Slate Plays Loose With Facts Over Concealed Carrier’s Arizona Actions

-By Warner Todd Huston

Contrary to Senator Moynihan’s proclamation, Slate’s William Saletan thinks he’s entitled to his own facts. If not his own facts, then his own version of history at any rate. Anti-Second Amendment Saletan dreamed up his own little set of incidents and actions in order to castigate pro-Second Amendment supporters by claiming that something that didn’t happen could have happened and that, ipso facto, because it could have the Second Amendment is bad — all this based on his dreamy little dream of an alternate history.

Saletan’s January 11 piece was written after he discovered that one of the citizens that responded once the shooting started in front of that grocery store in Tucson had a concealed pistol and was ready to draw it once he got to the scene. The citizen, Joe Zamudio, had arrived ready to use his firearm and initially thought that the man that actually wrested the gun from the shooter was the gunman. Zamudio, however, assessed the situation, realized that the man holding the gun wasn’t the shooter and did not fire his own gun.

Zamudio pronounced himself “really lucky” that he didn’t start shooting at the wrong person. This is where Saletan’s fantasies kicked in.
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Slate Plays Loose With Facts Over Concealed Carrier’s Arizona Actions”


Board of Review Opens Six Townships for Appeal

From the Office of Commissioner Dan Patlak…

CHICAGO— The Cook County Board of Review has announced dates for filing assessment appeal complaints for property owners in Barrington, Berwyn, Bremen, Calumet, Lakeview, and Evanston Townships. The filing dates for property assessment appeals begin on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 and will end on Thursday, February 10, 2011.

Property owners may appeal their assessments to the Board if they believe that their assessment is too high. A lawyer is not required to file an appeal on behalf of a residential property owner.

Anyone interested in receiving an assessment appeal complaint form can call the Cook County Board of Review at 312-603-5542. Appeal complaint forms can also be picked up in person at the Board, 118 N. Clark in Chicago or printed from our website at www.CookCountyBoardofReview.com.
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Board of Review Opens Six Townships for Appeal”


The Repeal of DADT: To March or to Sashay into the Future?

Paul A. Ibbetson

On December 22, 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law that repeals the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays wishing to serve in the military. DADT was enacted by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and was a considered by many liberals a compassionate turn from the military’s previous ban on gays’ serving in the military. In a somewhat ironic turn of fate, in order to move the homosexual agenda forward Barack Obama would have to classify the social engineering escapades of Bill Clinton to be barbaric. At the repeal signing President Obama said that the new law would strengthen the country’s national security and upholds the values that the military fights to defend. He also spoke about the new law allowing skilled homosexuals who were previously turned away from the military to now join the American fighting forces and increase the ranks of our national defense.

To the case that Barack Obama makes for radically altering the standard of operations for military service, the President stands in complete opposition to the belief system of the founding fathers and the traditional standards of this country. How far is the gap between the value system that guides the current President on the issue of homosexuality in the military than that of the founding fathers?
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The Repeal of DADT: To March or to Sashay into the Future?”


‘Kill’ Lawsuit Loan Shark Bill Editorial Blasts Bill — Help Us Stop it Today!

From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce…

Thanks to your grassroots efforts, we have so far stalled a bill in Springfield that would legitimize an industry of “Lawsuit Loan Sharks” in Illinois.

This weekend, the Chicago Tribune editorial board also weighed in, urging the General Assembly to reject this wrongheaded bill:

Bottom line: The bill would give legal certainty to an abusive practice and put it under a light regulatory scheme where it can flourish — spawning lawsuits galore. Illinois already has a notorious reputation for jackpot justice. Kill the bill.

We agree.
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‘Kill’ Lawsuit Loan Shark Bill Editorial Blasts Bill — Help Us Stop it Today!”


Fox News’ Kirsten Powers Falsely Claims Bush Supported Earlier End-Of-Life Law

-By Warner Todd Huston

On the Sean Hannity Show on Fox News this week, Democrat Kirsten Powers offered some misinformed political analysis. Naturally, her analysis heavily favored the Obama administration’s goals. On the Dec. 27 show Powers insisted that inflamed talk about Obama’s “death panels” was nothing but a cynical spin meant to attack Obama because, she asserted, back in 2008 Bush and his administration supported the end-of-life provisions.

