Our #1 story explains how the public is reacting to the government mandate on birth control.#2 tells how Obama is ducking the questions about it.#3 is a fascinating look at what the court decision in California means regarding the law.#4 shows us how regulations can destroy the desire to create a business.And these regulations aren’t protecting anyone.#5 is a story that tells a number of glaciers in India are growing.
1.50% Oppose Gov't Mandate for Religious Organizations to Provide Contraceptives
Half of voters do not agree with the Obama administration’s action forcing Catholic institutions to pay for birth control measures that they morally oppose.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the government should require a church or religious organization to provide contraceptives for women even if it violates their deeply held beliefs. Fifty percent (50%) disagree and oppose such a requirement that runs contrary to strong beliefs, while 10% more are undecided.…
How many unpopular stands does Obama plan to take in this election?
2.Obama ducks questions on birth-control mandate
President Obama had a lot to say on Thursday. He praised a housing settlement at one event at the White House. He talked about No Child Left Behind at another.
But Obama didn’t have much to add about the looming contraception uproar that has plagued the White House in recent days.
Appearing in a photo-op with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, Obama didn’t respond to two questions on the divisive topic.
“Do you stand by your contraceptive decision?” one reporter asked him, as he stood before a slew of television cameras.
“Is there anything you want to share with us about your contraception rule?" another reporter asked.
“Thank you, everybody,” Obama responded, ignoring the questions. “Thank you.”
Put these first two stories together and it looks like Obama is looking for a way out.I think he did what he did in January so if it did go bad he could back away from it and hope that by November it will be forgotten.
3.Proposition 8:What does it mean?
….When evaluating the violation of fundamental rights, the court has often used a standard of "strict scrutiny" in cases involving racial or religious discrimination. By that standard, the petitioner frequently wins. In cases of gender discrimination, the court has relied on a kind of intermediate scrutiny.
The rational basis standard is a different bird. We were taught (as have been law students for a long time) that under the rational basis standard, the government would almost always win because the burden of establishing irrationality is so high. My liberal New York Jewish law professor taught us that the court would only find a state action irrational if it did something like declare that everyone must wear one green shoe on Tuesday.
The Ninth Circuit has now effectively said that to believe marriage is a matter for a man and a woman is to be so irrational as to declare that everyone must wear one green shoe on Tuesday.
Now, I understand that many readers may favor expanding marriage to include same sex unions. And there are reasons to support that move. But the case is not so overwhelmingly strong as to render the opposite conclusion nonsensical.
This is an important case. If a handful of individuals can declare a particular point of view completely irrational (a democratically expressed view), then we are not a republic. We are an oligarchy.
An interesting look at this controversial decision.
4.We all Scream….
The other day, The New York Times offered the story of Juliet Pries, who attempted to open an ice cream parlor in San Francisco:
Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the restaurant, due largely to the city’s morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open.
“It’s just a huge risk,” she said, noting that the financing came from family and friends, not a bank. “At several points you wonder if you should just walk away and take the loss.”
Ms. Pries said she had to endure months of runaround and pay a lawyer to determine whether her location (a former grocery, vacant for years) was eligible to become a restaurant. There were permit fees of $20,000; a demand that she create a detailed map of all existing area businesses (the city didn’t have one); and an $11,000 charge just to turn on the water.
I guess this is just government trying to protect you from tutti frutti terrorists.We your liberal friends tell you regulations don’t hurt business, show them this story.
5.Glacier’s not melting?
The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows.
The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps - Greenland and Antarctica - is much less then previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for most of the discrepancy.
Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: "The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero."
Our # 1story asks if regulations are hurting us. According to a Small Business survey and a number of executives in large businesses, it is.#2 gives us anecdotes of how government is hurting us create jobs.#3 lays out the latest scandal where the government appears to want a license to lie.#4 is a follow up story to yesterday’s regarding Michelle Obama.Article #5 discusses this administrations investments, or at least what they want to call investments.#6 is a frightening one regarding OWS and how confused they are.#7 talks about the law of unintended consequences and follows up with #8 demonstrating how a second energy company failure certainly illustrates that.#9 shows us how the political parties are breaking down and asks your opinion on that.#10 demonstrates a big problem in the schools.We pay teachers rather than paying teachers by their specialty.
1.Are Regulations hurting us?
