hank
Predator-in-Chief: Once the war on terror’s fiercest critic, Obama has become its deadliest practitioner.
Excerpt: We are in a long war against radical Islamic terrorism. The struggle seems almost similar to the on-again/off-again ordeals of the past — such as the French-English Hundred Years War of the 14th and 15th centuries, or the Thirty Years War between Catholics and Protestants in the 17th century. In these kinds of drawn-out conflicts, final victory will go to the side that responds best to new challenges. And we’ve seen a lot of those since 9/11, when the United States America Yemen
Congress, Governors Nix Obama’s High-Speed Trains: They know high-speed rail doesn’t make sense for America
Excerpt: Dead. Kaput. Through. Finished. Washed up. Gone-zo. That, I think, is a fair description of the Obama administration’s attempt to build high-speed-rail lines across America
Excerpt: He was a fairly well dressed and sometimes well spoken middle-aged man and, having given me the typical anti-corporate screed, he wanted to talk about Walt Disney. This piqued my interest. But then he surprised me: “Walt Disney,” he said, “was a whore….How much money have they made out of Snow White….Why can’t we start using it in mashups or whatever…?” Leaving aside the possibility that anybody who chooses to make the availability of copyrighted video footage the central feature of their revolutionary platform most likely has too much time on their hands — it is the equivalent of responding to Marie Antoinette’s apocryphal “let them eat cake” with an inquiry as to which flavor she was offering — the conversation that followed perfectly highlighted the basic difference in attitude between those on the statist left and those on the free-market right. As Kevin Williamson might say, it basically comes down to risk. Walt Disney made a lot of money from Snow White, something my new friend considers unfair. But then Walt and his brother Roy also took a lot of risk. Originally estimating that the movie would cost $250,000 to make, the final bill ended up at around $1.5 million, in 1937 dollars. During the three grueling years of production, Walt was almost universally laughed at for his ambition, including by his wife and brother. In Hollywood
Interesting. ~Bob. Excerpt: It was the one question in the Bloomberg-Washington Post debate that gave away the game. A source close to, but not in, the Bachmann campaign told me it was that question when he realized the game was over for Michele Bachmann. It was that one question that, according to a source close to the Perry camp and a source close to the Cain camp, raised a red flag for the Romney campaign and shows just how worried the Romney camp is about the race consolidating. It was that one question that also shows why the Romney campaign is, behind the scenes, furiously pushing states to move up their caucuses and primaries. That one question spoke louder to more people than all the other questions asked Tuesday night. And in that question lies Michele Bachmann’s ultimate defeat and Mitt Romney’s Achilles heel. Yes, one question did all that. Find out what that question was in this week’s horserace.
Regulatory Burdens Destroying Farming Industry
Excerpt: While Obama is touting more spending — and also more regulation — PJMedia has teamed up with AmericanJobCreators.com (AJC) to detail the impact of regulation on job creation in the United States, and to show how an actual jobs bill would require no spending, just a rollback of regulatory burdens. We first looked at the impact of regulations on the trucking industry. Today’s article focuses on farming. (…) While they are not as close to the land as subsistence farmers, modern farmers still are connected to it in a way city dwellers, however environmentally conscious, cannot be. Once again, farmers who do not try to operate in a sustainable manner don’t remain farmers for long, and many of those two million family farmers have been on the same land for a century or more. (…) Average annual small business compliance costs have soared to more than $10,500 per employee. These job creators deserve common-sense regulatory relief, so that they can invest their hard-earned money and time into putting America Great Britain
The Rich Aren’t Getting Richer: Actual super-wealthy households saw their income decline.
Excerpt: Are the rich really getting richer? That’s a pretty standard line from the Left, a lament usually cited in the course of calling for higher tax rates. Robert Reich is particularly fond of this mode of attack: A recent post of his was headlined, “For 70 years, the wealthy have grown wealthier.” Professor Reich probably doesn’t write his own headlines, but it’s a common enough sentiment for him, and his prose is rich with phrases such as “the super-rich got even wealthier this year.” He isn’t alone in employing this mode. Take this from an April 7 Salon article: “And surely the rich don’t need that 25 percent top rate in the way poor folks need programs like TANF and seniors need Medicare — about 90 percent of all American income gains since the 1970s have gone to the top 10 percent of earners.”
Obama: Iranian government knew of assassination plot, no options off table
Excerpt: President Obama said Thursday that Iranian government officials had knowledge of a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Iran
Tweets
Nathan Wurtzel: Death, taxes, and "financial downturns blamed on Jews" are the three certainties in life.
ChelseaGrunwald Breaking: Al Gore plans to fly himself, his makeup team, and personal chef via private jet to #OWS to join in the fight against the wealthy.
Top 10 Richest Celebrities Supporting Wall Street Protests
Excerpt: Aw, the sweet smell of dirty hippies and hypocrites in the morning. Newsbusters has a list of the obscenely rich celebrities beclowning themselves as they crawl over to support the Occupests in New York
The idiocy of 'Occupy': Protests will alienate America by George F. Will
Excerpt: The Tea Party’s splendid successes, which have altered the nation’s political vocabulary and agenda, have inspired a countermovement -- Occupy Wall Street. Conservatives should rejoice and wish for it long life, abundant publicity and sufficient organization to endorse congressional candidates deemed worthy. All Democrats eager for OWS’ imprimatur, step forward. In scale, OWS’ demonstrations-cum-encampments are to Tea Party events as Pittsburg , Kan. , is to Pittsburgh , Pa. Brooklyn Bridge Occupy DC ’’ protester wilting in the rain yesterday on a park bench in downtown Washington Washington
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