Where was your outrage in 2008 when the Bush administration said that Medicare would reimburse end of life counseling?

Well, was this to be true it would be awfully dishonest of Republicans to be opposing Obama’s death panels now when Bush wanted the same thing, right? Yes, it sure would. Sadly for Powers’ failed analysis, Bush vetoed the very bill she claimed his administration supported.
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Fox News’ Kirsten Powers Falsely Claims Bush Supported Earlier End-Of-Life Law”


As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as the Japanese have abandoned its national emissions trading scheme because they’ve realized how many jobs would be lost as a result of the draconian regulations involved, President Obama continues to claim that he wants to impose similar jobs-killing regulations on America.

Japan initially announced that its national carbon trading scheme was to have been approved in the now concluding parliamentary session. But common sense and business interests have delayed the bill until the next session begins in January putting the future of the law into question.

Japan’s National Strategy Minister, Koichiro Gemba, who was appointed to review the government’s core green policy steps, said the trading scheme needed further careful study, indicating that it had effectively been shelved.

Japanese authorities are coming to realize that the emissions cuts that the island nation had imagined it would achieve will cost jobs and severely hamper their business sector. Stark realizations are dawning on the Japanese that emissions goals would be “nearly impossible to meet” without deep cuts in emissions by manufacturers, the power infrastructure, not to mention homes and business buildings.
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As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It”


An Interesting 10th Amendment Case That Doesn’t Seem Like One

-By Warner Todd Huston

Sometimes standing up for the Constitution seems a bit annoying, especially in the case of violent felon Mrs. Carol Bond. Fortunately, standing for the Constitution here doesn’t necessarily release a horrible woman into freedom, but it does help to spotlight some unconstitutional federal overreach. In this case, it also centers on the Tenth Amendment, or the reserved powers clause.

The violent felon in question, Mrs. Bond, was found guilty of using various chemicals to perpetrate an acid attack on her husband’s girlfriend. She was convicted of mixing several noxious chemicals and throwing them on her rival causing minor burns. Instead of just charging her on state charges of assault and battery or other such things, the federal government decided to step in and prosecute her for violating a treaty governing chemicals signed with foreign governments.

Mrs. Bond’s lawyers have brought this case before the Supreme Court of the United States claiming that due to the Tenth Amendment she cannot be tried for violating foreign treaties because the incident happened inside the borders of an American state and, therefore, her home state has jurisdiction and the federal government does not.
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An Interesting 10th Amendment Case That Doesn’t Seem Like One”


Ending the TSA Madness: Listen Up, Folks, Here’s How You Win the Profiling Debate

-By Selwyn Duke

One thing that saddens me about the TSA security controversy is that we’re missing a great opportunity. Sure, the insanity of patting down three-year-old, blonde-haired lasses and octogenarian grandmothers with prosthesis has caused a great backlash, as more and more people are realizing that our government’s common-sense-blind approach is born of a deadly allegiance to political correctness. In fact, I’ve even heard a few usually very careful pundits float the idea that we should think about profiling Muslims. Unfortunately, though, they invariably drop the ball in the debate.

The problem is that they don’t believe they occupy the moral high ground. Instilled with the idea that advocating “racial profiling” (a propaganda term) amounts to bigotry, they generally back down as soon as someone looks askance at their suggestion. This is especially frustrating to me because I’ve long been promulgating an airtight argument that, not only refutes the racial-profiling propaganda, but also illustrates why the moral high ground actually belongs to our side. So I’ll present the argument again in the hope that it will now receive a better reception. Here it is:
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Ending the TSA Madness: Listen Up, Folks, Here’s How You Win the Profiling Debate”


Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side

-By Warner Todd Huston

They gave him hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaign for president and for that Barack Obama has given Big Labor many, many payoffs, sweetheart deals, and regulatory favors. And this week he met in the White House with members of Big Labor and told them that he was sill on their side.

Even with all the paybacks and special favors that Obama has given to the unions in the fist half of his presidency, Big Labor is suspicious of his fealty and unhappy with his apparently insufficient level of kowtowing. And I have to say, the way labor representatives were treated in this particular White House visit does send a subtle message that Big Labor is not quite the hale fellow well met that it once was.