The roots of today’s economic troubles are hinted at in a new Gallup Poll of small business owners, which finds compliance with government regulations tops their “problem list.”
Bigger businesses say the same. No one’s forgotten that Vegas resorts mogul Steve Wynn called Washington “the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime”; or that Bernie Marcus claims he could not have built Home Depot in the regulatory environment of today.
Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the country and is one of the worst in foreclosures. “In my district,” Nevada Assemblyman Hansen reports, “one in seventeen houses is in foreclosure. One in eight is vacant. The people are economically desperate. MEANWHILE WE HAVE AN INDUSTRY THAT WOULD LOVE TO OPEN UP MINES AND CREATE JOBS WITH AN AVERAGE SALARY OF $80,000. UNFORTUNATELY WE ALSO HAVE A GOVERNMENT THAT TAKES TEN YEARS TO PERMIT A MINE.”
No wonder 77% of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
“Couldn’t we streamline the process or eliminate some steps?” asks Nevada State Senator Settelmeyer. He points out that the high gold and silver prices present a huge opportunity but he’s afraid that if we do not strike while the iron is hot, gold prices may fall before the mining projects get approved and get into production. “We have the resources and people need the jobs…..”
….In Montana’s Finley Basin there are known tungsten deposits. An Australian company wanted to bring revenue and jobs to the state by developing the resource. While THE PROPERTY WAS SUCCESSFULLY DRILLED AND RECOGNIZED BY UNION CARBIDE IN THE SEVENTIES, IT IS NOW ABOUT 200 YARDS INSIDE A ROADLESS STUDY AREA. The Forest Service was willing to offer a conditional drilling. AMONG THE CONDITIONS WERE THESE REQUIREMENTS:
·The drill sites must be cleared using hand tools,
·The drilling equipment and fuel must be transported to the site by a team of pack mules,
·THE MULES MUST BE FED CERTIFIED WEED-FREE HAY, and
·Drill site and trail reclamation must be done using hand tools.
I’m sure these “conditions” are a great comfort to those who are out of work.
3.On FOIA, Obama wants a license to lie
IT'S NOT OFTEN THAT THE LIBERAL AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION AND CONSERVATIVE JUDICIAL WATCH AGREE ON ANYTHING, BUT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S LACK OF TRANSPARENCY HAS BROUGHT THE TWO TOGETHER. Obama's Justice Department has proposed a regulatory change that would weaken the Freedom of Information Act. Under the new rules, the government could falsely respond to those who file FOIA requests that a document does not exist if it pertains to an ongoing criminal investigation, concerns a terrorist organization, or a counterintelligence operation involving a foreign nation.
There are two problems with the Obama proposal to allow federal officials to affirmatively assert that a requested document doesn't exist when it does. First, by not citing a specific exemption allowed under the FOIA as grounds for denying a request, THE PROPOSAL WOULD CUT OFF A REQUESTOR FROM APPEALING TO THE COURTS. By thus creating an area of federal activity that is completely exempt from judicial review, the proposal undercuts due process and other constitutional protections. Second, by creating a justification for government lying to FOIA requestors in one area, A LEGAL PRECEDENT IS CREATED THAT SOONER OR LATER WILL BE ASSERTED BY THE GOVERNMENT IN OTHER AREAS AS WELL.
Under FOIA's current national security exemption, bureaucrats can already deny access to documents without acknowledging their existence. This was noted by the ACLU (joined by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and OpentheGovernment.com) in a comment on the proposal. In instances where there is a legitimate grounds for not confirming a document's existence, "THE AGENCY SHOULD SIMPLY RESPOND THAT 'WE INTERPRET ALL OR PART OF YOUR REQUEST AS A REQUEST FOR RECORDS WHICH, IF THEY EXIST, WOULD NOT BE SUBJECT TO THE DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS OF FOIA PURSUANT TO SECTION 552(C), AND WE THEREFORE WILL NOT PROCESS THAT PORTION OF YOUR REQUEST.' This response requires no change to the current FOIA regulation." Such a response would preserve a requestor's right to appeal to a federal court….
Perhaps there is common ground between the right and the left.At least we both seem to be suspicious of a government move to make lying okay.
4.Michelle Obama:Attack Dog
MICHELLE’S BACK, AND SHE’S MADDER THAN EVER. She was already pretty angry, seemingly unhappy with just about everything. As her husband wrapped up the Democratic nomination in 2008, she let fly her real feelings: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country.” A few months into her job as first lady, her French counterpart asked how she liked the gig: “Don’t ask!” she reportedly spat. “It’s hell. I can’t stand it!”
She even seems to be mad at her silver-tongued husband. When the two were to set off on a luxurious 10-day vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, she left early - four hours early - and flew up alone. And those private vacations. She’s traveled to some of the world’s most plush resorts, taking 42 days off in the past year - that’d be eight weeks of vacay time if she held down a normal job.
NOW, SHE IS READY TO SPEW HER BILIOUS DISGUST WITH AMERICA ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. A dignified, transcendent first lady? No chance. MICHELLE IS GOING TO BREAK WITH A HUNDRED YEARS OF TRADITION AND PLAY THE ROLE OF ATTACK DOG, HEAPING DERISION ON HER HUSBAND’S POLITICAL OPPONENTS LIKE NO OTHER FIRST LADY BEFORE HER….
This is not a smart move on the Obama Administration.It reminds people of her shortcomings, but also his administrations.Nothing is as it was in 2008.Hope and change is gone replaced by attack, attack, attack.
5.Obama Invests for America
Here's a great business model. START YOUR COMPANY WITH THE IDEA THAT IT'S GOING TO GO BANKRUPT. THEN, WHEN IT FOLDS, INFORM YOUR INVESTORS THAT THE BUSINESS WAS A SUCCESS BECAUSE IT DID EXACTLY WHAT YOU EXPECTED.
That's more or less what Obama has done with every "investment" government has made over that past three years. The Energy Department's failed green energy loan program is just one example. It appears that much of the $36 billion earmarked for alternative energy firms, including $500 million to Solyndra alone, has been squandered. If that money had stayed in the private sector, it would have produced jobs. As it is, with real unemployment running at 20%, the president has wasted billions on companies that were destined to fail. That "investment" produced nothing except more debt and slower economic growth.
It is not surprising, given his lack of real-world experience, that OBAMA DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD "INVESTMENT." Like most in his party, Obama thinks every kind of government spending is an investment. His thinking is so twisted that HE SPEAKS OF ALL SORTS OF WELFARE, INCLUDING INCREASES IN THE EARNED INCOME CREDIT AND EXTENSION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS PAST 99 WEEKS, AS AN INVESTMENT. SPENDING ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS AN INVESTMENT, BENEFITS FOR THE HOMELESS ARE AN INVESTMENT, FUNDING THAT MAKES ITS WAY TO THE COFFERS OF TEACHERS UNIONS IS AN INVESTMENT. JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING IS AN INVESTMENT, EXCEPT AN INVESTMENT
This isn’t tragic, it is scary.The left has taken the language and completely destroyed the meaning of certain words so that they can use it to advance their political cause.
6.OWS and the Duped Generation
Radicalized progressives have marched on Wall Street. They know that they are angry, and they want to change the system, BUT THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WILL DO ONCE THEIR PROTEST REACHES BEYOND THE SIMPLICITY OF MARCHES AND SLEEPING IN TENTS. They only do this because they know they are angry, and things must change. They understand little beyond that because the programming has not gotten that far, yet….
…THIS BELIEF IN BIG GOVERNMENT SUGGESTS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT KNOWS BEST, and should be trusted with regulatory powers over pretty much anything you can think of. Globalists and communists alike share in this belief. Well known statist Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, “I THINK WE ACCEPT THE IDEA OF A VAST EXPANSION IN SOCIAL REGULATION. IT MAY TAKE SUCH FORMS AS LEGISLATION FOR THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN, PERHAPS EVEN LEGISLATION DETERMINING THE SEX OF CHILDREN, ONCE WE HAVE CHOICE, THE REGULATION OF WEATHER, THE REGULATION OF LEISURE, AND SO FORTH.”
To achieve their vision of a new world, the old world must be destroyed. STATISM CANNOT COEXIST WITH LIBERTY, AND AN ALL-POWERFUL GOVERNMENT CANNOT COEXIST WITH RELIGION, MORALS, OR INDIVIDUALISM. The problem is that the existing population is aware of the existence of God, remembers the days of liberty, have moral fiber, and consider themselves individuals. Therefore, the existing generation is beyond reach. However, the children can be molded, taught the new way, the communal way, the way of statist utopianism…
When you hear most of the interviews of OWS people you absolutely cringe.Many of them are college students and you see how college is failing to educate these people.They don’t appear to understand reality and are hard pressed to express themselves beyond angry slogans.