But don’t be fooled by the artifice.
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Obama Tells Labor, I’m On Your Side”


Will DADT Open The Door For Gay Marriage?

-By Mark Mattingly

What’s that you say, Guy Average? Your headlines are frequently off the wall, but this one takes the cake! Well, not so fast my friend….

The Uniform Code Of Military Justice (UCMJ) prohibits sexual conduct between members of the military unless they are married to one another. Now that DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) has been repealed and homosexuals can now openly identify themselves as homosexual and still serve in the military, it is a short step to a discrimination lawsuit that complains something along the line of “we’re homosexual and we want to serve in the military and we also want to be married so when we have sex we won’t be discharged from the military”, or something like that, you get the drift. It is clear from the story by Verena Dobnik and quoted below that the long-term goal in this is to leverage it to expand homosexual legal rights beyond the scope of the military and into US society as a whole. Here are some comments from the article:
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Will DADT Open The Door For Gay Marriage?”


Republicans Block DREAM Act, Another Old Media Lie

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Old Media is up to its old tricks again, this time making the GOP the fall guy for the failure of the latest immigration bill. Nearly every news outlet is reporting that the Republicans have blocked the DREAM Act, many of these reports even say so right in the headline. The truth, however, is not that the GOP blocked it, but that the Democrats didn’t get all its own members to vote for it.

In fact, if the Democrats could have gotten five more of their own members to vote “yea” the bill would have passed cloture. As it happened they had five members vote no and one didn’t vote at all. If the Democrats could have marshaled all its strength it would have won the day. This is rightfully a Democrat failure, not a GOP blocking, as it should be remembered that the Democrats still have the majority in Congress, enough that if they’d have stayed together on this they could have won.
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Republicans Block DREAM Act, Another Old Media Lie”


Taking a Stand Against Political Correctness

-By Nancy Morgan

Political correctness is loosely defined as “avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.”

In other words, millions of Americans have willingly allowed themselves to be placed in the losing position of continually being forced to prove a negative. “I’m not a racist,” “I’m not homophobic,” “I’m not a greedy capitalist”…ad nauseum.

Political correctness is a hugely successful campaign that has effectively altered traditional standards of behavior in order to advance the political agenda of mostly left-leaning groups. From gay rights, to feminism to open borders, PC rules dictate that you conform with the prevailing group-think at the risk of social ostracism.
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Taking a Stand Against Political Correctness”


Schilling Urges Chairman Skelton to Ban Guantanamo Bay Terrorists From Coming to the U.S.

From the office of Congressman-Elect Bobby Schilling (17th District)…

In letter to Skelton, Schilling opposes new provision in House defense bill that could bring terrorists to our soil

EAST MOLINE, IL–Congressman-elect Bobby Schilling has released the following statement in regard to a new provision in the House defense bill that could bring terrorists to the United States:

“Ike Skelton and Nancy Pelosi have buried a provision in the Defense Authorization Bill that could bring al-Qaeda terrorists to the United States. This is unacceptable. The American people fired Ike Skelton and Nancy Pelosi for these radical, out of touch policies that put Americans in danger. I strongly oppose transferring Guantanamo detainees to The United States and especially any attempt to place them in Illinois, as has been proposed. I support Senator Mark Kirk’s decision to put this bill on hold if it reaches the Senate with the terrorist transfer provision. And, once I assume my position on the House Armed Services Committee, I will fight any attempt to house terrorists on American soil.”
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Schilling Urges Chairman Skelton to Ban Guantanamo Bay Terrorists From Coming to the U.S.”


The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 1

From the Palatine Tea Party

(Palatine, Illinois) – The Palatine Village Council is following in the footsteps of the Obama Administration moving his progressive agenda forward at the local level. At the Village Council Meeting on December 13, 2010 the village unanimously passed its own version of Cap and Trade Ordinance without the “trade”. This would generate an additional $900,000 to offset the Village of Palatine’s 2011 budget shortfall.

2011 Electric Utility Tax

* Electric Utility Tax – Tax based upon consumption of electricity. The taxes are collected by the utility company and remitted to the Village. Those using less electricity will pay less. This is projected to raise $900,000. Village officials see an electricity tax as a stable source of revenue even in poor economic climates.1
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The Village of Palatine Passes Its Own Cap and Trade Ordinance – Part 1″


Democrats Slip Bringing Terrorists to American Prisons into Defense Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senator Mark Kirk (R, IL) is raising a red flag over the defense bill because the Democrat led House of Representatives and Democrat led Senate has slipped in a provision that would allow accused terrorists to be housed in prisons in the interior of the United States.