7.The Law of Unintended Consequences
At 202 pounds, Steffany Sears knew she was fat, but NOT FAT ENOUGH TO QUALIFY FOR TRADITIONAL WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY.
Desperate for help, the Gold Bar, Wash., woman did what seemed the only logical thing: She gorged herself on chips and cookies, pizza and fried chicken so she’d gain at least eight pounds more
“I would have eaten myself stupid,” recalled Sears, 34, who was turned down by her insurance company for the $20,000 procedure. “I know friends who would have done that, too.”
IN THE END, SHE ACTUALLY QUALIFIED TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLINICAL TRIAL THAT LED THE FEDERAL FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION THIS SPRING TO LOWER THE BAR FOR OBESITY IN PEOPLE ELIGIBLE FOR ONE FORM OF WEIGHT-LOSS SURGERY, Allergan’s Lap-Band stomach-shrinking device. Because she had a body mass index, or BMI, of between 30 and 35, the target range of the new rule, she even got the treatment for free, instead of having to take out a second mortgage on her house.
Today, at 5-foot-6, she weighs 143 pounds. "I felt like I'd won the lottery, really, with my life," said Sears…
As we become more and more dependent upon government, we find more and more incidents of people being caught by the law of unintended consequences.Here we have an obese woman having to gain weight.
8.Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt
A MASSACHUSETTS COMPANY THAT RECEIVED A $43 MILLION ENERGY DEPARTMENT LOAN GUARANTEE LAST YEAR FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY SUNDAY, a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.
Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The government shouldn’t be a venture capitalist (socialist??).Picking winners and losers tends to be a losing proposition when done by bureaucrats
9.The American Political Parties Are Breaking Down
The decay of American political parties continues as the real money and power in politics shifts inexorably away from party organizations to informal and ad hoc groups. The combination of citizen grassroots movements, decentralized party structures and the vast sums of money short-circuiting the official party structures is changing the way politics works. As this story in the NEW YORK TIMES DETAILS, THE REAL CONVERSATION AMONG REPUBLICAN-AFFILIATED POWER BROKERS NOW TAKES PLACE OUTSIDE PARTY STRUCTURES.
American political parties are increasingly being reduced to flags of convenience; party organizations and party institutions have little influence over events. That didn’t use to be true. Party leaders and officials once exercised significant power over the choice of nominees, over the careers of aspiring pols, and over patronage. THESE DAYS, OUTSIDE CHICAGO AND A HANDFUL OF OTHER PLACES, WE NO LONGER THINK OF PARTY “BOSSES”….
What do you think about the weakening of the party power?I was going to ask this question assuming what the article would say.It went a different way than I thought it would, but that is still a good question.What do you think?
10.Physics vs. Phys Ed: Regardless of Need, Schools Pay the Same
THERE ARE 19 GYM TEACHERS IN THE FARMINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT WHO MAKE MORE THAN $85,000 A YEAR EACH. THE AVERAGE GYM TEACHER'S SALARY IN FARMINGTON IS $75,035. BY COMPARISON, THE SCIENCE TEACHERS IN THAT DISTRICT MAKE $68,483 PER YEAR ON AVERAGE.
That’s not unusual in Michigan schools, according to Freedom of Information Act requests received from around the state.
In the Woodhaven-Brownstown district, 18.5 (FTE) science teachers average some $58,400 per year in salary, while 12 gym teachers averaged nearly $76,700. In Harrison, science teachers earned $49,000 on average while gym teachers averaged $62,000….
This is an issue in our school system with the compensation system that has been negotiated with the Teacher’s union.We have a system that pays “teachers” the same regardless of the scarcity or the surplus of skills needed to attract top notch candidates.
Pro golfer Paul Azinger thinks President Obama might be hitting the links a bit too hard.
The author, businessman and 12-time PGA Tour winner took to Twitter Thursday to zing the commander-in-chief over his frequent golf outings while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
"Facts: POTUS HAS PLAYED MORE GOLF THIS MONTH THAN I HAVE: I HAVE CREATED MORE JOBS THIS MONTH THAN HE HAS," AZINGER WROTE.
One Reason the Left Hates Perry
… Well, for starters, Texas has been on the road to commonsense tort reform since the 1990's, trying to end the state's long reign as a favored trial lawyers' venue. Back then, Texas was ranked dead last by insurance companies because of its propensity for hugely unrealistic awards in civil suits. For far too many years, plaintiffs' lawyers from across America sought the most tenuous ties between their causes of action and friendly Texas courtrooms. In certain areas of Texas, juries comprised primarily of poor and uneducated minorities sometimes handed out enormous awards to undeserving plaintiffs for the most outrageous reasons. Cunning plaintiffs' lawyers all too frequently convinced honest but unsophisticated jurors that their verdict was the little guy's chance to stick it to THE MAN, meaning large corporations and those they perceived as THE RICH, such as doctors and business owners. IT WAS THE SAME CLASS WARFARE NOW BEING CONDUCTED EVERYWHERE BY THE DEMOCRATS, BUT THEN TARGETED ON A SPECIFIC REGION WHERE THE NATIVE POPULISM AND POVERTY MADE IT TOO READILY ACCEPTED.
Throughout his governorship, Rick Perry has continued to deny the law dogs their gravy train by enacting ever stronger tort reforms. But what is more important than a victory for social justice is THAT IN BRINGING THESE FAT DOGS OF TORT TO HEEL, TEXAS HAS BECOME THE PROVING GROUND FOR THE LONG-VOICED CONTENTION OF THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY THAT TORT REFORM BRINGS POSITIVE ECONOMIC BENEFITS to society as a whole. Rather than a few trial lawyers being able to buy private jets and sumptuous villas in exotic climes, the economy of an entire state has been lifted. A study by The Perryman Group of Waco found:
The total impact of tort reforms implemented SINCE 1995 INCLUDES GAINS OF $112.5 BILLION IN SPENDING EACH YEAR AS WELL AS ALMOST 499,000 JOBS IN THE STATE….
The more I find out about Rick Perry the more I like him. Expect the Democrats to go after him like he is the incarnation of Satan.
Fracking: How the Left Ignores Science
EPA bureaucrats and Green Avengers perpetrate a daily nonsensical assault touting the grave consequences of fracking fluid and its secret ingredients. Carnival barkers in the media blindly parrot fear-mongering articles from such noble sounding groups as "Natural Resources Defense Council," WITHOUT OFFERING A SINGLE SHRED OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO SUBSTANTIATE THEIR RUSE. THE FORGONE CONCLUSION IS THAT HYDRO-FRACKING WILL DESTROY THE ECOSYSTEM AND MUST BE STOPPED; NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.
Hydro-fracking has a long history of success. FIRST INTRODUCED IN 1908, FORTY YEARS LATER IT BECAME A COMMERCIALLY VIABLE METHOD TO SAFELY EXTRACT AMERICA'S MOST ABUNDANT ENERGY FROM BEDROCK STRATA. OVER ONE MILLION GAS WELLS HAVE BEEN FRACKED WITHOUT A SINGLE INCIDENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT. This didn't stop Ian Urbina of the New York Times from citing a case from 1984 in an Aug 2011 article warning of tainted water and the possibility of benzene in fracking fluid.
FRACKING FLUID SECRET INGREDIENTS ARE NOT SECRET AT ALL. EPA and state government Dept. of Environmental Conservation agencies require energy companies to file Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for every chemical used on the drill site, period….
Here’s another example of the left’s anti-science mindset. With no proof at all they want to be energy luddites.
Why we need the Government
…According to the story, "Every day, children in every county in the United States wake up hungry. They go to school hungry. They turn out the lights at night hungry ... TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, ONE IN FOUR CHILDREN IN THE (U.S.) IS LIVING WITHOUT CONSISTENT ACCESS TO ENOUGH NUTRITIOUS FOOD TO LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE."
Yet, barely a year ago, in February of 2010, the Washington Times revealed that "NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF U.S. CHILDREN ARE OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE -- a rate that has tripled among adolescents and doubled in younger children over the past 30 years. In addition, one-third of children born in 2000 or later eventually will suffer from diabetes, according to the White House." THUS WE END UP WITH MICHELLE OBAMA INVOLVED IN POLICY AND GET BOMBARDED WITH MESSAGES OF "LET'S MOVE!" WE ALSO END UP WITH SCHOOL SYSTEMS TELLING CHILDREN THAT THEY CAN'T BRING THEIR OWN LUNCH TO SCHOOL.