In an apparent effort to get around the President’s decision to ignore his own deadline to shut down the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba terrorist detention facility, the Democrat leadership included the provision in order to give terrorists and detainees in Guantanamo a place to go so that the Cuba-based facility can eventually — and sooner rather than later — be shut down.

Senator Kirk blew the whistle on this horrible idea and vowed to put a hold on the defense bill until that part gets stripped. Kirk appeared on Chicago’s WLS radio and told hosts Don and Roma why he wanted to put the bill on hold.
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Democrats Slip Bringing Terrorists to American Prisons into Defense Bill”


Our Idiotic Courts: Car Gets Stolen, Then Owner’s Held Liable For Theft, Also Trees Get ‘Rights’

-By Warner Todd Huston

All too often it is an upside down world in our American court systems. Here we have two more stories that really argues for the word “impeachment” to get far more of a workout in our nation than it currently does. In one case, a woman whose car was stolen is held liable for the theft of her own car merely because the keys were inside and in the second, more egregious tale, several courts across the land have decided that trees have “rights” not to be cut down.

First up in our cavalcade of lunacy is the case of the stolen car in Nashville, Tennessee. As it happens a car owned by one Rubye Jarrell was stolen and in the course of the theft and the resulting police chase the thief crashed the car into that of the Newman family. The Newman’s promptly sued the police department for daring to chase a thief. The penchant for people to sue police for doing their job is bad enough but even worse, the owner of the car was also charged with “negligence” because her grandson left the keys in the car “in a high crime area.” This is a crime, apparently, because in this foolish court’s opinion a person that leaves keys in a car is just as bad as a thief that steals a car.

This moronic decision absurdly making the victim just as blamable as an actual thief is yet one more example of our overly litigious society. Was it stupid to leave keys in a car? Sure. Should someone so stupid as to leave their keys in their car be surprised that the car gets stolen? If they are surprised they are doubly stupid. But are they liable for the thief’s actions? Hardly.
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Our Idiotic Courts: Car Gets Stolen, Then Owner’s Held Liable For Theft, Also Trees Get ‘Rights’”


A Detailed List of Earmarks in The Omnibus Spending Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

Pork, pork, pork. It’s enough pork to make a Southside Chicago BBQ joint greasy with envy. Yes, it’s a bacchanalia of pork spending and earmarks in the Omnibus spending bill, for sure, and we now have the database to prove it.

Senator Tom Coburn has posted a Google Spreadsheet data base document on line and there you can see how much the earmark costs us, where it is going, and which of our congressmen asked for the earmark.

There’s One million, five hundred eighteen thousand dollars for animal vaccines in Greenport, New York. There’s three hundred grand for the study of phytoplankton in Boothbay, Maine. Millions going to various drug enforcement programs across the country. Ten mil is being shelled out to the “John P. Murtha Foundation” for… well, just because John was such a prince of a guy. There’s a mil six hundred thou for the “Brain Safety Net,” so that brains can be safe… and stuff. Lots of cash for the study of renewable energy, various road and bridge projects, and educational efforts. Even more cash to the Department of Energy for the “Office of Science” because, well, only government can do science, ya know?

So far there have been 6,715 earmarks attached to the Fiscal 2011 Omnibus Spending bill that Congress is now considering.
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A Detailed List of Earmarks in The Omnibus Spending Bill”


Reid Still Looking to Introduce Forced Unionizing Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

As we discussed a few days ago, Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid still intends to push the bill that wold nationalize all police and firefighter unions.

The bill is titled the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (S 3391) and would force all local, city, county, and state police and firefighter unions to operate under nationalized union rules created by union bosses based in Washington D.C. This bill would take away the power of local governments to control their own first responders and this would necessarily take away all power from you, the voters, too.