So, in barely a year we've gone from one-third of all U.S. children being overweight or obese to one-fourth of them continuously being hungry….
….If one wants more government, the quickest way to such an end is to create a "crisis" that only government can solve. After all, THERE IS NO WAY THAT WE CAN FIGHT OBESITY AND HUNGER WITHOUT THE GOVERNMENT, RIGHT? Evidently not, because, again according to the ABC report, "a shocking 49 percent of all babies born in the U.S. are born to families receiving food supplements from the WIC program," which is operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture….
The first thing we have to do to get the government involved is to create a problem. Hence you have the obesity/hunger here and we had the fracking crisis above. Neither have any scientific evidence to support what the left is saying (well we do know that 1/3 of the kids are obese), but by creating the impression of a problem, the left can then create the impression the government is doing something to alleviate it.
Lessons from Wisconsin
… During the recall tumult, unions barely mentioned either their supposed grievance about collective bargaining, or their real fears, which concern money, particularly political money. TEACHERS UNIONS CAN NO LONGER BARGAIN TO REQUIRE SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO PURCHASE TEACHERS’ HEALTH INSURANCE FROM THE UNION’S PREFERRED PROVIDER, WHICH IS ESPECIALLY EXPENSIVE. This is saving millions of dollars and reducing teacher layoffs. Also, unions must hold annual recertification votes.
AND TEACHERS UNIONS MAY NO LONGER AUTOMATICALLY DEDUCT DUES FROM MEMBERS’ PAYCHECKS. After Colorado in 2001 required public employees unions to have annual votes reauthorizing collection of dues, membership in the Colorado Association of Public Employees declined 70 percent. IN 2005, INDIANA STOPPED COLLECTING DUES FROM UNIONIZED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; IN 2011, THERE ARE 90 PERCENT FEWER DUES-PAYING MEMBERS. In Utah, the end of automatic dues deductions for political activities in 2001 caused teachers’ payments to fall 90 percent. After a similar law passed in 1992 in Washington State, the percentage of teachers making such contributions declined from 82 to 11.
DEMOCRATS FURIOUSLY OPPOSE WALKER BECAUSE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNIONS ARE TRANSMISSION BELTS, CONVEYING MONEY TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Last year, $11.2 million in union dues was withheld from paychecks of Wisconsin’s executive branch employees and $2.6 million from paychecks at the university across the lake. Having spent improvidently on the recall elections, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the teachers union, is firing 40 percent of its staff.
Progressives want to recall Walker next year. Republicans hope they try.
Pay attention folks, because what is going on around the country is hammering the Democratic Party. Between the disaster that is Obama, the belt tightening of the public sector in the recession and movement to rein in the public employee unions, the Democratic Party is in dire circumstances. Expect to see a flailing, name calling, and negative campaigning like you’ve never seen before.
If You Won’t Save the Earth From CO2 for the Children: How about This?
It’s official: Space aliens are liberals, and they may be preparing to invade planet Earth. IT IS A SCENARIO OUTLINED BY A NASA-AFFILIATED SCIENTIST AND RESEARCHERS AT PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY. Unbelievably, the study is not a joke, although global laughter prompted its authors Thursday to insist it was meant to be. “Green” aliens are coming - and Al Gore may be one of their leaders.
In their report, “Would Contact With Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman of NASA's Planetary Science Division and his colleagues discuss the possible outcomes of a close encounter between aliens and humans. ONE OF THEIR LIKELY SCENARIOS IS THAT EXTRATERRESTRIAL-INTELLIGENCE (ETI) CONTACT WITH HUMANITY MAY COMPEL SPACE ALIENS TO WIPE US OUT. WHY? IN ORDER TO SAVE THE GALAXY FROM A CAPITALIST, INDUSTRIAL, POLLUTING CIVILIZATION THAT IS RAVAGING EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT AND EMITTING GREENHOUSE GASES THAT WILL DOOM THE PLANET. Our destructive nature and expanding civilization pose a threat to other planets and life forms. Hence, aliens may have no choice: Like former President George W. Bush, they may launch a pre-emptive war - only not on Iraq but on the entire world.
I guess when the left charges the right is anti-science, they include anti-science fiction. It appears these “scientists” saw Hollywood’s remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and thought it was actual science.