Reid tried to get cloture on this one last week but did not get it done. We are still on the watch for him to push this abomination against local control at any time.
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Reid Still Looking to Introduce Forced Unionizing Bill”


FDA: Dec. 17, Countdown to a Death Panel for Breast Cancer Drug Avastin

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a few days the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to release its final decision on whether or not 17,000 women across the country will have the same access to the breast cancer drug Avastin that they now have. Several congressmen, thousands of doctors and patients, and many small government activists stand against this perceived example of Obamacare-like rationing.

As I reported last week, with this Avastin situation five Congressmen have become alerted to the threat that government is instituting cost-based rationing of healthcare and have become alarmed at the effects that will have on the sick. It seems that this FDA decision will set the table for the rationing war to come under Obamacare unless that legislation is repealed or inhibited.

Avastin is, admittedly, an expensive drug. But are we ready for government to decide if your lifesaving medicines are “too expensive” to be allowed for use? Is that the cost-based road down which we wish to travel? And how far down that road do we go? How much cost-cutting do we want government to indulge where it concerns our health? And should government even have that role in the first place?

These are questions that the Avastin decision evokes.
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FDA: Dec. 17, Countdown to a Death Panel for Breast Cancer Drug Avastin”


Supreme Court Justice Breyer: Founders Were For Restricting Guns… Why Breyer is Wrong

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Fox News Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke of his dissenting decisions in the several Second Amendment cases that he heard as a Justice. He told host Chris Wallace that he thought that James Madison only included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as a sop to the states and Breyer insisted that historians agreed. In essence, Breyer was saying that Madison was not interested in an individual’s right to gun ownership and self-protection and for that reason his dissenting opinions against that individual right accorded well with what the founder’s thought on the issue.

But Breyer’s assumption that a citizen’s right to bear arms is not sacrosanct and his following contention that the founders would agree seems to ignore much of the history of the era not to mention the precedents in law and the historical record upon which the founders relied to define their political ideas — including Madison.

Of course, it is a bit ridiculous to take one lone founder’s words and assume that it represents the opinion of all of them. It is quite easy, after all, to find quotes from any particular founder that in no way reflected even a minority opinion of the day. For instance, Thomas Jefferson once advocated that all laws be dumped every few decades so that the next generation could start over with their own ideas unencumbered by past generations. Even Madison thought that idea was absurd. Hamilton found that many of his most dearly held financial ideas left his fellows cold. John Adams thought that we should call the president “your majesty,” an idea that earned him much derision. And Poor Richard himself, Benjamin Franklin, once proposed that each galaxy had it’s own “God” that ruled in his own sphere meaning that there were infinite gods for infinite galaxies. Not every idea the founders had were gems, to be sure.

Still, Madison spoke with most of his contemporaries, not outside them, when he considered the meaning of the Second Amendment.
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Supreme Court Justice Breyer: Founders Were For Restricting Guns… Why Breyer is Wrong”


ATR: Why Business Extenders in the Tax Deal Aren’t Earmarks, TARP, Pork, Etc.

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Tax Reform has a must read piece on some of the provisions in the tax deal that Obama is trying to work out with Republicans. Many on the left are saying that the business extenders in the deal are pork, or are an earmark, or are even “costing the government.” Ryan Ellis explains why these claims are incorrect re the business extenders.

The first thing he mentions is that business extenders aren’t new to this tax deal and that they’ve been around for a long time. For the left and the Old Media to be focusing on them as if they are new policy is simply wrong.

In any case, whatever else is wrong with this idea — such as the pork that is being added every other hour at this point — the business extenders are not a detraction here.
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ATR: Why Business Extenders in the Tax Deal Aren’t Earmarks, TARP, Pork, Etc.”


The Case for Reform by Stand-Alone Legislation

-By Frank Salvato

The healthcare reform bill, officially titled The Affordable Care Act, was a stunning 1,018 pages long. The stimulus bill – the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act – weighed in at 1,079 pages. And the American Clean Energy & Security Act, or cap and trade bill, passed the House at a length of approximately 1,500 pages. Omnibus bill this, comprehensive bill that…have you ever stopped to wonder why Congress produces such grotesquely long pieces of legislation? The answers are several and all disturbing but there is a way to reduce the length of legislation while assuring transparency and accountability in government: stand-alone legislation.