O-Bummer! Hipsters O-Bandon Obama
Then…
As Election Day 2008 approached, if you were an urban organic kale farmer, or a crochet enthusiast or a vaudevillian with a new song to sing, and YOU WANTED TO SUPPORT BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT, YOU WERE IN LUCK.
The streets of New York were crowded with “Walks for Change,” “Bike4Barack” groups, “Karaoke We Can Believe In” sing-alongs, “Get Out the Laughs and Votes” comedy shows and “Art for Change” auctions. The days leading up to the election saw Pasties for Peace, a Cowboys for Barack Wild West Burlesque Show Fund-raiser, a Yo La Tengo fund-raiser at McCarren Pool, and a $1,000 fund-raiser in Dumbo featuring They Might Be Giants, which sold out.
RICHIE FIFE, WHO HELPED LEAD THE OBAMA EFFORT IN THE RUN-UP TO THE PRIMARY, ESTIMATED THAT 10,000 NEW YORKERS HAD CONTACTED HIS OFFICE TO GET INVOLVED AND THAT THREE TIMES THAT MANY WERE OUT ON THE STREETS ON THEIR OWN INITIATIVE.
And now
BUT NOW THE PROGRESS POSTERS HAVE BEGUN TO WITHER. A NEW POSTER, FEATURING THE PRESIDENT’S IMAGE SUPERIMPOSED OVER FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER’S FACE, HAS BEEN SPOTTED AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD. The Obama T-shirts—it was, recall, ultrahip if you had a particularly faded one, maybe even one dating back to his Illinois state senate campaigns—have been turning up at the Goodwill and at garage sales. The next election is going to be a tough one that invites a question few campaign officials thought would ever be asked: CAN MR. OBAMA AFFORD TO LOSE THE HIPSTERS? Or was the Obama love last year’s record, now destined to wind up in the used bins alongside so many Conor Oberst CD’s?
Nothing is really going right for this administration. The occasional win (Libya, bin Laden) doesn’t begin to compensate for the absolutely horrible job the Democrats have done on the economy and the increase in the National Debt. Obama is toast.
Reining in Regulations
… THIS YEAR THE ADMINISTRATION’S CURRENT REGULATORY AGENDA IDENTIFIES 219 PLANNED NEW REGULATIONS THAT HAVE ESTIMATED ANNUAL COSTS IN EXCESS OF $100 MILLION EACH. That’s almost a 15 percent increase over last year, and appears to contradict public suggestions by the Administration this week that the regulatory burden on American job creators is being scaled back,” Boehner’s letter states.
Boehner is seeking to counter White House claims that the administration is making regulations more business-friendly.
The letter comes three days after the White House announced plans to streamline hundreds of existing regulations across all government departments and said that the review will “likely” save at least $10 billion over five years.
The plans stem from a January executive order that also called for ensuring that future federal rules, while protecting heath and the environment, also promote growth and use the “least burdensome” tools to achieve their goals.
Boehner’s letter states that the administration failed to respond to an inquiry last year about planned rules that would have an impact greater than $1 billion.
“This information is of great relevance to the American people, who face so much uncertainty about these new regulatory costs, and to the Congress, where we continue to aim to work with you in relieving unnecessary burdens and helping employers move forward to create jobs,” the letter states.
WHEN CONGRESS RETURNS FROM THE AUGUST RECESS, HOUSE REPUBLICANS PLAN TO TAKE UP THE “REINS ACT” — which stands for Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny — as part of a broader regulatory rollback agenda.
THE BILL WOULD REQUIRE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL OF RULES THAT HAVE AN ANNUAL EFFECT ON THE ECONOMY OF $100 MILLION OR MORE, ARE LIKELY TO RESULT IN MAJOR INCREASES IN COSTS OR PRICES, OR HAVE SUBSTANTIAL EFFECTS ON EMPLOYMENT AND COMPETITIVENESS.
Two things here. Obama issue and executive order that will likely reduce regulatory burden by $10 billion over five years. In the meantime, the Obama administration is looking to issue 219 new regulations that will increase regulatory costs by at least $100 million each. Doing the math you see that is an increase of $29 billion this year alone so the net increase will be $27 billion. The Republicans ‘REINS’ Act appears to be like an environmental impact study that the government requires of private industry but we are talking about the economic environment.