Forget for the moment the legalese required to enshrine a piece of legislation into law and pay no attention to the fact that Congress passed legislation mandating the use of “plain language” for the Executive Branch agencies, those status quo elements of Congress who produce behemoth pieces of legislation do so to hide things. Be they earmarks, pork, vote-for-mine-and-I’ll-vote-for-yours quid pro quo or votes that would see their constituencies preparing recall petitions, establishment members of Congress routinely attach bills and amendments to legislation that have nothing to do with the original bill and they do so to hide “politics as usual.”

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The Case for Reform by Stand-Alone Legislation”


Democrats: Say, Let’s Change Rules to Push Our Agenda FASTER in Lame Duck Session

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is nothing more dangerous than a party that is about to lose power but still has temporary control of the reins of government. That is, of course, what we call the lame duck session of congress — more like a zombie congress; dead men walking… or sitting as the case may be. It has gotten so bad that Democrats are even throwing away the rules in order to indulge a bacchanalia of a left-wing agenda, the same sort that got them kicked out of office.

Attempting to indulge every activity that got them kicked out of office in a landslide that the country hasn’t seen in decades, House Democrats have instituted what is being called “martial law.” They are trying their level best to shove every profligate spending plan, every extremist, left-wing, anti-American idea they can fling at the people of the United States all in an effort to beat the clock before most of them have to relinquish their seats to Republicans.

House Democrats passed a rules change that would allow them to skirt the usual process and bring any bill they want quickly to the floor for a vote. This rules change is meant to help them push their extremist agenda as quickly as possible before the new congress is convened next year.
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Democrats: Say, Let’s Change Rules to Push Our Agenda FASTER in Lame Duck Session”


Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better

-By Warner Todd Huston

Don’t believe a word of the happy talk you hear from the Obama Administration when they say that the jobs situation is getting better. It isn’t.

In fact, the current job loss stats are the worst since the years right after the Great Depression and it is not getting better.

The CalculatedRiskBlog had this disheartening graph showing that the jobs situation is worse than every down turn from 1948 to date.

What the graph also shows is that, contrary to what the administration is constantly saying, jobs have flattened out and are not coming back at this time. The other dips in previous recessions show that jobs came back fairly quickly, but this time they are not coming back.

CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE

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Unemployment Worst since the Great Depression, NOT Getting Better”


FDA Set To Cut Off 17,000 Women Annually From Lifesaving Drug

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is due to take up the case of Avastin, a cancer drug that successfully treats some 17,000 women annually. With a coming December 17 decision, the FDA seems poised to take this drug away from these patients quite despite the fact that their doctors find the drug effective.

The most dangerous period of time in Washington D.C. is that time we call the lame duck session (I call it the zombie congress; dead men walking). It is that time when those elected officials that are about to be ingloriously shipped off home for the last time due to losing election results make a mad scramble to grab for as much as they can get.

In the case of regulatory agencies like the FDA the lame duck session is not treated in exactly the same manner, but it is sure that when congress is about to have its majority party change over with the president’s party on the losing side of the switch, regulatory agencies often try to push through favored policies before the new congress is seated and before that new congress is in a position to put any pressure on those agencies to prevent them from pushing the president’s agenda.
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FDA Set To Cut Off 17,000 Women Annually From Lifesaving Drug”


Pensions Troubles Getting Some Attention

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Corkery of the Wall Street Journal reports that congressional Republicans are finally paying a bit of attention to the coming pension bomb that is about to explode in nearly every state in the union, causing further damage to our economy and our state budgets. House Republicans are making moves to prevent bailouts of state pension funds.

Currently the federal government does not have too much influence over state pension funds. But with moves by some Democrats to change that so that the federal government can bailout their union supporters in the states, Republicans are looking to head off further federal involvement in the state’s floundering pension funds. (For more on Democrats trying to bailout state pensions see my earlier reports, here and here, among others.)

One of these moves is an attempt to force states to report more honestly on their pension problems before they are allowed to sell tax-free bonds.
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Pensions Troubles Getting Some Attention”


Wed. in the Senate: Reid to Try and Force Cloture Votes on DREAM Act and Forced Unionization Act

-By Warner Todd Huston

Call Your Senator Tell Them to Vote NO on DREAM Act and Forced Nationalized Unionization of Police/Firemen

From contacts in the Senate we’ve learned that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) will likely on Wednesday (Dec. 8th) try and bring a cloture vote on The DREAM Act and the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act in order to grab as much power for his supporters as he can before his power is weakened starting in the next congress.

Quite despite the obvious will of the American people as evinced by the last election, Reid intends to push these unpopular bills anyway. While Americans professed their desire to extend the Bush tax rates and for congress to address the floundering economy, the business that voters really want taken up is being put on hold as Harry Reid endeavors to give more payoffs to his union pals and his pro-amnesty supporters.
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Wed. in the Senate: Reid to Try and Force Cloture Votes on DREAM Act and Forced Unionization Act”


UN Climate Summit, Cancun, Mexico: Climate Conmen Sending You Back 100 Years

-By Warner Todd Huston

As most of you know last week I was down in Cancun, Mexico reporting on the U.N. Climate Change Summit (officially called COP16/CMP6). It was several days of sun, surf, and U.N. conmen. I am back in the saddle here at home but Friday I went from the warm white sands of Cancun back to the cold white snow of Chicago. Where’s all that global warming when you need it?

At least I have the modern conveniences of natural gas to keep my house warm and coal and nuclear-fired electric to power my electronic entertainment and work devices both. Unfortunately, if the con in Cancun is successful we may no longer have such luxuries.

One of the last places I visited in Cancun was the Villa de Cambio Climatico — or in English the climate change village. The exhibit was sponsored by the Mexican federal government and was set up in order to indoctrinate Mexico’s school children in the ways of environmental hokum.

At the exhibit we found what was presented as the ideal eco-friendly house. Of course, it was suitably small as the enviro-Nazis most certainly don’t want anyone enjoying a bit of elbowroom in their homes though it did have space for a few modern niceties. It had a tiny computer area, an actual flush toilet, and a four-foot-tall refrigerator that looks like it might be able to store enough food for two or three days.
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UN Climate Summit, Cancun, Mexico: Climate Conmen Sending You Back 100 Years”


Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) Delivers Weekly GOP Address On Preventing Tax Hikes

In the Weekly Republican Address, newly-elected Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois says, “Last month, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: spend less, borrow less and tax less to put America back to work.”

Sen. Kirk expresses his disappointment that leaders in Congress have not heeded this message. “The current leaders of Congress should not move forward with plans that were just rejected by the American people. These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers.”

Sen. Kirk emphasizes, “Congress should set its highest priority on preventing the massive tax hike currently scheduled to hit our economy on January 1st.”

He also calls for “bipartisan solutions to cut federal spending” and suggests some ideas for tackling the “mounting debts [that] pose a clear and present danger to our future.”


Political Correctness and your Body: Why TSA Security Measures Won’t Fly

Paul A. Ibbetson

This just in: TSA airport security personnel have now reaffirmed, after thousands of overtly aggressive body pat-downs, that elderly grandmothers and little children are still not attempting to commit terrorist attacks by carrying explosives onto planes. The growing discontent at the government’s new intrusive security measures are now being seen throughout the country. The reasons people don’t like it can be broken down into three areas of discussion: efficiency, invasiveness, and the strategic end results.

No one likes to be held up at the airport; however, most flyers are willing to accept delays that can be logically explained. For example, if the landing gear is about to fall off the plane, people have no qualms and show no resistance in patiently waiting while the issue is resolved. That is, people want to be safe while flying and will readily accept being inconvenienced if a reasonable case can be made for the situation. The problem comes when there cannot be a reasonable articulation made between extreme flyer inconvenience and passenger safety. Imagine if a plane with landing gear problems required all passengers to have a forced colonoscopy. The differential between the observed airline safety issue and the requirements placed on passengers would be so great that most flyers would refuse to comply. Welcome to the modern world of TSA security measures and what have become the unfriendly skies.

Prospective passengers in many airports are now being faced with having to go through full-body scanners that render the flyer practically naked to be photographed and observed by strangers. The long-term physical effects of radiation exposure from these scanners are unknown, along with their usefulness in detecting plastics and other materials terrorists use. As of now, full-body scanners do not make a case for security that equals or surpasses their offensive nature. Without more evidence of their practicality, TSA might as well request naked photographs of all passengers at the gate and save them the time of passing through the costly and time-consuming machines. However, the full-body scanners are quickly falling behind in public distaste to the full body pat down.
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Political Correctness and your Body: Why TSA Security Measures Won’t Fly”